Rome.
Having said so much of St. Peter’s, unquestionably the finest piece
of modern architecture in Rome, allow me to mention some of the best
specimens of the ancient. I shall begin with the Pantheon, which, though
not the largest of the Roman temples, is the most perfect which now
remains. The Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the Temple of Peace,
if we may trust to the accounts we have of the first, and to the ruins
of the second, in the Campo Vaccino, were both much larger than the
Pantheon. In spite of the depredations which this last has sustained
from Goths, Vandals, and Popes, it still remains a beauteous monument
of Roman taste. The pavilion of the great altar, which stands under the
cupola in St. Peter’s, and the four wreathed pillars of Corinthian brass
which support it, were formed out of the spoils of the Pantheon, which,
after all, and with the weight of eighteen hundred years upon its head,
has still a probability of outliving its proud rapacious rival. From
the round form of this temple, it has obtained the name of Rotunda. Its
height is a hundred and fifty feet, and its diameter nearly the same.
Within, it is divided into eight parts; the gate at which you enter
forming one: the other seven compartments, if they may be so called, are
each of them distinguished by two fluted Corinthian pillars, and as many
pilasters of Giallo Antico. The capitals and bases are of white marble;
these support a circular entablature. The wall is perpendicular for half
the height of the temple; it then slopes forward as it ascends, the
circumference gradually diminishing, till it terminates in an opening
of about twenty-five feet diameter. There are no windows; the central
opening in the vault admitting a sufficiency of light, has a much finer
effect than windows could have had. No great inconveniency can happen
from this opening. The conical form of the temple prevents the rain
from falling near the walls where the altars now are, and where the
statues of the Gods were formerly placed. The rain which falls in the
middle immediately drills through holes which perforate a large piece
of porphyry that forms the centre of the pavement, the whole of which
consists of various pieces of marble, agate, and other materials, which
have been picked up from the ruins, and now compose a singular kind of
Mosaic work.
The portico was added by Marcus Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. It
is supported by sixteen pillars of granite, five feet in diameter, and
of a single piece each. Upon the frieze, in the front, is the following
inscription in large capitals: