The object in Pegu that most attracts and most merits notice, says Mr.
Symes in his “Embassy to Ava,” is the noble edifice of Shoemadoo, or the
Golden Supreme. This extraordinary pile of buildings is erected on a
double terrace, one raised upon another. The lower and greater terrace
is about ten feet above the natural level of the ground, forming an
exact parallelogram: the upper and lesser terrace is similar in shape,
rising about twenty feet above the lower terrace, or thirty above the
level of the country. Mr. Symes judged a side of the lower terrace to be
thirteen hundred and ninety-one feet; of the upper, six hundred and
eighty-four. The walls that sustained the sides of the terrace, both
upper and lower, are in a ruinous state; they were formerly covered with
plaster, wrought into various figures; the area of the lower is strewed
with the fragments of small decayed buildings, but the upper is kept
free from filth, and is in tolerable good order. There is reason to
conclude that this building and the fortress are coeval, as the earth of
which the terraces are composed appears to have been taken from the
ditch; there being no other excavation in the city, or in its
neighborhood, that could have afforded a tenth part of the quantity.
The terraces are ascended by flights of stone steps, which are now
broken and neglected. On each side are dwellings of the Rhahaans, raised
on timbers four or five feet from the ground: these houses consist only
of a large hall; the wooden pillars that support them are turned with
neatness; the roofs are covered with tiles, and the sides are made of
boards; and there are a number of bare benches in every house, on which
the Rhahaans sleep; but we saw no other furniture.
The Shoemadoo is a pyramidal building composed of brick and mortar,
without excavation or aperture of any sort; octagonal at the base, and
spiral at the top: each side of the base measures one hundred and
sixty-two feet; this immense breadth diminishes abruptly, and a similar
building has not unaptly been compared in shape to a large
speaking-trumpet. Six feet from the ground there is a wide projection
that surrounds the base, on the plane of which are fifty-seven small
spires of equal size, and equidistant; one of them measured twenty-seven
feet in hight, and forty in circumference at the bottom. On a higher
ledge there is another row consisting of fifty-three spires of similar
shape and measurement. A great variety of moldings encircle the
building; and ornaments somewhat resembling the _fleur de lis_ surround
the lower part of the spire: circular moldings likewise girt it to a
considerable hight, above which there are ornaments in stucco not unlike
the leaves of a Corinthian capital; and the whole is crowned by a _tee_,
or umbrella, of open iron-work, from which rises a rod with a gilded
pennant.
The tee or umbrella is to be seen on every sacred building that is of a
spiral form. The raising and consecration of this last and indispensable
appendage, is an act of high religious solemnity, and a season of
festivity and relaxation. The king himself bestowed the tee that covers
the Shoemadoo. It was made at the capital; and many of the principal
nobility came down from Ummerapoora to be present at the ceremony of its
elevation. The circumference of the tee is fifty-six feet; it rests on
an iron axis fixed in the building, and is further secured by large
chains strongly riveted to the spire. Round the lower rim of the tee are
appended a number of bells, which, agitated by the wind, make a
continual jingling. The tee is gilt, and it was said to be the intention
of the king to gild the whole of the spire. All the lesser pagodas are
ornamented with proportionable umbrellas of similar workmanship, which
are likewise encircled by small bells. The extreme hight of the edifice,
from the level of the country, is three hundred and sixty-one feet, and
above the interior terrace, three hundred and thirty one feet.
On the south-east angle of the upper terrace there are two handsome
saloons, or _kioums_, the roofs of which are composed of different
stages, supported by pillars. Mr. S. judged each to be about sixty feet
in length, and in breadth thirty. The ceiling of one is embellished with
gold leaf, and the pillars are lacquered; the decoration of the other is
not yet completed. They are made entirely of wood; and the carving on
the outside is laborious and minute. Mr. Symes saw several unfinished
figures of animals and men in grotesque attitudes, designed as ornaments
for different parts of the building. Some images of Gaudama, the supreme
object of Birman adoration, lay scattered around. At each angle of the
interior and higher terrace, there is a temple sixty-seven feet high,
resembling, in miniature, the great temple: in front of that, in the
south-west corner, are four gigantic representations, in masonry, of
Palloo, or the evil genius, half beast, half human, seated on their
hams, each with a large club on the right shoulder. The pundit who
accompanied Mr. Symes, said that they resembled the Rakuss of the
Hindoos. These are guardians of the temple. Nearly in the center of the
east face of the area are two human figures in stucco, beneath a gilded
umbrella. One, standing, represents a man with a book before him and a
pen in his hand: he is called Thasiamee, the recorder of mortal merits
and mortal misdeeds. The other, a female figure kneeling, is
Mahasumdera, the protectress of the universe, so long as the universe is
doomed to last; but when the time of general dissolution arrives, by her
hand the world is to be overwhelmed and everlastingly destroyed. A small
brick building near the north-east angle contains an upright marble
slab, four feet high, and three feet wide: there was a long legible
inscription on it. This, Mr. Symes was told, was an account of the
donations of pilgrims of only a recent date.
Along the whole extent of the north face of the upper terrace, there is
a wooden shed for the convenience of devotees who come from distant
parts of the country. On the north side of the temple are three large
bells of good workmanship, suspended near the ground, between pillars;
several deers’ horns lie strewed around: those who come to pay their
devotions first take up one of the horns, and strike the bell three
times, giving an alternate stroke to the ground: this act is to announce
to the spirit of Gaudama the approach of a suppliant. There are several
low benches near the foot of the temple, on which the person who comes
to pray, places his offering, commonly consisting of boiled rice, a
plate of sweetmeats, or cocoa-nut fried in oil: when it is given, the
devotee cares not what becomes of it; the crows and wild dogs often
devour it in presence of the donor, who never attempts to disturb the
animals. Mr. Symes saw several plates of victuals disposed of in this
manner, and understood it to be the case with all that was brought.
There are many small temples on the areas of both terraces, which are
neglected, and suffered to fall into decay. Numberless images of Gaudama
lie indiscriminately scattered around. A pious Birman who purchases an
idol, first procures the ceremony of consecration to be performed by the
Rhahaans; he then takes his purchase to whatever sacred building is most
convenient, and there places it in the shelter of a _kioum_, or on the
open ground before the temple; nor does he ever again seem to have any
anxiety about its preservation, but leaves the divinity to shift for
itself. Some of those idols are made of marble that is found in the
neighborhood of the capital of the Birman dominions, which admits of a
very fine polish; many are formed of wood, and gilded, and a few are of
silver; the latter, however, are not usually exposed and neglected like
the others. Silver and gold are rarely used, except in the composition
of household gods. On both the terraces are a number of white
cylindrical flags, raised on bamboo poles; these flags are peculiar to
the Rhahaans, and are considered as emblematical of purity, and of their
sacred function. On the top of the staff there is a _henza_ or goose,
the symbol both of the Birman and Pegu nations.
COLOSSAL FIGURE OF JUPITER PLUVIUS, OR
THE APENNINE JUPITER.
Statues above the ordinary size, were named by the ancients, _colossi_,
from a Greek word which signifies “members.” That at Rhodes was the most
famous, executed by Carelus, a pupil of Lysippus. There were several at
Rome; the most considerable was that of Vespasian, in the amphitheater,
that bore the name of Colisæa. Claudius caused a colossal statue of
himself to be raised on a rock exposed to the sea waves, in front of the
port of Ostium. Nero had his person and figure painted on a linen cloth,
one hundred and twenty feet in hight. In the court of the Capitol, and
in the palace Farnesi, &c., are colossi, either entire or mutilated.
[Illustration: JUPITER PLUVIUS, OR THE APENNINE JUPITER.]
The colossal figure of Jupiter Pluvius is found at Pratolino, in Italy.
The space in which it stands is planted round, on all sides, with lofty
fir and beech trees, the trunks of which are hid by a wood of laurel,
wherein niches have been cut for statues. The middle part is a green
lawn, and at a little distance, is a semicircular basin of water, behind
which rises the colossal statue of the Apennine Jupiter. Enchased, as it
were, in the groves, it can only be surveyed in front, and from a point
of view marked by the artist, in the adjoining engraving. Elevated on a
base to appearance irregular, and of itself lofty, at which the
astonished spectator arrives through two balustrades that run round the
basin, this colossus, a view of which is given in the cut above, looks,
at first, like a pyramidal rock, on which the hand of man might have
executed some project analogous to what the statuary Stasicrates had
conceived respecting Mount Athos,[10] and which Alexander nobly
rejected. But soon he recognizes the genius of a pupil and worthy rival
of Michael Angelo.
Footnote 10:
Stasicrates proposed to Alexander to transform Mount Athos into a
durable statue of himself, and one that would be most prominent to a
world of beholders. His left hand to contain a city peopled with ten
thousand inhabitants, and from the right a great river to flow, its
waters descending to the sea. The proposition of this gigantesque
monument was rejected by Alexander, who, in reply to his proposal,
said, “The passage of Mount Caucasus, the Tanais, and the Caspian,
which I have forced, shall be my monuments.”
It was, in fact, John of Bologna, who, by an inspiration derived from
the ancients, executed their _beau ideal_ of Jupiter Pluvius. This name
seems more suitable to the figure than that of Father Apennine, which
has been assigned to it. The style, in point of magnitude, is of the
largest, and the character of the head is in perfect conformity to the
subject. His brows and front brave the tempest, and seem the region of
the hoar-frost; his locks descend in icicles on his broad shoulders, and
the flakes of his immense beard resemble stalactites; his limbs seem
covered with hoar-frost, but with no alteration in their contour, or in
the form of the muscles. To add to the extraordinary effect, about the
head is a kind of crown, formed of little jetteaux, that drop on the
shoulders and trickle down the figure, shedding a sort of supernatural
luster, when irradiated by the sun.
It would be difficult to imagine a composition more picturesque and
perfect in all its proportions. The figure harmonizes with the
surrounding objects, but its real magnitude is best shown by comparison
with the groups promenading about the water, and which in comparison, at
a certain distance, resemble pigmies. A nearer approach exhibits a truly
striking proportion of the limbs. A number of apartments have been
fabricated in the interior, and within the head is a beautiful
belvedere, wherein the eyeballs serve for windows. The extremities are
of stone; the trunk is of bricks overlaid with a mortar or cement that
has contracted the hardness of marble, and which, when fresh, it was
easy to model in due forms.
It is related in the life of John of Bologna, that several of his
pupils, unaccustomed to work with the hand, while engaged in this work,
forgot the correct standard of dimensions, both as to the eye and hand,
and that Father Apennine and his enormous muscles made them spoil a
number of statues. The greatest difficulty in the workmanship was to
impress on the mass, the character of monumental durability. The artist
has succeeded in uniting the rules of the statuary with those of
construction, in combining the beauty of the one with the solidity of
the other. All the parts refer to a common center of gravity, and the
members are arranged so as to serve for a scaffolding to the body,
without impairing its dignity or magnitude. The colossal statues of the
ancients may have suggested the idea of this configuration, or as before
hinted, the artist may have aimed to represent the Jupiter Pluvius.
However, it seems probable that Poussin, in his painting of the plains
of Sicily, has, from this, formed his Polyphemus, seated on the summit
of a lofty rock. From the beauty of its proportions, and skill in the
execution, all artists who have to work on colossal figures, ought to
cherish the preservation of this, as an imposing object, that can not be
too profoundly studied.