Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, and afterwards also king of Italy,
was born at Amali, near Vienna, in 455, and died in 526. Though a Goth,
he was so far from delighting in the destruction of public monuments,
and works of art, that he issued edicts for their preservation at Rome
and throughout Italy, and assigned revenues for the repair of the public
edifices, for which purpose he employed the most skillful and learned
architects, particularly Aloïsius, Boëtius, and Symmachus. According to
Cassiodorus (lib. ii. Varior. Epist. xxxix.), Theodoric said: "It is
glorious to preserve the works of antiquity; and it is our duty to
restore the most useful and the most beautiful." Symmachus had the
direction of the buildings constructed or rebuilt at Rome. The king thus
wrote to him: "You have constructed fine edifices; you have, moreover,
disposed of them with so much wisdom that they equal those of antiquity,
and serve as examples to the moderns; and all you show us is a perfect
image of the excellence of your mind, because it is not possible to
build correctly without good sense and a well cultivated understanding."
In his directions to the Prefect of Rome, on the architecture of the
public edifices, Theodoric thus wrote:
"The beauty of the Roman buildings requires a skillful overseer, in
order that such a wonderful forest of edifices should be preserved with
constant care, and the new ones properly constructed, both internally
and externally. Therefore we direct our generosity not only to the
preservation of ancient things, but to the investing the new ones with
the glories of antiquity. Be it known, therefore, to your illustrious
person, that for this end an architect of the Roman walls is appointed.
And because the study of the arts requires assistance, we desire that he
may have every reasonable accommodation that his predecessors have
enjoyed. He will certainly see things superior to what he has read of,
and more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. The statues still
feel their renowned authors, and appear to live: he will observe
expressed in the bronze, the veins, the muscles swollen by exertion, the
nerves gradually stretched, and the figure expressing those feelings
which act on a living subject.
"It is said that the first artists in Italy were the Etruscans, and thus
posterity has given to them, as well as to Rome, almost the power of
creating man. How wonderful are the horses, so full of spirit, with
their fiery nostrils, their sparkling eyes, their easy and graceful
limbs;--they would move, if not of metal. And what shall we say of those
lofty, slender, and finely fluted columns, which appear a part of the
sublime structure they support? That appears wax, which is hard and
elegant metal; the joints in the marble being like natural veins. The
beauty of art is to deceive the eye. Ancient historians acquaint us with
only seven wonders in the world: the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus; the
magnificent sepulchre of the king Mausolus, from whence is derived the
word mausoleum; the bronze Colossus of the Sun, in Rhodes; the statue of
Jupiter Olympius, of gold and ivory, formed by the masterly hand of
Phidias, the first of architects; the palace of Cyrus, King of Media,
built by Memnon of stones united by gold; the walls of Babylon,
constructed by Semiramis of brick, pitch, and iron; the pyramids of
Egypt, the shadows of which do not extend beyond the space of their
construction. But who can any longer consider these as wonders, after
having seen so many in Rome? Those were famous because they preceded us;
it is natural that the new productions of the then barbarous ages should
be renowned. It may truly be said that all Rome is wonderful. We have
therefore selected a man clever in the arts, who, in seeing so many
ingenious things of antiquity, instead of remaining merely enchanted
with them, has set himself to work to investigate the reason, study
their books, and instruct himself, that he may become as learned as
those in the place of whom he is to consider himself appointed."
Milizia says of Theodoric, "Is this the language of a Gothic barbarian,
the destroyer of good taste? Pericles, Alexander, Adrian, or one of the
Medici could not have reasoned better." And again, "Can these Goths be
the inventors of that architecture vulgarly called Gothic? and are these
the barbarians said to have been the destroyers of the beautiful
monuments of antiquity? Ecclesiastical history gives to the good
Christians and the jealous ecclesiastics the honor of having dismantled
temples, and disfigured statues in Italy, Greece, Asia, and Egypt. * * *
It is clear that the Goths were not the authors of that architecture
called Gothic. The Goths and barbarians who overran Italy had not any
characteristic architecture, good or bad. They brought with them neither
architects, painters, nor poets. They were all soldiers, and when fixed
in Italy employed Italian artists; but as in that country, good taste
was much on the decline, it now became more debased, notwithstanding the
efforts made by the Goths to revive it."