No Matter How Baroque Any Church Was, It Could Express Something Of This
Sincerity, And In Their Way The Worshippers Seemed Always Simply At Home
In It.
In San Lorenzo in Lucina, where I went to see the truly sublime
"Crucifixion" by Guido (there is also
A bar of St. Lawrence's gridiron
to be seen, but I did not know it at the time) I liked the
unconsciousness of the girl kneeling before the high altar and
provisionally gossiping with the young sacristan before she began her
devotions. She gave her mind to them when he asked me if I wished to see
the Guido, for I could see her lips moving while she shared my
veneration of that most affecting masterpiece; the more genuinely
affecting because it expresses the rapture and not the anguish of the
Passion. I have no doubt she was grateful when the sacristan proposed my
having the electric light turned on it, and when, though that I knew it
would cost me something more, I assented.
They have the electric light now in all the holy places, and notably in
the dungeon where St. Peter was imprisoned, and where the custodian was
so proud of it, as the lastest improvement, and as far more satisfactory
than candles. The shrine of the miraculous Bambino in the Church of Ara
Coeli is also lighted by electricity, which spares no detail of the
child's apparel and appearance. To other eyes than those of faith it has
the effect of a life-size but not life-like doll, piously bedizened and
jewelled over, but rather ill-humored looking, or, if not that, proud
looking or severe looking.
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