The Tribune Of The Great Altar, Consisting Of Four Wreathed Brass
Pillars, Gilt, Supporting A Canopy, Is Doubtless Very
Magnificent,
If not over-charged with sculpture, fluting,
foliage, festoons, and figures of boys and angels, which, with
the hundred and
Twenty-two lamps of silver, continually burning
below, serve rather to dazzle the eyes, and kindle the devotion
of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite the admiration of a
judicious observer.
There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy
of applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its
parts. Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos,
medallions, urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it
abounds, it does not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with
ornaments. When you first enter, your eye is filled so equally
and regularly, that nothing appears stupendous; and the church
seems considerably smaller than it really is. The statues of
children, that support the founts of holy water when observed
from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but as you draw
near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner, the
figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which
are represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but
as you approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if
they had flown upwards to avoid being taken.
I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after
all that has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at
top.
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