New-York daily tribune., 1844-02-17


nVe additional ones were raised to their places or
the day Of my astvisit and when the designs are
fully carried out, ten thousand marble statues
each different and each of itself model, Will peo
pie this noblest of Cathedrals The readers Of
Wordsworth will remember his fine allusion, in
his poem gu The Eclipse of the Sun on Lake
Lugano, to the darkness shading, as with sor-
row, the faces Of these Saints and Cherubs
The interior of the Duomo presents a vast ex-
Panse, paved with mosaics of varied colors rooted
with elaborate tret-work, and divided by Gothic
columns and arches into five long drawn aisles.
The massive and lofty columns are surrounded at
their tops by statues Of holy men in harmony with
those outside. At the farther end, pu pits of dark
bronze embrace two of the pillars, and are sup
ported by gigantic bronze figures OF the four Evan
gelists and the four Doctors of the Church, lean
ing forward and bearing upon their reverend
shoulders the superstructure. At the extreme
end are three immense windows Of painted glass,
eacl: containing hundred and fifty panes, and
When the morning sun strikes through them, the
colors glow and glitter if the artist had melted
in the glass all the rubcs, emeralds and sapphres
Of Golconda.
Like every other beautiful object which excites
the imagination, the Duomo Of Milan is finest by
moonlight. While viewing it thus Illuminated,
with It's buttrcsses and pinnacles of white marble
half shadowed, half shining like stalacties, half
ice and half rocks, and when all the details were
meltedin the general effect the idea flashed across
me that the Duomo was an imitation Of an al
guiVs or needle-rock,') of the Al ps. The
Aiguille de Dru at the side of Mont Blanc, as
seen by the spectator looking up at 1t from the
source of the Arveiron, is almost perfect model
of the front of the Duomo. 1t has the same gen.
eral shape and outline the needles of rock which
shoot up from every part Of it are fac-similes of
the pinnacles of the Church, and the snow on
these peaks may well represent the crowning
statues.
If this theory have any plausibility (and it is
none the less true because never before suggest
ed all our admiration of the Duomo is fully JUS
titled, for its beauty is an imitation of Nature
All analogy is in favor of the probability of the
suggestion. Gothic arches are generally sup
posed to be at first limitations of avenues Of trees,
and the similarity is very striking in Rosamonds
bower at Hampton Court, and Voltaire's grave at
Ferney Church spires were doubtless first sug-
gested by the tall and dtapering cypress tree. The
Eddystone Light House was constructed by Smea-
ton in exact imitation of the trunk of an old oak
tree spreading at the bottom and swelling out at
the top, and it has stood, while all previous ones
disappeared. Sea-wals for resisting the waves of
violent storms are now shaped in exact lnlta-
ton of the form given to sea-shores by the wa
ters. 1t is thus that all the most perfect and most
beautiful works of Art have been exact limitations
of natural objects; and why then may not the
glorious Duomo. of Milan be a copy OF an
AigniHe of Mont Blanc w. M. G..