Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-12-22
st. Peters Church, Rome.
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We approached il with expectations height
ened by the praises Of the whole world OF
travellers, added 10 our own early-formed no.
lions Of its magnitude and %splendor. We
have placed it from childhood at the head Of
all possible architectural effects. Tit great
ness Of classic and papal Rome are looked
for in its structure; we expect to be delight
ed, surprised, awed, and confounded by it.
What work OF human hands can sustain
hopes like thisi We answer, st. Peters
can do it! All our own anticipa,ions were
surpassed by the reality 1t was as large
and lofty as we expected to find II but il
was far more beautiful in details and exqui-
site In finish. 1t has become 80 common as
20 be tedious TO speak of its losing the ap-
pesrance of size by the beauty and greatness
Of its proportions. But in our judgment,
this is no more correct than il is now original.
Il is SO large that il cannot all be taken in at
once. The imRense size Of the pillars hides
the transtept and aisles from the beholder in
moot parts of The nave, and the nave itself is
so long, that the lone does not appear until
the spectator is fairly beneath it. The fact
is, ST. Peters is more than can be taken in
at one view, and If il appears smaller than is
expected, it is only because people do not
consider how much architectural effect the
eye is capable Of compyehending at one
glance. Objects lose their apparent size
there, not from their 6ne proportions, but
from their actual distance. When you stand
near one Of the cherubs that support the ves-
sells of holy water, you find that its head,
which from the opposite side of the nave APP
peared TO be Of the natural size Of a child's,
is four times as big as your own, and his
hand tina, Of a Hercules. The statutes in
the inches are from twelve TO fifteen feet in
height. They appear only of the ordinary
size, because they are so far above you.-
We doubt whether ST. Peters is not as large
as the human sense can take in OF whether
any increase of its area, would add to its eff
fective magnitude, as seen from within J.
We were never more impressed with its size
than upon a festival, in honor of st. Peter,
on the 28th Of June, when, being seated in
the tribune, we found it impossible to tell for
several minutes, whether a procession of
three or four hundred people, which We were
expecting, were actually in the church or
not; they occupied so little room and made
SO little stir at the other end Of the vast nave,
their presence in the building was not dis
tinoily manifest. OF what other building in
the world could this be truel ST. Peters is
never crowded-we were present when all
Rome seemed TO have turRed out 10 honor its
patron apostle, and to have hurried 10 the
temple worthy of bearing his NAME. But
all the people did not suffice TO produce a
crowd in ST. Peters Il seems 10 US a low
estimate to say that GO, 900 could stand there
without being crowded-which is 10 say,
that II as thirty times as large as our own
church.
But the size Of St. Peters becomes vastly
vrnnlarf,l -yl~. xr- 6.I a., :. =.
delicately, and thoroughly, and extensively
finished throughout, as it it were a model in
silver and gold and precious stones, made to
adorp a centre table. Its pillars and walls
are covered with an infinite variety of the
most precious marbles. The whole ceiling
Of the dome is one vast mosaic, and the cell
ings OF the eight or ten chspels, are likewise
covered with what appear to be delicate
painting, all wrought in this enduring work
Of stone. The pictures upon the walls, as
is well known, are with a single exception,
mosaics, capable Of deceiving any eye not
previously warned. The labor involved ia
the copying Of a single painting of the lar
gest size, and the most delicate execution is
one Of many years.
Wherever the eye falls in st. Peters, it
IT SITS upon a satisfying beauty. Nothing has
been spared to perfect this wondrous work.
You have no wish untitled in regard to il,
except that you may have time and patience
TO examine the spiendor, and skill, and rich
es that surround you. But how much is it
TO say Of ST. Peters, that all its decorations
and wealth. sill as lightly upon it as the
bloom upon a flower. Many or most OF the
churches abroad are buried under their ac-
cumulation of pictures, and tombs, and al
tars their brilliant frescoes, and gilded CELL
ings, win the eye away from the edifce to
themselves. But in St. Peters, no splendor
of decorations can equal, or for a moment
compare with the splendid effect of the ar
chitectural design. lis occupy
no more space in it than the flower on the
mountain side. You feel that they ought to
be there, and are all worth your study and
admiration, but you never think the noun
tain is made 10 bear them.
One of the splendid things about ST. Pc
tiers is its 'essential solitude. Its magnitude
and style of architecture are such as 10 shut
out all other objects, or to make them so tri-
butary to itself, that they are lost in its over
whelming majesty. The vast vatican, by it's
side, stated TO cover as much ground as the
whole city Of Turin, with its 100, 900 people,
Is thrown in complete shadow by the Basili-
ca! St. Peters spreads out its long and
magnificent arms, the famous colonnades OF
Befnini, and sweeps aside and out of sight
of all other objects so that the m the
piazza is reached, the church comes into
view, its glory fills the whole earth. 1t Gre
ates for itself a perfect solitude.
The ascent Of st. Peters very much in
creases the sense of its size and height, and
s%nlidity. When you find yourself winding
gently up a paved street, which loaded mules
might ascend, and finally reach a roof cover
ed with fag.stones, on which all sorts of of.
fees for the repair or decoration Of the build
ing are situated, and where a company o:
soldiers might march and coun,ermarch with
out inconvenience-when leaving this lofty
platform covered with the domes Of the va
rious chapels beneath, you begin to climb
the staircases, first the drum Of the great
dome, which you are like enough, on reach
ing the top, to mistake for the height Of the