The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-12-14
CORRESPONDENCE.
Letter from Italy.
MILAN, NoY. 18th

MeSSrS. Editors, S,-How many lovely
cities there are in Italy Each one con-
tains marvel, and each marvel has its
particular character. Each of them has
produced genius which it unfolds, in
exchange for the present of existence
and the aspiration of Immortality. The
divinest monument of this, the civil city
of Italy, and of its especial kind of archi-
lecture, Is
The Cathedral of Milan
Of all the arts, the most impressive is that
of architecture Stones shaped by de-
sign, and expressive Of beauty and har-
mony, give pure and intellectual pleas
ure The great lines, the broad spaces,
the ambitious arches, the aerial cupolas,
the columns with their adornments, the
galleries with their perspectives, the
court-yards and their cloisters, force upon
the mind profound meditations, and al
ways express the genius of the age with
its symbolical character. Without a
doubt the best architecture to resist the
tooth of time, as we'll as the more destruc-
tive rage of man, is the Grecian, with its
imperturbable strength and stability.
But the Grecian architecture, though
complete in it's subjection to the laws of
harmony and proportion, is distinguished
by small power of expression. 1t is too
severe and rigid to appeal powerfully to
the Imagination. In fine, we come to
architecture, as to everything else, look
ing through the dominant element of our
nature-as through glass. To those in
whom reason and conscience preponder-
ate, the simplicity of the Grecian style,
with its truth to nature, will always be
preferable. The imaginative, however,
demand something more bold and strik-
ing. Art is magician, and impresses
her kiss of fire on very different fore
heads-the high and narrow, as we'll as
the broad and square. In obedience to
her behest the artists of the ages con-
ceived the Gothic method. Not line Of
Roman severity is to be seen in the Ca
thedral of Milan. Truly it is imagina-
tion run wild-the forid Gothic expanded
in such profuse open work as to constitute
forever the richest flower of the renais-
sance. Begun in 1886 by Duke John
Galeas Visconti, it is not yet entirely
completed, though 500 years and $50 mil
lions of francs have been expended upon
its erection. This tale of years and ex-
pense would sound improbable but for a
vision of the cathedral itself. No gallery
In Europe contains nearly SO much sculp-
ture. The building is four hundred and
ffty-four feet in length, two hundred and
seventy in breadth, and the arched roof
is two hundred and thirty-tw in height.
From highest turret to foundation stone
the material is Of fine white marble
from the quarries of Gandoglio. Exter-
nally the whole super6cies is loaded with
ornament. The friezes of the monuments,
the cusps of the turrets, the roofs them
selves are crowned with chisellings.-
White marble statues appear in every
niche, in every angle, on every steeple,
round every spire. There total number
has been estimated at more than 1000,
but many Of them have been carved for
Immortality alone, and they are so con-
cealed as to be only visible to the birds
of the air which perch on them. Within
the Cathedral, ffty-two marble pillars,
each eighty-four feet in height, twenty
four feet in circumference, and adorned
with many statues as well as pediments
enriched with a prodigious quantity Of
arabesques, support the vast edifce. The
marble floor, the red polished columns,
the singularly painted ceiling Of the
yault-a perfect imitation of sculpture,
the rich colored glass windows, the vari-
Gus affairs, the oaken confessionals, the
sepulchral urns, the different chapels, the
paintings, the basso-relievos, the forrest
OF statues sculptured by men of rank,
would require vast time for careful ex-
animation. We can but ascend for a
hnal view to the root of the temple. Who
ever has a feeling for the beautiful can
not help admiring the view from the