Many of the churches at Milan lay claim to a high antiquity; but as I have already observed, they have been generally modernized. That of the Madonna near San Celso, was built towards the close of the fifteenth century. The architecture has been attributed to Bramante, and to Solari, a Milanese, while the font is the design of Galeazzo Alessi, who was not born till about the year 1500. It exhibits no trace of Gothic architecture; unless it should be contended that the general distribution of a Christian church, even of the present day, is borrowed from that style. The entrance is from a court surrounded by arcades, which has a very elegant appearance. Courts of this sort are said to have been frequent appendages to the early Basilican churches. It is surprising that they have not been introduced more frequently, for they add a dignity to the building, by seeming to separate it from the bustle of the world; and they rather enhance than diminish the effect of the architecture, by limiting the point of view. The edifice is of marble, and both the court and the interior of the church are well proportioned, and produce a pleasing impression, though the details are bad.
The little church of San Satyro, still exhibits some of the architecture of the ninth century. It is a mere fragment, of no great interest, except as it serves to prove that the taste of that period was very much like that which we call Norman, with capitals more nearly resembling the ancient Corinthian; but I could not trace any thing of the Beautems de Rome, which is said to characterize this edifice.
The church of St. Eustorgio deserves a passing glance; the outside is of brick, probably of the thirteenth century, as in 1220 it came into the possession of the Dominicans; the inside has been modernized, but it contains some interesting tombs of the Visconti, and of the early restorers of Greek literature in Italy. Here also they pretend to shew the marble sarcophagi of the three wise men—kings they are pleased to call them, who followed the star of our Saviour from the East. An archbishop is said to have brought the bones from Asia to Milan in the fourth century; and Frederic Barbarossa in the twelfth, seized and carried them to Cologne. Prester John, who it seems valued himself on his descent from these kings, (query from all?) sent here some offerings to their relics in the fifteenth century, and these have also been carried to Cologne. The guide-book vouches for the latter part of the story, though it acknowledges that the bodies or bones of the Magi were never here; for my part I vouch for nothing, but leave you to accept or reject what you please.
Next to the cathedral, the most interesting church in Milan is certainly that of St. Ambrose, or perhaps many might put it in the first place. It is said to be the very church which that saint closed against Theodosius after the massacre at Thessalonica, in 390. They even pretend on the spot, to shew you the identical doors; but the more probable opinion is, that these doors are of the ninth century, made by order of the Archbishop Anspert; they are covered with a profusion of carving in figures and foliage, but the wire-work added to protect them almost hides the detail. The most ancient part of the building which presents any character of architecture, is probably of the same period, though one would not venture to deny that some remains of the original church of St. Ambrose may still exist. The court in front is acknowledged to be of the ninth century, and the church exhibits very much of the same style of art. This court is a parallelogram surrounded by arcades, having three arches at each end and six on each side. The walls abound with fragments of inscriptions, and one or two curious tombs are built up in them, particularly a large rude sarcophagus of Paganus Petrasanta, captain of the Florentines, who died in 800, and at whose funeral four cardinals were present. Considerable vestiges of the old painting in stucco remain on the wall, but the subject is no longer discernible. This stucco must have covered up the inscriptions, unless indeed they have been recently inserted. On the side of the court next the church, is a second story of arches of unequal heights, surmounted with a gable, the sloping line of which is enriched by little ornamental semicircular arches, some formed on the sloping line entirely, some with a little perpendicular appendage, and some
springing on horizontal lines; nor need you be surprised at this diversity, since a similar irregularity of disposition has been observed in the modillions and dentils of the pediments in Roman architecture. These little arches run round the cornice of the court, and are almost the only ornament it has. The piers, which support the arches of the court, are formed each of two half columns attached to an oblong pillar; they are of stone, and have rude leafy capitals, with hardly any projection. The upper arches, and the central lower arch next the church, have the archivolts of stone, rudely, but richly carved; every thing else is of brick. It appears from this description, that there is nothing in the details of the design, or in the execution of this little court, to demand our admiration; and yet it is exceedingly beautiful, from the mere simplicity and harmony of the general disposition. The tower is a square brick building, the panels of which are marked by little shafts of stone, and finish at the top in rows of ornamental arches without intersections. The inside of the church was originally divided on the plan, into square portions, each division having two semicircularly arched openings on each side, on the ground, and two above to the gallery; and a vaulting of semicircular groined arches. The two first squares remain in this state, but the third has two pointed groins springing from a lower point; the strong ribs which separate the squares, unite likewise in a point. The fourth square is that of the lantern, which, from the external appearance, is probably an addition of the thirteenth century; within, it is entirely modernized. There is no transept. The parallel walls of the building continue a little beyond the lantern, and the building terminates in an ancient niche or apsis.
None of the churches here have that elevation of the middle above the sides, to which we are accustomed in our Gothic edifices; there is at most only room for a range of small windows above the arches of the aisles, and sometimes, as in the present example, not even for that; they are consequently much lower in proportion to their dimensions on the plan, but they may help to show, that beauty is not confined to one scale of proportion, as two or three of them produce a very pleasing effect, and amongst others, S. Ambrogio is good in this particular. Yet I rather imagine, that it requires a practised eye to be able to judge of this proportion, and to be pleased with it, when the building taken as a whole is faulty; and that a man of good taste, not accustomed to analyze the composition, is very likely to condemn the church as he finds it, proportion and all. At my first visit the last rites were celebrated to one who had been an abbot. The church was hung with black tapestry; but broad borders of gold and silver tissue, covered nearly as much space as the black. The Italians seem unable to bear the gloom of entire black, and choose to introduce something of gaiety and splendour, even in their funerals. The pall was of white satin, embroidered with coloured flowers, and the mitre and crosiers were laid over it on the coffin. Although it was mid-day, the church was lighted up with multitudes of wax candles, and a man dressed entirely in scarlet, stockings included, walked from one to the other, to collect the wax which guttered down from them. Each candle seemed composed of four stuck together, which I apprehend to be very well calculated to make the wax run down, and as this is, I believe, a perquisite of some of the inferior officers, it may really be an object. One candle was neglected, and an old woman interrupted her prayers, to pick up a fine lump of wax, which fell down from it; her cautious look round, to see that no one belonging to the church observed her, shewed that she felt she was stealing; but I suppose the moral sense of the poor in Italy is hardly high enough to condemn with severity, petty thieving, or petty cheating. In the churches of France, I used to find more women than men; I think in Italy, or at least in Milan, the men are more numerous than the women. All seem very devout, and are very silent.
To return to the architecture of the church. The choir has been modernized, except the apsis, which is ornamented with mosaics representing our Saviour, and with saints and angels. It is said to have been executed by Greek artists in the tenth century; the pieces of the mosaic are formed of a thin lamina of gold, or metal, laid on a thick die of glass, and covered with a very thin plate of the same material, and the whole united by exposure to heat. In a little chapel of San Satyro in this church, is another mosaic of the same sort, which is thought to be still more ancient.
The great altar contains the ashes of St. Ambrose, St. Gervase, and St. Protasius; over it is a canopy, supported on four columns, of a beautiful red porphyry. The canopy is attributed to the ninth century, (if I understand rightly) but the columns are esteemed much more ancient, and I dare say they are so, but not in their present situation; they pass through the present paving, and tradition says that they are as much below it as they are above, which is about ten feet. The bases of the piers in the nave shew the pavement there to have been raised above a foot; that of the choir is about two feet above that of the nave; if we add these two dimensions, equal to three feet, to the present height of the columns above the pavement, we shall probably have their total height. The canopy is composed of four arches, each somewhat exceeding a semicircle, and of four gables of a greenish colour, richly adorned with gold. The ornament of the archivolt is formed of a series of intersecting arches, all gilt, and little gilt crockets run along the gables. The altar is also said to be very rich with gold, silver, and precious stones; but it was covered with a case, and I did not see it. Besides the altar, this church contains part of a granite column with a marble capital, much too small for the shaft; and upon this is the identical brazen serpent made by Moses for the Children of Israel in the wilderness. More moderate people say, that it was made in imitation of that of Moses; but these do not specify where the artist of the present, could have seen the ancient one, or how he could have made a copy, without knowing any thing of the original. It is entirely devoid of use or beauty, and does not seem to be an object of reverence. Near this is a sculptured sarcophagus of white marble, of Christian times, and supposed to have been made to receive the ashes of Stilico, and his wife Serena. Without entering very minutely into the truth of these more reasonable traditions, they are certainly very pleasant, and seem to bring history home to us; and they do really by increasing our associations with it, fix it more firmly on the mind. Over this sarcophagus, and partly resting on it, is a marble pulpit, which with the eagle of gilt bronze which forms the reading desk, is of the time of Frederic I. i. e. of the twelfth century.
On leaving this church I went to visit a little chapel, where St. Augustine was baptized; but it has been modernized. I was much disappointed, because, as the interest of the place depended entirely on the event which took place there, it is palpably of importance, to any impression received from it, that the original form and disposition should as much as possible be preserved; and the Roman Catholic clergy generally know how to give effect to their religious establishments.