V. The church of San Giorgio, built in 1589, is one of those things, which without any thing very blamable, yet produce no effect. It exhibits a range of arches between Ionic pilasters, and a whitewashed vault; this last circumstance is certainly injurious, but not sufficient to account for its tameness.
VI. The church of San Salvadore was begun in 1605, and finished in 1623. The front is not handsome, the wings being too small; and the general appearance is that of several smaller buildings erected on the summit of a large one. Internally, it has perforated piers, and consists merely of two large arches and a semicircular choir as high as the nave. It is a very handsome room, but without much of the character of a church, and this want of peculiar character, seems to me the prevailing defect of the churches of Italian architecture. On the other hand, the Gothic architects, in their productions, whether in Italy or in England, hardly ever missed it; but perhaps this opinion may be owing merely to early association.
VII. San Paolo is another fine room, with perforated piers, and much more character; which is, I believe, owing to its greater comparative height and length. The proportions are very good, but the superabundance of painting shows that an error on that side also may be injurious.
VIII. I mention to you S. Bartolommeo di Porta Ravegnana, to notice a good effect in ornamental painting; the general tone is too gaudy, but the choir, with Corinthian pilasters, of a purplish gray, with gilt mouldings, and the capitals and ornaments in the panels of the pilasters also gilt, is very elegant.
IX. The length and general proportions of the church of San Domenico, would produce a fine perspective, if it were not most industriously destroyed. Every other arch is made into a sort of separate composition, with pilasters and an entablature; and a smaller included order to ornament the opening. The intermediate ones are quite plain, without even the entablature. I should hardly however have mentioned this church, if it were not for a very beautiful little chapel which it contains, said to have been built from a design of Michael Angelo Buonarotti. Two other architects dispute it with him, apparently on better foundations, Floriano Ambrosino, and Francesco Terribilia; it forms a cross in itself, with a dome at the intersection, and a semicircular choir at the end: the pilasters are of rich, coloured marbles: and the parts are well disposed, and finely proportioned; the semidome of the choir was painted in fresco by Guido, and the other paintings are by no means contemptible. The whole is exceedingly beautiful.
X. I walked one day up to the Madonna del Monte, a fine church, but not in very pure taste, about three miles from Bologna. The most remarkable circumstance is, that one walks under a portico the whole way. It is not in one continued straight line, but makes four or five angles in the ascent. The architecture of this portico has no merit in point of taste, and the apparent construction is still worse, since to a thing on this small scale, iron ties are necessary to all the arches, and the beautiful effect of the perspective produced by the long series of receding curves, is quite spoilt by them. One cannot walk along it without feeling impressed with its wonderful length; it is indeed a monument of superstition, erected for her own purposes, but one must admire the courage and public spirit which could undertake such a work, and the perseverance necessary to complete it.
From the Madonna del Monte I went to the Certosa, now the public burying-place: it was one of the good deeds of the French government, that these were all swept out of the cities. The monuments are disposed in cloisters, surrounding several courts of the old convent. It is so gay with paint and whitewash, that that solemnity of appearance, which seems to us both natural and becoming in such a place, is entirely destroyed. There is a great number of skulls, with the names of those of whom they once formed part, and among others that of Guido. What a treat for a craniologist!
The palaces here are plain handsome buildings, with architraves, &c. to the windows and doors, but not decorated with the orders of architecture. In the Ranuzzi there is a very beautiful staircase; the room is elliptical, you enter at the end, and ascend to the right and left, and it returns in one branch over you on the longitudinal axis. The carriageway to the stable-yard is through the room, and under the return flight of steps, so that nothing can be more convenient.
The Torre degli Asinelli is a slender tower built at different periods, 256 feet high, which leans over its base, as measured in 1706, 3 feet 2 inches. Some years after this admeasurement, there was an earthquake, and it was again measured, but no alteration had taken place. In some situations you do not at all perceive this inclination; and then its slender form makes a fine object, rising above the buildings of the city. The other tower, the Garisendi, inclines 6 feet 6 inches to the south, and 1 foot 6 inches to the east; it is 130 feet high, but has no sort of beauty, in whatever direction it is viewed. Some authors have pretended that it was built thus inclined, but the inclination of the courses of brick, and the position of the holes to receive the timber of the floors, proves that it was a mere settlement: a few feet at the top are perpendicular.
You know, that in the Roman church, a sort of public disputation is occasionally exercised, where a heretic or an infidel is supposed to be convicted of his errors. I have not been fortunate enough to fall in with one of these, but my friend, Mr. Scott, going one day into a church in this city, without being at all aware of any thing extraordinary, found it full of people, and two priests apparently disputing in the midst of them. Just as he entered, a sudden burst of laughter rose from the whole assembly, and he began to think himself in a theatre instead of a church; but he soon ascertained that it was a dispute between a wise man and a fool, carried on for the edification of good catholics. The wise man explains the principles of his religion; the fool disputes and turns them into ridicule. Of course the wise man is to be completely victorious; but the fool frequently uses considerable force and ingenuity of argument, and a good deal of wit, which is a much more formidable weapon. In the present imperfect state of our knowledge, the objector stands on so much more advantageous ground than the supporter of almost any set of opinions, and especially has so much resource in the use of ridicule, which is forbidden to the other, that such an institution does not seem to be a very wise one, and I am afraid a large number would sympathize with the fool, and regret his defeat.