You know that the shaft of a column usually enlarges a little at the bottom, and terminates in a fillet above the base. This enlargement, with the fillet, is called the apophysis, and may usually be described in the section, by a quarter of a circle, of an inch or two radius, but in this example, the curve seems to be that of an extremely eccentric ellipsis, extending some feet up the shaft, and influencing its general form, so as to reduce it to a continued flowing serpentine line, from top to bottom. This curvature is so gentle, as not to be perceptible without the most careful examination, but nevertheless, has its effect in giving grace and elegance to the columns. It is quite a mistake to suppose that a variation of form, not immediately cognizable by the eye, must therefore be useless; every artist has felt, that these slight changes influence the beauty of the composition, without being themselves obvious, even to a skilful observer. These columns have stood upon a continued pedestal, and under that, is another, or sub-pedestal, containing an arched opening under each intercolumniation. Each pedestal has had its own cornice. In front a flight of twenty-eight steps led from the Via sacra up to a portico of eight columns. This flight of steps was singularly divided into three parts, by two masses of masonry, or pedestals, as perhaps we may call them, of the height of the sub-pedestal. The middle, and by much the largest portion, continued in a straight line from top to bottom; the two side ones were turned laterally.
The solid construction of this temple was as remarkable as the disposition of its basement. Under all the columns and walls, the masonry was formed with great blocks of travertine, and similar blocks formed the external circuit of the building. The greater part of the intermediate spaces was filled up with rubble work. The travertine has been an object of plunder, and the walls are now traced by the vacancies between the masses of rubble, which was not worth the removing. Even the blocks under the intervals of the three remaining columns, have been taken away, and they stand now entirely detached from each other, (except by some iron ties inserted for their preservation) from the foundation to the architrave, twenty feet more than the proper height of the column.
From the temple of Jupiter, let me take you to that of Peace, a building of very different style in every respect. The remains consist of three great arches of brick and rubble, nearly of equal size, and of some foundations of piers, which exhibit themselves above ground. The plan, which you may see in almost any book of Roman architecture, has been a room, about 248 feet long, and 195 wide, composed of a nave, or central part, which is vaulted with three groined arches, and which has on each side three large recesses, rising about as high as the springing of the principal arches, and occupying nearly their whole width. These groined vaults have had the appearance of resting on eight Corinthian columns, or rather on detached entablatures over such columns. It was probably intended, by throwing the weight on such slender, and apparently inefficient props, to give to the whole an exaggerated appearance of lightness; the attempt seems injudicious; yet the same sort of arrangement in the existing hall of the baths of Dioclesian is generally admired. The Romans, this is my present theory, had a sort of architecture borrowed from the Etruscans, before they had much intercourse with Greece. The ornamental parts have presented arches, and niches, and Tuscan columns, which were little more than the wooden props from which the idea of a column has been derived. To this they afterwards added the triglyphs, characteristic of the Doric order; and thus made what is now called the Roman Doric, but which till lately used to be considered as the genuine order; and imported also the other orders. From these materials, about the time of Augustus, they formed an architecture of their own; combining with the severe, and as they probably felt it, somewhat monotonous simplicity of the Greek forms, the arches and niches of the Etruscan mode of building; and executing their works on a large scale, and with a magnificence and fulness of ornament peculiar to themselves. The power of vaulting their apartments, enabled them to combine magnitude and solidity, both real and apparent; and they no sooner felt the effect thus produced, than they began to abuse their powers in sacrificing every thing else to this union. The great hall in the baths of Caracalla, was perhaps, the first remarkably successful effort of the sort; at least we know of nothing earlier, for it is not clear that there was any thing of the kind in the baths of Titus. The novelty was admired, extolled, and imitated; and this great room, called the Temple of Peace, and the great hall in the baths of Dioclesian, were built upon the same model. Palladio inserts a similar apartment in the baths of Nero and Titus, as well as in those of later date; but we know not his authority, and the progress would be the same though we should assign an earlier date to the commencement of the practice. It is impossible to deny the impressive effect produced by these ample spaces, and bold construction, whatever was the edifice in which they were first introduced, or not to regret, that it should have occasioned the entire disregard of all chaster, and less ostentatious beauty, both in the masses and in the details. Whatever was the motive of this disposition, its effect in the Temple of Peace is now entirely lost, as the great vault is gone. The stucco panelling of the side-vaults is in a fine free style, but the details are bad, and the execution poor; a circumstance which we have the opportunity of determining by a large mass of vault lying on the ground, with a considerable portion of these ornaments remaining. The backs of the two side recesses, each with two ranges of comparatively small arches, never could have had a pleasing appearance by any mode of finishing, and the circular recess is still worse in design; but the latter was a posterior addition, made to convert the edifice into a Christian church. Of the great order, the whole entablature is clearly exhibited at one corner, being not continued from one column to another, but returning in itself upon each. Considerable fragments of a smaller order are lying about, presenting continued straight lines, and not contemptible either in design, or workmanship, although not very correct. A third order ornamented the circular recess, and we have also several fragments of the entablature of this part, overloaded with ornaments which are ill drawn, and ill executed. One end wall of the nave seems to have been finished in a manner similar to those of the ends of the two side recesses; the other has a large niche. We may perhaps trace in this arrangement the first idea of the distribution of the Roman churches. Recent excavations have proved that the plan has hitherto been imperfectly understood. The original entrance was at the end, and the building formed a great hall, terminating in a large niche, and having three tribunes, square on the plan, on each side, each of which terminated in two rows, each of three arched recesses, some, or all of which, were windows. The middle tribune on one side was opened at some period later than the conversion of Constantine, and a flight of steps made up to it, while a semicircular extremity was added to the opposite tribune; so that what had been the nave, or leading division of the hall, became the transept of the church, although larger than the part which thus had the effect of a nave, as is the case at present in the church of the baths of Dioclesian. Many of the paving bricks are marked with the name of Domitian, but this does not amount to a proof of the date of the edifice, and the execution of the parts shows decisively, that it is not, in its present state, of the age of Vespasian, as has been supposed. It is possible that the mass of the building might be of the time of that emperor, yet I doubt if the introduction of these immense groined vaults can be placed so early. There are indeed some very fine fragments, and in particular, a beautiful piece of cornice with dentils, but without modillions, which now lies in the adjoining church of Santa Francesca Romana. These were plundered from other buildings; and the artists of that we are now examining, have shown their degeneracy by their clumsy imitations. The stucco work, which must have been made for the building, is still worse than the marble. The circular recess on one side has long been acknowledged to be an addition, but the present opinion does not assign to the whole edifice an antiquity much higher than the reign of Dioclesian, or perhaps of Constantine, but the apparent change of its destination, from some profane purpose, probably into that of a Christian church, make me suppose that it must have been, in its original form, prior to the latter emperor.
From the temple of Peace we have but to cross the way to the Arch of Titus. This is the oldest triumphal arch existing in Rome, and it has perhaps been the most beautiful. It contained only a single opening, by which means the side intercolumniations are rather smaller than where there are also two smaller arches; and I think this improves the general composition. You know that this building was erected in commemoration of the defeat of the Jews, or rather of the destruction of the Jewish nation by Titus; and part of its interest is derived from the sacred utensils sculptured in its bas-reliefs.
At the distance of a few steps from the arch of Titus, we find two temples, placed back to back, sometimes called the temples of the Sun and Moon, but I am better satisfied to believe them the temples of Venus and Rome, designed by Hadrian, and criticised by Apollodorus. The criticism was too just to be forgiven, and it cost the unfortunate artist his life. Ruins have more claim on our attention, when we know, or fancy that we know, something of their history, and here the probability is much in favour of their connexion with the story. Palladio restored these temples with a portico, or rather loggia to each, of six columns, and four pilasters, not the height of the building. It seems more probable that each had a lofty decastyle portico and pediment, as is usual in temples. Uggeri, who has given a plan on this supposition, says that he has made them peripteral, instead of amphiprostyle, but in fact, both his design and that of Palladio are amphiprostyle. In order to effect this, he has crowded his columns too much, and if there were ten of them, the building was in all probability peripteral. It was inclosed in a peribolus, surrounded by a peristyle of granite columns of considerable size, many fragments of which still remain.
Underneath the wall of this building, we see a slab of white marble, apparently the remains of a pavement of that material: this is thought to have belonged to Nero’s golden house. Some other foundations have been found by digging, which are attributed to the same source. We will now pass to the Coliseum, without stopping to examine the shapeless fragment of a fountain, or aqueduct, called the Meta sudans. What an immense mass! You walk round it, and within it. You pace its long corridors, or stand on the top of its half ruined vaults, and everywhere, and in every part, and from every point of view, the same impression occurs of enormous magnitude. You may visit it again and again, and you will still feel this one character eternally repeated. To the painter, in its present state of ruin, it offers many picturesque combinations and admirable studies. The antiquary may delight in tracing the various parts, and imagining their uses; but to the architect it does not say much. As a whole it is a mere mass, with little merit of design or execution. None of the orders are good, and the mouldings are indifferently drawn and worse executed, as might be expected from the manner in which it was raised. Yet on the whole, the details of the architecture are better than I expected from the engravings. It is curious, that although the arches are semicircular, and of small span, the arch-stones are joggled;[[43]] this would seem to indicate no great confidence in the form of the arch, and consequently not much habit of using it, at that time. Travertine, brickwork, and rubble are intermixed in the construction, and the ancient pavement in some of the passages so exactly resembles Dutch clinkers, that I should have had no doubt of their being such, had I met with them in England. This building has suffered tremendously, as every one knows, by furnishing materials for the Roman palaces. Lately, a part which threatened to fall, has been supported by a vast brick wall of no inconsiderable expense.[[44]] During the residence of the French it was cleared out both internally and externally, and some curious construction, partly of blocks of travertine, partly of brick, and small, rough masonry, was discovered in the arena: the use and date of these have been much disputed. Some of the slighter walls have been supposed to have been erected by the Frangipani family, which had here established a dyeing-house; but they are all now filled up, not however to the former level, for the present arena is said to be eight feet lower than it was.
Almost close to the Coliseum, is the Arch of Constantine, shining like a jay, says Milizia, in borrowed feathers. Much of the sculpture represents the exploits of Trajan, and was doubtless taken from an arch dedicated to that emperor, but it has been disputed whether Constantine transferred them from the arch in the forum of Trajan, or whether he altered and restored an arch upon the spot. The latter supposition is inadmissible, since the bases of the pilasters are of Constantine’s time, judging, as we may fairly do in this case, by the workmanship; while those of the columns, which are so much more exposed to destruction and to change, are antique; and of the sixteen internal angles made by the cornice, points also very much protected by their situation, not one is entirely of the more ancient execution. The parts of architecture not made for this arch, are very beautiful, but rather perhaps in a more delicate style than that of the fragments remaining of the forum and basilica of Trajan. The general form and proportion of the edifice are also good.
On the opposite side of the Coliseum, on the slope of the Esquiline, are the subterraneous chambers, commonly called the Baths of Titus, whence the arabesque paintings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are said to have been derived. These ornaments however have, properly speaking, nothing to do with the baths, but belonged to a magnificent palace of an earlier date, whose walls were left by Titus to serve as part of the supports to the apartments fabricated above them. A vast number of chambers thus become subterraneous, still remain, and numerous additional vaulted rooms occupy the courts of the ancient mansion, and advance in front of them to complete the substructions required for the arrangements above. These additional parts may be distinguished by the quality of the work, and still more readily by the want of stucco, and of every sort of ornament. The Roman antiquaries pretend to determine that this palace had been abandoned some time before it was thus buried, and that parts of it had been divided into small habitations for the poorer class. Many of these vaults, as well of the ancient building, as of the additions under Titus, were cleared out during the authority of the French in Rome, but a still larger number remains more or less filled with rubbish, purposely thrown in from above, and this circumstance, together with the change of destination in the edifice, produces an intricacy, or rather confusion in the plan, which the spectator does not easily unravel, and it is with astonishment that we contemplate these lofty and spacious apartments, covered with the richest ornaments, and a profusion of painting and gilding, where it seems as if the light of day could never have entered; but when the circumstances of the building are once well understood, these particularities, and some irregularities in the plan, which at first sight appear incomprehensible, are fully explained. While all these were considered as parts of the baths of Titus, all strangers used to be told, that the Laocoon was found in them, and the very pedestal on which it stood was pointed out; but now, when it is established that these chambers never constituted any portion of the baths, this notion is given up; since in fact all we know on the subject is, that the Laocoon was found in or near the baths of Titus. I do not know whether a magnificent bathing vessel of rosso antico, now in the Vatican, is in the same predicament, but it was said one time to have been found here. In a long corridor which formed one side of the internal court of the palace, the painting on the vaults remains tolerably perfect. We see it by means of a candle fixed at the end of a long reed, and consequently the examination cannot be very exact, but it is enough to shew to us the grace and spirit of the figures, and the delicacy of the ornament. In another part of the ruins we scramble over heaps of rubbish, in chambers nearly filled up, sometimes walking nearly upright, oftener half doubled, or crawling on all-fours, to a part where there are similar paintings, which may be examined close at hand. The execution is slight but firm, suited to the position in which they were to be seen. The arrangement of the ornaments, architecturally speaking, is bad, but in themselves they are generally beautiful, and the figures both of men and animals are drawn not only with spirit and truth, but with a grace of attitude and elegance of form, which we certainly do not find in works of this nature in modern times. One conceives that a very superior artist must have made the drawings, and that they were copied on the walls by skilful workmen. There are some apartments, and lofty vaults above ground, but at a greater distance from the Coliseum; and a large reservoir, called the sette sale, or seven halls, out of the general circuit of the building. It consists of nine vaults, with the doors so disposed that you may see seven of them on a diagonal line at one view. The deposit on the sides proves sufficiently that they were reservoirs for water, and they are supposed to have supplied the baths of Titus and Trajan. The present circumstances of these ruins scattered over a great extent of ground, some in one vineyard, and some in another, accessible by different ways, and where in going from one to another, one loses altogether the traces of antiquity, perhaps fill the imagination more, than if they were in one inclosure; for the apparent distance is increased by this want of union, by the crooked paths, through which one reaches them, and by the number of objects intervening; but there is nothing in any one of the superior buildings to detain the spectator for long. More pains perhaps have been taken about the plan of this edifice, than of any other of the ancient baths, but none of the obscurer ruins of Rome have been well made out, and even the less obvious parts of the most interesting buildings, have till lately excited little attention. At every step we have to complain that the Roman antiquities, in spite of all which has been written upon them, have never been published.
These remains, as I have said, are on the Esquiline; on the opposite slope of the Cœlian, are some buildings, consisting of piers, vaults, and arcades; with a sort of Doric pilaster and entablature, much in the style of the Coliseum, and supposed to have been erected at the same time, or shortly after, for the reception of wild beasts for the use of the amphitheatre. Returning again towards the Capitol, we find the Palatine, half covered with ruins, mixed with modern convents; and the buildings of the Farnese gardens, designed by M. A. Buonarotti, and by Vignola. Amongst these is a subterranean apartment, without any opening for the external light, known by the name of the baths of Livia, which have been very highly ornamented with painting and gilding, and with little bas-reliefs in stucco; and considerable remains of these decorations still exist. I shall not attempt to lead you to all the different masses of ruin, the long vaults, and immense solid piers, crowded together on this hill; but I cannot omit to mention a noble terrace supported on vaults, which commands the Circus maximus, and a number of interesting objects finely combined. After all, supposing the whole summit of the Palatine to have been occupied by the palace, which was probably the case, it would not have been much larger than that designed by Inigo Jones for Charles I., and of which the Banquetting-house was built as a specimen. The Roman palace must have been very irregular, the natural effect of having been erected at different times, and by men whose views were very different. Amongst its ruins we are shown a Hippodrome, a Temple of Apollo, and more things than I can undertake to name; and in the villa Spada, the casino of which boasts some nearly invisible productions of the pencil of Giulio Romano, is a considerable subterraneum, called the Baths of Nero. As in the baths of Titus, you have to hunt out these fragments in different gardens and vineyards, the entrances to which are frequently very wide apart, nor is it always easy to obtain admission.