J. Hawksworth Sculp.
Model of St. Peters at Rome.
London, Published by J & A Arch. Cornhill, March 1st. 1828.
The body of the building is ornamented with two orders, Doric below and Ionic above. Between them is an enormous Attic which might itself be called an order. The towers have a second range of Ionic semi-columns and one of Corinthian. They are then contracted to an octagon, and afterwards become round; in this part we find a circle of sixteen detached Corinthian columns, with their entablature and a balustrade above. On the balustrade, perpendicularly over each column, is a conical ornament, eight larger cones rise from the wall of the interior cylinder, and a still larger crowns the whole edifice. This apparent tendency to run up into cones harmonizes admirably with the lofty proportions of the campanili, and produces a splendour, and liveliness of effect, which would be entirely lost with a common sloping roof, or with a cupola. Indeed the whole of the upper part is exceedingly beautiful. The central division of the façade exhibits two large arches, one over the other, and a pediment at top. On each side is a division not much smaller, which also has a pediment, but not placed so high, and we see behind it an octangular turret. The large central arch has a magnificent effect; but it would have had it in still greater degree if it had been larger, and in one height. Yet perhaps this would not have been in harmony with the general character of the building, where magnificence is obtained by the multiplicity of the parts, rather than by their individual dimensions. Two ranges of arches surround the cupola. One in the upright of the drum, and the other in the height of the curve. The lantern is very large, and consequently, but a small portion of the cupola is exhibited, which perhaps adds to its apparent solidity, and to the majesty of the edifice. The decorations of the lantern correspond with those of the summits of the campanili, but as the parts have a greater extent to the same elevation, the perfect harmony of the composition is still preserved.
This Sangallo, who was the most celebrated architect of that name, and the one always understood when no addition is employed, died in 1546, and Michael Angelo Buonarotti was appointed architect. He at first refused the office, and when the Pope, by a motu propio gave him full authority to do and undo whatever he pleased, he insisted that a declaration should be inserted, that he undertook it for the love of God, and without any salary or reward; nor was this an idle boast, for although Paul III. repeatedly urged his acceptance of some remuneration, he invariably refused it.
Michael Angelo was not content to strip Peruzzi’s design of all that Sangallo had added to it, but he also omitted the semicircular galleries behind the tribunes, which his predecessor had already separated from the church; he altered the design of the dome nearly to the form which it has at present, making it double; the one seen internally being no longer the same as that exhibited on the outside; and surrounding the drum with a single range of coupled columns. He designed also a sort of double portico, which certainly has no similarity to that of the Pantheon, although you will find it asserted in some books that the one was copied from the other. Eight large columns form the range next the church, and four others in front of the four middle ones support a pediment, and form a sort of portico to the portico; it is by no means a handsome arrangement. A few alterations in the details, and the insertion of some broken pediments over the windows internally, seem also to have been designed by Michael Angelo. There was perhaps a little ostentation in producing a model of the altered design in fifteen days, and at the expense of twenty-five crowns; while Sangallo’s model had occupied several years; but St. Peter’s at this time had become a standing job, and the underlings employed in it, instead of feeling any zeal to complete it, considered an appointment in the building as an establishment for life. All this Michael Angelo endeavoured to put an end to, and excited great ill-will towards himself by so doing; but his wonderful talents and high character carried him through all opposition. He began his works by still further strengthening the great piers, which, though they had been repeatedly reinforced, did not yet appear to him as strong as they ought to be. To what point he carried the work, I do not know; but the whole, as far as the extent of the Greek cross, seems to have been continued nearly according to his design.
Milizia says that Pirro Ligorio was appointed architect of St. Peter’s conjointly with Michael Angelo: but according to Bonanni, P. Ligorio and Vignola were joint architects after the death of that great man, which happened in 1564. I do not know that Ligorio did any thing; Vignola erected the two smaller cupolas, which are universally admired, but very little seen from their position on the building, as now lengthened into a Latin cross. He died in 1573, and the next architect we have any account of, is Giacomo della Porta, who was a pupil of Vignola; and under his direction, and that of Domenico Fontana, who was united with him for this purpose by Sixtus V., the great dome was erected in twenty-two months by the labour of 600 men; it was completed in 1590, but without the lantern, which was executed under Clement VIII. Giovanni Fontana, brother of Domenico, was also architect to St. Peter’s, and then follows the nephew of Domenico, Carlo Maderno, who lengthened the nave, and brought the building, internally, as well as externally, to the shape of the Latin cross, for which he has been plentifully abused; he also erected the front, in which he seems to have failed as much in construction as in taste, since the foundations gave way before the work was completed; and though they were strengthened in consequence, yet they were not at last firm enough to support the bell towers, which were to have terminated the extremities of the elevation. Bernini was indeed engaged by Urban VIII. to erect these bell towers, and one of them was actually built; but though of a very light style of architecture, it was too heavy for the edifice, and immediately taken down again. At this time St. Peter’s may be said to have been finished. Bernini added the galleries and colonnades in front, and adorned or encumbered the interior, with the chair, and the confessional of St. Peter. Carlo Fontana in later times drew up a description of the building by the command of Innocent XI., and a loose estimate of its value, not from the sums which it had actually cost, because many of the accounts had been lost, but from the quantity of materials employed. These he reckons at 111,122,000 cubic Roman palms;
| Scudi. | |
|---|---|
| And this, at 32½ bajocchi per palm cube amounts to | 36,114,650 |
| For 128 marble columns, each 40 palms high, he adds | 236,800 |
| And allows for the other extras | 10,800,000 |
without publishing the details of his calculations: and he adds up these to make a total of 46,800,498, which is an arithmetic that I do not well understand, as it seems to me that it ought to be 47,151,450. This estimate is independent of the tower erected and taken down, and of all other alterations which took place in the progress of the work; it is also independent of the paintings; and if I understand rightly, it does not include the chair of St. Peter, or the bronze confessional erected by Bernini.