The ancient Basilica of St. Peter was entirely destroyed to make room for the present majestic edifice; but the plans and elevations have been handed down to us, and they exhibit a church of the same general arrangement as that of St. Paul; two ranges of columns on each side of the nave, and a transept crossing it at the end, in the centre of which is the apsis, opposite to the central nave. This apsis is a large semicircular niche, not a continuation of the architecture of the nave; and in this sense only I use the word, since, however loosely the term may have been used at different periods, it is now very desirable to have an appropriate name to a very distinct and characteristic feature in the earlier ecclesiastical architecture. The columns supported architraves, as in Santa Maria Maggiore, and not arches; the wall above them was very high, with small windows; and the timbers of the roof were left naked. The dimensions were smaller than in St. Paul’s. The elevation probably exhibits the original distribution of the front of these basilicas, but not with all the details. A court entirely surrounded with porticos, precedes the entrance; above this, are two ranges, each of three circular-headed windows; which windows are filled up in a manner somewhat similar to those of Orsan Michele at Florence, and it is not improbable that they may have been among the restorations of Nicholas V., which would be about the same period. Over these ranges, in the pediment, was a small rose, or wheel window. This front was enriched with paintings, or perhaps mosaics; but it has not in these representations, that large, advancing, enriched cove, which is still seen at St. Paul’s, and at Santa Maria Maggiore, and which appears at one period to have been very generally adopted. It is possible also that this may have been destroyed by Nicholas V.
The Church of St. John Lateran is attributed, like that of St. Paul, to Constantine, and the epoch assigned to its foundation is also 324. The original plan was very similar, consisting of a nave resting on four ranges, each of twelve columns, of which the central division was 72[[47]] feet wide and 272 long, and beyond this an open transept 70 feet wide, with a semicircular apsis 50 feet wide, opposite the opening of the nave. This perhaps is not the original apsis; at least the mosaics with which it is adorned, and the circular Gothic corridor behind it, seem to belong to a later period, and are probably coeval with the court of the convent behind. This church and the adjoining palace were burnt in 1308, and the roofs, the pavimenti sacri preziosi, and every thing combustible was destroyed. Clement V., who was then residing at Avignon, sent considerable sums of money for its restoration; but it was reserved to Innocent X. to employ Borromini, to transform it into the ugliest, and worst proportioned church, that ever existed. He built up the columns into enormous piers, which are almost perforated by monstrous niches, the receptacle of huge, sprawling statues. There is nothing deserving of praise in the body of the nave, no taste, no feeling; if the marble columns were, as is said, too much damaged by the fire to be trusted to for the support of the building, it would have been better to have removed them, than to have cramped the plan by accommodating the piers to their disposition; and as at present they are totally invisible, the lover of antiquity cannot be gratified by their preservation.
But if in the nave itself we can find nothing to admire, there is a side chapel of the Corsini family which is highly beautiful. It was designed by Alexander Galileo, a Florentine, who adopted the form of a shortened Greek cross, with a dome in the centre, and ornamented it with rich marbles, painting and gilding. The porphyry urn, found in the portico of the Pantheon, forms one of the depositi of this chapel. In the crypt underneath, is a very admirable Pietà of Bernini. The front of the church is a design of the same Galileo, and in spite of numerous faults, it is certainly impressive. These faults, as I often remind you, are not mere offences against rule, or such as contradict some theory; the rule may be false, and the theory groundless, but they are errors which are against the character and expression of the building, and counteract its magnificence. The northern entrance to the transept is a design of Domenico Fontana. It consists of a double arcade, each of five arches, the lower decorated with the Doric, the upper with the Corinthian order; a handsome structure in itself, but it recalls the often repeated question, why employ the appearance of two stories without, when there is only one within; and when this division gives the effect of small rooms, instead of one spacious hall, and consequently is opposed to magnificence.
There is a fine court, surrounded with cloisters at St. Paul’s, and another very similar one attached to this church; openings are formed by little arches supported on doubled shafts; these shafts are plain, or twisted, or have spiral flutes, or are ornamented with mosaics, with which the whole architecture abounds. In its original state, this court has had considerable grace and beauty, and it is well worthy of observation, that similarly beautiful effects may be produced by many, may we not say, by almost every style of architecture; all becomes gold in the hands of a skilful architect, but the finest parts, and most exquisite proportions, turn again to dross, in the hands of ignorance and insensibility. Some large piers have been added here to strengthen the work, and they very much injure its beauty.
In walking round this cloister, we are shown, 1st, the mouth of a well of white marble, said to have stood on the well at Samaria, where the woman talked with Christ. 2nd, A marble base on which the cock stood, when his crowing awakened the apostle Peter to a sense of his fault. 3rd, The stone (a marble column) split into two on our Saviour’s crucifixion. 4th, A slab of porphyry, on which the soldiers cast lots for his garments. 5th, A slab of granite, fixed at the exact measure of our Saviour’s height. 6th, The ancient marble chair of installation for the popes. It is impossible not to feel indignant at the monstrous fictions encouraged, if not approved, by the Romish church. They deprive us of the power of believing where the circumstances are more probable, and in so doing, they take from us a very great pleasure. I feel it sometimes like a personal injury.
Near the church of St. John Lateran, is an edifice called Scala Santa, of which the principal object is a staircase, said to be composed of the very steps which our Saviour ascended in the house of Pilate, and which were afterwards sent by St. Helena to Rome. Indulgences are granted to those who ascend them properly on their knees, but the wear of the marble has been so great, that the steps are now covered with wood. On each side is a flight of stairs for the devotees to descend, and for those to go up and down, who prefer the more commodious use of the feet. Here too I saw indulgences declared for those who recite daily, certain prayers to their Guardian Angel; and a distinction made in matter of indulgences between those who perform their tasks after confession and absolution, and those who execute them only with a firm purpose to confess;[[48]] these notices are the advertisements, the affiches of Rome. The general disposition of the front of this building is not bad, but Fontana never succeeds in details. Close by is the Triclinium of Pope St. Leo III.; a fragment of the ancient palace, but not in its original situation.
I must not omit to mention among these objects, the Baptistery of Constantine. It consists of a small octagonal centre of two orders, crowned with a lantern of the same form; the surrounding aisle occupies the height of both orders, which are separated merely by an architrave, without any floor. The eight lower columns are of porphyry, some of them very ill worked, and none deserving of much praise; the eight upper are of white marble. This arrangement is not without beauty, though, take it altogether, I think no one would copy it. There are some side chapels which are not of the date of the building, but the vestibule on the side towards the church is of Constantine’s time; the external doorway to this is enriched with some very beautiful fragments, which as usual, are not very well disposed. The capitals in particular, are of a very fine and peculiar Composite, bearing strong indications of Greek taste and workmanship; and they are I think, as beautiful as any Composite capitals in existence, but as different from the usual distribution of that order, as from the Corinthian. The entablature does not belong to them. It is hard and dry, but carefully cut, and not much weatherworn. The style seems something like that of the ancient fragments, in the so called temple of Concord.
The Church of the Holy Cross was built in order to receive the true cross, found by Helena, mother of Constantine, in Jerusalem, together with many other relics, and a quantity of earth from that city; for which reason it has received the name of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, as if Jerusalem itself were brought to Rome, and the church erected in the transported city. It was restored in the eighth century by St. Gregory II., and again in 903; but it is said to have been rebuilt from the foundations in 1144. Nevertheless, the plan has been precisely that of one of Constantine’s basilicas in miniature, except that the diameter of the apsis is considerably greater than the width of the nave. Its present state dates no farther back than 1744, when some of the columns were built up in piers, in order to support the vaulted roof; four on each side are still exposed, and these are the only parts of the ancient building now visible. A singular porch is built at the entrance: it is not good as it stands, but some useful hints may be derived from it.
The Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, is said to have been the first dedicated to the Virgin; and the superstition must have begun early, if it be true that Pope Callistus began this erection in 224; but in fact, what he built was an hospital, with perhaps a small chapel attached to it, and not a church. After several alterations, or refabrications, Adrian I., about 772, added two navate, by which I suppose the side aisles are meant; but till there were side aisles, columns would not be wanted, and to him therefore, we may attribute the form and disposition of the church, which is still that of the basilica; but the transept is narrow. In 1139, Innocent II. is said to have brought it to its present state, but there is no knowing the precise import of these expressions. We are told that the present ceiling was designed by Domenichino, but I know not on what authority. The painting in the middle is undoubtedly his, but the disposition of the coffers is very intricate, and therefore bad. The portico was added in 1702. The interest we find in this church is more from the collection of antique fragments which enter into its construction, than from any merit of its own. Noble shafts of granite from different buildings, some of which are adorned with highly enriched, and very beautiful Ionic capitals, separate the nave from the side aisles. Others are less ornamented, but perhaps not less beautiful; there are three varieties of these capitals, besides some bad imitations of later times; others again are Corinthian, and some Composite. None perhaps of the very best period of art, but certainly of a time when it had preserved all its splendour and magnificence, if not all its purity. The general fault indeed, is that of too much enrichment. Instead of modillions, fragments of ancient cornices are used, and there are other morsels of ornamental sculpture. The altar columns are very small. There are some scraps of friezes and mouldings, of very fine design, though rather of clumsy execution, in the present doorways of this church. Where this is the case, it is perhaps frequently the result of the imitation of more perfect workmanship.
It is rather doubtful whether the Church of Santa Maria di Ara Cœli stand upon the site of the ancient temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, or whether that edifice occupied the opposite summit of the Capitol, above the Tarpeian rock. I have already mentioned to you the two divaricating flights of steps, which rise nearly from the same point at the foot of the Capitol; the one leading to the Intermontium, and the other, more lofty, and consisting of a hundred and twenty-four marble steps, said to have been formed of the materials of the temple of Quirinus, to the church of Ara Cœli. The front is of unornamented brickwork, and seems never to have been finished; but it offers a fragment of Italian Gothic, perhaps of the date of 1445, when the church and convent were given by Eugenius the Fourth to the Reformati di San Giovanni di Capestrano of the Francescan order. From the style of ornament I should more willingly assign it a later than an earlier period, perhaps 1464, when the church is stated to have been repaired. The body of the building is supposed to have been erected about the sixth century, and from the tenth to the thirteenth, it was called Santa Maria in Campidoglio, but since that, has been named Ara Cœli, from an altar pretended to have been dedicated on this spot by Augustus. It is divided into a nave and two aisles, or as the expression is here, into three naves, by twenty-two marble columns, which have been taken from ancient edifices. They are of different sizes and materials. Some plain, others fluted; two of them have semicylindrical ribs on the flutes. The capitals are cases of gilt stucco, of a detestable Ionic, laid over the old work. The inequality of the original size was such, that it was impossible to reduce them all to one precise measure, and consequently some are made larger than others, but in other respects they are alike. The old workmanship of these capitals was as different as the columns on which they are placed; nor are the bases less so, some being Corinthian, some Attic, some of an unnamed order; one with an enormous projection, the next hardly relieved, and as the columns are of different lengths, these are placed on pedestals of different heights, in order to make the total elevation the same in each. These columns support a range of arches which have no correspondence with those of the side aisles behind them. It would be difficult altogether to find a much more ugly church, and the magnificent flight of steps leads only to a small lateral door at the side of the tribune, so that every thing is bad. I long excessively to pull down church and convent, examine all the antiquities thus exposed, and then to erect a magnificent temple-formed cathedral, the church of the Roman people; and by clearing away a few rubbishing buildings, I could make this appear to crown the Corso, and attract the eye from the first entrance into Rome.