The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore was erected by Giovanni Patrizio, and by the Pope St. Liberius, in consequence of a vision, and of a miraculous shower of snow, which fell on the spot on the 5th of August, and marked out precisely the plan of the building. It was dedicated in 352, and rebuilt in 432 by Sixtus the Third. This rebuilt is a vague term, and as the fall of snow is probably, like so many other stories of the Roman church, an invention of the middle ages, it will give us no reason to suppose that the original distribution was exactly preserved. In 1189, Nicolas the Fourth erected the tribune, and adorned it with mosaics. The present front was added by Benedict the Fourteenth, in 1741; at which time not only all the internal finishings were renewed, but the columns of the nave were repolished, and reduced to one size and length, and uniform Attic bases, and Ionic capitals, were applied to them. Paul the Fifth erected in front, the only remaining column of the great hall of the temple of Peace, and placed upon it the bronze statue of the Virgin. Sixtus the Fifth displaced two of the northern range of columns to make a larger opening to the chapel which he erected; and Benedict the Fourteenth, in 1741, made a similar interruption in the opposite range, to form a correspondent opening to the chapel of Paul the Fifth; the back was erected under Clement the Tenth, about 1670.
Internally, a single row of marble columns on each side divides the nave from the side aisles. These columns sustain a continued entablature, but they are here, as in so many other places, too small in proportion to the rest of the building, and the range of pilasters over them consequently too high. The general proportion of the room is perhaps a little too long and a little too low. In a design of this sort there must always be a difficulty in keeping down sufficiently the upper part, for it is in that, that the windows must be placed, and a considerable space must occur between the windows and the columns, in order to admit the roof of the side aisles. Another fault in this church arises from a comparatively recent alteration, interrupting the perspective of the ranges of columns, by arched openings into the two principal side chapels. The nave is above 50 feet wide, and about 280 feet long, and except for this interruption, exhibits an unbroken range of parts, all uniting into one rich and harmonious design. I hope you always keep in mind in considering these dimensions, that the nave of our St. Paul’s is but 41 feet wide. The side aisles are vaulted, which is bad; a continued vault will always look too heavy for columns; and besides, it does not correspond with the flat ceiling of the nave. This ceiling is in five panels in width, without irregularities, nobly disposed, and with a richness of carving and gilding well suited to its character.
The Chapel of the Presepio (that of Sixtus the Fifth) is spotty, from the injudicious disposition of its marbles and gilding. The other chapel is less enriched, and on that account more beautiful; both are very fine chapels, each of them having the form of a Greek cross, with very short arms.
One other chapel in this church deserves attention; it is a simple parallelogram with Corinthian pilasters, the whole face of which is repeated at each angle. The architecture and the painting of the altar-piece seem to come from the school of Michael Angelo Buonarotti.
At the Church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine, you may see a great stone, which the Devil in a passion flung one day at St. Dominic. You are also shewn a chapel which the saint used as an oratory, and an orange tree planted by him six hundred years ago; but perhaps you do not care much about these things. The usual entrance is on the side, by a little portico of four columns, two of which are of a very dark granite, or perhaps I should say sienite, for they are chiefly of hornblende, but one has a vein of red, and the other of light-coloured granite. In the capitals here, and in those within the church, the divisions of the leaves are not cut through the marble, but merely worked in relief, the outline of the undivided leaf being preserved. The bases are Corinthian, and as the apophysis of the column is very large, the small mouldings of this order look trifling. Internally, the nave is formed by twenty-four fluted marble columns, with Attic bases, said to have been taken from the temple of Diana, but I much doubt if the capitals of these belong to the building mentioned by Horace. As there was also a temple of Juno in the neighbourhood, the columns of the porch may have belonged to that. The columns of the nave support arches, and there is no entablature; indeed it is quite clear, that there ought never to be both, although Brunelleschi was of so different an opinion, that in such cases he made use of two entablatures, one in fragments, and one continued; and placed his arches between them. In this church also is a beautiful marble door-case, probably belonging to the same edifice as that from which the columns were taken. The ornamented face is not exposed in the church, but in a hall, which forms a communication between it and the cloisters; and in this hall are small columns with twisted flutes. It is difficult to say precisely when this fancy began; but in small ornamental objects, it is doubtless of great antiquity. We may observe in the present day, that an architect gives himself more licence in small edifices, and in internal decorations, than in the more solid construction of large buildings; and it has always been so. Fancies in ornament please on a small scale, before they are generally adopted on a larger. The cloisters of this church are surrounded by single and coupled columns placed alternately, and supporting small arches, as in those of St. Paul and St. John Lateran. I say nothing of the history of this church, for in fact, the accounts we have of the construction of many of these edifices, is even more alike than the buildings, and you can seldom determine the date of any part with confidence.
Our next object will be St. Clement’s, where I shall conduct you into the church by the principal and regular entrance, and through the court, a way at present seldom used. The first object is the Prothyron, where four granite columns support two corbels; upon these is an arch advancing beyond the columns, and over the arch a pediment. There is a little antiporch of the same nature, at the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedim. It is perhaps of the time of Adrian I., who restored this church in 772, but the original foundation of the building is attributed to the time of Constantine, and in 417 Celestius was condemned in it by the Pope St. Zosimus. You will observe that a large portion of the earlier popes were saints, though in later times this is seldom the case. From the Prothyron we pass into a court 58 feet long, and 48 wide, surrounded by porticos, which are supported on three sides by small granite columns. As a court, the dimensions are small; yet it seems a separation between the church and the bustle of the world, and is extremely pleasing in architectural effect. I do not mean in this church in particular, but as to the general idea. It appears that the width of the court from wall to wall never much exceeded that of the church with its side aisles, and it is probably much better that such should be the case. A small space makes the principal building look large; besides a small court evidently belongs to the church; a large one becomes an opening in the city. Leaving this court you enter the church, the nave of which is formed as usual of plundered columns of different materials; and in the nave is the circuit in marble of the ancient presbytery, with its two pulpits; and the altar and apsis behind it, just as it was left in the twelfth century, when Cardinal Anastasius, under Pope Honorius the Second, restored the building, and had the apsis ornamented with mosaics. Somewhat of a similar presbytery, and in particular the two ambones, or pulpits, is also observable in San Lorenzo, but this is the most perfect example. It is said by Uggeri to be suited to the Greek ritual. I do not know why, or what differences the ancient Latin ritual would have required. Some authors I find apply the term ambo not to the pulpit, but to the whole of this enclosure for the presbytery; I do not pretend to decide which is right.
You will think these basilican churches will never come to an end, but I must still trespass on your indulgence for a short description of two or three more. In that of San Martino de’ Monti, otherwise St. Martin and St. Sylvester, are twenty-four columns of different marbles, which have been all reduced to one size; but the capitals are not all alike, and some of them are gilt; they are said to have been brought from Adrian’s villa at Tivoli. The part above the order is too high in proportion, as is perhaps the case in all the basilican churches; but on the whole it is a very handsome church, and well worth visiting for its architecture alone. It is not however by this that strangers are principally attracted; the walls are adorned by the fresco landscapes of Gaspar Poussin, with figures by Niccolò. They are much damaged, and the colours have probably changed; perhaps they never were very good, yet they merit an examination. Here is a very handsome modern chapel, with a semidome well ornamented with ribs diverging from the centre.
Another source of interest at this place is a subterraneum, said to have formed part of the baths of Trajan, afterwards to have been used as a church by St. Sylvester, who was made Pope in 314. It is sometimes added, that the baths of Trajan formed an appendage to those of Titus, and that St. Sylvester used this crypt in a time of persecution: two things hard to be believed. But at any rate these high gloomy vaults exhibit some fine picturesque effects. There is no architecture in them, and nothing remarkable in their construction.
In the Church of Santa Pudenziana the old columns are built up into niches in as ugly a manner as you can conceive; but it contains the relics of three thousand martyrs, and it is perhaps to correspond with this number, that we see on its walls, for those who visit it, an indulgence of three thousand years, and the remission of a third part of their sins. “Visitantes hanc ecclesiam, singulis diebus consequantur indulgentiam trium millium annorum et remissionem tertiæ partis peccatorum suorum.” I ask sometimes how long purgatory lasts, and what people do when they are discharged from it; but I cannot get any satisfactory information. The Church of Santa Prassede (a lady) is more famous for the rosso antico employed in its steps, than for its architectural merit. The effect, such as it was, has been spoilt by the arches thrown across the nave.
Santa Maria in Domnica has a front erected by Raphael. The design is graceful, and the lower arcade well proportioned, but the upper part is not so well managed. Internally, some small figures on the frieze by Giulio Romano demand as much attention as the eighteen columns of black and green granite, which Manazzale mentions. In front of this church, stands on a pedestal, a marble model of a boat, but its date is rather uncertain. It was placed by Leo X. in its present position.