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74 SERPENTINE COURSE OF THE GRAND CANAL.

an imaginative young architect in a dream, open successively upon the eye as the gondola glides onward, along the broad sweep of the serpentine canal.

We must, I suppose, presume that this serpentine course of the Grand Canal, which in its whole extent through the fairy city takes the form of a deeply indented S, was suggested by the accidents of deep and shallow water, and of the difficulties and facilities of obtaining foundations for the magnificent buildings which border it; but had no difficulties whatever existed, and beauty been the only object, no line could have been more successfully chosen. As in the High Street of Oxford, the architectural splendour does not stretch itself before you in a straight line, offering no variety as you advance, save what arises from a nearer view of the successive edifices; but as the graceful curve proceeds, a towering dome, a noble portico, a rich façade comes into sight, and the delighted eye is pampered with a succession of new and varied forms, each one seeking to aid the effect of the others. ... The changing lights, too, which this changing course produces, increase prodigiously the beauty of the spectacle. For at one moment the eye, dazzled by excess of light, sinks before the radiance of the glowing scene, and the next reposes upon deep broad shadows, through which the mellowed reflections rise to the surface of the darkened mirror over which

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you glide, with a beauty and distinctness inconceivable.

But I shall weary you with my raptures upon the general beauty of Venice before I have said a word of any one of its separate wonders.

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I really believe that I am afraid to enter upon a detailed description of any thing.... for not only is there such an embarras de richesse as to make it exceedingly difficult to know where to begin, but take what particular object I may, I know I shall be involved in a sort of labyrinth of astonishment and admiration, which will make it exceedingly difficult to be intelligible. St. Marks, for instance. how is it possible to describe St. Marks? If it were like any other church on Christian ground, I might speak of it, as one does of other churches, and talk of its height, length, and width. But even supposing that I had patience to write, and you to read, as accurate a statement of all this as measurement could give, you would not be at all nearer to any sort of acquaintance with this most barbarous and beautiful old structure. Neither as a whole, nor in detail, has it, to my feelings, the imposing dignity of a fine Gothic cathedral.... but it is rich almost to excess, and curious to a degree that it is quite impossible to conceive without seeing it. The general impression on entering is, that you are got into a splendid mosque. This may not indeed be the case with those who know better what a

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mosque is than I do; .... but the serpentine columns, the chequered-work of gold and precious stones in compartments, the floor of jasper and of porphyry, the golden roof, the five hundred columns of every brilliant marble in the world, most of them of Saracenic form, the black and white among them making more obvious the splendid varieties of the rest, altogether form something so totally unlike a church of any kind that I have seen before, that the idea of Eastern magnificence suggested itself to me as the only prototype I could hit upon. The mosaic-work of this extraordinary edifice, both within and without, is of itself sufficient to render it a marvel. . . . . The richness of the materials employed, and the incredible labour of their arrangement, are almost beyond belief; and you are tempted to fancy that what you look upon can hardly be as elaborately rich as it appears. The shrine con

taining the relics of St. Mark, or rather intended to contain them, is a miracle of splendour; but when we saw it it was locked up in a sort of separate sacristy, and was undergoing a most expensive repair, nearly completed. The famous shrine is known by the name of the Pala d'Oro, and is accounted to be the richest in the world. It is composed of gold, silver, an immense collection of precious stones, and inserted amongst them has a series of little enamel paintings, representing scenes from the Bible. It is said to

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have been ordered at Constantinople by the Republic of Venice, in the tenth century. The relics of the saint also, as well as a multitude of other precious things, came from that same repository of rich and holy treasures; and the variety of rare objects thus acquired, and now deposited in the Basilica of St. Mark, might almost lead one to think that the Republic had raised this enormous pile for the express purpose of receiving all the spoils collected there. Nevertheless, the church of St. Mark has other treasures than those gained from Constantinople. The works of the great Venetian artists are found there in rich abundance. Sansovino is seen in great perfection, and his famous gates, leading to the vestry, may be contemplated with satisfaction for hours. The four bronze evangelists in the choir are also his. Leopardo, Alberghetti, the brothers Massegne, and the brothers Lombardo, have all largely contributed to the beauty and the splendour of this universal museum. . . . But it is in vain to catalogue them. . . . The whole edifice is a treasury of abounding power, abounding wealth, and abounding art; and occupies the eyes and the intellect till they are weary enough to long for the soft black cushions, and the gentle movement of the gondola, to convey them elsewhere.

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LETTER IV.

Palace of the Doge.-Its Exterior familiar to every one. Gloom of the Private Entrance.-The Bridge of Sighs.-The Prison Walls. Paintings of Titian and of Tintoretto.- Hall of the Senate. Hall of the Council of Ten.- Portraits of the Doges. That of Marino Faliero wanting.-Paintings of the Grand Council Chamber. - Antiques. — Library.

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MSS. of Dante.

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Map of the World.-History of Venice.-Her Dungeons.-St. Mark's Place. The Coffee Houses.-Late Hours.

Venice, October, 1841. THE external architecture of the ducal palace is as familiar to our eyes as the form of our own parish church .... for this we have to thank Canaletto.... But where is the art or the artist that may convey an adequate idea of its interior? The intense historic interest of every inch of it, the romance, the poetry, the very terror that its name awakens, are all so many sources of strange and new delight. As I walked though its echoing halls, I felt as if surrounded by a crowd of spectres. It is not by the Giant's Stair that strangers enter the building in order to see the state apartments; that noble approach from the Place of St. Mark is mounted afterwards, as it leads to other parts of the enormous edifice. .... It is not well possible that any thing can be

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