Amalfi was an old Saracen town and its fine cathedral was formerly a mosque. It is built on the side of the mountain and in a little hollow by the sea. Some of its streets are mere flights of steps, where only goats and humans can travel. We returned home in time for a late dinner, greatly delighted by the day’s excursion.
Many famous authors, among them F. Marion Crawford, have villas in Sorrento, and it seems an ideal place to write — or to do anything, or nothing, for that matter. We shall be sorry when our quiet days here are over and Rome forces us to get busy again.
LETTER XIV. ROME
Rome
It is five hours from Naples to Rome, over a not very interesting route. We got here at 3 p m. and after settling at the hotel went for a long walk to get a small idea of the village of Romulus and Remus. We got a small one. Visited one of the great parks and saw a bit of the old Roman wall and the royal palace. We have engaged a reliable guide to “sic” us at the sights tomorrow morning.
The population of the town is now a half million — it was a million and a half in the fourth century — and of these ten thousand are priests and ten thousand soldiers. There are 365 churches, probably erected to accommodate the priestly population and to make tourists nervous.
Having doubtless heard that Rome was not built in a day you may imagine it takes several days to inspect the relics of its past greatness. I shall take it for granted you’ve never read about Rome, because I want to tell you what I’ve seen.
The Pantheon is the best preserved of the ancient Roman buildings, and its massive bronze doors still remain. The walls are twenty feet thick and the great dome is one-hundred and forty feet in diameter. It has a thirty-foot opening in the top, admitting light and rain impartially. The walls are circular, being made to support the dome, and in front of it is a portico with massive pillars, built by the Emperor Hadrian. The dome of St. Peter’s was copied from that of the Pantheon by Michelangelo. Inside, just beneath the dome, are seven large niches in which formerly stood the statues of the gods. The place is now used for a church. In its walls are the tombs of Humbert, Victor Emmanuel II, and Raphael. All the bronze, marble and porphyry of the Pantheon was taken away to assist in building other churches.
In Rome are sixteen obelisks brought from Egypt by Augustus Cœsar. Near the Pantheon is a small one perched upon the back of a bronze elephant. The largest obelisk stands in front of St. Peter’s, and there is only one that is larger remaining in Egypt. This of St. Peter’s came from Karnak, and it must have been a great task to lug it here.
The Coliseum impressed me more than anything I have seen out of Egypt. It was four tiers in height, but only one side still has the four stories. The first three tiers consist of arches supported by pillars of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Roman design, the Doric occupying the lower floor. The highest wall has windows. An immense awning used to cover the entire enclosure. The emperors sat on a raised platform in the lower circle, opposite them being placed the Vestal Virgins on a similar elevation. Between and around them were the seats for the senators and the nobility. The second circle was occupied by the middle class men, the third by the women, and the top was devoted to the common people. There are two entrances to the arena, one called the gate of life and the other the gate of death. The gladiator entered at the life gate, paused before the emperor and said: “Cœsar, being about to die, I salute you.” They carried his body out at the other gate. The Coliseum seated eighty-thousand people. Beneath the arena are rooms wherein were kept the wild beasts and theatrical apparatus. This enormous building was constructed in three and a half years, fifty-thousand Jewish slaves accomplishing the task. It was completed in the year 80.
Near the Coliseum is the triumphal Arch of Constantine, which has three archways and is faced with marble beautifully carved. Near, also, are the Baths of Titus and the Golden House of Nero. The frescoes of the latter were liberally copied by Raphael, and it is an interesting place. Nero’s dining-room still has marble mosaics on a portion of the floor, and part of the walls are yet faced with marble. This room had an immense fountain in it, and back of that a stage where dancing girls amused him as he ate. In the kitchen may be seen the great oven, and in the bedroom of Mrs. Nero is the pedestal on which was found the statue of Apollo Belvidere. Traces of the elaborate frescoes still remain. The baths of Titus were built on top of this house, so the two are now badly mixed.
The much ruined Temple of Venus is in this neighborhood, and so is the triumphal Arch of Titus Vespatian, built to commemorate his defeat of the Jews in A.D. 70. The reliefs on the arch depict his battles. From the Arch of Titus we could see the Forum and part of the pavement of the Sacred Way, which is made of lava blocks. The principal feature of the Forum of Trajan is Trajan’s great Column, erected in 114. Around it and extending from bottom to top is a spiral band of bas-reliefs illustrating scenes in the Dacian war. Two-thousand five-hundred people are represented, besides horses and other animals, gun-machines and military equipment. The figures of the men are two and a half feet high. Once a statue of Trajan stood on top of this column, but now a saint occupies his place. We afterward saw a similar column, that of Marcus Aurelius, bearing reliefs depicting the German wars of that emperor. But Marcus Aurelius has had to descend from his perch on its summit to make way for St. Paul, who now monopolizes the view. There are inside stairways to the top of both these lofty columns.
At the church of St. Peter in Chains we viewed the identical chains St. Peter wore while in prison, but more important than those was Michael Angelo’s “last work,” the superb statue of Moses, which stands within the nave. It is related of the sculptor that when he had finished this figure he found it so life-like that he slapped its knee with his hand and cried: “Now speak!” Indeed, every vein and muscle is clearly indicated by the chisel and the pose is perfect.
The old Roman ruins were despoiled to furnish columns for nearly all the more modern churches. The church of St. Mary Maggiore has forty Ionic columns, thirty-six of marble and four of granite. They are ranged twenty on each side. The ceiling and floor have fine mosaics of the fifth century. The high altar consists of a basin of porphyry, and the canopy is upheld by four porphyry pillars.
The ceiling is gilded with the first gold brought to Rome from South America. It is built in the form of a Latin cross and in the wings are two exquisite chapels. In one is a beautiful and ancient baptismal font and ten pillars — all of porphyry — with many finely executed marbles of saints and popes. The other chapel is beautiful in colored marbles, with quantities of lapis lazuli and rare agates.
St. Mary the Greater owes its existence to a miracle. While the country was suffering from lack of rain the pope prayed to St. Mary for relief and in a vision she told him he would find snow in a certain place next morning. He found it, all right, and built this church on the spot. I don’t know what finding snow had to do with a lack of rain; but, anyhow, we saw the church. Each year, at the date of the miracle, mass is celebrated here, accompanied by an imitation snowfall of cotton.
The churches of Italy have no seats, so there is nothing to detract from the beauty of the interiors.
The cathedral of St. Peter’s, considered the largest and most beautiful in the world, dates in its present form from the fifteenth century. Its bronze doors belonged to the original edifice which stood in the same spot and was erected in the time of Constantine. It faces a square in which is the huge obelisk, with fountains on either side, and elliptical pillared porticoes stretch out great arms from either wing. The church itself I shall not attempt to describe, but I must mention that the huge size of everything about it, even to the statues inside, is so admirably proportioned that one cannot fully appreciate the immensity of the structure until you compare it with the size of a human being standing beside a column. The interior mosaics are so beautiful that you can scarcely believe they are not paintings; eighty-thousand shades of color are employed. The wealth of statuary includes masterpieces of Michelangelo, Bernini and Canova. H
ere is also the “first work” of Michelangelo, executed when he was but eighteen years old. It represents the Madonna holding the dead Christ on her lap. The thirteenth century bronze statue of “St. Peter” has a toe worn smooth by the kisses of the people. Once a year they dress this statue in magnificent raiment, and the faithful come to adore it. St. Peter, by the way, reposes beneath the great dome. One curious thing about the church is that it maintains confessionals attended by priests who speak every language known on earth, so that here every human being may confess in his own language and receive an absolution he can understand. Here are the tombs of all the popes. In the floor near the entrance is set a round slab of porphyry on which many emperors have stood to be crowned. At the ends of the pillared porticoes are fine statues of Constantine and Charlemagne, the two pagan emperors converted to Christianity.
We went into a room and saw all the gorgeous vestments of the Cardinals, many in cloth of gold or silver elaborately embroidered and with precious stones sewn on them. We also saw many of the late Pope’s jubilee presents — much gold and silver and precious stones. In a crypt underneath the cathedral we were shown a casket containing St. Peter’s clothing, now only valuable through association. In this crypt is some of the original floor with its old mosaics. St. Peter’s wooden chair is on the bronze altar, and ninety-five lamps are kept constantly burning around it.
The Capitoline Hill is the highest of the seven hills of Rome. It was here that Romulus established the altar of refuge for outlaws, who if they managed to reach the altar, were forgiven their crimes. The ancient buildings have all disappeared, and facing the square are now the two museums and the palace, designed by Michelangelo. Before the palace is a fountain flanked with the river gods of the Tiber and the Nile, while in the center is the statue of Roma. The prominent figure in the piazza is the huge bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the same to which Otto the Great hung the murdered form of Peter the Perfect by the hair of his head. It was preserved from destruction by the early Christians because they supposed it to be a statue of Constantine. The museums contain a rich collection of fragments of sculpture taken from old Roman ruins, and also some remarkable bits of statuary. Here is the Dying Gladiator, the Dancing Faun, two fine black marble Centaurs, and a room containing the busts of the emperors of Rome — the most complete collection in existence. Another room contains busts of celebrated characters of antiquity. Also I must mention that here is the Capitoline Venus, which was found on the Quirinal — undoubtedly a Greek work, from its fineness of execution — and the group called Cupid and Psyche. An interesting relic is the marble plan of ancient Rome, which has been of great value to scholars. The bronze Capitoline Wolf dates from the sixth century, the figures of Romulus and Remus suckling it being added at a later date and rather detracting from its beauty. Another marble of note is the much copied Thorn Extractor — the boy picking a thorn out of his foot.
In paintings the Capitoline Museum contains several masterpieces by Van Dyck and Titian, the “St. Sabastian” by Guido Reni, Rubens’ “Romulus and Remus,” and “St. John the Baptist,” a beautiful creation. But the majority of the pictures here are uninteresting.
I am not attempting to put our wanderings into proper order, and you must not imagine many of these things can be properly seen in one day; but they’ve all been seen at one time or another during our stay at Rome. Our guide, who is something of a scholar himself, makes it a point to disagree with everyone who has written about ancient Rome, and he scorns the guide books utterly; still we find him useful as a “guide post.”
The Tiber of today is just as yellow and muddy as history declaims it. On its further bank, where Cincinnatus once ploughed his fields, stands the Tomb of Hadrian, an immense round structure eighty yards in diameter. Once it was covered with marble, with rows of statuary on the top, and here were buried the emperors and their families from Hadrian to Caracalla. To get back to town we cross the Bridge of the Angels, built by Hadrian in 139 A.D. Later Bernini, whose taste as a sculptor is considered doubtful, erected upon it the ten colossal angels which gave it its name, in 1688.
As we drive down the Corso, past Hilda’s Tower, and come again to St. Peter’s, I remember a couple of things about the cathedral that I neglected to mention. The original St. Peter’s was founded by Constantine on the site of Nero’s Circus, where three-thousand Christians perished in three days. The bronze statue of St. Peter — that with the much kissed toe — was (and is) a statue of Jupiter, having Jupiter’s head and his keys. For Jupiter, being the chief god of the pagan pantheon, held the keys to Olympus, and the keys being a part of the figure, they named it “St. Peter of the Keys” and added a halo, which has made old Jove quite complacent ever since.
And now we come to the Vatican, the largest palace in the world and the home of countless treasures of art and antiquity. Among its famous marbles are “Venus at the Bath,”
“Apollo Belvidere,” and the “Mercury” of Praxiteles, the father of Greek sculpture. In the “animal room” are some magnificent dogs executed by Praxiteles. Indeed, the Vatican museum is one vast treasure-house, and to describe its beautiful contents is to me an impossibility and would require a lot of stationery. San Raphael’s wonderful tapestries, depicting the history of the New Testament, impressed me greatly. The colorings and shadings are simply marvelous.
In the Sistine chapel we admired Michelangelo’s great paintings, which occupied him for seven years. He allowed no one to assist him, as he wished to preserve his secret for mixing colors. The ceiling is a series of pictures representing The Creation. You examine these by holding a mirror in your hand and looking down at the reflection in it of the paintings above it. It is said the artist copied his idea of the Creation from the mosaics at Monreale, which were done in the eleventh century, while Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in the fifteenth century. On the wall behind the altar is the famous “Last Judgment,” sixty-four by thirty-two feet in size. It is a queer mingling of Christian and Pagan ideas. Christ is the central figure, surrounded by His apostles and the saints. On one side are the saints being pulled back by devils and supported by angels. On the other side are the sinners trying to ascend to Christ. Lower down are shown those in purgatory on the one side, and in hell on the other. There is a legend that the Pope’s master of ceremonies, one Biagio of Cesena, censured this picture, which so incensed the artist that he made a portrait of the master of ceremonies among those who were in hell. Biagio appealed to the Pope to have the portrait blotted out, but the prelate replied that if Michelangelo had put the man in purgatory there might be some help for him, but as he had put him in hell even the Pope could not release him. So the portrait remains to this day. Paul IV later disapproved of the nudeness of many of the figures in this masterpiece, and had clothes painted on some of the figures! Poor Michelangelo. Of all the artists the world has ever known, he was the giant and the one great master. His versatility and his accomplishments were marvelous. To think that the same hand painted the marvelous “Creation” on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and executed the exquisite “Pieta” (the Mary with the dead Christ) and the noble figure of Moses! By the way, the “Pieta” is the only piece of marble that the artist ever signed, and this was done merely because the authenticity of the work was questioned in his own lifetime. He carved his name on the girdle of the Virgin. Pictures were signed in the old days by the artist putting his own portrait on one of the figures. In “The Last Judgment” Michelangelo has put his face on one of those in purgatory.
Raphael’s Stanze is a series of rooms frescoed by that great artist, and contains some of his best work, executed in his youth. The “Liberation of St. Peter” from prison is a masterpiece, and is painted in three sections. But the “Transfiguration” is Raphael’s greatest work, and a most marvelous creation. It was also his last work, for the master of all painters died at thirty-six and left his “Transfiguration” unfinished. Others completed the lower portion, but it is mostly Raphael’s.
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br /> Michelangelo and Raphael were rivals. While one was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel the other was at work in the Stanze. The work of Michelangelo was grand and magnificent; that of Raphael beautiful and appealing. Merely as a painter, Raphael excelled; as an all-around artist — architect, sculptor and painter — Michelangelo had no peer.
In the Sistine chapel are also some good paintings by Botticeli. Other admirable pictures we saw were “The Communion of St. Jerome,” by Domeninchino, and “The Madonna of the Rosary,” by Sassoferati — the latter excelling in sweetness of conception. The angels surrounding the central group have beautiful childish faces. There is, indeed, a bewildering array of superb pictures in the Vatican, yet for some reason the statuary appeals to me more than the paintings. I can appreciate both, but the statuary seems to me nearer to life.
In the spot where St. Paul was supposed to have been beheaded stands the church of “St. Paul without the Walls.” It was founded in 388 but destroyed by fire with the exception of the choir and the campanile. The present church, built in 1823, is modeled after the lines of the old one. The side walls contain the pictures of all the Popes of Rome, from St. Peter to Leo. The collection of marbles and rare stones used in the pillars and decorations is considered the richest in existence. The 5th century mosaics preserved from the old church are very beautiful. The church stands ten feet from the bank of the Tiber, which it faces. Over the portico are immense modern mosaics.
To reach this church we passed through the old Ostian Gate in the ancient Roman Wall, beside which stands the quaint pyramid of Caius Cestius, built in the twelfth century B.C., and copied from the Egyptian pyramids. Our ride this day took us to the spot upon the Tiber where was once the bridge on which Horatius stood. It was a wooden bridge, and has long since disappeared. Also we saw the house Rienzi was supposed to have lived in, and nearby the little round Temple of Hercules, and the Temple of Fortuna — which in the year 880 was converted into a church.
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 902