The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
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The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
The effect of the Pantheon is totally the reverse of that of St.
Peter’s. Though not a fourth part of the size, it is, as it were, the
visible image of the universe; in the perfection of its proportions, as
when you regard the unmeasured dome of heaven, the idea of magnitude
is swallowed up and lost. It is open to the sky, and its wide dome
is lighted by the ever-changing illumination of the air. The clouds
of noon fly over it, and at night the keen stars are seen through
the azure darkness, hanging immoveably, or driving after the driving
moon among the clouds. We visited it by moonlight; it is supported by
sixteen columns, fluted and Corinthian, of a certain rare and beautiful
yellow marble, exquisitely polished, called here _giallo antico_.
Above these are the niches for the statues of the twelve gods. This
is the only defect of this sublime temple; there ought to have been
no interval between the commencement of the dome and the cornice,
supported by the columns. Thus there would have been no diversion from
the magnificent simplicity of its form. This improvement is alone
wanting to have completed the unity of the idea.
The fountains of Rome are, in themselves, magnificent combinations of
art, such as alone it were worth coming to see. That in the Piazza
Navona, a large square, is composed of enormous fragments of rock,
piled on each other, and penetrated, as by caverns. This mass supports
an Egyptian obelisk of immense height. On the four corners of the rock
recline, in different attitudes, colossal figures representing the four
divisions of the globe. The water bursts from the crevices beneath
them. They are sculptured with great spirit; one impatiently tearing
a veil from his eyes; another with his hands stretched upwards. The
Fontana di Trevi is the most celebrated, and is rather a waterfall
than a fountain; gushing out from masses of rock, with a gigantic
figure of Neptune; and below are two river gods, checking two winged
horses, struggling up from among the rocks and waters. The whole is
not ill-conceived nor executed; but you know not how delicate the
imagination becomes by dieting with antiquity day after day. The only
things that sustain the comparison are Raphael, Guido, and Salvator
Rosa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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