Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First CollectedJameson, Mrs. (Anna)
History
Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected
Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
Germany -- Description and travel
I should add, before I throw down my weary pen, that every part of the
new palace, from the _ensemble_ down to the minutest details of the
ornaments (the paintings excepted) has been designed by De Klenze, who
executed seven hundred drawings with his own hand for this palace alone,
without reckoning his designs for the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek.
This has been a busy and exciting day. Then in the evening a
_soirée_--music--
* * * * *
O quite tired in spirits, in voice, in mind, in heart, in frame!
_Oct. 14th._--Accompanied by my kind friend, Madame de K----, and
conducted by Roekel, the painter, I visited the unfinished chapel
adjoining the new palace. It is painted (or rather _painting_) in
fresco, on a gold ground, with extraordinary richness and beauty,
uniting the old Greek, or rather Byzantine manner, with the old Italian
style of decoration. It reminded me, in the general effect, of the
interior of St. Mark's at Venice,--but, of course, the details are
executed in a grander feeling, and in a much higher style of art. The
pillars are of the native marble, and the walls will be covered with
a kind of Mosaic of various marbles, intermixed with ornaments in
relief, in gilding, in colours--all combined, and harmonizing together.
The ceiling is formed of two large domes or cupolas. In the first is
represented the Old Testament: in the very centre, the Creator; in a
circle round him, the six days' creation. Around this again, in a larger
circle, the building of the ark; the Deluge; the sacrifice of Noah; and
the first covenant. In the four corners, the colossal figures of the
patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are designed in a
very grand and severe style. The second cupola is dedicated to the
New Testament. In the centre, the Redeemer: around him four groups of
cherubs, three in each group. We were on the scaffold erected for the
painters--near enough to remark the extreme beauty and various expression
in these heads, which must, I am afraid, be lost when viewed from below.
Around, in a circle, the twelve apostles; and in the four corners, the
four evangelists, corresponding with the four patriarchs in the other
dome. In the arch between the two domes, as connecting the Old and New
Testaments, we have the Nativity and other scenes from the life of the
Virgin. In the arch at the farthest end will be placed the Crucifixion,
as the consummation of all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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