LETTER XIV.

Modern Churches.

A

FTER having seen St. Peter's, it is natural to suppose that no other

Church can engage curiosity, or arrest attention: Yet among the two or three hundred that have given to Rome the surname of La Santa, numbers astonishingly rich and beautiful.

are

Some of these that are comparatively small, present Fronts adorned with Columns and Pilasters, one or two Stories high, in every imaginable combination of architectural symmetry. Others are gracefully moulded within into Rounds,

or

or Ovals; or distributed into Aisles and Domes-their walls encrusted with painting and marble, and their Ceilings pannelled with stucco-often richly gilded, and sometimes hung with Festoons of fruit and flowers, in gilt bronze, according to the purest style of Grecian ordonnance. Several of them defy the effect of comparison, even in point of size, as soon as you are within their folding Doors, and perceive that thousands of such Beings as you see traversing the Aisles, or kneeling before the Altars, might range the ample Pavement, without incommoding each other in the least; and some of these contain single Altar pieces, in the name of favourite Saints, far superior in size and richness to any at St. Peter's, where particular

decoration

decoration has been necessarily sacrificed to general uniformity.

Of the principal Churches, whether within or without the walls, I shall take particular notice, after mentioning several others, in which there are single objects that merit description.

At the Trinita da Monte the Chapel of a Convent which owes its foundation to St. Louis, and has shewn its gratitude by Portraits of the long list of French Monarchs painted on the walls of its Cloister now probably terminated for ever by that of Lewis XVI. is a celebrated Fresco of the Descent from the Cross, by Daniel de Volterre.

At

At the Convent of Capuchins, in the Piazza Barberini, is Michael chaining the Dragon, a Painting by Guido, from which was taken the Mosaic at St. Peter's-the countenance of the Arch-angel beaming with celestial mildness, a little of which has been lost in the Copy, however admirable in other respects.

At the Church of the Augustines is the Isaiah of Raphael-said to have been attempted in emulation of the Prophets of Michael Angelo in the Capella Sistina -A vain attempt. The Minion of Grace and Darling of Invention has not been able to give any more holy zeal to his Prophets than virgin purity to his Madonnas-no wonder, since the latter are supposed to be nothing more than Por

traits of the favourite Mistresses of a

dissipated Youth.*

At St. Andrea della Valle are admired the Cupola painted by Lanfranc, and the St. John of Domenichino.

At St. Agnes-a beautiful little Church, with a noble Dome, elegantly contrasted without by two open and spiral Turrets, is a Bas Relief by Algardi representing the Saint-a Roman virgin miraculously covered by her own hair, when dragged into the Lupanaria of the Circus Agonalis, in order to be defiled.

At St. Pietro in Vincoli is the unfinished Tomb of Julius II. celebrated for a Statue of Moses by Michael Angelo. A beautiful

• See Moore's Italy Vol. II. 428.