DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0051
Ch. IL
THROUGH ITALY.
41
or other of this edifice, and Bramante, Raffaello,
Fontana, Maderno, and Bernini, successively
displayed their talents in its augmentation or im-
provement. Its extent is immense, and covers a
space of twelve hundred feet in length and a
thousand in breadth. Its elevation is propor-
tionate, and the number of apartments it contains
almost incredible. Galleries and porticos sweep
around and through it in ail directions, and open
an easy access to every quarter. Its halls and
saloons are all on a 2’i'eat scale, and bv their
multitude and loftiness alone give an idea of
magnificence truly Roman. The walls are neither
wainscotted nor hung with tapestry : they are
adorned or rather animated by the genius of
Raffaello and Michael Angelo. The furniture
is plain and ought to be so : finery would be
misplaced in the Vatican, and would sink into
insignificance in the midst of the great, the vast,
the sublime, which are the predominating fea-
tures or rather the very genii of the place.
The grand entrance is from the portico of St.
Peter’s by the Scala Regia the most superb stair-
case perhaps in the world, consisting of four
flights of marble steps adorned with a double
row of marble Ionic pillars. This staircase springs
from the equestrian statue of Constantine which
terminates the portico on one side; and whether
seen thence, or viewed from the gallery leading
THROUGH ITALY.
41
or other of this edifice, and Bramante, Raffaello,
Fontana, Maderno, and Bernini, successively
displayed their talents in its augmentation or im-
provement. Its extent is immense, and covers a
space of twelve hundred feet in length and a
thousand in breadth. Its elevation is propor-
tionate, and the number of apartments it contains
almost incredible. Galleries and porticos sweep
around and through it in ail directions, and open
an easy access to every quarter. Its halls and
saloons are all on a 2’i'eat scale, and bv their
multitude and loftiness alone give an idea of
magnificence truly Roman. The walls are neither
wainscotted nor hung with tapestry : they are
adorned or rather animated by the genius of
Raffaello and Michael Angelo. The furniture
is plain and ought to be so : finery would be
misplaced in the Vatican, and would sink into
insignificance in the midst of the great, the vast,
the sublime, which are the predominating fea-
tures or rather the very genii of the place.
The grand entrance is from the portico of St.
Peter’s by the Scala Regia the most superb stair-
case perhaps in the world, consisting of four
flights of marble steps adorned with a double
row of marble Ionic pillars. This staircase springs
from the equestrian statue of Constantine which
terminates the portico on one side; and whether
seen thence, or viewed from the gallery leading