DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0082
72
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. III.
to us. It has been justly observed, that while
the symmetry, the proportion, the very con-
stituent forms of the Greek and Roman orders
were abandoned and apparently forgotten, the
solidity, the magnitude, and what is more re-
markable, the greatness of manner so much ad-
mired in the interior of ancient buildings, were
retained and still appear in many churches
erected in the darkest intervals of the middle
ages. From such fabrics we may therefore
infer, that magnificence and grandeur long sur-
vived the fall of taste, and that some features
of the Roman character still continued to manifest
themselves in the works of their descendants, in
spite of the prevalency of foreign ignorance and
of transalpine barbarism.
This observation relative to internal magni-
licence leads to another which must have struck
every traveller; that in many churches the out-
ward form and embellishments are far inferior
to the inward appearances. Whether the an-
cients themselves did not always pay equal atten-
tion to the outside; or whether like the modern
Italians, they sometimes deferred the execution
of the whole plan for want of money or mate-
rials ; or whether the hand of time or the more
destructive hand of war has torn away the mar-
ble that covered these edifices; but it must be
5
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. III.
to us. It has been justly observed, that while
the symmetry, the proportion, the very con-
stituent forms of the Greek and Roman orders
were abandoned and apparently forgotten, the
solidity, the magnitude, and what is more re-
markable, the greatness of manner so much ad-
mired in the interior of ancient buildings, were
retained and still appear in many churches
erected in the darkest intervals of the middle
ages. From such fabrics we may therefore
infer, that magnificence and grandeur long sur-
vived the fall of taste, and that some features
of the Roman character still continued to manifest
themselves in the works of their descendants, in
spite of the prevalency of foreign ignorance and
of transalpine barbarism.
This observation relative to internal magni-
licence leads to another which must have struck
every traveller; that in many churches the out-
ward form and embellishments are far inferior
to the inward appearances. Whether the an-
cients themselves did not always pay equal atten-
tion to the outside; or whether like the modern
Italians, they sometimes deferred the execution
of the whole plan for want of money or mate-
rials ; or whether the hand of time or the more
destructive hand of war has torn away the mar-
ble that covered these edifices; but it must be
5