DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0210
168
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
means of capstans and blocks, upon a platform resting
on wooden rollers, and was thus removed to its present
site. Six hundred men and a hundred and forty horses
were employed in the transportation, the expense of
which amounted to about nine thousand pounds. As a
reward for his successful labours, the pontiff bestowed
upon the architect the materials used in the removal of the
obelisk, which were valued at twenty thousand crowns.
A singular anecdote with regard to the erection of
the obelisk is related by some Italian writers. The
pope, whose anxiety for the successful elevation of the
pillar appears almost to have equalled that of Phero, is
said to have issued a command that, during the progress
of raising the monument, no person should venture to
speak under the penalty of death. A member of the
Bresca family (of the ancient republic of S. Remo), who
was intently watching the progress of the operation, ob-
serving that the ropes were on the point either of break-
ing or of taking fire from the extreme friction, forgetting
or disregarding the pontiff’s order, called aloud for water.
Sixtus, who saw the danger to which the machinery had
been exposed, instead of threatening him with the in-
fliction of the punishment, desired him to name his re-
ward. He did so, and selected the office of supplying
the papal chapel with palms on Palm Sunday; a privi-
lege still claimed by the Bresca family. In the Vatican
a painting may be seen representing the removal of the
obelisk, and the seizure of this person by the papal
guards.
Madame de Stael, who is never more eloquent than in
her descriptions of the works of art which Rome exhibits,
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
means of capstans and blocks, upon a platform resting
on wooden rollers, and was thus removed to its present
site. Six hundred men and a hundred and forty horses
were employed in the transportation, the expense of
which amounted to about nine thousand pounds. As a
reward for his successful labours, the pontiff bestowed
upon the architect the materials used in the removal of the
obelisk, which were valued at twenty thousand crowns.
A singular anecdote with regard to the erection of
the obelisk is related by some Italian writers. The
pope, whose anxiety for the successful elevation of the
pillar appears almost to have equalled that of Phero, is
said to have issued a command that, during the progress
of raising the monument, no person should venture to
speak under the penalty of death. A member of the
Bresca family (of the ancient republic of S. Remo), who
was intently watching the progress of the operation, ob-
serving that the ropes were on the point either of break-
ing or of taking fire from the extreme friction, forgetting
or disregarding the pontiff’s order, called aloud for water.
Sixtus, who saw the danger to which the machinery had
been exposed, instead of threatening him with the in-
fliction of the punishment, desired him to name his re-
ward. He did so, and selected the office of supplying
the papal chapel with palms on Palm Sunday; a privi-
lege still claimed by the Bresca family. In the Vatican
a painting may be seen representing the removal of the
obelisk, and the seizure of this person by the papal
guards.
Madame de Stael, who is never more eloquent than in
her descriptions of the works of art which Rome exhibits,