Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ed with the early effort of MichaelAngelos genius in front of the chapel near the entrance, which is named after the masterswork, la Pieta. It seems to have been sculptured by the chisel of a Greek who hadembraced Christianity. The faithful can stoop to kiss the foot of the bronze statue of thePrince of the Apostles, worn and polished by the lips of generations of believers. Andthose who love the pomps of the Church should come here on the day on which thePapacy still displays all its mediaeval splendour ;—-the holy festival of Easter. Those ofa romantic tem
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ed with the early effort of MichaelAngelos genius in front of the chapel near the entrance, which is named after the masterswork, la Pieta. It seems to have been sculptured by the chisel of a Greek who hadembraced Christianity. The faithful can stoop to kiss the foot of the bronze statue of thePrince of the Apostles, worn and polished by the lips of generations of believers. Andthose who love the pomps of the Church should come here on the day on which thePapacy still displays all its mediaeval splendour ;—-the holy festival of Easter. Those ofa romantic temperament, whose heads are intoxicated by the fumes of the incense, andwhose senses are transported by the splendours around them, may perhaps think ofTannhauser, how he appeared in the sacred edifice in the days of Urban the Eighth :they may recal their own perils from the demoniac power of earthly beauty, and exclaim : Like Tannhauser, my ancestor,Around my brows Id twineA thorny wreath, and wander forthTo Romes immortal UMIVERC! nm PIOUS PILGRIMAGES AND PROFANE PROMENADES. 263 There would I fall upon my knees,And humble prayers would falter,Imploring God to show me graceBefore St. Peters altar. Id kiss the Holy Fathers foot,And pay him homage duly,And ask him if the withered twigCould ever blossom newly. The New Tannhciuser. But the branch of Mother Church itself will grow dry and withered now that thewaters of life no longer refresh it with a pure stream ; and even as the arch of Tituscommemorates the fall of the temple at Jerusalem and the triumph of paganism overJudaism,—even as the arch of Constantine commemorates the fall of the temples ofJupiter, and the triumph of Christianity over paganism, so, to-day, when the free spirit ofthe nineteenth century has prevailed over the old bondage, the Porta Pia* has become thetriumphal arch of the new epoch, and St. Peters is shaken to its foundations. A real sense of careless enjoyment, the full and free pulse of life,
Size: 1328px × 1882px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
