LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

with the classic ages, which we have no means of forming with the subsequent ones.

      "The Italian climate, moreover, robs age of its reverence, and makes it look nearer than it is. Not the Coliseum, nor the tombs of the Appian Way, nor the oldest pillar in the Forum, nor any other Roman ruin, be it as dilapidated as it may, ever give the impression of venerable antiquity which we gather, along with the ivy, from the grey walls of an English abbey or castle. And yet every brick and stone, which we pick up among the former, had fallen, ages before the foundation of the latter was begun."—Hawthorne, Transformation.

      "A Rome, vous marchez sur les pierres qui ont été les dieux de César et de Pompée: vous considérez la ruine de ces grands ouvrages, dont la vieillesse est encore belle, et vous vous promènerez tous les jours parmi les histoires et les fables. … Il n'y à que Rome où la vie soit agréable, où le corps trouve ses plaisirs et l'esprit les siens, où l'on est à la source des belles choses. Rome est cause que vous n'êtes plus barbares, elle vous a appris la civilité et la religion. … Il est certain que je ne monte jamais au Palatin ni au Capitole que je n'y change d'esprit, et qu'il ne me vienne d'autres pensées que les miennes ordinaires. Cet air m'inspire quelque chose de grand et de généreux que je n'avais point auparavant: si je rêve deux heures au bord du Tibre, je suis aussi savant que si j'avais étudié huit jours."—Balzac.

      Before leaving the Forum we must turn from its classical to its mediæval remains, and examine the very interesting group of churches which have sprung up amid its ruins.

      Almost opposite the Mamertine Prisons, surmounted by a handsome dome, is the Church of Sta. Martina, which contains the original model, bequeathed by the sculptor Thorwaldsen, of his Copenhagen statue of Christ in the act of benediction. The opposite transept contains a very inferior statue of Religion by Canova. The figure of Sta. Martina by Guerini reposes beneath the high altar. The subterranean church is well worth visiting. An ante-chapel adorned with statues of four virgin martyrs leads to a chapel erected at the cost and from the designs of Pietro da Cortona, whose tomb stands near its entrance, with a fine bust by Bernini. In the centre of the inner chapel lamps are burning round the magnificent bronze altar which covers the shrine of Sta. Martina, and beneath it, you can discover the martyr's tomb by the light of a torch which a monk lets down through a hole. In the tribune is an ancient throne. A side chapel contains the grave in which the body of the virgin saint, with three other martyrs, her companions, was found in 1634: it is adorned with a fine bas-relief by Algardi.

      "At the foot of the Capitoline hill, on the left hand as we descend from the Ara Cœli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient times a small chapel dedicated to Sta. Martina, a Roman virgin, who was martyred in the persecution under Alexander Severus. The veneration paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people were accustomed to assemble there on the first day of the year. This observance was, however, confined to the people, and not very general till 1634; an era which connects her in rather an interesting manner with the history of art. In this year, as they were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, walled into the foundations, a sarcophagus of terra-cotta, in which was the body of a young female, whose severed head reposed in a separate casket. These remains were very naturally supposed to be those of the saint who had been so long venerated on that spot. The discovery was hailed with the utmost exultation, not by the people only, but by those who led the minds and consciences of the people. The pope himself, Urban VIII., composed hymns in her praise; and Cardinal Francesco Barberini undertook to rebuild her church. Amongst those who shared the general enthusiasm was the painter, Pietro da Cortona, who was at Rome at the time, who very earnestly dedicated himself and his powers to the glorification of Sta. Martina. Her church had already been given to the Academy of Painters, and consecrated to St. Luke, their patron saint. It is now 'San Luca and Santa Martina.' Pietro da Cortona erected at his own cost, the chapel of Sta. Martina, and when he died, endowed it with his whole fortune. He painted for the altarpiece his best picture, in which the saint is represented as triumphing over the idols, while the temple in which she has been led to sacrifice, is struck by lightning from heaven, and falls in ruins around her. In a votive picture of Sta. Martina kneeling at the feet of the Virgin and Child, she is represented as very young and lovely; near her, a horrid instrument of torture, a two-pronged fork with barbed extremities, and the lictor's axe, signifying the manner of her death."—Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.

      The feast of the saint is observed here on Jan. 30, with much solemnity. Then in all the Roman churches is sung the Hymn of Sta. Martina—

      "Martinæ celebri plaudite nomini,

       Cives Romulei, plaudite gloriæ;

       Insignem mentis dicite virginem,

       Christi dicite martyrem.

      Hæc dum conspicuis orta parentibus

       Inter delicias, inter amabiles

       Luxus illecebras, ditibus affluit

       Faustæ muneribus domus.

      Vitæ despiciens commoda, dedicat

       Se rerum Domino, et munifica manu

       Christi pauperibus distribuens opes

       Quærit præmia cœlitum.

      A nobis abigas lubrica gaudia

       Tu, qui martyribus dexter ades,

       Deus

       Une et trine: tuis da famulis jubar,

       Quo clemens animos beas. Amen."

      There is nothing especial to notice in S. Adriano, which is built in the ruins of the basilica of Emilius Paulus, or in S. Lorenzo in Miranda, which occupies the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, but Sta. Maria Liberatrice, built on the site of the house of Numa and the convent of the Vestals, commemorates by its name a curious legend of the fourth century. On this site, it is said, dwelt in a cave, a terrible dragon who had slain three hundred persons with the poison of his breath. Into this cave, instructed thereto by St. Peter, and entrusting himself to the care of the Virgin, descended St. Silvester the Pope, attended by two acolytes bearing torches, and here, having pronounced the name of Christ, he was miraculously enabled to bind the dragon, and to shut him up till the day of Judgment. But when he ascended in safety, he found at the mouth of the cave two magicians who had followed him in the hope of discovering some imposture, dying from the poison of the dragon's breath—and these also he saved alive.

      We now reach the circular building which has been so long known as the temple of Remus. To the right of the entrance are two pillars of cipolino, almost buried in the soil. The porphyry pillars at the entrance, supporting a richly sculptured cornice, were probably set up in their present position when the temple was turned into a church. The bronze doors were brought from Perugia. If, as is now supposed, the temple on this site was that of the Penates, the protectors against all kinds of illness and misfortune, the modern dedication to the protecting physicians Cosmo and Damian may have had some reference to that which went before.

      The Church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano was founded within the ancient temple by Pope Felix IV. in 527, and restored by Adrian I. in 780. In 1633 the whole building was modernized by Urban VIII., who, in order to raise it to the present level of the soil, cut the ancient church in half by the vaulting which now divides the upper and lower churches. To visit the lower church a monk must be summoned, who will bring a torch. This is well worth while. It is of great size, and contains a curious well into which Christian martyrs in the time of Nero are said to have been precipitated. The tomb of the martyrs Cosmo and Damian is beneath the altar, which is formed of beautiful transparent marble. Under a side altar is the grave of Felix IV. The third and lowest church (the original crypt) which is very small, is said to have been a place of refuge during the early Christian persecutions. Here is shown the altar at which Felix IV. celebrated mass while his converts were hiding here—the grave in which the body of the pope was afterwards discovered—and a miraculous spring, still flowing, which is said to have burst forth in answer to his prayers that he might have wherewithal to baptize his disciples. A passage which formerly led from hence to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian, was walled up, twenty years ago, by the paternal government, because twenty persons were lost in it. In this crypt were found the famous

Скачать книгу