It is the very
process of nature, and no doubt produces an effect that we know not of.
Classic architecture is nothing but an outline, and affords no little
points, no interstices where human feelings may cling and overgrow it
like ivy. The charm, as I said, seems to be moral rather than
intellectual; for in the gem-room of the Uffizi you may see fifty
designs, elaborated on a small scale, that have just as much merit as the
design of the Campanile. If it were only five inches long, it might be a
case for some article of toilet; being two hundred feet high, its
prettiness develops into grandeur as well as beauty, and it becomes
really one of the wonders of the world. The design of the Pantheon, on
the contrary, would retain its sublimity on whatever scale it might be
represented.
Returning homewards, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio, and went to the Museum
of Natural History, where we gained admittance into the rooms dedicated
to Galileo. They consist of a vestibule, a saloon, and a semicircular
tribune, covered with a frescoed dome, beneath which stands a colossal
statue of Galileo, long-bearded, and clad in a student's gown, or some
voluminous garb of that kind.
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