Arts and Antiquities.
The productions of the arts, and the specimens of classic antiquities, which abound in Italy, have furnished ample materials for volumes to describe ;t and we can here only present a few general hasty notices on the subject, to ex cite rather than to gratify the curiosity of the reader.
Italy stands pre-eminent above every country in the world, both as to the composition and the execution of music; but this delightful art, in the hands of the modern Italians, has lost both its strength and dignity, and become almost exclusively devoted to the purpose of licentious ness, or, at best, of effeminacy. The people of this coun try evince an ardent and universal sensibility to the power of music ; and the Neapolitans particularly are accounted the most refined and collect judges of the art.
In painting and sculpture, Italy furnishes the most abun dant opportunities of improvement to the artist. or of gra tification to the amateur. " The enormous collection of statues, inscriptions, busts, and has-reliefs, amassed toge ther in this palace, by the care of the late popes," says Bar thelemy, referring to the Homan capitol alone, "exhausts admiration. We live in an iron .counti y as antiquaries ; it is in Italy alone that we must make researches. Figure to yourself vast apartments, I will not say ornamented, but filled,—filled even to thronging, with statues and ad sorts of remains; a cabinet full of busts of philosophers ; ano ther of busts of emperors ; gallery after gallery, corridors, stair-cases, in which nothing is to be seen but grand sta tues, grand inscriptions, grand bas-reliefs, consular calen dars, an ancient plan of Rome in mosaic, colossal Egyp tian statues in basalthus, or black marble. But why men tion particulars ? We find here ancient Egypt, ancient Athens, ancient Rome." Notwithstanding all that the French carried away, (and which, though now restored, yet, as sufficiently known, need not be specified,) Italy is full of such objects of art. The fresco paintings, especially of Pisa, Florence, and Rome, still remain uninjured, and also the master pieces of Bologna. Basides immense numbers of statues, relievos, and oil paintings in the churches and palaces, there are museums and galleries al most in every town. Of these, the most celebrated are the gallery in the Vatican ; in the villa of Aldobrandini ; in the villa of Burghese at Rome ; and those of Florence and Milan. Portrait painting alone is a branch of the art which is rather in low estimation in Italy. The inhabitants in general regard such performances as engaging the ad miration only of the person represented, or of the painter himself ; and those who are able to pay the best artists, ge nerally employ them on subjects more universally interest ing. Among the works of the sculptor most worthy of at tention, may be mentioned the statues of Alodesty and of the Saviour, in the sepulchre of the family of San Severn at Naples—of Adonis and Venus, in the garden of Palazzo Berrio—of Hercules, by Glycon, in the university—of the celebrated Farnesian bull, in the royal garden—the basso relievos in the square of Puteoli or Puzzuolo—the fine sculptures of Puget at Genoa—the colossal statue of St. Charles Boromeo, on a hill near Arona, which is about 70 feet high, on a pedestal of 40 feet—and a bronze statue, about 17 feet in height, in the market place of Barletta, supposed to have been designed to represent the Emperor Heracliu s.
The modern buildings of Italy are extremely numerous, and generally beautiful. The grand colonnade of the Va tican is one of the most extensive and beautiful specimens of the pillared portico in the world ; and the galleries of Vicenza and Bologna, of the arcade style. The cathedrals of Florence and Milan excel in magnitude ; and those of St. Georgio at Venice, and Sta. Giustina at Padua, are dis tinguished for ints.irnal beauty. The churches, and parti cularly the cathedrals, present striking instances of archi tectural elegance, and each of them contains a chapel of the holy sftrament, which is almost universally of exqui site workmanship and splendid decorations. One-half of the Italian churches are imperfectly finished on the out, side, in consequence of their founders wanting funds to com plete their plans, and the buildings having thus been car ried on at different periods. The palaces also are fre
quently, in their exterior, deficient in strict architectural beauty, but well furnished with marbles, statues, and paint ings. It has, however, been said of Italy, with truth, that no country possesses so many specimens both of good and of bad architecture. Among the most noted of the modern structures may be mentioner:—at Rome, the churches of St. Peter, St. Clement, St. Martin, St. Sylvester, St. Law rence, St. John Lateran, St. Paul ; the palaces of the pon tiff in the Quirinal Lateran and Vatican ; of the families Barberini, Odescalchi, Farnesi, Braschi, Borghese. Ruapoli, Orsini, Giustiniani, Altieri, Ciciaporci, Corsini, Costaguti, Doria in Corso, and Spada Colonna the pi azzas of Ravenna, Colonna, Monte Citorio ; the villas Al bani and Borghese. At Naples (where the churches are deficient in architectural taste, hut superior in the riches which they contain) the cathedral of St. Paul, and of Spi rit° Santo ; the sepulchral chapel of the family of San Se vei) ; the theatre of Sm Carlo, the most spacious and mag nificent in the world; and innumerable palaces, which, like the churches, are encumbered with ornaments. At Genoa, the palaces of Durazzo and Doria, the Hospital and Al bergo Dci Poveri, and the mules of the harbour. At Ve nice, the churches of St. Marco, Salute, de Redemptore, St. Georgic' Maggiore, the chapel of the Virgin,and Mau scleums in the church of St. Giovanni and Paolo ; the ducal palace, tilt. Piazzo of St. Marco, the bridge of Rialto, and the arsenal. At Padua, the abbey of St. Giustina, planned by Palladio ; the church of II Santo, with its beautiful chapel ; the town-hall, the largest ill Europe, being- 312 feet in length, 108 in breadth, and 108 in height ; and the castle of Obizzi in the vicinity of the town. At Verona, the churches of the Franciscan Friars, and St. Zeno ; the beautiful chapel of St. Bernardino, Gran Guardia, and Mu se° Lapidario. At Vicenza, where Palladio was a native and builder, the public edifices display great taste, of which the most distinguished are the palaces della Ragione, and del Capitaneo, and many others of unusual magnificence, superior in design, though inferior in magnitude, to those of Genoa ; the gate of the Campus Martins, the villa of \larchesi, the triumphal arch leading to the church on Monte Berrio, and the Olympic theatre, constructed in imi tation of the ancient theatres. At Florence, the cathedral, inferior in magnitude only to the Vatican, the churches of St. Lorenzo,' Sta. Maria Novella, and Santo Croce ; the mausoleum of the Medicean family ; the Ponte della Tri nity, one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe ; and the gallery of paintings, next to that of the Vatican. At Pisa, the church of Santa Maria della Spina, a curious specimen of the Gotico-Moresco style of architecture, and the cathe dral, which is a still finer structure in the same style, with its baptistry, belfry, and cemetery. At Cremona, the church of St. Pietro al Po, the baptistry near the cathedral, rlial the chapel set apart for the preservation of relics. At Bologna, the church of St. Salvador, and especially La Madonna di S. Luca, the fountain of the great square, and the brick towers del Asinelli and de Garisendi, remarkable only for their height, and deviation from the perpendicular. At Milan, the cathedarl, extraordinary for its magnitude, and the number of its statues ; the college of Brera, Os pedale Maggiore, and the Lazaretto. At Turin, the churches of Corpus Domini, S. Lorenzo, S. Philippo, Neri, Sta. Christina, S. Roco, and the university. The theatre of Parma, which is formed on the same plan as that of Vicenza ; the chapel and cathedral of Forli, the work of Michael Angelo ; the bridges of Cesena, and of Pesaro; the cathedral of Senegaglia ; the abbey of Chiaravalla, about four miles from Pavia ; the abbey of Vailombrosa ; the cathedral of Barletta, remarkable for its antique co lumns of granite ; the cathedral of Bari, the steeple of which is 263 feet high ; and the palace of Caserta, which surpasses in size and solidity every royal edifice in Eu rope, its two principal fronts being 787 feet in length, the other two 616, and both of them five stories in height.