DUOMO OF SYRACUSE. 117' tained a famous temple to Fortune; and Neapolis was the most westerly section. Of this famous and spacious metropolis Ortygia alone survives, and presents a regular and rather agreeable appearance, but has lost its grandeur, greatness, wealth, and commerce. In vain the palaces of Gelon, of Hiero, and of Dionysius are sought; the tombs of Theocritus and Archimedes are effaced; but the shade of that beauty, over which Marcellus wept when Syracuse was sacked, still remains. It was in that insular portion of the city called Ortygia, that the two splendid temples of Diana and Minerva stood, when Cicero was Quaestor of Sicily. "In ea (Syracusâ) sunt ædes complures, sed duæ quæ longe cæteris antecellunt: Dianæ, una, et altera, quæ fuit ante istius (Verris) adventum, ornatissima, Minervæ!" In Ortygia also was situated the fountain of Arethusa, so famed in story, but earthquakes have divided its waters, disfigured their channels, sullied their primitive purity, so that the only votaries who frequent its banks in these ages are the laundresses at Siragosa. Amongst an infinity of antique remains, and crowd of classic recollections associated with the name and locality of the city of Dionysius, the most palpable is the temple of Minerva. The extent of the original building cannot be ascertained from the portion that survives, but eleven noble columns, in the Doric order, with cyathiform capitals, fluted shafts, and without bases, are visible on one flank of the building, together with a part of the architrave and its triglyphs. The cella is included within the irregular structure which has succeeded the classic temple to Wisdom, and its lateral walls are pierced with arches. The peristyle is concealed, and incorporated with the aisles of a church dedicated to Christian worship. The intercolumnar spaces are now walled up; a heavy façade has been added in a very questionable style, loaded with broken pediments and ill-arranged decorations: and the edifice, raised originally to Minerva, is now consecrated to the Virgin-Mother of the Saviour. For upwards of two thousand five hundred years the hallowed site of this temple has been devoted to public worship; once within its chambers the soothsayer dared to prophesy what never had been revealed to men, from the smoking entrails of unaccountable beings, while the marble pavements ran red with blood,-this in a hall consecrated to wisdom! Those pagan rites have passed away, and Christian votaries now bend the knee where idolatry once raised a shrine; and the robed priests of a holier ministry chant praises to the name of the Creator, where the pontiff of an absurd theology demanded the acquiescence of a deceived, an ignorant, and therefore a credulous people. In that portion of absolute space where the Christian cross is now erected above the Duomo, on the fastigium of the ancient temple, Atheneus informs us a resplendent polished shield was placed, the reflected rays from which were visible to some distance from the port. When the mariner, outward-bound, lost sight of this bright object, it was customary to make propitiatory offerings, to win the favour and protection of Minerva and of Neptune. These consisted of flowers, honey, and ashes, which, with much ceremony, were, at the precise moment when the agis vanished, cast into the sea. It has been supposed also that the first meridian of Archimedes was fixed on this part of the temple. The interior was anciently decorated with twenty-seven paintings of the exploits of Agathocles, besides portraits of all the Sicilian kings, a beautifullysculptured Gorgon's head, and other exquisite illustrations of art; the gates were formed of bronze, gold, and ivory, and every part of the building enriched with costly ornaments. All these, according to Cicero, were carried away by Verres; and those wondrous works, which attracted strangers from Greece and Rome, were plundered, and appropriated to the despoiler's private purposes. When the Normans first invaded Sicily, about the year 1023, this venerable building was still entire; but being converted into the cathedral of the city, in the year 1100, the great stone roof fell in during the celebration of mass, and crushed to death the whole congregation; by this calamity the Grecian workmanship was almost obliterated, a modern roof has since been rested on the standing columns, their intervals filled up, and the renovated building is now adapted to that worship to which it has been consecrated by the Christian conquerors of Sicily. BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER. PISA. "Each ray that brightens, and each hue that falls, Attest some sacred sign upon those walls; Some sculptur'd saint's pale head—some graven line Of promise, precept, or belief divine." THE chief architectural records of Pisa stand in the same broad area-they are detached, removed considerably from all other objects, and the solitude that pervades the scene is in character with the deserted appearance of the whole city. But the group which forms the subject of the accompanying view, is the finest of this description in the world. The Duomo, or Cathedral, raised in 1603, from the design of Buschetto, may be regarded as the precursor of the revival of art. The prevailing feature throughout the exterior is the circular arch, which, rising from single columns, stunted, and of Greek orders, presents a combination sometimes found in Gothic and Saxon works. But the style is too impure for Greek, and rejects the clustered column and the Gothic arch; and, as it first appeared in Italy under the Lombard princes, their name may be employed to characterize it. The same style pervades the interior of the cathedral, which is divided into five aisles, and obeys the form of a Latin cross. Insulated columns of Oriental granite support a series of arches, on which a low and elliptic dome rests, and columns of like material and execution divide the noble aisles. Amongst the innumerable treasures of art and nature preserved here, the pulpit and altar, resting on porphyry pillars, are the most admired; but the gilded roof and great bronze doors are also objects of admiration. |