The Argosy — page 155: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

140 In Sunny Climes. the last degree, they sleep their last sleep amidst themselves, their reign over ; their memory not always loved. Florence is full of magnificent palaces, which bear witness to the greatness of those who raised them: and these are fitting caskets for the art treasures they contain. But in point of beauty of architecture she is frequently deficient. Very much of it belongs to the massive and severe Florentine school, of which the Cathedral is the chief example. It is considered a splendid edifice, and is built of various-coloured marbles, but it failed to impress us. Rather it did the opposite. It lends no repose to the eye; gives no sense of dignity to the mind. The effect of the coloured marbles is trivial and somewhat frivolous, and seems beneath the dignity of a great and. sacred edifice. It is creating an effect upon wrong lines: not by intrinsic beauty and merit, by noble outlines and just proportions, which alone can charm; but by pleasing the eye with a mosaic- like arrangement of stone. In front of it is the Baptistry, octagonal in form. Its bronze gates, by Ghiberto, were thought so beautiful by Michel-Angelo that he called them the Gates of Paradise. The foundations of the Cathedral were laid in 1294 and completed in 1462; and the dome was so much admired by Michel-Angelo that he made it his model for that of St. Peter. The interior of the Cathedral is much more impressive than the exterior. The bell tower is considered one of the most beautiful specimens of its kind in existence. Like the Baptistry and Cathedral, it is built in different coloured marble. ‘The eye turns from them with relief to the blue sky above, and there finds what is absolutely wanting here— repose. Next in importance is the Church of Santa Croce, intensely ugly in its exterior, but the great Pantheon of Florence, and of more interest than any other that Italy possesses. The church itself has no beauty. ‘The exterior is, indeed, as ugly as exterior can be —as exteriors in Italy so often are; but a halo of romance and grandeur and dignity surrounds the building through the names with which it is associated, the tombs of the great men it contains. ‘The interior is not like Westminster, a confused gathering of busts and monuments, which make of our beautiful Abbey nothing more or less than a bewildering sculptor’s studio or huge monument yard. In Santa Croce the tombs are comparatively few, and for the most part limited to names that have made the country illustrious. It is indeed impossible to think of Florence without at once calling up a vision of the great men that have taken part in her history. They have been links in the chain of time, binding the beautiful city to her country with a firm and steadfast hold. Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence—they must all be included in a History of Italy ; and no record would be complete if one of the names were left: out. True, the past of Florence has been more intellectual than political, but it may be questioned if she is not the more interesting on this CONNIE OOLKS n(€(o)