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[M.167L] [M.167] Miracoli Church of 167
Church of Miracoli: It is entered under a kind of gallery supported
by two square shafts - so vile, meagre and miserable in
proportion that I could not believe them stone - they looked
like some upholsterers work under a gallery in London:
They are covered with exquisite arabesques: a serpent
fighting with a bird, full of spirit: and the scales on the
serpent head most scientifically and thoroughly plated on:
Some nestlings above are as beautiful in arrangement as
those of the doges palace; but instead of a nest, they
have a plaited basket. [diagram] which altogether spoils
their effect. The loveliest thing in the church is the base
of the great pillar on the left hand of the chancel: it is
a group of Stothard like children, playing with a wreath
of flowers of which the central mass if the sweetest, richest
- plunge depth of silky leafage I ever saw in marble.
The correspondent one opposite is nearly as good: The repetition
of the cinquecento commonplace nonsense - lions ending in
birds, and griffins in leaves, and everything in the
eternally repeated line of beauty curve, utterly wearies
the eye, and has nothing to offer to the mind; It is
the pursuit of aesthetic beauty in its most senseless form,
until it is utterly satiating, all thought - all teaching - all
true manliness sacrificed to flowing curves and crisp edges
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]