The secrets of the Vatican - Softcover

Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1458934918 ISBN 13: 9781458934918

Publisher: RareBooksClub.com, 2012

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...the fragments of Paul II.'s tomb on the other. The memorial sculpture of ancient Rome bequeathed nothing superior to the reliefs on that sarcophagus; the bas-reliefs on the tomb of the Venetian Pope are the masterpieces of Mino da Fiesole--the Raffaelle of the sculptors of the Middle Ages Matteo Pollaiuolo is not to be confused with the far better known Antonio and Pietro j he is not even mentioned in the great five-volume "Dizionario Biografico Universale." His work is hardly known outside of St. Peter's. At his best, in his low reliefs, he approaches Mino, but much of his work is very inferior. His Confessio, several feet high and many feet long (the most important, as being the largest of the complete monuments preserved in the crypt), once encircled the approach to the Apostle's tomb in the old basilica. It deals with the trials and the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul, but makes no attempt to reproduce their traditional portraits. The St. Paul of the late Roman frescoes and the Byzantine mosaics has a narrow eggshaped face, with a very high forehead and a parrot nose, and is quite bald. The St. Paul of Pollaiuolo has a snub nose, a broad face, and bushy hair and beard. But his St. Peter is reasonably near to the Byzantine portrait, which represents the chief of the Apostles as a man with bluff features, a red face, and thick curly white hair and beard. Two of the best panels are those which represent their executions. In the one St. Paul kneels bound before Nero, while a soldier prepares to strike off his head; in the other, St. Peter is being crucified head downwards. Both have beautiful backgrounds in very low relief. The horsemen and trumpetblowers behind the former are most delicately carved; while the silhouette of a woman's head, an...

About this edition

• Publisher: RareBooksClub.com
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1458934918
• ISBN 13: 9781458934918
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154