FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264  
265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   >>  
parapet can be seen rising above the tree-tops. Though much of the detail of the outside is far from being classical or correct, the whole is well proportioned and well put together, but the same cannot be said of the inside. Pilasters of inordinate height have been seen in some of the Lisbon churches, but compared with these which here stand in couples between the chapels they are short and well proportioned. These pilasters, which are quite seventeen diameters high, have for capitals coarse copies of those in Sao Vicente de Fora in Lisbon. In Sao Vicente the cornice was carried on corbels crossing the frieze, and so was continuous and unbroken. Here all the lower mouldings of the cornice are carried round the corbels and the pilasters so that only the two upper are continuous, an arrangement which is anything but an improvement. Another unpleasing feature are the three niches which, with hideous painted figures, are placed one above the other between the pilasters. The chancel arch reaches up to the main cornice, but those of the door and chapel recesses are low enough to leave room for the windows. The dome is divided into panels of various shapes by broad flat ribs with coarse mouldings. The chancel and choir beyond have barrel vaults divided into simple square panels. The church then, though interesting from its plan, is--inside especially--remarkably unpleasing, though it is perhaps only fair to attribute a considerable part of this disagreeable effect to the state of decay into which it has fallen--a state which has only advanced far enough to be squalid and dirty without being in the least picturesque. Far more pleasing than the church is the round cloister behind. In it the thirty-six Ionic columns are much better proportioned, and the capitals better carved; on the cornice stands an attic, rendered necessary by the barrel vault, heavy indeed, but not too heavy for the columns below. This attic is panelled, and on it stand obelisk-bearing pedestals, one above each column, and between them pediments of strapwork. (Fig. 98.) Had this cloister been square it would have been in no way very remarkable, but its round shape as well as the fig-trees that now grow in the garth, and the many plants which sprout from joints in the cornice, make it one of the most picturesque buildings in the country. The rest of the monastic buildings have been in ruins since the siege of 1832. [Sidenote: Coimbra, Santa Cruz Sacr
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264  
265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   >>  



Top keywords:

cornice

 

proportioned

 

pilasters

 
corbels
 

Vicente

 
carried
 

continuous

 
mouldings
 

chancel

 

square


barrel

 

church

 

panels

 

columns

 
unpleasing
 
coarse
 
cloister
 

divided

 

picturesque

 

capitals


Lisbon
 

buildings

 

inside

 
monastic
 

squalid

 

pediments

 

pleasing

 

country

 
advanced
 
fallen

strapwork
 

considerable

 
attribute
 

Coimbra

 
Sidenote
 

effect

 

disagreeable

 

thirty

 

panelled

 

obelisk


bearing

 

column

 

remarkable

 

pedestals

 

plants

 

carved

 

sprout

 
joints
 

stands

 

rendered