OLD WORLD SKETCHES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 32

OLD WORLD SKETCHES.

;. .By FABIAN BELL, Author of ''JRecollecMonsof Belgium," "In Two ' Herahpheres'," "The Big Nugget, 7 ' " Forgotten," N0.19.-BECOLLECTIONSOF ITALY. (^a— The LeaningTower— Preconceived Ideas j: — Campo Santo— Sacred Soil-Cenotaph, to .;■' Count Cavdur— Frescos of the Cloisters— '■">: Curious Sulyects— Muaeum of the Campo '"'' Santo-^lron 1 Chains— A ; Novel Trophy1 Leaning Tower — Optical Delusion — Exterior^ of the Campanile— Supposed Causes •us of the -Inclination— Probable Solution— < - <The Garisenda— Campaniles, their use and ,' Construction. ; ; . ■ j Frbm' one's earliest " salad days," or even' I before "then/ v one seems to have, been ■familiar, 'in ' pictures ' and' descriptions, with the leaning tower* of 1 Pisa, yet all that I had heard or read/on the subject had only given i me'a' t false'idea"after'all, I had expected that the tower would be much larger and that it would lean more. ' Judging from most of the illustratipns76fthis famous spot one might very* well suppose that the tower was Pisa, arid J that 1 the ' town itself was a mere appendage, an 1 assemblage of buildings clustered .iound I;he great central point of interest ( to which they are entirely subservient. This' is certainly not' the case, arid we .found much" to wonder at and admire in this quaint old town, 'one of the most ancient in Italy, .more", especially the Campo Santo. 1 The famous cloistered burying ground, the wall of which- is • close to the Leaning Tower and may" generally 'be noticed in the same photograph. . This ground is one of the most ancient in the world, it belonged to a moiiasteryj in connection with the cathedral, and was'fOunded. about 1154, and the monks arid their benefactors had the privilege of being buried here in earth brought specially from the. Holy Land. The virtues of this sacred soiUare largely on in the old manuscripts,! ibut' as the space was limited "and the number of those .who desired to be interred was very great, the .custom prevailed -of removing the bodies after a short time to some. less sought after spot. Whether thepotent effects of the "holy soil, have passed away with' the lapse of • ages I know not. Certain it is that the Campo Santo is now filled withinteresting monuments, both old and new, one of the latter, a white marble cenotaph is erected to. the ' memory , of the Iltalian patriot and (statesman, Count Cavour. The cloisters I "which .surround the Campo Santo are distinguished for their be^utitul frescoes,' which were executed by some of the most famous artists of the Pisan. school, naturally these paintings yary much in ,merit, unfor-tunately-some,of the finest are obliterated, either through the action of the weather or the perishable nature of the pigments employed, j The subjects are all sacred, but the treatment is . very quaint and peculiar, arid in some, cases strange liberties have been taken .wjfjih the Scripture narrative, still, as a whole, these wall pictures are well executed and very striking. For my part I must confess that I was unable to see in them all that the guide books told us to look for and admire,, but, of course, .that .\yas_ my fault, and not that of the .frescoes or Mr Murray. The Uampo Santo, like so many other 1 famous oldbuildingsdesigned'.for very different purposes, is now a museum, well supplied with woyks t of art and curios, not always; beauti,ful, but interesting from an historical or antiqu'aria^ppint f ofview. ' Foremost among these; may be mentioned the great iron chains with s which the city of Genoa controlled her troublesome neighbours in those strange mediaeval ages, which seem, ]in their general tone ,of thought and action, so much further awayifrom'us than the miglity empires bfojd— Macedonia, Greece, and Rome. In the, Middle Ages then, when Genoa and Venice took i( jt'in turns to rule the Mediter-' ranearij and . the commerce of the world, it was the custom of the former city to keep' the Pifans quiet and prevent their interference by placing a great chain across their harbour,, thus preventing ingress or egress, and effectually reducing the citizens to inaction.' These chains, harmless trophies of the past, are still preserved in the museum of the ':'Camp/6 Santo. But to return to the Leaning Tower, or Campanile ; as I have said, the- fiirst. view' was disappointing; it .-scarcely seemed to lean at all, but seen from another point, and ,wheii we mounted the inside stair, the inclination became very : apparent, and the 3ense of danger grew as we .ascended "until one scarcely dared'^o stand on the flat'roof, and felt that even the smallest additional weight on the lower side would certainly bring down the "whole .structure' so .that we should be buried in the .ruins; 'haying once formed this idea it was .nearly impossible to disabuse the mind of it, and one or .two timid members of our party made a veryrhasty retreat' and could never after wards' be induced to repeat > the experience., , The interior of the Campanile show.cd, the -leaning very plainly, it was almost more apparent in the descent than in the ascent/ , - The exterior is beautiful, cased entirely in ; marble, once white and now tinted wjth every equisite half tint and gradation of .colour which.it is possible to imagine, it is a study (&lcufated to make the soul of an artist glow within him, and the exquisite texture, the smooth enamelled surface possesses a separate attraction of its own. This tower, 188 ft in height, inclines 16ft from the base, ( so that if a plummet is dropped from the top, the result, is very starting, the cause 'of. ; this' inclination is .variously given, some say that it was purposely built thus to test the power of gravity, and 1 to show that any amount of inclination was possible which should contain the, centre of gravity with the bafse. But r this hypothesis seems vefry, doubtful,' as at the time' when the tower I wasbuilt-r-ejarlyin the twelfjfch .century — very little- was k4own of the power ,'pf gravity, and Galileo ponducted his experiments here fully i five. centurijbs later. The moFeT; reasonable i (suggestion is that the to^er'^ank* after it 1 4 was built, either through the^scrb'sidence of ,tKe ground pr from the effects ojE'dp earthquake. .. Those, who are Vfairiijaf with places in', England and" elsewnere T where the ."surface is subsiding must h4ve seen nume:i>

ous examples of this kind,' though on a smaller 'scale, and in the city of "BolQgne, in peritral Italy, is another ' campanile which leans even more than that of .Pisa',' although its height is riot so great, and which' is' known under the name of *he Garisen'da. • 'All these campaniles are of similar construction, built in a square cylindrical form of many 'storeys, more or less ornamental, and intended to contain a peel of bells'. '"" ; "