1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



59 



in his life of its founder : " Hitjtts alumni ponlijicia jussu ecclesia jiacla 

 , VtUim aiireum in honorem bead Stbasiiani <edificata est, ncc non in 

 homrtm Marbria Gtorgii." (Vita Sancti Leonis, pajiae II. p. LVII.) 

 " Tlie church near the Velum aureum was built by the order of this 

 venerable pontiff', in honour of St. Sebastian and St. George the Mar- 

 tyr." Vasi, Ugonio, Piazza, and Panvini, are of opinion, notwithstand- 

 ing this positive assertion of the librarian, that the church was already 

 in existence in the time of Gregory the Great, and that he made its 

 name the title of a cardinal deacon, and had it renovated by the Abbe 

 Mariniano. 



In 745, Pope Zacharias, who was of Greek extraction, and professed 

 great veneration for the patron saint of this church, made considerable 

 repairs, and removed there, in solemn procession, the head, spear, and 

 helmet of St. George, which had been found in the Latran Palace, ac- 

 companied by a Greek inscription stating their identity. These pre- 

 cious relies are still preserved in the church. At the beginning of 

 the ninth century, the edifice having sull'ered greatly from the injuries 

 of time, Pope Gregory IV. rebuilt the portico and ornanieiileil it with 

 paintings; the apsis also was repaired from the foundations, and the 

 sanctuary was restored to its original state. The Pope Gregory, as 

 the librarian informs us, in addition to these proofs of his munlfici>nce 

 towards the Basilica, supplied it with sacerdotal vestments, and other 

 decorations. Ugonio tliinks the church must at some very early 

 period liave belonged to a Greek congregation, as in his time there 

 were many Greek inscriptions on the pavement, but so efTdced by the 

 crowd of worshippers frequenting the church, as to be almost illegible. 

 This opinion appears so much the more i)robable, from the fact that 

 St. George, who was of Eastern origin, is held in great veneration by 

 the Greeks, who entitle him "the Great Marshaller of Combatants," 

 TuiK oflAriTui' o Me7t« Tofiapivi'. and in all ages have raised the most 

 magnificent temples to his honour. There was a ceremony performed 

 every year in the church of the Velabrum, which shows that the 

 Latins also attributed to him military functions, calling him "the Dis- 

 penser of Victory," /''/c/ojiarHW /ur^(/(/r. Un the 2yrd of April, St. 

 Georoe's day, the gonfalonier of Rome, followed by the magistrates, 

 used to carry the national standard in grand procession to the church, 

 where it was blessed during the celebration of mass, and then carried 

 back to the Capitol. 



In the last century the church of St. George in Velabro belonged to 

 the barefooted Augustines; Pius VII. afterwards gave it to the con- 

 gregation of the children of Sancta Maria in Piunlo, to which it still 

 belongs. 



The rich presents of Pope Gregory IV. have long since disappeared ; 

 and the church is now one of the poorest in Rome, but it has lost no- 

 thing of its interest as a religious edifice of the early times of Chris- 

 tianity, and as such we shall now proceed to describe it in detail. 



The ground plan is in the form of the Latin basilicas, but nut quite 

 so long as usual; it presents on the southern side a defect of parallel- 

 ism difficult to explain ; divided into a nave and two side aisles, the 

 nave alone is terminated at the eastern extremity by an apsis, or 

 semi-circular tribune ; a porch with four columns in front, and very 

 wide openings on its north and south sides, precedes the edifice; on 

 the north, it is supported, as is also the steeple, on one of the pillars 

 of the little arch, which the goldsmiths of Rome erected to Septimus 

 Severus. 



The facade is surmounted by a pediment, supporting a cross. The 

 roof, which has the same pitch as the pediment, was rt-built about the 

 middle of the fifteenth century, in the pontificate of Sixtus IV., by 

 order of Cardinal Riario ; below the pediment is a circular opening, 

 or oculus, which lights the nave. The porch extends nearly the whole 

 length Uf the fayade ; it is composed of four monolithic columns, with 

 Ionic ca pit.ds passably executed, and of two large corner pillars 

 crowned by mouldings and fragments of antique sculpture, forming a 

 reticulated frieze. All this order stands on a plain, continuous stylo- 

 batum, which is interrupted only before the church door, and at the 

 extremities of the porch. The entablature over the columns is rather 

 heavy in its proportions. The architrave, crowned by a double mould- 

 ing, bears an inscription. Under the sotlils, between the capitals, a 

 number of rings are still left, to which the curtains were suspended 

 that used to hang in the intercolumnialions, for tlie pur|)Ose of keep- 

 ing the scorching rays of the sun olF the penitents, who waited under 

 the portico until they were allowed to enter the temple. 



The frieze is plain, except at its extremities, which are decorated 

 with two lions' heads, memorials of the ancient custom of administer- 

 ing justice at the church door, inter Itonts, between the lions. The 

 upper cornice, consisting of bricks, marble mullions, and composition 

 laid on burnt clay, is heavy, and with the frieze (which is too high) 

 helps to give the whole a clumsy aspect, as we have already remarked. 

 The porch is covered with a high roof, the wood-work of which is 

 visible from the interior. 



The present porcli is not the one built and ornamented with paint- 

 ings by Gregory IV. ; the old one having fallen to decay, another was 

 built in its place by one of the priors, named Stephen, who lived about 

 the twelfth century, if we may judge by the form of the letters of an 

 inscription then engraved on the architrave. Stcphanus ex slellii 

 ciipiins) capture snpcrua. — Eloquio rants, virtutum lumine clarus, — 

 Expaidens aurum atiidiiil renorare proriaiilum. — Sumptilius ex propriig 



te- fecit, aaucle Georgi. — Clericiis he ciijitu prior ccclesire/uil hujus 



Jhc locus ad Vdiim pranominc dicilur anri. This portico having be- 

 come dilapidated, it was repaired by order of Clement I.X. 



As we have already said, in describing the plan, one of the angles 

 of the porch stands on the arch of Septimus .Severus ; the steeple also 

 stands on another part of the same arch, and from the ch.se analogy 

 between the cornices by which it is divided into five stories, and tlie 

 cornice on the porch, it ought perhaps to be attributed to the same 

 epoch. Most of the steeples in Rome were erected in the twelfth 

 century, before which time they were but rarely seen; from these 

 ficts, we may therefore infer the date of the one added to this church. 

 All the arches in the different stories are semi-circular; the lower 

 limbs of those in the upper stories rest on marble columns with heavy 

 capitals, in the style common to those executt'd at the date we think 

 ourselves justified in assigning to this part of the church. 



The porch of St. George in Velabro is paved in what is called opiti 

 spicatum ; in the middle is a, large door leading into the nave; the 

 doorfiosts and lintel are three fine fragments of antique sculpture. 

 The two leaves of the door are hung to a wooden frame. The body 

 of the church contained originally a nave and two aisles, divided by 

 sixteen columns, in two rows; only fourteen, however, are now visible, 

 as by the erection of a steeple on one side, and a little vestry on the 

 other, two of them are enclosed in the masonry. Ten of these columns 

 are of gray granite, and four of Parian marble. The capit.ils are ex- 

 tremely irregular, being mostly Corinthian on the left, and Ionic on the 

 right, of the nave; some of them being narrower than the wall they 

 support, the lower limbs of part of the arches are bevelled off to the 

 same width. Windows arranged symmetrically over the iiiter- 

 columniation light the interior of the church ; above them runs a plain 

 cornice supporting a wooden ceiling, tot.dly devoid of ornament. 

 The side aisles are decorated with little altars in very bad taste. In 

 the middle of the southern aisles is a door opening into a very narrow 

 garden, used as a playground for the children of the congregation. 

 I'lie northern aisle had a similar door, which is now walled up. These 

 two entrances, thus placed on the transversal axis of the building, 

 confirm Ugonio's opinion alluded to above ; and, in fact, this practice 

 of having doorways in the sides is still very common in Greek 

 churches. 



The Composite capitals of the pilasters are of a style and execution 

 very unusual. Between the two pil.isters at the back and about two- 

 thirds of their height, is a little square window with a very close 

 lattice. All the ititervals between the pilasters are filled with an 

 elongated compartment extrt-mely simple. A complete entabl.iture 

 wilhuut ornaments in its mouldings runs along the base of the semi- 

 cupolaabove the pilasters, and is prolonged across the anterior face of 

 the apsis to the side-walls of the nave. 



Over the cornice and under tlie great vertical circle of the vault, 

 there is a painted ornament tastefully composed and in perfect har- 

 mony with the rest of the decoratinn ; it encloses a large religious 

 subject, which occupies the whule of the hemispheric part. In the 

 centre of this picture there is a colossal figure of Christ, with a cruci- 

 ferous aureola about his head ; his right hand is raised, and his left 

 holds a scroll ; his feet stand a terrestrial globe. On the riglit of 

 Jesus, is the Virgin Mary ; farther, on the same side, stands St. George, 

 in warlike costume, holding his standard and leaning on his horse. On 

 the lelt, is St. Peter, with the keys of Paradise in his hand; near him, 

 on the outside of the picture, is St. Paul, begirt with a sword. 



Though the church of St. George in Velabro has undergone many 

 renovations in the long lapse of centuries since its erection, and some 

 parts have even been built quite new, the primitive character of the 

 edifice remains unimpaired. This uninti'rrupted adherence of suc- 

 cessive artists to the Latin style in the erection of churches, is one of 

 the most curious facts in the history of Christian architecture at 

 Rome; especially when we reflect that, for more than six hundred 

 years, all Europe has been covered with buildings in the Norman and 

 pointed-arch stvle. But we shall often have occasion to repeat this 

 observation when we come to describe the Christian edificeg of Rome 

 which were erected before the sixteenth century." 



