looked towards S.
Lorenzo and the other towards the Archbishop's Palace. And now, to
describe in order and with as much clearness as may be possible the
composition and the beauty of the whole, I say--beginning again with the
front part, to which that at the back was wholly similar in the
composition of the ornaments, without failing in any point--that in the
centre of the wide street was seen the very broad entrance of the arch,
which rose to a beautifully proportioned height, and on either side of
it were seen two immense niches bordered by two similar Corinthian
columns, all painted with sacred books, mitres, thuribles, chalices, and
other sacerdotal instruments, in place of trophies and spoils. Above
these, and above the regular cornices and friezes, which projected
somewhat further outwards than those which came over the arch in the
centre, but were exactly equal to them in height, was seen another
cornice, as of a door or window, curving between the one column and the
other in a quarter-round, which, seeming to form a separate niche, made
an effect as graceful and lovely as could well be imagined. Above that
last cornice, then, rose a frieze of a height and magnificence in accord
with the proportions of so great a beginning, with certain great
consoles, carved and overlaid with gold, which came exactly in
perpendicular lines with the columns already described; and upon them
rested another magnificent and very ornate cornice, with four very
large candelabra likewise overlaid with gold and, like all the columns,
bases, capitals, cornices, architraves, and every other thing, picked
out with various carvings and colours, and also standing in line with
the great consoles and the columns above described. Now in the centre,
springing above the said consoles, two cornices were seen rising, and
little by little forming an angle, and finally uniting as a
frontispiece, over which, upon a very rich and beautiful base, was
seated an immense statue with a Cross in the hand, representing the most
holy Christian Religion, at whose feet, one on either side of her, were
seen two other similar statues which seemed to be lying upon the cornice
of the above-named frontispiece, one of which, that on the right hand,
with three children about her, represented Charity, and the other Hope.
Then in the space, or, to speak more precisely, in the angle of the
frontispiece, there was seen as the principal device of that arch the
ancient Labarum