Equally remarkable, but in a diverse style, is the Giant's
Causeway, whose innumerable black stone columns rise from two to four
hundred feet above the water's edge in the County of Antrim, on the
north coast of Ireland. These basaltic pillars are for the most part
pentagonal, whose five sides are closely united, not in one conglomerate
mass, but, articulated so aptly that to be traced the ball and socket
must be disjointed.
The effect of statuary upon bridges is memorable: the Imperial statues
which line that of Berlin form an impressive array; and whoever has seen
the figures on the Bridge of Sant' Angelo at Home, when illuminated on
a Carnival night, or the statues upon Santa Trinita at Florence, bathed
in moonlight, and their outline distinctly revealed against sky and
water, cannot but realize how harmoniously sculpture may illustrate and
heighten the architecture of the bridge. More quaint than appropriate is
pictorial embellishment; a beautiful Madonna or local saint placed
midway or at either end of a bridge, especially one of mediaeval form and
fashion, seems appropriate; but elaborate painting, such as one sees at
Lucerne, strikes us as more curious than desirable.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262