The interior of this magnificent building is worthy of its exterior, although the design of the nave, covered in with classic vaulting, is to some extent a failure, replacing as it does the rows of columns with their fine perspective effects to which we are accustomed in Gothic cathedrals.
The insufficiency of light is also a great drawback; but for neither of these faults is the architect responsible, the first design, alluded to above, which he was compelled to abandon against his own will, having supplemented the central dome with eight smaller cupolas enclosed within it, and a prolongation at the west end in the form of another and distinct cupola with a fine portico.
Sir Christopher is said to have wept when he was compelled to adopt the long nave and side aisles of a Roman Catholic cathedral. However that may be, it is certain that he was harassed from first to last by ignorant criticism and short-sighted economy.
The paintings on the cupola, contrary to his wishes, were the work of Sir James Thornhill, whose designs, though not without his usual vigour of drawing and execution, were too heavy and dark for a semi-circular vaulting requiring light delicate drawing and brilliant colouring melting up to neutral tints.
Thornhill's paintings, however, perhaps fortunately, rapidly decayed; all efforts to restore them were unavailing, and, thanks to the enlightened liberality of Dean Milman, the dome has already been partially gilt, whilst the spandrels are being filled in with fine mosaics.
When the mural decorations, so long promised, and the character of which has been so warmly discussed, are actually executed, we may hope at last to see our great national cathedral as it must have appeared to its architect on its first conception in his imagination.
The best views of the interior of St. Paul's are from beneath the dome and from the western doors.
Our illustration, giving the nave and the choir, will be found to include some of the finest details of the internal decorations: such as the exquisite carvings of the choir stalls, by the celebrated Grinling Gibbons, the wonderful artist who was first discovered by Evelyn when carving a beautiful crucifix, after a cartoon by Tintoretto, in a wretched thatched cottage near Sayes' Court. Struck by the genius displayed in the work, Evelyn took Gibbons under his wing and introduced him to Wren, thereby making the carver's fortune and doing the country an incalculable service.
The organ in the choir, built by Rembrandt Schmidt in 1694, and then considered the finest in England; the two pulpits, one designed by Mylne and executed by Wyatt, the other, in different coloured marbles, by Penrose; and perhaps above all the simple but effective inscription to Wren on the inner porch of the north transept, "Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice" ("If you would see his monument, look around you"), also merit especial examination.
The painted windows at the west end are all modern, the gift of private persons, and come mostly from Munich.