Esthetic Evolution. 229 



down to the latest " perpendicular " or " flamboyant." 

 But these styles are in many respects so diverse, that 

 it is difficult to find for them any common character 

 other than that of the employment of the pointed arch, 

 which runs through them all in the smallest ornamental 

 details as well as in the main constructive features, and 

 profoundly modifies and dominates the whole. Thus 

 the phrase "the pointed style," so commonly adopted 

 to denote what many call " gothic," is one admirably 

 chosen for its purpose, the pointed arch being the one 

 governing character of all forms of gothic. The word 

 " Italian," as here used, denotes that style which has 

 prevailed generally, but especially in Italy, from the full 

 development of the transitional Renaissance down to the 

 revival of pointed architecture. As notable examples 

 may be taken S. Peter's, S. Andrea della Valle, and 

 the Gesu, of Rome ; S. Paul's, of London ; the 

 Pantheon and S. Sulpice, of Paris. For the church 

 architecture of this post-mediaeval period it is perhaps 

 more difficult to find any positive common character 

 than for gothic architecture. Perhaps it may best be 

 shortly described as " round-arched," with ornamental 

 details copied exclusively from or directly suggested by 

 pre-Christian Roman and Greek authorities, with a ten- 

 dency to the use of the dome. 



The lovers or advocates of the pointed style may 

 well contend that as to the first two of the fourteen 



