1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



343 



at Caiiterliury: it is tlius at San Miniato at Florence, and at San 

 Flavianci ne:ir Mdiiteiuiscone, where there is a cuniplete lower as 

 well as upper church; at San Francesco at Assisi, where the great 

 St. Francis was cntombeil; at San Zenone at Verona, and many 

 other places. 



Tills custom of huildine; crypts and subterranean chapels was 

 ciuitiuueil in the architecture of our own country until the last 

 half (it the eleventh century, but ])rohah!y not much later.* 



Cousidcriiiff these churches in section, we find in the earliest 

 examples, arches sprinsring from the capitals of the columns be- 

 tween the nave and aisles, and carrying a clerestory; the roofs in 

 all cases of low pitch, of wood, with level tie-beams; the trusses 

 near tofjether, and the aisle-roof generally of less pitch than that 

 over the na\e, just as we usually see it in our own ])arish churches. 

 The flank walls at first flat, till in the church of Santa Maria at 

 Toscanella, erected in the seventh century, we find them relieved 

 by piers and arches projecting from the face, and as if forming 

 recesses in the wall ready for ribs and cross springers, but with the 

 gi-oins left unexecuted. In the church of St. Agnes near Rome, 

 built a little later, we have another step in advance, for the clere- 

 story is raised higher, the aisles are groined, and over them are 

 galleries, with a second series of columns and arches over the nave 

 columns, with a balustrade between, forming excellent and spa- 

 cious galleries; being an aiTangenient in this style precisely similar 

 to that of our own cathedrals with their triforia. The aisles, 

 although groined under the galleries, are, with the rest of the 

 church, I'oofed above with wood, which again reminds us of a prac- 

 tice usually followed by the Gothic architects. These galleries, 

 most probably, were for the use of the women, as the triforia have 

 been c(rnjectured to have been used by the nuns. In the 

 Cathedral of Pisa, built in the latter part of the eleventh and be- 

 ginning of the twelfth century, we find this arrangement magni- 

 ficently treated, and with a still nearer approach to the Gothic 

 treatment, for the piers are carried through and w ithin the larger 

 arches; springing from one pier to the other, are again two smaller 

 arches, with a column in the centre. The proportions of this 

 cathedral are noble and lofty, the galleries spacious and most 

 effective features. The aisles are double, divided with a range of 

 columns down the centre; they are groined, but the roof is of 

 wood, as in the former examples: and here we find very success- 

 fully introduced the alternate courses of red and vvhite marble, a 

 fashiiMi just then obtaining — here confined to a cross in the span- 

 dril between the nave arches, and to the striping of the clerestory 

 and projecting ribs of the groining. The good taste of this prac- 

 tice is much questioned; but it has certainly here received the 

 sanction of a masterly mind, for such must have been the archi- 

 tect of this cathedral. It seems to me, that care bestowed in 

 arranging the difi'erent materials in a building as to colour, is 

 adniissable, and capable of adding much to the good effect — though 

 much overdone in some of these examples. 



It can hardly be well used over the whole of a large building — it 

 is much better confined to parts which can be easily taken into 

 view at once, and is, I think, particularly applicable to circular 

 work of any kind. There is a great defect to be remarked in the 

 groining of the aisles in this cathedral, inasmuch as the springing 

 is considerably above the cap of the central columns, so that there 

 is first of all a sort of pier above the cap, which gives an appearance 

 of great weakness; but even at this later period, we find the earliest 

 model was not entirely deserted, for at San Zenone in Verona, built 

 in the twelfth century, there is no triforium or gallery; but a mag- 

 nificent effect is got by the well-propm-tioned simplicity of the 

 design, and by the alternate piers and columns betw een the nave 

 and aisles. In this church, alternate layers of marble and brick 

 are used. 



In the Cathedral of San Francesco at Assisi, erected in the thir- 

 teenth century, built by a German architect, we find the first 

 example of any importance of the introduction of the pointed 

 arch in Italy, From this time it became always used, with more 

 or less mixture of the now declining Romanesque; the effect of 

 which is particularly evident in the fine Cathedral of Sienna; in 

 which we have the pointed arch with the mixture of Classic de- 

 tails, cornices, consoles, capitals, &c., the walls lieing composed 

 of layers of white and black marble. 



The whole of the interiors of these churches were lavishly 

 decorated with fi-esco, mosaics, &c. A great difference is, how- 

 ever, observable between the style of decoration which was fol- 

 lowed in the Lombard churches of Northern Italy, and those 

 nearer Rome. The former are remarkable for great stiffness of 



* In the disciissiun wlncii luiltjvvL'd, St. Leonard's, York, acliurcll at Madley, HerelOfd- 

 fihire, and Uerelord Culiiedrnl, n'ere meutiuiied as ba^iIlg cryiits ot a later date. 



desio-n, very gross imagery, grotesque carvings and ornaments, all 

 crow'^ded and huddled together, the foliages bearing some analogy 

 to our own early Norman, and by no means equal to the Byzantine 

 of the same date. The latter are much better in arrangement and 

 drawing; their excellence, however, is only comparative. 



In the earlier Romanesipie churches, the exterior effect would 

 seem to have been deemed of an importance altogether secondary 

 to that of the interior, presenting often little else than bare walls, 

 with few and ill-arranged openings. After a while, however, we 

 find these made more important, and the exterior walling broken 

 into piers and recesses, particularly the apsides, which were deco- 

 rated with long narrow three-tpiar'ter columns running up to the 

 eaves. Hut a much more decided attemjit to gain an effect is made 

 by the introduction of arcades or passage-ways in the thickness of 

 tiie wall, particularly round the apsides, immediately beneath the 

 ea\-es, as if for a passage-way from one gallery to another, without 

 the necessity of entering the body of the church. This is the case 

 with two (if the churches at Pavia, San Frediano at Lucca, a 

 church at Arezzo, tkc. The Cathedral of Pisa has an arcaded 

 facciata of no less than four tiers, as also has San iVIichele at 

 1 ucca, and Santa Maria at Arezzo. These arcades might, per- 

 haiis, have been used as a sort of cloisters, though hardly very 

 much retired ; and, from their elevated and commanding situation, 

 much more calculated to enliven and delight him who walked 

 therein, than to lead his mind to those quiet and abstract contem- 

 plations which would be more congenial and suitable. 



If not for some practical purpose of this kind, I am unable to 

 determine what may have been the use of this oft-repeated 

 feature; where sparingly used in the towers and apsides it is very 

 effective, but in some of the examples above cited, it would 

 appear to be overdone — to be made too distinctive, so that the 

 outer wall is made nothing less than a screen to an inner one; 

 whereas, if treated as part of the external wall, the relief thereby 

 given to it, and the solid effect, the depths of shade, and points of 

 bright light, conspire together to assist the effect of the whole 

 very advantageously. 



In the fauade of San Pietro at Spoleto, we have an instance of 

 a style which has been very aptly called the " Cabinet Style," a 

 style which 1 think has never wholly become obsolete, but is occa- 

 si(inally followed even in this dny. It may be called the climax ot 

 un-architectural effect. Bad proportions, bad arrangements, and 

 bad construction, are all, of course, un-architectural; but stiU a 

 building, with all these faults, may have more of the architect 

 about it than a building in the style now alluded to. It may have 

 what this style really wants— some leading idea and purpose, some 

 fine and poetic notion, even let the result fall never so far short of 

 the achievement it proposed to reach. Here we find a nearly 

 equal surface for the fai,-ade, with certain square lines ruled upon 

 it across each other, so as to form the most prim and severe-look- 

 ing panels ; in them are set certain circular windows, doors where 

 needed, and surrounded by a profusion of laboured ornament and 

 decoration; each part utterly discordant with the rest, and the 

 whole very ingenious, but telling most significantly of efforts pain- 

 fully abortive, as far as regarded anything good' in tlie ultimate 

 effect, being after a manner which would be much more suitable 

 to the inlaying of a work-table, or any other similar piece of furni- 

 ture, than for a work of art of a nature so much more exalted as 

 Architecture. And the architect who neglects truthfulness, who 

 seeks to hide construction, who fears too much to show the ana- 

 tomy, so to speak, of his design, is in great danger of falling into 

 such a style as this. 



What, then, beyond the mere appreciation of detail and general 

 arrangement — or rice versa, the lessons to be learnt from bad 

 detail and arrangement — is the profit to be gained from the careful 

 study of the architecture of that period and country now under 

 consideration? The study of detail is useful; but far more im- 

 portant is it that the studtjnt should seek for principles — the prin- 

 ciples which lie at the root of all the details and forms which out- 

 wardly appear as the results of those principles; grtiwing upon 

 them,' and the whole succeeding or failing, as the first basis is 

 justly founded or not. 



Niiw, in this style we observe the transition from the Classic to 

 the architecture known as Gothic— that is, from a mode of treat- 

 ment the whole life and soul of which is contained in the suc- 

 cessful application of lengthened horizontal lines, and of figures 

 bounded by such parallel lines, to another mode of treatment 

 whose very 'essence is contained in the like use of lengthened ver- 

 tical lines', and of figures bounded by such lines. This being a 

 style of transition— for the Classical treatment was wholly unsettled 

 by the use to which the circular arch was put in this style, and as 



