LA CERTOSA DI PAVIA 
PLATES 22, 23 
RASMUS of Rotterdam, whilst journeying through Lombardy in the autumn 
of 1506, made a short stay with the good monks of the Certosa di Pavia, 
then becoming famous for its great art treasures, and, viewing with wonder 
the progress of the building, asked the artists, ‘Why do you sink so much 
money in raising up a temple which at most can serve only as a house for 
the praises of a few monks, and the idle curiosity of the crowd who hunt 
after the luxury of marbles?’ This lament shows, in its cold logic, the 
impression conveyed then, as even now, of the great contrast between the simple austere life of 
a few men, and the gorgeous luxury of what was the most magnificent monastery in the world, 
raised by the Visconti in the midst of the flat marshy plains of Lombardy, and standing to-day 
as one of the finest buildings the Renaissance ever produced. 
The Certosa owes its origin to Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, who was 
also the founder of Milan Cathedral. Various opinions have been put forward as to the motive 
which inspired the Duke to erect so splendid a building; but, whatever his motive may have 
been, he has succeeded in attaching to his name an undying celebrity as the founder of two of 
the most magnificent buildings in the north of Italy. The monastery was commenced in 1396. 
There is much uncertainty as to who was the architect of the building, and many names have 
been put forward for that honour; but the probability is that the design was due to the united 
effort of a band of artists and craftsmen. The plan followed generally that of the monasteries of 
the period. South of the nave of the church is the small cloister, with the sacristy, library 
and refectory on the remaining three sides. The contrast between the dim interior of the great 
church and the brightness of this little cloister garden, as one emerges from a small connecting 
passage, has a very striking effect. When the garden is full of flowers and the silence only 
broken by the hum of insects or the splashing of the little fountain playing in the centre, one 
seems to be for the time transported to another world. I have chosen to illustrate this garden, 
as an example of what might often be done, in buildings where it is possible to have a cloister, 
and when the surrounding buildings on the south and west are not of any great height. The 
cloister is surrounded by an arcade of fifty arches, each supported by slender white columns of 
Carrara marble; the spandrels ornamented by terracottas in bold relief of light red colour 
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