GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY The persistence of classic detail throughout the middle ages and the vitality of Romanesque construction traditions rendered im possible in Italy any adoption of true Gothic architecture. The Italians never understood the structural basis of northern Gothic. Pointed arches, crockets, pinnacles, tracery, were all considered merely as convenient adjuncts for buildings otherwise Roman esque or basilican. Yet the Italian genius for grand scale and polychrome decoration makes such works as Siena (126o-67) and Orvieto (129o-133o) cathedrals of distinguished and living beauty. The brilliant fronts of Siena and Orvieto, with their col oured marble mosaics and paintings, are mere screens, without relation to the roof lines behind, and the banded interior of Siena, although it uses tracery and pointed arches, is as little Gothic as can be imagined. Everywhere the acanthus leaf, classic moulding decoration and other Roman details are used for ornament, and the richness of inlaid marble floors, of black and white marble banding and of painted vaults and walls makes the effect one of colour rather than of line. The structural basis of tracery disap peared entirely; tracery became a free pattern, often of fantastic richness, in pierced stone. Buttresses and gables are mere surface decorations, as in the cathedral at Florence (14th century) . The climax of this development is shown in the exquisite Campanile at Florence (begun 1334), designed, characteristically enough, by Giotto and his pupils (see illustration under CAMPANILE).
Italian fondness for large dimensions is responsible for one of the greatest defects in Italian Gothic churches—the lack of an adequate sense of scale. The piers are so few, the arches so simple, the bays so wide that judgment of size is impossible. For in stance, the cathedral at Florence, designed by Arnolfo (begun 1298), the nave vault of which is 15o ft. high, and the pier arches almost 55 ft. wide, gives an impression of barren smallness.
In Venice a local schopl of great interest and vitality was devel oped, especially in connection with palace architecture, by treat ing a Byzantine-like surface decoration of coloured marble with pointed arches and tracery. Walls were covered with large sheets of veined marble and the Gothic detail applied only to the open ings. The result is an impression of great delicacy and richness as in the famous Ca d' Oro (143o) by Giovani and Bartolommeo Bon; the Doge's Palace (begun 134o) by Pietro Baseggio, is more severe, but its Porta della Charta (15th century), by the Bons, is one of the most lavish examples of the style, interesting in its fantastic crockets combined with human figures.