In his churches he follows the Basilican t'orin faced with a portico consisting of an order with entablature reaching to the height of the building, and covered by a pediment rising with the nave-roof, those of the aisles having each a kind of half-pediment to agree with the slope; so that the central pediment has the appearance of having been placed in the centre of another so as to divide it equally into two parts. A motTst Palladio's other works, those of the church of the Redeemer, and the Olympic Theatre at Vicenza, stand conspicuous.
The form of this latter building is semi-elliptical, round which the seats are extended in front of the proscenium. The entire width of the building is 109 feet, that of the proscenium SO feet, and its depth 21-A- feet. The front of the scena is composed of two tiers of Corinthian columns on pedestals, the lower tier of which is detached with pilasters behind. and the latter are hall-coluinns attached to the walls. Between the columns stand niches with rectangular and cir cular pediments resting on fluted Corinthian pilasters, and above the per tier is an attic broken by piers, the spaces between which are filled with sculpture. Three doors in the scena give admission to five passages, the sides of which are adorned with representations in relief on wood of a variety of buildings seen in perspective. The upper tier of seats is surrounded by a row of Corinthian columns, supporting an entablature, and this again surmounted by a balustrade with statues.
The church of the Redeemer at Venice was built by this architect. The form would be that of a Latin cross, were it not that the nave is flanked on either side by three chapels open to the body of the church, ranging the entire length of the nave, and receding from it to the same depth as the transepts. The division between them and the nave is effected by an arcade of semicircular arches springing, from entabla tures over Corinthian pilasters, o+ deli flank the pil.?rs of the nave. These piers are faced towards the nave by half collimes coupled, and extending to such a height as to carry an entablature over the arcade; above which on each side is a clerestory pierced with three semicircular windows, divided into three by vertical mullions. The choir is surrounded by isolated columns, and its extremity, as also those of the transept. is apsidal. At the intersection a co lindrical drum is supported on four large arches, and is surmounted by a cupola or dome.
The church is considerably elevated above the ground, and is approached on the exterior by a flight of steps extending the breadth of the nave, and fronting th. portico, which con
sists of two three-quarter columns and two pilasters, covered by a pediment. On each side of this. a wing projects in the line of facade, adorned with I 'orint hian pilasters of loss height than those of the portico, and continued round the sides of the building. The door tinder the portico is semicircular headed, ornamented with half-columns, entablature, and pediment. The roofs of the aisles lean to, and in the flavade present the appearance of a second pediment 'broken in the middle for the insertion of the portico.
After the death of Palladio, Italian architecture began to decline, under the auspices of Borromini. This architect introduced many innovations, and in his desire to produce novelties, had little care for elegance or simplicity ; striving to surpass his rivals and predecessors in variety and origi nality, he bind aside all the common rules and restrictions, and gave form and substance to all the extravagant vagaries of his imagination. in his designs, straight lines arc the exception, and irregularity their ruling features. Curves. both convex and concave, appear in plan and eleva tion, wherever it was possible to introduce them, and that ' without any regard to construction ; his designs are the result of an inventive and pregnant, but also a reckless and unculti vated, fancy.
The church della Sapienza, by this architect, is of a polygonal plan, of which the sides are alternately concave and convex ; the exterior of the cupola, which is surrounded above by a balustrade, is of a similar plan, the convex parts being formed into steps, interrupted by buttresses. But the lantern is still more whimsical, having its vase in a zigzag form, on which is erected a spiral staircase, sustaining a crown of metal, with it ball and cross at the top. I his most extra ordinary- work is the church of San Carlino abbe Quatro Fon taine, which abounds in his eccentricities, as does also the oratory of the Fathers della Chiesa Nuova. Here we have disorderly mixture-3 of all kinds of lines, straight and circular, convex, concave, and tvi ist•d ; undulating, corona. which retain the rain, delicate moulding; under great weights, and strong supports without anything to sustain; breaks only in the architrave of the entablature; prominences, contortions, and every kind of absurdity. Of all his buildings, the church of St. Agnes in the Piazza Navona, is most free from his usual abuses ; the ilicade of this, however, is in plan a curve of contrary flexure.