Buttresses are not employed in this style, unless indeed we choose to apply the term to the slightly projecting strips or pilasters which appear to divide the walls into panels.
There is one feature common to Lombardic churches, of which we have not taken notice; it is the campanile, or bell-tower, which was a common and picturesque addition. There is a remarkable difference in the design of these towers in the different parts of Italy ; at Ravenna they are cylindrical, with a horizontal string-course at each floor, some of which are lighted by single round windows, others by clusters of two or three : they have low roofs. At Venice all the steeples are square, and without string-courses, each side being divided into two or three panels running uninter ruptedly from base to top. At Rome such towers are square, but have horizontal string-courses, the divisions or stories between each two having a number of small arches with or without columns. These towers have low roofs.
I laving now given a rapid sketch of the main features and peculiarities of the style under consideration, it will be well to give a short description of a few of the more remarkable examples executed in that style ; and in this division, as well as in the preceding, we must express ourselves greatly indebted to the standard works of Gaily Knight and I lope, on the subject, to which works we would also refer the reader for more detailed information and more copious illus trations. The former work is beautifully got up.
The church of San Michele, at Pavia, is of the basilican plan, and is provided with transepts ; it measures 189 feet in length by Si in extreme width, the nave being 45 feet wide. The chancel has a semicircular apse, and is approached by several steps, and beneath it is a cry pt, a very common addi tion to Lombardic churches. Above the intersection of nave and transept rises a Byzantine cupola. "The walls of the building are of stone, massive and thick, and on the exte rior are ornamented, with small open galleries, which follow the shape of the gable in front, and crown the semicircular apse. The portals are covered with imagery, nor are the ornaments confined to the portals. Bands enriched with imagery are carved along the whole of the front, and modil lions are let into the walls. The windows are round-headed,
and are divided by small pillars. The drum of the dome is enriched externally with two tiers of arcades.
lu the interior, the arches on either side of the nave are supported by compound piers, all the capitals of which are enriched with capitals and symbols. Above the aisles, on each side of the nave, is a trifurintn, and, above it, the roof is vaulted in stone, but the pilasters which run up to support the vault are of later character than the older por tions of the building, and confirm the impression suggested by the nature of the rout' itself, that the present vaulted roof must have been substituted for an older roof of wood.
The plan of San Thomaso in limine is circular, and on the exterior, the walls are divided into compartments by pilasters, and have an areaded corbel-table under the roof. A rectangular portion projects from the circle, and is termi nated by a semicircular apse, which is decorated in a similar manner to the other part of the church. Above the circular part rises a dome, which is not supported by pendentives, but by a drum or circular wall rising above the roof: the whole is surmounted by a cupola. The windows throughout are small and insignificant. Internally, the drum of the dome is supported on eight pillars, which are simple, round, and stunted with capitals grotesquely carved ; the arches spring immediately from the capitals. The walls arc very thick.
The church of San Ambrogio, Milan, is a very good example. The plan is basilican, the arcade of the nave being supported on compound piers, above which runs an arcaded corbel-table, and above this again a triforimn, the arches being supported on very stunted compound pillars. The roof is vaulted with the pointed arch, but this is of late date. The capitals of the arches are almost, in all cases, foliated, and there is considerable freedom from the mon strous imagery usually apparent. This is one of the few churches which retains the atrium, which consists of an arcade resting on a series of compound pillars with capi tals, and covered with a roof, under which is an areaded corbel-table.