ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. This term is usually limited to the style practiced by the Italian architects of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, and which has since been adopted in every countryin Europe. This style originated in a revival of the ancient architecture of Rome. Although Gothic architecture had been practiced in Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries, it had never been thoroughly naturalized. The Italians always shouted a for the round arch over the pointed northern form; and even in the buildings ay erected in the pointed style, there is a certain simplicity and largeness of parts indicative of a classic feeling. As early as 1350, Giovanni Pisano. in the beautiful sculpture of the pulpit at Pisa, showed a return to the ancient models. Arnolpho di Lapo built the cathedral of Florence (1290-1300), and in his design proposed a great dome (a remarkably Roman feature) over the crossing of the nave and transept. This he did not live to complete; but he prepared the way for Brunellesehi, the chief aim of whose life was the accomplishment of the great dome of the cathedral. He went to Rome to study the ancient buildings there, at that time neglected and hardly known to the Italians themselves. After devoting a considerable time to exploring these monuments, he returned to Florence; and, after great opposition, succeeded in carrying out the construction of the dome as it now stands. From this time, the revival of Roman architecture went on rapidly. It was encouraged by the popes and other princes of Italy; and the invention of the printing-press soon spread a knowledge of the works of the Italian architects over Europe. At first, the Roman moldings and ornaments only were copied and applied to the existing forms. As the ancient style became better understood; its general piiiiCipes were gradually adopted; nmtil at length the modern Italian style was formed. This style may be defined as ancient Roman archi. texture applied to the forms and requirements of piodern buildings. It has been admirably applied to domestic, but it has never been so successfully used in ecclesiast ical, edifices. The domes of the Italian churches render the interiors of these build
ings very impressive, and are a feature for the introduction of which into the w. of Europe we are indebted to this style; but the façades of the churches are broken up into stories, and want the unity of a Gothic front.
Italian architecture is divided into three styles or schools, to the places where it was practiced—viz., the Florentine, Roman, and Venetian. The Florentine buildings are massive and grand in effect; they are indebted to ancient Roman art chiefly for details, the outlines being the same as those of the older buildings, formed to suit the requirements of the place. Florence being a turbulent city, every man who had anything to lose had literally to make his house his castle. Accordingly, the basement floor is massively built with large blocks of stone, and the windows are small and plain. The Roman school naturally resembles more closely the ancient Roman buildings so numerous in that city—pilasters, arcades, etc., being freely used. In Rome, the plan of including two or more stories in one order of columns or pilasters with their entablature, with an attic or low story above, first originated, and was after wards extensively, but, as already explained, not successfully applied to churches.
The Venetian style is, as might be expected in a city long accustomed to elegant palaces, the most ornate and picturesque of the Italian schools. Venice is crowded with specimens of all kinds from the earliest to the latest renaissance, and retains its individu ality of style from first to last. Each story is marked by a separate tier of columns or pilasters with their entablature; the windows arc arched and ornamented with columns, and the spandrils commonly filled with figures. The outline is varied in form, and is usually finished with a balustrade, broken by pedestals, and crowned with sculptured figures. It is from this most picturesque of the styles of theItalian renaissance that the other countries of Europe derived their peculiar forms. Sec RENAISSANCE, ELIZABETHAN,