Gothic.— The practical difficulties en countered by the Romanesque builders found a structural solution during the 12th century, when, under the influences of a firmly estab lished state and a supremacy of episcopacy over monastic provincialism, ecclesiastical architec ture assumed a foremost place in the social organization of the time. The basic principles of the Gothic styles were, first, the concentra tion of thrusts upon isolated points of support, a method adopted by the late Romanesque designers in their substitution of groined for barrel vaults, and, second, balanced thrusts, by which the strain weights exerted by the stone vaults were opposed by counter-thrusts, until these various thrusts were concentrated into a final resultant pressure which was transmitted flying half-arches to external buttresses. The natural corollaries, whose development was forced through the application of those two principles, were ribbed vaulting and the pointed arch. This latter feature had been used in the Romanesque peribd, but it remained for the Gothic creators to appreciate its full structural possibilities. They built their groin ribs of semi-circular or pointed form, but the wall ribs were, without exception, pointed arches of such curvature as would bring the apex of each nearly to the level of the groin intersection. The pointed arch, thus introduced as a structural device for the vaulting ribs, necessarily deter mined the profiles of the windows and nave arches. The advance in constructive science made possible the enlargement of the windows and the suppression of enclosing walls, condi tions which promoted the use of stained glass and the necessary tracery for the support of the glass. The constructive supports were care fully moulded and buttresses were terminated with pinnacles — structural propriety was em phasized by decorative embellishment until there was produced a complex of constructive beauty which in its mystery and vivacity harmoniously presented the great ethical ideal of deity. The various styles of Gothic are universally dif ferentiated by the character of the window tracery. The formative era is known as the Early Pointed Period (1160-1275). The sim plicity and conventional treatment of structure and detail of this period gradually underwent change. In the Middle Pointed Period (1275 1375), knowledge of construction brought per fection in vaulting, and skill, resulting from training, developed a school of sculptors who delighted in the expression of naturalistic forms of mature foliage. The tracery, with its slender moulded bars and geometric combinations re flected the varieties of the achieved structural science. Skill and fancy finally suppressed the decorous art of the Middle Pointed Period, and flowing or flamboyant tracery in France and perpendicular bars and four centred arches in England and ((branch-tracer? in Germany characterized the final or Floric Gothic (1375 1525).
The masterpieces of cathedral design are Notre Dame, Paris, Amiens, Rheims, in France; Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury in England; Strassburg and Cologne in Germany; the Ca thedral of Antwerp in Belgium and the noble structures at Toledo and Burgos in Spain. In Italy civic pride expressed itself typically in .the imposing edifice at Milan and Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence.
Renaissance.— During the Medimval period arbitrary authority and ecclesiastical organiza tion had inhibited the individual expression of human intellect and will. During the 12th and 13th centuries in Italy, the restrictions of dog matism and centralized arbitrary authority and artificial union gradually gave way before the tide of Humanism, a movement that was related to every phase of life and expressed itself sym pathetically in a reapplication of classic methods and an adaptation of antique art to the require ments of the period of the Rebirth, or Re naissance. Back, almost in the Dark Ages, may be found the beginnings of this movement. Classicism had never lost its influence among the scholars of the East and in mediaeval times the intellectual centres of Italy were continually influenced by the teachings of visiting Greeks from Constantinople. The living examples of
Roman and Greek art that showed their types of studied beauty continually before their eyes could not fail to affect the literature and art of Italy. A group of men who laid the founda tion for the registering of the exultant awaken ing of modern thought and life, were Petrarch ; Giotto (the architect-sculptor) ; the Pizani; Brunelleschi (architect and structural inventor) ; Donatello (sculptor), and Masaccio (the apostle of individualism). The entire gamut of nature forms and the whole fundament of Roman structural possibilities and decorative individualism was made plain to the world in the teachings of the masterpieces produced by them. As the result of foreign invasion and commercial intercourse, the Humanistic styles of Italy came early in contact with France, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Spain. In Italy, °although the new architecture began with the colossal dome of the Cathedral of Florence and culminated with the stupendous church of Saint Peter, at Rome, it was predominantly an architecture of palaces and villas, of façades and decorative display. Constructive difficulties were reduced to their lowest terms and the con structive framework was concealed, not em phasized by the decorative apparel of the de sign." Among the masterpieces of the Re naissance are many buildings of small dimen sions, such as gates, chapels, tombs and fountains. In these, the individual fancy had full sway and produced surprising results by the beauty of carved detail. While the general styles of the Renaissance in all countries may be divided into the formative period, the classic period, the de cline and the rococo period, nevertheless on ac count of the personal expression of the styles, the real name that should be assigned to a given period should be the name of the great master of an era. The architectural motifs instituted by Brunelleschi in the construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (1420), and the Pazzi Chapel (1429) ; the Church of Santa Maria Novella (1456) and the Strozzi (1490) and Rucellai (1460), Palaces, Florence by Alberti; the Cancelleria (1500), the °Tem pietto° (1500), at San Pietro in Montorio by Bramante in Rome; the Farnese palace(1520), by San Gallo; the Massimi palace (1531), Rome, by Peruzzi, the dome of Saint Peter's (1564), at Rome by Michelangelo; the Palace Pompeii (1530), Verona, by Sanmicheli ; the Basilica, Vicenza (1560), by Palladio; the Palace Caprarola (1530), by Vignola ; the Palace Grimani (1535), Venice, by Sanmicheli; the Library of Saint Mark (1536), by Sanso vino, Venice, and Santa Maria della Salute (1631), by Longhena, Venice, are types estab lishing styles of architectural composition and decoration that continued strong in their in fluence from the time of their creation to the present day. edifices are true indices characteristic of the Humanesque civiliza tion in Italy. They are essentially prod ucts of adaptation, and, involving no new principles of construction, did not have in herent in their styles the germ of a new architecture. The Italian campaigns of Charles VIII (1489), Louis XII (1499), and Francis I (1515), resulted in the introduction of Italian culture into France. The personal contact made possible by these military activities emphasized a developing love for the luxurious facilities for living and the new mental bearing toward life resulting from an understanding of the aesthetic classic attitude. The structural char acter of the early French Renaissance was feudal. In the Royal Chateaux the military structural character compromised with Italian decorative styles and evolved a formative Renais sance art distinguished for its picturesqueness and the free and exuberant use of classic detail.