ITALIAN GOTHIC.
Course of Developnenf.—The circumstances under which Architecture developed in Italy from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century were entirely different from those of Northern Europe (and even of Spain, where Northern influences predominated), and Northern Gothic found little acceptance in Italy. That Architecture here had different tasks to perform was due both to circumstances and to the course of Italian cul ture, which more than in the North induced a predominant consideration of that which is agreeable to the eye. The people, because of their greater sensibility, superior culture, and critical taste, found their esthetic ideal in a direction different from that in which it was sought by the North. The striving after spaciousness, the penchant—based upon nature—for magnificent arrangements of lines, found no pleasure in the severity of an Architecture based upon construction, nor in the slender lines evolved by the school-system of the later Gothic, suitable for the meagre light of the Northern heavens. Still less could Italian eyes tolerate the mad freaks of the Gothic of the fifteenth century. There were, indeed, desultory attempts made at various times to introduce the Northern style into Italy, but the edifices which resulted from these attempts did not lead to the for mation of schools through which these traditions could be continued. On the contrary, a peculiar Italian school was formed which scarcely had more iu common with the Northern school than the frequently-recurring pointed arch and the reminders of the gables and canopies; which school; however, even in these modifications, was by no means able to repress the influence of the older local schools.
Clutrch-architecture.—As the basis of the system of church-architec ture we find a dome around which choir and transepts are variously com bined, while toward the west a thrce-aisled nave is added, to which some times a series of quadrangular chapels is attached on either side. The middle aisle is usually only slightly higher than the side-aisles, so that the vaulting is lighted only by small round windows. The piers are slender
and widely spaced. What the German system of church-construction attempted with the Hallenkirche arrangement is here put in practice in a much higher degree. Buttresses have but little importance; flying-but tresses are nearly unknown.
The full Italian daylight must be admitted only by a few small win dows if that mystical impression which is identical with the conception of a Christian church was to be produced. To this end the wall-surfaces assumed greater importance; so that in the interior the universal adorn ment of wall-painting, which had taken the place of the older mosaic, might find unlimited application, while upon the outside the varied colors of costly materials enlivened the surfaces. Above the facade, whenever the system was carried out in its entirety, three immense gables rose in front of the flat roofs behind them—a decorative screen placed before the facade. The union of the tower with the church is discarded and a simple square bell-tower or campanile is erected near the church as an entirely separate structure, or at the most is inserted in an angle contrary to the plan. The magnificent arrangement of the French choir with its wreath of chapels found even less acceptance in Italy than in England or Germany. Where there were not three equal cross-arms spreading out ward from the cupola the simple apse remained in force.
Transitional Stylc.—We left the development of Italian architecture upon the confines of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and showed what were the differences and what the resemblances between it and the German Romanesque (p. 163 sq.). A transition style was developed partly under direct French influence—partly, perhaps, even under that of Ger many as long as the emperor exercised political power in Italy. In this style the distinguishing qualities of the Italian architecture were not entirely ignored.