But this almost theatrical pomp is expressed in the entire spirit of the following period. Not simple earnestness, not modest dignity, but great expenditure, was what dazzled and fascinated, which in union with the mystical effects induced by the mode of lighting captivated the eves and hearts of the people. The sombre nave led the eye upward to the light of the cupola, where the sculptured and painted heavenly choir seemed to move to and fro and to join in the hymn of jubilant praise whose clear notes were intoned rapturously through the halls while the clouds of incense arose on high. It was, in fact, the taste of the period which found expression in that church-arrangement with which Vignola in the Church 11 Gesil closed the attempts of individual artists.
Andrea Palladio was active in Vicenza at the same time with Vignola. In his lifetime lie was but little distinguished above his contemporaries, but, like Vignola, lie exercised great influence through the preparation of a system of the orders. He endeavored to give his structures an imposing effect by grand proportions and colossal ranges of pilasters, which rose through several storeys. He produced his effects exclusively, not by expressing the interior arrangements, but by the importance of the parts. He had to erect his buildings of brick, but he covered them with stucco to form massive-looking rustications, and constructed colonnades whose entablatures he formed of wood in classic form. The Palazzo Tienc of 1556-1558 is partly under the influence of Giulio Romano's works at Man tua. The PalaLo Chieregati (1566; now the Museo Civico) has two ranges of half-columns, which are continued at the sides as open halls. In the Valmarano (1566) there is a reminiscence of the antique temple-pediment in the form of six great pilasters, rising through two storeys, placed in front of the façade, whose entablature is broken around them. The meaning of this arrangement is not clear to the unarchitec tural eye, as the facade is only one bay longer on each side and the want of the great pilasters at the angles is greatly felt. Only an antiquary can tell what the artist intended. An attic affords a third storey.
The Palazzo Barbarano (157o) at Vicenza is richly decorated, as is also the Palazzo Prefettizio, or Loggia del Delegato. The Teatro Olimpico was built in 1584 to Palladio's designs, and is an imitation of an antique theatre. S. Giorgio Maggiore was built iu 1560, and the Church of the Redeemer at Venice in 1576 (bV. 4o, 5). The façade of the latter reminds us of the ancient temple-facade, which is completely realized in the villa shown on Plate 43 (fig. 7).
Pellegrino Tibaldi built the court of the archbishop's palace as well as the Palazzo Magnani at Bologna and the court of the archbishop's palace at Milan, and lie also added to the facade of the cathedral at Milan the por tal and the magnificent windows, which, however, mar the harmony of the arrangement. The Villa Medici, erected by Annibale Lippi on the Monte Pincio at Rome, has open arcades between tower-like, elevated angle-build ings and rich plastic adornments. In 15S2, Scamozzi commenced the Procurazie Nuove (now the Palazzo Reale) at Venice.
The form-development of the Renaissance, that second birth of antique -art, had made a long stride forward. From a refined delicacy of detail it had passed on to an exuberance of strength which was perhaps more an tique than that delicacy, but only in the sense of the last period of the antique—that of its decadence. From a characterization of the whole which permitted the meaning of each part to be expressed, it had led to the ensemble in which each characteristic of the several parts was hidden behind an empty screen of forms. The attempt to gain effect through imposing masses had given rise to a confusion of conventionalisms which was augmented through the attempt of each master to surpass all others. Michelangelo had already shown the way to this through the excess of his originality, and after his death two decades had scarcely passed before a deeper decadence set in, the beginning of complete degeneracy. Before we can follow architectural development farther in this direction we must east a glance over other countries.
Italy had in the course of the fifteenth century become practically the centre of intelligence, and exercised a powerful influence on all other na tions through the flourishing condition of its sciences. The cultivation -of classical literature, the desire to create a new literature founded upon the genius and the forms of the ancient, were everywhere more or less progressive. Young men ardent for knowledge flocked from all nations to the Italian universities, and, while in earlier times only campaigns or pilgrimages brought the natives of other countries into Italy, now they came to see the land whose nature was considered marvellous—the land that was the home and the theatre of that wondrous ancient world and its grand deeds, the land that had given a new culture to mankind. The renovated, the resurrected old captivated the eyes, and the fame of the art-supremacy of the Italians was not less than their scientific celebrity; so that the former soon extended its influence to other lands, as had been the case with the latter.