A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revisedHamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
History
A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revised
Hamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
Architecture -- History
From this time on the new style was in general use for church designs.
_L. B. Alberti_ (1404-73), who had in Rome mastered classic details more
thoroughly than Brunelleschi, remodelled the church of +S. Francesco+ at
+Rimini+ with Roman pilasters and arches, and with engaged orders in the
façade, which, however, was never completed. His great work was the
church of +S. Andrea+ at +Mantua+, a Latin cross in plan, with a dome at
the intersection (the present high dome dating however, only from the
18th century) and a façade to which the conception of a Roman triumphal
arch was skilfully adapted. His façade of incrusted marbles for the
church of S. M. Novella at Florence was a less successful work, though
its flaring consoles over the side aisles established an unfortunate
precedent frequently imitated in later churches.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--EXTERIOR OF DOME OF DUOMO, FLORENCE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--INTERIOR OF S. SPIRITO, FLORENCE.]
A great activity in church-building marked the period between 1475 and
1490. The plans of the churches erected about this time throughout north
Italy display an interesting variety of arrangements, in nearly all of
which the dome is combined with the three-aisled cruciform plan, either
as a central feature at the crossing or as a domical vault over each
bay. Bologna and Ferrara possess a number of churches of this kind.
Occasionally the basilican arrangement was followed, with columnar
arcades separating the aisles. More often, however, the pier-arches were
of the Roman type, with engaged columns or pilasters between them. The
interiors, presumably intended to receive painted decorations, were in
most cases somewhat bare of ornament, pleasing rather by happy
proportions and effective vaulting or rich flat ceilings, panelled,
painted and gilded, than by elaborate architectural detail. A similar
scantiness of ornament is to be remarked in the exteriors, excepting the
façades, which were sometimes highly ornate; the doorways, with columns,
pediments, sculpture and carving, receiving especial attention. High
external domes did not come into general use until the next period. In
Milan, Pavia, and some other Lombard cities, the internal cupola over
the crossing was, however, covered externally by a lofty structure in
diminishing stages, like that of the Certosa at Pavia (Fig. 152), or
that erected by Bramante for the church of S. M. delle Grazie at Milan.
At Prato, in the church of the +Madonna delle Carceri+ (1495-1516), by
_Giuliano da S. Gallo_, the type of the Pazzi chapel reappears in a
larger scale; the plan is cruciform, with equal or nearly equal arms
covered by barrel vaults, at whose intersection rises a dome of moderate
height on pendentives. This charming edifice, with its unfinished
exterior of white marble, its simple and dignified lines, and internal
embellishments in della-Robbia ware, is one of the masterpieces of the
period.
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