Architecture: Gothic and RenaissanceSmith, T. Roger (Thomas Roger)
History
Architecture: Gothic and Renaissance
Smith, T. Roger (Thomas Roger)
Architecture -- History; Architecture, Gothic; Architecture, Renaissance; Church architecture
Lombardy in the Romanesque period was thoroughly under German
influence, and the buildings remaining to us from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries bear a close resemblance to those erected north of
the Alps at the same date. The twelfth century Lombard churches again
are specimens of round-arched Gothic, just as truly as those on the
banks of the Rhine. Many of them are also peculiar as being erected
chiefly in brickwork; the great alluvial plain of Lombardy being
deficient in building-stone. St. Michele at Pavia, a well-known church
of this date, may be cited as a good example. This is a vaulted
church, with an apsidal east end and transepts. The round arch is
employed in this building, but the general proportions and treatment
are essentially Gothic. A striking campanile (bell tower) belongs to
the church, and is a good specimen of a feature very frequently met
with in Lombardy; the tower here (and usually) is square, and rises by
successive stages, but with only few and small openings or ornaments,
to a considerable height. There are no buttresses, no diminution of
bulk, no staircase turrets. At the summit is an open belfry-stage,
with large semicircular-headed arches, crowned by a cornice and a
low-pitched conical roof.[25]
In the same city a good example of an Italian Gothic church, erected
after the pointed arch had been introduced, may be found in the church
of Sta. Maria del Carmine. The west front of this church is but
clumsy in general design. Its width is divided into five compartments
by flat buttresses. The gables are crowned by a deep and heavy cornice
of moulded brick and the openings are grouped with but little skill.
Individually, however, the features of this front are very beautiful,
and the great wheel-window, full of tracery, and the two-light windows
flanking it, may be quoted as remarkable specimens of the ornamental
elaboration which can be accomplished in brickwork.
The campanile of this church, like the one just described, is a plain
square tower. It rises by successive stages, each taller than the
last, each stage being marked by a rich brick cornice. The
belfry-stage has on each face a three-light window, with a traceried
head, and above the cornice the square tower is finished by a tall
conical roof, circular on plan, an arrangement not unfrequently met
with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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