[6] The Viscount Delaborde, in his book _La Gravure en Italie avant Marc-Antoine_, Paris, 1883, p. 32, remarks on this with admirable discrimination as follows: “Certes, sous le pinceau de Botticelli, de pareils sujets [subjects drawn from Classical Mythology] gardent un caractère d’élégance tendre et de mélancolie presque analogue à la physionomie des scènes où figurent l’Enfant-Dieu et la Madone. Il y a loin de cette manière d’interpréter la Fable aux panégyriques violemment ou galamment licencieux que les hôtes les plus mal famés de l’Olympe obtiendront dans les siècles suivants; il y a loin des gracieuses inventions de Botticelli aux _lascivie_ brutales de Jules Romain et d’Augustin Carrache ou aux gamineries mythologiques de Boucher et de ses pareils, et l’on a quelque peine aujourd’hui, en face d’aussi chastes tableaux, à comprendre la véhémence des reproches fulminés jadis par Savonarole.” [7] The elevated domes of Arabian architecture are in many cases constructed of wood and stucco. When of masonry they are, I believe, either weighted within where the thrusts fall, or are bound with chains. [8] I have not examined the dome of Pisa closely on the spot, but I suppose it is bound with a chain, as we know was the custom at a later time. Cf. Fontana, vol. 2, P. 363. [9] There can be little doubt that the dome represented in this fresco embodies the original project of Arnolfo, though this has been questioned. Cf. Guasti, _Santa Maria del Fiore_, etc., Florence, 1887, pp. lx-lxi. [10] This needs to be qualified. The thrusts of the dome being continuous logically call for continuous abutment, as in the Pantheon, but the intervals between the abutting members are so small that the resistance is practically continuous. [11] By its architectural character, I mean its character as a work of art. By the term “architecture” we properly mean not building merely, but the fine art of beautiful building. [12] This has been based on the affirmations of Vasari, who states that it was Brunelleschi’s purpose to “restore to light the good [_i.e._ the ancient Roman] manner in architecture,” and that he had “pondered on the difficulties” involved in vaulting the Pantheon. Cf. _Le Opere di Giorgio Vasari_, Milanesi edition, Florence, 1880, vol. 2, p. 337.