=General Character.=--Nor did the style, as employed in Italy, preserve the grandeur or purity of the northern type. The sunny climate did not invite the large openings that had become a distinction of the true Gothic. The windows were small, with little tracery, while the walls, being in consequence more solid, did not need the same enforcement with buttresses. Structurally, therefore, the walls are uninteresting, and are regarded as surfaces to be made attractive by applied decoration. Further, the Italian builder was everywhere influenced by the classic tradition. He clung to the round arch, even while he employed the pointed; frequently resorted to the Roman acanthus and Corinthian capital as decorative features; felt his columns as columns rather than as piers logically connected by the shafting to the vaulting, and in the vaulting confined his design to the main ribs, instead of enriching it with minor ones. In fact, he used the style without the structural logic and adventurous [Illustration: SIENA CATHEDRAL NOTE HALF COLUMNS ATTACHED TO THE PIERS. SEXAGOXAL DOME OVER THE CROSSING; PULPIT BY THE PISANI--MARBLE PAVEMENT WITH GRAFFITO DESIGNS.] [Illustration: MARBLE FAÇADE OF SAN MINIATO, FLORENCE P. 246] [Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE AND CAMPANILE BEHIND THE LATTER SHOWS THE BAPTISTRY. PP. 311, 312, 342] [Illustration: DOGE’S PALACE, VENICE P. 315] [Illustration: WEST FAÇADE ORVIETO CATHEDRAL MARBLE VENEER, MOSAICS AND SCULPTURE FORM SUPERB POLYCHROME DECORATION. P. 311] [Illustration: SIENA CATHEDRAL, CAMPANILE ATTACHED FAÇADE RED, BLACK AND WHITE MARBLE, RICHLY SCULPTURED; MOSAICS MODERN. P. 311] [Illustration: MILAN CATHEDRAL NOTE HOW THE FAÇADE SUGGESTS THE GERMAN USE OF INCLUDING NAVE AND AISLES UNDER A SINGLE HIGH-PITCHED ROOF. P. 313] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF MILAN CATHEDRAL SHOWING CANOPIED FIGURES ABOVE THE CAPITALS. P. 314] enthusiasm of the truly Gothic architect. He treated the edifice as a shell to be enriched with decoration. In the interior, the walls and vaultings offered surfaces for painting. When this was accomplished as, for example, in the frescoes by Cimabue, Giotto, and others in the =Church of S. Francis= in =Assisi=, by Giotto in the =Arena Chapel, Padua=, and the chapels of the =Perozzi= and =Bardi= in =S. Croce, Florence=, and in =S. Maria Novella=, possibly by Taddeo Gaddi, or at any rate by some painter of the school of Giotto, the effect is incomparably resplendent. Where, however, as in the =Cathedral of Florence=, frescoes are missing, the appearance is cold and barren; redeemed somewhat, it is true, in this case by the colossal dimensions and sense of spaciousness.