Which, as will be at once remarked, closely resembles the style of antique Roman art, on which, indeed, the modern is professedly founded. Although Brunelleschi, as we have before observed, revived the practice of antique architecture as early as the year 1420, yet various causes combined to delay a thorough investigation of the antique remains until the close of the century; and it even is not until the commencement of the 16th century that we find the Italian style, or modernised Roman, regularly systematised and generally received throughout Italy; from whence it gradually extended, first to Spain and to France, and at a somewhat later period into England and Germany. The power and excellence of the style are nobly exhibited in a large number of buildings, amongst which may be noted the ancient Library at Venice; St. Peter’s, at Rome; the Pitti Palace, Florence; the Basilica of Vicenza, the great Colonnade of the Louvre, Paris; St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; and the Escurial Palace, near Madrid. [17] See “Handbook to the Italian Court,” by M. Digby Wyatt and J. B. Waring. In this style, architecture rests chiefly on its own intrinsic excellence, or on proportion, symmetry, and good taste. The arts of sculpture and painting, in a great measure, become independent of architecture; and their absence in buildings of a later period (the 17th and 18th centuries, for instance) led to a coldness of character, which happily promises at the present day to find its remedy. The Court before which we stand is founded on a portion of the finest palatial edifice in Rome,--the Farnese Palace, commenced by the architect Antonio Sangallo, for Cardinal Farnese, and finished under the direction of Michael Angelo. A curious fact in connexion with the original building is, that the stones which compose it were taken from the ancient Coliseum, within whose mighty walls the early Christians suffered martyrdom; so that, in truth, the same stones which bore witness to the faith and courage of the early devotees, served afterwards to build for the faith triumphant a palace in which luxury, worldliness, and pride found a genial home. [Illustration: Ground Plan of Italian Court.]