_Ireland._--The chief interest of the medieval architecture of Ireland

belongs to the buildings which were erected before the English

conquest of the 12th century. The early monastic settlements seem to

have resembled the primitive Celtic fortresses, and consisted of a

series of huts or cells, surrounded by an enclosing wall. The

so-called "bee-hive" cell, which goes back to pre-Christian times, was

built of rough stone rubble without mortar, and roofed in the same

manner by corbelling over the courses of masonry. Some of these were

certainly dwellings, but others were oratories. The largest of those

in Skellig Michael is four-sided, and from this type the stone-roofed

church of oblong plan was developed. The later type, with oblong nave

and small square-ended chancel, retained much of the character of

these primitive structures, and their barrel vaults were sometimes

independent of the stone roof-covering, a system which lasted into the

12th and 13th centuries. A certain megalithic character, and the

inclined jambs of doorway openings, are marked features of these early

churches. The round towers so frequently associated with them are

believed to be not earlier than the 9th century. Before the

introduction of Norman forms, Ireland possessed a Romanesque style of

her own, characterized by the survival of horizontal forms and their

incorporation into the round-arched style, the retention of the

inclined jambs of doorways, rich surface decoration, and the use of

certain ornamental motives of earlier Celtic origin. King Cormac's

chapel at Cashel is one of the best examples of the imported Norman

manner of the 12th century, and here we find much of the influence of

the earlier native style. The English conquest may be said to have

been the introduction to Ireland of Gothic art, and it was the local

variety of western England and south Wales which the conquerors

introduced. Among the buildings erected by the English in Ireland,

Kilkenny cathedral and the two 13th-century cathedrals of

Dublin--Christ Church and St Patrick's--are the most remarkable, but

there are many others. Their style is most plainly that of the English

conqueror, with no concession to, or consideration of, earlier Irish

forms of art. The result of the conquest was that the native style of

construction was never applied to large buildings, though it did not

at once disappear, as is witnessed by the church St Doulough near

Malahide, which appears to be a 14th-century building. The

characteristic features of later medieval Irish buildings, such as the

stepped battlements, the retention of flowing lines in the tracery,

and the peculiar treatment of crockets, are matters of no great

importance in the history of architecture, and indeed it is hardly to

be expected that a country with so stormy a history could have given

rise to any systematic developments. Of the monastic remains those of

the friaries are the most numerous, Ireland having many more friars'

churches to show than England, but such peculiarities as they possess

belong rather to the order than to any local influences. (J. Bn.)

ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY

With the exception of the church built at Treves (Trier) by the

empress Helena, of which small portions can still be traced in the

cathedral, there are no remains of earlier date than the tomb-house

built by Charlemagne at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), which, though much

restored in the 19th century, is still in good preservation. It

consists (fig. 44) of an octagonal domed hall surrounded by aisles in

two storeys, both vaulted; externally the structure is a polygon of

sixteen sides, about 105 ft. in diameter, and it was preceded by a

porch flanked by turrets. It is thought to have been copied from S.

Vitale at Ravenna, but there are many essential differences. The same

design was repeated at Ottmarsheim and Essen, and a simpler version

exists at Nijmwegen in the Netherlands, also built by Charlemagne.

Although no remains exist of the monastery of St Gall in Switzerland

(see ABBEY), built in the beginning of the 9th century, a valuable

manuscript plan was found in the 17th century, in its library, which

would seem to have been a design for a complete monastery. It

contains features which are peculiar to the early German churches and

are rarely found elsewhere, and is therefore of considerable interest,

suggesting that some of the accessories of a monastery, supposed to

have been the result of subsequent development, were all clearly set

forth at this early period. The plan shows an eastern apse with a

crypt, and a choir in front; a western apse, nave and aisles, with a

series of altars down the latter; and on the west side, but detached

from the apse, two circular towers with staircases in them.

Unfortunately there are no churches remaining of the same date from

which we might judge how far these arrangements were followed; but

there are three early churches in the island of Reichenau on the Lake

of Constance, in one of which, Mittelzell, is a western apse with

staircases (here built up into a central tower), nave, and aisles with

altars at the side between every window. The eastern portion has been

rebuilt. At Oberzell, at the south end of the island, is a vaulted

crypt, which dates from the end of the 10th century. In the third and

much smaller church, Unterzell, there was no crypt, but three eastern

apses and a western apse, which was destroyed when the present nave

was built. At Gernrode in the Harz is a church with western and

eastern apses with vaulted crypts underneath (one of which dates from

960 when the church was founded), and circular towers with staircases

in them on either side of the western apse. The church was completed

about a century later. In the arcade between the nave and aisles piers

alternate with the columns. Alternating piers are found also in

Quedlinburg (the crypt of which dates from 936 and the church above

about 1030) and many other early churches. Western apses exist at

Drubeck, Ilbenstadt, Treves, Huyseberg, St Michael and St Godehard at

Hildesheim, Mainz, the Obermunster at Regensburg, Laach, Worms, and at

a later date at Naumbergand Bamberg, showing that it was a feature

generally accepted in early and late periods. It has, however, one

great defect, that of depriving the west end of the church of those

magnificent porches which are the glory of the churches of France, the

cathedral of Spires (Speyer), the church at Limburg near Durkheim, the

cathedrals of Erfurt and Regensburg, being the few examples where a

dignified entrance is given; and further, that on entering the church

from the side, one is distracted by the rivalry of the two apses, and

it is only when turning the back on one or the other that one is able

to judge of the monumental effect of the interior.

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Plan of Cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle.]

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Plan of Cathedral at Mainz.]

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Plan of Cathedral at Worms.]

The greater number of the churches above mentioned were covered over

with open timber roofs or flat ceilings; but the problem to be solved

in Germany, as well as in Italy, was that of vaulting over the nave,

and the cathedrals of Spires, Worms and Mainz (fig. 45) are the three

most important churches in which this was accomplished. The dates of

their vaults have never been quite settled; that of Spires would seem

to have been the earliest built, probably after 1162, when the church

was seriously damaged by a conflagration, and the vault is groined

only. In Worms (fig. 46) and Mainz there are diagonal moulded ribs,

which suggest a later date. Although of great height and width, the

absence of a triforium gallery in these cathedrals is a serious

defect, as it deprives the interior of that scale which the smaller

arcades in such a gallery give to the nave arcade below and the

clerestory above, and of those horizontal lines given by string

courses which are entirely wanting in these churches. Seeing that in

some of the earlier churches, as at Gernrode, St Ursula (Cologne), and

Nieder-Lahnstem, the triforium had already been introduced, and that

it was repeated in the later examples at Limburg on the Lahn,

Bacharach, Andernach, Bonn, Sinzig, and St Gereon (Cologne), it is

difficult to understand why, in the three great typical German

Romanesque churches, they should have been omitted. Externally the

design is extremely fine, owing to the grouping of the many towers at

the west and on either side of the transept or choir. In this respect

the cathedral of Mainz is the most superb structure in Germany, and to

the cathedral of Spires with its fine entrance porch (fig. 47) must be

given the second place.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--Plan of Cathedral in Spires.]

One of the most perfect examples of the Rhenish-Romanesque styles is

the church of the abbey of Laach, completed shortly after the middle

of the 12th century. The eastern part of the church resembles the

ordinary type, but at the west end there is a narrow transept flanked

by circular towers, and a western apse enclosed in an atrium with

cloisters round, which forms the entrance to the church. The

sculptures in the capitals of the atrium are of the finest description

and represent the perfected type of the German Romanesque style. In

addition to the two circular towers flanking the west transept, a

square tower rises in the centre of the west front, two square towers

flank the choir and a crystal lantern crowns the crossing of the main

transept, and the grouping of all these features is very fine and

picturesque in effect. A small church at Rosheim in Alsace is quite

Lombardic in its exterior design, the pilaster strips and arched

corbel tables being almost identical. The same applies to the church

at Marmoutier, but the towers flanking the main front and the square

tower on the crossing of the western transept produce a composition

which one looks for in vain in the greater number of the churches in

Italy.

In describing the Lombardic churches of North Italy, reference has

been made to the probable origin of the eaves-gallery, best

represented in the eastern apse of Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. This

feature was largely adopted throughout the Rhine churches, and in the

Apostles' church and St Martin's at Cologne receives its fullest

development, being in addition to the eastern apse carried round the

apses of the north and south transepts, which in these two churches

and in St-Mary-in-the-Capitol, also in Cologne, constitute a special

treatment. In the Apostles' church, where round towers are built at

the junction of the three apses, the effect is extremely pleasing. In

the church at Bonn, the single apse is flanked by two lofty towers

which give great importance to the east front.

The steeples of the same period have a character of their own. They

are either square or octangular in plan, arcaded or pierced with

windows, and roofed with gables or with spires rising out of the

gables.

One peculiarity found in some of the German churches, and specially

those in the north-east, is that the nave and aisles are of the same

height. To these the term _Hallenkirchen_ is given. This type of

design is very grand internally, owing to the vast height of the piers

and arches. It also dispenses with the necessity for flying

buttresses, as the aisles, which are only half the width of the nave,

carry the thrust of the vault direct to the external buttresses. The

nave, however, is not so well lighted, though the aisle windows are

sometimes of stupendous height. The principal examples are those of

the church of St Stephen, Vienna, where both nave and aisles are

carried over with one vast root; at Munster, the _Wiesenkirche_ at

Soest; St Lawrence, Nuremberg; St Martin's, Landshut; Munich

cathedral, and others.

St Gereon (1200-1227) and St Cunibert (1205-1248), in Cologne, besides

churches at Naumburg, Limburg and Gelnhausen, in which the pointed

arch is employed, are almost the only transitional examples in

Germany, and respond to work of a century earlier in France. Toward

the end of the 13th century the Romanesque style was supplanted by a

style which in no way grew out of it, but was rather an imitation of

a foreign style, the earliest examples being in the _Liebfrauenkirche_

at Treves (1227-1243), and the churches at Marburg (1235-1283) and

Altenberg (1255-1301). In the latter church is a French chevet with

seven apsidal chapels. This brings us to the great typical cathedral

of Germany at Cologne (fig. 48), which had the advantages of having

been designed at the best age and completed on the original design, so

that with small exceptions a uniformity of style reigns throughout it.

It was begun in 1270 and apparently based on the plan of Amiens, the

transepts however having an additional bay each, and the two first

bays of the nave having thicker piers so as to carry the enormous

towers and spires which flank the chief facade. The principal defect

of the building is its relative shortness, owing to its

disproportionate height. This has always been felt in the interior,

and now that the lofty buildings all round have been taken down,

isolating the cathedral on all sides, it has the appearance of an

overgrown monster. The length of the cathedral is 468 ft., 17 ft. less

than the cathedral at Ulm, the longest in Germany. The height of the

nave vault is 155 ft., and as the width is only 41.6 (about one in

four) the proportion is very unpleasing. There is also a certain

mechanical finish throughout the design, which renders it far less

poetical than the great French cathedrals. Where, however, it excels

is in the extraordinary vigour of its execution, the depth of the

mouldings, and the projection given to the leading architectural

features; and in this respect, when compared with St Ouen at Rouen,

about fifty years later, the latter (which is even more mechanical in

its setting out) looks wire-drawn and poor. The twin spires of the

facade rise to the height of 510 ft.; they were completed only in the

latter part of the 19th century, and would have gained in breadth of

effect if there had been some plain surfaces left. In this respect the

spire of Freiburg cathedral, which is simple in outline and detail, is

finer, and gains in contrast on account of the simpler masonry of the

lower part of the tower. The spire at Ulm cathedral, only recently

terminated, rises to the height of 530 ft. In both these cases the

single tower is preferable to the double towers of Cologne, when

elaborated to the same extent, as they are in all these examples; and

perhaps that is one of the reasons why the spires of Strassburg and

Antwerp cathedrals are more satisfactory, as the twin towers were

never built. The front of Strassburg cathedral (1277-1318), by Erwin

von Steinbach, is too much cut up by vertical lines of masonry, owing

to the _tours-de-force_ in tracery of which the German mason was so

fond. On the whole the most beautiful of German spires is that of St

Stephen's at Vienna, and one of its advantages would seem to be that

its transition from the square base to the octagon is so well marked

in the design that it is difficult to say where the tower ends and the

spire begins. The strong horizontal courses under the spires of

Strassburg or Freiburg are defects from this point of view.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--Plan of Cathedral at Cologne.]

In domestic architecture nothing remains of the palace at

Aix-la-Chapelle, but at Lorsch near Mannheim is the entrance gateway

of the convent which was dedicated by Charlemagne in 774. It is in two

storeys, in the lower one three semicircular arches flanked by columns

with extremely classic capitals. The upper storey is decorated with

what might have been described as a blind arcade, except that instead

of arches are triangular spaces similar to some windows found in Saxon

architecture; the whole gateway being crowned with a classic cornice.

The palaces at Goslar (1050) and Dankwarderode in Brunswick

(1150-1170) still preserve their great halls, and in the palace built

(1130-1150) by the emperor Frederick I. at Gelnhausen there remain

portions extremely fine and vigorous in style, and showing a strong

Byzantine influence. The largest and most important castle is that of

the Wartburg at Eisenach, which is in complete preservation.

To sum up, the German Complete Gothic is essentially national in its

complete character. It has many and obvious defects. From the first

there is conspicuous in it that love of lines, and that desire to play

with geometrical figures, which in time degenerated into work more

full of conceit and triviality than that of any school of medieval

artists. These conceits are worked out most elaborately in the

traceries of windows and panelling. The finest early examples are in

the cathedral at Minden; a little later, perhaps, the best series is

in the cloister of Constance cathedral; and of the latest description

the examples are innumerable. But it is worth observing that they

rarely at any time have any ogee lines. They are severely geometrical

and regular in their form, and quite unlike our own late Middle

Pointed, or the French Flamboyant. In sculpture the Germans did not

shine. They, like the English, did not introduce it with profusion,

though they were very prone to the representations of effigies of the

deceased as monuments.

In one or two respects, however, Germany is still possessed of a

wealth of medieval examples, such as is hardly to be paralleled in

Europe. The vast collection of brick buildings, for instance, is

unequalled. If a line be drawn due east and west, and passing through

Berlin, the whole of the plain lying to the north, and extending from

Russia to Holland, is destitute of stone, and the medieval architects,

who always availed themselves of the material which was most natural

in the district, built all over this vast extent of country almost

entirely in brick. The examples of their works in this humble material

are not at all confined to ecclesiastical works; houses, castles,

town-halls, town walls and gateways, are so plentiful and so

invariably picturesque and striking in their character, that it is

impossible to pass a harsh verdict on the architects who left behind

them such extraordinary examples of their skill and fertility of

resource.

This development is largely due to the fact that all these countries

in north-east Germany were connected and very much influenced by the

confederation of the Hanse towns, and hence the similarity in the

design of all their buildings. Although some of the earliest buildings

date from the 12th century, the chief development took place in the

14th and 15th centuries, and in the 16th century formed the basis of

the transitional works of the Renaissance. The principal Hanse towns

are Hamburg, Lubeck and Danzig. The chief buildings in Hamburg were

destroyed by the fire in 1842, and it is in Lubeck that the most

important churches are to be found. The church of St Mary

(Marienkirche), 1304, is the most striking on account of its

dimensions, 346 ft. in length, the nave being 123 ft. high, with two

western towers 407 ft. high. Great scale is given to the building in

consequence of the small material (brick) used, and some of the

windows in this or other churches are nearly 100 ft. in height, with

lofty mullions, all in moulded brick. The _Dom_ or cathedral of

Lubeck, though slightly larger, is not so good in design, but has a

remarkable north porch in richly moulded brick, with marble shafts and

carved capitals. In the church of St Catherine the choir is raised

above a lofty vaulted crypt, similar to examples in some of the

Italian churches. The _Marienkirche_ at Danzig (1345-1503), built by a

grand master of the Teutonic knights, to whom the chief development of

the architecture of north-east Germany is largely due, is one of those

examples already mentioned as _Hallenkircken_. The nave, aisles, side

chapels, transept and aisles, and choir with square east end, are all

of the same height; as the church is 280 ft. long and 125 ft. wide,

with a transept 200 ft. long, the effect is that of one stupendous

hall, but as the light is only obtained through the windows of the

side chapels, the interior, though impressive, is somewhat gloomy. The

same is found in the choir of the Franciscan church at Salzburg, where

five slender piers, 70 ft. in height and 4 ft. in diameter, carry the

vault over an area 160 ft. long by 66 ft. wide. Right up in the north

of Germany, in Pomerania, are many fine examples in brick and

sometimes of great size, such as those at Stralsund, Stettin,

Stargard, Pasewalk, and in the island of Rugen. The _Marienkirche_ at

Stralsund, owing to its massive construction and picturesque grouping,

is an interesting example. Its western transept or narthex with tower

in centre is a common type of the churches in Pomerania, and though

very inferior in design is a version of those which in England are

seen in Ely and Peterborough cathedrals.

In the entrance gateways to the towns and in domestic architecture

north Germany is very rich; the palace of the grand master of the

Teutonic Order at Marienburg is a vast and imposing structure in brick

(1276-1335), in which the chapter house of the grand master, with its

fan-vaulted roof, resting on a single pillar of granite in the centre,

and the entrance porch of the church richly carved in brick, are among

the finest examples executed in that material. (R. P. S.)

ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Plan of Cathedral at Tournai.]

Of early Romanesque work neither Belgium nor Holland retains any

examples; for with the exception of the small building at Nijmwegen

built by Charlemagne, there are no churches prior to the 11th century,

and at first the influence in Belgium would seem to have come from

Lombardy, through the Rhine Provinces. As all her large churches are

built in the centres of her most important towns, it is probable that

the older examples were pulled down to make way for others more in

accordance with the increasing wealth and population. In the 13th

century they came under the influence of the great Gothic movement in

France, and two or three of their cathedrals compare favourably with

the French cathedrals. The finest example of earlier date is that of

the cathedral of Tournai (fig. 49), the nave of which was built in the

second half of the 11th century, to which a transept with north and

south apses and aisles round them was added about the middle of the

12th century. These latter features are contemporaneous with similar

examples at Cologne, and the idea of the plan may have been taken from

them; externally, however, they differ so widely that the design may

be looked upon as an original conception, though the nave arcades,

triforium storey, and clerestory resemble the contemporaneous work in

Normandy. The original choir was pulled down in the 14th century, and

a magnificent _chevet_ of the French type erected in its place. The

grouping of the towers which flank the transept, with the central

lantern, the apses, and lofty choir, is extremely fine (fig. 50). The

sculptures on the west front, dating from the 12th to the 16th

century, protected by a portico of the late 15th century, are of

remarkable interest and in good preservation. They are in three tiers,

the two lowest consisting of bas-reliefs, the upper tier with

life-size figures in niches, resting on corbels. The Romanesque tower

of the church of St Jacques in the same town, with angle turrets, is a

picturesque and well-designed structure.

Other early examples are those of St Bartholomew at Liege (A.D. 1015)

and the churches at Roermonde and St Servais at Maastricht, both

belonging to Holland. The latter is an extremely fine example, which

recalls the work at Cologne, and in its great western narthex follows

on the lines of the German churches at Gernrode, Corvey and Brunswick.

Among other churches of later date are St Gudule at Brussels, with

Gothic 13th century choir and a 14th century nave with great circular

pillars, the west front of later date, approached by a lofty flight of

steps, having a very fine effect; Ste Croix at Liege, with a western

apse; St Martin at Ypres and St Bavon at Ghent, both with 13th-century

choir and 14th-century nave; Tongres, 13th century with great circular

pillars and an early Romanesque cloister; Notre Dame de Pamele at

Oudenarde; and Notre Dame at Bruges, 14th century. Of 15th and 16th

century work (for the Gothic style lasted without any trace of the

Renaissance till the middle of the 16th century) are St Gommaire at

Lierre (1425-1557); St Martin, Alost (1498), St Jacques, Antwerp; and

St Martin and St Jacques, both at Liege. The largest in area, and in

that sense the most important church in Belgium, is Notre Dame at

Antwerp (misnamed the cathedral). It was begun in 1352, but not

completed till the 16th century, so that it possesses many

transitional features. It is one of the few churches with three aisles

on each side of the nave, the outer aisle being nearly as wide as the

nave, which is too narrow to have a fine effect. Only one of the two

spires of the west front is built, perhaps to its advantage; the upper

portion presents in its pierced stone spires one of those remarkable

_tours-de-force_ of which masons are so proud, and having a simple

substructure it gains by contrast with and is much superior to the

spires of Cologne, Vienna and Ulm.

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--Tournai Cathedral.]

Among the most remarkable features in these Belgian churches are the

rood screens, the earliest of which is in the church of St Peter at

Louvain, dating from 1400, in rich Flamboyant Gothic, retaining all

its statues. In the church at Dixmuiden, St Gommaire at Lierre (1534),

and in Notre Dame, Walcourt (1531), are other examples all in perfect

preservation; the last is said to have been given by the emperor

Charles V., and in the same church is a lofty tabernacle in Flamboyant

Gothic.

Owing to the comparatively late date of many of the Belgian churches,

they are all more or less unfinished, as the religious fervour of the

citizens who built them would seem to have changed in favour of their

town halls and civic buildings immediately connected with trade. The

Cloth Hall at Ypres (1200-1334) with a frontage of 460 ft., three

storeys high with a lofty central tower and a hall on the upper storey

435 ft. long, one of the finest buildings of the period in Europe; Les

Halles at Bruges, originally built as a cloth hall, also with a lofty

central tower; and a simple example at Malines, are the earliest

buildings of this type.

There follow a series of magnificent town halls, of which that at

Brussels is the largest, but the tower not being quite in the centre

of its facade gives it a lopsided appearance. There is no tower to the

town hall at Louvain (1448-1469), but this is compensated for by the

angle turrets, and the design is far bolder. In both these examples

the vertical lines are too strongly accentuated, and seeing that they

are in two or three storeys, the latter should have been maintained in

the design of the facades. In this respect the town hall of Oudenarde

(1527-1535) is more truthful, and as a result is far superior to them;

the tower also is in the centre of the principal front, which at all

events is better than at Brussels, though as a matter of composition

it would have been more effective and picturesque if it had been

placed at one end of the facade. In the town hall at Mons there is no

tower, but a fine upper storey with ten windows filled with good

tracery. Of the town hall at Ghent only one half is Gothic

(1480-1482), as it was not completed till a century later, and though

overladen with Flamboyant ornament it has fine qualities in its

design. Although but few examples still exist of the Gothic structures

belonging to the various gilds, owing to their having been rebuilt in

the Renaissance style, those of the Bateliers at Ghent (1531), and of

the Fishmongers at Malines (1519), bear witness in the rich decoration

to the wealth of these corporations.

Holland is extremely poor in church architecture, but there are two

examples which should be noted, at Utrecht and Bois-le-Duc ('s

Hertogenbosch). Of the former only the choir exists. It is of great

height (115 ft.), and belongs to the finest period of Gothic

architecture (1251-1267). The nave was destroyed by a hurricane in

1674, and so seriously damaged that it was all taken down (a wall

being built to enclose the choir) and an open square left between it

and the lofty west tower. The cathedral of St John at Bois-le-Duc,

though founded in 1300, was rebuilt in the Flamboyant period

(1419-1497). It is of great length (400 ft.) with a fine _chevet_, and

possessed originally a magnificent rood screen in the early

Renaissance style (1625); this seemed to the burghers to be out of

keeping with the Gothic church, so it was taken down and sold to the

South Kensington Museum, being replaced by a very poor example in

Modern Gothic.

There is only one Gothic town hall of importance in Holland, that at

Middleburg (1468), a fine example, and quite equal to those in

Belgium. The ground and upper floors are kept distinct, and as the

wall surface of these lower storeys is in plain masonry, the traceried

windows and the canopied niches (all of which retain their statues)

gain by the contrast. There is a small picturesque specimen at Gouda,

and at Leeuwarden in the house of correction (Kanselary) a rich

example in brick and stone, with a remarkable stepped gable in the

centre having statues on its steps.

Both in Belgium and Holland there are numerous examples of domestic

architecture in brick with quoins and tracery in stone, in both cases

alternating with brick courses and arch voussoirs and with infinite

variety of design. (R. P. S.)

THE RENAISSANCE STYLE: INTRODUCTION

The causes which led to the evolution of the Renaissance style in Italy

in the 15th century were many and diverse. The principal impulse was

that derived from the revival of classical literature. Already in the

14th century the coming movement was showing itself in the works of the

painters and sculptors, especially the latter, owing to the influence of

the classic sculpture which abounded throughout Italy. Thus in the tomb

of St Dominic (1221) at Bologna, the pulpits of Pisa (1260) and Siena

(1268), and in the fountain of Perugia (1277-1280) by Niccola Pisano and

his son Giovanni, all the figures would seem to have been inspired in

their character by those found in Roman sarcophagi. A classic treatment

is noticeable in the doorway of the Baptistery of Florence by Andrea

Pisano (1330), probably influenced by Giotto, in whose paintings are

found the representation of imaginary buildings in which Gothic and

Classic details are mixed up together. The time for its full

development, however, did not come till the following century, when,

with the papal throne again firmly established under Martin V., the

amelioration of the city of Rome was commenced, and discoveries were

made which awakened an archaeological interest fostered by the Medici at

Florence, who not only became enthusiastic collectors of ancient works

of art, but promoted the study of the antique figure. In addition to the

acquisition of marbles and bronzes, ancient manuscripts of classic

writers were sought for and supplied by Greek exiles who seemed to have

foreseen the breaking up of the eastern empire; everything, therefore,

at the beginning of the 15th century fostered the spread of the new

movement. Accordingly, when a great architect like Brunelleschi, who for

fifteen years had been making a special study of the ancient monuments

in Rome and who possessed in addition great scientific knowledge,

brought forward his proposals for the completion of the cathedral built

by Arnolfo di Lapo, and showed how the existing substructure could be

covered over with a dome like the Pantheon at Rome, his designs were

accepted by the town council of Florence, and in 1420 he was entrusted

with the work. Subsequently he carried out other works, in which pure

classic architectural forms are the chief characteristics. There were,

however, other causes which not only promoted the encouragement of the

revival, but extended it to other countries, though at a later period;

the most important of these was the invention of printing (1453), which

in a sense revolutionized art, not so much in its enabling classical

literature to be more extensively studied and known, as in its taking

away to a certain extent from the painter and sculptor and indirectly

the architect one of their principal missions, so far as ecclesiastical

architecture is concerned. Henceforth these who had hitherto taught

their lessons in sculpture, painting, stained glass and fresco, could,

through the printed book, bring them more immediately before and

directly to mankind. Victor Hugo's pithy saying, "_ceci tuera cela; le

livre tuera l'eglise_," expressed not only the fall of architecture from

the position it occupied as the principal teacher, but to a certain

extent the change in the channel by which religious teachers and the

writers of the day, the poets and philosophers, could best make their

works known.

With the invention of printing came the partial cessation of fresco

painting, stained glass and sculpture, which subsequently came to be

regarded more as decorative adjuncts than as having educational

functions. But this transfer from the Church to the Book, the extinction

of the one by the other, led to another important change. Henceforth the

architect or master-mason, as he was then known, could no longer count

on the co-operation of the various craftsmen, men often of greater

culture than himself; and the individuality of the man, which has

sometimes been put forward as a gain to humanity, was a loss so far as

architecture is concerned, since it was scarcely possible that the

imagination and conceptions of a single individual, however brilliant

they might be, could ever reach to the high level of the joint product

of many minds, or that there could be the same natural expression in

what had hitherto been the traditional work of centuries.

In France the introduction of the Revival resulted at first in a

transitional period during which classic details gradually crept in,

displacing the Gothic. In Italy this does not seem to have been the case

to the same extent. It is true that in Florence and Venice, where an

independent style existed, the new buildings in their general principles

of design were, copied from the old, but with no mixture of details as

in France; in Brunelleschi's church, Santo Spirito at Florence, the

capitals and details are all pure Italian, as pure as if they had been

carried out in the 3rd or 4th century, the fact being that already

before the 15th century the craftsman's work was approaching the new

movement, and this was facilitated by the numerous remains still

existing of Roman architecture. In the four or five years Brunelleschi

spent in Rome, he had the opportunity of studying a far larger number of

Roman buildings than are preserved at the present day, so that the

purity of style in the work which he carried out in Florence was due to

his previous training; the same is found in Alberti's work, and with

these two great men leading the way it is not surprising that throughout

the earlier Renaissance period in Italy we find a classic perfection of

detail which it took half a century to develop in other countries.

It is difficult to say what might have been its ultimate development if

another discovery had not been made about 1452, that of the manuscript

of Vitruvius, a Roman architect who lived in the time of the emperor

Augustus; his work on architecture gives an admirable description of the

building materials employed in his day (_c_. 25 B.C.), and among other

subjects, a series of rules regulating the employment of the various

orders and their correct proportions. These rules were based on the

descriptions which Vitruvius had studied of Greek temples, but as he was

not acquainted with the examples quoted, never having been in Greece or

even in south Italy at Paestum, his knowledge was confined to the

architectural monuments then existing in Rome. Vitruvius's manuscript,

entitled _De re aedificatoria_, was illustrated by drawings, none of

which have however been preserved; when therefore in subsequent years

translations of the architectural portion of the manuscript were printed

and published by various Italian architects, among whom Vignola and

Palladio were the more important, they were accompanied by woodcuts

representing their interpretation of the lost illustrations, and thus

copybooks of the orders were published, with more or less fidelity to

those of existing Roman monuments, in which attempts were made to adhere

to the rules laid down by Vitruvius. In Rome and other parts of Italy,

where ancient monuments or portions of them still remained _in situ_,

architects could study their details and base their designs on them, but

in other countries they were bound to follow the copybook, and thus they

lost that originality and freedom of design which characterizes the

earlier work of the Renaissance.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that the publications of Vignola

and Palladio, based as they were on the remains of ancient Rome, then

much better preserved than at the present day, tended to maintain a high

standard in the employment of the Classic orders, with correct

proportions and details; so much so, that in referring to the influence

which those works exerted from the middle of the 16th century in France

and Spain, and during the 17th and 18th centuries in England and to a

certain extent in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, it is generally

spoken of as the introduction of the pure Italian style. The tendency,

however, of such hard and fast rules leads eventually to an excess in

the opposite direction, and the works of Borromini in Italy and

Churriguera in Spain in the middle of the 17th century resulted in the

production of what is generally referred to as the Rococo style. This

style was fostered in France by the attempts to reproduce, externally

and in stone, ornamental decoration of a type which is only fitted for

internal work in stucco, and in Germany and the Netherlands by

reproductions of fantastic designs published in copybooks, which led to

the bastard style of the Zwinger palace in Dresden and the Dutch

architecture of the 18th century. Vignola's work on the five orders was

published in 1563, and Palladio's in 1570; they were preceded by a

publication of Serlio's in 1540, giving examples of various

architectural compositions, and to him is probably due the introduction

of the pure Italian style in the Louvre in 1546. They were followed by

other authors, as Scamozzi in Italy, Philibert de l'Orme in France, and,

at a later date, Sir William Chambers in England.

The term given to the earlier Renaissance or transition work in Italy is

the Cinque cento style, though sometimes that title is given to

buildings erected in the 16th century; in France it is known as the

Francois I. style, in Spain as the Plateresque or Silversmiths' style,

and in England as the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles.

There is still another and very important difference to be noted between

the styles of the middle ages and those of the Renaissance. Although the

names of the designers in the former are occasionally known and have

been handed down to us, they were only partially responsible, as the

works were carried out by other craftsmen working on traditional lines,

whereas in the latter they are of much more importance because of the

independent thought and study of the individual; and though to a certain

extent the development of each man's work may have been influenced by

others working in the same direction, his special object was to acquire

personal fame and by his own fancy or predilection to produce what he

conceived to be an original work peculiar to himself. Consequently in

our description the name of the architect who designed a particular

building, as well as the date of its erection, are necessarily given to

show the progress made In his studies or otherwise. (R. P. S.)

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY

In the styles hitherto described a chronological order has been

followed, as far as possible, in order to show the gradual development

of the style; that course is adopted here to a certain extent, when

dealing with the Renaissance, though the introduction of the personal

element, to which reference has been made, brings in a change of some

importance. Henceforth the career of the individual has to be taken into

consideration, and at times it may be an advantage when describing a

building by an architect of eminence to mention other works by him, and

so depart from the chronological sequence.

_Ecclesiastical._--The classic revival in Italy, though foreshadowed

in other branches of art, as in painting and sculpture, and also to a

marked degree in literature, was virtually introduced by one great

man, Filippo Brunelleschi of Florence, who, trained as a sculptor, and

disappointed with his want of success in the competition held in 1403

for the bronze gates of the baptistery at Florence, determined to

devote himself to architecture, possibly in the hope that he might

some day be able to solve the great problem of erecting over the

crossing of Arnolfo di Lapo's great cathedral the dome projected by

the latter but never executed. Having spent some years in Rome,

Brunelleschi returned to his native town about 1410, with a profound

knowledge of classic architecture and of Roman construction, as shown

in the Pantheon, the thermae, Colosseum and other remains, then in

much better preservation than at the present day. Some years passed in

the production of various schemes and in deliberations with the

council of Florence, but eventually in 1420 the completion of the

cathedral was entrusted to him, and he undertook to construct the dome

without centreing, and to raise it on a drum so as to give it greater

importance than Arnolfo had contemplated, as shown in the fresco of

the Spanish chapel of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The dome as

projected by Brunelleschi was of considerable size, being 130 ft. in

diameter and 135 ft. from the cornice to the eye of the dome,

including the drum on which it was raised; it was octagonal in plan,

and built with an inner and outer casing partly in brick, with angle

and two intermediate ribs on each face, which were in stone. The

construction of the dome was completed in 1434; but the lantern, built

on the basis of the model he had made, was not carried out till 1462,

some years after his death. Brunelleschi's other works in Florence

consisted of the church of San Lorenzo, which he rebuilt in 1425 after

a fire, and the church of Santo Spirito (1433), a very remarkable

building, the design of which was based on the medieval basilicas of

Rome, with such modifications in plan and section as his knowledge of

ancient Roman work suggested. This church consists of nave, transept

and choir, with aisles all round, the centre or crossing being covered

with a dome on pendentives, which henceforth became the chief

characteristic in all the Renaissance churches. Brunelleschi's

earliest work was the Pazzi chapel, an original conception which is

more remarkable for the pure classic feeling and refinement in all its

details than for the design. The weakness of the archivolt round the

central archway, and the mass of panelled wall carried on columns (far

too slight in their dimensions), detract seriously from the effect of

the facade; internally the structural function of the pilasters is not

sufficiently maintained, and instead of a simple hemispherical dome,

as in the cathedral, a quasi-Gothic type was built, with twelve ribs

and scalloped cells, which destroys its dignity.

Brunelleschi was followed by another great Florentine architect, Leon

Battista Alberti, who was also a great mathematician and a scholar,

and further promoted the study of classic architecture by writing a

treatise in Latin, _Opus praestantissimum de re aedificatoria_, which

was based partly on that of Vitruvius and was published in 1485, after

his death, accompanied by illustrations. The first building with which

he was connected was the church of San Francesco at Rimini, to which

in 1440 he added the front. In this he was evidently inspired by the

Roman triumphal arch in that city, and his interpretation of it, to

meet the requirements in its facade which were imposed upon him by the

existing nave, was admirable. Unfortunately the principal front was

never completed, but on the south side he designed a series of

recesses to hold the sarcophagi containing the remains of the friends

of his client, Sigismondo Malatesta, the effect of which is simple and

grand. Alberti's largest work, the church of Sant' Andrea at Mantua

(1472), in which the nave, transept and choir are all covered with

barrel vaults, recalls the vaulted corridors of the Colosseum. There

are no aisles, but a series of rectangular chapels on each side, the

division walls of which act as buttresses to resist the thrust of the

great vault. The lofty arched openings to the chapels, separated by

Corinthian pilasters with entablature supporting the coffered vault

and a central dome (since rebuilt), complete the structure, which has

served since as the model for all the Renaissance churches of the same

type. The principal front is not satisfactory, as it takes no

cognizance of the width of the nave, and the side doors have no use or

meaning; here Alberti seems to have been led astray in his triumphal

arch treatment, which is inferior to his scheme for the church at

Rimini.

In 1462 Michelozzo, another Florentine architect, built the chapel of

St Peter at the east end of the church of Sant' Eustorgio, Milan.

Externally it has little attraction, but internally the dome, with its

magnificent frieze of winged angels in relief with a painted

background of arcades and other accessories, is the most beautiful

composition of the Renaissance. Michelozzo's first work was the

Dominican monastery and church of San Marco at Florence (1439-1452),

but he is better known for his secular work, to which we shall return.

The next great architect chronologically is Bramante d' Urbino, to

whom was entrusted the commencement of the church of St Peter at Rome.

His first important work was the church of Santa Maria della

Consolazione at Todi (1472), which consists of a square nave with

immense semicircular apses, one on each side. The nave is covered with

a dome raised on a drum, and carried on pendentives, and the apses

with hemispherical vaults butt against the nave walls and form

externally a very fine group. Bramante was the architect of the chapel

in the cloisters of San Pietro-in-Montorio, Rome (1472), a small

circular building covered with a dome and surrounded with a peristyle

of columns of the Doric order; and of the dome of the church of Santa

Maria delle Grazie in Milan, as also of the three apses, which are

decorated with pilasters and baluster shafts with circular medallions

enclosing busts, all in terra cotta. Before passing to his work at St

Peter's there are some other early churches we must notice. The

Certosa, near Pavia, was begun in 1396, and in one sense suggests the

revival of classic architecture, in that all its arches have

semicircular heads. The magnificent facade of the church was commenced

in 1473 from the designs of Borgognone, a Milanese architect: it is

one of the few examples in Italy of large size in which the transition

is noticeable, for although there are no Gothic details the design

follows that of the middle ages, and instead of great pilasters of the

Corinthian order, buttresses with niches containing statues divide the

facade and accentuate the internal divisions of the church; the open

galleries above the entrance doorway crossing the upper storey of the

central portion are all derived from well-known Lombardic features.

The upper part of the facade is inferior to the lower, Borgognone's

design having been departed from. The enrichment of the whole front,

from the lower plinth to the string course under the first gallery,

with bas-reliefs, panelled pilasters, niches, medallions and other

decorative accessories, all in white marble, so completely covers the

whole surface that scarcely any portion is left plain, which to a

certain extent detracts from its effect as a whole; but there is an

endless variety of design, and the baluster or candelabrum shafts

dividing the windows and the friezes and cresting above their

cornices, are of great beauty. The circular rose window above, with

its enclosing frontispiece of later date, shows the coming influence

of the later Italian style. The cloisters adjoining are surrounded

with a light arcade, with enrichments in the spandrils and frieze, all

in terra cotta.

The cathedral of Como is also a transitional example, where buttresses

are employed all round the church, and it is only in the finials which

surmount them, the great projecting cornice which crowns the

structure, and the doorways and windows, that we find classical

details; the doorways recall the porches of the Lombard churches, and

are of great beauty in design, the south doorway being said to be by

Bramante. Another example, remarkable for its elaborately carved front

and porch, is the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli at Brescia

(1487-1490) by Ludovici Beretta, which both externally and internally

is one of the richest specimens of the early Italian Renaissance. The

church dedicated to Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice (1481-1489), by

Pietro Lombardo, is another transitional example in which the

Byzantine influence of St Mark's is recognizable in the semicircular

pediments of its facade and of the exterior of the chancel, and

Lombardic influence in its external decorations with pilaster strips

and blind arcades. The interior is one of the gems of the Renaissance,

on account of its splendid decoration with marble linings and fine

cinque-cento carving. Similar semicircular pediments are found in the

facade of the church of San Zaccharia at Venice (1515), but are purely

decorative because the roof behind is not semicircular like that of

the Miracoli. The decoration of the main front, here all in marble, is

of an entirely different design, and is subdivided into a series of

storeys, the lower panelled, the first storey with arcades and the

upper ones with pilasters. An earlier example (1461) in San Bernardino

at Perugia is of a far higher standard, and its enrichment with

bas-reliefs by the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio (c. 1418-c.

1490) gives it the first place for its conception and execution. Among

others, the church of Spirito Santo, Bologna, in terra cotta; the

church of Santa Giustina, Padua (1532); the sacristy of San Satiro,

Milan (1479), by Bramante; and the sacristy of the church of Santo

Spirito, Florence (1489-1496), by Sangallo, are all interesting

examples of the early Renaissance in Italy.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--Plan of St Peter's at Rome.]

In 1505, on the advice of Michelangelo, Bramante was instructed to

prepare designs for a new church in Rome dedicated to St Peter, to

take the place of the early basilica, which, built in haste, began to

show serious signs of failure. Already, fifty years earlier, Pope

Nicholas V. had commenced a new building, the erection of which was

stopped by his death in 1454. The scheme was revived by Julius II.,

and the foundation stone of the new structure was laid in 1506. On

Bramante's death in 1514, Raphael, Peruzzi and Sangallo were

successively appointed, and the last named prepared a new design,

which, however, was not carried out, as he found it necessary first to

strengthen the piers of the dome provided by Bramante and to remedy

the defects of his successors. In 1546 Michelangelo, then seventy-two

years of age, was entrusted with the continuance of the work, and he

made radical changes, chiefly in the design of the dome. Comparison of

the plans of Bramante and Sangallo with that actually carried out by

Michelangelo shows that he not only increased the size of the piers to

carry his dome, but the outer walls of the north, south and west

apses, and omitted the aisles which surrounded the latter (fig. 51).

He would seem to have availed himself of the foundation walls already

built and of Bramante's piers to carry the dome, which had been raised

up to the cornice, but otherwise the architectural features of the

whole building externally and internally were carried out from

Michelangelo's own designs. Sangallo had suggested for the exterior a

series of superimposed orders with three storeys; Michelangelo elected

to have one order only with an attic storey. The building gained

thereby in dignity, but it lost in scale, for the huge pilasters of

the Corinthian order (87 ft. high) look considerably smaller, in spite

of the two storeys of windows between them. These windows also, which

from their design are apparently about 10 to 12 ft. high, actually

measure 20 ft. in height. The same defect exists in the interior,

where the Corinthian order, over 100 ft. in height to the top of the

cornice (Plate III., fig. 69), calls for a similar increase in the

dimensions of all the sculptured decorations; the figures in the

spandrils being 20 ft. high, and the cherubs supporting the holy water

spouts 10 ft. Otherwise the scheme realizes the conception which

Bramante proposed from the first, viz. to raise the dome of the

Pantheon on the top of the basilica of Constantine; the latter being

represented by the magnificent barrel vault (75 ft. in span) of the

nave, transepts and choir; the former by the great hemispherical dome,

140 ft. in diameter, which, including the drum, is 162 ft. from the

top of the cornice above the pendentives to the soffit of the dome.

The dome is built in two shells with connecting ribs on the same

principle as Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, and was nearly completed

before Michelangelo's death in 1563, and the lantern in 1590 from the

model which he had made. In 1605 the east end of the old basilica was

taken down, and three more bays were added, thus converting the Greek

cross of Michelangelo's design into the Latin cross originally

conceived by Bramante. The nave and the eastern vestibule were

completed in 1620, and the great semicircular portico was added by

Bernini in 1667. The immense height of the east facade, and its

prolongation in front of Michelangelo's chief feature, the dome, hides

the design of a great portion of the latter, so that it can only be

seen either from a great distance (Plate III., fig. 68), or from

behind the western apse, where the relative grouping with the great

apses can be properly appreciated. A second well-known work by

Michelangelo is the new sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo,

Florence (1523-1529), designed to contain the monuments of Giuliano

and Lorenzo de' Medici, the architectural design of which is poor.

Antonio di Sangallo was the architect of the church of San Biagio at

Montepulciano (1518), with a cruciform plan, and dome in the centre,

and a campanile at the south-west angle somewhat similar to those of

Wren in London.

The church of Santa Maria-di-Carignano (1552) at Genoa, by Galeazzo

Alessi, is finely situated but unsatisfactory in its design, the lower

part being stunted in its proportions and its order to a different

scale from that in the campanile towers and the dome. The most

beautiful interior is that of the Annunziata in the same town, by

Giacomo della Porta (1587); the arches of its nave arcade are carried

on Corinthian columns of marble, of fine proportion, and the nave is

covered with a barrel vault with penetrations admitting the light from

clerestory windows. The churches of San Giorgio Maggiore (1556-1579),

San Francesco della Vigna (1562), and II Redentore (1577), all in

Venice, were designed by Palladio, the interior of the latter being

the finest; the facade of the first named is the best-proportioned,

but whether its design is due to Palladio, or to Scamozzi, who built

it in 1610, is not known. A far finer church in its picturesque

grouping and the originality of its design is that of Santa Maria

della Salute on the Grand Canal (1631), by Baldassare Longhena; the

church is octagonal on plan, with aisles round, giving access to six

recesses with altars and to an important eastern chapel with central

dome. The central octagon is covered with a lofty dome with immense

corbel buttresses of vigorous and fine design. The entrance portal of

the west front is perhaps the best example of the period in Italy.

Longhena also designed the Santa Maria degli Scalzi (1680), completed

by Sardi in 1689, the latter being responsible for the heavy front of

San Salvatore (1663), as also of the rich but somewhat debased church,

in the Jesuit style, Santa Maria Zobenigo (1680-1683).

_Secular Architecture._--In the application of the leading features of

classical architectural design to palaces and mansions, the Italians

had a much easier field on which to exercise their originality, as the

requirements were very different from those which obtained in the

middle ages. Moreover, the classic style lent itself more readily to

the horizontal lines given by string courses, cornices and ranges of

windows, which naturally exist in dwelling-houses on account of the

various storeys. As in ecclesiastical, so in secular architecture, the

first introduction of the Revival takes place in Florence, which was

then the principal art centre of Italy, and the earliest examples are

in a sense transitional, in that they are based on the earlier

medieval work. As in the Palazzo Vecchio (1298) in Florence, and the

Ricciarelli palace at Volterra (c. 1320), the rusticated masonry which

gives them so fine a character forms the chief characteristic of the

Riccardi and Strozzi palaces, the only changes being the substitution

of a classic cornice of considerable projection in the place of the

machicolations of the Palazzo Vecchio, and the employment of circular

arches in the windows in the place of the pointed and curved arches.

The earliest example, the Riccardi palace (1430), by Michelozzo (fig.

52), built for Cosimo de' Medici, is certainly the finest, owing

partly to its size but more especially to the magnificent bossed and

rusticated masonry of the ground storey and the bold projecting

cornice, which crowns so admirably the whole structure. The lower two

storeys of the main front of the Pitti palace were built by

Brunelleschi in 1435, the return wings and court not being carried out

till after 1550 from the designs of Ammanati; compared with the other

Tuscan palaces the cornice is extremely poor and the whole front too

monotonous. The beautiful court of the Palazzo Vecchio was

reconstructed and decorated by Michelozzo in 1434. The Strozzi palace

(1489), by Benedetto da Maiano and S. Pollajuolo, (Cronaca), comes

next to the Riccardi as regards general design, but in comparison with

it the windows are too small, and the want of a much bolder

rustication, as provided in the latter, is much felt. Other examples

of the same type are the Gondi (1481) and the Antinori palaces, by G.

di Sangallo, and the Casa Larderel, all in Florence; the Spanochi

(1470) and the Piccolomini (1460) palaces in Siena, and the

Piccolomini palace (1490) in Pienza. In the Guadagni palace at

Florence, by S. Pollajuolo, there is a third storey, consisting of an

open gallery, which gives the depth of shadow otherwise afforded by

the projecting cornice. In the Ruccellai palace (1460), by Alberti,

the design is spoilt by the introduction of the classic pilasters at

regular intervals on each storey, which suggest no structural object

and have too little projection to give any effect of light and shade,

so that it is only on account of the purity of their details that they

are worth notice. The Pandolphini palace, the design of which is

attributed to Raphael, carried out after his death by Sangallo, is a

simple and unpretentious building of fine proportions: the Pall Mall

facade of Sir Charles Barry's Travellers' Club in London is a

reproduction of this palace. The Bartolini palace (1520), by Baccio d'

Agnolo, is said to have been the first astylar example in which the

Classic orders were employed only to decorate the entrance door and

windows, but this had already been done in 1488 in the Scuola di San

Marco in Venice.

Throughout the greater part of the 15th century, the Venetian Gothic

style still held its own in the palaces of Venice, so that it is only

towards the close of the century we find the first actual results of

the Classic Revival. The earlier palaces may be looked upon as

transitional work, in which Gothic principles rule the design while

the details are borrowed from classic sources. The intimate

acquaintance with the proportions of the Classic orders and their

ornamental detail shows that the designers of the earliest Renaissance

palaces must have acquired their knowledge outside Venice. Among these

designers we find the names of members of the Lombardi family (which,

as the name suggests, come from Lombardy), who for three or four

generations, either as architects or sculptors, would seem to have

been the chief founders of the Renaissance style in Venice. One of

these, Pietro Lombardo, has already been referred to as the designer

of the church of the Miracoli, and to him is due the

Vendramini-Calerghi palace on the Grand Canal (Plate IV., fig. 71),

built in 1481, which in some respects is the finest example in Venice.

It should be observed that all these palaces on the Grand Canal have

an architectural frontage only, the flanks being built in plain

masonry or brick stuccoed over, and with very poor, if any, dressings

to the windows. This is well exemplified in the Vendramini palace,

where there are gardens on each side, showing the total want of

correlation between the rich architectural front and the poverty of

the flanks.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--Riccardi Palace, Florence.

From a photo by Almari.]

In a still earlier example, the Dario palace, one of the flanks

borders on a side canal, so that its brick construction, partly

covered with stucco, contrasts strangely with the rich marbles

encrusting the main front. In the Dario palace the transition from

Gothic to Renaissance is more clearly seen, as the only changes made

are the substitution of circular window-heads for the Ogee Venetian

arch, the projecting cornice with modillions, and more or less pure

classic details. In the Vendramini palace the employment of the

orders, to break up or subdivide the wall surface, has become a

recognized treatment, based on the theatre of Marcellus and the

Colosseum at Rome. On the ground storey there are panelled pilasters

only, but on the first and second storeys three-quarter detached

columns of the Corinthian order are employed, and the entablature is

doubled in height with a bold projecting cornice, so as to crown

properly the whole building.

The semicircular-headed windows of the palace are filled with moulded

tracery carried on columns in the centre of each, which must be looked

upon as the classic version of the arcade of the Ducal palace. This

feature is found in other early Renaissance work in Venice, as in the

Scuola de San Rocco (1517), and the Cornaro Spinelli palace (1480). In

the latter, probably also by Pietro Lombardo, there are pilasters only

on the groins of the main front, and the window-heads are enclosed in

square-headed frames. In the Scuola de San Marco (1488), by Lombardo,

we find another type of window, single and lofty, with pilaster strips

each side carrying an entablature with pediment. The same window

decoration is found on the south and west fronts of the court of the

Ducal palace and the external south front, and also in the Camerlenghi

palace (1525), by Bergamasco and in other examples of early

16th-century work. In the Scuola de San Rocco the columnar decoration

assumes much greater importance, and, in imitation of the triumphal

arches of Septimus Severus and Constantine in Rome, the column is

completely detached, with a wall-respond behind. Among other examples

to be noted are the Cornaro-della-Grande palace (1532), by Sansovino,

which is very inferior to his other work in Venice; the Grimani palace

(1554), by San Michele (who also designed the fortifications of the

Lido); the Zecca or mint (1537), the small loggetta (1540) at the foot

of the campanile of St Mark's and now destroyed, and the Procuratie

Nuove (completed by Scamozzi in 1584), all by Sansovino; the Balbi

palace (1582), by Vittoria; and the Ponte Rialto (1588), by Antonio da

Ponte. Sansovino's greatest work in Venice was the library of St

Mark's, which was commenced in 1531; in this he has shown not only

remarkable powers of design but great boldness in the projection of

his columns, cornices and other architectural features. The upper

frieze has been increased in height, so as to admit of the

introduction of small windows to light an upper storey, and this gives

much greater importance and dignity to the entablature crowning the

whole structure. Two of the most imposing palaces on the Grand Canal,

but of later date, are the Pesaro (1679) and the Rezzonico (1680),

both by Longhena, the architect of the Salute church. The former is

too much overcharged with ornament, but it has one advantage, the

classic superimposed orders of the main front being repeated on the

flank overlooking the side canal, with pilasters substituted for the

detached columns of the main front. The Rezzonico palace is much

quieter in design, and finer in its proportions, but even there the

cherubs in the spandrils are too pronounced in their relief.

In Rome there are no important examples of the 15th century, with the

exception of the so-called "Venetian palace," which still retains

externally the features of the feudal castle, such as machicolations,

small windows and rusticated masonry. This was owing probably to the

comparative poverty of the city, which had to recover from the

disasters of the 14th century. The earliest example of the Renaissance

is that of the Cancellaria palace (1495-1505), by Bramante, the

architect of the church at Todi; this was followed by a second and

less important example, the Giraud or Torlonia palace (1506). The

former is an immense block, 300 ft. long and 76 ft. high, in three

storeys, with coursed masonry and slightly bevelled joints, the upper

two storeys decorated with Corinthian pilasters of slight projection

and crowned with a poor cornice, so that its general effect is very

monotonous, and the design is only relieved by the purity of its

details, such as those of the window and balcony on the return flank.

In 1506 Bramante was instructed to carry out the court of the Vatican,

of which the great hemicycle at one end, designed in imitation of

similar features in the Roman thermae, is an extremely fine example;

to what extent he was responsible for the court of the Loggie,

decorated by Raphael, is not known. The Villa Farnesina (1506), best

known for its fresco decorations by Raphael and his pupils; the Ossoli

palace (1525); and the Massimi palace (1532-1536), with magnificent

interiors, were all built by Baldassare Peruzzi. The finest example in

Rome is the Farnese palace, commenced in 1530 from the designs of

Antonio di Sangallo; the design is astylar, as the employment of the

orders is confined to the window dressings, the angles of the front

having rusticated quoins; the upper storey, with the magnificent

cornice which crowns the whole building, was designed by Michelangelo,

and in the upper storey he introduced a feature borrowed from the

Roman thermae, brackets supporting the three-quarter detached columns

flanking the windows. The brilliance of the design is not confined to

the exterior, and the entrance vestibule and the great central court

are the finest examples in Rome. Here the upper storey added by

Michelangelo is inferior to the two lower storeys by Sangallo.

The museum in the Capitol at Rome, by Michelangelo (1546), is one of

those examples in which the principles of design are violated by the

suppression of the horizontal divisions of the storeys which it should

have been an object to emphasize. By carrying immense Corinthian

pilasters, through the ground and first storeys, Michelangelo, it is

true, obtained the entablature of the order as the chief crowning

feature, and so far the result is a success, but in other hands it led

to the decadence of the style. Among other examples in Rome which

should be mentioned are the Villa Madama by Giulio Romano (1524); the

Nicolini palace (1526) by Giacomo Sansovino; the Villa Medici (1540)

by Annibale Lippi; the Chigi palace (1562) by G. de la Porta; the

Spada palace (1564) by Mazzoni; the Quirinal palace (1574) by Fontana

(the architect who raised the obelisk in the Piazza di San Pietro);

and the Borghese palace (1590) by Martino Lunghi.

We now return to about the middle of the 16th century, to the period

when the great architects Barozzi da Vignola and Andrea Palladio of

Vicenza commenced their career, and by their works and publications

exercised a great and important influence on European architecture.

The villa of Pope Julius (1550), and the Costa palace, Rome, are good

examples of Vignola's style, always very pure and of good proportions,

but his principal work was that of the Caprarola palace (1555-1559),

about 30 m. from Rome, which he built for the cardinal Alessandro

Farnese. The plan is pentagonal with a central circular court, and it

is raised on a lofty terrace; the palace is in two storeys with

rusticated quoins to the angle wings, and the Doric and Ionic orders,

superimposed, separating arcades on the lower storeys and windows on

the upper. The arcade of the central court is of admirable proportions

and detail, second only to that of the Farnese palace.

Palladio in his earlier career measured and drew many of the remains

of ancient Rome, and more particularly the thermae (the drawings of

which are in the Burlington-Devonshire Collection), but he does not

seem to have carried out any buildings there. His most important work,

and the one which established his reputation, is that known as the

basilica at Vicenza (1545-1549), which he enclosed with an arcaded

loggia in two storeys of fine design and proportion, and extremely

vigorous in its details. He built a large number of palaces in his

native town, among which the Tiene (1550) and the Colleone Porto are

the simplest and best, the latter being the model on which the front

of Old Burlington House (London) was rebuilt in 1716. In the

Valmarana, the Consiglio and the Casa del Diavolo he departed from his

principles, in carrying the Corinthian pilasters through two floors,

and by returning the cornice round the order he destroyed its value as

a crowning feature. Among other works of his are the Chiericate

(1560), Trissino (1582) and Barbarano (1570) palaces; the Olympic

theatre (1580), which was completed after his death; and the Rotonda

Capra near Vicenza, reproduced by Lord Burlington at Chiswick.

Though he laid down no rules for the guidance of others, the works of

San Michele are superior to those of Palladio, with the exception,

perhaps, of the basilica at Vicenza and the library at Venice. In the

Bevilacqua palace (1527), at Verona, there is far greater variety of

design than in Palladio's work, and the Pompei palace (1530) and the

two gateways at Verona (1533 and 1552) are all bold and simple

designs. In the same town is an extremely beautiful example of the

early Renaissance, the Loggia del Consiglio (1476) by Fra Giocondo; a

similar example with open gallery on the ground storey exists at

Padua, where there is also the Giustiniani palace (1524) by

Falconetto, an interesting example of a master not much known. The

town hall of Brescia (1492) was built from the designs of Tommaso

Formentone, who employed for the carving of the medallions on the

lower storey, and the pilasters with their capitals and the friezes,

various artists of high merit, so that the building takes its rank as

one of the finest in north Italy, but independently of their

collaboration the design of the first floor is in design and execution

equal to Greek work. The upper storey and its circular windows are

said to have been added by Palladio, and they are so commonplace and

out of scale that by contrast they increase the artistic value of

Formentone's work.

The so-called Palazzo de' Diamanti at Ferrara, built in 1493 for

Sigismondo d'Este, is decorated externally with a peculiar kind of

rustication, in which the square face of the stones is bevelled

towards the centre in imitation of diamond facets: the quoins of the

palace have panelled pilasters richly carved, and similar pilasters

flank the entrance door; the windows, with simple architrave mouldings

and cornices on ground storey and pediments on the first storey,

constitute the only architectural features of a novel treatment.

At Bologna there are two or three palaces of interest,--the Bevilacqua

by Nardi (1484), chiefly remarkable for its central court surrounded

with arcades, there being two arches on the upper storey to one on the

lower, which presents a pleasant contrast and gives scale to the

latter; the Fava palace (1484), in which on one side of the court are

elaborately carved corbels carrying arches supporting an upper wall;

and the Albergati palace (1521), by Peruzzi, in which the

architectural decoration is confined to the entrance doorway windows

flanked with pilasters and cornices in pediments and the entablatures

of the ground and upper storeys, all the features being in stone on a

background of simple brick construction. The Casa Tacconi is similarly

treated. Many of the streets in Bologna have arcades on which the

upper part of the house is built, and there is an endless variety in

the capitals of these arcades.

If the palaces of Genoa are disappointing as regards their external

design, this is in some measure compensated for by the magnificence of

their entrance vestibules, which (with the staircases and the arcades

in the courts beyond) are built in white marble, and have probably

suggested the title of the "marble palaces of Genoa." Many of these

palaces are situated in narrow streets, so that no general view can be

obtained of them, which may account for their exterior being erected

in inferior materials with stucco facing. The ground storey of the

palaces is almost always raised about 6 to 8 ft. above the street

level, so that the first flight of steps leading up to the court

forms a prominent feature in every palace; the ceilings of the

entrance vestibule are also mostly decorated with arabesque work in

stucco, or with painted devices, &c. The palaces in the town are

lofty, and as a rule crowned with fine cornices, and there are no

examples of pilasters being carried through the floors; the palaces

and villas in the vicinity of Genoa are of less height, and owe much

of their magnificence to the terraces on which they are erected. They

have no special qualities except in slight variations of the external

wall surface decoration, consisting of the applied orders on the

several storeys. Among the best examples are the Palazzo Cataldi,

formerly Palazzo Carega (1560), in which there are no pilasters, but

rusticated quoins at the angles and windows with moulded dressings and

pediments. The entrance vestibules of the Durazzo-Pallavicini, Rosso

(1558) and Balbi (1610) palaces are in each case their finest

features. The Pallavicini palace, and the Pallavicini, Spinola,

Giustiniani and Durazzo villas, are all fairly well designed and in

good proportions, but with no original treatment. Two of the palaces

are flanked by open loggias with arcades, from which fine views are

obtained, giving them a special character; that of the Durazzo palace

being on the first floor, and of the Doria Tursi on the ground storey.

The University (1623) and the Ducal palaces have very magnificent

entrance vestibules, the former with lions on the lower ramp of the

staircase.

Many of the finest palaces at Genoa are by Galeazzo Alessi, but in

none of them has he approached the design of the Marino or municipal

palace at Milan, in which he produced a remarkable work; the internal

courtyard surrounded with arcades carried on coupled columns is an

original combination which is not excelled in any other court in

Italy, and the exterior facades are very fine.

The internal courtyard of the hospital at Milan (243 ft. by 220 ft.),

with an arcade in two storeys, was designed by Bramante and begun in

1457; only one side was completed by him, but in 1621, in consequence

of a large benefaction, the remainder was completed by Ricchini

according to the original design; the proportions of the arcade are

extremely pleasing, and it forms now one of the chief monuments of the

town. Ricchini was the architect of the Litta palace, one of the

largest in Milan.

There still remains to be mentioned one of the early examples of the

Renaissance, the triumphal arch which was erected in 1470 at Naples to

commemorate the entry of Alphonso of Aragon into the town. It is built

against the walls of the old castle in four storeys, and connected

with bas-reliefs and statues. The largest palace in Italy, that of the

Caserta at Naples, with a frontage of 766 ft., built in 1752 by

Vanvitelli, is one of the most monotonous designs, rivalled in that

respect only by the Escurial in Spain. (R. P. S.)

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE

The classical revival of the 15th century in Italy was too important a

movement to have remained long without its influence extending to other

countries. In France this was accelerated by the campaigns of Charles

VIII., Louis XII. and Francis I., which led to the revelation of the

artistic treasures in Italy; the result being the importation of great

numbers of Italian craftsmen, who would seem to have been employed in

the carving of decorative architectural accessories, such as the panels

and capitals of pilasters, niches and canopies, corbels, friezes, &c.,

either in tombs, as for instance in those of Charles of Anjou at Le Mans

(1472) and at Solesmes (1498), of Francis, duke of Brittany (1501), and

of the children of Charles VIII. (1506) at Tours, and of Cardinal

d'Amboise in Rouen cathedral, the figures in all these cases being

carved by French sculptors. They were also employed in architectural

buildings, where the design and execution were by French master-masons,

and the Italians were called in to carve the details, as in the choir

screens of Chartres, Albi and Limoges cathedrals, the portal of St.

Michel at Dijon, the eastern chapels of St Pierre at Caen, and numerous

other churches throughout France; or for mansions like the Hotel

d'Alluye at Blois, the Hotel d'Allemand at Bourges, and the chateaux of

Meillant (1503), Chateaudun and Nantouillet (1519). The great centre of

the artistic regeneration was at first at Tours, so that in Touraine,

and generally on the borders of the Loire and the Cher at Amboise,

Blois, Gaillon, Chenonceaux, Azay-le-Rideau and Chambord, are found the

principal examples; later, Francis I. transferred the court to Paris,

and the chateau of Madrid, and the palaces of Fontainebleau, St

Germain-en-Laye, and the Louvre, follow the change. In all these

chateaux the Italian craftsman would seem to have been under the

direction of the master-mason or architect, because the whole scheme of

the design and its execution is French, and only the decoration Italian.

In cases where the Italian was not called in, the Gothic flamboyant

style flourishes in full vigour with no suggestion of foreign influence,

as in the palais de justice at Rouen, the church of Brou (Ain),

1505-1532, the Hotel de Cluny, Paris, and the rood-screen of the church

of the Madeleine at Troyes (1531).

Between the last phase of Flamboyant Gothic and the introduction of the

pure Italian Revival there existed a transitional period, known

generally as the "Francis I. style," which may be subdivided under three

heads:--the Valois period, comprising the reigns of Charles VIII. and

Louis XII. (1483-1515); the Francis I. period (1515-1547); and the Henry

II. and Catherine de' Medici period (1547-1589). The first two are

characterized by the lofty roofs, dormers and chimneys, by circular or

square towers at the angles of the main building with decorative

machicolations and hourds, by buttresses set anglewise, which run up

into the cornice, and square-headed windows with mullions and transoms.

In the second period the machicolations are converted into corbels

carrying semicircular arcaded niches in which shells are carved; the

buttresses become pilasters with Renaissance capitals; and the Gothic

detail, which in the first period is mixed up with the Renaissance,

disappears altogether. In the third period Italian design begins to

exert its influence in the regular interspacing of the pilasters or

columns with due proportion of height to diameter, in the completion of

the order with the regular entablature, and its employment generally in

a more structural manner than in the earlier work.

The two first periods are well represented in the chateau of Blois,

where, in the east wing built by Louis XII., square-headed windows

alternate with three central arches, the buttresses are set anglewise

running into the cornice, and pillars and angle shafts are carved with

chevrons, spiral flirtings, or cinque-cento arabesque; the cornices of

the towers containing staircases project and are carried on arched

niches supported on corbels (the new interpretation of the

machicolations of the feudal castle); above the cornice is a

balustrade with pierced flamboyant tracery, and the dormer windows

retain their Gothic detail. In the north wing of Francis I. all these

Gothic ornamental details disappear, and are replaced by the

Renaissance. Panels and pilasters take the place of the

buttresses--the panels sometimes enriched with cinque-cento arabesque;

shells are carved in the arched niches of the cornice, and modillions

and dentil courses are introduced; the balustrade is pierced with

flowing Renaissance foliage interspersed with the salamanders and

coronets; the same high roofs are maintained, but the dormer windows

and chimneys, still Gothic in design, are entirely clothed with

Renaissance detail.

The finest feature of the facade of this north wing, facing the court,

is the magnificent polygonal staircase tower in its centre (Plate

VIII., fig. 84); four great piers rise from ground to cornice, between

which the rising balustrade is fitted; the whole feature Gothic in

design, but Renaissance in all its details. The splendid carving of

the panels of the piers and the niches with their canopies was

probably done by Italian artists. The figures in these niches are said

to be by Jean Goujon. The great dormers and chimneys have not the

refinement in their design which characterizes the lower portion, and

may be of later date. The north front of the chateau is raised on the

foundation walls of the old castle, part of which is encased in it,

and this may account for the slight irregularities in the widths of

the bays. The design differs from that of the south front, the windows

all being recessed behind three-centre arched openings; the open

loggia at the top, which is admirable in effect, is a subsequent

alteration.

Before passing to the Louvre and Tuileries, representing the third

period, we must refer to some other important early chateaux and

buildings. Some of these, such as the chateaux of Madrid and Gaillon,

are known chiefly from du Cerceau's work, as they were destroyed at

the Revolution. Of the latter building, the entrance gateway is still

_in situ_; there are some portions in the court of the Ecole des

Beaux-Arts at Paris, consisting of a second entrance gateway, a

portico and some large panels. The gateway shows a singular mixture of

Gothic and Renaissance; the centre portion, with the gateway and great

niche over, is debased classic, the side portions retaining the

buttresses, mouldings, panels and other features belonging to the

latest phase of Flamboyant Gothic.

Of buildings still existing, the hotel de ville of Orleans (1497) is a

good example of early transition work, in which Gothic and Renaissance

work is intermingled, and it is interesting to compare it with the

hotel de ville at Beaugency, built by the same architect, Viart, some

twenty-five years later. There is the same principle in design, much

improved in the later example, but all the Gothic details have

disappeared.

In the chateau of Chenonceaux (1515-1524) we find a compromise between

the two styles; Gothic corbels, piers and three-centre arches are

employed, varied with debased classic mouldings, shells and capitals;

here, as at Azay-le-Rideau (1520), the chateau was not transformed

like those at Langeais and Rochefoucauld, where what was externally a

14th-century castle developed internally into a 16th-century mansion;

both Chenonceaux and Azay-le-Rideau were built as residences, and yet

in both are displayed those features which belong to the fortified

castle; at the angles of the main structure in both cases are circular

towers, in the latter case crowned with machicolations and hourds,

which, however, are purely decorative, pierced with windows, and

broken at intervals with dormer windows, a feature which gives it the

aspect of an attic storey. The lofty roofs and conical terminations to

these angle towers, with dormer and chimney, give the same picturesque

aspect to the grouping as that which was afforded in the fortified

castle, where, however, they originated in the necessity for defence.

The entrance portals of both chateaux are beautiful features,

absolutely Gothic in design, and only transformed by cinque-cento

detail.

In the chateau of Chambord (1526) we find the same defensive features

introduced, in the shape of great circular towers at the angles, but

here with more reason, as the chateau was intended more for display

than habitation. The chateau itself, about 200 ft. square, has

circular towers at the angles, and in the centre a spiral staircase

with double flight, leading to great halls on each side, which give

access to the comparatively small rooms in the angles of the square

and the towers beyond, and to the roof, which would seem to have been

the chief attraction, as there is a fine view therefrom; and the

elaborate octagonal lantern over the staircase, the dormer windows,

chimneys and lanterns on the conical roofs of the towers, are all

elaborately carved. There are three storeys to the building,

subdivided horizontally by string courses, and terminated with a fine

cornice carrying a balustrade, and vertically by a series of pilasters

of the Corinthian order. The varied outline of this building, with the

alternation of blank panels and windows between the pilasters,

relieves what might otherwise have been its monotony. The chateau is

situated on the east side of a great court measuring about 500 ft. by

370 ft., with a moat all round. To the right and left of the central

block the walls are carved up three storeys, and an attic, with open

arcades inside, leading to the angle towers of the enclosure. At a

later period Louis XIV. continued the unfinished structure by a

one-storey building round. The carving of the capitals, corbels and

other decorative work was all done by Italian artists, under the

direction of some architect whose name is not known.

One of the gems of Francis I.'s work is the small hunting lodge

originally built at Moret near Fontainebleau, to which at one time the

king thought of adding, before he began his great palace there. This

was taken down in 1826, and re-erected in the Cours-la-Reine at Paris.

Though small, it is the purest example of the first Renaissance. Other

examples are the hotel de ville of Paray-le-Monial (1526); the Hotel

d'Anjou at Angers (1530), built by Pierre de Pince; the Hotel Bernuy

at Toulouse (1530); the Hotel d'Ecoville at Caen (1532); the Manoir of

Francis I. at Orleans; the Hotel Bourgtheroulde at Rouen (1520-1532)

and other buildings opposite Rouen cathedral, and what remains of the

chateau known as the Manoir d'Ango (1525) at Varengeville, near

Dieppe. The chateau of St Germain-en-Laye (1539-1544), the upper half

of which is built in brick, belongs also to the early period, as also

the hotel de ville at Paris, built in 1533 by Domenico da Cortona, an

Italian, who after spending some thirty years in France would seem to

have caught the spirit of the French Renaissance so well as to be able

to produce one of the most remarkable examples of the Francis I.

style. In the existing building the original design has been copied

from the building burnt down by the Communists in 1871.

From this we pass to the palace at Fontainebleau, begun by Francis I.

in 1526, to which there have been so many subsequent additions and

alterations that it is difficult to differentiate between them. The

building owes its picturesque effect more to its irregular plan (as

portions of an earlier structure were enclosed in it) than to any

brilliant conceptions on the part of its architect. There is an

endless variety of charming detail in the capitals, corbels and other

decorative features, but the employment of pilaster strips purely as

decorative features (without any such structural property as that in

the Porte Doree at the Cour Ovale) suggests that the Italian architect

Serlio, to whom sometimes the work is ascribed, certainly had nothing

to do with it.

On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that the designs

made by Pierre Lescot for the Louvre, begun in 1546, were, as regards

their style, largely based on the principles set forth in Serlio's

work on architecture, published in 1540. The south-west angle of the

court of the Louvre is the earliest example of the third period of the

Renaissance, in which the orders are employed in correct proportions

with columns or pedestals carrying entablatures with mouldings based

on classic precedent. The portion built from Lescot's designs (Plate

VIII., fig. 83) consists of the nine bays on the east and north sides,

the latter not being completed till 1574, as the workmen would seem to

have been transferred to the building of the Tuileries, begun in 1564.

The Corinthian order is employed for the ground and first storeys and

an attic storey above, in which the pilaster capitals run into the

bedmold of the upper cornice. Of the nine bays, the central and side

bays are twice the width of the others, and project slightly with the

cornices breaking round them; this feature, and the crowning of the

western bays with a segmental pediment, give a variety to the design,

which otherwise might have become monotonous by its repetition of

similar features. The balustrade also is replaced by the _cheneau_, a

cresting in stone, which hereafter is found in nearly all French

buildings. The sculptor, Jean Goujon, would seem to have worked in

complete harmony with the architect, thus producing what will always

be considered as one of the _chef-d'oeuvres_ of French architecture.

The architect employed by Catherine de' Medici for the Tuileries was

Philibert de l'Orme, who combined the taste of the architect with the

scientific knowledge of the engineer. Only a portion of his design was

carried out, and of that much disappeared in the 17th century, when

his dormer windows were taken down and replaced by a second storey and

an attic. Bullant and du Cerceau also added buildings on each side.

The Tuileries were built about 500 yds. from the Louvre, and Catherine

de' Medici conceived the idea of connecting the two. The work, which

began with the "Petite Galerie," with the south wing, as far as the

Pavilion Lesdiguieres, was started in 1566, being of one storey only.

The mezzanine and upper storey were not completed till the beginning

of the 17th century. In 1603 the remainder of the south front and the

Pavillon-de-Flore were completed by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau.

Of Philibert de l'Orme's work at Anet (1549), only the entrance

gateway, the left-hand side of court, and the chapel remain,

sufficient, however, to show that he had already at that early date

mastered the principles of the Italian Revivalists. The chapel is in

its way a remarkable design, but the hemispherical dome, pierced by

elliptical winding arches inside, is not happy in its effect. The

frontispiece which he created opposite the entrance, now in the court

of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, shows great refinement in its

details, but proportionally errs in many points. De l'Orme built also

the bridge and gallery on the river Cher, forming an addition to the

chateau of Chenonceaux.

Amongst other work of this period are the additions made by Bullant to

the chateau de Chantilly, where he traversed the principles of classic

design by running Corinthian pilasters through two storeys and cutting

through the cornice of his dormer windows. At Ecouen (1550) he

destroyed the scale of the earlier buildings of 1532 by raising in

front of the left wing of the court four lofty Corinthian columns with

entablature complete, which he copied from the temple of Castor in

Rome.

Among the early Renaissance work are the chateau of Ancy le Franc

(Yonne), Italian in character, which may be by Serlio (1546); the

Hotel d'Assezat at Toulouse (1555), in which there is a strong

resemblance to the court of the Louvre; the houses at Orleans, known

as those of Agnes Sorel, Jeanne d'Arc and Diane de Poitiers (1552);

and there is other work at Caen, Rouen, Toulouse, Dijon, Chinon,

Perigueux, Cahors, Rodez, Beauvais and Amiens, dating up to the close

of the 16th century. In this list might also be included the fine town

hall of La Rochelle, the Hotel Lamoignon in the rue des

Francs-Bourgeois, Paris (1580), and the Hotel de Vogue at Dijon, which

retained the Renaissance character, though built in the first year of

the 17th century.

In the reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIII. the first work of

importance in Paris is that of the Place Royale, now the Place des

Vosges; in this brick was largely employed, and the conjunction of

brick and stone gave a decorative effect which dispensed with the

necessity of employing the Classic orders. At Fontainebleau, where

Henry IV. made large additions, the same mixture of brick and stone is

found in the Galerie des Cerfs, and in the great service court (_cour

des cuisines_). The example set was followed largely through the

country, and numerous mansions and private houses in brick and stone

still exist. Henry IV.'s most important work at Fontainebleau is the

Porte Dauphine, of which the lower part, with rusticated columns and

courses of masonry, does not quite accord in scale or character with

the superstructure, in which is put some of the best work of the

century.

Except perhaps for the monotony of the rusticated masonry which is

spread all over the building, the palace of the Luxembourg, by Salomon

de Brosse (1615), is an important work, in which he was probably

instructed by Marie de'Medici to reproduce the general effect of the

Pitti palace at Florence. The three storeys of the main block are well

proportioned, but the absence of a boldly projecting cornice, such as

is found in the Riccardi and Strozzi palaces, is a defect; the same

architect reconstructed the great hall of the palace of justice at

Paris, burnt in 1871 but now rebuilt to the same design.

In 1629 the building subsequently known as the Palais Royal was begun

from the designs of Lemercier; but it has been so materially altered

since that scarcely anything remains of his design, though the works

carried out from his designs at the Louvre were of the greatest

possible importance. The court of the latter, as begun by Pierre

Lescot, was of small dimensions, corresponding with that of the palace

of Philip Augustus, but Lemercier proposed to quadruple its

dimensions. It is not certain whether he built the lower portion of

the Pavilion d'Horloge, but he designed the upper part, with the

caryatid figures sculptured by Jacques Sarrazin. On the north side of

this pavilion he built a wing similar in length and design to that of

Pierre Lescot, and continued the wing along the north side to the

centre pavilion; this was continued by Levau, the architect of Louis

XIV., round the other sides of the court. His design for the east

front, however, did not recommend itself to the king or to his

minister Colbert, and a competition was held, the first place being

given to the design by a physician, Dr Perrault. Prior to its being

begun, however, Bernini was sent for, and he submitted other designs,

fortunately not carried out, as they would have destroyed the court of

the Louvre. In 1665 the works were begun on the design of Perrault, a

grandiose frontispiece which appealed to Louis XIV., but in which no

cognizance had been taken of the various rooms against which it was

built; consequently no windows could be opened, and it forms now a

useless peristyle. Moreover it was so much wider than the original

building that on the north side it became necessary to add a new

front. Fortunately the example set by Perrault of coupling columns

together has rarely been followed since in France, so that in the

Garde-Meuble on the south side of the Place de la Concorde, by

Gabriel, we return again to the original classic peristyle. The works

undertaken at the Louvre progressed but slowly, in consequence of the

greater interest taken by Louis XIV. in the palace he was building at

Versailles, an extension of the hunting-box built by his father Louis

XIII., which he insisted should be maintained and incorporated as the

central feature in the new building. But as it was comparatively small

in dimensions, of simple design, and in brick and stone, it was quite

unfit to become the central feature of the main front of the largest

palace in Europe. To make it worse, the new wings built on either side

were lofty and of more importance architecturally, and as they

projected some 300 ft. in advance of the earlier building, they

reduced it to still greater insignificance. But even then the

architect, Jules Hardouin Mansart, might have redeemed his reputation

by buildings of greater interest than those which now exist. The back

elevation of the central block is 330 ft. wide, the returns 280 ft.,

and the length of the wings on each side 500 ft.; in other words he

had nearly 1900 ft. run of facade, and it is simply a repetition of

the same bays from one end to the other, in three storeys all of the

same height, the lower one with semicircular arched openings, the

first floor decorated with pilasters on columns of the Ionic order,

and an attic storey above with balustrade. The slight projection given

to the central and side bays of each block, just sufficient to allow

of columns in the first floor as decorative features instead of

pilasters, is of no value in fronts of such great dimensions. The

great galleries inside have the same monotonous design as in the

facades, relieved only by the rich decoration in the first case and

the splendid masonry in the latter. There is one saving clause in the

main front, the chapel by R. de Cotte on the right-hand side being

externally and internally a fine structure, and the best

ecclesiastical example of the period.

Among other buildings of the 17th century are those begun by Cardinal

Mazarin in the rue de Richelieu, which now constitute the National

library; the Hotel de Toulouse (1626), now the Bank of France; the

Hotel de Sully (1630), by du Cerceau; the Hotel de Beauvais (1654), by

le Pautre; the Hotel Lambert (also by le Pautre), in the Ile St Louis;

the chateau at Maisons, near St Germain-en-Laye, by Francois Mansart

(1656); the Institute of France (1662), by Levau; two triumphal

arches, of St Denis (1672), by Blondel, and St Martin (1674) by

Bullet; the Hotel des Invalides (1670), by Bruant; the Place des

Victoires and the Place Vendome (1695-1699), by Jules Hardouin

Mansart, in which a series of large houses are grouped together in one

design; the Trianon at Versailles (1676), and the chateau of Marly

(1682), both by J.H. Mansart; and important monumental buildings in

the principal provincial cities, such as Lyons, Bordeaux, Nantes and

Tours.

In the 18th century those which are worthy of note are the Hotel

Soubise (1706), now the "Archives Nationales"; the fountain in the rue

de Crenelle, a fine composition; the Ecole Militaire (1752), by

Gabriel; the Ecole de Medecine (1769), by Gondouin; the mint (1772),

by Antoine; the Place de la Concorde, with the Garde-Meuble, by

Gabriel (1765); the Hotel de Salm, now the Legion of Honour; the Place

Stanislas at Nancy (1738-1766), in which are grouped the town hall,

archbishop's palace, theatre and other public buildings, with

triumphal arch and avenues leading to the palace of the duke

Stanislaus (with magnificent wrought-iron enclosures and gates by Jean

Lamour, the greatest craftsman of the century); the theatre at

Bordeaux by Louis; and the Odeon, Paris (1789).

The ecclesiastical architecture of the French Renaissance comes at the

end of our description owing to the far greater importance of the

palaces, mansions and public monuments, and also because in the

beginning of the 16th century France found herself in possession of a

much larger number of cathedrals and large churches than she could

maintain. Some of these are still unfinished, so that her first

efforts would seem to have been directed to the completion of those

already begun rather than to the erection of new ones, St Eustache in

Paris being nearly the only exception of importance prior to the 17th

century.

We have from time to time dwelt upon the important consideration which

must not be lost sight of, viz. that nearly all the buildings erected

in France up to the accession of Henry IV. were conceived and carried

out in the spirit of the Flamboyant Gothic style, cinque-cento details

mixed up with Gothic at first, then superseding them, and even when

the influence of the Italian revivalists began to exert itself, still

retaining much of her traditional methods of design. If this was the

case in civil architecture, it was naturally more pronounced in the

additions made to ecclesiastical structures, and the gradual

development of the style may be more easily followed in the latter.

These are, however, so numerous, and they are so universally spread

throughout France, that only a few of the most interesting examples

can be here given; for instance, the porch of St Michel at Dijon; the

upper part of the western towers of the cathedrals of Orleans and

Tours; the three eastern chapels of St Jacques, Dieppe, built at the

cost of Jean Ango, a celebrated merchant-prince of Dieppe, to whose

chateau at Varengeville we have already referred; the eastern chapels

of St Peter's, Caen, from the designs of Hector Sohier (1521), both

internally and externally of great interest; the west end of the

church at Vetheuil (Seine-et-Oise); the magnificent work of the west

front and tower of the church at Gisors; the upper part of the west

front of the cathedral at Angers; the portals of the church at Auxonne

(Fichot); the choir at Tillieres; the lantern of the church of St

Peter, Coutances (1541); the porch of the Dalbade at Toulouse; and the

north front of the church of Ste Clotilde at Les Andelys, which dates

from the age of Henry II.

The church of St Eustache at Paris, begun in 1533, but not completed

till the end of the century, is a large cruciform Gothic structure

with lofty double aisles on each side and carried round the choir, and

rectangular chapels round the whole building, excepting the west end.

Structurally also it possesses all the most characteristic features of

the Gothic church, with nave arcades carried on compound piers,

triforium and clerestory, vaulted throughout, and flying buttresses

outside. Close examination shows that all the details are of the early

cinque-cento work, panelled pilasters of varying proportions, but with

Renaissance capitals, corbels, niches and canopies all grouped

together in a Gothic manner, and quite opposed to the principles of

the Italian revivalists; what is more remarkable is that though long

before its completion these principles had already borne fruit in the

Louvre and Tuileries, the original conception was adhered to, and the

portals of the north and south transepts (the last features added,

with the exception of the ugly west front of the 18th century) still

retain the character of the early French Renaissance.

In St Etienne-du-Mont, sometimes claimed as a second example, the

church is Flamboyant Gothic throughout, the chief additions being the

magnificent rood-screen of 1600, and the west portal, in which the

banded columns of the Bourbon period form the chief features.

Coming to churches of later date, Salomon de Brosse (_c_. 1565-1627),

the architect of the Luxembourg palace, added in 1616 a fresh front to

the church of St Gervais, finely proportioned and of pure Italian

design, which contrasts favourably with the Jesuits' church of St Paul

and St Louis (1627-1641), overladen with rococo ornament; then came

the churches of the Sorbonne (1629), by Jacques Lemercier, and of the

Val-de-Grace (1645), by Francois Mansart, the dome of the latter,

though small, being a fine design; the church of the Invalides, also

by Mansart, the dome of which is the most graceful in France; the

cathedral of Nancy (1703-1742), by Jules Hardouin Mansart and Germain

Boffrand (1667-1754), the principal front of which is flanked by two

towers with octagonal lanterns which group so well with the central

portion (of the usual design, in two stages with pilasters and coupled

columns, carrying a third stage with circular pediment) that it is

unfortunate it should be almost the only example of its kind; and

lastly the church of Ste Genevieve, better known as the Pantheon

(1755), by Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-1780), the dome of which is

based largely on that of St Peter's in Rome. The main building with

its great portico is a simple and fine piece of design, and unlike St

Peter's the dome is well seen from every point of view; the decoration

of its walls with paintings by Puvis de Chavannes and other French

artists has now rendered the interior one of the most interesting in

France. (R. P. S.)

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN

In Spain, as in France, the revival of classic architecture was

engrafted on the Flamboyant style of the country, influenced here and

there by Moorish work, so that the earlier examples of Spanish

Renaissance constitute a transitional style which lasted till the

accession of Philip II. (1558), who introduced what was then considered

to be the purer Italian style of Palladio and Vignola. This, however,

did not seem to have had much attraction for the Spaniards, owing to its

coldness and formality, so that in the latter half of the 17th century a

reaction took place in favour of the most depraved and decadent

architecture in existence.

The magnificence of the earlier Renaissance work, which was introduced

into Spain when she was at the zenith of her power, and (owing to the

discovery of a new world) the possessor of enormous wealth, has scarcely

yet been recognized, in consequence of the greater attraction of the

Moorish architecture; there is no doubt that its exuberant richness in

the 16th century derives its inspiration from the latter, and especially

so in patios or courts found in every class of building, ecclesiastical

as well as civil. There is still, however, another characteristic in the

early Renaissance of Spain, which is not found in Italy or France, and

which again owes its source to Moorish work, where the external walls

and towers consist of simple plain masonry, and the rich decoration,

generally in stucco brilliantly coloured and gilded, is confined to the

courts and to the interiors of their magnificent halls. The Italian

method of decorating the external front of the palaces with flat

pilasters of the various orders placed at regular intervals, the windows

and doors forming features of second-rate importance, was not followed

by the architects of the Spanish Renaissance, who retained the simple

plain masonry and reserved their decorations for the entrance doorways

and windows, emphasizing therefore these features, and by contrast

increasing their value and interest.

Instead also of the huge _cornicione_ which the Italians employed to

give the shadows required to emphasize the crowning features of their

palaces, the Spanish architects preferred to obtain a similar effect by

an open arcaded upper storey, which, as Fergusson remarks, "forms one of

the most pleasing architectural features that can be applied to palatial

architecture, giving lightness combined with shadow exactly where wanted

for effect and where they can be applied without any apparent

interference with solidity." These galleries would seem to have been

provided to serve as promenades to the occupants of the palace, and more

especially for the ladies when it would have been unwise or imprudent

for them to venture into the streets. There is one well-known example in

France, in the chateau of Blois, which is so attractive a feature that

it is singular it has not been more often adopted.

Instead also of the monotonous balustrade, which is invariably found in

Italy, the Spanish architects introduced richly carved crestings, with

finials at regular intervals, a feature probably borrowed from

Flamboyant Gothic and Moorish.

The three periods into which the architectural phases of the Renaissance

style in Spain are divided are:--(1) The Plateresque or Silversmiths'

work, from the conquest of Granada to the reign of Philip II. (2) The

purer Italian style, called by the Spanish the Greco-Roman, though it

has no Greek elements in its design, being based on the work of Palladio

and Vignola. This style prevailed until the end of the 17th century. (3)

The Rococo or Churrigueresque style, so called from the name of the

architect, Jose Churriguera (d. 1725), the chief leader of the movement,

which lasted for about 100 years.

_Ecclesiastical Architecture._--The cathedral of Granada, built from

the designs of Diego de Siloe, is the earliest example of the

Renaissance in Spain, and in some respects the most remarkable, not

only for its plan, in which there is an entirely new feature, but for

the scheme adopted in the vaulting, which covers the whole church, and

shows that its architect had studied the earlier Gothic churches, and

was well acquainted with the principles of thrust and counter-thrust

developed in them. The cathedral is 400 ft. long by 230 ft. wide, and

therefore of the first class as far as size is concerned. The western

portion consists of nave and double aisles on each side, the outer

aisle being carried round the whole church and giving access to the

chapels which enclose the building. The principal feature of the

cathedral is at the east end, where the place of the ordinary apse is

occupied by a great circular area, 70 ft. in diameter, crowned by a

lofty dome, in the centre of which in a flood of light stands the high

altar. The vista from the nave through the great arch (37 ft. 6 in.

wide and 97 ft. high) is extremely fine, and it is strange that it

should be the only example of its kind. The west front was completed

at a later date; the only feature of it belonging to the original

church being the north-west tower, which, in its design, resembles the

south-west tower of the church at Gisors in France. There are two

other important Renaissance cathedrals at Jaen and Valladolid. The

latter was built from a design of Juan de Badajoz in 1585 but never

completed. On the south side of the cathedral is the chapel in which

the Catholic kings lie buried, where there are two fine marble tombs

enclosed by the _reja_ or wrought-iron screen partly gilt, forged in

1522 by Maestre Bartholome. The _sagrario_ or parish church, also on

the south side, is a small version of the scheme of design employed in

the cathedral.

In Spain, as in France, magnificent portals have been added to

cathedrals and churches, and these are amongst the finest works of the

Renaissance period. The more remarkable of these are the portals of

the cathedral of Malaga, a deeply recessed porch, enriched with

slender shafts and niches between; of Santa Engracia at Saragossa; and

of Santo Domingo and the cathedral at Salamanca. Externally the

Renaissance domes over the crossings of Spanish cathedrals are poor,

but this is compensated for by the lofty steeples which form striking

features. The western towers of the cathedral at Valladolid; the tower

of the Seo in Saragossa, which bears some resemblance to Wren's

steeples in the setting back of the several storeys and the crowning

with octagonal lanterns; the tower of the cathedral Del Pilar at

Saragossa, and that at Santiago, are all interesting examples of the

Spanish Renaissance.

One of the most beautiful features of the Spanish Renaissance is found

in the magnificent _rejas_ or wrought-iron grilles, richly gilt, which

form the enclosures of the chapels. Besides the example at Granada,

others are found at Seville, where is the masterpiece of Sancho Munoz

(1528); at Palencia (1582); Cuenca (1557), where there are three fine

examples; Toledo; Salamanca; and other cathedrals. The iron pulpit at

Avila, the eagle lectern at Cuenca and the staircase railing at Burgos

are all remarkable works in metal.

_Secular Architecture._--With the exception of the magnificent

portals, the finest works of the Renaissance in Spain as in France are

to be found in the secular buildings, but with this difference, that

the best examples in France are those built in the country or in

comparatively small provincial towns, whereas in Spain they are all in

the midst of the larger towns, and further they are not confined to

palaces and chateaux; monasteries and universities coming in for an

equal share in the great architectural development.

The characteristic style of the Spanish architecture of the

Renaissance period is due probably to the influence of the earlier

Moorish work, where the value of the rich Alhambresque decorations in

the entrance doorways and windows, and the patios or courts, is

enhanced by contrast with the plain masonry of their walls and towers.

This influence had already been felt in the Spanish flamboyant Gothic

panelling and tracery; when translated into Renaissance, and probably,

at first, executed by Italian artists, it displayed a variety and

beauty in its design scarcely inferior to some of the best work in

Italy. And this development, taking place at a time when Spain was

overflowing with wealth, resulted in that exuberant richness we find

in the entrance doorways and windows, the external galleries of the

upper storey, and the rich cresting surmounting the cornice.

Comparison with the contemporary and even earlier work in Italy, where

the principal thought of the architect would seem to have been to

break the wall surface by an unmeaning series of flat pilasters, and

then fill in the windows as features of secondary importance, will

show that the Spanish architect recognized more fully the true

principle of design, and although, in the profiles of their mouldings,

and the execution of the sculpture decorating their pilasters and

friezes, Spanish work in contrast with Italian looks somewhat coarse,

in general picturesqueness it is far in advance of the palaces of

Rome, Florence, and even Venice, and has not yet received the

recognition which it deserves.

The earliest palace built in the Renaissance style is that which

adjoins the Alhambra at Granada, and was begun by the emperor Charles

V. for his own residence in 1527, but never completed. The building is

nearly an exact square of 205 ft., with a great circular court in the

centre, nearly 100 ft. in diameter. This central court was enclosed by

a colonnade with Doric columns, and an upper storey with columns of

the Ionic order. From the unfinished condition of the palace and the

absence of roofs, it is difficult to decide what the form of the

latter might have been. But the design, begun by Pedro Machuca and

continued by Alonso Berruguete (1480-1561), is so remarkable that it

ought to be better known. Its proximity to the Alhambra, however,

deprives it of the attention which otherwise it deserves for the

purity of its details and for its good proportion.

A second palace, the Alcazar at Toledo, was begun in 1540 by Charles

II., but little else than the bare walls remain, as it was destroyed

by fire in 1886, after having been twice rebuilt. In its design it

belongs to the true Spanish type of the Renaissance, with the simple

ashlar masonry of its walls and the accentuation of the principal

entrance doorway and the windows. In this palace also the plan is

square, about 110 ft., with a square courtyard (240 ft.).

The third palace built, the Escorial, some 20 m. to the north-east of

Madrid, is the most renowned--more, however, on account of its immense

size than for its design. It was built for Philip II. and begun in

1563 from the designs of Juan Bautista de Toledo, being completed by

his pupil, Juan de Herrera, in 1584. The principal front is 680 ft. in

width, the depth of the palace 540 ft., with the king's residence in

the rear. The plan is a fine conception, and consists of a large

entrance court in the centre, with the church in the rear, having on

the right the Colegio and on the left the monastery, with numerous

courts in each case. The church is 320 ft. long by 220 ft. wide, the

principal portion being the intersection of the nave and transept,

which is covered by a dome. The coro is placed above the entrance

vestibule, which is 100 ft. long and 27 ft. high, imperfectly lighted,

but by contrast emphasizing the dimensions and the splendour of the

church beyond. Externally the grouping is fine; the lofty towers at

the angles, the central composition of the main front, and at the rear

of the court the front of the church with its corner towers and the

great dome, all form an exceedingly picturesque group, and it is only

when one begins to examine the work in detail that its poverty in

design reveals itself. Instead of accentuating the windows of the

principal storeys and giving them appropriate dressings, the fronts

are pierced with innumerable windows, which give the appearance of a

factory, and the angle towers, nine storeys high, look like ordinary

"sky-scrapers," without any of the dignity and importance which the

architectural design of a palace requires. The same applies to the

great entrance courts five storeys high with an attic, all of the most

commonplace design. Internally the church is fine, but it is dwarfed

by the immense size of the Doric pilasters, 62 ft. high, all in plain

stone masonry, the coldness of which is emphasized by the rich

colouring of the vaulted ceilings and the elaboration of the pavement,

all in coloured marbles. The palace is regarded by the Spaniards as

the Versailles of Spain, and if it had been possible to have

interchanged some of the features, to transfer to Versailles some of

the towers, and to break up the wall surface of the Escorial with the

superimposed order of pilasters, which became monotonous by their

repetition at Versailles, both palaces would have gained.