Chapter XIV
. p. 393.
[62] The two transepts are so very similar, that it seemed unnecessary to engrave my sketches of both.
[63] The chimneys so common in Venice are ancient, but yet hardly redeemed from ugliness. They are cylindrical, with heads sloping out in a strange fashion, and in the form of inverted truncated cones. See p. 224.
[64] This building has recently (1872) been restored, and with not much gain, though the barber’s shop which used to occupy the ground-floor has been removed.
[65] Mr. Grüner has published some very careful drawings of these details, in which he has restored the painted decorations with which the coloured construction of the walls was enriched. The style of decoration was much like that of Sta. Anastasia, Verona.
[66] This was written in 1855
[67] Said to have been carved by Nicolò, who is supposed to be the same man who wrought on the west door of San Zenone, Verona. This does not appear to me to be likely; the work at Verona being, I think, earlier than that at Ferrara.
[68] The complete church was to have been 800 feet long, and 525 feet across the transepts, with a central dome 130 feet in diameter.--Fergusson’s ‘History of Architecture,’ ii. 210.
[69] Mr. Perkins, ‘Italian Sculptors,’ p. 251, says that the nationality of Wiligelmus has been much disputed. Kreuser says that he came from Nürnberg; and the representation of King Arthur’s victories over the Visigoths is adduced as a proof that he was not an Italian.
[70] The inscription on the north door is as follows:--
“Bis binis demptis. Annis de mille ducentis Incepit dictus, opus hoc sculptor Benedictus.”
[71] It is commonly said to have been designed by Heinrich von Gmünden in 1387; but in a most interesting note at p. 116 of ‘Italian Sculptors,’ Mr. Perkins gives the evidence for and against the claim of a German to be the architect of this cathedral. He believes that there is no longer any reasonable doubt that the first architect was Marco Frisone da Campione. Heinrich Adler von Gmünden, who has commonly been stated to be the architect, did not come to Milan until five years after the foundation of the church. Marco da Campione died in 1390; and the church was ready for divine service in 1395. The criticisms I have made in the text appear to me to be equally applicable to an Italian architect trained in Germany, or to a German working in Italy; and if Marco da Campione was the architect, one is compelled, by the logic of the building itself, to say that either he had studied north of the Alps with a view to perfecting his design, or that he depended very largely on the help given him by such men as Henry of Gmünden, whom he had called in to his assistance.
[72] When I first saw this I thought it was an entirely modern device. In 1871, however, in passing through France, I found at La Fère a church of flamboyant character, with all the cells of its groining covered with sunk traceries; and at Chambéry the painting on the roof of the Sainte Chapelle is said to be old.
[73] I leave this passage as it was written in 1855. Such troubles are now all passed and gone; but we run some risk of forgetting how much we have gained in this way by the political changes that have occurred since then.
[74] See plate 18, p. 122, for an illustration of the cornice of this atrium.
[75] The atrium was added, it is said, in the ninth century.
[76] See, for description of it, Hemans’ ‘Mediæval Christianity,’ &c., p. 305.
[77] It is worth notice that the regular-looking bays of the nave are of very various widths. The two eastern are 21 feet; the next two, four feet less; and the fifth still narrower. The bricks here measure 1 ft. ½ in. × 5 in., and are 3¼ in. high, and have all been chiselled on the face.
[78] I think no apology is necessary for the omission of this modern stage in my view of the Broletto.
[79] This old inn is a thing of the past. A large, bustling, and much smarter hotel has taken its place; and a magnificent carriage-road has put a stop to all need for walking by pleasant field-paths to the Furca.
[80] The famous steeple of Antwerp is arranged in the same way. The spires of S. Elizabeth at Marburg, and the metal spires of the churches at Lübeck and Luneburg, are also somewhat similarly treated.
[81] The usual plan is sometimes deviated from and improved by having two bays of aisle opening with two arches into each bay of the nave, so that every bay of groining throughout the church is very nearly square. This is a common plan in early German churches, and is one of the many indications of similarity between German and Italian work, which might be adduced were we to enter on this interesting question.
[82]
Height Diameter Diameter of Shaft. at Base. at Neck. Ft. in. In. In.
Cloister, San Zenone, Verona 3 11½ 5⅛ 4¼ Cloister, Genoa Cathedral 4 5 6 5¼ Cloister, San Stefano, Bologna 2 8½ 4⅜ 4⅛
[83] The shafts used in the shrine of S. Edward at Westminster are of the same description, and shew that in one of the most exquisite works in England our early architects saw no incongruity between their beautiful but foreign character and the otherwise, at that time, purely national architecture.
[84] Jerpoint and Cong Abbeys are Irish examples.
[85] English examples may be seen in the western porch of Fountains Abbey, and among the extensive fragments of Egglestone Abbey, near Barnard Castle.
[86] Numerous examples of masonry arranged in the same way occur in old English examples. The openings of fireplaces in particular are often so constructed.
[87] There is a very curious example of Italian tracery in the church of San Giacomo, in Bologna. This is a two-light window, composed of a series of slabs of stones, pierced with geometrical figures and supported by shafts. It has, beginning at the sill and reckoning upwards--1, two lights divided by a shaft monial; 2, a slab pierced with two trefoiled heads to the lights; 3, a large transome panel of stone pierced with a quatrefoil and two trefoils; 4, same as 1st; 5, same as 2nd; 6, the arch, whose tympanum is filled in with another pierced slab of stone. It will be seen that the construction of such a window as this is altogether unlike that of any English window.
[88] See plate 40, p. 256.
[89] The windows in the Castle of S. Angelo, between Lodi and Pavia, are the only examples I met with of the use of brick for monials. In Northern Germany, on the contrary, where the shaft was almost unknown, brick monials are universal, and generally unsatisfactory in their effect.
[90] See preceding page.
[91] See pp. 64, 65.
[92] See p. 335.
[93] See plate 18, p. 122.
[94] See plate 15, p. 111.
[95] See plate 9, p. 72.
[96] See plate 17, p. 121.
[97] See Plate 24, p. 180.
[98] See Plate 18, p. 122.
[99] It would be difficult to give stronger evidence of the intrinsic effect of a good coloured material than is afforded by the fact that designs so really ignorant in their architectural detail as, e.g., most of the buildings of the time of William III. and Queen Anne should nevertheless have a certain charm for us, solely derived from the beautiful colour of the bricks with which they are built.
[100] See plate 63, p. 340.
[101] See plate 1, frontispiece.
[102] Some of the mediæval buildings in Greece have small patterns carved in low relief all round the walls in occasional courses, which are evidently intended to produce the kind of effect referred to above.
[103] “Oh, venerable Raphael, make thou the gulf calm, we beseech thee!” This figure looks towards the sea and the port.
[104] Mr. Ruskin founds an argument on the introduction of an H in this way in what he calls one of the Renaissance capitals of the Piazetta (the 33rd). He omits to notice its use in this undoubtedly early capital.
[105] Unintelligible; but explained by Zanotto to be: “Mosè che die’ legge al suo popolo Israelita.”
[106] Zanotto reads this: “Scipione a castita che rende la figlia al padre.”
* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
repnted=> reputed {pg 38}
cöeval=> coëval {pg 114}
just at it was=> just as it was {pg 169 fn. 36}
Christendon=> Christendom {pg 189}
PALACE OF THE JURISTCONSULTS=> PALACE OF THE JURISCONSULTS {Illustration 45}
duty, bound=> duty-bound {pg 274}