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aggeration, perhaps, of the principle, as it infringes a little upon the construction. On the whole, these western parts of the cathedral strike me as among the most valuable specimens I have seen, and the more so as they fully illustrate the principle I am advocating, of enriching Northern Gothic with Italian ideas, but doing so without infringing upon its essential characteristics. We have here ready to our hand an original instance of what I suggest.

The form, perhaps, of constructive polychromy which most concerns ourselves is that produced by the use of brick and stone, (with the occasional addition of marble.) Verona is peculiarly rich in work of this kind. In these works we usually find each order of the arches of doorways, windows, &c., in alternate voussoirs of stone and brick, their relative positions counterchanged in the different orders, and sometimes the orders thus formed are alternated with others entirely of stone, and carved. These features are exceedingly beautiful. The same occurs in the Old Palace at Mantua, and is indeed common throughout that part of Italy; the walls are usually banded at intervals with single courses of stone.

While on the subject of brick, I may just mention the great beauty of many Italian buildings which are wholly of that material. Such is the case with the ancient parts of the cathedral, and with the tower of another church, at Mantua, works by no means devoid of ornament; but I recollect no work of this kind which struck me so much as the Mercanzia at Bologna. Its front is of exquisite beauty, and is almost wholly of brick, including carvings of the richest character and the most beautiful execution. The church of S. Petronius in the same city, a structure of extreme grandeur, though I cannot admire its detail, is internally almost wholly of brick, though unfortunately now whitewashed. Its foliated capitals and other ornaments are of brick. As, however, Mr. Street has made the brick architecture of Italy his special subject, I will not say more upon it. I may, however, in connection with it, call attention to the extensive use of terra-cotta, or brick of a superior kind and on a larger scale, used for the more artistic portions of buildings. When

used in these days, terra-cotta is treated as a sham stone, but in the old Italian buildings I never saw it used otherwise than as the highest development of brick.

The practice of overlaying buildings with thin slabs of marble I will not dwell upon. It is open to this objection, that if the slabs are quasi-constructive in their distribution, they involve a sham; if not so, they disturb the constructive idea which it is so desirable to keep up in dignified architecture. I consider the practice fair and admissible, if not pretending to be constructive, but would suggest that it would be much better to limit it to panels and other subordinate parts,—the genuine walling material being shewn around it. I may mention that, at S. Mark's at Venice, the slabs are placed with their longest dimension vertical, as if to prevent any thought of their pretending to be constructive. In the domestic buildings at Venice, the windows being generally of marble, while the walls are of plastered brickwork; the former are made almost like a modern chimney-piece, the whole window construction being cut out from the wall into which it is built by what a modern mason would call an 'out ground,' or thin strip of marble (perhaps an inch and a half thick) built edgeway into the wall, and enclosing the ornamental dressings of the window. The edge of this slip of marble is cut into the peculiar Venetian dentil. Coloured marbles are often used within this framing.

The next Italian element I will mention as capable of being imported into our own styles, is mosaic work. This offers too wide a scope for me to attempt to dwell upon it. We have full proof that our own church builders considered it suitable to their works, from their introduction of it in Westminster Abbey and other buildings. The glass mosaic used as a decoration for architecture (as distinguished from floors) seems to me, if its manufacture were successfully revived, to be a very beautiful and legitimate enrichment. The glass, however, must be opaque, and the gold external, protected only by a glaze on its surface. In the instances of it which we have in Westminster Abbey, it is used with Italian architecture; but this seems merely the result of employing Italian workmen. It might as readily have been used in a

work of English design. In the cathedral at Prague, a large external surface is faced with it or with some very similar mosaic.

The whole subject of painted wall-decoration may be studied with the greatest advantage in Italy. In northern buildings we generally find it in a very fragmentary state from decay and intentional obliteration, but in Italy we may study it in its integrity. Besides this, the Italians having always excelled as colourists, the intrinsic merits of their decorations may fairly be supposed to be such as to command our special attention. Their details, however, I would not generally recommend to direct imitation, being very much derived from classic ornament, and they are frequently guilty of the modern sin of shamming, their decorations often representing marble of different kinds, moulding, and mosaics. The bands or borders of ornamental work with which they framed their frescoes, or divided the surfaces of wall or ceiling, and with which they edged their windows or the compartments of groined vaulting, are often peculiarly beautiful in their treatment, and, though bearing strong traces of the antique, furnish very useful hints for ourselves. Their mode of introducing small busts of saints in fresco in quatrefoils, &c., at intervals in these borders, and in circles in the vaulting, is peculiarly beautiful, and might be imitated where a more extended use of fresco would be impossible. I may mention that the borders to the groining compartments are often faulty in uniting too completely with the rib, and appearing to give it a disproportionate width.

Fresco-painting, properly so called, can only be studied in Italy. It is the great glory of medieval art in that country, but is too wide a subject for me to venture upon. I will just throw out for consideration, whether, in frescoes used as a part of architectural decorations, the Italian method of rendering them complete paintings without an outline, or that more usual in the north, of defining every figure (as in glass) by a strong outline, is the most appropriate. While on the subject of frescoes, I will suggest, as a point meriting careful consideration, whether their presence is any legitimate reason for avoiding rich stained glass. Such would not ap

pear to have been the practice in Italy. In the chapel in the Arena at Padua (a building evidently designed expressly as a field for artistic decorations of the highest order,) remnants of rich glass exist sufficient to shew that it originally filled the windows, and its absence gives a cold, crude tone to the decorations. In the church of S. Petronius at Bologna, many frescoes have existed, though now obliterated, but the windows are still filled with the richest glass. The apse of Santa Croce, at Florence, retains both its frescoes and its glass, the latter fully as rich as that in northern churches, and though I spent a considerable time in it, carefully examining its detail, the question of whether the frescoes suffered from the glass never so much as occurred to my mind. It may be that the amount of light diffused in a southern atmosphere may admit of both, but that in our climate it would not, but, as we use about double the surface of window that the Italians did, one would think that this ought to correct our deficiency of light. Among the specimens of Italian Decorated interiors which particularly struck me, I may mention the exquisite chapel of S. Felice in the church of S. Antonio at Padua, and that of S. John, under the east end of the cathedral at Sienna. The latter, however, I was prevented from examining carefully.

The architecture itself of Italian Pointed buildings, as I have said before, does not strike me as being suited to our imitation in its main features, nor yet in its more ordinary details. Even here, however, the exceptions to be made are very numerous. First, I would mention the use of twisted shafts of an infinity of patterns, often enriched with carving or mosaic, -also of twisted or cable mouldings, around arches, and in many other positions. These, particularly the former, seem to me to furnish a decorative element of great value. The window tracery is often inferior, but occasionally is treated in a most masterly manner, as in the filling in of the round arches in Or San Michele, at Florence. These were originally the arches of a market-house, but were altered to Gothic windows of exquisite beauty and great originality. They are figured in Professor Willis's Work. I cannot mention this building without noticing the wonderful ciborium, altar, and

altar-enclosure it contains: one of the most splendid works of its kind in existence, decorated with sculpture, inlaid marble, coloured glass, and almost every kind of enrichment.

To go through the range of Italian Pointed architecture, and pick out the parts I think capable of being used consistently with our own, would be a most lengthy business. It is better to suggest the principle, and leave every one to use it to the best of his own judgment. One great question which the subject suggests is the problem of the use of the dome in Pointed architecture, much too wide a question, however, for the present occasion. The extensive use of round unclustered pillars; the splendid pulpits (e.g. those at Sienna and Pisa); the treatment of sepulchral monuments (not always, however, felicitous); the beautiful introduction of sculptured busts (as in the painted decorations); the sculpture generally; the greater scope given to niche-figures than in our narrow niches; the practice of canopying windows and flanking them with detached shafts standing on corbels beyond the face of the wall; the splendid quasi-machicolated cornices and parapets (as those of the cathedral and campanile at Florence); and an infinity of other features, deserve a most attentive though discriminating study.

Lastly, the domestic architecture of Italy will, if rightly used, add a great store of useful materials to that which we obtain from our own examples. The square, corniced streetfronts (though I should mention that they were almost as common in French towns) are in many positions more suited to modern use than the gabled front. The treatment of the windows, the freedom with which the openings are either divided by mullions or left unbroken, as convenience might dictate; the beautiful way in which balconies, balustrades, external staircases, and all kinds of objects of ordinary requirement are introduced, offer a copious field for most useful practical study, and one greatly tending to supply what is wanting in our own domestic architecture. In making use, however, of such suggestions, the difference of climate must never be lost sight of.

I will only add that my object having been to point out in a hasty way what I think suited to our own use in Italian

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