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NOTE.

ON THE USES TO BE MADE OF THE MEDIEVAL

ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY.

THE Gothic revivers have of late been somewhat severely taunted by their opponents, on the free use they have made of ideas derived from the Italian works of the middle ages. It is likely enough that we may be more or less deserving of such taunts, and I feel rather glad of them as curbs upon the tendency to which we are all liable to depart from the strictness of our own principles, and to indulge in too free an eclecticism.

The argument used against us is this:-that, while we profess to be reviving our native architecture, we substitute for it that of Italy; and, while we declaim against the classic styles as unsuited to our climate, we feel no scruples at using that which, though mediæval, belongs to the same southern lands.

Did we do this to the extent which our critics would wish to prove, we should be, in some degree at least, deserving of their censures. Even then, however, their case would not be so strong as they imagine it.

Classic architecture is the indigenous offspring of southern climes, or, so far as it is derivative, came from countries still more southward than those which perfected it. Gothic architecture, on the contrary, is the offspring of northern climes, and when found in Italy is in some degree exotic, being imported from the north. If, therefore, we bring back to our northern countries the ideas which it developed during its sojourn in Italy, we are not necessarily importing southern architecture, but only a modified variety of our own. Still, however, I quite agree that it would be in

consistent to import it in the form which it has assumed under a warmer sun. It is occasionally done, but I think it

mistaken.

Are there not, however, features which it may have developed in Italy, which are unconnected with climate? Did it not so happen that the social state of the Italian cities during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was particularly well calculated for generating a palatial style suited to town mansions and public buildings? This state of things was not the result of climate, but was accidental; why then are we to be debarred from learning lessons from works which originated from circumstances as likely to arise in one country as another? Again, had not the Italian architects command of rich material, from which the cotemporary builders here were debarred? Why, then, should we not learn from their mode of using them now that we are able to procure corresponding materials? To introduce features belonging essentially to a southern climate, or those semi-classic details which arose from their occupying the site of departed classicism, and which are the great defects of mediæval Italian, would be absurd; but to avail ourselves of any ideas which were there worked out, and which are unconnected with any of the circumstances, physical or moral, which essentially distinguish Italy from England, is simply the part of common

sense.

The fact is, however, that those who say most on this subject know little of what is or is not Italian; and if we attempt any deviation from the most familiar types, particularly if we adopt an early character, and a somewhat columnar type, they at once conclude that it is Venetian, though it probably bears but little resemblance to anything in Venice, and contains no essentially southern elementa.

The following remarks, written two years ago, express my general views on the subject. They are reprinted from the Ecclesiologist" of June, 1855.

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a Many of the details which are talked of as Italian are frequent throughout France, and exist in works executed in Normandy while under English rule, and are to be found even in English buildings.

"One of the most important cautions which the student of mediæval architecture should impose upon himself, on first visiting Italy, is to guard carefully against being too much carried away by the reaction against former prejudice. The lover of Pointed architecture usually visits Italy late, and almost always under the impression that it contains little that is exactly in his line; and when, so far from this impression being confirmed, he finds that it is absolutely filled with objects of the deepest interest to him, he is apt to fly at once to the opposite extreme, and to be so much enamoured of these newly-discovered beauties, as to think them superior to those of the works on which his former ideas and knowledge had been founded.

This is a great mistake. Were it even true that the Pointed architecture of Italy were superior to our own, it would be unwise to in any degree substitute it for that which is pre-eminently our national form of architecture, and which has on that ground (as well as so many others) such special claims to be made the basis of our future developments. Such, however, is far from being the case. Italian Pointed, though replete with beauty, is per se very inferior as architectural style to the cotemporary architecture of England, and especially of France. Its details are so mixed with reminiscences of classic antiquity, and its construction falls so far short of carrying out fully the great principles of Pointed architecture, that it must ever be considered as a far less perfect development of the style than those of Northern Europe.

These facts, however, once admitted, Italian Pointed may be studied with very great advantage, and will be found to supply a vast fund of material which may be used to enrich and render more copious and complete that which we derive from our northern examples; and which may be imported into our own style, without in any degree infringing upon its nationality.

It is almost presumptuous to attempt an enumeration of the lessons we may learn from Italian art before a society which has given so much practical consideration to the subject.

The first I will notice is the extensive use of what has received the name of Constructional Polychromy. This is perhaps the very first thing which strikes the eye on visiting Italian works of the middle ages. Its highest development is of course where marbles of different colours are used in the actual construction of the building, as in the Cathedral and Campanile at Florence. The mass of the work is there of white or veined marble, but is interstratified and panelled in certain proportions with red and dark green marbles; in addition to which the parts are enriched by inlaid patterns, in marbles of various colours, the whole forming the most exquisite combination of colour which can well be imagined.

At the Cathedral at Sienna the only materials are, so far as I can recollect, white (or veined) and black marbles, which are for the most part alternated in equal proportions. Here the effect is very inferior to what we see at Florence; the contrast is too crude, and the proportions of dark and light colour unpleasing. This was, however, corrected in the addition commenced, but never completed, on the south side of the church, where the columns have only one course of black to four of white, with a slight addition of inlaying; and here the effect is exceedingly fine and harmonious. In the east end, also, the proportion of white and black courses, and of inlaid pattern, is exceedingly pleasing. I mention this, because it is of the utmost importance, if this mode of decoration is attempted, that the proportions of the different colours be most carefully studied.

The use of marbles of different colours for detached shafts is a universal feature in Italian Pointed, and is a system of decoration peculiarly open to ourselves, from the great variety of rich material now at our disposal. I will mention one instance of it which particularly struck me. I refer to one or two pillars at the western end of the nave arcades in the cathedral at Genoa. These are of later date than the church in general, and are so beautiful in their detail, that, without any wish to disparage Italian architecture, my first involuntary impression was that they must have been designed by a French artist, of which I am the more convinced from looking again at my sketches. The artist, however, made

himself perfect master of the Italian material. The pillars consist of an octagonal nucleus of plain stone, nearly concealed by twenty-four detached shafts which surround it. These are most beautifully arranged, both in position, size, and colour. Those occupying the four cardinal faces (1 ft. 5 in. in diameter) are of a rich mottle of crimson, green, and white. Those on the diagonal faces (11 in. in diameter) are alternately of white and black; and between these and the great shafts are, in each interval, two smaller shafts, (6 in. and 4 in. in diameter,) also black and white, but the colours counterchanged, so that on two sides we have three white and two black, and on the others three black and two white. The richly carved capitals are white, the abacus with carved cresting of dark marble; the bases (supported by stiff foliage) are of a mottle of black and crimson on a light coloured plinth. The superincumbent arches are of alternate voussoirs of light and dark marble. The whole struck me as the most beautiful combination I had seen, and applies especially to my present subject, inasmuch as the design clearly belongs to Northern Gothic, though the material and its treatment are Italian.

Much the same may be said of the beautiful western portals of the same church, evidently designed by the same hand. The details are for the most part purely French, as is the general design, but the use of polychromatic materials is carried to its fullest extent, as also is the use of that beautiful Italian feature, the twisted column and moulding. In one of these portals, of which I took memoranda, the larger detached shafts are alternately of green and dark mottled marbles; the smaller ones of a red mottle and black. They are placed against a flat splayed jamb, of great depth, which is formed of alternate courses of dark and light marble, the light courses being each inlaid with small pattern-work. The bases are white, with the beautiful French enrichment of supporting leaves; the plinth is in courses of various colours, inlaid, dark upon white, and white upon dark. The arch-stones are alternately dark and white, but in some of the orders the individual bowtills are cut out, and black or white inserted; counterchanging in each course-an ex

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