Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/338

322 • ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. rooted in the Italian soil. In all the cities, except Rome, the cause of the Ghibellines was throughout the Middle Ages identified with that of freedom and local independence, in opposition to that of the Guelfs, which symbolized the supremacy of the Poj^e and the clerical party. Knowing how strenuously this was resisted, we naturally expect to find it expressed in the architecture of the country. Two, indeed, of the great churches of Italy, Assisi (1228) and Milan (1385), were erected by Germans in the German style of the day ; but these are exceptional. The form which the pointed-arched style took on its introduction, was that of adaptation to the Italian style, in a manner which the Italians thoug.it more consonant with beauty and con- venience than that adopted north of the Alps. In this they were certainly mistaken. The elegance of the details employed by a refined and cultivated people, and based on classical traditions, goes far to redeem, in most instances, the defects of their designs ; but they never grasped the true principles of Gothic art, and the fatal facility of the pointed arch led them more astray after mechanical clevernesses than even the Germans. Still, it is an original style, and, however imperfect, is well Avorthy of study. Before proceeding to describe the style more in detail, it may be well to point out one of the principal causes which led to the more marked features of difference between the Gothic architecture of Italy and that of Germany and France. This was the distaste of the Italians for the employment of painted glass, or at least their want of appreciation of its beauties when combined with architecture. An attempt was made in a previous chapter to explain how all- important painted glass was to the elaboration of the Gothic style. But for its introduction, the architecture of France would bear no resemblance to what it was, and is. In Italy, indeed, the people loved polychromy, but always of the opaque class. They delighted to cover the walls of their churches with frescoes and mosaics, to enrich their floors with the most gorgeous pavements, and to scatter golden stars over the blue ground of their vaults ; but rarely, if ever, did they fill, or design to fill, their windows with painted glass. Perhaps the glare of an Italian sun may have tended to render its brilliancy intolerable ; but more probably the absence of stained glass is owing to its incompatibility with fresco-painting, the effect of which would be entirely destroyed by the superior brightness of the transparent material. The Italians were not prepared to relinquisli the old and favorite mode of decoration in which they so excelled. This ad- herence to the ancient method of ornamentation enabled them, in the 15th and 16th centuries, to surpass all the world in the art of painting, but it was fatal to the proper appreciation of the pointed style, and to its successful introduction into the land. The first effect of this tendency was that the windows in Italian