Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/344

328 ITALIAN AECHITECTUEE. Part II. triforium is all that can be desired ; the clerestory, however, is as insignificant as it must be where the sun is so brilliant, and painted glass inadmissible. It would be easy to point out other defects ; but, taking it altogether, there are few more elegant churches than this, and hardly one in Italy that so perfectly meets all the exigencies for which it was designed. The cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto (the former commenced in 1243, the latter in 1290) are perhaps, taken altogether, the most suc- cessful specimens of Italian pointed Gothic. They are those at least in which the system is carried to the greatest extent without either foreign aid or the application of distinctly foreign details. These two buildings, moreover, both re- tain their fa9ades as completed by their first architects, while the three great churches of this style — the cathedrals of Florence, Bologna, and Milan — were in this respect left unfinished, with many others of the smaller churches of Italy. The church at Siena illustrates forcibly the tendency of the Italian architects to adhere to the domical forms of the old Etruscans, which the Romans amplified to such an extent, and the Byzantines made peculiarly their own. I cannot but repeat my regret that the Italians alone, of all the Western Mediaeval builders, showed any predilection for this form of roof. On this side of the Alps it could have been made the most beautiful of archi- tectural forms. In Italy there is no instance of more than moderate success — nothing, indeed, to encourage imitation. Even the example now before us is no exception to these remarks, though one of the boldest efforts of Italian architects. . In plan it ought to have been an octagon, but that apparently would have made it too large for their skill to execute, so they met the difficulty by adopting a hexagon, which, though pj-oducing a certain variety of perspective, fits awkwardly wdth the lines of columns, and tAvists the vaults to an unpleasant extent. Still a dome of moderate height, and 58 ft. in diameter, covering the centre of the church, and with sufficient space around to give it dignity, Is a noble and pleasing feature, the merit of which it is impossible to deny. Combined with the rich coloring 760. Pain of Cathetlral at Siena. (From the "Eglises Principales d'Europe.") Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.