Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/309

MILAN 291 name of the original architect is not known, but it is certain that many German master masons were called to Milan to assist the Italian builders. After St Peter s at Rome and the cathedral of Seville the Duomo of Milan is the largest church in Europe. It is 477 feet in length and 183 in width; the nave is 155 feet high, the cupola 22G feet, and the tower 360 feet. The work was con tinued through many centuries, and after the designs of many masters, notably of Amadeo, who carried out the octagon cupola, and of Tibaldi, who ornamented the doors and windows of the facade in the 16th century. The work was finished, under Napoleon, in 1805. The style is Gothic, though its purity is destroyed by the introduc tion of Romanesque windows and portals on the fagade. The form of the church is that of a cross. Inside there are double aisles, and aisles in the transepts. The roof is 1. Piazza del Teatro. 2. Piazza del Mercanti. 3. S Angelo. 4. Ospedale delle Fate- bene Sorelle. 5. Ospedale del Fate-bene Fratelli. fl. Ciisa Samoyloff. 7. S. Maria del Carmine. 8. Pal. de Brera. I lau of Milan. Pal. Beccaria. S. Fedele. Teatro d. Cannobiana. Cusa Uboldi. Pal. della Ragione. Conserv. di Musica. Teatro della Scala. Casino dei Mercnnti. Hotel Reichmann. Grand Hotel Royal. 19. Marino. 20. Hotel de la Ville. 21. Hotel Gran Bretagna. 22. Casa Origo. 23. Galleria Vittorio Einanuele. 24. S. Eufemia. 25. Pal. Belniojoso. 26. Museo Civico. 27. Hotel de 1 Europe. supported by fifty-two columns, with canopied niches for statues instead of capitals. The windows of the tribune contain brilliant painted glass. To the right of the entrance is the tomb of Archbishop Heribert, the champion of Milanese liberty ; next to that is the tomb of Otho Visconti, founder of that family as a reigning house, and in the right transept the monument of Giacomo dei Medici, the corsair of Como, brother of Pope Pius IV. and uncle to Saint Carlo Borromeo. Under the dome, in a crypt, lies the embalmed body of this cardinal saint (1538-84), canonized for his good deeds during the great famine and plague of 1576. The body is contained in a silver sarcophagus faced with rock-crystal. The roof of the cathedral is built of blocks of white marble ; and the various levels are reached by staircases carried up the buttresses ; it is ornamented with turrets, pinnacles, and two thousand statues. There are four other churches of interest in Milan. S. Ambrogio, the oldest, was founded by St Ambrose in the 4th century, on the ruins of a temple of Bacchus. It is remarkable for its fine atrium, and inside for the mosaics in the tribune, dating from the 9th century, and for the " pala " or plating of the high altar, a curious and ancient specimen of goldsmith s work. S. Maria delle Grazie is a Dominican church of the 15th century. The cupola, with sixteen sides wrought in terra-cotta, is attri buted to Bramante. S. Gottardo is now built into the royal palace, and only the apse and the octagonal campanile remain. The latter, a beautiful example of early Lom bard terra-cotta work, was built by Azzone Visconti in 1336, and was the scene of the murder of Giovanni Maria Visconti in 1412. The small church of San Satiro, founded in the 9th century, was rebuilt by Bramante in the 15th ; the sacristy is one of that master s finest works. The royal and archiepiscopal palaces are both worthy of note. The former stands on the site of Azzone Vis- conti s palace, and the present building was the viceregal lodge of the Austrian governors. It contains one fine hall with a gallery supported by caryatides. The Broletto, or town-hall, was built by Filippo Maria Visconti for his general Carmagnola, in 1415, who, however, never lived in it. The Great Hospital is a long building with a fine facade in terra-cotta from the designs of the Florentine Antonio Averlino ; it dates from the reign of Francesco Sforza (1456), and can accommodate 2400 patients. Among the modern buildings the most remarkable are the Arco della Pace, which stands at the commencement of the Simplon road (begun in 1804 by Napoleon, finished in 1833 under the Austrians), and the great Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, connecting the Piazza del Duomo with the Piazza della Scala a graceful glass-roofed structure 320 yards long, 16 yards wide, and 94 feet high, built in 1865-67 at a cost of 320,000 lire (12,800). The Milanese are justly proud of this popular promenade, as the finest of its kind in Europe ; and in the best of their four considerable theatres the Scala, built in 1778 on the site of a church raised by Beatrice Soala, wife of Bernab6 Visconti they also possess the largest theatre in Europe, with the single exception of the S. Carlo at Naples. Milan is rich in works of art. It has been the home of many excellent sculptors and architects, among others of Amadeo and of Agostino Busti, known as Bambaia, whose work may be seen in the cathedrals of Como and Milan, in the Certosa of Pavia, and in the terra-cotta buildings of the Lombard towns. Later on, towards the close of the 15th century, the refined court of Lodovico Sforza attracted such celebrated artists as Bramante the architect, Gaffurio Franchino the founder of one of the earliest musical academies, and Leonardo da Vinci, from whose school came Luini, Boltraffio, Gaudenzio Ferrari, and Oggiono. In still more recent times Beccaria (1738-94) as a jurist, Monti (1754-1828) as a poet, and Manzoni (1785-1873) as a novelist, have won for the Milanese a high reputation in the field of letters. The picture gallery of the Brera is one of the finest in Italy. It possesses Raphael s famous "Sposalizio," and contains many frescos by Luini, Gaudenzio Ferrari, and Bramantino. The Venetian school is particularly well represented by works of Paolo Veronese, Paris Bordone, Gentile Bellini, Crivelli, Cima da Conegliano, Bonifazio, Moroni, and Carpaccio. Luini may also be studied in the church of Monastero Maggiore, a large part of whose walls he painted in fresco. In the archaeological museum, on the ground floor of the Brera, are preserved many interesting monuments, among others the tomb of Beatrice della Scala and the equestrian monument of her husband Bernab6 Visconti, as well as the most exquisite sepulchral monument of Gaston de Foix, the work of Agostino Busti. The library of the Brera contains upwards of 200,000

volumes, including some important Venetian chronicles,