A History of Architecture in All Countries, Volume 2, 3rd ed

A History of Architecture in All Countries, Volume 2, 3rd ed. - From the Earliest Times to the Present Day

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. Scale bars marked '1 in.' have been added to illustrations for which a scale is given (e.g. 50 ft. to 1 in.) to indicate the size of the image as printed in the original book. Ditto marks have been replaced by the text they represent. Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in a second transcribers note at the end of the text. There are very few specimens in Italy of circular or polygonal buildings of any class belonging to the Gothic age. As churches, none are to be expected. Baptisteries had passed out of fashion. One such building, at Parma, commenced in 1196, deserves to be quoted, not certainly for its beauty, but as illustrating those false principles of design shown in every part of every building of this age in Italy. Externally the building is an octagon, six storeys in height, the four upper ones being merely used to conceal a dome, which is covered by a low-pitched wooden roof. The lowest and the highest storeys are solid, the others are galleries supported by little ill-shaped columns. It is probable that this was not the original design of the architect, Antelami. No doubt he intended to conceal the dome, or at all events to cover it, as was the universal practice in Italy; but instead of a mere perpendicular wall, as here used, the external outline should have assumed a conical form, which might have rendered it as pleasing 2as it is now awkward. We have no instance of a circular building carried out by Italian architects according to their own principles sufficiently far to enable us to judge what they were capable of in this style, unless perhaps it be the tombs of the Scaligers at Verona. These take the circular or polygonal form appropriate to tombs, but are on so small a scale that they might rather be called crosses than mausolea; and though illustrating all the best principles of Italian design, and evincing an exuberance of exquisite ornament, they can hardly be regarded as important objects of high art. It is only from small buildings like these that we may recover the principles of this art as practised in Italy. Not being, like the Northern styles, a progressive national effort, but generally an individual exertion, if the first architect died during the progress of a larger building, no one knew exactly how he had intended to finish it, and its completion was entrusted to the caprice and fancy of some other man, which he generally indulged, wholly regardless of its incongruity with the work of his predecessor. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 55872
Author: Fergusson, James
Release Date: Nov 1, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Spiers, Richard Phené, 1838-1916