Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/358

342 342 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Pakt II. The choir is neither a French chevet nor a German or Italian apse, but a compromise between the two, a French circlet of columns enclosed in a German polygonal termination. This part of the building, with its simple forms and three glorious windows, is • perhaps an improvement on either of the models of which it is compounded. This is the nearest approach to the French chevet arrangement to be found in all Italy. It is extremely rare in that country to find an aisle running round the choir, and opening into it, or with the circlet of ajisidal chapels which is so universal in France. The Italian church is not, in fact, derived from a combination of a circular Eastern church with a Western rectangular nave, but is a direct coj^y from the old Koman l)asilica. The details of the interior of Milan are almost wholly German (Woodcut Xo. 771). The great capitals of the pillars, with their niclies and statues, are the only compromise between the ordinary German form and the great deep ugly capitals — fragments, in fact, of classical entablatures — which disfigure the cathedrals of Florence and Bologna, and so many othei- Italian churches. Had the ornamenta- tion of these been carried up to the springing of the vault, they would liave been unexceptionable ; as it is with all their richness, their effect is unmeaning. Externally, the aj>j)earance is in outline not unlike that of Sta. Maria dei Fiori ; the a})se is rich, varied, and j)icturesque, and the central dome (excepting the details) similar, though on a smaller scale, to what I believe to have been the original design of the Florentine church. The nave is nearly as flat as at Florence, the clerestory not being visible ; but the forest of pinnacles and flying buttresses an<l the richness of the ornamentation go far to hide that defect. The fa9ade was left unfinished, as was so often the case with the great churches of Italy. Pellegrini was afterwards employed to finish it, and a model of his design is still preserved. It is fortunate that his plan was not carried out. The facade was finished, as we now see it, from the designs of Amati, by order of Napoleon. It is commonplace, as might be expected from its age, but inoffensive. The doorways are part of Pellegrini's <lesign, and the Mediteval forms being placed over those of the cinque-cento produce a strangely incongruous effect. For the west front several original designs are still preserved. One of these, with two small square towers at the angles, as at Yercelli and elsewhere, was no doubt the Italian design. The German one (Woodcut No. 77*2) is preserved by Bassi ; i had this been executed, the facade would have been about one-third (viz. 100 ft.) wider than that of Cologne. Had the height of the towers 1 " Dispareri d'Architectura."