Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/398

382 382 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. No one who takes the pains to familiarize himself with the archi- tecture of these Southern Italian churches can well fail to be im- pressed with their beauty. That beauty will be found, however, to arise not so much from the dimensions or arrangement of their plans, or the form of their outline, as from the grace and elegance of their details. Every feature displays the feeling of an elegant and refined people, who demanded decoration as a necessity, though they were incapable of rising to any great architectural conception. They excelled as ornamentists, though at best only indifferent architects. 812. Window in the South Side of the Cathedral Church at ATatera. (From a Sketch by Air. Gawen.) It is impossible to render this evident in such a work as the present ; but besides the examples already given, a window (Woodcut No. 812) from the cathedral church at Matera (1270), will explain how unlike the style of decoration is to anything with which we are familiar in the North, and at the same time how much picturesque effect may be produced by a repetition of similar details. The church itself has this peculiarity, that its west front is plain and unimportant, and that all the decoration is lavished on the south side, which faces the piazza. There are two entrances on this face, that towards the east being, as usual, the richest. Above these is a range of richly- ornamented windows, one of which — a little out of the centre — is far more splendid than the rest (Woodcut No. 812). From this it is said