Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/597

 SPANISH RENAISSANCE. 53g four courts, 60 feet square, surrounded with three stories of arcades, and beyond is the great court of the college. On the left of the atrium is the monastery, with three courts 60 feet square, and beyond is the great court of the palace. Immediately in front, at the end of the atrium, is the church, lying between the courts of the palace and tlie college. Behind the church, which is 320 feet by 200 feet, are the state apartments of the palace. The plan of the church is Italian in origin, following some- what the type of the Carignano Church at Genoa. The detail is classical, and shows that Herrera studied to some purpose in Italy. The principal Spanish feature is the placing of the choir on a vault, over the lengthened western arm of the cross, beneath which is a domed vestibule — consequently the interior is, in effect, a Greek cross on plan. In general grouping nothing could be finer than the dome as a centre, flanked by the two towers and surrounded by the great mass of building, the whole being silhouetted against a back- ground of mountains. Moreover, the palace proper at the east end is only an annex, and does not conflict with the church, as the Vatican does with S. Peter, Rome. The entire structure, internally and externally, is built in granite of a gray color, with a slight yellow tinge, which material may have influenced the design. The taste of Philip II. and Herrera might have produced something equally plain, whether in granite or not, but at least the design may be said to be suited to the material. The masonry is excellent, and in blocks of great size, the architraves of doors being 10 to 12 feet high, in one stone. The external facades are everywhere five stories in height, the windows square-headed, without dressings of any sort, and without any attempt at grouping, so that they are inferior in effect to the facade at the Alcazar, described above. The interior, however, is most impressive, being of granite with suitable detail, and having only the vaults colored. It has a magnificent reredos in such quietly-toned marbles that its richness might pass notice. The architectural character is so restrained that the structure looks nothing at a cursory glance. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. Santo Domingo, Salamanca(A.D. i524-i6io),isan important early work with excellent figure sculpture, and illustrates the peculiar richness of the " Plateresque " style (page 534), deriving its detail from Moorish influence. Burgos Cathedral has a magnificent dome (No. 186) belonging to the early period (1567), and is an example of the wealth of detail so characteristic of the style.