Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/130

 100 ... .Renaissance Architecture. there is much in the buildings of this era that is open to the criticism of those who insist on architectural correct- ness, there is nevertheless a grace and delicacy in the orna- mentation, and a freshness and simplicity in the details, which render them superior to the buildings which were at the same time being carried out in the later Gothic styles. The Italians, especially in Lombardy, were very successful in moulding bricks for ornamental purposes, and employed them largely in their civic buildings, and some- times also in their churches : they executed the details of the cornices and the moulded arcades and window-openings, either by moulding the bricks, or by the use of bricks of different designs arranged in patterns. The Ospedale at Milan is a well-known example of Italian ornamental brickwork. Italian Renaissance architecture may be divided into three schools : the Florentine, Roman, and Venetian. Florence, long the cradle of art, was also the cradle of the Renaissance ; and it is to her great master, Brunelleschi (1377 — 1446), that she owes her pre-eminence in the revival of classic architecture. He completed the dome of the cathedral, and built the Pitti palace. In the latter work he first managed to give artistic importance to a "rusticated" structure. The Strozzi, Gondi, Riccardi, and Rucellai palaces are other fine Florentine buildings of the early Renaissance age. In Roman buildings of the same period we find a closer imitation of classic models, and a freer use of pilasters and arcades, than in the Florentine palaces. Sometimes two or more storys are included in one order of columns with their entablature surmounted by an attic (i. e. low story). The two. so-called Venetian palaces in Rome are good