Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/351

 1868.] The Cathedral of Milan. 291 details. The Omodei, father and son, vaulted the octagon cupola, from 1490 to 1522. On the extinction of the Sforza dynasty, the three western divisions, or arches, of the nave were left unfinished; and not completed till 1685. The central tower and its terminating spire were fin- ished in 1772, from the designs of Grace; and the gable and upper range of win- dows of the front, along with many of the buttresses and pinnacles by Amati Zano- ja, and others, between 1806, when Na- poleon Bonaparte ordered the work to lie resumed, and the present hour. The dates just given involve only some of the principal constructions ; but the scaf- folds have always been standing, on some part of the building, ever since the first stone was laid. It appears, that the original designs for the fagade had long been lost ; and the nave, as erected, lacked three of its arches, or one-third of its length. At the then temporary termination, the western or principal front was supplied by a fagade of black and white marble, built, as indicated above, far within the line of the full and present structure; and, as far as raised, unfinished and in- elegant. In 1560 San Carlo Borromeo, to complete the front, employed Pelle- grini, who designed, upon a magnificent scale, an Italian fagade. San Carlo died; Pellegrini was summoned to Spain by Philip II to paint the Escurial; and the work was very leisurely carried on by others, amongst whom were Gastelli and Francesco Ricchino, who, altering the designs of Pellegrini, gave the Ro- man doors and windows that exuber- ance of ornament, which they now ex- hibit ; but the plans of the latter — ac- cording to one of which, the front was to be composed of a gigantic Roman Portico — gave rise to numerous discus- sions, resumed and continued during the 17th and 18th centuries, wherein some of the architects of Lombardy very strongly and very properly protested against the incongruous admixture of the Roman manner begun by Pellegrini; and strenuously advocated the recon- struction of the fagade in the Gothic style. Pursuing this general idea, in 1635, two Gothic designs were proposed by Carlo Buzzi, and a third by Francesco Gastelli, all three of considerable merit. Time passed, and the affair slumbered ; I rained to Gothicize the fagade, preserv- ing, however, the doors and windows of Pellegrini and Ricchino, on account of their elaborate elegance ; and, by way of apology for this discrepancy, they caused an inscription, stating this rea- son, to be engraved upon the corner buttress of the front. To these works Napoleon gave great impulse; and their continuation was in- trusted to a commission; under whom the fagade was brought to its present form, chiefly by the insertion of three pointed windows, thus harmonizing the lines of the gable; and the greater num- ber of the pinnacles and flying-buttres- ses of the remainder of the edifice were completed. The cost of these undertakings, under the French government, was about three and a half million francs, one and a half million whereof were derived from the sale of the lands belonging to the Duo- mo ; and the remainder from the pro- ceeds of the property of the suppressed monastic institutions. After the revo- lution of 1848, the supplies were tempo- rarily cut off; yet considerable was done during the subsequent Austrian regime. The Marquis Cagnola projected a mag- nificent Gothic campanile ; and others proposed flanking the front with belfry towers. The designs for the latter were sent to Napoleon at Moscow, and lost in the calamitous Russian campaign. At present, nothing further is in pro- gress in this part of the pile ; but, when Amati inserted the Gothic windows, he supported them by " bearing arches ;" so, that, if hereafter found expedient to remove the Romanized doors and win- dows, the operation may be performed without injury to the superstructure.
 * but in 1790, the syndics finally deter-