Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/131

 square covered by the dome, and a colonnade on a curved plan forming the sanctuary bounds this square area on the east side. Beyond this is an oblong enclosure the eastern wall of which is on a curved plan, and the sanctuary is flanked by small towers. The interior has a great order of Corinthian columns, one against each pier, resting directly on the pavement, and the small pilasters under the archivolts carry entablatures which extend to the outer wall and from them the barrel vaults of the chapels spring. The entablature of the great order is not set in the wall and broken by ressauts to cover the columns, as in San Giorgio; but is carried by the columns, and thus overhangs the wall with a supporting corbel in the middle of each intercolumniation which forms a keystone to the arch beneath. The façade of the Redentore is a variation of that of San Giorgio with the pedestals omitted from the great order, as in the interior, and it has an attic behind the pediment like that of Vignola's small church of St. Andrea at Rome. Such is the nature of Palladian church architecture. We shall see more of Palladio's art when we come to the consideration of the later civil and domestic architecture of the Renaissance.

It is unnecessary to multiply examples of the church architecture of the Roman Renaissance, i.e. that architecture which derived its character primarily from the influences that were active in Rome from the beginning of the sixteenth century. For while the churches of this style differ considerably one from another in details, they agree essentially in architectural treatment growing out of a closer contact with ancient monuments, though with no strict conformity to them. Descriptions of minor differences in the forms of such buildings, and in the composition of their ornamental details, are tedious, and enough of them have now been given. We may, therefore, in the next chapter, pass on to the consideration of the palace architecture of the Renaissance.