Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/462

 arches of Porta Nuova are almost the last trace of the inner circuit, constructed after the destruction of the city by Frederick Barbarossa, to which also belonged the Porta dei Fabbri, demolished in 1900. Curious reliefs from the Porta Romana are to be seen in the museum. Within this circle the majority of the streets are narrow and crooked, while those between it and the bastions, though broader on the whole, have but little regularity. An outer circle of boulevards, planted with trees and commanding the view of the suburbs, lies just beyond the present walls of the city, erected by the Spaniards in the 16th century; the entire length of these boulevards is traversed by an electric tramway 7 m. long.

Occupying one end of the Piazza del Duomo is the famous cathedral. It is built of brick cased in marble from the quarries which Gian Galeazzo Visconti gave in perpetuity to the cathedral chapter. It was begun in 1386. The name of the original architect is unknown, but it is certain that many German master-masons were called to Milan to assist the Italian builders. It was then the largest church in existence, and now, after St Peter’s at Rome and the cathedral of Seville, the Duomo of Milan is the largest church in Europe; it covers an area of 14,000 sq. yds. and can hold 40,000 people. The interior is 486 ft. long, 189 ft. wide; the nave is 157 ft. high, and the distance from the pavement to the top of the tower is 356 ft. The style is Gothic, very elaborately decorated, but it shows many peculiarities, for the work was continued through several centuries and after many designs by many masters, notably by Amadeo, who carried out the octagonal cupola (the pinnacle of which dates from 1774), and by Tibaldi, who laid down the pavement and designed a baroque façade. This last feature was begun after Tibaldi’s design in 1615, but was not finished till 1805, when Napoleon caused the work to be resumed. With its Renaissance windows and portals this façade, though good in itself, was utterly out of keeping with the general style of the church, and in 1900 the removal of the inharmonious features was begun, to be replaced in a style strictly in accordance with the Gothic style of the rest of the building from the designs of Giuseppe Brentano. In shape the church is cruciform, with double aisles to the nave and aisles to the transepts. The roof is supported by fifty-two pillars with canopied niches for statues instead of capitals; the great windows of the choir, reputed to be the largest in the world, are filled with stained glass of 1844. To the right of the entrance is the tomb of Archbishop Heribert, the champion of Milanese liberty, While beside him rests Archbishop Otto Visconti, the founder of that family as a reigning house. The large bronze candelabrum in the left transept is said to be 13th century work. In a crypt under the choir lies the body of the cardinal saint Carlo Borromeo, who consecrated the cathedral in 1577. It is contained in a rock-crystal shrine, encased in silver, and is vested in full pontifical robes blazing with jewels. The roof of the cathedral is built of blocks of marble, and the various levels are reached by staircases carried up the buttresses; it is ornamented with a profusion of turrets, pinnacles and statues, of which last there are said to be no fewer than 4440, of very various styles and periods. In front of the cathedral rises a colossal bronze equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II.

There are two noteworthy palaces in the Piazza del Duomo. The first is the Palazzo Reale dating from 1772, but occupying the site of the earliest mansion of the Viscontis and the Sforza; its great hall is a handsome chamber with a gallery supported by caryatides. Built into the palace is the ancient church of San Gottardo, a Romanesque building which was built by Azzone Visconti in 1328–1339, and was the scene of the murder of Giovanni Maria Visconti in 1412. Its campanile is a beautiful example of early Lombard terra-cotta work. The second palace is that of the archbishops, the fine façade of which is the work of Fabio Magnone. It has an older north colonnade, by some attributed to Bramante, but, like many other buildings, without sufficient evidence, and a fine court with double colonnades by Tibaldi, to whom the back façade is due. The Palazzo della Ragione, erected in the Piazza dei Mercanti, just west of the Piazza del Duomo, the central point of the medieval city, in 1223–1238 by the podesta, Oldrado da Tresseno, whose equestrian portrait in high relief adorns it, still exists in fine preservation. It is a brick edifice with a portico on the ground floor and a large hall on the upper. Close by to the south is the beautiful Loggia degli Osii, erected in 1316, with two loggie or open porticos, one above the other, in black and white marble.

Among the most interesting buildings in Milan is the ancient church of S. Ambrogio. Here St Ambrose baptized St Augustine; here he closed the doors against the emperor Theodosius after his cruel massacre at Thessalonica; here the Lombard kings and the early German emperors caused themselves to be crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy, and the pillar at which they took their coronation oaths is preserved under the lime-trees in the piazza. The church was built by St Ambrose early in the 4th-century (on the site of a temple of Bacchus it is said), but as it stands it is a Romanesque basilica of the 12th century, recently well restored (like many other churches in Milan), with a brick exterior, like so many churches of Milan and Lombardy, curious galleries over the façade, and perhaps the most perfectly preserved atrium in existence. The wooden door belongs to the original 4th century church; it has carvings with scenes from the life of David. In a great silver reliquary (modern) in the crypt lie the bones of St Ambrose, above which rises the high altar, which retains its original decorations, the only intact example of its period (835). These consist of reliefs in gold and silver enriched with enamel and gems, and are the work of one Vuolfvinus, a German. The baldacchino, with sculptures of the 12th or early 13th century, is borne by four ancient columns of porphyry, with 9th-century capitals. In the tribune are fine mosaics of the 9th century, which, Burckhardt remarks, completely break with Byzantine tradition. In the side chapel of S. Satiro are even earlier mosaics (5th century); there are also fine frescoes by Borgognone and Bernardino Lanini. The lofty brick campanile (789–824) is among the earliest in Italy, and is decorated with coloured majolica disks. The court of the neighbouring canonica is by Bramante, and so also may be the design of the cloisters of the monastery of S. Ambrogio, now the military hospital. S. Lorenzo, in the south portion of the town, dates from before 538, thus being practically contemporary with S. Vitale at Ravenna (though Burckhardt considers it to belong to about 300, and to be a part of the thermae or palace of Maximian), but was burnt down and restored in 1071 (in the restoration Corinthian capitals were used as bases). Thirty-three years later part of it collapsed, and a second fire followed in 1124. It was restored, but collapsed again in 1573, and a great part of it had to be reconstructed, including the dome (1574–1591). (The chapel of S. Aquilino, possibly a part of the original structure, contains mosaics of the 5th or 6th century.) In plan the church is an octagon, supported at the corners by four square towers in brickwork, which belong to the original structure. The interior with its two orders is a very fine one, and its influence on Renaissance architects has been very considerable. S. Eustorgio, one of the largest Gothic churches in Milan, with some Romanesque survivals, dates, as it stands, with its campanile, from the end of the 13th century, and has a modern façade in the old style. It has some interesting medieval works of sculpture, and a fine chapel (Cappella Portinari), with a good dome and a beautiful frieze of angels, built by Michelozzo in 1462–1468, and containing the splendid sculptured tomb (a marble sarcophagus with reliefs, supported by statues) of (q.v.), the masterpiece of Giovanni di Balduccio of Pisa (1339); the walls of the chapel are decorated with important frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa of Brescia. S. Simpliciano, too, though originally Romanesque, is now in the main Gothic, and has been much altered.

S. Vincenzo in Prato (833), now restored to its basilican form, with nave and two aisles divided by columns and three apses, and with small, flat arcading on the exterior, which is in brickwork; S. Satiro, founded in 879; S. Babila, also restored to its original form, &c., are interesting for their Romanesque architecture. The small domed structure on the left of S. Satiro is earlier than the church, while the campanile is part of the original structure, though preceded in date by that of S. Ambrogio, which is one of the earliest genuine campanili in Italy (789–824). The reconstruction of the church of S. Satiro was Bramante's earliest work in Milan (after 1476). The choir is painted in perspective (there was no room to build one), the earliest example of this device, which was so frequently used in baroque architecture. The octagonal sacristy (before 1488), with niches below and a gallery above, with stucco decorations by Bramante himself (the frieze with putti and medallions is ascribed to Caradosso), is a masterly work, and one of his best. The Cistercian abbey-church of Chiaravalle, 5 m. south of Milan, is a fine brick building in the plan of a Latin cross, with nave and two aisles with round pillars, with a lofty domed tower, in the so-called Romanesque Transition style, having comparatively slender round pillars and cross vaulting, while the exterior is still quite Romanesque. It was founded in 1135 by St Bernard and consecrated in 1221. It is interesting as the model for the plan of many other churches in Lombardy, e.g. S. Maria del Carmine and