Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/319

Rh Milan; the church of San Vitale at Ravenna; that of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome; and the Duomo Vecchio, outside the city of Arezzo; wherein, with the exception of those few fragments from the antique, which remain in different parts, there is nothing which deserves to be called good, whether as regards arrangement or execution. But, by the masters above named, architecture was, without doubt, greatly ameliorated, and the art made considerable progress under their influence, since they brought the various parts to more correct proportion, and not only erected their buildings in a manner which imparted strength and durability, but also added the grace of ornament to certain parts of them. It is, indeed, true that their decorations were complicated, confused, and very far from perfection, so that they could scarcely be said to contribute in any great measure to the beauty of the fabric. In the columns, for example, the measure and proportion required by the rules of art were not observed, nor were the orders distinguished, whether Doric, Corinthian, Ionic, or Tuscan; all were mingled together, after a rule of their own, which was no rule at all, and were constructed of excessive thickness, or exceedingly slender, as seemed good in their eyes. Their inventions were partly confused notions of their own, partly as irregular adaptations of the ancient relics with which they were acquainted. Their plans were derived in part from good sources, but partly also from their own caprices; insomuch, that when the walls were raised, they sometimes presented a very different form from that of their so-called model. But, notwithstanding all this, whoever compares the labours of that period with those of an earlier day, will see that they had materially improved in all respects, even though there should still be found many particulars wherein the critics of our times find cause for dissatisfaction; as, for example, the small oratories constructed of brick, covered over with stucco, at San Giovanni Laterano, in Rome. The same remarks may be applied to sculpture, which, at the first moment of its revival, had some remains of excellence. Being once freed from the rude Byzantine manner,