consult the study of Mr. Stevenson in the third number of the Bulletino d’Arch. Crist. A. 1, 1882, and the researches of M. Salazaro: “ Studi sui monum. dell’Italia merid. ” P. II, p. 51 and following. Sicilian architecture has been noticed in the discussion of Byzantine art in Italy. To complete our survey of the mediæval styles, we must glance at the architecture arbitrarily called Gothic, but which we will term Pointed.
Two different factors interfered with the development of this style in Italy; namely, the character of the climate and the nature of the Italian people, who have always inclined toward Classic art. It was due to these causes that our mediæval architecture disappeared without having attained full maturity; and, in truth, no one can help awarding the palm in Italian architecture to the structures that have immortalized ru
nelleschi, Bramante, Alberti, and Michelozzi.
The greatest Gothic temple in Italy, the Cathedral of Milan, was but just founded in 1386, when the Classic forms had already begun to show themselves at Florence in Santa Maria del Fiore (founded 1296). In fact, the portions of the gallery constructed in 1367 above the tribunes and the naves of the Florentine cathedral exhibit forms which are somewhat Classic. And there is no question as to the Classicism of the two stone cornices of the inner galleries, running above and beneath the polygonal plan on which the dome rises; the oldest of these was constructed between 1400 and 1405, when the Gothic was in its full vigor everywhere else. This remark is made here to remind the reader that Brunelleschi (1376-1446), who is regarded as the architect that contributed most to the triumph of Classical architecture in
Italy, may have been preceded by others in this revival work.
It may be said that it was impossible for Gothic architecture to develop in Italy on account of a premature reaction toward pagan art. In Piedmont alone did it exhibit real life, and there it flourished as an exotic. Piedmont was a frontier province, governed by a family whose capital for a part of the year was beyond the Alps, and who formed frequent domestic alliances with the house of Valois; it was naturally slower then to adopt the precepts of Classic art than were the other provinces.
Gothic forms thus determined the general character of the Piedmontese art of the fifteenth century; and in this way the style predominated in Piedmont, while, in the rest of Italy, the semicircular arch had victoriously driven out the pointed; the Gothic of Piedmont recalls the French Gothic, more especially in its fifteenth-century manors, two of which, at Fenis
and Issogne, in the valley of Aosta, have preserved their original exterior and interior aspect.
The climate of Italy, as was remarked above, was unfavorable to a natural development of the Italian Gothic, and though a vindication of this statement may appear superfluous, I wish to call attention to the fact that pointed forms are wholly inharmonious in a country where the climate is mild and the sun intense and brilliant. The ogival arch calls for peaked roof, pointed pediments, slender spires and so forth. But peaked roofs, pointed pediments and slender spires can never constitute organic forms of an Italian style of architecture. The one Italian monument in which the Gothic impress is deepest and most justifiable, the Cathedral of Milan, has
nothing genuinely Gothic about it except the multitude of its slender pinnacles.
Until recently it was supposed that the design of this cathedral was made by a Suevian architect, Henry Arler of Gmünden; but the latest researches on the subject leave us in doubt as to the name of the artist who drew the first plan. We know, however, that Italian and foreign engineers (they were called engineers) were engaged in its construction. Among the most remarkable Italian engineers at first employed, were Andrea Degli-Organi, ducal engineer, Simone da Orsenigo (living in 1395), Giacomo da Campione, Matteo da Campione († 1395), Giacomo de Grassi, who was engaged in the work until 1389, and who was known principally as a painter, and Filippino Degli-Organi, son of Andrea, who was engaged from 1400 to 1448. These engineers contributed extensively to the erection of the magnificent edifice, which was reared in the face of the most violent opposition, especially from the foreign artists, — a fact easily explained. These foreigners naturally objected to everything that was done in accordance with the local traditions, which were radically different from their own. The first foreign engineer employed on the cathedral was a Frenchman, Nicole de Bonaventuri, who came to Milan in 1389. Next we find there John Firimburg, after 1391. Toward the close of the same year Henry Arler of Gmiinden, arrived from Suevia; then, in 1394, came Ulrick of Füssingen or Ensingen, and, finally, another Frenchman, Jean Mignot; Mignot was the last great foreign engineer to take part in the discussions raised over the construction, rather than in the practical work. He was in Milan in 1399. Engineers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and even of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, have been employed here, and the exterior has been adorned with spirelets
Fig. 8. Apse of Milan Cathedral.
Two different factors interfered with the development of this style in Italy; namely, the character of the climate and the nature of the Italian people, who have always inclined toward Classic art. It was due to these causes that our mediæval architecture disappeared without having attained full maturity; and, in truth, no one can help awarding the palm in Italian architecture to the structures that have immortalized ru
nelleschi, Bramante, Alberti, and Michelozzi.
The greatest Gothic temple in Italy, the Cathedral of Milan, was but just founded in 1386, when the Classic forms had already begun to show themselves at Florence in Santa Maria del Fiore (founded 1296). In fact, the portions of the gallery constructed in 1367 above the tribunes and the naves of the Florentine cathedral exhibit forms which are somewhat Classic. And there is no question as to the Classicism of the two stone cornices of the inner galleries, running above and beneath the polygonal plan on which the dome rises; the oldest of these was constructed between 1400 and 1405, when the Gothic was in its full vigor everywhere else. This remark is made here to remind the reader that Brunelleschi (1376-1446), who is regarded as the architect that contributed most to the triumph of Classical architecture in
Italy, may have been preceded by others in this revival work.
It may be said that it was impossible for Gothic architecture to develop in Italy on account of a premature reaction toward pagan art. In Piedmont alone did it exhibit real life, and there it flourished as an exotic. Piedmont was a frontier province, governed by a family whose capital for a part of the year was beyond the Alps, and who formed frequent domestic alliances with the house of Valois; it was naturally slower then to adopt the precepts of Classic art than were the other provinces.
Gothic forms thus determined the general character of the Piedmontese art of the fifteenth century; and in this way the style predominated in Piedmont, while, in the rest of Italy, the semicircular arch had victoriously driven out the pointed; the Gothic of Piedmont recalls the French Gothic, more especially in its fifteenth-century manors, two of which, at Fenis
and Issogne, in the valley of Aosta, have preserved their original exterior and interior aspect.
The climate of Italy, as was remarked above, was unfavorable to a natural development of the Italian Gothic, and though a vindication of this statement may appear superfluous, I wish to call attention to the fact that pointed forms are wholly inharmonious in a country where the climate is mild and the sun intense and brilliant. The ogival arch calls for peaked roof, pointed pediments, slender spires and so forth. But peaked roofs, pointed pediments and slender spires can never constitute organic forms of an Italian style of architecture. The one Italian monument in which the Gothic impress is deepest and most justifiable, the Cathedral of Milan, has
nothing genuinely Gothic about it except the multitude of its slender pinnacles.
Until recently it was supposed that the design of this cathedral was made by a Suevian architect, Henry Arler of Gmünden; but the latest researches on the subject leave us in doubt as to the name of the artist who drew the first plan. We know, however, that Italian and foreign engineers (they were called engineers) were engaged in its construction. Among the most remarkable Italian engineers at first employed, were Andrea Degli-Organi, ducal engineer, Simone da Orsenigo (living in 1395), Giacomo da Campione, Matteo da Campione († 1395), Giacomo de Grassi, who was engaged in the work until 1389, and who was known principally as a painter, and Filippino Degli-Organi, son of Andrea, who was engaged from 1400 to 1448. These engineers contributed extensively to the erection of the magnificent edifice, which was reared in the face of the most violent opposition, especially from the foreign artists, — a fact easily explained. These foreigners naturally objected to everything that was done in accordance with the local traditions, which were radically different from their own. The first foreign engineer employed on the cathedral was a Frenchman, Nicole de Bonaventuri, who came to Milan in 1389. Next we find there John Firimburg, after 1391. Toward the close of the same year Henry Arler of Gmiinden, arrived from Suevia; then, in 1394, came Ulrick of Füssingen or Ensingen, and, finally, another Frenchman, Jean Mignot; Mignot was the last great foreign engineer to take part in the discussions raised over the construction, rather than in the practical work. He was in Milan in 1399. Engineers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and even of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, have been employed here, and the exterior has been adorned with spirelets
Fig. 8. Apse of Milan Cathedral.