FIG. 148.—NAVE OF DUOMO AT FLORENCE.
CATHEDRALS. The greatest monuments of Italian Gothic design are the cathedrals, in which, even more than was the case in France, the highly developed civic pride of the municipalities expressed itself. Chief among these half civic, half religious monuments are the cathedrals of Sienna (begun in 1243), Arezzo (1278), Orvieto (1290), Florence (the Duomo, Sta. Maria del Fiore, begun 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio), Lucca (S. Martino, 1350), Milan (1389–1418), and S. Petronio at Bologna (1390).
They are all of imposing size; Milan is the largest of all Gothic cathedrals except Seville.
S. Petronio was planned to be 600 feet long, the present structure with its three broad aisles and flanking chapels being merely the nave of the intended edifice. The Duomo at Florence (Fig. 147) is 500 feet long and covers 82,000 square feet, while the octagon at the crossing is 143 feet in diameter. The effect of these colossal dimensions is, however, as in a number of these large Italian interiors, singularly belittled by the bareness of the walls, by the great size of the constituent parts of the composition, and by the lack of architectural subdivisions and multiplied detail to serve as a scale by which to gauge the scale of the ensemble.
FIG. 149.—ONE BAY, NAVE OF CATHEDRAL OF SAN MARTINO, LUCCA.
INTERIOR TREATMENT. It was doubtless intended to cover these large unbroken wall-surfaces and the vast expanse of the vaults over naves of extraordinary breadth, with paintings and color decoration. This would have remedied their present nakedness and lack of interest, but it was only in a very few instances carried out. The double church of S. Francesco at Assisi, decorated by Cimabue, Giotto, and other early Tuscan painters, the Arena Chapel at Padua, painted by Giotto, the Spanish Chapel of S. M. Novella, Florence, and the east end of S. Croce, Florence, are illustrations of the splendor of effect possible by this method of decoration. The bareness of effect in other, unpainted interiors was emphasized by the plainness of the vaults destitute of minor ribs. The transverse ribs were usually broad arches with flat soffits, and the vaulting was often sprung from so low a point as to leave no room for a triforium. Mere bull’s-eyes often served for clearstory windows, as in S. Anastasia at Verona, S. Petronio at Bologna, and the Florentine Duomo. The cathedral of S. Martino at Lucca (Fig. 149) is one of the most complete and elegant of Italian Gothic interiors, having a genuine triforium with traceried arches. Even here, however, there are round arches without mouldings, flat pilasters, broad transverse ribs recalling Roman arches, and insignificant bull’s-eyes in the clearstory.