FIG. 152.—EXTERIOR OF THE CERTOSA, PAVIA.
FIG. 153.—PLAN OF CERTOSA AT PAVIA.
PLANS. The wide diversity of local styles in Italian architecture appears in the plans as strikingly as in the details In general one notes a love of spaciousness which expresses itself in a sometimes disproportionate breadth, and in the wide spacing of the piers. The polygonal chevet with its radial chapels is but rarely seen; S. Lorenzo at Naples, Sta. Maria dei Servi and S. Francesco at Bologna are among the most important examples. More frequently the chapels form a range along the east side of the transepts, especially in the Franciscan churches, which otherwise retain many basilican features. A comparison of the plans of S. Andrea at Vercelli, the Duomo at Florence, the cathedrals of Sienna and Milan, S. Petronio at Bologna and the Certosa at Pavia (Fig. 153), sufficiently illustrates the variety of Italian Gothic plan-types.
ORNAMENT. Applied decoration plays a large part in all Italian Gothic designs. Inlaid and mosaic patterns and panelled veneering in colored marble are essential features of the exterior decoration of most Italian churches. Florence offers a fine example of this treatment in the Duomo, and in its accompanying Campanile or bell-tower, designed by Giotto (1335), and completed by Gaddi and Talenti. This beautiful tower is an epitome of Italian Gothic art. Its inlays, mosaics, and veneering are treated with consummate elegance, and combined with incrusted reliefs of great beauty. The tracery of this monument and of the side windows of the adjoining cathedral is lighter and more graceful than is common in Italy. Its beauty consists, however, less in movement of line than in richness and elegance of carved and inlaid ornament. In the Or San Michele—a combined chapel and granary in Florence dating from 1330—the tracery is far less light and open. In general, except in churches like the Cathedral of Milan, built under German influences, the tracery in secular monuments is more successful than in ecclesiastical structures. Venice developed the designing of tracery to greater perfection in her palaces than any other Italian city (see below).
