A Text-Book of the History of Architecture / Seventh Edition, revised

by A. D. F. Hamlin

FIG. 91.—WEST FRONT AND CAMPANILE
OF CATHEDRAL, PIACENZA.

LOMBARD STYLE. Owing to the general rebuilding of ancient churches under the more settled social conditions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, little remains to us of the architecture of the three preceding centuries in Italy, except the Roman basilicas and a few baptisteries and circular churches, already mentioned in Chapter X. The so-called Lombard monuments belong mainly to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They are found not only in Lombardy, but also in Venetia and the Æmilia. Milan, Pavia, Piacenza, Bologna, and Verona were important centres of development of this style. The churches were nearly all vaulted, but the plans were basilican, with such variations as resulted from efforts to meet the exigencies of vaulted construction. The nave was narrowed, and instead of rows of columns carrying a thin clearstory wall, a few massive piers of masonry, connected by broad pier-arches, supported the heavy ribs of the groined vaulting, as in S. Ambrogio, Milan (Fig. 90). To resist the thrust of the main vault, the clearstory was sometimes suppressed, the side aisle carried up in two stories forming galleries, and rows of chapels added at the sides, their partitions forming buttresses. The piers were often of clustered section, the better to receive the various arches and ribs they supported. The vaulting was in square divisions or vaulting-bays, each embracing two pier-arches which met upon an intermediate pier lighter than the others. Thus the whole aspect of the interior was revolutionized. The lightness, spaciousness, and decorative elegance of the basilicas were here exchanged for a sombre and massive dignity severe in its plainness. The Choir was sometimes raised a few feet above the nave, to allow of a crypt and confessio beneath, reached by broad flights of steps from the nave. Sta.

Maria della Pieve at Arezzo (9th-11th century), S. Michele at Pavia (late 11th century), the Cathedral of Piacenza (1122), S. Ambrogio at Milan (12th century), and S. Zeno at Verona (1139) are notable monuments of this style.

LOMBARD EXTERIORS. The few architectural embellishments employed on the simple exteriors of the Lombard churches were usually effective and well composed. Slender columnettes or long pilasters, blind arcades, and open arcaded galleries under the eaves gave light and shade to these exteriors. The façades were mere frontispieces with a single broad gable, the three aisles of the church being merely suggested by flat or round pilasters dividing the front (Fig 91). Gabled porches, with columns resting on the backs of lions or monsters, adorned the doorways. The carving was often of a fierce and grotesque character. Detached bell-towers or campaniles adjoined many of these churches; square and simple in mass, but with well-distributed openings and well-proportioned belfries (Piacenza S. Zeno at Verona, etc.).[18]

THE TUSCAN ROMANESQUE. The churches of this style (sometimes called the Pisan) were less vigorous but more elegant and artistic in design than the Lombard. They were basilicas in plan, with timber ceilings and high clearstories on columnar arcades. In their decoration, both internal and external, they betray the influence of Byzantine traditions, especially in the use of white and colored marble in alternating bands or in panelled veneering. Still more striking is the external decorative application of wall-arcades, sometimes occupying the whole height of the wall and carried on flat pilasters, sometimes in superposed stages of small arches on slender columns standing free of the wall. In general the decorative element prevailed over the constructive in the design of these picturesquely beautiful churches, some of which are of noble size. The Duomo (cathedral) of Pisa, built 1063–1118, is the finest monument of the style (Figs. 92, 93). It is 312 feet long and 118 wide, with long transepts and an elliptical dome of later date over the crossing (the intersection of nave and transepts). Its richly arcaded front and banded flanks strikingly exemplify the illogical and unconstructive but highly decorative methods of the Tuscan Romanesque builders. The circular Baptistery (1153), with its lofty domical central hall surrounded by an aisle, an imposing development of the type established by Constantine ([p. 111]), and the famous Leaning Tower (1174), both designed with external arcading, combine with the Duomo to form the most remarkable group of ecclesiastical buildings in Italy, if not in Europe (Fig. 92).

FIG. 92.—BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER, PISA.

The same style appears in more flamboyant shape in some of the churches of Lucca. The cathedral S. Martino (1060; façade, 1204; nave altered in fourteenth century) is the finest and largest of these; S. Michele (façade, 1288) and S. Frediano (twelfth century) have the most elaborately decorated façades. The same principles of design appear in the cathedral and several other churches in Pistoia and Prato; but these belong, for the most part, to the Gothic period.