Retablos, Rejas.—Among the distinctive features of the interior decorations of a Spanish cathedral are the retablo and reja. The former, a reredos, erected behind the great altar, reaches immense dimensions, often occupying the full width of the nave and rising as high as the vaulting, embellished with sculpture. This is apt to be grossly naturalistic and violently dramatic or sensational, representing colossal figures, sprawling amid marble clouds and sunrays of gilded metal. Far more beautiful are the rejas or lofty grill-screens, upon which the skill of Moorish metal-workers or the skill derived from their traditions, is lavished with extraordinary fertility of design; a special device being the enrichment of the vertical bars by the insertion of canopied figures.
CHAPTER VI
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY
We have already noted that the rib-vault, which made possible the development of Gothic architecture in the Ile de France, originated in Lombardy. But the Italian builders used the rib solely as a structural convenience, not recognising either its further structural or its æsthetic possibilities. Accordingly, when the Gothic style appeared in Italy, it was imported thither by northern, usually German, architects.
General Character.—Nor did the style, as employed in Italy, preserve the grandeur or purity of the northern type. The sunny climate did not invite the large openings that had become a distinction of the true Gothic. The windows were small, with little tracery, while the walls, being in consequence more solid, did not need the same enforcement with buttresses. Structurally, therefore, the walls are uninteresting, and are regarded as surfaces to be made attractive by applied decoration. Further, the Italian builder was everywhere influenced by the classic tradition. He clung to the round arch, even while he employed the pointed; frequently resorted to the Roman acanthus and Corinthian capital as decorative features; felt his columns as columns rather than as piers logically connected by the shafting to the vaulting, and in the vaulting confined his design to the main ribs, instead of enriching it with minor ones. In fact, he used the style without the structural logic and adventurous
SIENA CATHEDRAL
Note Half Columns Attached to the Piers. Sexagoxal Dome over the Crossing; Pulpit by the Pisani—Marble Pavement with Graffito Designs.
