Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/68

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46
ON THE TRANSITIONS IN STYLES OF ART,

where they appear in England, as in the churches of Lincolnshire, termed by Professor Whewell, "cushion capitals." The building just named appears to give the only examples of this form of constructive decoration apart from the Campanili, wherein they prevail not only in Italy, but in Germany and France, of which the cathedral at Uzès is an instance.

In this class the windows generally widen in each story, as they each gain nearer to the top of the tower, being usually a single light at bottom, over which is a couplet, and above all a triplet. The style may be called Byzantine.

The second class (A.D. 750—1000), will best be identified by a consideration of the tower of Sta. Francesca Romana, built by Adrian I., which became the model for most of those of the ancient churches of Rome: they are all, like it, square towers of brick, plain at least up to the height of the principal roof, which runs against it, and afterwards with the stories marked by stringcourses. Each story has a greater or less number of small arches, with or without single columns for divisions. Medallions, sometimes of different kinds of marbles, as porphyry or serpentine, sometimes of terracotta, ordinarily coloured bluish-green and glazed, are let into the walls of these towers as ornaments, and at the summit, immediately under the eaves, there is frequently a corbelled projecting canopy, with a niche for the image of the Virgin. Such are the Campanili of Sta. Maria Maggiore, SS. Giovanni and Paolo, S. Eusebio, Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme and Sta. Maria in Cosmedin. Their style may be considered Lombard.

The next class (A.D. 1000—1250) comprehends the greater part of the Romanesque towers of the north of Italy; which present a considerable difference in architectural character. They are marked by a vertical tendency: the stringcourses, usually flat, become secondary features, the arcades are not perforated to the same extent, and the cushion capital is not used. The best examples of this class may be found at Modena, Mantua, Prato, in S. Francesco at Assisi, in S. Nicolo at Pisa, and in S. Antonio at Padua, and were erected even after the year 1250.

When the more pointed style from Germany travelled into Lombardy, the great country of brick, small round cylinders were employed to erect the spires; and such are seen at Bologna, Cesena, Forli, Faenza, Milan, Otricoli, Parma, Pavia, Piacenza, and Verona.