Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/322

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306
ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.

306 ITALIAN ABCHITECTURE. Tart II. remains of even that church, all the rest having been rebuilt in the 12th century. The vaulting of the church, which is extremely- clumsy, and clumsily fitted to the substructure, is the work of the 13th century. The disposition of the building will be understood from the annexed jil-an, which shows both the atrium and the church. The former is virtually the nave ; in other words, had the church been erected on the colder and stormier side of the Alps, a clerestory would have been added to the atrium, and it would have been roofed over ; and then the plan ^^ ould have been nearly identical with that of a Northern cathedral. If, besides this, there had been a baj)- tistery at the Avestern entrance, as at Xovara, Piacenza, or Torcello, we should have had a building with two apses — a complete German cathedral. As it is, the atrium (Woodcut No. 744) is a highly pleasing adjunct to the fa9ade, re- movini' the cliurrh back from the noisy world outside, and by its quiet seclusion tending to produce that devotional feelino; so suitable to the entrance of a place of wor- ship. The facade of the building itself, though, like the atrium, only in brick, is one of the best desiirns of its age, the upj^er loggia, or open gallery of five bold but un- equal arches, producing more shadow than the facade at Pisa, without the multitude of small parts there crowded together, and with far more architectural propriety and grace. As seen from the atrium, with its two towers, one on either fiank, it forms a composition scarcely surpassed by any other in this style. Owing to the bad arrangement of the Aaulting, the internal arclii- tecture of the church is hardly worthy of its exterior ; but it is a perfect museum of ecclesiological antiquities of the best class. The silver altar of Angilbertus (a.d. 835) is unrivalled either for richness or beauty of design by anything of the kind known to exist elsewhere, and the haldacchino that surmounts it is also of singular beauty ; so are some of its old tombs, of the earliest Christian Avorkmanshi]>. Its 473. Plan of San Amlnogio. AFilan. (From Ferrario.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.