Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/130

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ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE
chap.

position, but has no real organic character pertaining to the building.

In the façade of San Francesco della Vigna, also in Venice, and by the same architect, the design of San Giorgio is repeated, with some notable changes in detail. In this case the small order, as well as the larger one, consists of columns, except that on each angle a pilaster takes the place of a column, and both orders rise from the same level, the smaller one resting on a continuous podium, and the larger one on pedestals which are ressauts of the podium. The entablature of the small order is


Fig. 55—The Redentore, Venice.

here not continuous, but is broken by the nave compartment, though a fragment of it is inserted in the central bay of this compartment over the small columns that flank the portal.

The scheme of the Redentore differs from that of San Giorgio. It has no transept and no aisles, but in the place of aisles a series of side chapels. A square area in front of the sanctuary is covered with a dome on pendentives, while the nave has a barrel vault, and the side chapels have barrel vaults with their axes perpendicular to the axis of the nave. From the dividing walls of these chapels solid abutments in pairs are carried up through the lean-to roofs over the chapels to meet the thrusts of the nave vaulting, as shown in the general view of the exterior (Fig. 55). The plan of the east end is peculiar. A round apse opens out of the north and south sides of the