Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/60

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32
ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE
chap.

wrought in stucco, so that we have with the beginning of the Renaissance a revival of a common ancient Roman practice of architectural deceit. The great order, however, is necessarily of stone, and its general proportions are good, though the details are poor in design, and coarse in execution.[1]

Badía of Fiesole, figure 14 from "Character of Renaissance Architecture"

Fig. 14.—Badía of Fiesole.

The façade of the Pazzi has been considered as showing noteworthy originality of design. But there are older buildings in the neighbourhood to which it bears enough likeness to suggest its derivation from them. The façade of the Badía of Fiesole (Fig. 14) is one of these. By substituting a free-standing colonnade for the blind arcade of this front, and breaking its entablature and attic wall with an arch, we should get the leading features of the Pazzi front. Sant' Jacopo Soprarno, with

  1. The character of these details will be discussed in the chapter on the carved ornament of the Renaissance.