en highly
enriched timber buildings which are to be met with in considerable
numbers in those countries.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] See p. 77 for an explanation of _chevet._

[Illustration: {SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM SENS CATHEDRAL.}]

CHAPTER VIII.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SOUTHERN EUROPE.

ITALY AND SICILY.--TOPOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Gothic architecture in Italy may be considered as a foreign
importation. The Italians, it is true, displayed their natural taste
and artistic instinct in their use of the style, and a large number of
their works possess, as we shall see, strongly-marked characteristics
and much charm; but it is impossible to avoid the feeling that the
architects were working in a style not thoroughly congenial to their
instincts nor to the traditions they had inherited from classical
times; and not entirely in harmony with the requirements of the
climate and the nature of their building materials.

Italian Gothic may be conveniently considered geographically, dividing
the buildings into three groups, the first and most important
containing the architecture of Northern Italy (Lombardy, Venetia, and
the neighbourhood), the second that of Central Italy (Tuscany, &c.),
the third that of the south and of Sicily--a classification which will
suit the subject better than the chronological arrangement which has
been our guide in examining the art of other countries; for the
variations occasioned by development as time went on are less strongly
marked in Italy than elsewhere.

_Northern Italy._

Lombardy in the Romanesque period was thoroughly under German
influence, and the buildings remaining to us from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries bear a close resemblance to those erected north of
the Alps at the same date. The twelfth century Lombard churches again
are specimens of round-arched Gothic, just as truly as those on the
banks of the Rhine. Many of them are also peculiar as being erected
chiefly in brickwork; the great alluvial plain of Lombardy being
deficient in building-stone. St. Michele at Pavia, a well-known church
of this date, may be cited as a good example. This is a vaulted
church, with an apsidal east end and transepts. The round arch is
employed in this building, but the general proportions and treatment
are essentially Gothic. A striking campanile (bell tower) belongs to
the church, and is a good specimen of a feature very frequently met
with in Lombardy; the tower here (and usually) is