broken surfaces for marble linings,
mosaics or fresco painting. Mouldings, where they are introduced,
differ from northern mouldings in being flatter and far less bold,
their enrichments are chiefly confined to dentils, notches, and small
and simple ornaments. Stained glass is not so often seen as in France,
but is to be met with, as, for example, in the fine church of San
Petronio at Bologna, and in Sta. Maria Novella, and in the Cathedral
at Florence. At Florence the stained glass has a character of its own
both in colour and style of treatment. It is not too much to say that
every kind of decoration which can be employed to add beauty to a
building may be found at its best in Italy. In the churches much of
the finest furniture, such as stall-work, screens, altar frontals,
will be found in profusion; and the church porches and the mural
monuments should be especially studied on account of the singular
elegance with which they are usually designed.

_Construction and Design._

The material employed for the external and internal face of the walls
in a very large proportion of the buildings mentioned in this chapter
is marble. This is sometimes used in blocks as stone is with us, but
more frequently in the form of thin slabs as a facing upon masonry or
brickwork. In Lombardy, where brick is the natural building material,
most of the walls are not only built but faced with brick; and the
ornamental features, including tracery, are often executed in
ornamental brickwork, or in what is known as terra-cotta (_i.e._
bricks or blocks of brick clay of fine quality, moulded or otherwise
ornamented and burnt like bricks). Stone was less commonly employed as
a building material in Italy during the Gothic period, than in other
countries of Europe. The surfaces of the vaults, and the surfaces of
the internal walls were often covered with mosaics, or with paintings
in fresco. Vaulting is frequently met with, but it is generally simple
in character, the flat external roof over it is commonly covered with
tiles or metal, while the apparent gable frequently rises more
sharply than the actual roof. The Italians seem never to have
cordially welcomed the Gothic principle of resisting the thrust of
vaults or arches by a counter-thrust, or by the weight of a buttress.
The buttress is almost unknown in Italian Gothic, and as a rule an
iron tie is introduced at the feet of such arches as would in France
or Germany have been buttressed. Thi