is the introduction in many Italian palaces of a great crowning
cornice, proportioned not to the size of the columns and of the order
upon which it rests (if an order be employed), but to the height of
the whole building. Much fine effect is obtained by means of this
feature; it is, however, better fitted for sunny Italy than for gloomy
England, and it is not an unmixed success when repeated in our
climate.

Towers are less frequently employed than by the Gothic architects, and
indeed in Italy the sky-line was less thought of at this period than
it was in the middle ages. In churches, towers sometimes occur,
nowhere more picturesque than those designed by Sir Christopher Wren
for many of his London parish churches. The frequent use of the dome
takes the place of the tower both in churches and secular buildings.

_Openings._

Openings are both flat-headed and semicircular, occasionally
elliptical, but hardly ever pointed. Renaissance buildings may be to
some extent divided into those which depend for effect upon window
openings, and those which depend chiefly upon architectural features
such as cornices, pilasters, and orders. Among the buildings where
fenestration (or the treatment of windows) is relied upon the palaces
of Venice stand pre-eminent as compositions admirably designed for
effect and very successful. In them the openings are massed near the
centre of the facade, and strong piers are left near the angles, a
simple expedient when once known, and one inherited from the Gothic
palaces in that city, but giving remarkable individuality of character
to this group of buildings.

In roofs, including vaults and domes, we meet with a divergence of
practice between Italy and France. In Italy low-pitched roofs were the
rule: the parapet alone often formed the sky-line, and the dome and
pediment are usually the only telling features of the outline. France,
on the other hand, revived a most picturesque feature of Gothic days,
namely, the high-pitched roof, employing it in the shape commonly
known as the Mansard[30] roof. Nothing adds more to the effectiveness
of the great French Renaissance buildings than these lofty terminals.

The dome is, however, the glory of this style, as it had been of the
Roman. It is the one feature by which revived and original classic
architects retain a clear and defined advantage over Gothic
architects, who, strange to say, all but abandoned the dome. The
mouldings and other ornament