File:A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance (1901) (14781417191).jpg

Identifier: historyofarchit02cumm (find matches)
Title: A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Cummings, Charles Amos, 1833-1905
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ting eaves as in those of Viterbo just noticed. The wallabove the stone basement is of brick, but stone is used for the anglequoins of the front and for the jambs and archivolts of the openings. There is no carvingand not a mouldingof any kind exceptin the archivolts ofthe two windows, butthe effect is one ofmarked refinementand even elegance.^ In the narrowerand probably some-what later frontshown in Fig. 420,the treatment is notless symmetrical thanin the example lastcited. Here there arethree stages, the low-est of dressed stonewith two simple seg-mental-arched open-ings, the voussoirshaving a pointed ex-trados. The secondand third stories ofbrick are alike inform, each having apair of two-light pointed windows under a pointed bearing arch witha circle in the head. The decoration is beautifully managed; thevoussoirs of the bearing-arches and the wall surface of the third storyare varied by alternate courses of yellow bricks, while the delicate ^ Verdier et Cattois, vol. i., p. 110.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig-. 419. House, San Gimignano. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE 265 edo:e - decoration ofthe small arches andthe band of ornamentenclosing the bearingarch are of softlytinted terra - cotta.Under the projectingeaves of the roof is alow attic story lightedby two perfectly plainsquare openings. These few exam-ples are sufficient toindicate the maturityand firmness of de-sign which character-ized this early streetarchitecture. Manyothers equally to thepurpose are to bemet with in walkingthrough this quiettown, showing re-markable variety ofdesign while preserv-ing a decided unityof style. In many ofthe smaller and obscurer towns of Italy similar examples may befound, of contemporary houses in tolerable preservation and full ofdistinctly mediaeval character. Such is the so-called Casa del Capi-tano del Popolo at Gubbio, not far from Assisi, in which a wall ofperfectly plain smooth stonework is divided by delicately ornamentedstring-courses into three stages, with broad sharply pointed archedopenings,

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