File:A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance (1901) (14784173082).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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ents and catastrophes;the plague in 1340, a war with Pisa, domestic dissensions withinthe city, the urgent need of more important works on the city wallsand the bridges, delayed for many years the work of the cathedral.When it was resumed, somewhere about 1350 or later, the originalplan of Arnolfo was thought to be too small, and as the progresshitherto had been mainly confined to the front and side walls,^ it waspossible to greatly enlarge the dimensions. The plan of Arnolfocomprised as its principal feature a great central octagon about onehundred and twenty-five feet in diameter, with octagonal apses open-ing from three sides, and nave and aisles from the fourth, — thewhole having a total interior length of about three hundred andeighty feet. The nave was now lengthened by some seventy feet, 1 It seems probable even that the foundations of the piers of the nave arcades had notbeen laid, and that the space within the outer walls was still occupied by houses. f i I 4 THE GOTHIC 207
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Fig. 374. Florence. Interior of Cathedral. and the diameter of the octagon increased to about one hundred andforty feet. The total interior length thus grew to about four hun-dred and eighty feet, and the breadth across the octagon to nearlythree hundred feet. The lengthened nave had, however, the samenumber of arches as the smaller one, the span of the arches beingincreased from forty-five to sixty feet, — a characteristic mistake. The conception of the church was a magnificent one, and in thehands of a Northern architect must have resulted in one of the mostimposing and splendid interiors in the world. The great nave, twohundred and seventy feet long, formed an impressive approach to J 208 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY the majestic octagon, the centre of the composition, which, with itsthree immense apses with square chapels opening from their sides inthe thickness of the wall, presented a simplicity and yet a variety ofform, combined with a largeness of scale, as yet quite without prece-

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