A much more beautiful building is the cathedral at Como, the details of which are so elegant and so unobtrusively used as in great measure to make up for the bad arrangement and awkward form of the whole. In design it is, however, inferior to that of the Duomo at Ferrara (Woodcut No. 511). The latter does not display the richness of the façades of Siena or Orvieto, nor the elegance of that last named; but among the few Italian façades which exist, it stands pre-eminent for sober propriety of design and the good proportions of all its parts. The repose caused by the solidity of the lower portions, and the gradual increase of ornament and lightness as we ascend, all combine to render it harmonious and pleasing. It is true it wants the aspiring character and bold relief of Northern façades; but these do not belong to the style, and it must suffice if we meet in this style with a moderate amount of variety, undisturbed by any very prominent instances of bad taste.

The true type of an Italian façade is well illustrated in the view of St. Francesco at Brescia (Woodcut No. 512), which may be considered the germ of all that followed. Whether the church had three aisles or five, the true Italian façade in the age of pointed architecture was always a modification or extension of this idea, though introduced with more or less Gothic feeling according to the circumstances of its erection.

At Florence there is a house or warehouse, converted into a church,—Or (horreum) San Michele, which has attracted a good deal of attention, but more on account of its curious ornaments than for beauty of design—which latter it does not, and indeed can hardly be expected to, possess. The little chapel of Sta. Maria della Spina at Pisa owes its celebrity to the richness of its niches and canopies, and to the sculpture which they contain. In this the Italians were always at home, and probably always surpassed the Northern nations. It was far otherwise with architecture, properly so called. This, in the age of the pointed style, was in Italy so cold and unmeaning, that we do not wonder at the readiness with which the Italians returned to the classical models. They are to be forgiven in this, but we cannot so easily forgive our forefathers, who abandoned a style far more beautiful than that of Italy to copy one which they had themselves infinitely surpassed; and this only because the Italians, unable either to comSprehend or imitate the true principles of pointed art, were forced to abandon its practice. Unfortunately for us, they had in this respect in that age sufficient influence to set the fashion to all Europe.

Of late work in Dalmatia the most remarkable is the Cathedral of Sebenico (described in Mr. Jackson’s work), built entirely in stone and marble, and without any brick or timber in its construction. It is a cruciform building, covered over by a waggon-vault of stone, visible both inside and outside. It was commenced from the design of Messer Ambrosia, a Venetian architect, in 1435, to whom may be attributed the nave and aisles up to the string-course above nave arches. The work was continued after 1441 by another architect, Messer Giorgio, also from Venice, who died in 1475, leaving the building still incomplete. The style of the work is late Venetian Gothic, influenced in its later portions by the Renaissance revival. The cloisters of the Badia at Curzola, and of the Dominican and Franciscan convents at Ragusa, are also beautiful specimens of late Italian Gothic.