DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0611
Chap. I.
CAMPANILES.
547
a clomical arrangement as is here attempted. The great defect of all
one-storied domes is their lowness, hoth internally, and more especially
externally. The method of building domes in two stories, as here,
would seem calculated to obviate this objection; but though common
in small sepulchral chambers, it has never been tried on a sufficiently
large scale to enable us to judge of its real effect. After this period
the circular shape was so completely superseded by the rectangular,
that no further improvement took place in the former.
Campaniles.
There is no architectural feature which the Gothic architects can so
justly call their own as the towers and spires which in the middle ages
were not only so favourite, but so indispensable a part of their churches
and other edifices, becoming in fact as necessary parts of the design ex-
ternally, as the vaults were of the internal decoration of the building.
It is true, as before remarked, that we neither know where they
were first invented, nor even wdiere they were first used as applied to
Christian churches—those of Eome or Eavenna being evidently not
the earliest examples ; and what is still more unfortunate, they have no
features which betray their origin, at least none have yet been
pointed out, though it is by no means impossible that a closer exami-
nation would bring some such to light. They certainly are as little
classical, both in their forms and details, as anything can well be con-
ceived to be; nor can the very name of Eomanesque be considered
entirely appropriate, though we are compelled to use it as marking
the age and locality in which they occur.
Those of which we have already spoken are all church towers,
campaniles or bell-towers attached to churches. But this exclusive dis-
tinction seems by no means to apply to the Gothic towers. The
tower of St. Mark at Yenice, for instance, and the Toraccio at Cre-
mona, are evidently civic monuments, like the belfries of the Low
Countries—symbols of communal power wholly distinct from the
church, their juxta-position to which seems only to be owing to all
the principal buildings being grouped together. This is certainly
the case with a very large class of very ugly buildings in Italy, such
as those attached to the town-halls of Florence and Sienna, or the
famous Assinelli and Garisenda towers at Bologna. These are merely
tall square brick towers, with a machicolated balcony at the top,
but possessing no more architectural design than tlie chimney of a
cotton factory. Originally, when lower, they may have been towers
of defence, but afterwards became mere symbols of power.
There is a third class, and by far the most numerous, which are
undoubtedly ecclesiastical erections ; they are either actually attached
to the churches, or so placed with regard to them as to leave no douht
on the matter. There is not, however, I believe, in all Italy, a single
example of a tower or towers used, as on this side of the Alps, as inte-
gral parts of the design.
Sometimes they stand detached, but more generally are attached to
2 n 2
CAMPANILES.
547
a clomical arrangement as is here attempted. The great defect of all
one-storied domes is their lowness, hoth internally, and more especially
externally. The method of building domes in two stories, as here,
would seem calculated to obviate this objection; but though common
in small sepulchral chambers, it has never been tried on a sufficiently
large scale to enable us to judge of its real effect. After this period
the circular shape was so completely superseded by the rectangular,
that no further improvement took place in the former.
Campaniles.
There is no architectural feature which the Gothic architects can so
justly call their own as the towers and spires which in the middle ages
were not only so favourite, but so indispensable a part of their churches
and other edifices, becoming in fact as necessary parts of the design ex-
ternally, as the vaults were of the internal decoration of the building.
It is true, as before remarked, that we neither know where they
were first invented, nor even wdiere they were first used as applied to
Christian churches—those of Eome or Eavenna being evidently not
the earliest examples ; and what is still more unfortunate, they have no
features which betray their origin, at least none have yet been
pointed out, though it is by no means impossible that a closer exami-
nation would bring some such to light. They certainly are as little
classical, both in their forms and details, as anything can well be con-
ceived to be; nor can the very name of Eomanesque be considered
entirely appropriate, though we are compelled to use it as marking
the age and locality in which they occur.
Those of which we have already spoken are all church towers,
campaniles or bell-towers attached to churches. But this exclusive dis-
tinction seems by no means to apply to the Gothic towers. The
tower of St. Mark at Yenice, for instance, and the Toraccio at Cre-
mona, are evidently civic monuments, like the belfries of the Low
Countries—symbols of communal power wholly distinct from the
church, their juxta-position to which seems only to be owing to all
the principal buildings being grouped together. This is certainly
the case with a very large class of very ugly buildings in Italy, such
as those attached to the town-halls of Florence and Sienna, or the
famous Assinelli and Garisenda towers at Bologna. These are merely
tall square brick towers, with a machicolated balcony at the top,
but possessing no more architectural design than tlie chimney of a
cotton factory. Originally, when lower, they may have been towers
of defence, but afterwards became mere symbols of power.
There is a third class, and by far the most numerous, which are
undoubtedly ecclesiastical erections ; they are either actually attached
to the churches, or so placed with regard to them as to leave no douht
on the matter. There is not, however, I believe, in all Italy, a single
example of a tower or towers used, as on this side of the Alps, as inte-
gral parts of the design.
Sometimes they stand detached, but more generally are attached to
2 n 2