DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0536
500
ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY.
Paet II.
BOOK II.
I T A L Y.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CONTENTS.
Division and Classification of the Romanesqne and Gotliic Styles of Architecture
in Italy.
If a historian were to propose to himself the task of writing a tolerably
consecutive narrative of the events which occurred in Italy during the
Middle Ages, he would probably find such difliculties in his way as
would induce him to abandon the attempt. Yenice and Genoa were
as distinct states as Spain and Portugal. Florence, the most essen-
tially Italian of the republics, requires a different treatment from the
half German Milan. Even such neighbouring cities as Mantua and
Yerona were separate and independent states during the most im-
portant part of their existence. Rome was, during the whole of the
Middle Ages, more European than Italian, and must have a narrative
of her own; Southern Italy was a foreign country to the states of the
North ; and Sicily has an independent history.
The same difiiculties, though not perhaps to the same degree, beset
the historian of art, and, if it were proposed to describe in detail
all the varying forms of Italian art cluring the Micldle Ages, it would
be necessary to map out Italy into provinces, and to treat each almost
as a separate kingdom by itself. In this, as in almost every instance,
however, the architecture forms a better guide-line through the tangled
mazes of the labyrinth than the written record of political events, and
those who can read her language have before them a more trustworthy
and vivid picture of the past than can be obtained by any other
means.
The great charm of the history of Mediseval art in England is its
unity. It affords the picture of a people working out a style from
chaos to completeness, with only slight assistance from tliose in
ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY.
Paet II.
BOOK II.
I T A L Y.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CONTENTS.
Division and Classification of the Romanesqne and Gotliic Styles of Architecture
in Italy.
If a historian were to propose to himself the task of writing a tolerably
consecutive narrative of the events which occurred in Italy during the
Middle Ages, he would probably find such difliculties in his way as
would induce him to abandon the attempt. Yenice and Genoa were
as distinct states as Spain and Portugal. Florence, the most essen-
tially Italian of the republics, requires a different treatment from the
half German Milan. Even such neighbouring cities as Mantua and
Yerona were separate and independent states during the most im-
portant part of their existence. Rome was, during the whole of the
Middle Ages, more European than Italian, and must have a narrative
of her own; Southern Italy was a foreign country to the states of the
North ; and Sicily has an independent history.
The same difiiculties, though not perhaps to the same degree, beset
the historian of art, and, if it were proposed to describe in detail
all the varying forms of Italian art cluring the Micldle Ages, it would
be necessary to map out Italy into provinces, and to treat each almost
as a separate kingdom by itself. In this, as in almost every instance,
however, the architecture forms a better guide-line through the tangled
mazes of the labyrinth than the written record of political events, and
those who can read her language have before them a more trustworthy
and vivid picture of the past than can be obtained by any other
means.
The great charm of the history of Mediseval art in England is its
unity. It affords the picture of a people working out a style from
chaos to completeness, with only slight assistance from tliose in