DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0617
Bk. II. Ch. IY.
TOWERS.
581
to be employed from the age of the Romanesque to that of the
Renaissance.
One of the oldest and certainly the most celebrated of the Gothic
towers of Italy, is that of St. Mark’s at Yenice, commenced in the
year 902 ; it took the infant republic three centnries to raise it
180 ft., to the point at which the square basement terminates. On
this there must originally have been an open loggia of some sort, no
cloubt with a conical roof. The present superstructure was adcled in
the 16th century; but though the loggia is a very pleasing feature,
it is overpowered by the solicl mass that it surmounts, and by the
extremely ugly square extinguisher that crowns the whole. Its
locality and its associations have earned for it a great deal of undue
laudation, but in point of design no campanile in Italy deserves it
less. The base is a mere unornamented mass of brickwork, slightly
fluteci, ancl pierced unsymmetrically with small winclows to light the
inclined plane within. Its size, its height, ancl its apparent solidity
are its only merits. These are no cioubt important elements in that
low class of architectural excellence of which the Egyptian pyramids
are the type ; but even in these elements this edifice must confess
itself a pigmy and inferior to even a second-class pyramicl on the
banks of the Nile, while it has none of the beauty of design ancl detail
displayed by the Giralcla of Seville, or even by other Italian towers in
its own neighbourhood.
The campanile at Piacenza (Woodcut Ro. 448) is, perhaps, more
like the original of St. Mark’s than any other, ancl certainly displays
as little beauty as any building of this sort can possess.
That of San Zenone at Yerona is far more pleasing. It is, incleed,
as beautiful both in proportion and cletails as any of its age, while it
exemplifies at once the beauties and the defects of the style. Among
the first is an elegant simplicity that always is pleasing, but this is
accompaniecl by a leanness ancl poverty of effect, when compared with
Northern examples, which must rank in the latter category.
Mr. Jackson, in his work onDalmatia and Istria, gives illustrations
of several towers in those countries which, in beauty of design, excel
many of the Italian examples. The Romanesque style woulcl seem to
have hacl a much longer duration on the east sicle of the Aclriatic than
in Italy. Thus the tower of Spalato, a lofty campanile of six storeys
in height, commenced in the beginning of the 13th century ancl not
terminated tiil 1416 (except the upper octagon ancl spire), is virtually
in the same pure Romanesque style throughout. Mr. Jackson notes
also the continued influence of Roman work of the 3rd century, by
which it is surrounded, ancl thatfragments of ancient material, columns
and capitals, have been used up in its construction. The campaniles
of Zara and in the island of Arbe are both fine examples of Roman-
esque clesign.
TOWERS.
581
to be employed from the age of the Romanesque to that of the
Renaissance.
One of the oldest and certainly the most celebrated of the Gothic
towers of Italy, is that of St. Mark’s at Yenice, commenced in the
year 902 ; it took the infant republic three centnries to raise it
180 ft., to the point at which the square basement terminates. On
this there must originally have been an open loggia of some sort, no
cloubt with a conical roof. The present superstructure was adcled in
the 16th century; but though the loggia is a very pleasing feature,
it is overpowered by the solicl mass that it surmounts, and by the
extremely ugly square extinguisher that crowns the whole. Its
locality and its associations have earned for it a great deal of undue
laudation, but in point of design no campanile in Italy deserves it
less. The base is a mere unornamented mass of brickwork, slightly
fluteci, ancl pierced unsymmetrically with small winclows to light the
inclined plane within. Its size, its height, ancl its apparent solidity
are its only merits. These are no cioubt important elements in that
low class of architectural excellence of which the Egyptian pyramids
are the type ; but even in these elements this edifice must confess
itself a pigmy and inferior to even a second-class pyramicl on the
banks of the Nile, while it has none of the beauty of design ancl detail
displayed by the Giralcla of Seville, or even by other Italian towers in
its own neighbourhood.
The campanile at Piacenza (Woodcut Ro. 448) is, perhaps, more
like the original of St. Mark’s than any other, ancl certainly displays
as little beauty as any building of this sort can possess.
That of San Zenone at Yerona is far more pleasing. It is, incleed,
as beautiful both in proportion and cletails as any of its age, while it
exemplifies at once the beauties and the defects of the style. Among
the first is an elegant simplicity that always is pleasing, but this is
accompaniecl by a leanness ancl poverty of effect, when compared with
Northern examples, which must rank in the latter category.
Mr. Jackson, in his work onDalmatia and Istria, gives illustrations
of several towers in those countries which, in beauty of design, excel
many of the Italian examples. The Romanesque style woulcl seem to
have hacl a much longer duration on the east sicle of the Aclriatic than
in Italy. Thus the tower of Spalato, a lofty campanile of six storeys
in height, commenced in the beginning of the 13th century ancl not
terminated tiil 1416 (except the upper octagon ancl spire), is virtually
in the same pure Romanesque style throughout. Mr. Jackson notes
also the continued influence of Roman work of the 3rd century, by
which it is surrounded, ancl thatfragments of ancient material, columns
and capitals, have been used up in its construction. The campaniles
of Zara and in the island of Arbe are both fine examples of Roman-
esque clesign.