Gruner, Ludwig [Hrsg.]; Lose, Friedrich [Hrsg.]; Ottolini, Vittore [Hrsg.]: The terra-cotta architecture of North Italy: (XIIth - XVth centuries) ; pourtrayed as examples for imitation in other countries (London, 1867)

Plates 29 to 33.] General View of the Certosa and Convent of Pavia. 49

of such fine and thoroughly purified sand, that time has but conferred upon it
a hardness and solidity beyond those of the very bricks and stones.

In those times there existed neither appropriate academies, nor public schools
of art, nor works gathered together for consultation ; yet we find in those speci-

Terra-cotta Pilaster, Certosa. Cornices of Terra-cotta, Certosa.

mens derived from the Certosa of Pavia all that may interest a student of the
constructive art, an art always connected with the beautiful and with poetry.
The Certosa of Pavia, both by the suppression of the Cistercian monks who
inhabited it, and by the loss of the sheets of lead which protected its roof, has
certainly sustained some, yet only slight, damage; neither have walls given
way, nor fissures been formed. The artists of those days were all somewhat
encyclopaedic : architects were at once sculptors and painters, and thus had
ample scope for the play of fancy. Before the first stone was laid they foresaw
the pictorial and perspective effect of the finished building ; an all-important
perception, not perhaps sufficiently observed at the present day.

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