this country and on the Continent, was in a very low condition, and can be best described as being a mixture of debased Roman and Gothic forms hopelessly conglomerated together. This state of things prevailed till the period which is very aptly termed by the French Renaissance,' meaning a regeneration or revival, and gradually the forms of ancient art revived, and came more and more into use, prevailing at last both here and in France to the total disuse of Gothic forms. 215 CHAPTER XII. RENAISSANCE, MODERN ITALIAN ORDERS, AND HE Renaissance may be described as a revival of ancient Roman models, or a return to the ancient forms of art, from which new buildings were designed, and which preceded the rigid copyism which afterwards prevailed for a short time. To give a true idea of its real character it will be necessary for us to go back to its birth in Italy one hundred years before its appearance in France and England. Although Gothic architecture was practised to a limited extent in Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, owing probably to the admiration evinced by the Italians for some of the magnificent Northern Cathedrals, and a wish to have some specimen of them in their own country, it was never naturalised there. The style known as • Venetian Gothic' is but an imitation of the Decorated and Flamboyant styles of England and France. The ancient orders were certainly more at home in Italy than in any country north of the Alps; their use was never wholly abandoned, and a preference was always shown for the ancient forms, which were also thoroughly suited to a Southern climate. Their adaptation, however, to modern requirements by the Italians has resulted in the nearest approach to a new style which modern times have witnessed. This style, which architects have been pleased to name the Italian, cannot certainly, with strict regard to veracity, be called a new or modern style, as every feature in it is entirely made up from other styles. The form of column and entablature was derived primarily from Greek; the arch from Roman. The dome was Roman or Byzantine; the columns and round arch, Romanesque, while the steeple was borrowed from Gothic architecture. A new style it certainly is not, but, considered as a whole, it is the best and most successful attempt that has yet been made to utilise Greek, Roman, and Romanesque features. The decoration to the windows and doorways of this style are generally framed by little columns of the several orders with the usual entablature, and sometimes surmounted by a pediment, all on a small scale, but in their correct proportions. Occasionally the pediments, which are sometimes round, are supported by brackets or consoles pro nices dividing the stories like stringcourses are supported in a similar manner. The Italian style of architecture has been subdivided into three schools, viz., the Florentine, Modern Roman, and the Venetian, each of which exhibits several distinguishing peculiarities. The origin and differences of these three schools of art were caused by the principal Italian States each following the rules laid down by their own architects, all celebrated masters of their profession, and each vying with the other to render their own State the most noted centre of art. The establishment of the Florentine school may be vested in Brunelleschi, a celebrated architect at Florence, to whom was entrusted in 1407 the completion of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore, which the Florentines had determined to erect for the glory of their city. This church has a ground-plan in the form of a Latin cross, the three shorter arms of which have each an apsidal termination with five faces, and at the juncture of the four arms is a large cupola or dome, a decidedly Byzantine feature, but of octagonal shape, 138 feet in circumference and 133 feet high. This dome is the largest in Italy except that of S. Peter's, and is reckoned to be the model from (?) which Michael Angelo designed the latter. The buildings of the Florentine school are mostly crowned with massive cornices, and no columns are |