architectural character - Italy

CENTRAL ITALY
Plan: Basilican type of plan

Climatic influence:
•Arcades
•Small doors and windows
•Jambs in rectangular recesses ,
orders filled with small shafts,
crowned with semicircular arches
S MINIATO FLORENCE S MARTINO LUCCA
Roofing: timber roofs over nave with rafters
Ornamentation:
and tie beams decorated in colour.
1. Concentration on beauty and delicacy of
Aisles with groin vaults of small span, divided ornamentation, classical traditions
into compartments by transverse arches 2. Ornamental wall passages rising one above
the other into gables
3. Marble faced walls
Columns: S PISTOIA 4. Themes:
Division of nave and ▪ Rows of apostles on lintels
aisles with antique ▪ Decorative carvings and mosaic
columns ▪ Monogram of Christ,
Variations of the ▪ Symbolism represented by trees, birds,
classical type into fishes and animals
finely carved and ▪ Strong Byzantine influence in mosaics
slender twisted 5. Development of the bell tower in 6th c. gave it
columns in cloisters, a special character
doorways and
windows
S GIOVANNI LATERANO
ROME
architectural character - italy
NORTHERN ITALY

Typologies: churches and baptisteries

Plan: Basilican

Façade:
•Flat severe entrance facades with a central projecting
porch with columns standing on the backs of crouching
beasts and a wheel window to light the nave
•Gable outlined with arched corbel tables and arcades S ZENO MAGGOIRE VERONA S AMBROGIO MILAN
around the apse under the eaves
Buttress: Thick walls between the side chapels act as buttresses
•Simple pilaster strip decoration from ground ending
Wall passages: around apses and octagonal lanterns add to
in the arched corbel tables
exterior massing
Interiors: sturdy piers faced with half columns which are
Towers: straight shafts, detached, without buttresses or spires
carried up as vaulting shafts. Led to the transformation of
Decoration:
piers in Gothic period
•Roughly carved grotesques of men and beasts, hunting
Vault: Development of the rib vault, exterior wall passage and
scenes, incidents of daily life.
arched corbel table(eaves decoration consisting of corbels
• interior furnishings such as bishops thrones, fonts and
interconnected with arches)
corbel tables
•Vaulted nave and aisles with external wooden roofs
Baptisteries: usually octagonal or circular eg. S.Ambrogio Milan
•Aisles are often two storeys in height
Materials: Stone and brick used instead of marble hence less
refined
architectural character - italy
SOUTHERN ITALY
Influence:
•Byzantine in mosaic decoration
•Islamic in application of coloured
marble in striped patterns, and stilted
pointed arches
•planning and construction – cruciform
plan Monreale Cathedral
Planning:
•Domes rather then vaults adopted. Baptistery Cremona –
•Use of dome supported on 4 columns Northern- Italy
over central space
Decoration:
•Flat pilaster strips connected by arched
corbel tables
•Wheel windows made of elaborately
pierced sheets of marble
•Variety in columns and capitals – nave
arcade and coupled columns in cloisters
•Bronze doors, coloured mosaics, La Zisa, Palermo
geometric designs, bronze pilasters

S.Michelle –Pavia
Northern- Italy

S. Giovanni degli Eremiti, Palermo

Pisa cathedral 1063 – 1118 / 1261 - 72 – Pisa, italy
The Pisa group consists of the Cathedral, Baptistery, Campo Santo
(monastery) and Campanile (Bell Tower)

The medieval cathedral is entitled to St. Mary. Style

•The Cathedral is one of the finest of the Romanesque period

Form
•Resembles early
Basilican churches in
plan
•This is a five-naved
basilica with a
three-naved transept.
•Long rows of columns
connected by arches
•Double aisles and a
nave with a timber roof
Pisa cathedral 1063 – 1118 / 1261 - 72 – Pisa, italy

Exterior

Bands of red and white marble

Ground storey is faced with
wall arcading

Entrance façade is thrown into

relief by tiers of wall passages
which rise one above another
into the gable

Massive bronze main door

Above the doors there are four

rows of open galleries with, on
top, statues of Madonna with
Child and, on the corners, the
Four evangelists.
Pisa cathedral 1063 – 1118 / 1261 - 72 – Pisa, italy
Interiors
•The interior is faced with black and white
marble and has a gilded ceiling and a frescoed
dome. It was largely redecorated after a fire in
1595, which destroyed most of the medieval art
works.
•Impressive granite Corinthian columns 68 in no.
between the nave and the aisle
•The coffer ceiling of the nave was replaced
after the fire of 1595.

Transept
The transepts each has an apse in the end, an
advance from the simple basilican plan

Dome
Elliptical dome over the crossing is of a later
date

Details
The mosaics of the interior show a strong
Byzantine influence, while the pointed arches
point to Muslim influences.
Delicacy of ornamental features
The cathedral depends on the proportions
rather than any new structural development for
interest
Pisa cathedral 1063 – 1118 / 1261 - 72 – Pisa, italy
Pisa Campanile 1174 – 1271 – Pisa, italy
It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure in
Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (field of Miracles).
Form:
•A cylindrical tower 16m in diameter
•Eight storeys in height consisting of encircling arcades
Dimensions
•The height of the tower is 55.86 m from the ground on
the lowest side and 56.70 m on the highest side.
•The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m and at the
top 2.48 m.
Interiors
•In the thickness of the wall there is the staircase with
294 steps. The visitors may enter at each level a gallery
supported by 30 columns.
Summit
•The bell stage was added later in 1350. At the summit -
around the belfry there are 12 columns and there are
seven bells cast to reproduce the seven musical notes
•The upper part of the tower overhangs the base by
more than 4.2m due to subsidence in the foundation
lending it a very unstable appearance. It has an
inclination of 5.5 degrees
Pisa Campanile 1174 – 1271 – Pisa, italy
Material
Constructed of white marble
Architectural detail
•Surrounded at its ground level by an order of tall
blind arcades resting on half columns, following
an architectural plan similar to the front of the
cathedral
•Above ground level are six floors of aerial open
galleries.
•The first floor is surrounded by pillars with
classical capitals, leaning against blind arches.
•At its highest part lies the cylindrical belfry of a
smaller diameter encircled by small arcades
resting upon consoles or small columns framing
the various openings.
•From the fourth floor up, the columns are thinner
on the side of leaning to lighten the weight in that
part.
Decoration
•The bas-reliefs, inscriptions, and graffiti found in
the Campanile, in the Cathedral or in the
Baptistery have no value but decorative, they
were taken from ancient constructions or from
buildings of conquered enemy towns.
•The architrave ends in a border, the two capitals
and the smooth pillars are not the original ones.
Pisa Baptistery 1153 – 1265 – Pisa, italy
The Baptistery, dedicated to St. John the
Baptist, stands opposite the west end of the
Cathedral.

The round Romanesque building was built in

Romanesque style by an architect known as
Deotisalvi.
It is the largest baptistery in Italy

Form
•Circular plan with a central space.
18.3, in diameter
•Separated by 4 piers and eight
columns from the surrounding 2 storey
aisle which makes the building 39.3m
in diameter

Exterior
•Surrounded on the lower storey by
half columns connected by semicircular
arches
•A door under one of the arches
•A open arcade of small detached
columns above
•This arcade is surmounted by gothic
additions of the 14th c.
Pisa Baptistery – 1153-1265 – Pisa Italy
Pisa Baptistery 1153 – 1265 – Pisa, italy
Interior
•Plain and lacks decoration
•Notable acoustics

Roof
•Crowned by an outer hemispherical roof
through which penetrates a truncated cone
capped by a small dome covering the
central space

Decoration
•The portal, facing the facade of the
cathedral, is flanked by two classical
columns, while the inner jambs are
executed in Byzantine style.
•The lintel is divided in two tiers.
•The lower one depicts several episodes in
the life of St. John the Baptist, while the
upper one shows Christ between the
Madonna and St John the Baptist, flanked
by angels and the evangelists