THE ROMANESQUE STYLE C. IOOO-C. I2OO
the cathedral of Modena and S. Ambrogio in Milan. S. Ambrogio is
the most impressive of them all (pl.xxn), with its atrium and its aus-
tere front, its low squat nave, its massive piers, its wide domed cross-
vaults and its broad primitive ribs (on these see p. 21). Generally
speaking the interior characteristics of these Lombard cathedrals are
cross-vaults or rib-vaults, galleries in the aisles, polygonal domes o^br
the crossings, their outside characteristics isolated towers (campanile
is their Italian name), and those miniature arcadings already referred
to. The extreme case of such decorative arcading is the front and the
leaning tower of the cathedral of Pisa in Tuscany, both of the I3th
century.
Pisa strikes one altogether as of rather an alien character—Oriental
more than Tuscan. Similarly alien is the style of Venice with its
Byzantine and of Sicily with its Arab connections. To see the Italian
Romanesque at its most Italian, that is at its most purely Tuscan, one
has to look to such buildings as S. Miniato al JMonte in Florence (pi
xxni), which, in spite of its early date (its ground floor may even be
contemporary with the transept of Winchester, pi. x), possesses a
delicacy of treatment, a civilised restraint in sculptural decoration
and a susceptibility to the spirit of Antiquity unparalleled anywhere
in the North—a first synthesis of Tuscan intellect and grace with
Roman simplicity and poise.
Yet in those parts of France in which classical remains abound and
men, climate and scenery strike one as so akin to Italy, a new sym-
pathy with the heritage of Rome also appeared with the I2th cen-
tury. The most important monuments of dais blend of the Roman-
esque and the Roman stand in Burgundy and Provence. The Burgun-
dian church of St. Lazare at Autun (pi. xvra) has fluted pilasters, and
Autun as well as Vigilay and others possess capitals in which the de-
based "Corinthian" of the earlier Romanesque style (fig. 18} is restored
to something like its original meaning by a new live understanding
of the vegetal and decorative character of the acanthus leaf (fig. 19).
A similar understanding, not of Roman detail, but of Roman archi-
tecture as a whole distinguishes the facade of St. Gilles in Provence
(pi. xix). For while its three round-headed porches and the mani-
fold mouldings to their arches are unmistakably Romanesque, the
columns in front of the walls between the doorways have straight
entablatures, a feature of antique, never of Western architecture, and
luxuriant Corinthian capitals. Moreover, there are figures of saints
standing upright in straight-headed recesses. Life-size sculpture had
28