effect, a minor peculiarity being the lavish
use of plaster, not only for surface decoration, but also in some cases
for the actual structure of such details as cornices, &c.

[Illustration: Example of Renaissance Ornament]

The Renaissance style was inaugurated in Italy, where, as already
stated, the Gothic never took root, and spread thence to the other
countries of Europe, assuming in each country a certain distinctive
character of its own in harmony with its environment. In Italian
Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture the old basilican plan was
revived, the dome became again, as in ancient Rome, the crowning glory
of the building, and was combined with horizontal entablatures upheld by
columns, with capitals of one or another of the Greek orders, and
porticoes with pediments. In secular Italian Renaissance a very notable
feature is the central cortile or courtyard surrounded by open arcades,
above which are the principal apartments, of style corresponding with
that of the arcades, the round-headed windows being divided from each
other by slender pilasters, and the spandrels above them filled in with
sculptured ornamentation. The principal facade of Italian palaces was
especially ornate, richly decorated courses of stone dividing the
stories from each other, in which the fenestration or grouping of the
windows was peculiarly effective.

Whereas in the history of mediaeval architecture few names emerge from
the obscurity in which those who planned and erected the great
cathedrals, churches, and castles were content to remain, in that of
Renaissance the individual architect comes to the front, all the
designing having been done by him and the whole work carried on under
his personal superintendence. In the new movement Florence took the
lead, owing the pre-eminence she quickly won to the gifted and versatile
Filippo Brunelleschi, who, like so many of his famous contemporaries,
was a skilled goldsmith and sculptor before he became an architect. His
first work of importance was the dome he added to the unfinished
cathedral of his native city, which was soon succeeded by the Churches
of S. Spirito and S. Lorenzo, both of which are typical Renaissance
buildings, as is also the Puzzi Chapel, on which the architect displayed
his wonderful sense of symmetry, combining domes, arches, and lintels
with consummate skill.

Fine examples of Renaissance secular architecture in Florence are the
Riccardi and Pitti Palaces, both