"] The wounds of their
Master were to be their inheritance. So their first aim was to make
what image to the cross their church might present, distinctly that of
the actual instrument of death.
And they did this most effectually by using the form of the letter T,
that of the Furca or Gibbet,--not the sign of peace.
Also, their churches were meant for use; not show, nor self-glorification,
nor town-glorification. They wanted places for preaching, prayer,
sacrifice, burial; and had no intention of showing how high they could
build towers, or how widely they could arch vaults. Strong walls, and the
roof of a barn,--these your Franciscan asks of his Arnolfo. These Arnolfo
gives,--thoroughly and wisely built; the successions of gable roof being
a new device for strength, much praised in its day.
This stern humor did not last long. Arnolfo himself had other notions;
much more Cimabue and Giotto; most of all, Nature and Heaven. Something
else had to be taught about Christ than that He was wounded to death.
Nevertheless, look how grand this stern form would be, restored to its
simplicity. It is not the old church which is in itself unimpressive.
It is the old church defaced by Vasari, by Michael Angelo, and by
modern Florence. See those huge tombs on your right hand and left, at
the sides of the aisles, with their alternate gable and round tops, and
their paltriest of all possible sculpture, trying to be grand by
bigness, and pathetic by expense.
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