. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. historian ofSiena, who wrote at the close of the sixteenth century. Like Pisain 1070, Siena had in the thirteenth century grown to be prosperousand rich, and the building of the new cathedral was stimulated bythe civic pride and ambition of the citizens. The cathedral was theirwork, and not the work of the clergy. It was, says Mr. Norton, a civic much more than an ecclesiastical work, and the votes of amajority in the popular assembly determined not only how it shouldbe carried on, but elected the
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. historian ofSiena, who wrote at the close of the sixteenth century. Like Pisain 1070, Siena had in the thirteenth century grown to be prosperousand rich, and the building of the new cathedral was stimulated bythe civic pride and ambition of the citizens. The cathedral was theirwork, and not the work of the clergy. It was, says Mr. Norton, a civic much more than an ecclesiastical work, and the votes of amajority in the popular assembly determined not only how it shouldbe carried on, but elected the architect and the overseers, who wereto be engaged on the building. Bishop and clergy exercised noauthority over it. The lay democracy were the rulers in all thatconcerned it. ^ No more striking illustration could be cited of thetransformation which the thirteenth century had wrought in the lifeof the people, and of the independence, activity, and energy whichnow characterized it. 1 R. de Fleury, Le Latran an Moyen Age, pis. 57, 58. 2 Chnrch-building in the Middle Ages, p. 91. THE GOTHIC 177. Fig-. 353. Siena Cathedral. The architect under whom the cathedral was begun is not the work went on, it was for perhaps twenty-five years under thedirection of monks from the neighboring abbey of S. Galgano, whoacted one after another as magister operis lapidum. ^ The planis cruciform, though the prolonged choir which makes the easternarm of the cross was an addition of later date. The nave and aislesare in five bays each, oblong in the nave and square in the arcades are of round arches carried on piers, of which the plan 1 Enlart attributes so large a degree of influence to the monks of S. Galgano as tomaintain that the church of that monastery was the model of the cathedral of Siena;.p. 17-158. 178 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY is a square with a rather stout engaged column on each face; thattowards the nave being carried up through the pier capital, and los-ing itself in a
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