John Henry Middleton and Thomas Ashby

“ The last of these is now the property of the city, and contains a gallery with some good pictures, especially of the Verona, Padua and Venice schools. As in Venice, many of the 16th-century palaces in Verona had stuccoed façades, richly decorated with large fresco paintings, often by very able painters. Verona, perhaps, had as many of these paintings as any town in Italy, but comparatively few are preserved and those only to a small extent. The domestic architecture of Verona cannot thus be now fairly estimated, and seems monotonous, heavy and uninteresting. ”

“ Its baptistery, rebuilt early in the 12th century , is a quite separate building, with nave and apse, forming a church dedicated to S. Giovanni in Fonte. Pope Lucius III., who held a council at Verona in 1184, is buried in the cathedral, under the pavement before the high altar. The Dominican church of S. Anastasia is a mine of wealth in early examples of painting and sculpture, and one of the finest buildings in Italy of semi-Gothic style. It consists of a nave in six bays, aisles, transepts, each with two eastern chapels, and an apse, all vaulted with simple quadripartite brick groining. ”

“ The nave, dating from the 11th century, is supported by alternate columns and pillars, and contains frescoes of the 11th-14th centuries. The cloisters of S. Zeno, rebuilt in 1123, are an interesting example of brick and marble construction. Like many other churches in Verona, S. Zeno is mainly built of mixed brick and stone in alternate bands: four or five courses of fine red brick lie between bands of hard cream-coloured limestone or marble, forming broad stripes of red and white all over the wall. ”

“ One characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries in Verona was the custom, also followed in other Lombardic cities, of setting large equestrian statues over the tombs of powerful military leaders, in some cases above the recumbent effigy of the dead man, as if to represent him in full vigour of life as well as in death. ”

“ A similarly variegated effect in red and white is produced by building the arches of windows and doors with alternating voussoirs in brick and marble. The neighbourhood of Verona is especially rich in fine limestones and marbles of many different kinds, especially a close-grained cream-coloured marble and a rich mottled red marble, which are largely used, not only in Verona, but also in Venice and other cities of the province. ”

“ At the west end of the nave are two projecting towers, with a narthex-entrance between them. A large open atrium, which once existed at the west, is now completely destroyed, having been replaced by a Renaissance portico. The outside of the church is plain, except the aisle walls and three eastern apses, which are decorated with intersecting pointed arches and other ornaments inlaid in marble. The outsides of the principal doorways and their pointed arches are magnificently enriched with carving and coloured inlay ”

“ Painting in Verona may be divided into four periods, (i.) The first period is characterized by wall paintings of purely native style, closely resembling the early Christian pictures in the catacombs of Rome. Examples dating from the 10th to the 11th century have been discovered hidden by whitewash on the oldest parts of the nave walls of the church of S. Zeno. They are Painting. a very interesting survival of the almost classical . Roman style of painting, and appear to be quite free from the generally prevalent Byzantine influence, (ii.) ”

“ With the exception of a high dado, itself very beautiful, made of marble slabs with bands of mosaic between them, the whole interior surface of the walls, including soffits and jambs of all the arches, is covered with minute mosaic-pictures in brilliant colours on a gold ground. The mosaic pictures are arranged in tiers, divided by horizontal and vertical bands. In parts of the choir there are five of these tiers of subjects or single figures one above another. The half dome of the central apse has a colossal half-length figure of Christ, with a seated Virgin and Child below ”

“ The arches, round or more often pointed in form, were decoratedPalaces. with moulded terra-cotta enrichments, and often with alternating voussoirs of marble. The Scaligeri Palace is a fine example, dating from the 14th century, with, in the cortile, an external staircase leading to an upper loggia, above the usual arcade on the ground floor. It has a lofty campanile, surmounted by a graceful octagonal upper storey. This palace is said to have been mainly built by Can Signorio (Della Scala) about 1370. After the conquest by Venice the domestic buildings of Verona assumed quite a different type. ”

“ The church of S. Maria in Organo, dating from 1481, with a façade of 1592 from Sanmichele’s designs, contains paintings by various Veronese masters, and some fine choir-stalls of 1499 by Fra Gioconda. Though not built till after his death, the church of S. Giorgio in Braida, on the other side of the river, was also designed by Sanmichele, and possesses many good pictures of the Veronese school. The Romanesque church of S. Lorenzo, restored in 1896–1898, contains old frescoes. ”

“ They are both divided into a number of square panels with subjects and single figures, chiefly from Bible history, cast in relief. That on the north is by Barisanus of Trani in southern Italy, an artist probably of Greek origin. It is inscribed barisanus tran. me fecit. The cathedrals at Trani and Ravello also have bronze doors by the same sculptor. The western door at Monreale, inferior to the northern one both in richness of design and in workmanship, is by Bonannus of Pisa, for the cathedral of which place he cast the still existing bronze door on the south, opposite the leaning tower. ”

“ Alhesis) . Pop. (1906) 61,618 (town) ; 79,574 (commune) . It is 93 m. E. of Milan and 71 m. W. of Venice by rail, and is also the point of departure of the main lines to Mantua and Modena and to the Brenner, while a branch line runs N.W. to Caprino, another S.E. to Legnago, and steam tramways to Cologna Veneta, Coriano and S. Giacomo.
The basilica of S. Zeno (an early bishop of Verona who became its patron saint) , which stands outside the ancient city, is one of the most interesting Romanesque churches in Italy. ”