Architecture And Decoration In Florence.

day , in the fortieth number of the Hspm-ixione Italiana del , 1861 , an illustrated weekly , kept up with laudable spirit , the announcement of its own decease , put forth with mournful retrospect , by the editors , of their struggles and failure , the difficulty of obtaining contributions , or such woodcuts as deserved admission , and the paucity of subscribers , whose numbers nexer exceeded 1400 .

The completion of the facade of Santa Croce is expected , and promised by those at work , for next May . The principal sculptors engaged to decorate this elevation from the design of the Cavaliere Matas , directing ai-chitect * are Dupre , Cambi , Pazzi , Zocchi , Salvini , ^ and others , all Florentines , who have prepared the rich oi-nato in high relief round the three portals and their gable

summits .- within the marble framework of these ingresses being ranged , in quartrefoils , the heads ( almost indeed half-figures ) of the Apostles , with the Saviour , who is blessing in the midst , the twelve prophets round Moses , and the twelve Patriarchs laterally placed around the head of Adam , who looks down from the highest point , the keystone . At the les of the doorivay- ies

ang canop are angles holding the instruments of the Passion ; and , & b the central one the Madonna addolorata , by Dupre ; the Magdalene and St . John beloiv ; the Virgin ' s figure within a deep niche , under a pointed canopy , seen against ¦ a background of gold mosaic . Above the portals are to be the lunettes ( nofc yet placed ) , with large reliefs of the ¦ " Apparition of the Cross to Constantine" "The finding

, of the Cross by Helena , " and " The Exaltation of the Cross ; " and on the valves of the central bronze doors , the twelve stations of the Via Crucis . Four pinnacles , 12 J bmccia high , are to rise at the basis of the three gables in which the whole terminates . Along a rich and elaborate cornice , below these , are represented in coloured marbles four of these civic armorial devices , so numerously adopted by Florence— -the red lily or white , the red cross , the eagle on a wool-pack ( that of the guild of

merchants ) , and the red eagle preying on the green dragon—of the Guelfic party ; above , on the triangular surface of the chief gable , the letters of the holy name , originally placed on the same spot by the hand of St , Bernardin of Siena , who first introduced into devout symbolism the familiar monogram IHS . The entire material of this facade is native marble , white and

greyveined , white from Carrara , dark green and dusky red from Prafco or other places in Tuscany . The general impression is of a pleasing and harmonious richness , a graceful subordidation of ornament to massive and leading features , an appropriate of use of very redundant symbolism ; such , at least , we may report after climbing to every heiht and following the level of cornice

g every within the screen of scaffolding that still completely hides from external view this structure , whose details are intelligently explained to visitors by the chief workman , or , still better ( an advantage we were able to secure ) , by the architect himself . As to the sculptors , all are not equally satisfying , It is a prevailing expectation that so soon as the S .

Croce facade be finished , that of the cathedral will be begun in earnest ; and in January is to commence the examination of designs , according to the method of the competition open to artists of all nations , as published in April , 1859 , with the promise of prizes for three in each of two classes into ivhich the aggregate will be divided , —from 10 , 080 to 1680 francs . The subscription

for this object has been slowly progressing , 100 , 000 ducats being the estimated cost of the architectonic part alone , not comprising the sculpture ornaments . Another subscription has been set on foot for erecting in some public place the much admired group by Fedi , the Sacrifice of Polyxena by Pyrrhus , consisting of four figures , the mother kneeling , the warrior with his Arictim and her dead defender , the marble of which , considerably larger than the model , we have seen under the assistant artists '

hands , iu an advanced state : we could not but admire the grandly-poetic character of the whole composition , which , though displaying passion and violence , is elevated into an ideal sphere by truly classic beauty . Yet another subscription now claims public generosity here for a monument , by the same artist , at present only designed in the first sketch , to the dramatic poet Niccolini ; and another , both alike for S . Croce , to the Triumvir of the Tuscan Eepublic in ' 48 , Montanelli , also distinguished in letters .

The restoration of the basilica of S . Miniato is now complete in the interior , except as regards the ancient frescoes of Benedictine Saints , the Crucifixion , and other Scriptural subjects of the fifteenth century , to a great degree obliterated , along the walls of the nave ; and the facades , worn but not more injured by time , will ( we are assured ) be renovated without prejudice to its actual

style . In the apse of the tribune fche large mosaic , bearing date , in a frieze , 1297 ( but referred by some critics to the elevenfch century ) , has been most carefullyresfcored ; the roof of open rafters , originally painted in 1322 , is now ornamented in diaper on a dusk brown surface , not suitable or effective . Now appropriated as a public cemetery , this grand old church is usually silent and

deserted , not even the mass or office awakening its echoes except on one day in the year , All Souls ' , when the graves are profusely decorated with flowers , and hundreds of tapers burn on the pavement on nave , aisles , and crypt . The castellated monastery , built in 1294 , is only inhabited at three periods in the year for the devotional " retreats" of eight dayswhen about

, sixty persons may be well accommodated . The reopening of Or' Sanmichele , to become an arcade instead of a church , being no longer in project , the routine of sacred rites has been resumed there ; but a similar plan with regard to the "Bigallo , " the antique oratory of the Misericordia Fraternity , is not , it seems , objected against . This interesting though much injured building , one of

the earliest examples of what Italians call " Gotica moderna , " was raised about 1248 , from the design , as supposed , of Niccola Pisano , to whom , or to Andrea of the same family , are ascribed the statuettes on the front

opposite the baptistery of the Virgin and Child , and two saints , each under a pointed canopy , though the round arch is the form prevailing on this exterior , and in the arcade carried round two sides , the edifice being at an angle formed by the street and piazza , whose archways were barbarously built up in 1697 . On one side above this arcade , are two much-faded frescoes , by Taddeo

Gaddi , representing the Dominican of Verona , revered as St . Peter Martyr , in act of consigning the banner of the Eed Cross to the chief citizens of Florence , for the combat has urged them to , in 1243 , against the Manichaaan heretics ; also , the same Peter preaching to these citizens , and driving away the devil , who appears in form of a black horse ! Several valuable works of early art are in

the chapel ( now used for the archives of a hospital ) and the office-room of this Bigallo : as twelve small pictures on Scriptural subjects by Giottino , so blackened and faded as to be almost beyond appreciation ; a quaint and heavily-designed but dignified statue of the Virgin and Child , by Arnoldi , date , 1358 ; three beautiful paintings , subjects from the New Testament , on a predella , by

EidolfoGhirlandaio ; andafresco . by Chellini , of "Mercy , " as a majestic female in long mantle , crowned with the Papal tiara , gathering under the folds of her ample robe the members of the Misericordia Fraternity . The reopening of the arcades round this ancient building , which now serves for the offices of an Orphan Asylum , will restore it to its beauty and monumental importance .

That gloomily-magnificent chapel of the Medici Tombs at S . Lorenzo , on which has been expended more than two millions and a half of ducats before the year 1722 , and on which , we are told , the entire outlay hither fco ( not including that for the frescoes by Benvenufci on the cupola ) has been twenty-three million lire , is at last to