Façade of a Palace at Bologna

“Owing to the rarity and expensiveness of free-stone in Upper Italy, an architectural style in brick was developed side-by-side with that which has just been touched upon. This material had already been employed in the foregoing period for churches, and it now came into frequent use in the construction of the palaces. Bologna is especially rich in palaces of this description, which, with an admixture of earlier forms, belong for the most part to the Early Renissance, with semicircles for the heads of the opening, as was necessitated by the character of the material. The easy multiplication of the ornamental parts in burnt clay, generally led to an undue increase of the decorative element. Inasmuch as the main streets of Bologna have arcades running along them of which the individual palaces only embrace a portion, these buildings do not present the appearance of being totally detached, but seem rather parts of the entire front of the street, and show much similarity in the architecture of their façades with that of the arcades themselves.”