the reasonable and effective continuity of the mediæval pilaster-strip, greatly disfigures the originally noble design. The only other neo-classic details of the interior are mouldings at the arch imposts and on the archivolts, and coffering on the soffits of the arches. These are quiet and less injurious in effect, though equally superfluous and inappropriate. Thus did the
Fig. 34.—Façade of Sant' Agostino.
sophistication of the Renaissance designers often blind them to real architectural excellence, and lead them to fancy that they could improve such an admirable and consistent interior by incongruous and meaningless features.
The façade (Fig. 34) is wholly of the Renaissance, and has no mediæval character except in its general outline, which conforms with that of the building itself. It is a simple design,
