308 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. are generally deficient in the eastern parts, and almost always lack the central dome or tower. The English Gothic architects alone understood the projier combination of the three parts. The Italians, when they introduced a tower, almost always used it as a detached object, and not as a part of the design of the church. In consequence 746. Fagade of the Cathedral at Piacenza. (From Ghapuy, " Moj eu-Age Monumental.") of this the fa9ades of their churches are frequently the least happy parts of the composition, notwithstanding the pains and aiujount of ornament lavished upon them. The elevation of the cathedral at Piacenza is a fair illustration of the general mode of treating the western front of the building, not only in the 11th and 12th centuries, but afterwards, when a church had a facade at all — for the Italians seem to have been seldom able
