The Tuscan Romanesque

The churches of this style (sometimes called the Pisan) are vigorous and elegant in design
They are basilicas in plan, with timber ceilings and high clearstories on columnar arcades.
The external decoration betrays the influence of Byzantine traditions, especially in the use of white and colored marble in alternating bands or in panelled veneering.

Still more striking are the external wall-arcades who , sometimes occupy the whole height of the wall and carried on flat pilasters, sometimes in superposed stages of small arches on slender columns standing free of the wall.
The decorative element prevailed over the constructive in the design of these picturesquely beautiful churches, some of which are of noble size. The Duomo (cathedral) of Pisa, built 1063-1118, is the finest monument of the style. It is 312 feet long and 118 wide, with long transepts and an elliptical dome of later date over the crossing (the intersection of nave and transepts). Its richly arcaded front and banded flanks strikingly exemplify the illogical and unconstructive but highly decorative methods of the Tuscan Romanesque ( 12th century) have the most elaborately decorated façades. The same principles of design appear in the cathedral and several other churches in Pistoia and Prato; but these belong, for the most part, to the Gothic period.
The church of S. Miniato, near Florence ( 1013-60), shows a modification of the Pisan style. It is in plan a basilica with the nave divided into three parts by two transverse arches, carrying a richly painted timber roof,.
The interior is embellished with encrusted patterns in black and white marble. The exterior is adorned with wall-arches and with panelled veneering in white and dark marble, instead of the horizontal bands of the Pisan churches, a blending of Pisan methods.
The Baptistery of Florence, an imposing polygonal domical edifice of the 10th century, presents externally one of the most admirable examples of this practice. Its marble veneering in black and white, with pilasters and arches of excellent design.