In this connection one must remember that French Gothic, though manifested in its architecture, was of deeper application, and did not confine its spirit to the statuary made for the tall elongated lines of its cathedrals.  What we call Gothic pervaded everything, and was not solely based on physical forms.  Indeed, whatever may be the debt of Italian sculpture to French influence, the Gothic architecture of Italy excluded some of the chief principles of the French builders.  It was much more liberal and more fond of light and air.  Speaking of the exaggerated type of Gothic architecture, in which everything is heightened and thinned, Renan asks what would have happened to Giotto if he had been told to paint his frescoes in churches from which flat spaces had entirely disappeared.  “Once we have exhausted the grand idea of infinity which springs from its unity, we realise the shortcomings of this egoistic and jealous architecture, which only exists for itself and its own ends, regnant dans le desert."[40] The churches of Umbria and Tuscany were as frames in which space was provided for all the arts; where fresco and sculpture could be welcomed with ample scope for their free and unencumbered display.  Donatello was never hampered or crowded by the architecture of Florence; he was never obliged, like his predecessors in Picardy and Champagne, to accommodate the gesture and attitude of his statue to stereotyped positions dictated by the architect.  His opportunity was proportionately greater, and it only serves to enhance our admiration for the French sculptors.  In spite of difficulties not of their own making, they were able to create, with a coarser material and in a less favourable climate, what was perhaps the highest achievement ever attained by monumental sculpture.  The Italians soon came to distrust Gothic architecture.  It was never quite indigenous, and they were afraid of this “German” transalpine art.  Vasari attacks “Questa maledizione di fabbriche,” with their “tabernacolini l’un sopra l’altro, ... che hanno ammorbato il mondo."[41] One would expect the denunciation of Milizia to be still more severe.  But he admits that “fra tante monstruosita l’architettura gottica ha alcune bellezze."[42] Elsewhere mentioning the architect of the Florentine Cathedral (while regretting how long the corrotto gusto survived), he says, “In questo architetto si vede qualche barlume di buona architettura, come di pittura in Cimabue suo contemporaneo."[43] He detects some glimmer of good architecture.  Sir Joshua Reynolds was cautious:  “Under the rudeness of Gothic essays, the artist will find original, rational, and even sublime inventions."[44] It should be remembered that the word Tedesca, as applied to Gothic art, meant more than German, and could be almost translated by Northern.  Italians from the lakes and the Valtellina were called Tedeschi, and Italy herself was inhabited by different peoples who were constantly