Arnolfo's church now sustains in air an octagonal cupola of the simplest possible design, in height and size rivalling that of S.Peter's.

It was thus that the genius of the Renaissance completed what the genius of the Middle Ages had begun.

But in Italy there was no real break between the two periods.

Though Arnolfo employed the Pointed style in his design, we find nothing genuinely Gothic in the church.

It has no pinnacles, flying buttresses, side chapels, or subordinate supports.