ABSTRACT
A useful framework within which to examine Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti's descriptions is provided by another Renaissance commentator upon magnificence, Giovanni Giuniano Pontano, in his short work De magnificentia. Arienti's descriptions in De triumphis religionis can show us which qualities in buildings and other works of art should be considered magnificent. Of Renaissance architectural treatises, only Filarete’s seems to discuss architecture in terms which reflect those of these commentators upon magnificence. In Belriguardo, Arienti mentions the window archivolts and tracery in the first courtyard, and the upper entablature in the second, 'cloister', courtyard: 'Above the square and round columns are placed marble squares in the form of beams, which outside make a beautiful elaborate cornice, which is drawn a beautiful wall up to the top of the roof'. Arienti's precise enumeration of the columns which he saw in loggias, staircases and so on also shows his concern with scale.
