Interior of Milan Cathedral

Interior of Milan Cathedral from around 1830 by David Roberts captures the vast Gothic interior of the Duomo, one of the largest churches in the world and among the most elaborately decorated. The forest of clustered piers rising to finely carved capitals, the overwhelming vertical scale, and the milky quality of light filtered through the marble walls gave Roberts one of his most spectacular interior subjects. Roberts made studies of Milan's cathedral during his Italian travels, spending time with the building to understand its unusual proportions—wider and lower than northern Gothic—and the way its marble construction differed tonally from the stone churches of France and England. The work is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. His rendering combines precise architectural perspective with the atmospheric treatment that communicates the Duomo's overwhelming scale and sacred atmosphere.

The vast cathedral interior is rendered with Roberts's precise architectural perspective, the soaring columns creating a sense of overwhelming sacred space.