When I wrote the description of "Non Nobis sed Tibi Domine" I had to choose
what to place in it and what to discard, since my original text was too
long.  I decided to shorten a lot the discussion about my personal
interpretation and focus on the history of the Duomo.  I thought the
former could have been deduced from the image itself, while it is
difficult that people know the complex history of the Duomo and the Dukedom
of Milan (IRTC is an international competition), and I thought it was still
important to give a schematic overview.

Now I understand that reducing my interpretation of the theme to a single
phrase has made somebody think there was no concept at all behind it,
although this was *not* the case!

My text file refers to the "verticality" of the decorations.  This is a
direct link to the spiritual meaning of the gothic art: buildings grow
towards the sky and towards God, in a strong contrast with romanic churches
(heavily chained to the ground).  My image suggests this by showing three
walls with increasing height, full of arches, spires and other vertical
elements that point towards the sky.  A typical observer would start
looking at the arches on the foreground and, by going up the window or the
spire, reach the upper set of arches.  At this point he would note the wall
on the far background with the stairs going up again, in an endless ascent.

It is obvious this concept could not have been achieved by showing the whole
building, as somebody suggested.  Because of the same reason, I decided not
to show the sky: this would have implied the ascent finally has to stop (on
the other side, ninja114 correctly noted that this would have given a more
colourful image).

I wrote a full article about this image and the gothic architecture in
general for the school magazine.  If somebody is interested in it, I could
post the full article here (give me some time for the translation).

Bye
  Maurizio.

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