MEDIÆVAL ARCHITECTURE OF RUSSIA.
CONTENTS.
Churches at Kief—Novogorod—Moscow—Towers.
CHRONOLOGY.
DATES.
Rurik the Varangian at Novogorod A.D. 850
Olga baptized at Constantinople 955
St. Vladimir the Great 981-1015
Yaroslaf died 1054
Sack of Kief 1168
Tartar invasion under Gengis Khan 1224
Tartar wars and domination till 1480
Ivan III. 1462-1505
Basil III. 1505-1533
Ivan IV., or the Terrible 1533-1584
Boris 1598-1605
Peter the Great 1689-1725
The long series of the architectural styles of the Christian world which
has been described in the preceding pages terminates most appropriately
with the description of the art of a people who had less knowledge of
architecture and less appreciation of its beauties than any other with
which we are acquainted. During the Middle Ages the Russians did not
erect one single building which is worthy of admiration, either from its
dimensions, its design, or the elegance of its details; nor did they
invent one single architectural feature which can be called their own.
It is true the Tartars brought with them their bulbous form of dome, and
the Russians adopted it, and adhere to it to the present day,
unconscious that it is the symbol of their subjection to a race they
affect to despise; but excepting as regards this one feature, their
architecture is only a bad and debased copy of the style of the
Byzantine Empire. There is nothing, in fact, in the architecture of the
country to lead us to doubt that the mass of the population of Russia
was always of purely Aryan stock, speaking a language more nearly allied
to the Sanskrit than any of the other Mediæval tongues of Europe, and
that whatever amount of Tartar blood may have been imported, it was not
sufficient to cure the inartistic tendencies of the race. So much is
this felt to be the case, that the Russians themselves hardly lay claim
to the design of a single building in their country from the earliest
times to the present day. They admit that all the churches at Kief,
their earliest capital, were erected by Greek architects; those of
Moscow by Italians or Germans; while those of St. Petersburg, we know,
were, with hardly a single exception, erected by Italian, German, or
French architects. These last have perpetrated caricatures of revived
Roman architecture worse than are to be found anywhere else. Bad as are
some of the imitations of Roman art found in western Europe, they are
all the work of native artists; are, partially at least, adapted to the
climate, and common-sense peeps through their worst absurdities; but in
Russia only second-class foreigners have been employed, and the result
is a style that out-herods Herod in absurdity and bad taste.
Architecture has languished not only in Russia, but wherever the
Sclavonic race predominates. In Poland, Hungary, Moldavia, Wallachia,
&c., although some of these countries have at times been rich and
prosperous, there is not a single original structure worthy to be placed
in comparison with even the second-class contemporary buildings of the
Celtic or Teutonic races.
Besides the ethnographic inaptitude of the nation, however, there are
other causes which would lead us to anticipate, _à priori_, that nothing
either great or beautiful was likely to exist in the Mediæval
architecture of Russia. In the first place, from the conversion of Olga
(964) to the accession of Peter the Great (1689), with whom the national
style expired, the country hardly emerged from barbarism. Torn by
internal troubles, or devastated by incursions of the Tartars, the
Russians never enjoyed the repose necessary for the development of art,
and the country was too thinly peopled to admit of that concentration of
men necessary for the carrying out of any great architectural
undertaking.
Another cause of bad architecture is found in the material used, which
is almost universally brick covered with plaster; and it is well known
that the tendency of plaster architecture is constantly to extravagance
in detail and bad taste in every form. It is also extremely
perishable,—a fact which opens the way to repairs and alterations in
defiance of congruity and taste, and to the utter annihilation of
everything like archæological value in the building.
When the material was not brick it was wood, like most of the houses in
Russia of the present day; and the destroying hand of time, aided no
doubt by fire and the Tartar invasions, have swept away many buildings
which would serve to fill up gaps, now, it is feared, irremediable in
the history of the art.
Notwithstanding all this, the history of architecture in Russia need not
be considered as entirely a blank, or as wholly devoid of interest.
Locally we can follow the history of the style from the south to the
north. Springing originally from two roots—one at Constantinople, the
other in Armenia—it gradually extended itself northward. It first
established itself at Cherson, then at Kief, and after these at Vladimir
and Moscow, whence it spread to the great commercial city of Novogorod.
At all these places it maintained itself till supplanted by the rise of
St. Petersburg.
[Illustration: 372. Church of St. Basil, Kief. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Though the Princess Olga was baptised in 955, the general profession of
Christianity in Russia did not take place till the reign of Vladimir
(981-1015). He built the wooden cathedral at Cherson, which has
perished. At Kief the same monarch built the church of Dessiatinnaya,
the remains of which existed till within the last few years, when they
were removed to give place to a modern reproduction. He also built that
of St. Basil in the same city, which, notwithstanding modern
improvements, still retains its ancient plan, and is nearly identical in
arrangement and form with the Catholicon at Athens (Woodcut No. 338).
The plan (Woodcut No. 372) gives a fair idea of the usual dimensions of
the older churches of Russia. The parts shaded lighter are subsequent
additions.
[Illustration: 373. St. Irene, Kief.]
A greater builder than Vladimir was Prince Yaroslaf (1019-1054). He
founded the church of St. Irene at Kief (Woodcut No. 373), the ruins of
which still exist. It is a good specimen of the smaller class of
churches of that date.
His great works were the cathedrals of Kief and Novogorod, both
dedicated to Sta. Sophia, and with the church at Mokwi quoted above
(Woodcut No. 352) forming the most interesting group of Russian churches
of that age. All three belong to the 11th century, and are so extremely
similar in plan, that, deducting the subsequent additions from the two
Russian examples, they may almost be said to be identical. They also
show so intimate a connection between the places on the great commercial
road from the Caucasus to the Baltic, that they point out at once the
line along which we must look for the origin of the style.
[Illustration: 374. Plan of Cathedral at Kief. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Of the three, that at Kief[254] (Woodcut No. 374) is the largest; but it
is nearly certain that the two outer aisles are subsequent additions,
and that the original church was confined to the remaining seven aisles.
As it now stands its dimensions are 185 ft. from north to south, and 136
from east to west. It consequently covers only about 25,000 ft., or not
half the usual dimensions of a Western cathedral of the same class. As
will be perceived, its plan is like that of the churches of Asia Minor,
so far as the central aisles are concerned. In lateral extension it
resembles a mosque, a form elsewhere very unusual in Christian churches,
but which here may be a Tartar peculiarity. At all events it is
generally found in Russian churches, which never adopt the long
basilican form of the West. If their length in an eastern and western
direction ever exceeds the breadth, it is only by taking in the narthex
with the body of the church.
[Illustration: 375. East End of the Church at Novogorod. (From a Drawing
by A. Durand.)]
Internally this church retains many of its original arrangements, and
many decorations which, if not original, are at least restorations or
copies of those which previously occupied their places. Externally it
has been so repaired and rebuilt that it is difficult to detect what
belongs to the original work.
In this respect the church of Novogorod has been more fortunate. Owing
to the early decline of the town it has not been much modernised. The
interior retains many of its primitive features. Among other furniture
is a pair of bronze doors of Italian workmanship of the 12th century
closely resembling those of San Zenone at Verona. The part of the
exterior that retains most of its early features is the eastern end,
represented in the Woodcut No. 375. It retains the long reed-like shafts
which the Armenians borrowed from the Sassanians, and which penetrated
even to this remote corner. Whether the two lower circular apses shown
in the view are old is by no means clear: but it is probable that they
are at least built on ancient foundations. The domes on the roof, and
indeed all the upper part of the building, belong to a more modern date
than the substructure.
The cathedral of Tchernigow, near Kief, founded 1024, retains perhaps
more of its original appearance externally than any other church of its
age. Like almost all Russian churches it is square in plan, with a dome
in the centre surrounded by four smaller cupolas placed diagonally at
the corners. To the eastward are three apses, and the narthex is flanked
by two round towers, the upper parts of which, with the roofs, have been
modernised, but the whole of the walls remain as originally erected,
especially the end of the transept, which precisely resembles what we
find in Greek Churches of the period.
[Illustration: 376. Cathedral at Tchernigow. (From Blasius, ‘Reise in
Russland.’)]
To the same age belong the convent of the Volkof (1100) and of Yourief
at Novogorod, the church of the Ascension, and several others at Kief.
All these are so modernised as, except in their plans, to show but
slight traces of their origin.
Another of the great buildings of the age was the cathedral of Vladimir
(1046). It is said to have been built, like the rest, by Greek artists.
The richness and beauty of this building have been celebrated by early
travellers, but it has been entirely passed over by more modern writers.
From this it is perhaps to be inferred that its ancient form is
completely disguised in modern alterations.
The ascendency of Kief was of short duration. Early in the 13th century
the city suffered greatly from civil wars, fires, and devastations of
every description, which humbled her pride, and inflicted ruin upon her
from which she never wholly recovered.
Vladimir was after this the residence of the grand dukes, and in the
beginning of the 14th century Moscow became the capital, which it
continued to be till the seat of empire was transferred by Peter the
Great to St. Petersburg. During these three centuries Moscow was no
doubt adorned with many important buildings, since almost every church
traces its foundation back to the 14th century; but as fires and Tartar
invasions have frequently swept over the city since then, few retain any
of the features of their original foundation, and it may therefore
perhaps be well to see what can be gleaned in the provinces before
describing the buildings of the capital.
[Illustration: 377. Village Church near Novogorod. (From a Drawing by A.
Durand.)]
As far as can be gathered from the sketch-books of travellers or their
somewhat meagre notes, there are few towns of Russia of any importance
during the Middle Ages which do not possess churches said to have been
founded in the first centuries after its conversion to Christianity;
though whether the existing buildings are the originals, or how far they
may have been altered and modernised, will not be known till some
archæologist visits the country, directing his attention to this
particular inquiry. Although the Russians probably built as great a
number of churches as any nation of Christendom, yet like the Greek
churches they were all undoubtedly small. Kief is said, even in the age
of Yaroslaf, to have contained 400 churches; Vladimir nearly as many.
Moscow, in the year 1600, had 400 (thirty-seven of which were in the
Kremlin), and now possesses many more.
Many of the village churches still retain their ancient features; the
example here given of one near Novogorod belongs probably to the 12th
century, and is not later than the 13th. It retains its shafted apse,
its bulb-shaped Tartar dome, and, as is always the case in Russia, a
square detached belfry—though in this instance apparently more modern
than the edifice itself. Woodcut No. 378 is the type of a great number
of the old village churches, which, like the houses of the peasants, are
of wood, generally of logs laid one on the other, with their round ends
intersecting at the angles, like the log-huts of America at the present
day. As architectural objects they are of course insignificant, but
still they are characteristic and picturesque.
[Illustration: 378. Village Church near Tzarskoe Selo. (From Durand.)]
Internally all the arrangements of the stone churches are such as are
appropriate for pictorial rather than for sculptural decoration. The
pillars are generally large cylinders covered with portraits of saints,
and the capitals are plain, cushion-like rolls with painted ornaments.
The vaults are not relieved by ribs, or by any projections that could
interfere with the coloured decorations. In the wooden churches the
construction is plainly shown, and of course is far lighter. In them
also colour almost wholly supersedes carving. The peculiarities of these
two styles are well illustrated in the two Woodcuts, Nos. 379 and 380,
from churches near Kostroma in Eastern Russia. Both belong to the Middle
Ages, and both are favourable specimens of their respective classes. In
these examples, as indeed in every Greek church, the principal object of
ecclesiastical furniture is the _iconostasis_ or image-bearer,
corresponding to the rood-screen that separates the choir from the nave
in Latin churches. The rood-screen, however, never assumed in the West
the importance which the iconostasis always possessed in the East. There
it separates and hides from the church the sanctuary and the altar, from
which the laity are wholly excluded. Within it the elements are
consecrated, in the presence of the priests alone, and are then brought
forward to be displayed to the public. On this screen, as performing so
important a part, the Greek architects and artists have lavished the
greatest amount of care and design, and in every Greek church, from St.
Mark’s at Venice to the extreme confines of Russia, it is the object
that first attracts attention on entering. It is, in fact, so important
that it must be regarded rather as an object of architecture than of
church furniture.
[Illustration: 379. Interior of Church at Kostroma. (From Durand.)]
The architectural details of these Russian churches must be pronounced
to be bad; for, even making every allowance for difference of taste,
there is neither beauty of form nor constructive elegance in any part.
The most characteristic and pleasing features are the five domes that
generally ornament the roofs, and which, when they rise from the
_extrados_, or uncovered outside of the vaults, certainly look well. Too
frequently, however, the vault is covered by a wooden roof, through
which the domes then peer in a manner by no means to be admired. The
details of the lower part are generally bad. The view (Woodcut No. 381)
of a doorway of the Troitska monastery, near Moscow, is sufficiently
characteristic. Its most remarkable feature is the baluster-like
pillars, of which the Russians seem so fond. These support an arch with
a pendant in the middle—a sort of architectural _tour de force_ which
the Russian architects practised everywhere and in every age, but which
is far from being beautiful in itself, or from possessing any
architectural propriety. The great roll over the door is also
unpleasant. Indeed, as a general rule, wherever in Russian architecture
the details are original, they must be condemned as ugly.
At Moscow we find much that is at all events curious. It first became a
city of importance about the year 1304, and retained its prosperity
throughout that century. During that time it was adorned by many
sumptuous edifices. In the beginning of the 15th century it was taken
and destroyed by the Tartars, and it was not till the reign of Ivan III.
(1462-1505) that the city and empire recovered the disasters of that
period. It is extremely doubtful if any edifice now found in Moscow can
date before the time of this monarch.
[Illustration: 380. Interior of Church near Kostroma. (From Durand.)]
In the year 1479 this king dedicated the new church of the Assumption of
the Virgin, said to have been built by Aristotile Fioravanti, of
Bologna, in Italy, who was brought to Russia expressly for the purpose.
The plan of it (Woodcut No. 382) gives a good idea of the arrangement of
a Russian church of this age. Small as are its dimensions—only 74 ft. by
56 over all externally, which would be a very small parish church
anywhere else—the two other cathedrals of Moscow, that of the Archangel
Michael and the Annunciation, are even smaller still in plan. Like true
Byzantine churches, they would all be exact squares, but that the
narthex being taken into the church gives it a somewhat oblong form. In
the Church of the Assumption there is, as is almost universally the
case, one large dome over the centre of the square, and four smaller
ones in the four angles.[255] The great iconostasis runs, as at Sta.
Sophia at Kief, quite across the church; but the two lateral chapels
have smaller screens inside which hide their altars, so that the part
between the two becomes a sort of private chapel. This seems to be the
plan of the greater number of the Russian churches of this age.
[Illustration: 381. Doorway of the Troitzka Monastery, near Moscow.]
[Illustration: 382. Plan of the Church of the Assumption, Moscow.]
[Illustration: 383. Plan of the Church of St. Basil, Moscow.]
[Illustration: 384. View of the Church of Vassili Blanskenoy, Moscow.]
But there is one church in Moscow, that of Vassili (St. Basil) Blajenny,
which is certainly the most remarkable, as it is the most
characteristic, of all the churches of Russia. It was built by Ivan the
Terrible (1534-1584), and its architect was a foreigner, generally
supposed to have come from the West, inasmuch as this monarch sent an
embassy to Germany under one Schlit, to procure artists, of whom he is
said to have collected 150 for his service. If, however, German workmen
erected this building, it certainly was from Tartar designs. Nothing
like it exists to the westward. It more resembles some Eastern pagoda of
modern date than any European structure, and in fact must be considered
as almost a pure Tartar building. Still, though strangely altered by
time, most of its forms can be traced back to the Byzantine style, as
certainly as the details of the cathedral of Cologne to the Romanesque.
The central spire, for instance, is the form into which the Russians had
during five centuries been gradually changing the straight-lined dome of
the Armenians. The eight others are the Byzantine domes converted by
degrees into the bulb-like forms which the Tartars practised at Agra and
Delhi, as well as throughout Russia. The arrangement of these domes will
be understood by the plan (Woodcut No. 383), which shows it to consist
of one central octagon surrounded by eight smaller ones, raised on a
platform ascended by two flights of stairs. Beneath the platform is a
crypt. For the general appearance the reader must be referred to Woodcut
No. 384, for words would fail to convey any idea of so bizarre and
complicated a building. At the same time it must be imagined as painted
with the most brilliant colours; its domes gilt, and relieved by blue,
green, and red, and altogether a combination of as much barbarity as it
is possible to bring together in so small a space. To crown the whole,
according to the legend, Ivan ordered the eyes of the architect to be
put out, lest he should ever surpass his own handiwork; and we may feel
grateful that nothing so barbarous was afterwards attempted in Europe.
[Illustration: 385. View of Church at Kurtea d’Argyisch. (From ‘Jahrbuch
der Central Com.’)]
[Illustration: 386. Plan of Church at Kurtea d’Argyisch. Scale 50 ft. to
1 in.]
[Illustration: 387. Tower of Ivan Veliki, Moscow, with the Cathedrals of
the Assumption and the Archangel Gabriel.]
Though not strictly speaking in Russia itself, there is at Kurtea
d’Argyisch, in Wallachia, 90 miles north-west from Bucharest, a church
which is so remarkable, so typical of the style, that it cannot be
passed over. It was erected in the first years of the 16th century
(1517-1526) by a Prince Nyagon, and is, so far as is at present known,
the most elaborate example of the style. All its ornamental details are
identical with those found at Ani and other places in Armenia, but are
used here in greater profusion and with better judgment than are to be
found in any single example in that country. In outline it is not so
wild as the Vassili Blanskenoy, but the interior is wholly sacrificed to
the external effect, and no other example can well be quoted on which
ornamental construction is carried to so great an extent, and generally
speaking in such good taste. The twisted cupolas that flank the
entrances might as well have been omitted, but the two central domes and
the way the semi-domes are attached to them are quite unexceptionable,
and altogether, with larger dimensions, and if a little more spread out,
it would be difficult to find a more elegant exterior anywhere. As it is
only 90 ft. long by 50 wide it is too small for architectural effect,
but barring this it is the most elegant example of the Armeno-Russian or
Neo-Byzantine architecture which is known to exist anywhere, and one of
the most suggestive, if the Russians knew how to use it.[256]
TOWERS.
[Illustration: 388. Tower of Boris, Kremlin, Moscow.]
Next in importance to the churches themselves are the belfries which
always accompany them. The Russians seem never to have adopted separate
baptisteries, nor did they affect any sepulchral magnificence in their
tombs. From the time of Herodotus the Scythians were great casters of
metal, and famous for their bells. The specimens of casting of this sort
in Russia reduce all the great bells of Western Europe to comparative
insignificance. It of course became necessary to provide places in which
to hang these bells: and as nothing, either in Byzantine or Armenian
architecture, afforded a hint for amalgamating the belfry with the
church, they went to work in their own way, and constructed the towers
wholly independent of the churches. Of all those in Russia, that of Ivan
Veliki, erected by the Czar Boris, about the year 1600, is the finest.
It is surmounted by a cross 18 ft. high, making a total height of 269
ft. from the ground to the top of the cross. It cannot be said to have
any great beauty, either of form or detail: but it rises boldly from the
ground, and towers over all the other buildings of the Kremlin. With
this tower for its principal object, the whole mass of building is at
least picturesque, if not architecturally beautiful. In the Woodcut (No.
388) the belfry is shown as it stood before it was blown up by the
French. It has since been rebuilt, and with the cathedrals on either
hand, makes up the best group in the Kremlin.
Besides the belfries, the walls of the Kremlin are adorned with towers,
meant not merely for military defence, but as architectural ornaments,
and reminding us somewhat of those described by Josephus as erected by
Herod on the walls of Jerusalem. One of these towers (Woodcut No. 389),
built by the same Czar Boris who erected that last described, is a good
specimen of its class. It is one of the principal of those which give
the walls of the Kremlin their peculiar and striking character.
[Illustration: 389. Sacred Gate, Kremlin, Moscow.]
These towers, however, are not peculiar to the Kremlin of Moscow. Every
city in Russia had its Kremlin, as every one in Spain had its Alcazar,
and all were adorned with walls deeply machicolated, and interspersed
with towers. Within were enclosed five-domed churches and belfries, just
as at Moscow, though on a scale proportionate to the importance of the
city. It would be easy to select numerous illustrations of this. They
are, however, all very much like one another, nor have they sufficient
beauty to require us to dwell long on them. Their gateways, however, are
frequently important. Every city had its _porta sacra_, deriving its
importance either from some memorable event or from miracles said to
have been wrought there, and being the triumphal gateways through which
all processions pass on state occasions.
The best known of these is that of Moscow, beneath whose sacred arch
even the Emperor himself must uncover his head as he passes through; and
which, from its sanctity as well as its architectural character, forms
an important feature among the antiquities of Russia.
So numerous are the churches, and, generally speaking, the fragments of
antiquity in this country, that it would be easy to multiply examples to
almost any extent. Those quoted in the preceding pages are,
architecturally, the finest as well as the most interesting from an
antiquarian point of view, of those which have yet been visited and
drawn; and there is no reason to believe that others either more
magnificent or more beautiful still remain undescribed.
This being the case, it is safe to assert that Russia contains nothing
that can at all compare with the cathedrals, or even the parish
churches, of Western Europe, either in dimensions or in beauty of
detail. Every chapter in the history of architecture must contain
something to interest the student: but there is none less worthy of
attention than that which describes the architecture of Russia,
especially when we take into account the extent of territory occupied by
its people, and the enormous amount of time and wealth which has been
lavished on the multitude of insignificant buildings to be found in
every corner of the empire.
BOOK II.
ITALY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CONTENTS.
Division and Classification of the Romanesque and Gothic Styles of
Architecture in Italy.
If a historian were to propose to himself the task of writing a
tolerably consecutive narrative of the events which occurred in Italy
during the Middle Ages, he would probably find such difficulties in his
way as would induce him to abandon the attempt. Venice and Genoa were as
distinct states as Spain and Portugal. Florence, the most essentially
Italian of the republics, requires a different treatment from the half
German Milan. Even such neighbouring cities as Mantua and Verona were
separate and independent states during the most important part of their
existence. Rome was, during the whole of the Middle Ages, more European
than Italian, and must have a narrative of her own; Southern Italy was a
foreign country to the states of the North; and Sicily has an
independent history.
The same difficulties, though not perhaps to the same degree, beset the
historian of art, and, if it were proposed to describe in detail all the
varying forms of Italian art during the Middle Ages, it would be
necessary to map out Italy into provinces, and to treat each almost as a
separate kingdom by itself. In this, as in almost every instance,
however, the architecture forms a better guide-line through the tangled
mazes of the labyrinth than the written record of political events, and
those who can read her language have before them a more trustworthy and
vivid picture of the past than can be obtained by any other means.
The great charm of the history of Mediæval art in England is its unity.
It affords the picture of a people working out a style from chaos to
completeness, with only slight assistance from those in foreign
countries engaged in the same task. In France we have two elements, the
old Southern Romanesque long struggling with the Northern Celtic, and
unity only obtained by the suppression of the former, wherever they came
in contact. In Italy we have four elements,—the Roman, the Byzantine,
the Lombardic, and the Gothic,—sometimes existing nearly pure, at others
mixed, in the most varying proportions, the one with the other.
In the North the Lombardic element prevailed; based on the one hand on
the traditions of Imperial Rome, and in consequence influenced in its
art by classical forms; and, on the other, inspired in all its details
by a vast accumulation of Byzantine work. In the 5th and 6th centuries
this work (chiefly confined to columns, screens, and altar pieces) was
executed by Greek artists sent on from Constantinople. The 7th century
seems to have been quite barren so far as architecture was concerned;
but in the 8th century, owing either to the Saracen invasion or to the
emigration caused by the persecution of the Iconoclasts in 788, the
Byzantine influence became again predominant, but no longer with that
same purity of design as we find in the earlier work of the 5th and 6th
centuries.
In the South, the Byzantine forms prevailed, partly because the art was
there based on the traditions of Magna Grecia, and more, perhaps, from
the intimate connection that existed between Apulia and the Peloponnesus
during the Middle Ages.
Between the two stood Rome, less changed than either North or South—the
three terms, Roman, Romano-Byzantine, and Renaissance comprise all the
variation she submitted to. In vain the Gothic styles besieged her on
the north and the Byzantine on the south. Their waves spent themselves
on her rock without producing much impression, while her influence
extended more or less over the whole peninsula. It was distinctly felt
at Florence and at Pisa on the north and west, though these conquests
were nearly balanced by the Byzantine influence which is so distinctly
felt at Venice or Padua on the east coast.
The great difficulty in the attempt to reconcile these architectural
varieties with the local and ethnographical peculiarities of the
people—a difficulty which at first sight appears all but insuperable—is,
that sometimes all three styles are found side by side in the same city.
This, however, constitutes, in reality, the intrinsic merit of
architecture as a guide in these difficulties. What neither the language
of the people nor their histories tell us, their arts proclaim in a
manner not to be mistaken. Just in that ratio in which the Roman,
Byzantine, or Lombardic style prevails in their churches, to that extent
did either of these elements exist in the blood of the people. Once
thoroughly master the peculiarities of their art, and we can with
certainty pronounce when any particular race rose to power, how long its
prevalence lasted, and when it was obliterated or fused with some other
form.
There is no great difficulty in distinguishing between the Byzantine and
the other two styles, so far as the form of dome is concerned. The
latter is almost always rounded externally, the former almost always
straight-lined. Again: the Byzantine architects never used intersecting
vaults for their naves. If forced to use a pointed arch, they did so
unwillingly, and it never fitted kindly to their favourite circular
forms; the style of their ornamentation was throughout peculiar, and
differed in many essential respects from the other two styles.
It is less easy always to discriminate between the Gothic and Lombardic
in Italy. We frequently find churches of the two styles built side by
side in the same age, both using round arches, and with details not
differing essentially from one another. There is one test, however,
which is probably in all cases sufficient. Every Gothic church had, or
was intended to have, a vault over its central aisle. No early Christian
church ever attempted it. The importance of the distinction is apparent
throughout. The Gothic churches have clustered piers, tall
vaulting-shafts, external and internal buttresses, and are prepared
throughout for this necessity of Gothic art. The early Christian
churches, on the contrary, have only a range of columns, generally of a
pseudo-Corinthian order, between the central and side aisles; internally
no vaulting-shafts, and externally only pilasters. Had these architects
been competent, as the English were, to invent an ornamental wooden
roof, they would perhaps have acted wisely; but though they made several
attempts, especially at Verona, they failed signally to devise any mode
either of hiding the mere mechanical structure of their roofs or of
rendering them ornamental.
Vaulting was, in fact, the real formative idea of the Gothic style, and
it continued to be its most marked characteristic during the continuance
of the style, not only in Italy, but throughout all Europe.
As it is impossible to treat of these various styles in one sequence,
various modes of precedence might be adopted, for each of which good
reasons could be given; but the following will probably be found most
consonant with the arrangement elsewhere adopted in this work:—
First, to treat of the early Christian style as it prevailed in Italy
down to the age of Charlemagne, and to trace out its history down to the
11th century, in order to include all that work executed by Greek
artists or copied from it by Lombardic artists; a phase which might
appropriately be termed the Byzantine-Lombardic style.
Secondly, to follow the history of the formation of the round-arched
style in Lombardy and North Italy, which constitutes the real Lombardic
style.
Thirdly, to take up the Byzantine-Romanesque style as it was practised
in the centre and South of Italy; because it follows chronologically
more closely the art of the North of Italy.
Fourthly, to follow the changes which the influence of the Gothic style
exercised in the 13th and 14th centuries in Italy.
Sicily will demand a chapter to herself; not only because a fourth
element is introduced there in the Saracenic—which influenced her style
almost as much as it did that of the South of Spain—but because such
pointed Gothic as she possesses was not German, like that of Northern
Italy, but derived far more directly from France, under either the
Norman or Angiovine dynasties. Gothic architecture in Palestine also
requires a chapter, and is best described here owing to its close
resemblance to the style in the South of Italy.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE-LOMBARDIC STYLES.
CONTENTS.
Basilicas at Rome—St. Peter’s—St. Paul’s—Ravenna—St. Mark’s,
Venice—Dalmatia and Istria—Torcello.
CHRONOLOGY.
DATES.
Honorius A.D. 395
Valentinian 425-435
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths 493-525
Justinian 527
Alboin Longimanus, King of Lombardy 568
Gregory I. 590
Charlemagne 768
Conrad I. 911
Henry the Fowler 918
Otho the Great 936
Otho II. 973
Otho III. 983
Henry II. 1002
Conrad II. 1024
Henry III. 1039
Henry IV. 1056
Henry V. 1106
Lothaire II. 1125
Conrad III. 1138
Frederick Barbarossa 1152
Henry VI. 1190
Frederick II. 1212
Conradin 1250
BASILICAS.
Like the study of all modern history, that of Christian architecture
commences with Rome; and not, as is sometimes supposed, where the
history of Rome leaves off, but far back in the Empire, if not, indeed,
almost in the Republic.
As has already been pointed out, the whole history of the art in
Imperial Rome is that of a style in course of transition, beginning with
a purely Pagan or Grecian style in the age of Augustus, and passing into
one almost wholly Christian in the age of Constantine.
At the first epoch of the Empire the temple architecture of Rome
consisted in an external arrangement of columns, without arches or
vaults, and was wholly unsuited for the purposes of Christian worship.
Towards the end of the period it had become an internal architecture,
making use of arches and vaults almost entirely to the exclusion of the
columnar orders, except as ornaments, and became so perfectly adapted to
Christian requirements, that little or no essential change in it has
taken place from that time to the present day. A basilica of the form
adopted in the first century after Constantine is as suited now as it
was then to the forms and ceremonies of the Christian ritual.
The fact seems to be, that during the first three centuries after the
Christian era an immense change was silently but certainly working its
way in men’s minds. The old religion was effete: the best men, the most
intellectual spirits of the age, had no faith in it; and the new
religion with all its important consequences was gradually supplying its
place in the minds of men long before it was generally accepted.
There is thus no real distinction between the Emilian or Ulpian
basilicas and those which Constantine erected for the use of the early
Christian republic. Nor is it possible, in such a series as the
Pantheon, the Temple of Minerva Medica, and the Church of San Vitale at
Ravenna, to point out what part really belongs to Pagan and what to
Christian art.
It is true that Constantine fixed the epoch of completed transition, and
gave it form and substance; but long before his time Paganism was
impossible and a reform inevitable. The feeling of the world had
changed—its form of utterance followed as a matter of course.
Viewed in this light, it is impossible to separate the early history of
Christian art from that of Imperial Rome. The sequence is so immediate
and the change so gradual, that a knowledge of the first is absolutely
indispensable to a right understanding of the second.
One of the most remarkable facts connected with the early history of the
Christian religion is, that neither its Founder nor any of His more
immediate successors left any specific directions either as to the
liturgical forms of worship to be observed by His followers, nor laid
down any rules to be observed in the government of the newly established
Church. Under these circumstances it was left almost wholly to those to
whose care the infant congregation was entrusted to frame such
regulations for its guidance as the exigencies of the occasion might
dictate, and gradually to appoint such forms of worship as might seem
most suitable to express the purity of the new faith, but at the same
time with a dignity befitting its high mission.
In Judea these ceremonies, as might naturally be expected, were strongly
tinctured with the forms of the Mosaic dispensation; but it appears to
have been in Africa, and more especially in the pomp-loving and
ceremonious Egypt, that fixed liturgies and rites first became an
integral part of the Christian religion. In those countries far from the
central seat of government, more liberty of conscience seems to have
been attained at an early period than would have been tolerated in the
capital. Before the time of Constantine they possessed not only
churches, but a regularly established hierarchy and a form of worship
similar to what afterwards obtained throughout the whole Christian
world. The form of the government of the Church, however, was long
unsettled. At first it seems merely to have been that the most respected
individuals of each isolated congregation were selected to form a
council to advise and direct their fellow-Christians, to receive and
dispense their alms, and, under the simple but revered title of
Presbyters, to act as fathers rather than as governors to the scattered
communities by which they were elected. The idea, however, of such a
council naturally includes that of a president to guide their
deliberations and give unity and force to their decisions; and such we
soon find springing up under the title of Bishops, or Presbyter Bishops,
as they were first called. During the course of the second century the
latter institution seems gradually to have gained strength at the
expense of the power of the Presbyters, whose delegate the Bishop was
assumed to be. In that capacity the Bishops not only took upon
themselves the general direction of the affairs of the Church, but
formed themselves into separate councils and synods, meeting in the
provincial capitals of the provinces where they were located. These
meetings took place under the presidency of the Bishop of the city in
which they met, who thus assumed to be the chief or metropolitan. These
formed a new presbytery above the older institution, which was thus
gradually superseded—to be again surpassed by the great councils which,
after the age of Constantine, formed the supreme governing body of the
Church; performing the functions of the earlier provincial synods with
more extended authority, though with less unanimity and regularity than
had characterised the earlier institution.
It was thus that during the first three centuries of its existence the
Christian community was formed into a vast federal republic, governed by
its own laws, administered by its own officers, acknowledging no
community with the heathen and no authority in the constituted secular
powers of the State. But at the same time the hierarchy admitted a
participation of rights to the general body of the faithful, from whom
they were chosen, and whose delegation was still admitted to be their
title to office.
When, in the time of Constantine, this persecuted and scattered Church
emerged from the Catacombs to bask in the sunshine of Imperial favour,
there were no buildings in Rome, the plan of which was more suited to
their purposes than that of the basilicas of the ancient city. Though
designed and erected for the transaction of the affairs of the heathen
Empire, they happened to be, in consequence of their disposition and
immense size, eminently suited for the convenience of the Christian
Church, which then aspired to supersede its fallen rival and replace it
by a younger and better institution.[257]
In the basilica the whole congregation of the faithful could meet and
take part in the transaction of the business going on. The bishop
naturally took the place previously occupied by the prætor or quæstor,
the presbyters those of the assessors. The altar in front of the apse,
where the pious heathen poured out libations at the commencement and
conclusion of all important business, served equally for the celebration
of Christian rites, and with the fewest possible changes, either in the
form of the ceremonies or in the nature of the business transacted
therein, the basilica of the heathen became the ecclesia or place of
assembly of the early Christian community.
In addition, however, to the rectangular basilica, which was essentially
the place of meeting for the transaction of the business of the Church,
the Christian community early adopted a circular-formed edifice as a
ceremonial or sacramental adjunct to the basilica. These were copied
from the Roman tombs above described, and were in fact frequently built
for the sepulchres of distinguished persons; but they were also used at
a very early date as baptisteries, as well as for the performance of
funereal rites. It does not appear that baptism, the marriage rites, or
indeed any of the sacraments, were performed in the earliest ages in the
basilica, though in after ages a font was introduced even into
cathedrals. The rectangular church became ultimately the only form used.
In the earlier ages, however, a complete ecclesiastical establishment
consisted of a basilica, and a baptistery, independent of one another
and seldom ranged symmetrically, though the tendency seems to have been
to place the round church opposite the western or principal entrance of
the basilica.
Though this was the case in the capital and other great cities, it was
otherwise before the time of Constantine in the provinces. There the
Christian communities existed as members of a religious sect long before
they aspired to political power or dreamt of superseding the secular
form of government by combination among themselves. In the remote parts
of the Empire, in the earliest ages, they consequently built for
themselves churches which were temples, or, in other words, houses of
prayer, designed for and devoted wholly to the celebration of religious
rites, as in the Pagan temples, and without any reference to the
government of the community or the transaction of the business of the
assembly. If any such existed in Italy or any other part of Europe, they
either perished in the various persecutions to which the Christians were
exposed when located near the seat of government, or they became
hallowed by the memories of the times of martyrdom, and were rebuilt in
happier days with greater magnificence, so that little or no trace of
the original buildings now remains. So long, therefore, as our
researches were confined to European examples, the history of Christian
architecture began with Constantine; but recent researches in Africa
have shown that, when properly explored, we shall certainly be able to
carry the history of the early Christian style in that country back to a
date at least a century before his time. In Syria and Asia Minor so many
early examples have come to light that it seems probable that we may,
before long, carry the history of Byzantine art back to a date nearly
approaching that of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. It is,
however, only so recently that the attention of ecclesiologists has been
directed to the early examples of Christian architecture, that it is not
yet possible to grasp completely the whole bearing of the subject; but
enough is known to show how much the progress of research may modify the
views hitherto entertained on the subject. Meanwhile too much attention
can hardly be bestowed upon it, as it is by means of these early
specimens of architectural art that we shall probably be best able to
recover the primitive forms of the Christian liturgical observance.
One of the most ancient as well as interesting of the African churches
which has yet been brought to light is that at Djemla. It is a simple
rectangle, internally 92 ft. by 52, divided longitudinally with three
aisles, the centre one of which terminates in a square cella or choir,
which seems to have been enclosed up to the roof; but the building is so
ruined that this cannot be known for a certainty. Though so exceptional,
it is not difficult to see whence the form was derived. If we take such
a plan, for instance, as that of the Maison Carré at Nîmes (Woodcut No.
187), and build a wall round and put a roof over it, so as to make a
building which was originally appropriated to external worship suitable
for internal religious purposes, we should have exactly such a result as
this. The cella must be diminished in extent, the pillars more widely
spaced, and the front row converted into a wall in which the entrances
would be usually placed. In this instance the one entrance, for some
local reason, is lateral. The whole floor of the church is covered with
a mosaic so purely classical in style of execution as to leave no doubt
as to its early date.
[Illustration: 390. Plan of Church at Djemla. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 391. Plan of Church at Announa. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
A more common form is shown in the annexed woodcut, representing a small
church at Announa, likewise in Algeria, about 45 ft. square, divided
into three aisles and with a projecting apse. If we turn to the plan of
the Temple of Mars Ultor (Woodcut No. 186), we see at once whence this
form was derived. It only requires the lateral columns to be brought
slightly forward to effect the requisite change. When the building was
to be used by a congregation, and not merely for display, the pillars
would require to be more widely spaced.
A third form, from Ibrim in Nubia, shows the peculiarity of the apse
being internal, which became very fashionable in the Eastern, though not
so much so in the Western, churches, but still sufficiently so to make
its introduction at this early age worthy of notice. The building is
small, being only 57 ft. in length externally, but is remarkable for
being built with something of the solidity of the Egyptian edifices
among which it stands.
The next example which it may be necessary to quote to make this early
form intelligible, is that of the church of St. Reparatus, near
Orleansville—the ancient Castellum Tingitanum. According to an
inscription still existing, it was erected A.D. 252,[258] but the second
apse seems to have been added at a later date, to contain the grave of
the saint. As it now stands, it is a double-apsed basilica 80 ft. long
by 52 broad, divided into five aisles, and exhibiting on a miniature
scale all the peculiarities of plan which we have hitherto fancied were
not adopted until some centuries later. In this instance both the apses
are internal, so that the side-aisles are longer than the centre one, no
portion of them appearing to have been cut off for chalcidica or
vestries, as was very generally the case in this age.
Another example, very much like this in arrangement, but on a larger
scale, is found at Ermet, the ancient Hermonthis in Egypt. It measures
over all 150 ft. by 90, and, if the plan in the great French work[259]
is to be depended upon, is one of the most complete examples of its
class. It has four ranges of columns, taken apparently from more ancient
examples, and two apses with all the usual appurtenances.
[Illustration: 392. Plan of Church at Ibrim in Nubia. No scale.]
[Illustration: 393. Plan of Basilica at Orleansville. Scale 50 ft. to 1
in.]
Another two-aisled and single apse church, measuring 100 ft. by 65,
called Dyer Abou Taneh, is represented in the same work;[260] but
perhaps the most interesting of these churches is that known as the
White Convent, situated on the edge of the Libyan Desert, above Siout.
Externally it measures 215 ft. by 122, and is enclosed in a solid wall,
surmounted by an Egyptian cornice, so that it looks much more like an
ancient temple than a Christian church. Originally it had six doors, but
all are now walled up, except one in the centre of the southern face;
and above, a series of small openings, like loopholes, admitted light to
apartments which apparently occupied the upper storey of lateral
corridors. Light to the church was, of course, admitted through the
clerestory, which could easily be done; and altogether as a fortified
and mysterious abode, and place of worship of ascetics, it would be
difficult to find a more appropriate example.
The age of this church is not very well ascertained; popularly it is,
like so many others, ascribed to Sta. Helena, and the double aisles and
triapsal arrangements are so like her church at Bethlehem, that there is
no _à priori_ improbability in the assumption. The plan, however, is
more complicated and complete, and its external form bespeaks of
troublous times, so that altogether it is probably a century or two (the
monks say 140 years) more modern. Like other churches of its class,
ancient materials have been so used up with those prepared at the time,
that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the dates of such buildings.
If, however, any one with sufficient knowledge would make a special
study of these Egyptian churches, he would add one of the most
interesting chapters to our history of early Christian Architecture, and
explain many ritual arrangements whose origin is now involved in
mystery; but for this we must wait. The materials are not at present
available, all travellers in Egypt being so attracted by the surpassing
interest of the Pagan remains of that country, as hardly to find time
for a glance at the Christian antiquities.[261]
[Illustration: 394. White Convent near Siout. (From a Plan by the Hon.
Sir Arthur Gordon.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
It was probably in a great measure owing to the influence of these
provincial examples that the arrangements of the metropolitan basilicas
were not long allowed to retain the form above described, though more
was probably due to the change which was gradually taking place in the
constitution of the governing body of the Church. The early arrangements
of the Christian basilica, as copied from the secular forms of the Pagan
places of assembly, soon became unsuited to the more exclusively
religious purposes to which they were to be appropriated. The now
dominant hierarchy of Rome soon began to repudiate the republicanism of
the early days of the Church, and to adopt from the East the convenient
doctrine of the absolute separation of the congregation into clergy and
laity. To accommodate the basilica to this new state of things, first
the apse was railed off and appropriated wholly to the use of the
clergy: then the whole of the dais, or raised part in front of the apse
on which the altar stood, was separated by pillars, called cancelli, and
in like manner given up wholly to the clergy, and was not allowed to be
profaned by the presence of the unordained multitude.
The last great change was the introduction of a choir, or enclosed space
in the centre of the nave, attached to the bema or _presbytery_, as the
raised space came to be called. Round three sides of this choir the
faithful were allowed to congregate to hear the Gospels or Epistles read
from the two pulpits or _ambones_, which were built into its enclosure,
one on either side; or to hear the services which were read or sung by
the inferior order of clergy who occupied its precincts.
The enclosure of the choir was kept low, so as not to hide the view of
the raised presbytery, or to prevent the congregation from witnessing
the more sacred mysteries of the faith which were there performed by the
higher order of clergy.
Another important modification, though it entailed no architectural
change, was the introduction of the bodies of the saints in whose honour
the building was erected into the basilica itself, and depositing them
in a confessional or crypt below the high altar.
There is every reason to believe that a separate circular building, or
proper tomb, was originally erected over the grave or place of
martyrdom, and the basilica was sanctified merely by its propinquity to
the sacred spot. Afterwards the practice of depositing the relics of the
saint beneath the floor became universally the rule. At about the same
time the baptistery was also absorbed into the basilica; and instead of
standing opposite the western entrance, a font placed within the western
doors supplied its place. This last change was made earlier at Rome than
elsewhere. It is not known at what exact period the alteration was
introduced, but it is probable that the whole was completed before the
age of Gregory the Great.
It was thus that in the course of a few centuries the basilicas
aggregated within themselves all the offices of the Roman Church, and
became the only acknowledged ecclesiastical buildings—either as places
for the assembly of the clergy for the administration of the sacraments
and the performance of divine worship, or for the congregation of the
faithful.
None of the basilican churches, either of Rome or the provinces, possess
these arrangements exactly as they were originally established in the
fourth or fifth century. The church of San Clemente, however, retains
them so nearly in their primitive form that a short description of it
may tend to make what follows more easily intelligible. This basilica
seems to have been erected in the fourth or fifth century over what was
supposed to be the house in which the saint of that name resided.
Recently a subterranean church or crypt has been discovered, which must
of course be more ancient than the present remains.[262] Above this
subterranean church stands the edifice shown in the accompanying plan
(Woodcut No. 395), nearly one-third less in size, being only 65 ft. wide
internally, against 93 of the original church, though both were about
the same length.
[Illustration: 395. Plan of the Church of San Clemente at Rome. (From
Gutensohn and Knapp.[263]) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in]
It is one of the few that still possesses an _atrium_ or courtyard in
front of the principal entrance, though there can be but little doubt
that this was considered at that early age a most important, if not
indeed an indispensable, attribute to the church itself. As a feature it
may have been derived from the East, where we know it was most common,
and where it afterwards became, with only the slightest possible
modifications, the mosque of the Moslems. It would seem even more
probable, however, that it is only a repetition of the _forum_, which
was always attached to the Pagan basilica, and through which it was
always entered; and for a sepulchral church at least nothing could be
more appropriate, as the original application of the word forum seems to
have been to the open area that existed in front of tombs as well as of
other important buildings.[264]
In the centre of this atrium there generally stood a fountain or tank of
water, not only as an emblem of purity, but that those who came to the
church might wash their hands before entering the holy place—a custom
which seems to have given rise to the practice of dipping the fingers in
the holy water of the piscina, now universal in all Catholic countries.
The colonnade next the church was frequently the only representative of
the atrium, and then—perhaps indeed always—was called the _narthex_, or
place for penitents or persons who had not yet acquired the right of
entering the church itself.
From this narthex three doorways generally opened into the church,
corresponding with the three aisles; and if the building possessed a
font, it ought to have been placed in one of the chapels on either the
right or left hand of the principal entrance.
The choir, with its two pulpits, is shown in the plan—that on the
left-hand side being the pulpit of the Epistle, that on the right of the
Gospel. The railing of the _bema_ or presbytery is also marked, so is
the position of the altar with its canopy supported on four pillars, and
behind that the throne of the bishop, with the seats of the inferior
clergy surrounding the apse on either side.
Besides the church of San Clemente there are at least thirty other
basilican churches in Rome, extending in date from the 4th to the 14th
century. Their names and dates, as far as they have been ascertained,
are set forth in the accompanying list, which, though not altogether
complete, is still the best we possess, and is sufficient for our
present purpose.[265]
BASILICAS OF ROME.
W. ST. PETER’S Constantine (5 aisled) 330
W. ST. JOHN LATERAN Ditto 330
W. ST. LORENZO (west end Ditto 335
lower storey)
N.W. S. PUDENTIANA Ditto 335
E. ST. PAUL’S Theodosius and Honorius 380
(5 aisled)
N.W. S. MARIA MAGGIORE Pope Sixtus III. 432
ST. LORENZO (nave) Ditto 432-40
E. ST. PETER _ad Vincula_ Eudoxia (Greek Doric 442
columns)
N.W.W. ST. JOHN AND ST. PAUL Leo I. 450
N.W.W. QUATTRO CORONATI Ditto 450
N.W. ST. MARTIN _di Monti_ 500
W. S. AGNES 500-514
N.E. S. SABINA 525
ST. LORENZO (galleries to Pope Pelagius 580
west end)
W. S. BALBINA Gregory the Great (no 600
side-aisles)
ST. VINCENT _alle tre Honorius I. 626
fontane_
N.W.N. ST. GIORGIO _in Velabro_ Leo II. 682
N.W.W. ST. CRISOGONUS Gregory III. 731
ST. JOHN _in porta Adrian I. 772
latina_
S.E.E. S. MARIA _in Cosmedin_ Ditto 782
S.W.W. SS. NEREUS AND ACHILLES Leo III. 800
N.W.N. ST. PRAXEDE Paschal I. 817
N.W. S. CECILIA Ditto 821
W. S. MARIA _in Domenica_ Ditto 823
N.W.N. ST. MARK’S 833
ST. JOHN LATERAN Rebuilt by Sergius III. 910
N.W.W. ST. CLEMENT Paschal II. 1100-14
ST. BARTHELEMY _in Isola_ Ditto 1113
W. S. MARIA _in Trastevere_ Innocent II. 1139
ST. LORENZO (the two Honorius III. 1216
churches thrown into one)
S. MARIA _sopra Minerva_ 1370
(?) S. MARIA _in Ara Cœli_ Gothic 14th cent.
ST. AGOSTINO Renaissance 1483
Three of these, St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, and the Lateran church, have
five aisles, all the rest three, with only one insignificant exception,
Sta. Balbina, which has no side-aisles. Two, St. Agnes and the old part
of St. Lorenzo, have their side-aisles in two storeys, all the rest are
only one storey in height, and the side-aisles generally are half the
width of the central aisle or nave. Some of the more modern churches
have the side-aisles vaulted, but of those in the list all except the
two last have flat wooden ceilings over the central compartment, and
generally speaking the plain ornamental construction of the roof is
exposed. It can scarcely be doubted that originally they were ceiled in
some more ornamental manner, as the art of ornamenting this new style of
open construction seems to have been introduced at a later date.
[Illustration: 396. Plan of the original Basilica of St. Peter at Rome.
(From Gutensohn and Knapp.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Of the two last named, the Sta. Maria sopra Minerva might perhaps be
more properly classed among the buildings belonging to the Italian
Gothic style; but as it is the only one in Rome that has any claim to
such a distinction, it is hardly worth while making it an exception to
the rest. The San Agostino might also be called a Renaissance specimen.
It certainly is a transitional specimen between the pillared and
pilastered styles, which were then struggling for mastery. It may either
be regarded as the last of the old race or the first of the new style,
which was so soon destined to revolutionise the architectural world.
ST. PETER’S.
Of the other examples the oldest was the finest. This great basilica was
erected in the reign of Constantine, close to the circus of Nero, where
tradition affirmed that St. Peter had suffered martyrdom. It
unfortunately was entirely swept away to make room for the greatest of
Christian temples, which now occupies its site; but previous to its
destruction careful measurements and drawings were made of every part,
from which it is easy to understand all its arrangements—easier perhaps
than if it had remained to the present day, and four centuries more of
reform and improvements had assisted in altering and disfiguring its
venerable frame.
As will be seen in the plan (Woodcut No. 396), drawn to the usual scale,
it possessed a noble atrium or forecourt, 212 ft. by 235, in front of
which were some bold masses of building, which, during the Middle Ages,
were surmounted by two belfry-towers. The church itself was 212 ft. in
width by 380 in length, covering, without its adjuncts, an area of above
80,000 English feet, which, though less than half the size of the
present cathedral, is as large as that covered by any mediæval cathedral
except those of Milan and Seville. The central aisle was about 80 ft.
across (about twice the average width of a Gothic nave), and nearly the
same as that of the basilica of Maxentius and the principal halls of the
greater thermæ. For some reason or other this dimension seems to have
been a modulus very generally adopted. The bema or sanctuary, answering
to the Gothic transept, extended beyond the walls of the church either
way, which was unusual in early Christian buildings. The object here
seems to have been to connect it with the tombs on its north side. The
arrangement of the sanctuary was also peculiar, having been adorned with
twelve pillars supporting a gallery. These, when symbolism became the
fashion, were said to represent the twelve apostles. This certainly was
not their original intent, as at first only six were put up—the others
added afterwards. The sanctuary and choir were here singularly small and
contracted, as if arranged before the clergy became so numerous as they
afterwards were, and before the laity were excluded from this part of
the church.
The general internal appearance of the building will be understood from
the following woodcut (No. 397), which presents at one view all the
peculiarities of the basilican buildings. The pillars separating the
central from the side aisles appear to have been of uniform dimensions,
and to have supported a horizontal entablature, above which rose a
double range of panels, each containing a picture—these panels thus
taking the place of what was the triforium in Gothic churches. Over
these was the clerestory, and again an ornamental belt gave sufficient
elevation for the roof, which in this instance showed the naked
construction. On the whole perhaps the ratio of height to width is
unexceptionable, but the height over the pillars is so great that they
are made to look utterly insignificant, which indeed is the great defect
in the architectural design of these buildings, and, though seldom so
offensive as here, is apparent in all. The ranges of columns dividing
the side-aisles were joined by arches, which is a more common as well as
a better arrangement, as it not only adds to the height of the pillars,
but gives them an apparent power of bearing the superstructure. At some
period during the Middle Ages the outer aisles were vaulted, and Gothic
windows introduced into them. This change seems to have necessitated the
closing of the intermediate range of clerestory windows, which probably
was by no means conducive to the general architectural effect of the
building.
[Illustration: 397. View of the old Basilica of St. Peter, before its
destruction in the 15th century. From Fontana.]
Externally this basilica, like all those of its age, must have been
singularly deficient in beauty or in architectural design. The sides
were of plain unplastered brick, the windows were plain arch-headed
openings. The front alone was ornamented, and this only with two ranges
of windows somewhat larger than those at the sides, three in each tier,
into which tracery was inserted at some later period, and between and
above these, various figures and emblems were painted in fresco on
stucco laid on the brickwork. The whole was surmounted by that singular
coved cornice which seems to have been universal in Roman basilicas,
though not found anywhere else that I am aware of.
The two most interesting adjuncts to this cathedral were the two tombs
standing to the northward. According to the mediæval tradition the one
was the tomb of Honorius and his wives, the other the church of St.
Andrew. Their position, however, carefully centred on the spina of the
circus of Nero, where the great apostle suffered martyrdom, seems to
point to a holier and more important origin. My own conviction is that
they were erected to mark the places where the apostle and his
companions suffered. It is besides extremely improbable that after the
erection of the basilica an emperor should choose the centre of a circus
for the burying-place of himself and his family, or that he should be
permitted to choose so hallowed a spot. They are of exactly the usual
tomb-form of the age of Constantine, and of the largest size, being each
100 ft. in diameter.
The first was destroyed by Michael Angelo, as it stood on the site
required for his northern tribune, the second by Pius VI., in 1776, to
make way for the present sacristy, and Rome thus lost, through pure
carelessness, the two oldest and most sacred edifices of the Christian
period which she possessed.
The most eastern had been so altered and overlaid, having been long used
as a sacristy,[266] that it might have been difficult to restore it; but
its position and its antiquity certainly entitled it to a better fate.
ST. PAUL’S.
The church of San Paolo fuori le Mura was almost an exact counterpart of
St. Peter’s both in design and dimensions. The only important variations
were that the transept was made of the same width as the central nave,
or about 80 ft., and that the pillars separating the nave from the
side-aisles were joined by arches instead of by a horizontal architrave.
Both these were undoubted improvements, the first giving space and
dignity to the bema, the latter not only adding height to the order, but
giving it, together with lightness, that apparent strength requisite to
support the high wall placed over the pillars.
[Illustration: 398. View of the Interior of St. Paul’s, at Rome, before
the fire.]
The order too was finer and more important than at St. Peter’s,
twenty-four of the pillars being taken from some temple or building (it
is generally said the mausoleum of Hadrian) of the best age of Rome,
though the remaining sixteen were unfortunately only very bad copies of
them. These pillars are 33 ft. in height, or one-third of the whole
height of the building to the roof. In St. Peter’s they were only a
fourth, and if they had been spaced a little farther apart, and the arch
made more important, the most glaring defect of these buildings would in
a great measure have been avoided.
Long before its destruction by fire in 1822 this church had been so
altered as to lose many of its most striking peculiarities. The bema or
presbytery was divided into two by a longitudinal wall. The greater
number of its clerestory windows were built up, its atrium gone, and
decay and whitewash had done much to efface its beauty, which
nevertheless seems to have struck all travellers with admiration, as
combining in itself the last reminiscence of Pagan Rome with the
earliest forms of the Christian world. It certainly was the most
interesting, if not quite the most beautiful, of the Christian
buildings, of that city.[267]
The third five-aisled basilica, that of St. John Lateran, differs in no
essential respect from those just described except in dimensions; it
covers about 60,000 ft., and consequently is inferior in this respect to
the other two. It has been so completely altered in modern times that
its primitive arrangements can now hardly be discerned, nor can their
effect be judged of, even assuming that they were peculiar to it, which,
however, is by no means certain.
Like the other two, it appears to have been originally erected by
Constantine, who seems especially to have affected this five-aisled
form. The churches which he erected at Jerusalem and Bethlehem both have
this number of aisles. From the similarity which exists in the design of
all these churches we might easily restore this building, if it were
worth while. Its dimensions can easily be traced, but beyond this
nothing remains of the original erection.
Of those with three aisles by far the finest and most beautiful is that
of S. Maria Maggiore, which, notwithstanding the comparative smallness
of its dimensions, is now perhaps the best specimen of its class
remaining. Internally its dimensions are 100 ft. in width by 250 to the
front of the apse; the whole area being about 32,000 ft.: so that it is
little more than half the size of the Lateran church, and between
one-third and one-fourth of that of the other two five-aisled churches.
[Illustration: 399. Plan of S. Maria Maggiore. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Notwithstanding this, there is great beauty in its internal colonnade,
all the pillars of which are of one design, and bear a most pleasing
proportion to the superstructure. The clerestory too is ornamented with
pilasters and panels, making it a part of the general design; and with
the roof, which is panelled with constructive propriety and simplicity
combined with sufficient richness, serves to make up a whole which gives
a far better and more complete idea of what a basilica either was
originally, or at least might have been, than any other church at Rome.
It is true that both the pilasters of the clerestory and the roof are
modern, and in modern times the colonnade has been broken through in two
places; but these defects must be overlooked in judging of the whole.
Another defect is that the side-aisles have been vaulted in modern
times, and in such a manner as to destroy the harmony that should exist
between the different parts of the building. In striving to avoid the
defect of making the superstructure too high in proportion to the
columns, the architect has made the central roof too low either for the
width or length of the main aisle. Still the building, as a whole, is—or
rather was before the completion of the rebuilding of St. Paul’s—the
very best of the older wooden-roofed churches of Christendom, and the
best model from which to study the merits and defects of this style of
architecture.
[Illustration: 400. View of S. Maria Maggiore. (From Gutensohn and
Knapp.)]
[Illustration: 401. Plan of S. Agnes. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 402. Section of S. Agnes. (From Gutensohn and Knapp.)
Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
Another mode of getting over the great defect of high walls over the
pillars was adopted, as in St. Lorenzo and Sta. Agnese, of using a
gallery corresponding with the triforium of Gothic churches. In St.
Lorenzo, where this feature first occurs, it would seem to have been
derived from the Eastern Empire, where the custom of providing galleries
for women had long been established; this is rendered probable by the
fact that the sculpture of the capitals carrying the arches of the
triforium is of pure Byzantine character, and by the adoption of what is
virtually a dosseret,[268] or projecting impost above the capital to
carry the arches, which at their springing are considerably wider and
deeper than the abacus of the capital. According to M. Cattaneo[269] the
earliest part of this church is the Eastern end, built by Constantine
(see plan, Woodcut No. 403), which first consisted of nave, aisles, and
a Western apse. In the Pontificate of Sixtus III. (432-440) an immense
basilica was added on the Western side with an Eastern apse built back
to back with the original apse; and later on, in 578-590, galleries were
added to the Western church by Pope Pelagius II. over the side aisles.
In 1226-1227, when Honorius III. restored the whole building, he removed
the two apses, continued the new arcade up to the early Western wall,
and raised the choir of the early church to its present elevation
(Woodcut No. 404). Both in St. Lorenzo and St. Agnes the galleries may
have been suggested if not required by the peculiarity of the ground,
which was higher on one side than on the other; but whether this was the
true cause of its adoption or not, the effect was most satisfactory, and
had it been persevered in so as to bring the upper colonnade more into
harmony of proportion with the other, it would have been attended with
the happiest results on the style. Whether it was, however, that the
Romans felt the want of the broad plain space for their paintings, or
that they could not bring the upper arches into proportion with the
classical pillars which they made use of, the system was abandoned
almost as soon as adopted, and never came into general use.
[Illustration: 403. Plan of St. Lorenzo.]
It should be observed that this arrangement contained the germs of much
that was afterwards reproduced in Gothic churches. The upper gallery,
after many modifications, at last settled into a triforium, and the
pierced stone slabs in the windows became tracery—but before these were
reached a vaulted roof was introduced, and with it all the features of
the style were to a great extent modified.
[Illustration: 404. Interior of the Basilica of St. Lorenzo (fuori le
Mura).]
The church known as that of Sta. Pudentiana is one of the very oldest
and consequently one of the most interesting of those in Rome. It stands
on substructions of ancient Roman date, which probably formed part of
the Thermæ of Novatus or the house of the Senator Pudens, who is
mentioned by St. Paul at the end of his Second Epistle to Timothy, and
with whom he is traditionally said to have resided during his sojourn in
Rome. The vaults beneath the church certainly formed part of a Roman
mansion, so apparently do those buildings, shown on the plan, and placed
behind and on one side of the sanctuary; but whether these were used for
Christian purposes before the erection of the church in the fourth
century is by no means certain. In plan the church remains in all
probability very much as originally designed, its most striking
peculiarity being the segmental form of the apse, which may possibly
have arisen from some peculiar arrangement of the original building. It
was not, however, found to be pleasing in an architectural point of
view, and was not consequently again employed.
[Illustration: 405. Plan of Sta. Pudentiana. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 406. Section of Sta. Pudentiana. (From Hubsch.[270])
Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
The annexed section probably represents very nearly the original form of
the nave, though it has been so encrusted with modern accretions as to
render it difficult to ascertain what the first form really was. The
shafts of the pillars may have been borrowed from some older edifice,
but the capitals were clearly designed to support arches, and must
therefore be early Christian (fourth century?), and are among the most
elegant and appropriate specimens of the class now extant.
[Illustration: 407. Capital of Sta. Pudentiana. (From Hubsch.)]
In some instances, as in San Clemente, above alluded to, in San Pietro
in Vincula, and Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, the colonnade is divided into
spaces of three or four intercolumniations by piers of solid masonry,
which give great apparent solidity and strength to the building, but at
the expense of breaking it up into compartments more than is agreeable,
and these destroy that beauty of perspective so pleasing in a continuous
colonnade. This defect seems to have been felt in the Santa Praxede,
where three of these piers are introduced in the length of the
nave,[271] and support each a bold arch thrown across the central aisle.
The effect of this might have been most happy, as at San Miniato, near
Florence; but it has been so clumsily managed in the Roman example, as
to be most destructive of all beauty of proportion.
[Illustration: 408. Half Section, half Elevation, of the Church of San
Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane. (From Gutensohn and Knapp.) Scale 50 ft. to 1
in.]
Some of the principal beauties as well as some of the most remarkable
defects of these basilican churches arise from the employment of columns
torn from ancient temples: where this has been done, the beauty of the
marble, and the exquisite sculpture of the capitals and friezes, give a
richness and elegance to the whole that go far to redeem or to hide the
rudeness of the building in which they are encased. But, on the other
hand, the discrepancy between the pillars—Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
columns being sometimes used side by side—destroys all uniformity, and
the fragmentary character of the entablatures they support is still more
prejudicial to the continuity of the perspective, which should be the
greatest charm of these churches. By degrees, the fertile quarries of
ancient Rome seem to have become entirely exhausted; and as the example
of St. Paul’s proves, the Romans in the fourth century were incapable of
manufacturing even a bad imitation, and were at last forced to adopt
some new plan of supporting their arcades. The church of SS. Nereo ed
Achilleo is, perhaps, the most elegant example of this class, the piers
being light octagons; but the most characteristic, as well as the most
original, is the San Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane, shown in section and
elevation in Woodcut No. 408. It so far deviates from the usual
basilican arrangements as to suggest a later date. It has the same
defect as all the rest—its pier arches being too low, and for which
there is no excuse here—but both internally and externally it shows a
uniformity of design and a desire to make every part ornamental that
produces a very pleasing effect, notwithstanding that the whole is
merely of brick, and that ornament is so sparingly applied as barely to
prevent the building sinking into the class of mere utilitarian
erections.
Among the most pleasing architectural features, if they may be so
called, of these churches, are the mosaic pavements that adorn the
greater number. These were always original, being designed for the
buildings in which they are used, and following the arrangement of the
architecture surrounding them. The patterns too are always elegant, and
appropriate to the purpose; and as the colours are in like manner
generally harmoniously blended, they form not only a most appropriate
but most beautiful basement to the architecture.
A still more important feature was the great mosaic picture that always
adorned the semi-dome of the apse, representing most generally the
Saviour seated in glory surrounded by saints, or else some scene from
the life of the holy personage to whom the church was dedicated.
These mosaics were generally continued down to nearly the level of the
altar, and along the whole of the inner wall of the sanctuary in which
the apse was situated, and as far as the triumphal arch which separated
the nave from the sanctuary, at which point the mosaic blended with the
frescoes that adorned the upper walls of the central nave above the
arcades. All this made up an extent of polychromatic decoration which in
those dark ages, when few could read, the designers of these buildings
seem to have considered as virtually of more importance than the
architectural work to which it was attached. Any attempt to judge of the
one without taking into consideration the other, would be forming an
opinion on hearing but half the evidence; but taken in conjunction, the
paintings go far to explain, and also to redeem, many points in which
the architecture is most open to criticism.
RAVENNA.
During the whole period of the development of early Christian
architecture in Rome, the city of Ravenna, owing to her close connection
with the Eastern empire, almost rivalled in importance the old capital
of the world, and her churches were consequently hardly less important
either in number or in richness than those we have just been describing.
It is true she had none so large as the great metropolitan basilicas of
St. Peter and St. Paul. The one five-aisled church she possessed—the
cathedral—has been entirely destroyed, to make way for a very
contemptible modern erection. From the plans, however, which we possess
of it, it seems to have differed very considerably from the Roman
examples, most especially in having no trace of a transept, the building
being a perfectly regular parallelogram, half as long again as its
breadth, and with merely one great apse added at the end of the central
nave. Its loss is the more to be regretted, as it was, besides being the
largest, the oldest church in the city, having been erected about the
year 400, by Archbishop Ursus. The baptistery that belonged to it has
been fortunately preserved, and will be described hereafter.
Besides a considerable number of other churches which have either been
lost or destroyed by repair, Ravenna still possesses two first-class
three-aisled basilicas—the San Apollinare Nuovo,[272] originally an
Arian church, built by Theodoric, king of the Goths (A.D. 493-525); and
the S. Apollinare in Classe, at the Port of Ravenna, situated about
three miles from the city, commenced A.D. 538, and dedicated 549 A.D. Of
the two, the first-named is by far the more considerable, being 315 ft.
long by 115 in width externally, while the other only measures 216 ft.
in length by 104. As will be seen by the plan, S. Apollinare in Classe
is a perfectly regular basilica with twelve pillars on each side of the
nave, which is 50 ft. in width. The apse is raised to allow of a crypt
underneath, and externally it is polygonal, like the Byzantine apse.
[Illustration: 409. Plan of St. Apollinare in Classe. Scale 100 ft. to 1
in.]
[Illustration: 410. Arches in Church of San Apollinare Nuovo. (From
Quast.[273])]
The great merit of these two basilicas, as compared with those of Rome,
arises from the circumstance of Ravenna having possessed no ruined
temples whose spoils could be used in the construction of new buildings.
On the other hand the Goths had no architectural forms of their own; the
architects and workmen therefore who were brought over from
Constantinople reproduced the style with which they were best acquainted
in the East, with such alterations in plan as the liturgies of the
church required, such modifications in construction as the materials of
the country necessitated, and such ideas in architectural design as were
suggested by the examples in Rome with which Theodoric was well
acquainted, having not only restored some of the churches there, but
insisted that the primitive style should be adhered to. The simple
basilican form of church with nave, and aisles without galleries over,
and a single apse, was based on numerous examples existing in Rome, to
which source may be ascribed the external blind arcades of the aisle and
nave walls.[274] From Woodcut 410, representing the arches of the nave
of St. Apollinare Nuovo, it will be seen that an elegance of proportion
is revealed and a beauty of design shown in the details of the
capitals[275] and the dosserets which surmount them, which are quite
foreign to any Roman examples. The great triforium frieze above the
arches, and the wall space above them between the clerestory windows,
covered with mosaics, executed 570 A.D. by Greek artists from
Constantinople, suggest a completeness of design which had not been
reached in Rome. All this is still more apparent in Woodcut No. 411,
taken from the arcade where the nave joins the apse in St. Apollinare in
Classe, which shows a further advance in the working out of a new style,
based partially on Roman work, but carried out by Byzantine artists.
[Illustration: 411. Part of Apse in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.
(From Quast.)]
[Illustration: 412. S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna. (From Quast.)]
Externally these buildings appear to have remained to the present hour
almost wholly without architectural embellishment. It was considered
sufficient for ornamental purposes to make the brick arches necessary
for the construction slightly more prominent and important than was
actually required. As if impelled by some feeling of antagonism to the
practice of the heathens, the early Christians seem to have tried to
make the external appearance of their buildings as unlike those of their
predecessors as was possible. Whether this was the cause or not, it is
certain that nothing can well be less ornamental than these exteriors;
and even the _narthex_,[276] which in the Apollinare in Classe afforded
an excellent opportunity for embellishment, could not be less ornamental
if it were the entrance to a barn instead of to a church of such
richness and beauty as this in all its internal arrangements.
VENICE.
The restoration of portions of the Cathedral of St. Mark during the past
twenty years, and the careful examination of various documents in the
archives of that city have led to the discovery that the work attributed
to Doge Pietro Orseolo, 976-78, consisted mainly in the re-construction
of the basilican church erected by the Doge Jean Participazio in 829-32,
and burnt in 976. The acquisition of the relics of St. Mark the
Evangelist, brought from Alexandria in 828 (when the Mohametans pulled
down the church of St. Mark in that town), determined Jean’s brother
Justinian to build a church which should be worthy of their reception.
He died, however, before the work was commenced, but left a large sum of
money for the purpose. This church was built on the old site situated
between the Ducal Palace and the church of St. Theodore, which, up to
that time, had served as the Ducal chapel. The width of the church would
seem to have been the same as that of the present nave and aisles. Its
west end formed part of the existing wall behind the present vestibule,
but some difference of opinion seems to exist as to its eastern end, and
whether it coincided with the actual apses. Though nominally built in
976-78 the decoration of Orseolo’s church was probably carried on in
succeeding years, and much of the sculptural work in the present
building dates from the first half of the 11th century. In 1063, under
the Doge Domenico Contarini, the church of St. Theodore, according to M.
Cattaneo,[277] was pulled down and some of its materials used in the new
cathedral. Portions also of the Ducal Palace were destroyed to give
increased space on the south side for the Transept, the portion known as
the Treasury only being preserved.[278] The record of the new church
states that it was built similar in its artistic construction to that at
Constantinople erected in honour of the twelve apostles.[279] The
arrangement and the design of the church thus extended were probably due
to a Greek architect, though much of the work, according to M. Cattaneo,
was afterwards carried out by a Lombard sculptor, Mazulo, who designed
the atrium and tower of the abbey of Pomposa (about 30 miles from
Venice), where the carving is of the same character or style as that in
St. Mark’s. Internally the church measures 200 ft. east and west, and
164 ft. across the transepts; externally these dimensions are increased
to 260 × 215, and the whole area to about 46,000 square ft., so that
although of respectable dimensions it is by no means a large church. The
central and western dome are 42 ft. in diameter, the other three 33 ft.
only. They are carried on spherical pendentives resting on circular
barrel vaults about 15 ft. wide; a crypt 86 ft. × 74 ft. extends under
the eastern dome and apses, the vault being supported by fifty-six
monolithic columns 5 ft. 6 in. high: the whole height from floor to the
crown of the arch being under 9 ft. The construction of this crypt
probably followed the erection of the church, which was not consecrated
till 1111, when Ordelapo Faliero was Doge. Externally this apse is
polygonal, as in Byzantine churches, the upper storey being set back to
allow of a passage round. The narthex or vestibule in front of the
church, which extends also on north and south of the nave aisles up to
the transepts, and the rooms over the north narthex and over part of the
baptistery, must have followed the erection of the church; in fact, the
principal front could not have been completed without them.
[Illustration: 413. Plan of St. Mark’s, Venice.]
[Illustration: 414. Capital in Apse, St. Mark’s, Venice.]
[Illustration: 415. View of St. Mark’s, Venice. (From Rosengarten.)]
[Illustration: 416. Section of St. Mark’s, Venice. (From ‘Chiesi
Principali di Europa.’)]
Externally the original construction was in brick, with blind arcades,
niches, and a simple brick cornice such as is found in Lombardic work.
It was not till the commencement of the 13th century that the decoration
of the front and sides with marble was undertaken; the arches were
encased with marble slabs carried on ranges of columns, those of the
narthex being placed one above the other. The shafts, capitals and bases
were brought from other buildings, having been imported from Altinum,
Aquileia, Heraclea, Ravenna, and from other places in Dalmatia, Syria,
and the East. It is possible that the porches of the churches of St.
Gilles and of St. Trophime at Arles may have suggested this method of
decoration, of which no prototype exists in the East. The capitals are
of all periods, from the 4th to the 11th centuries, the entablature
blocks and the stylobates being specially worked for the building. The
rose window of the south transept and others of similar style were
inserted about the commencement of the 14th century, the baptistery and
the chapel of St. Isidore[280] being encased with marbles in the middle
of the same century, and the decoration of the upper part of the arches
of the west, towards the end of the 14th century. As will be seen by the
north and south fronts section (Woodcut No. 416) the original brick
domes were surmounted by timber domes covered with lead, and of
considerable height. These were probably added in the middle of the 13th
century.[281] The rood loft dates from the end of the same century. The
earlier mosaics in the domes date from the 12th century, and the marble
casing of the lower portion of the walls and the richly decorated
pavement from the 12th and 13th centuries. The work of decoration was
carried on through succeeding centuries with occasional restorations, so
that the church itself constitutes a museum with almost every phase of
work in mosaic from the 12th to the 18th centuries.
Though from a strictly architectural point of view the disposition of
the design is not equal to those of some of our northern cathedrals
(except perhaps for the greater beauty of Byzantine domical
construction), it is impossible to find fault with plain surfaces when
they are covered with such exquisite gold mosaics as those of St.
Mark’s, or with the want of accentuation in the lines of the roof, when
every part of it is more richly adorned in this manner than any other
church of the Western world. Then too the rood screens, the pulpit, the
pala d’oro and the whole furniture of the choir are so rich, so
venerable, and on the whole so beautiful, and seen in so exquisitely
subdued a light, that it is impossible to deny that it is perhaps the
most impressive interior in Western Europe. St. Front at Périgueux, with
almost identical dimensions and design (Woodcut No. 562), is cold,
scattered, and unmeaning, because but a structural skeleton of St.
Mark’s without its adornments. The interior of a 13th-century Gothic
church is beautiful, even when whitewashed; but these early attempts had
not yet reached that balance between construction and ornament, which is
necessary to real architectural effect.
The same is true of the exterior; if stripped of its ornament and
erected in plain stone it would hardly be tolerable, and the mixture of
florid 14th-century foliage and bad Italian Gothic details with the
older work, would be all but unendurable. But marble, mosaic, sculpture,
and the all-hallowing touch of age and association, disarm the critic,
and force him to worship when his reason tells him he ought to blame.
Much as St. Mark’s must have been admired in the days of its freshness,
the Gothic feeling seems to have been so strong in Northern Italy in the
11th and 12th centuries as to prevent its being used as a model. The one
prominent exception is San Antonio, Padua (1237-1307), which is
evidently a copy of St. Mark’s, but with so much Gothic design mixed up
with it as to spoil both. Length was sought to be obtained by using
seven domes instead of five, and running an aisle round the apse. The
side-aisles were covered with intersecting vaults, and pointed arches
were occasionally introduced when circular would have harmonised better
with the general design.
[Illustration: 417. Plan of St. Antonio, Padua. (From Wiebeking.) Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
Externally the enveloping porch was omitted—not even the Pisan
modification of it introduced, though it might have been employed with
the happiest effect. The consequence of all this jumble is, that San
Antonio is externally one of the most unsatisfactory churches in Europe,
though possessing a quaint Oriental look from the grouping of its dome
with the minaret-like spires which adorn it. The inside is not so bad,
though a roof of only five bays over a quasi-Gothic church, 200 ft. in
length, distorts the proportion, and with the ill-understood details of
the whole, spoils what narrowly escaped being one of the most successful
interiors of that part of Italy.
DALMATIA AND ISTRIA.
Both Dalmatia and Istria formed part of the Gothic kingdom of Theodoric:
we find therefore the same Byzantine influence exerted as in Ravenna; an
influence which increased when the first-named country was retaken by
Justinian in 535, and the second in 539 A.D.
At Parenzo in Istria there is a basilica, built in the year 543 A.D. by
the Bishop Euphrasius, and consequently contemporary with the examples
at Ravenna already described. This church still retains its atrium,
baptistery, and other accompaniments, which those at Ravenna have lost.
It consists of a basilica in three aisles, with an apse at the end of
each, and an atrium in front, beyond which is situated the baptistery;
and in front of this again a tower, though this latter feature seems to
be of more modern date. On one side at the east end is a chapel or
crypt; this, Mr. Jackson[282] suggests, may have been “the martyrium or
confessio of the basilica where the remains of the saintly patrons of
the church were preserved and venerated.” “According to strict rule,”
Mr. Jackson observes, “the confessio should be in a crypt under the
choir as at Aquileja and Zara, but Parenzo lies so low that excavation
would be difficult, and here as in other cases the martyrium may have
been placed in an adjoining building.”[283]
Internally the church is 121 ft. in length by 32 in width, and possesses
all the usual arrangements of a church of that date. The columns are
borrowed from some earlier edifice, but the capitals are all original,
and were carved for the church. They are all of pure Byzantine type, and
are surmounted by that essentially Byzantine feature the dosseret. The
central apse, though circular inside, is polygonal outside, which is
another characteristic of Byzantine work. Like Torcello it has still
preserved its semicircle of marble seats for the clergy, with the
episcopal throne in the middle. Externally the façade retains portions
of the ancient mosaics with which it was decorated, and although
internally the nave has lost its early decorations, the lofty dado of
the apse inlaid with slabs of porphyry and serpentine interspersed with
mosaics of opaque glass, onyx and mother-of-pearl, bears witness to its
original splendour, the cypher of Euphrasius denoting its execution to
be coeval with the building of the church, and therefore some centuries
earlier than the mosaics of the baldachino, which are dated 1277.
[Illustration: 418. Church at Parenzo in Istria. (From Jackson.) Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
We are indebted also to Mr. Jackson for the description of two churches
at Grado: the Duomo and St. Maria delle Grazie; the former a fine
basilican church with nave and aisles and a deep central apse, circular
inside and polygonal externally.[284] The twenty columns of the nave are
all taken from earlier edifices, and of the capitals which surmount them
five are Roman and twelve of pure Byzantine workmanship, based on the
Roman composite capital, but treated in a quite original way. The
capitals are not surmounted by the dosseret, but in the other church of
St. Maria delle Grazie some have the dosseret and others are without it,
though all of the same period. The chief glory of the church, however,
lies in its magnificent marble pavement (measured and illustrated in Mr.
Jackson’s work), the greater portion of which is still preserved. The
church of St. Maria delle Grazie is a small basilican church of six bays
with fragments of similar pavement to those in the Duomo. The apse here
is masked on the exterior by two sacristies on each side which entirely
enclose it; similar examples are found in De Vogüé’s work of “Central
Syria” (Woodcuts Nos. 278, 281, and 299).
[Illustration: 419. Capital of Column at Parenzo.]
The churches of Parenzo and Grado appear to be the only examples
remaining of early Romano-Byzantine work on this side of the Adriatic.
St. Maria de Canneto at Pola, consecrated in 546 A.D., was destroyed in
the 14th and 15th centuries and its materials carried off to Venice for
the adornment of the churches there. As edifices of the age of
Justinian, and as showing the relative position of the various parts
that made up an ecclesiastical establishment in those early times, the
churches of Parenzo and Grado are singularly deserving of the attention
of those to whom the history of art is a matter of interest.
TORCELLO.
The church at Torcello, in the Venetian Lagune, is the last example it
will be necessary to quote in order to make the arrangements of the
early basilicas intelligible. It was originally erected in the seventh
century; of this church, according to M. Cattaneo, the only portion
remaining, if we except a fragment of the ancient baptistery, is the
central apse. In 864, the church would seem to have been reconstructed,
and to this period belong the two side apses, the apsidal crypt with new
windows pierced through the old wall and the external walls: it is
possible that the original nave of the seventh century was retained till
1008, when it was rebuilt by the Doge Pietro Orseolo, on the occasion of
his son being raised to the Bishopric of Torcello. Thirteen of the
capitals of the nave date from this period, one may be earlier, and five
belong to the second half of the 12th century. The whole width of the
church is 71 ft. internally by 125 in length. A screen of six pillars
divides the nave from the sanctuary. Perhaps, however, the most
interesting part of this church is the interior of its apse, which still
retains the bishop’s throne, surrounded by six ranges of seats for his
presbytery, arranged like those of an ancient theatre. It presents one
of the most extensive and best preserved examples of the fittings of the
apse, and gives a better idea of the mode in which the apses of churches
were originally arranged than anything that is to be found in any other
church, either of its age or of an earlier period.[285]
Like Sta. Pudentiana (Woodcut No. 404), this church possesses a small
side chapel, a vestry or sanctuary, on the Gospel side of the altar, and
the remains of the ancient baptistery may still be traced in front of
the west door. This was a square block, externally, measuring 37 ft.
each way; internally an octagon, with the angles cut into hemispherical
niches. A portion of its eastern side only remains, and this is now
hidden behind the modern baptistery, in which, under a board in the
pavement, can be seen the foundations of the second baptistery of the
12th century. In the rear of the church stood the campanile, and across
a narrow passage the conventual buildings; in front of which now stands
the beautiful little church of Sta. Fosca, the whole making up a group
of nearly unrivalled interest considering its small dimensions.
[Illustration: 420. Plan of Church at Torcello. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
(From Cattaneo.)]
Other examples might be quoted differing in some slight respect from
those just given, but the above are probably sufficient to explain the
general arrangements of the early basilican churches and the style of
their architecture, so long as this worked on the old tradition of the
Romano-Byzantine style; in other words, so long as it continued in Italy
to be a distinction from the Roman style without any foreign admixture
beyond that introduced direct from Byzantium. It might be instructive to
speculate on what the style might have become if left alone to develope
itself on its native soil, but it would be extremely difficult to make
the subject clear without a much larger amount of illustration than is
admissible, and which in such a history as this would be out of place.
Simultaneously with the elaboration of the rectangular form of church by
the Italians, the Byzantines were occupied with the same task; but,
being freer from the trammels of tradition and less influenced by
examples, they early arrived at forms much more divergent from those of
the classical period than those of Italy, and their style, reacting on
the Italian, produced that very beautiful combination of which Pisa
Cathedral is a type, and St. Mark’s at Venice an extreme example. This
style generally pervaded the whole south of Italy, with the exception of
Rome; and, from the elements of which it was composed, may fairly be
designated Byzantine Italian.
[Illustration: 421. Apse of Basilica at Torcello.]
While this was going on in the south, the Longobards, and other
Barbarians who invaded the north of Italy, seized on this type and
worked it out in their own fashion. They, however, conceived the desire
to give a more permanent character to their churches by covering them
over with stone vaulted roofs, which led to most important modifications
of the style. It may probably be correct to assert that no
Romano-Byzantine or early Romanesque church has, or ever had, a vaulted
nave. On the other hand, there is hardly a Barbarian church which the
builders did not aspire to vault, though they were frequently unable to
accomplish it. It was this vaulting mania which led to the invention of
compound piers, pointed arches, buttresses, pinnacles, and all the
numerous peculiarities of the Gothic style; and which, reacting on
northern Italy, produced the Ghibelline or Italian-Gothic style.
No exact boundary can be drawn between these two: modifications of style
varied, as Byzantine or Gothic influences ebbed or flowed, during the
Middle Ages. Venice and Pisa, and all Calabria, were generally
influenced by their intercourse with the East, while the whole of the
north of Italy and away from the coast as far down as Sienna and Orvieto
the strong hand of the Teuton made itself felt.
Yet Italy cannot be said to have been successful in either style. Her
superior civilisation enabled her to introduce and use an elegance of
detail unknown north of the Alps; but she did not work out the basilican
type for herself: she left it to others to do that for her, and
consequently never perfectly understood what she undertook, or why it
was done. The result is that, though great elegance is found in parts,
Italy can hardly produce a single church which is satisfactory as a
design; or which would be intelligible without first explaining the
basework of those true styles from which its principal features have
been borrowed.
CHAPTER III.
CIRCULAR CHURCHES.
CONTENTS.
Circular Churches—Tomb of Sta. Costanza—Churches at Perugia, Nocera,
Ravenna, Milan—Secular Buildings.
In addition to the Pagan basilicas and temples, from which the
arrangements of so many of the Christian edifices were obtained, the
tombs of the Romans formed a third type, from which the forms of a very
important class of churches were derived.
The form which these buildings retained, so long as they remained mere
sepulchres appropriated to Pagan uses, has been already described (pp.
342 to 346). That of Cæcilia Metella and those of Augustus and Hadrian
were what would now be called “chambered tumuli;” originally the
sepulchral chamber was infinitesimally small as compared with the mass,
but we find these being gradually enlarged till we approach the age of
Constantine, when, as in the tombs of the Tossia Family, that called the
Tomb of Helena (Woodcut No. 227) and many others of the same age, they
became miniature Pantheons. The central apartment was all in all; the
exterior was not thought of. Still they were appropriated to sepulchral
rites, and these only, so long as they belonged to Pagan Rome. The case
was different when they were erected by the Christians. No association
could be more appropriate than that of these sepulchral edifices, to a
religion nursed in persecution, and the apostles of which had sealed
their faith with their blood as martyrs; and when the Sacrament for the
dying and the burial service were employed, it was in these circular
churches that it was performed. But besides the viaticum for the
departing Christian, the Church provided the admission sacrament of
baptism for those who were entering into communion, and this was, in
early days at least, always performed in a building separate from the
basilica. It would depend on whether marriage was then considered as a
sacrament or a civil contract, whether it was celebrated in the basilica
or the church; but it seems certain that the one was used almost
exclusively as the business place of the community, the other as the
sacramental temple of the sect. This appears always to have been the
case, at least when the two forms existed together, as they almost
always did in the great ecclesiastical establishments of Italy. When the
church was copied from a temple, as in the African examples above
described, it is probable it may have served both purposes. But too
little is known of the architecture of this early age, and its
liturgies, to speak positively on the subject.
The uses and derivation of these three forms of churches are so distinct
that it would be extremely convenient if we could appropriate names to
distinguish them. The first retains most appropriately the name of
basilica, and with sufficient limitation to make it generally
applicable. The word _ecclesia_, or _église_, would equally suffice for
the second but that it is not English, and has been so indiscriminately
applied that it could not now be used in a restricted sense. The word
kirk, or as we soften it into church, would be appropriate to the
third,[286] but again it has been so employed as to be inapplicable. We
therefore content ourselves with employing the words Basilica, Church,
and Round Church, to designate the three, employing some expletive when
any confusion is likely to arise between the first two of the series.
The most interesting feature of the early Romanesque circular buildings
is that they show the same transitional progress from an external to an
internal columnar style of architecture which marked the change from the
Pagan to the Christian form of sacred edifice. It is perhaps not too
much to assert that no ancient classic building of circular form has any
pillars used constructively in its interior.[287] Even the Pantheon,
though 143 ft. 6 in. in diameter, derives no assistance from the pillars
that surround it internally—they are mere decorative features. The same
is true of the last Pagan example we are acquainted with—the temple or
tomb which Diocletian erected in his palace at Spalato (Woodcut No.
194). The pillars do fill up the angles there, but the building would be
stable without them. The Byzantine architects also generally declined to
avail themselves of pillars to support their domes, but the Romanesque
architects used them almost as universally as in their basilicas.
Another very striking peculiarity is the entire abandonment of all
external decoration. Roman circular temples had peristyles, like those
at Tivoli (Woodcut No. 193) and that of Vesta in Rome. Even the Pantheon
is as remarkable for its portico as its dome, so is that known as the
Torre dei Schiavi,[288] but it is only in the very earliest of the
Christian edifices that we find a trace of the portico, and even in them
hardly any attempt at external decoration. The temples of the Christians
were no longer shrines to contain statues and to which worship might be
addressed by people outside, but had become halls to contain the
worshippers themselves while engaged in acts of devotion.
The tomb of the Empress Helena (Woodcut No. 227) is one of the earliest
examples of its class. It has no pillars internally, it is true, but it
likewise has none on the exterior—the transition was not then complete.
The same is the case with the two tombs on the Spina of the Circus of
Nero (Woodcut No. 396). They too were astylar, and their external
appearance was utterly neglected.
[Illustration: 422. Baptistery of Constantine. (From Isabelle.) Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
When from these we turn to the Tomb or Baptistery of Constantine, built
some time afterwards (Woodcut No. 422), we find the roof supported by a
screen of eight columns, two storeys in height, and through all its
alterations can detect the effort to make the interior ornamental. It
has, however, a portico, but this again is practically an interior, both
ends being closed with apsidal terminations, so that it really forms a
second apartment, rather than a portico. In both these respects it is in
advance of the building next to it in age that we know of—the Octagon at
Spalato—which it otherwise very much resembles. The eight internal
pillars instead of being mere ornaments have become essential parts of
the construction, and the external peristyle has disappeared, leaving
only the fragment of a porch.
[Illustration: 423. Plan of the Tomb of Sta. Costanza, Rome. (From
Isabelle, ‘Édifices Circulaires.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
The tomb which the same Emperor erected to contain the remains of his
daughter Constantia, is another example of the same transitional style.
The interior in this instance is vaulted, but so timidly that
twenty-four pillars are employed to sustain a weight for which half that
number would have been amply sufficient. In the square niche opposite
the entrance stood the sarcophagus of the princess, now in the Vatican.
The roof of the aisle is adorned with paintings of the vintage and
scenes of rural life, which, like all those on the tombs of Pagan Rome,
have no reference to the sepulchral uses to which the building was
dedicated. The whole internal diameter of the tomb is 73 ft., that of
the dome 35.
In front of the building is a small crypto-porticus similar in
arrangement to that of her father’s tomb, and beyond this is an oblong
space with circular ends, and surrounded on all sides by arcades; its
dimensions were 535 ft. by 130, and, though so ruined as hardly to allow
of its arrangements being restored, it is interesting as being perhaps
the only instance of the “_forum_,” which it is probable was left before
all tombs in those times, and traces of which may perhaps be found
elsewhere, though as yet they have not been looked for.
[Illustration: 424. Plan of San Stefano Rotondo. (From Gutensohn and
Knapp.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
The only other important circular building within the walls of Rome of
this early age is that known as S. Stefano Rotondo. Though there is
nothing to fix its date with any precision, it is almost certain that it
belongs to the fifth century of the Christian era.[289] It is 210 ft. in
diameter, and its roof was supported by two ranges of columns,
circularly disposed in its interior; and on the first or inner range
rested a horizontal architrave like that of St. Peter’s. In the outer
one the pillars support arches like those of St. Paul’s.[290] All the
pillars are taken from older buildings. The outer aisle was divided into
eight compartments; but in what manner, and for what purpose, it is not
now easy to ascertain, owing to the ruined state of the building, and to
its having been so much and so frequently altered since it was first
erected. Nor can it be determined exactly how it was roofed; though it
is probable that its arrangements were identical with those of the great
five-aisled basilicas, which it closely resembles, except in its
circular shape.
[Illustration: 425. Plan of Sti. Angeli, Perugia. (From Isabelle.) Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
This is more clear in another church of the same age, that of Sti.
Angeli, at Perugia, which is very similar in its disposition. Of this
building a section is here shown, as given by M. Isabelle—perhaps not
quite to be depended upon in every respect, but still affording a very
fair representation of what the arrangements of the circular wooden
roofed churches were. Its dimensions are much less than those of San
Stefano, being only 115 ft. in diameter; but it is more regular, the
greater part of its materials being apparently original, and made for
the place they occupy. In the church of San Stefano, the tomb-shaped
circular form was probably used as symbolical of his martyrdom. That at
Perugia was most likely originally a baptistery, or it may also have
been dedicated to some martyr; but in the heart of Etruria this form may
have been adopted for other reasons, the force of which we are hardly
able at the present day to appreciate, though in all cases locality is
one of the strongest influencing powers in so far as architectural forms
are concerned.
[Illustration: 426. Section of Sti. Angeli, Perugia. (From Isabelle,
‘Édifices Circulaires.’) No scale.]
[Illustration: 427. Plan of Baptistery at Nocera dei Pagani. Double the
usual scale, or 50 ft. to 1 in.]
At Nocera dei Pagani, on the road between Naples and Salerno, there is
an extremely beautiful circular church, built undoubtedly for the
purpose of a baptistery, and very similar in plan and general
arrangement to the tomb of Constantia, now known as the Baptistery of
Sta. Agnese, though somewhat larger being 80 ft. in diameter. Its
principal merit is the form of its dome, which is not only correct in a
scientific point of view, but singularly graceful internally. Externally
this building for the first time introduces us to a peculiarity which
had as much influence on the western styles as any of those pointed out
above. As before observed (p. 540), the early Romanesque architects
never attempted to vault their rectangular buildings, but they did
frequently construct domes over their circular edifices. But here again
they did not make the outside of the dome the outline of their
buildings, as the Romans had always done before the time of Constantine,
and as the Byzantines and Saracens invariably did afterwards; but they
employed their vault only as a ceiling internally, and covered it, as in
this instance, with a false wooden roof externally. It may be difficult
to determine how far this was a judicious innovation; but this at least
is certain, that it had as much influence on the development of the
Gothic style as the vaulting mania itself. In the 10th and 11th
centuries many attempts were made to construct true roofs of stone, but
unsuccessfully; and from various causes, which will be pointed out
hereafter, the idea was abandoned, and the architects were forced to
content themselves with a stone ceiling, covered by a wooden roof,
though this became one of the radical defects of the style, and one of
the principal causes of the decay and destruction of so many beautiful
buildings.
[Illustration: 428. Section of Baptistery at Nocera dei Pagani. (From
Isabelle, ‘Édifices Circulaires.’) No scale.]
RAVENNA.
Ravenna possesses several circular buildings, almost as interesting as
those of the capital; the first being the baptistery of St. John
belonging to the original basilica, and consequently one of the oldest
Christian buildings of the place. Externally it is a plain octagonal
building, 40 ft. in diameter. Internally it still retains its mosaic and
other internal features added in the 5th century, which are singularly
elegant and pleasing. Its design is somewhat like that of the temple at
Spalato, but with arcades substituted everywhere for horizontal
architraves; the century that elapsed between these two epochs having
sufficed to complete the transition between the two styles.
[Illustration: 429. Plan of St. Vitale, Ravenna. (From Isabelle.) Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
Far more interesting than this is the great church of St. Vitale, the
most complicated, and at the same time, perhaps, the most beautiful, of
the circular churches of that age. In design it is nearly identical with
the church of St. Sergius at Constantinople (see Woodcut No. 311), from
which it was undoubtedly copied, and probably by Greek artists from that
town. It was built in the reign of Justinian by St. Ecclesius,
archbishop of the see, and was consecrated in 547, eight years after the
taking of Ravenna by Justinian’s generals. The principal difference of
the plan lies in its being enclosed within an octagon instead of a
square, as in St. Sergius, probably to mask the irregularity of the main
entrance from a street which did not run in the direction of any of the
cardinal points. The recesses are loftier in proportion than those of
St. Sergius, and in the lower storey arcades take the place of beams.
The aisles being covered with timber roofs, it was necessary to raise
the walls of the octagon higher than those of St. Sergius, and small
arches take the place of the usual pendentives: the springing of the
dome, which is 50 ft. in diameter, is on the level of the sill of the
windows the arches of which therefore form penetrations into the dome.
[Illustration: 430. Section of St. Vitale, Ravenna. (From Isabelle.)
Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
The church is built in bricks with thick mortar joints, the dome being
constructed in an ingenious manner with hollow pots fitted the end of
one into the mouth of the other; the lightness of this vault has enabled
the builders to dispense with the immense arches and buttresses found in
St. Sergius and in Sta. Sophia. Similar construction with pots had been
employed in the East for domes and roofs,[291] and they form as
permanent a method as stone itself, in addition to the stability,
facility of construction, and lightness which such an expedient affords.
[Illustration: 431. Capital in St. Vitale, Ravenna.]
Internally a good deal has been done in modern times to destroy the
simplicity of the original effect of the building; but still there is a
pleasing result produced by alternating the piers with circular columns,
and a lightness and elegance about the whole design that render it
unrivalled in the western world among churches of its class. This seems
to have been admitted by its contemporaries as much as it is in modern
times. Charlemagne at all events copied it for his own tomb at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and the architects of many other circular buildings of
that age appear to have derived their inspiration from this one.
[Illustration: 431_a_. Capital in St. Vitale, Ravenna.]
The church of San Lorenzo at Milan, had it not been so much altered in
modern times, would take precedence of San Vitale in almost every
respect. The date of its erection is not known, though it certainly must
be as early as, if not earlier than, the time of Justinian. Down to the
8th century it was the cathedral of the city. It was burnt to the ground
in 1071, and restored in 1119; the dome then erected fell in 1571, on
which it underwent its last transformation from the hands of Martino
Bassi and Pellegrini, who so disfigured its ancient details as to lead
many modern inquirers to doubt whether it was really so old as it was
said to be.
Its plan, however, seems to have remained unchanged, and shows a further
progress towards what afterwards became the Byzantine style than is to
be found either in St. Sergius or in San Vitale. It is in fact the
earliest attempt to amalgamate the circular church with one of a square
shape; and except that the four lateral colonnades are flat segments of
circles, and that there is a little clumsiness in the angles (due
possibly to the additions made in 1119 and 1571, when the plan of the
dome was changed to an octagon, the original dome being probably
circular, and carried on four spherical pendentives), it is one of the
most successful designs handed down from that early age.
The dome as it now stands is octagonal, which the first dome certainly
could not have been. Its diameter is 70 ft., nearly equal to that of the
Minerva Medica, and the whole diameter of the building is internally 142
ft.
[Illustration: 432. Plan of S. Lorenzo at Milan. (From Quast,
‘Altchristlichen,’ &c.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
In front of the church, in the street, is a handsome colonnade of
pillars, borrowed from some ancient temple—it is said from one dedicated
to Hercules; this leads to a square atrium, now wholly deprived of its
lateral arcades; and this again to a façade, which has been strangely
altered in modern times. Opposite this, to the eastward of the church,
is an octagonal building, apparently intended as a tomb-house; and on
the north side a similar one, though smaller. On the south is the
baptistery, about 45 ft. in diameter, approached by a vestibule in the
same manner as that of Constantine at Rome, and as in the tomb of his
daughter Constantia: all these, however, have been so painfully altered,
that little remains besides the bare plan of the building; still there
is enough to show that this is one of the oldest and most interesting of
the Christian churches of Italy.
The building now known as the baptistery at Florence is an octagon, 108
ft. in diameter externally. Like the last-mentioned church, it was
originally the cathedral of the city, and was erected to serve as such
apparently in the time of Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards. If this
was so, it certainly had not originally its present form, and most
probably those columns which now stand ranged round the walls at that
time stood in the centre, as in the Roman examples. If the original roof
was of wood, it was probably in two storeys, like that of the baptistery
of Constantine, or it may have been a dome of more solid materials, like
that of the Sta. Costanza.
At the same time when the new cathedral was built, the older edifice
appears to have been remodelled both internally and externally by
Arnolpho da Lapo, and both its form and decoration so completely
changed, that it must now be considered rather as a building of the 13th
century than of the 6th, in which it seems originally to have been
erected.[292]
[Illustration: 433. Half Section, half Elevation, of the Baptistery at
Novara. (From Osten.) No scale.]
The baptistery of Novara, which may date from the time of Charlemagne,
is interesting in that it contains the germ of those external galleries
under the roof which form not only one of the most common but also one
of the most beautiful features of the later Lombard and Rhenish
churches. From the elevation (Woodcut No. 433) it will easily be seen
what was the motive and use of this arrangement, the first trace of
which dates perhaps as far back as the baptistery of Nocera (Woodcut No.
428); for wherever a wooden roof was placed over a circular vault, it is
evident that the external walls must be carried up higher than the
springing of the arch. But it was by no means necessary that this
additional wall should be so solid as that below it, and it was
necessary to introduce light and air into the space between the stone
and the wooden roofs. Add to this the incongruity of effect in placing a
light tiled wooden roof on a massive solid wall, and it will be evident
that not only did the exigencies of the building, but the true
principles of taste, demand that this part should be made as light as
possible. Such openings as those found in the baptistery at Novara
suggested an expedient which provided for these objects. This was
afterwards carried to a much greater extent. At first, however, it seems
only to have been used under the roofs of the domes with which the
Italians almost universally crowned the intervention of naves and
transepts, and round the semidomes of the apses; but so enamoured did
they afterwards become of this feature, that it is frequently carried
along the sides of the churches under the roof of the nave and of the
aisles, and also—where it is of more questionable taste—under the
sloping naves of the roof of the principal façade.
There is nothing in the Lombardian and Rhenish styles so common or so
beautiful as these galleries, the arcades of which have all the shadow
given by a cornice without its inconvenient projection, while the little
shafts with their elegant capitals and light archivolts have a sparkle
and brilliancy which no cornice ever possessed. Indeed so beautiful are
they, that we are not surprised to find them universally adopted; and
their discontinuance on the introduction of the pointed style was one of
the greatest losses sustained by architectural art in those days. It is
true they would have been quite incompatible with the thin walls and
light piers of pointed architecture, but it may be safely asserted that
no feature which these new styles introduced was equally beautiful with
those galleries which they superseded.
[Illustration: 434. Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. (From Quast.) No
scale.]
There can be little doubt that many other similar buildings belonging to
this age still exist in various parts of Italy; for it is more than
probable that, at a time when the city was not of sufficient importance,
or the congregation so numerous as to require the more extended
accommodation of the basilica, almost all the earlier churches were
circular. They either, however, have perished from lapse of time, or
have been so altered as to be nearly unrecognisable. We here, in
consequence, come again to a break in the chain of our sequence; and
when we again meet with any circular buildings in Italy, their features
are so distinctly Gothic or Byzantine, that they must be classed with
one or other of these modifications. The true Romano-Byzantine style had
nearly come to an end when Alboin the Lombard had made himself master of
the greater part of Italy about the year 575.
Before leaving this branch of the subject there are two small buildings
at Ravenna which it is impossible to pass over, though their direct
bearing on the history of this subject is not so apparent as it is in
the case of other buildings just described. The first and earliest is
the tomb of Galla Placidia (Woodcut No. 302), now known as the church of
SS. Nazario and Celso, and must have been erected before the year 450.
It is singular among all the tombs of that age from the abandonment in
it of the circular for a cruciform plan. Such forms, it is true, are
common in the chambers of tumuli and also among the catacombs, while the
church which Constantine built in Constantinople and dedicated to the
Apostles, meaning it however as a sepulchral church, was something also
on this plan. Notwithstanding, however, these examples, this must be
considered as an exceptional form, though its diminutiveness (it being
only 35 ft. by 30 internally) might perhaps account for any caprice. Its
great interest to us consists in its retaining not only its primitive
architectural form (which is that of a dome carried on pendentives, and
one of the few instances in which both dome and pendentives form part of
one sphere), but its polychromatic decorations nearly in their original
state of completeness (Woodcut 302). The three arms of the cross forming
the receptacles for the three sarcophagi is certainly a pleasing
arrangement, but is only practicable on a small scale.
[Illustration: 435. Capital of Pillars forming peristyle round
Theodoric’s Tomb. (From Hubsch.)]
[Illustration: 436. Plan of Tomb of Theodoric. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 437. Elevation of Tomb of Theodoric, Ravenna. (From
Isabelle, ‘Édifices Circulaires.’)]