Aïn Beida in Tunisia. It is oval, and has the same bands of ornament;
round the body are reliefs. On one side is a lamb with a cross above his
back, and on either side four sheep (with tufted tails, a Tunisian
variety) coming towards him from an arched and pillared building. On the
other is the Labarum monogram with ornamental terminations on a hill
from which the four Paradise streams flow; a stag on either side kneels
to drink. On the cover stands a saint, on the four Paradise streams,
between two lighted tapers in candlesticks, holding a crown; whilst the
hand of God holds another over his head. There are no nimbi. The
reliquary was empty and without any compartments. De Rossi pronounced it
to be of the sixth century, or the end of the fifth.
The treasury also contains an oblong fourteenth-century casket and two
Limoges _gemellions_, as well as a good deal of late silver work, and an
interesting altar frontal. The _gemellions_ are champlevé on copper,
with engraved backs showing traces of gilding. A central circle on the
face contains a shield with a rampant lion, enamelled in blue; round it
is a quatrefoil made by four larger circles which overlap at the
reentering angle. The spandril spaces are filled with dragon-like
monsters on a green ground. The ring and the shield show metal. The
quatrefoil is outlined with white, and filled with scrolls and figures
fighting with each other or with beasts. The corner pieces have a little
tower and scrolls, the windows and cornice are red enamel, the ground is
green. The outside edge has a zigzag of blue enamel. The hole through
which the water was poured over the hands has a spout representing an
animal's head. I believe these basins to be the only examples of Limoges
work to be found along the coast.
The altar-frontal is inscribed: "[Symbol: cross]MCCCLXII de Settembrio
in lo tempo del nobele Miser Andrea Contarini Doxe di Vanesia e Miser
Francesco Contarini Conte de' Grado fo fatta questa palla e Donado
Macalorso da Vinesia me fece." It is of silver-gilt, 4 ft. 7 in. high
and 7 ft. 4 in. long, with twenty-one divisions, in three rows of seven
panels, the bars being covered with leaf scrolls and with medallion
half-lengths of Greek saints at the crossings. In the upper row, in the
middle panel, is a half-length "Ecce Homo," right and left are the
symbols of the Evangelists, and the outer corners have the
Annunciation--the Virgin on the right, and the angel on the left. In the
centre of the second row Christ sits in the attitude of blessing, with
raised right hand, and holding an open book in the left. On its pages is
inscribed: "Ego sum lux mundi qui in me crediderit non morietur in
æternum Amen." On the right are SS. John, Paul, and Fortunatus; on the
left, SS. Felix, Peter, and Martha. In the lowest row the centre shows a
chalice with the Host; on the right, SS. Hermagoras, Thecla, and Erasma;
on the left, SS. Dorothea, Euphemia, and another Fortunatus.
The patriarchal seat given by Heraclius to the Patriarch Primigenius was
taken in 1520 to S. Mark's, Venice, where it may still be seen in the
treasury. Pasini says it is certainly of Egyptian manufacture, in proof
of which both the character of the ornaments and tradition are invoked.
The Chronicles of the Acts of S. Mark in Aquileia, which are earlier
than the eleventh century, say that it was covered with ivory plaques,
"utique antiquo," but the large amount of carving upon it leaves little
space for the attachment of further ornament. Its history seems quite
clear. Heraclius brought it from Alexandria to Constantinople about 630,
and between 1520 and 1534 it was behind the high-altar of S. Mark's. In
the latter year it was moved into the baptistery on to the altar, where
it stayed till taken into the treasury.
It is made of Oriental cipollino. The medallion at the top is cemented
on. On it is a crux ansata, with two figures at the sides, both in
front and behind, believed to be the four Evangelists. On the exterior
of the arms are ten lighted tapers, thought to symbolise the ten
churches founded in Africa by SS. Matthew and Mark. Below the medallion
in front is a Lamb on a hill, from which the rivers of Paradise flow,
and on which is either a vine or a fig-tree. On the back are an eagle
and a lion, each with six wings. The background is starred, there are
two palms at the bottom, and a Tree of Life in the space between the
lion's lower wings. Above the eagle's head is a crescent. Beneath the
tapers on the outside is a bull with six wings on a starred background,
and on the other side an angel, also with six wings, with two palms
below, and two little two-winged trumpeting angels in the top corners,
on a similarly starred ground. These three sides have a band of
lattice-work at the base; the front has a panel with zigzag lines. The
inscription on the front has puzzled paleographists. It has been read as
Hebrew and as stating that it is the chair of S. Mark. A hole in the
back and another in the side are thought to have perhaps held the débris
of the wooden chair which he actually used.
Herr Graeven believes that he has identified several plaques of ivory
which belonged to the chair in different museums. They all display the
type of head afterwards used for S. Paul in Western art, which Dr.
Strzygowski has identified as representing S. Mark in Alexandrian
ivories.
The octagonal baptistery, to the north of the cathedral, shows no sign
of its age, which must no doubt be considerable; near to it is the
church of S. Maria delle Grazie, which has fragments of similar paving
to that in the cathedral, including the inscriptions. In the floor in
front of the altar are also several pieces of ninth-century ciborium
heads, and bits of twelfth-century carving. It is possible that the
baptistery once had a canopy such as still exists at Cividale, and that
the fragments here and at the cathedral formed part of it. The nave has
six bays, with five antique columns on each side, of cipollino, granite,
white and black, and white-veined marble. The caps are very varied. Some
are Byzantine of the type of those at S. Apollinare in Classe; two are
truncated reversed pyramids with roughly cut scrolls on the surface, and
one of these has a super-abacus. Two of them are queer, rough things,
with brackets at the angles in place of volutes, and a deep abacus
sloping back, with a cross upon it. The bases of the pillars are boxed
in, as at the cathedral. An antique base serves as support to the
holy-water basin. The floor has been mended with slabs of red and white
marble and tiles, and the mosaic goes on into the rooms which flank the
apse, at the ends of the aisles. This arrangement of the plan is exactly
the same as that in a church at Kanytelides not far from Tarsus, the
plan of which Miss Lowthian Bell gives in her book on Cilicia and
Lycaonia; it also occurs in the church of Bir-Umm-Ali in Tunisia. De
Vogué gives two plans closely resembling it, and Mr. H.C. Butler
describes some very similar plans near Is-Sanemên in the Northern Haurân
(the ancient Ære), which are probably Constantinian. It seems certain
that it is an Oriental importation, especially in connection with the
fact that the free-standing apse, as in the earlier church at Parenzo
and at Salona, occurs quite frequently in Cilicia and Lycaonia, as Miss
Lowthian Bell shows.
Between Grado and Aquileia is a little island with a celebrated church,
S. Maria di Barbana. In the early centuries of the Christian era legend
says that a picture of the Virgin floated hither on a springtide, and
was caught in the branches of a little tree, which lived till the
middle of the nineteenth century when a great storm destroyed it. The
picture and the church which contains it are the object of an annual
pilgrimage on the Feast of the Assumption; people from all around
accompany a sacred picture from Grado to visit it. On this day the
lagoon is alive with numberless craft, the priests' boat leading, with
banners and tapers and fully vested ecclesiastics; and the air resounds
with simple church melodies. At Barbana the Virgin's picture waits on
the pier to greet that from Grado; and report says that it has been
observed to nod at the moment the sister picture reached the shore!
V
GRADO TO TRIESTE
There is a small steamer which plies from Grado to Trieste, going one
day and returning the next, but fine weather is very necessary for that
mode of travel, as the sea can be very rough between Venice and Trieste.
We did not hit the day of its sailing, so retraced our steps to Villa
Vicentina and went _viâ_ Monfalcone and Nabresina. Between these two
places the railway rises steadily, giving fine views over the sea and
plain. Looking forward and back the pale-grey line of the viaducts winds
round and about the slopes like some gigantic snake, or like the
aqueducts of the Campagna of Rome. Here the grey limestone breaks
through the vegetation more and more, for the line is approaching the
lofty stony plateau of the Karst, and enormous heaps of débris
accentuate the position of the numerous quarries. They are very
extensive, going far into the rock, which is also pierced by many great
hollows, like entrances to an unknown under-world. All over Istria these
memorials of sunken river channels occur--a maze of holes and paths, in
which the water is still sinking deeper through the porous stone as
through a sieve. Curious funnel-shaped depressions often occur amid
uniform slopes, several hundred feet across and sometimes 200 ft. deep,
as if worn by ancient whirlpools, and many of the rivers become
subterranean, sometimes coming to the surface again many miles away.
The river Rjeka, for instance, enters into the grottoes of S. Canzian,
near Divaca--a succession of narrow abysses, hollows, pits, waterfalls,
and stalactite grottoes, with pools in them; and other examples will be
noted farther down the coast.
The Castle of Duino has been called "The pearl of the Coastlands." It
stands finely upon its rock, just where the diluvial plain meets the
lime or sandstone formation. In a couple of hundred paces or so the
vegetation changes its character from that of upper Italy to the
softness of the southern islands, the sheltered slope to the sea being
like an evergreen garden. Aloes root in the rocks as at Sorrento, and
even in winter the purple cyclamen may be found in flower. Its name in
antiquity was Castrum Pucinum. Here Augustus had a villa, whence the
best wine for his table was brought. From the line, too, the campanili
of Grado and Aquileia are visible, far away over the plain, dark against
lagoon or sky in the evening, or flashing white in the morning sun.
At Monfalcone we took corner seats in an unoccupied carriage, but while
we were arranging our things an old man, rather infirm, got in and made
me to understand that he wanted mine. German was the language which he
spoke. I thought perhaps I was intruding, though there was nothing on
the seat to show that it was taken, so gave it up. We had two nice
youths, who were talking Italian, at the other end of the compartment,
cadets of some kind in uniform, going home for the Easter holidays. The
old man was very short-sighted and gazed at the landscape through a
little telescope. When we left Nabresina and went the other way to run
down to Trieste, the views changed to the other side of the carriage,
and to my astonishment the selfish old fellow moved across and turned
one of the youths out of his place! to which he submitted quite meekly.
The descent from the high land to the coast level is very fine, the eye
ranging far over the blue water, headland projecting beyond headland,
paler and more diaphanous, till the historic point of Salvore fades into
the distance scarcely distinguishable. Below the blue is stained by the
smoke of steamers and flecked with the many-coloured sails of other
craft, while in the middle-distance populous Trieste stretches round the
curve of the bay, with many vessels at its wharves, and the smoke from
the Lloyd-Arsenal mingling with that from the iron-works at Muggia
beyond S. Servolo across the bay; or, if it should be night, lines of
lights define the long stretch of quays and streets like strings of
pearls, and sparkle up the heights which the houses climb in several
directions. Prosecco is passed, which gives its name to a celebrated
wine much esteemed in Trieste; Miramar, with its memories of the
ill-fated Maximilian of Mexico, who delighted in its beautiful situation
and splendour of appointment; then comes Barcola, where excavations have
proved the existence of Roman villas, which have enriched the museum of
Trieste with many interesting objects; and at last the train slackens
and stops at the west end of the town, in the fine station built with
that disregard for economy of space and lavish expenditure of material
which the Englishman finds remarkable in Continental railway management.
[Illustration: SHIPPING AT TRIESTE: THE CANAL, WITH THE GREEK CHURCH AND
SANT' ANTONIO
_To face page 57_]
Trieste is primarily a modern town, and the people are very proud of the
important buildings which adorn it, as they have every right to be. The
post office, for instance, is palatial, and round and near to the Piazza
Grande are large and showy edifices which include the Town Hall and the
Lloyd Palace, while the Greek church is a fine building in the Byzantine
style, decorated with mosaics, and the church of Sant' Antonio makes
a very effective termination to the Canale Grande. The broad quays are
thronged with people of many nationalities and varied costumes, from the
ships which lie along them flaunting ensigns of all kinds--red and white
crosses, blue, yellow, and black stripes, moons and stars--Italian,
Norwegian, Greek, Turkish, French, and Montenegrin, as well as Istrian
and Dalmatian. The Greek ships generally lie in the Canal, the Norwegian
by the Molo S. Carlo (so called from a warship which was sunk in 1737),
and beyond the health office for the port at the Molo Giuseppino, where
many others also lie, and the various passenger steamers in definite
berths--the big English steamers at the end of the projecting quays.
From a Sicilian ship hundreds of chests of oranges and lemons may be
seen unloading; from a Venetian _trabarcolo_ great heaps of onions and
ropes of garlic; an Istrian boat disgorges a small mountain of green
water-melons; from a Dalmatian cutter barrel after barrel of wine is
rolled out, much of which goes on to Bordeaux (!); and the same from a
Greek schooner near, while its neighbour from the Levant lands grapes
and chests of raisins, and the Norwegian ship brings train oil or wood.
Many Turkish and Albanian costumes lighten up the crowd with their
brilliant colours and quaint shapes, Bosniaks and Montenegrins are
occasionally seen, and a fair number of Morlacchi, though fewer than
lower down the coast. The weather-beaten Chioggian fishermen, too, with
their red caps and waist-scarves, black curly hair and great rings in
their ears, are very picturesque, though less unusual. The Triestines
themselves are abandoning the old costume of the countryman, the
"mandriere," described as consisting of a long waistcoat with great
silver buttons hanging on it, short black hose open at the knee, and a
short black, close-fitting jacket. In summer he wore a broad, flapping
hat; in winter a costly cap of so-called beaver-skin, which he had
probably inherited from his grandfather. The women had broad frocks with
coloured borders, and a short, heavy cloth jacket; and on their heads a
white linen cloth hanging down behind, with costly lace upon it. The
girl of the people, the "sessolotta," and the seamstress, the
"sartorella," both go bareheaded, and are proud of their hair; they are
fond of flowers and songs, and spend much of their time in the open air.
I quote a Gradese song, which is also sung at Trieste, and must be of
some antiquity, since it names the gondola, which is not now seen either
at Grado or Trieste.
Lisetta guarda, bella è la luna
Argento piove sulla laguna,
Non è una nuvola; quieto è il mar--
Lisetta, in gondola ti voi menar?
La bavisella che va soffiando
Con quel bel viso di quando in quando
I biondi boccoli te li fa far--
Lisetta, in gondola ti voi menar?
The markets are rich with colour and well looked after. Officials go
round constantly testing the articles of food sold, while the women (who
are generally the sellers) look on with anxiety. A dozen or more, men
and women, will bring in their wares on a cart, 10 or 15 ft. long, each
putting a hand to the work.
The city existed in antiquity. Strabo knew it as a Carnian market-town.
Various derivations of the Latin name "Tergeste" have been suggested, of
which perhaps the most probable is from the Celtic "twr," water or sea,
and "geste," colony, establishment. The fact that it was the only city
held by the Carni on the sea-coast increases the probability. A Roman
colony was established here in 129 B.C. The amount of tribute paid by
the various cities is an index of their importance; both Pola and
Parenzo paid more than Trieste. The Triestines were enrolled in the
tribe Pupinia. The city was the landing-place for Roman troops, as was
the case in Trajan's campaign against the Dacians. The fulling
establishments of both Trieste and Pola were known far and wide.
The Romans made the hill of S. Giusto the centre of their colony, adding
to the defensive works the temple of the Capitoline divinities,
reconstructed with a magnificence worthy of the increased importance of
the city by Clodius Quirinale, prefect of the fleet of Ravenna. Remains
of it are the seven columns within the campanile (built in 1337 and
restored in 1556), still bearing architrave, frieze, and cornice, and
fragments of architectural carving and inscriptions encrusted in its
walls, or preserved in the civic Museo Lapidario. There was an antique
theatre at Trieste also; its shape only can be traced, though the name
of the street is still "Rena Vecchia."
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, TRIESTE]
S. Hermagoras is said to have planted a church here about 50 A.D., by
means of missionaries sent from Aquileia. S. Giusto, one of the patron
saints of the city, probably died about 303. The other two are S.
Sergio, a soldier, whose halberd still appears in the arms of the town,
and S. Servolo, a pious youth who lived at one time in a grotto not far
from this place, where they both were martyred. There is said to have
been a bishop in the fourth century, but the list of authentic bishops
begins with Frugiferus in the sixth. When Christianity triumphed, a
church was built on the Capitol on the ruins of the ancient temple of
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption.
This was the part to the north of the present church (see plan), now the
nave of the Holy Sacrament, "del Santissimo," in the apse of which are
the mosaics of the twelve Apostles, probably earlier than the sixth
century; while those in the vault, together with the border, are later.
Till some twenty years ago a difference in the level of the floor
between the three columns farthest east on each side (where the pulpit
stands) marked the place of the original choir. The walled-up clerestory
windows of the right side are ancient. The fourteen columns have been
plastered over to make them uniform, but are evidently of different
thicknesses, suggesting the use of older material. The caps are for the
most part rough imitations of Corinthian, and the bases are stilted
Attic in type. Of the baptistery nothing remains but the hexagonal font
of marble in the chapel of S. John the Baptist, where there is also an
ancient well and the apparatus for baptism by ablution, not now used. In
the time of Justinian, the second, smaller, church (probably dedicated
to SS. Giusto and Servolo) was erected at the south side by Bishop
Frugiferus, about 550, as the monogram at the left of the apse shows.
The mosaics in the apse are late Byzantine. Four great columns support a
cupola in front of the presbytery, by means of four round arches,
pendentives, and a drum, round which is an arcade of sixteen stilted
round arches with foliated caps and prominently projecting abaci, which
it is thought may belong to the original building, though the cupola
itself is later. The small apse of the south aisle, with vaulted roof,
also belonged to the first building. In front of the apses is a _solea_
with a wagon vault, except in front of the small aisle apse, where it is
quadripartite. The aisle is raised a step above the nave. The arcades
are uniformly round-arched and stilted, and the caps generally have
super-abaci. The north aisle has pointed arches at intervals and a flat
roof; the nave of the Santissimo also has a flat roof with beams and
brackets. There is a triumphal arch and one blocked window in the apse,
with mosaic on the splay of the jamb.
The mosaic in the semi-dome is probably an eleventh-century restoration
of an older work, itself very carefully restored in 1863. The Virgin,
robed in blue and holding the Divine Child to her bosom, is enthroned
between the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who hold lilies and are
robed in priestly costume. The Child blesses with the right hand in the
Greek fashion. Below, on the wall, are figures of the Apostles, of a
very early date, for SS. Peter and Paul are without their usual
attributes, and the white draperies shaded with pale colours are early
Christian in arrangement. Between the figures are palm-trees and
conventional plant ornaments. The church is very dark, but the details
of the mosaics may be studied in the careful copies in the museum. Above
the altar of S. Giusto, to the right, in the semi-dome, SS. Giusto and
Servolo stand on each side of our Saviour, beneath whose feet are two
monsters, asp and basilisk. The central apse was reconstructed in the
seventeenth century. The main reconstruction took place in the
fourteenth century. The aisle walls of the two churches were demolished,
and a nave built reaching from the pillars of one church to those of the
other, thus uniting them under one roof, the western wall being placed
contiguous to the campanile, and chapels added at each side. The
memorial of the Gens Barbia was sawn in two and used as jambs for the
west door, and inscriptions from the pedestals of statues and classical
ornamental fragments were used in the campanile, both round the openings
and close to the niche which encloses the statue of S. Giusto holding a
model of the cathedral and castle. The consecration took place in 1385,
Bishop Henry of Wildenstein officiating. Below the S. Giusto mosaics are
wall-paintings of the fourteenth century, in niches of a much earlier
date, with slender antique columns of precious marbles; in the centre
the saint stands with a model of the city in his hand--the earliest
record of its appearance extant; the other niches show his sufferings.
In the niche of S. Apollinaris are remains of frescoes of two dates
found in 1892, and thought to belong to the sixth and the tenth
centuries; other remains of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, found
under whitewash, prove that the whole church was ornamented with
painting as the "Acts" relate. When the roof was raised the exterior of
the drum of S. Giusto was enclosed within the church. The trilobate roof
of the nave was mediæval, but has lately been restored. The façade also
was restored in 1843, and the gravestones ranged along its base were
then removed from the floor.
[Illustration: FIGURE OF S. GIUSTO, CAMPANILE OF THE CATHEDRAL, TRIESTE]
In the sacristy is a picture signed Tommaso Giottino, and dated 1313; it
is thought to have belonged to the high-altar. There is a picture by
Benedetto Carpaccio, of the Madonna, between SS. Giusto and Servolo, in
the right-hand portion of the church. The treasury is kept in the chapel
of S. Antonio Abate, to the north of the apse of the Santissimo; it is
closed with a very fine late Renaissance German iron grille, with
elaborate projecting floral bosses. It contains a thirteenth-century
processional cross, with a _repoussé_ Christ on a ground of gilded
silver.