mention of a Catapan in 1163. The title of the supreme officer was
changed to "Rector," and (in 1159) to "Count." Till 1398 he was elected
annually; after that time he bore office for a month. He was required to
be a native of a friendly Dalmatian city, and was elected by the
"arengo" of the nobles. His payment was partly in coin and partly in
kind. No one could ask him to be godfather, nor could others of his
family contract spiritual affinity with any citizen. Neither he nor his
relations could receive gifts, nor go to banquets in or out of the city,
except for marriages, and with permission of the greater council; nor
could he sleep outside the city. He was always followed by a knight and
six squires, clothed at his own expense; and, notwithstanding his
grandeur and power, one would think must have been glad when his term of
office was completed. The council of the "Pregati" consisted of fifteen
members of the Senate, elected annually on S. George's Day. There were
three judges selected by them from the lesser council, which was
composed of six nobles, also elected annually. Till the tenth century
the bishop was elected by the chapter, from that time till the
thirteenth by the clergy and people, after which period the appointment
was made by the Pope. Thefts were punished by fine up to three times the
value of the object stolen, and by prison, beating, branding, and
maiming, following inability to pay. Similar punishments were enacted
for offences against the person; but homicide of a citizen brought the
criminal to the halter.
From Cattaro it is but a short distance to the southern boundary of the
Austrian Empire on the Adriatic. A stone column between Spizza and
Antivari marks the line. Two telegraphic wires are attached to this
stone, one belonging to Austria, and one to Montenegro. The Bay of
Antivari is said to be the most picturesque place on the Albanian coast,
surrounded as it is by lofty mountains, with trees almost hiding the
minarets of the town, while, to the north, Spizza is perched on red
rocks rising steeply from the water. There is a great waterfall, which
appears to fall sheer into the sea, with a mill just at its foot. Budua,
which is fifteen miles from Cattaro, is something like Arbe in
situation, crowning a projecting peninsula, and with grey mountains
towering above it. It was a Roman fortress, known as Buta, and one of
the keys to the interior. It was sacked by Saracen pirates in the ninth
century, and in 1571 the Turks fell on it and burnt it. In 1687 it was
defended against them by a Cornaro, but contains nothing of sufficient
importance to repay the trouble of a visit.
XXV
THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCES OF THE TWO SHORES
Between the Eastern and Western shores of the Adriatic there has been
constant communication, either peaceful or bellicose, from the earliest
times, for the sea was a highway traversed with equal ease by the
enterprising merchant or the daring pirate. While the resulting
influence of one coast on the other was considerable, more distant lands
from which the way was open by the same course can be shown to have also
affected the progress of art and craft on either side of the
sea--Byzantium, North Africa, and the countries between being the
strongest factors. The occurrence of Syrian _motifs_ at Ravenna and
Spalato is frequent, both in ornament and construction; peculiar
expedients which were used in Tunis and other parts of North Africa
appear in Lombard or Comacine work, while the influence of Alexandrian
and Antiochene art on the styles which preceded and prepared the genesis
of Romanesque ornament appears incontestable. The close relations
between the two coasts at the period when they were governed from one
centre, either Eastern or Western, make these influences probable.
Ecclesiastical controversies at times affected portions of both, while
their common Christianity necessarily produced community of interests
and sympathy for the woes which one side or the other suffered from the
incursions of heathen and barbarous hordes. Nor must the commercial
relations be forgotten, by which, in the earlier mediæval period,
objects of luxury, which served as models for the local artists, were
spread to all points of the Mediterranean basin, and at the period of
the Renaissance the manufacture of such objects as the plaquettes of
bronze or lead which appear to have been produced in Italy especially,
with the intention of serving as suggestions for craftsmen who were
deficient in imagination or capacity. History records the assistance
rendered by one shore to the other on many occasions, and the
interference of the stronger and more civilised power in the affairs of
the weaker. To those already cited in the body of the work a few may be
added here. The Liburnians helped Octavius Augustus in the naval battle
of Actium; and, when he became emperor, he did much for Dalmatia, in
return for the assistance rendered. Yet the rebellions continued, mainly
owing to the rapacity of the governors sent from Rome, as is proved by
the answer of Batone to Tiberius, reported by Dion Cassius. He asked the
reason for the frequent rebellions in town and country, and the
implacable hatred which appeared to be nourished against the very name
of Roman. Batone replied: "Because you sent neither shepherds nor dogs
to guard your flock, but wolves." A better régime for the Dalmatians
followed the peace which was made, and from that time onward Dalmatia
furnished many distinguished men, who rose to high office in the empire,
several, indeed, wearing the imperial purple. It is suggested that one
of these, Decius the Illyrian, introduced the use of the dalmatic into
Rome (the common dress in Dalmatia), which was frequently used by the
nobles of the court of Valerian. Lampridius notes that Commodus
sometimes wore it at special solemnities. Clergy and laity wore the same
dress at that time, except for a fringe which distinguished the
sacerdotal vestment. S. Cyprian, who succeeded Donatus, bishop of
Carthage, speaks of its use as an ancient thing, from which it may be
concluded that in the second and third centuries it was accepted as the
Eucharistic vestment in North Africa, or worn by bishops outside the
church. S. Eutychian, Pope in 275, ordered the alternative use of the
dalmatic for clothing the bodies of martyrs with the "colobium" (a long
tunic of crimson silk), which had been in use before; an order reversed
by S. Gregory. It was used at first by the celebrant, but, when the
chasuble came into use in the Roman Church, it became the vestment of
the deacons. S. Symmachus conceded to S. Cæsarius, bishop of Orleans, in
508, as a favour, that his deacons might use the dalmatic, and S.
Gregory granted the same privilege to the archdeacon of the Franks. At a
later period the use was granted to kings for their coronation.
The Byzantines used Istria as a base in the final operations against the
Goths till 555, when they were conquered. This was the period when so
many basilicas were built in that country, in gratitude for the securing
of freedom to the province from the yoke of the Arians, and for the
re-establishment of the "Holy Republic," the inaccurate term which the
Istrians used for the Byzantine Government. The exarchs ruled till 752.
During this period the bonds between Istria and Ravenna were close. It
was a military district under a provincial _magister militum_, directly
subordinate to the exarch of Ravenna, and appointed by him. He was also
charged with the civil administration, and lived at Pola, which was the
capital till the ninth century. Istrians rose to high ecclesiastical
honours in Ravenna, Grado, and Torcello. Justinian granted an appeal
from the provincial judge to the bishop, who had also jurisdiction over
secular and regular clergy, except in criminal cases. The archbishop of
Ravenna had the right of revising the decisions of the judges of Pola,
a right which continued till 1331, when Pola gave herself to Venice, and
probably commenced at the time of Maximian, who was appointed archbishop
by Justinian in 546.
He was a native of Vistro, now Porto Vestre, between Rovigno and Pola,
and must have been a man of resource and great personal influence. The
story runs that he found a treasure when cultivating his field. He sewed
together two skins of a goat into the form of boots, and filled them and
the skin of an ox from the treasure, deciding to take the rest to the
emperor at Constantinople, to whom treasure-trove legally belonged. When
he presented this remainder he was asked how much he had kept for
himself. He replied: "As much as a stomach and a pair of boots could
absorb." The Emperor Justinian interpreted this as meaning that he had
taken as much as he required for food and for the journey, and became
attached to him. Ambassadors arriving from Ravenna to announce the death
of Archbishop Vittore (546), and to ask for the pallium for his
successor, gave Justinian the opportunity of advancing Maximian, whom he
sent to Ravenna with many gifts, including much of the "feudo di S.
Apollinare," lands at Pola, and in its vicinity, which belonged to that
church for centuries. Pope Vigilius was at that time an exile in
Bithynia, and therefore the Ravennese at first refused Maximian, but
changed their minds on learning of his many virtues (among which the
imperial gifts no doubt ranked). His architectural works in Istria were
considerable; and in Ravenna he consecrated the two churches of S.
Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe, built by Julian, the treasurer. In
Istria he founded the monastery of S. Andrea, near Rovigno, and the
church of S. Maria Formosa, or "in Canneto," at Pola (which had property
in the exarchate of Ravenna), a magnificent church, which has been
spoken of in the chapter on Pola. The "feud" consisted of a palace, with
its dependencies, and three towers in the city of Pola, and a quantity
of land in the district. The wood at Vistro where the treasure was found
was also given to S. Apollinare by Maximian. In 1001 Otho II. gave S.
Maria and S. Andrea to the archbishop of Ravenna; afterwards they
belonged to S. Mark's, Venice. A document of 1138 in Ravenna shows Abbot
Paul, of the monastery of Pomposa, asking for himself and his successors
for one hundred years the renting of certain lands from Martin, abbot of
S. Maria in Canneto and of S. Andrea. In 1200 the feud consisted of many
rights of jurisdiction, tithes, and charges, both in the city of Pola,
and in towns in its territory, some of the land having been sold, with
Urban III.'s permission, between 1185 and 1187. There was a chapel of S.
Apollinare and a house with their belongings near the Porta del Duomo,
and three towers, the country possessions being spread over eleven
places. At this time Engelbert III., Count of Görz, stole it, and held
it for some time, notwithstanding an appeal to the Popes Celestine III.
and Innocent III. In 1213 the archbishop granted the feud to a certain
Stefano Segnor, so he must have then regained it. Seven years later
Simeon, archbishop of Ravenna, conceded his lands in Istria to Guido
Michele and his successors, with the obligation to renew the contract
every sixty years, and reserving the right of appeals. The Castropola
bought the feud from the Giroldi about 1300 for 1,800 "lire piccioli."
Aquileia was the most prosperous city of the empire after Rome, having
600,000 inhabitants in the days of its prosperity. The fleet which kept
the capital in communication with the eastern coast of the Adriatic, and
so with Liburnia, Giapidia, Pannonia, and the Levant, had a station
there. Trajan took the division which was called Aquileian or Venetian
from the Pretorian fleet at Ravenna. It had charge of the Upper Adriatic
from Ancona to Zara, and of the shore from the Adige to the Arsa. After
the Greeks lost Ravenna to the Lombards the station of the fleet was
moved to Zara. Shortly before, in 743, the exarchate included the
Dalmatian islands, and also the cities of Zara, Traù, Spalato, and
Ragusa. The Slavs occupied Dalmatia in 640-642. Paulus Diaconus says
that they crossed to Siponto in 649 and sacked several places near. The
annals of Bari (926) speak of the siege and capture of Siponto by a Slav
king, Michael, possibly the husband of Queen Helena, who is named on his
wife's sarcophagus found on the island in the Jader, near Salona, as
described in the chapter on Spalato. In the ninth century the Narentans
helped in driving the Saracens from Monte Gargano.
The bishop of Torcello had possessions in Cittanova and Muggia, which
were confirmed to him in 1177 by Frederick Barbarossa. The see of Grado
had rights and possessions on the islands, and in Istria, at Trieste,
Capodistria, Pirano, Cittanova, Parenzo, Pola, and Castel S. Giorgio,
but the actual power was in the hands of the patriarch of Aquileia, who
several times settled matters with his adversaries by giving them things
which really belonged to Grado. With the increase of the Venetian power
to the point at which the coast-towns were practically forced to yield
themselves to her supremacy, Istria and Dalmatia became pawns in the
political game which was played in Italy, and the reciprocal influences
of the two shores became principally artistic and individual, rather
than corporate or national.
Artists of both shores worked indiscriminately on either side of the
Adriatic, as may be divined from the similarity of style in many of the
buildings and in much of the decorative work, even without the
documentary evidence which is often available. It is to be expected that
between the early basilicas of Ravenna and of Pola there should be a
great resemblance; but at Parenzo, also, there is a likeness to both
those places, and it seems probable that the same school of artists
worked upon the mosaics there and at S. Maria in Cosmedin, Ravenna. The
decoration in _opus sectile_ also has resemblances, but these seem more
probably due to direct Byzantine influence, since, both at S. Sophia,
Constantinople, and S. Demetrius, Salonica, the same form of decoration
occurs; and it is pretty well established that there was a regular
export trade in carved capitals and columns from Constantinople, the
same patterns occurring in many places far apart from each other.
Comacine work is frequently met with all down the eastern coast as far
as Cattaro, as in Lombardy and the Venetian territory. The building at
Ravenna known as the Palace of Theodoric resembles the Porta Aurea,
Spalato, in its decoration of columned niches; and the material of his
mausoleum, Istrian stone, inclines one to look across the sea for the
inspiration of the design (which may possibly be a Gothic imitation of
the mausoleum of Diocletian), though it must be remembered that
Theodoric sent an architect to Rome to study the ancient buildings.
At a later period we have many names of artists who crossed the sea in
one direction or the other. In 1319 Uros II. of Servia sent Abiado di
Dessislavo from Cattaro to make the silver altar at S. Nicola, Bari.
Michelozzo of Florence was at Ragusa in 1463; George of Sebenico was at
Ancona rather earlier; Onofrio de La Cava did work at Ragusa; before his
time, George of Sebenico's friend, Giovanni Dalmatico, was working in
Rome, in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. Bartolommeo da
Mestre was _protomagister_ at Sebenico between 1517 and 1525, and many
artists of different kinds bore the name "Schiavone" in Venice during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, where the chapel of the Illyrian
colony, S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, was decorated by Vittore Carpaccio
with subjects from the life of S. Jerome (a Dalmatian by birth), S.
George, patron of Dalmatia, and S. Trifone, venerated at Cattaro.
Sigismond Malatesta is credited with the design of part of the
fortifications of Ragusa, where artists of many nationalities were
employed, one of the bells bearing the names of two Dutchmen, Willem
Corper Cornelis and Jacob Vocor. The building on the eastern shore which
had the most effect upon the western, and indeed upon the whole of the
Occident, is the Palace of Diocletian, in which, for the first time in
Europe, the arch appears springing directly from the capital without the
interposition of the entablature, a building which was almost certainly
constructed by Syro-Greeks, probably brought by the emperor from
Antioch. All the masons' marks are Greek letters, and many of the
combinations of architectural forms are found in the dead cities of
Central Syria, in buildings dating from the end of the second century.
The method of construction of the domes, the great bearing-arches which
relieve the architrave, the exterior niches which decorate the walls,
and the architrave turned into an archivolt over the tympana of the
pediments all occur at about this period. At Laodicea, Baalbek, Palmyra,
and Petra, _motifs_ which were in use till the end of the Byzantine
period appear. Tesseræ of mosaic have been found in one of the vaults at
Spalato, showing that it played a part in the decoration, as might be
expected in so magnificent a building. Dr. Stmygowski says: "What we
have in Spalato grew in that corner of Central Syria which we call
Hittite, and in the hinterland of Asia Minor, which communicated with
the sea by way of Antioch." In Khorsabad a glazed brick frieze has been
found in which the horizontal member became an arch over the door. The
new thing was the putting it on pillars ranged before the façade, which
he thinks was probably done at Seleucia on the Tigris. The plan of the
palace at Spalato, with projecting towers, and the soldiers' quarters
against the walls, is Syrian, of which examples may be cited at
Kasr-el-Abjad and Deir-el-Khaf (which is dated 306). The colonnaded
streets are a well-known Syrian town feature, and the plan resembles
that of Antioch, as described by the rhetorician Libanios, scarcely
fifty years after the death of Diocletian. Dr. Strzygowski concludes
that the emperor had seen the palace at Antioch, which was commenced by
Gallienus, and possibly was completed. He wished it copied, and
therefore brought over Antiochenes to do it.
There are other Eastern characteristics both here and in other places on
the coast, such as the sheet of lead upon which the bases of columns are
set, as in Byzantine work; the free-standing apse, found at Salona in
two places, and in the earlier church at Parenzo; the plan of S. Maria
delle Grazie, Grado, with the apse in the centre, and the two chambers
flanking it, an arrangement found in a temple of 192 A.D., at Is-Sanamên
in the Northern Hauran, by Mr. H.C. Butler, while the former arrangement
was seen by Miss Lowthian Bell in many ruins in Lycaonia, as has been
already noted.
The Egyptian influence also appears to be made out. Upon heathen tomb
monuments of the second and third centuries at Ghirza in Tripoli are
columns supporting arches cut out of a thin slab, not constructional, an
arrangement just like the Lombard ciborium tops. The connection appears
clear. The ciborium was a tomb generally erected over a martyr's grave
or the relics of a saint to whom the altar was dedicated, and the form
of these tombs appears to have thus been perpetuated. That there were
links between North Africa and the Adriatic towns is suggested by
various facts. Coptic objects have been noted in the treasury at
Spalato, and the patriarchal chair once at Grado has been described.
At Agram a stele is preserved, found at Salona, which is of the shape of
Coptic altars. On it is a representation of Jonah being vomited by the
whale, and a head, with a curious kind of form at the bottom like the
plan of an apse with a rail returned across the entrance. Dr.
Strzygowski gives similarly shaped stelai from Alexandria and Cairo,
with incised awkward scrolls, and some of Arab date. He suggests that
the shape originated with the altars in the apses above the relics of
martyrs, and says that the Salona example (which is of the eighth
century) is the most ancient that he knows, and the only Western
example. The ivory chair of Maximian at Ravenna is another case in
point. Maximian, before he was chosen bishop of Ravenna, had made a
journey in the East, and visited Alexandria. Agnellus gives extracts
from his own account of his visit. Apparently he ordered the chair from
the ivory carvers there after his elevation, for the costume in the
Joseph subjects, and the choice of that history, as well as the
admixture of animal forms in the ornament, point to an Egyptian origin.
It seems probable that Ravenna was the centre from which the influence
spread westwards. There were many Orientals in the city, Syrians being
so numerous that they were able to nominate one of their number for the
episcopal dignity. With the taking of the place by the Lombards the way
was made open for the best craftsmen to migrate to the more important
city of Pavia, the Lombard capital, and so to spread the Oriental
influence farther and farther westward, though of course it also
penetrated France by the ordinary trade routes through Narbonne and
Marseilles. It is a curious fact that the plan of the great Rhenish
churches, with the apses and transepts at each end, is found in North
Africa at a much earlier date, which suggests direct intercourse, of
which no record has survived.
The tracing of the various currents which united to form the full
flowing river of that magnificent style known as Romanesque is a
fascinating subject, but not one to be taken up at the end of a book
which has already run to a considerable length. The fusing of antique
Occidental art with Oriental may be said to have been the principal
factor in its production; and, though the shores of the Adriatic were
not the district in which its greatest triumphs were achieved, it was
here that the fruitful union first took place which at various periods
since has rejuvenated the dulled artistic senses of the Western peoples
with the exciting stimulus of mysticism, of the unfamiliar, of that
charm of colour and gorgeousness of effect, which are characteristic of
the products of the Oriental imagination.
[Illustration: Map]
INDEX
A
Adriatic, Boundaries, 2
" Mountains of the eastern coast, 2
" Physical data, 1-4
Alp, or Mora, 17
Andreaccio Saracenis, 379, 384
Antiquities found at Aquileia, 37, 39;
Cattaro, 379;
Grado, 46;
Ossero, 185;
Pola, 157;
Risano, 371;
Salona and Spalato, 305, 306;
Traù, 266;
Trieste, 62, 64, 66;
Zara, 215, 216
Aquileia, 23
" Antique remains, 25, 36-39
" Baptistery, 36
" Campanile, 35
" Carved work of ninth century in the cathedral, 27, 29
" Carved work of fourteenth century in the cathedral, 31, 32, 33
" Cathedral, 25, 26-34
" Chiesa dei Pagani, 36
" Choir of the cathedral, 33
" Crypt of the cathedral, 31
" Early Renaissance work in the cathedral, 33, 34
" Frescoes of eleventh century in the cathedral, 30
" History, 24, 25, 32
" Mosaics found below pavement in the cathedral, 26, 27
" Museum, 36-39
" Narthex, 35
" Objects from the treasury at Görz, 34, 35
" The patriarchate, 24, 25, 39, 40
Arbe, 192
" Campanile of cathedral, 198
" Cathedral, 194-198
" Chapel of the Campo Santo, 199
" Church of S. Andrea, 198
" Church of S. Giovanni Battista, 199
" Convent of S. Eufemia, 199
" History, 193, 194
" Mediæval houses, 193
" Reliquaries in the cathedral, 195-198
" S. Pietro in Valle, 200
Arca of S. Marcella, Nona, 242
" S. Simeone, Zara, 235
Artistic resemblances in buildings on both shores, 402
Ascrivium (Cattaro), 370
Avar inroads, 189
B
Besca Nova, 176
" Drive to Veglia, 177
Besca Valle, Glagolitic inscription in S. Lucia, 178
Bocche di Cattaro, 369, 372-378
" History, 369-372
Bora, 4
Borgo Erizzo, 243
Brazza, 317, 318
" Knocker on Casa Nisiteo, Bol, 318
" Tintoretto at Bol, 318
Brioni Islands, 131
Bua, 263, 264, 279, 284
Budua, 395
Byzantine capitals in cathedrals: Arbe, 194;
Grado, 44;
Parenzo, 113;
Veglia, 172
Byzantine capitals in S. Maria delle Grazie, Grado, 52
Byzantine civil casket at Capodistria, 92
Byzantine civil casket found at Pirano, 97
C
Canal di Leme, 127, 131, 135
Canal of Fasana, 131
Cannosa, 335
Capodistria, Baptistery, 90
" Byzantine casket, 92
" Castel Leone and wails, 87
" Cathedral, 88
" Cathedral treasury, 91, 92
" Church of S. Anna, 90
" Door-handles of Casa del Bello and Casa Borisi, 91
" Good Friday and other ceremonials, 92, 93
" History, 86
" Knocker on Palazzo Tacco, 91
" Loggia, 91
" Palazzo Comunale, 87, 88
" Piazza da Ponte, 92
" Pictures in the cathedral, 89
Capodistrian craftsmen, 90
Captain of the Pasenatico, 135
Captain's opinion of Morlacchi, 202
Carpaccio, Benedetto's house at Capodistria, 90
" Pictures at Capodistria, 89
Carpaccio, Vittore. _See_ "Craftsmen" and "Pictures"
Carved picture-frames:
Cathedral, Aquileia, by Giovanni Pietro di Udine, 33
Church "alle Dancé," Ragusa, 360, 361
Parish Church, Mezzo, 332
Sacristy of Cathedral, Parenzo, 117
Sacristy of S. Domenico, Ragusa, 350
Sacristy of S. Francesco, Zara, 237
S. Anna, Capodistria, by Vittore da Feltre, 90
S. Maria del Biscione, Mezzo, 331
Castel Abbadessa (Gomilica), 289
" Cambio, 288
" Cega, 290
" Dragazzo, 286
" Nuovo, near Spalato, 287
" Nuovo, in the Bocche, 373
" Papali, 286
" Quarco, 286
" Rosani or Rusinac, 288
" Stafileo, 286
" Sucurac, 289
" " Early church, 289
" Vecchio, 285, 287
" Vitturi, 288
Castropola, destruction of the family, 159