EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
For the first three centuries after the birth of Christ the early
Christians suffered much persecution and martyrdom. The new religion was
ridiculed and despised, and the converts of the new faith were obliged
to hold their meetings and to worship in secret, which they did in the
narrow but extensive catacombs in which they secretly buried their dead.
The catacombs are found chiefly in the neighbourhood of Rome and Naples,
and are cut in the dark soft tufa stone, in the nature of long passages,
winding and doubling in their labyrinthine twistings. Some of these
passages are so narrow as to barely admit of one person to pass in
height or width. On either side of these narrow ways are cut out
openings just large enough for the bodies of deceased persons to be
deposited.
The body of the deceased was thus thrust into the narrow tomb, and with
it was buried a flask of sacred oil. The entrance was then closed with a
stone, on which would be engraved the name or initials of the dead.
Some of the catacombs were hollowed out in places into lofty and
capacious chambers and niches. These were used as chapels for the early
Christian worship, the walls and ceilings of which were decorated with
paintings of a very primitive character.
The more important of these catacombs in which chapel-like rooms are
found are those of S. Calisto, S. Sebastiano, S. Lorenzo, and S. Agnese,
at Rome; and at Naples those of S. Mario della Sanita, S. Gennara de
Poveri, and S. Maria della Vita.
Constantine became Emperor of the Romans (A.D. 312-337), and in the
course of his reign embraced, or professed, Christianity, and proclaimed
it the state religion. After this event freedom was allowed the converts
of the new faith to celebrate their love-feasts in a public and open
manner.
It was found difficult all at once to provide the necessary buildings
for this purpose, and we hear of the heathen temples and great halls of
the Roman baths being used as Christian churches—the Pantheon at Rome
was used for this purpose—but few of these buildings were large enough
or of the right shape to hold large masses of the faithful, and at the
same time to provide for the celebration of the worship by the bishops
and priests in presence of the congregation, besides the objection of
having the odour of heathenism still clinging to them. The supposed
model for the early Christian churches was found in the halls of justice
and commerce of the Roman times. It is doubtful, however, whether the
early Christian architecture owed so much to the basilica form of
justice halls as has been so generally supposed.
The general plan of the basilica churches was rectangular, with a
semicircular portion added to the back, as the plan of the apse; in the
front was the atrium, a free quadrangular fore-court surrounded with
pillars. This was usually roofed on the four sides, with an opening in
the centre, like the atrium of a Roman house.
Next to the atrium was the narthex, or porch, which led to the church
direct. Sometimes there was only the narthex without the atrium.
A central avenue, or nave, with two aisles, and the semicircular apse at
the end of the nave, was the usual interior form of the early basilicas.
The nave was wide and lofty, and was usually divided from the aisles by
two rows of columns, and from the apse by a large semicircular arch.
The capitals of the columns carried the arcaded upper story, in the
walls of which were the windows that lighted the church. In the oldest
type of the basilica there was no window in the apse, so this portion of
the church was bathed in a mysterious twilight, adding a poetic charm to
the gold mosaics with which the roof of the apse was decorated.
Sometimes windows were introduced into the low walls of the aisles; the
aisles were covered with shed-like wooden roofs, which were supported on
trussed framework.
[Illustration: Fig. 331.—Ambo or Pulpit from St. George’s at Salonica.]
Sometimes the trusses were ceiled, and on the ceilings were painted
scriptural subjects. The wall spaces of the second story in the nave
were also occupied with paintings of sacred subjects. The floor of the
apse was raised higher than that of the nave, and was approached by
steps; seats were placed around the wall of the apse for the priests,
and in the centre was the elevated throne for the bishops. A portion of
the nave space was sometimes appropriated for the choir, screened off by
a marble structure, and at either end of the choir were placed the
“ambos” or pulpits (Fig. 331).
The altar was in the centre of the apse, generally over the tomb of a
Christian martyr, and underneath all, or sometimes a portion only of the
church, was the crypt.
The nave usually had three entrance doors, and the aisles one or more
each. As the heathen religions, and consequently the ancient temples,
fell into disuse, there was plenty of building materials ready formed
and dressed, which the architects of the new buildings appropriated for
their own purposes in the erection of the basilicas. This accounts for
the great number of Roman Corinthian and Ionic columns found in the
buildings of the early Christian architecture, and we often find that
when an ancient column was too short, it was simply raised on a higher
base, and if too long it was cut down to fit its new position. It was
generally in the later basilicas that this occurred, as might be
expected, for the earlier basilicas are richer and better decorated in
their beautiful details, seeing that the early Christian builders had
the first choice of the rich ornamental work of architectural sculpture
that had belonged to the ancient Roman temples. The church of S.
Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna may be cited as one of the most finished
and most beautiful of the early basilicas, which was erected with much
of this old material. Although the Christian architects and artists were
slow in producing new forms of plastic art, as long as they could adapt
the existing fragments of architectural sculpture to their uses; on the
other hand, the art of painting and decorating by mosaic pictures on the
great spaces of the walls and ceilings of the basilicas was developed to
a high degree of monumental splendour, and brilliant effects were gained
by the use of gold and bright colours.
Mosaics as wall decoration in the basilicas were suggested by the
paintings in the catacombs. These primitive paintings were borrowed in
their form and essence from ancient mythological works. At first, some
of the earliest efforts at decoration in the catacombs consisted merely
of monograms and symbols, such as the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, and
the initials or monogram of Christ.
[Illustration: Fig. 332.—Painting from the Catacomb of S. Agnese.]
The use of these doubtless arose from the desire to deprecate anything
that savoured of the images of heathendom, but evidently the early
Christians soon arrived at the idea that painting might be admissible in
a church where sculptured images could not be tolerated—the latter
reminding them too much of the sculptured deities of the ancients—and
consequently we find that the painted subjects from the heathen Pantheon
were adapted by the artists who decorated the catacombs, but the figure
of Christ was introduced where formerly a Roman god was the personage,
thereby giving the mythological subject a new Christian meaning. In the
catacombs of S. Agnese Christ is represented as the “Good Shepherd,”
carrying on his shoulders the lamb that had been lost (Fig. 332); and in
the catacombs of S. Calixtus, on a wall painting, he is portrayed under
the type and figure of Orpheus, charming all nature with his music (Fig.
333). In the central octagonal panel he is represented with a harp,
surrounded by the beasts and birds of the field. In the eight
compartments around the central panel, four landscapes alternate with
four figure subjects:—Moses striking water out of the rock, and
opposite, Christ raising Lazarus, who is represented as a mummy; Daniel
in the lions’ den, and opposite this, David with the sling. The heathen
subjects of Cupid and Psyche, and others, have been used to represent
Christian symbols. In sculpture, there are some remains of early
Christian art in which the figures of Christ and his Apostles are
clothed in the dress, and worked somewhat in the spirit, of the antique.
The sarcophagus under the pulpit of S. Ambrogio at Milan is a good
example of this kind of art. Some ivory carvings of this period have
been executed as tablets, with scriptural subjects, after the manner of
the Roman Consular diptychs. These ivory carvings, that exhibit a true
spirit of the antique in their design, are not to be confounded with the
later Byzantine diptychs that were executed in a more archaic style.
[Illustration: Fig. 333.—Wall Painting from the Catacombs of S.
Calixtus.]
During the fifth century, and even in the latter part of the fourth, we
see the more cheerful spirit of the antique character dying out, and the
art of the time exhibits a greater importance and attention which is
given to large masses, while smaller or minor surfaces are left empty,
and decorative detail suppressed. There is an apparent striving to
render the figure of the Redeemer—the chief personage—larger and more
important in the scale of the decoration, and at the same time to give
him more individuality. As the technical qualities of the Christian art
diminished, the majesty and sublimity of the Great Teacher was expressed
in a more spiritual conception of his divinity.
Several examples of decoration illustrating this phase of Christian art
occur in the wall paintings in the catacombs of S. Ponziano at Rome. The
face of Christ in these representations is full of earnest and mild
serenity; the right hand is raised as if in blessing, and the left holds
the book of life.
In the fourth century, mosaic was used in the basilicas as a means of
decorating the apse and walls, as the Romans before had used it in their
floors and dados.
In the hands of the early and inexperienced artists, the character of
the material in mosaic had a great deal to do, but not all, in the
creating of the type of angular and rigid forms of the figures, which
was transmitted to all subsequent Christian mosaics. At the same time
there was the intense desire to make the figures of Christ and of other
sacred personages of a sorrowful and austere character. We can, however,
trace in these figures the magisterial dignity that invests the
sculptured figures of the Emperors and Senators of Roman art.
In Italy, the Christian mosaics assumed more and more a decided breaking
away from the traditions of the antique. Large masses as single figures
were symmetrically arranged, ornamental details were suppressed, and
bands with inscriptions framed the large spaces of the walls and the
apse. The figures were more isolated, attenuated, severe of expression,
and leaving much to be desired in their anatomical construction or in
the natural movement of the body; but all this tended to give them that
expression of devotional simplicity aimed for by those early mystics,
who only looked on the world as a “vale of tears.” In the vaulted roof
of the funeral chapel erected to the memory of the daughter of
Constantine at Rome—Sta. Costanza—some of the earliest mosaic work is to
be found, consisting of an antique treatment of the vine and tendrils
used in a symbolic sense; and in another chapel, that of the Empress
Galla Placida, at Ravenna, similar work is seen, mixed with symbolic
signs, as the hart—"panting for water brooks"—a symbol of the soul
thirsting for salvation. This chapel was erected A.D. 440.
After this time, and towards the end of the fifth century, we find the
characteristic features of Christian art more insisted in: such as the
colossal portraits and figures of Christ, the isolation of single
figures, the symmetrical grouping of crowds of smaller figures, and of
the representatives of the angel, bull, eagle, and lion, as winged
symbols of the Evangelists, all rendered the more impressive by the
architectural spacing, and the plain blue ground which surrounded most
of the figures. Two churches may be mentioned that contained fine
examples of the above type of early Christian mosaics; one is the great
basilica of St. Paul, without the walls at Rome, built under Theodosius
and Honorius about A.D. 386, and the other that of St. Cosmo e Damiano
in Rome. The great mosaics in the apse of the latter church were
executed between A.D. 526 and 530 by Pope Felix IV. The floors of these
churches are made of what is known as “Opus Alexandrinum,” the finest
and grandest floor decoration that exists (Fig. 334). Circular slabs of
porphyry and serpentine marble sawn in disks from antique columns are
laid down, and twisted interlacings and rings surround them as bands
composed of triangular bits of white, black, or coloured marble, forming
simple and effective patterns in a quiet harmony of colour. Some of this
work may be seen in Westminster Abbey.
[Illustration: Fig. 334.—Opus Alexandrinum Pavement, San Marco, Rome.]
In the early part of the sixth century Christian art in Italy was at a
low ebb, as by this time nearly all the antique remains and culture had
been used up; but fortunately, the Eastern and Western Churches were not
as yet divided in doctrine, and a fresh life had been imparted to
Italian art from the Byzantine culture of the Eastern Empire.
Besides the basilica form of building, another antique form of early
Christian architecture was developed, called a “baptistery,” which
generally took the form of a detached building, with a circular or
polygonal plan. In some cases the baptistery adjoins the atrium of the
basilica, but often is a detached building of considerable importance.
The structure is supposed to have been suggested by the circular portion
of the Roman baths, and consists of a circular row of columns supporting
the upper structure; the central portion is surrounded by a low
cloister-like aisle, and the fountain is in the middle of the building.
The circular building known as the Church of Santa Costanza in Rome—the
funeral chapel before mentioned—the octagonal baptistery of Constantine,
and the fine baptistery at Ravenna, are examples of this kind of
building. Another beautiful example is the octagonal baptistery of the
Lateran, belonging to the fifth century; it has eight large antique
columns, which support an architrave, upon which rest another series of
eight smaller columns, carrying another architrave and the domed roof.
The whole building has a pleasant and agreeable effect of extreme
airiness.
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
The ancient town of Byzantium, the modern Constantinople, was mostly in
ruins when Constantine the Great selected it for the new capital of the
Roman Empire. He rebuilt the old town and named it after himself, and in
the year A.D. 330 the inauguration of the new capital was celebrated.
Later on, under Theodosius, the Roman Empire was divided, and
Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern portion.
It was the great connecting-point between the countries of the East and
the West. The inhabitants of the new city being mostly Greeks, the
native artists and architects employed by Constantine imparted a decided
Grecian character to the ornament and decoration, especially of the
churches and other buildings that were erected by this emperor.
The occasion of the new political change and the rapid spread of the
Christian religion served to give a great impetus to the building and
lavish decoration of churches and public edifices. Although the new
architecture was founded on the Roman originals, yet in the hands of the
Greeks both architecture and ornament assumed a new and original
character. From the time of the founding of Constantinople to the date
of Justinian’s reign (A.D. 527-565), when the great church of Santa
Sophia—holy wisdom—was built, on the ruins of an older church that was
said to have been burnt down, we can guess that it must have been a time
of experiments and developments from the basilica type of building to
the well-defined domed style of architecture known as the Byzantine.
The timber-roofed and vaulted style of structure now gave place to the
dome, which resulted also in a change of the plan to the square form,
instead of the rectangle. During the two hundred years previous to the
building of Santa Sophia, the problem of dome construction, with others
of a difficult nature in building, had been successfully solved by the
Greek architects of the Eastern Empire. Justinian employed the Greeks,
Anthemius of Thralles and Isidorus of Miletus, as the architects of
Santa Sophia, and they succeeded in erecting a marvellous structure that
may justly be reckoned as one of the wonders of the world.
Four vast piers, arranged on a square plan, support four solid arches of
masonry, semicircular in shape, and 100 feet span each. The four
triangular spaces at the corners and the spaces formed by the angles,
the semicircular arches and portions of the ring of the dome, are filled
with “pendentives,” which may be described as continuations of the dome.
These pendentives partly support the dome, and the other points of
support are on the backs of the great arches. The four pendentives meet
in the circular ring from which the dome springs. The dome is 46 feet in
height from the level of its base, and 107 feet in diameter, and is
rather flattish in shape.
On the side of the dome, east and west, are two half-domes, which crown
apsidal walls. Other small apses are domed over at lower levels, and
vaulted aisles of two stories run round the higher portions of the
building, the whole forming almost a cube-like shape.
After Constantinople was captured by the Turks (A.D. 1453), Santa Sophia
was converted into a mosque and four minarets, or Moslem towers, were
added to its outer angles. The interior of this church, besides the
stupendous effect of its unrivalled architectural construction, has its
added beauties and splendour in its inlaid marbles, its richly carved
cornices and arcades (Fig. 335), and its vaults and domes glittering
with gold mosaics of cherubim, and dignified though gaunt and archaic
figures. In the capitals of the columns was used the sharply-edged and
undercut acanthus foliage, more in accordance with the old Greek type
than the Roman, but have a distinctly Byzantine character of its own.
Sacred signs, emblems, and birds were often introduced into the
capitals; the general shape of the latter was a cubical form, the four
faces slanting inwards from above, this form giving a decided appearance
of great supporting and sustaining power (Figs. 336 and 338). Sometimes
they were bossed out, and often contained the elements of the Ionic and
Corinthian orders (Figs. 336, 337, 339). The wedge-shaped portion on the
top of the capital is an ugly but distinctive feature of the Byzantine
style (Fig. 338).
[Illustration: Fig. 335.—Cornice from Santa Sophia.]
The splendour and magnificence of the decoration in Byzantine churches
is proverbial: the columns were often of porphyry and serpentine marble,
and the supports to the altar canopy (_baldacchino_), the screen
(_iconostasis_) and the pulpit (_ambo_) were often inlaid with gold,
silver, and precious stones. The altar itself was a gorgeous piece of
workmanship, resplendent with gold and enamels, decorated with hanging
lamps, vases, and candlesticks, all wrought in precious metal work,
though the actual design and workmanship was rough and less refined than
antique work.
[Illustration: Fig. 336.—Capital from Santa Sophia, showing the
bossing-out of the ornament.]
[Illustration: Fig. 337.—Capital from St. Demetrius at Salonica.]
[Illustration: Fig. 338.—Capital from St. Demetrius.]
The floor mosaics had patterns consisting of the cross, the circle, and
the cube, with interlacing lines, the ornamental forms here as elsewhere
being of a symbolical character. Reliquaries, shrines, and chalices in
gold, and enamels, crosses, and other accessories of the altar, and
sculptured ivories of a devotional character, of Byzantine workmanship,
were made in great abundance. The larger churches especially, such as
Santa Sophia, and St. Mark’s at Venice, possessed great quantities of
these treasures. Sculpture was subordinate to painting as plastic art
was not encouraged, because of the dislike to images shown by the early
Christians, and so painting which led to the mosaic picture, which in
its turn led to enamelling on metals, was favoured to a great extent by
the Byzantine artists. Even flat bands with inscriptions and ornament
were used instead of mouldings in relief.
[Illustration: Fig. 339.—Byzantine Capital from Santa Sophia, showing
the bossing-out of the ornament.]
The city of Ravenna being situated between Constantinople and Rome
possessed some remarkable buildings, that do not belong exactly to the
Eastern or Western type of architecture; but on the other hand have
strongly marked influences of each.
[Illustration: Fig. 340.—St. Nicholas at Moscow.]
The most important is that of the Church of St. Vitale; it is octagonal
in plan, and is like Santa Sophia in having a principal central dome,
half-domes, and vaulted aisles. It is resplendent in elaborate
decoration and carvings. The cathedral of St. Mark’s at Venice is so
well known from illustrations and photographs that it requires very
little description. It was built in the years A.D. 977-1071, and its
plans are said to have been drawn by Greek architects at Constantinople.
Originally it possessed all the features of a genuine Byzantine edifice,
but has been altered externally, and in some places internally in both
Gothic and Renaissance periods. The Byzantine domes have had bulbous
coverings placed over them in later times. St. Mark’s like Santa Sophia
is square in plan, but has five principal domes, one in the centre, and
one at each angle or end of the Greek cross plan. The aisles, with their
series of low-level dome roofs, make the whole building nearly square.
The surrounding countries of Bulgaria, Servia, Roumania, Armenia, and
Russia, which embraced the Christian religion of the Greek Church,
possess examples of Byzantine architecture. The Russian type in its
later developments has distinctive characteristics of its own,
particularly in the use and shape of the dome. Russian churches consist
usually of a storied tower on which is placed five small domes of a
bulbous shape; these are built on the tops of elongated drums. The
bulbous tops of the domes grow into points, on which are placed tall
crosses. These and other fantastic elements are derived from the timber
edifices of Persia and other Asiatic countries (Fig. 340).