ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
_Analysis._
_The Plan_ (_or floor-disposition_).--The plans of Roman buildings are
striking from their variety and the vast extent which in some cases
they display, as well as from a certain freedom, mastery, and facility
of handling which are not seen in earlier work. Their variety is
partly due to the very various purposes which the buildings of the
Romans were designed to serve: these comprised all to which Greek
buildings had been appropriated, and many others, the product of the
complex and luxurious civilisation of the Empire. But independent of
this circumstance, the employment of such various forms in the plans
of buildings as the ellipse, the circle, and the octagon, and their
facile use, seem to denote a people who could build rapidly, and who
looked carefully to the general masses and outlines of what they
built, however carelessly they handled the minute details. The freedom
with which these new forms were employed arises partly also from the
fact that the Romans were in possession of a system of construction
which rendered them practically independent of most of the
restrictions which had fettered the genius of the Egyptians,
Assyrians, and Greeks. Their vaulted roofs could be supported by a
comparatively small number of piers of great solidity, placed far
apart; and accordingly in the great halls of the Thermae and elsewhere
we find planning in which, a few stable points of support being
secured, the outline of the spaces between them is varied at the
pleasure of the architect in the most picturesque and pleasing manner.
The actual floor received a good deal of attention from the Romans. It
was generally covered with tesselated pavement, often with mosaic, and
its treatment entered into the scheme of the design for most
interiors.
_The Walls._
The construction of these was essentially different from that adopted
by most earlier nations. The Romans rather avoided than cultivated the
use of large blocks of stone; they invented methods by which very
small materials could be aggregated together into massive and solid
walls. They used mortar of great cementing power, so much so that many
specimens of Roman walling exist in this country as well as in Italy
or France, where the mortar is as hard as the stones which it unites.
They also employed a system of binding together the small materials so
employed by introducing, at short distances apart, courses of flat
stones or bricks, called "bond courses," and they further fortified
such walls by bands of flat materials placed edgeways after the manner
popularly known as herring-bone work. The result of these methods of
construction was that the Roman architect could build anywhere, no
matter how unpromising the materials which the locality afforded; that
he could put the walls of his building together without its being
requisite to employ exclusively the skilled labour of the mason, and
that both time and expense were thus saved. This economy and speed
were not pushed so far as to render the work anything but durable;
they had, however, a bad effect in another direction, for these rough
rubble walls were habitually encased in some more sightly material, in
order to make them look as though they were something finer than they
really were; and accordingly, the exterior was often faced with a thin
skin of masonry, and not infrequently plastered. The interior was also
almost invariably plastered, but to this little exception can be
taken. This casing of the exteriors was, however, the beginning of a
system of what may be called false architecture, and one which led to
much that was degrading to the art.
The walls were in many cases, it has been already observed, gathered
into strong masses, such as it is customary to term piers, in order to
support the vaulted roofs at the proper points. They were often
carried to a much greater height than in Greek buildings, and they
played altogether a far more important part in the design of Roman
buildings than they had done in that of the Greeks.
_The Roofs._
As has been already stated, the Romans, in their possession of a new
system of construction, enjoyed a degree of freedom which was unknown
before. This system was based upon the use of the arch, and arched
roofs and domes, and it enabled the Romans to produce interiors
unapproached before for size and splendour, and such as have hardly
been surpassed since, except by the vaulted churches of the Middle
Ages,--buildings which are themselves descended from Roman originals.
The art of vaulting was, in short, the key to the whole system of
Roman architecture, just as the Orders were to that of the Greeks.
The well-known arch over the Cloaca Maxima at Rome (Fig. 123, p. 142)
may be taken as an illustration of the most ancient and most simple
kind of vault, the one which goes by the significant name of "barrel
or waggon-head vault." This is simply a continuous arched vault
springing from the top of two parallel walls; in fact, like the arch
of a railway tunnel. Such a vault may be constructed of very great
span, and affords a means of putting a permanent roof over a floor the
outline of which is a parallelogram; but it is heavy and uninteresting
in appearance. It was soon found to be possible to introduce a cross
vault running at right angles to the original one; and where such an
intersecting vault occurs the side walls of the original vault may be
dispensed with, for so much of their length as the newly-added vault
spans.
The next step was to introduce a succession of such cross vaults close
to one another, so that large portions of the original main wall might
be dispensed with. What remained of the side walls was now only a
series of oblong masses or piers, suitably fortified so as to carry
the great weight resting upon them, but leaving the architect free to
occupy the space between them as his fancy might dictate, or to leave
it quite open. In this way were constructed the great halls of the
Thermae; and the finest halls of modern classic architecture--such, for
example, as the Madeleine at Paris, or St. George's Hall at
Liverpool--are only a reproduction of the splendid structures which
such a system of vaulting rendered possible.
When the floor of the space to be vaulted was circular, the result of
covering it with an arched roof was the dome--a familiar feature of
Roman architecture, and the noblest of all forms of roof. We possess
in the dome of the Pantheon a specimen, in fairly good preservation,
of this kind of roof on the grandest scale.
We shall find that in later ages the dome and the vault were adopted
by the Eastern and the Western schools of Christian architecture
respectively. In Rome we have the origin of both.
_The Openings._
These were both square-headed and arched; but the arched ones occur
far more frequently than the others, and, when occasion required,
could be far bolder. The openings became of much greater importance
than in earlier styles, and soon disputed with the columns the dignity
of being the feature of the building: this eventually led, as will be
related under the next head, to various devices for the fusion of the
two.
The adoption of the arch by the Romans led to a great modification in
classic architecture; for its influence was to be traced in every part
of the structure where an opening of any sort had to be spanned.
Formerly the width of such openings was very limited, owing to the
difficulty of obtaining lintels of great length. Now their width and
height were pure matters of choice, and doorways, windows, and arcades
naturally became very prominent, and were often very spacious.
_The Columns._
These necessarily took an altered place as soon as buildings were
carried to such a height that one order could not, as in Greek
temples, occupy the whole space from pavement to roof. The Greek
orders were modified by the Romans in order to fit these altered
circumstances, but columnar construction was by no means disused when
the arch came to play so important a part in building. The Roman Doric
order, and a very simple variety of it called Tuscan, were but rarely
used. The chief alteration from the Greek Doric, in addition to a
general degradation of all the mouldings and proportions, was the
addition of a base, which sometimes consists of a square plinth and
large torus, sometimes is a slightly modified Attic base; the capital
has a small moulding round the top of the abacus, and under the ovolo
are two or three small fillets with a necking below; the shaft was
from 6 to 7 diameters in height, and was not fluted; the frieze was
ornamented with triglyphs, and the metopes between these were
frequently enriched with sculptured heads of bulls: the metopes were
exact squares, and the triglyphs at the angles of buildings were
placed precisely over the centre of the column.
The Ionic order was but slightly modified by the Romans, the chief
alteration being made in the capital. Instead of forming the angular
volutes so that they exhibited a flat surface on the two opposite
sides of the capital, the Romans appear to have desired to make the
latter uniform on all the four sides; they therefore made the sides of
the abacus concave on plan, and arranged the volutes so that they
seemed to spring out of the mouldings under the abacus and faced
anglewise. The capital altogether seems compressed and crowded up,
and by no means elegant; in fact, both this and the Doric order were
decidedly deteriorations from the fine forms of Greek architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--ROMAN CORINTHIAN CAPITAL AND BASE FROM THE
TEMPLE OF VESTA AT TIVOLI.]
[Illustration: FIG. 145a.--THE ROMAN COMPOSITE CAPITAL.]
The Corinthian order was much more in accordance with the later Roman
taste for magnificence and display, and hence we find its use very
general both in Rome and in other cities of the Empire. Its
proportions did not greatly differ from those of the Greek Corinthian,
but the mouldings in general were more elaborate. Numerous variations
of the capital exist (Figs. 145, 145a), but the principal one was an
amalgamation of the large Ionic volutes in the upper with the acanthus
leaves of the lower portion of the capital: this is known as the
Composite order, and the capital thus treated has a strength and
vigour which was wanting to the Greek order (see Fig. 145a). The
shafts of the columns were more often fluted than not, though
sometimes the lower portion was left plain and the upper only fluted.
The Attic base was generally used, but an example has been found of an
adaptation of the graceful Persepolitan base to the Corinthian column.
This was the happiest innovation that the Romans made; it seems,
however, to have been but an individual attempt, and, as it was
introduced very shortly before the fall of the Empire, the idea was
not worked out.
The orders thus changed were employed for the most part as mere
decorative additions to the walls. In many cases they did not even
carry the eaves of the roof, as they always did in a Greek temple; and
it was not uncommon for two, three, or more orders to be used one
above another, marking the different stories of a lofty building.
The columns, or pilasters which took their place, being reduced to the
humble function of ornaments added to the wall of a building, it
became very usual to combine them with arched openings, and to put an
arch in the interspace between two columns, or, in other words, to add
a column to the pier between two arches (Fig. 146). These arched
openings being often wide, a good deal of disproportion between the
height of the columns and their distance apart was liable to occur;
and, partly to correct this, the column was often mounted upon a
pedestal, to which the name of "stylobate" has been given.
It was also sometimes customary to place above the order, or the
highest order where more than one was employed, what was termed an
attic--a low story ornamented with piers or pilasters. The exterior of
the Colosseum (Fig. 5), the triumphal arches of Constantine (Fig. 139)
and Titus, and the fragments of the upper part of the Forum of Nerva
(Fig. 147) may be consulted as illustrations of the combination of an
order and an arched opening, and of the use of pedestals and attics.
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--PART OF THE THEATRE OF MARCELLUS, ROME.
SHOWING THE COMBINATION OF COLUMNS AND ARCHED OPENINGS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--FROM THE RUINS OF THE FORUM OF NERVA, ROME.
SHOWING THE USE OF AN ATTIC STORY. WITH PLAN.]
Another peculiarity, of which we give an illustration from the baths
of Diocletian (Fig. 148), was the surmounting a column or pilaster
with a square pillar of stone, moulded in the same way as an
entablature, _i.e._ with the regular division into architrave, frieze,
and cornice. This was a decided perversion of the use of the order;
it occurs in examples of late date. So also do various other
arrangements for making an arch spring from the capital of a column;
one of these, from the palace of Diocletian at Spalatro, we are able
to illustrate (Fig. 149).
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--FROM THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN, ROME. SHOWING
A FRAGMENTARY ENTABLATURE AT THE STARTING OF PART OF A VAULT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 149.--FROM THE PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN, SPALATRO.
SHOWING AN ARCH SPRINGING FROM A COLUMN.]
In conclusion, it may be worth while to say that the Roman writers and
architects recognised five orders: the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian, and Composite, the first and last in this list being,
however, really only variations; and that when they placed the
orders above one another, they invariably used those of them which
they selected in the succession in which they have been named; that is
to say, the Tuscan or Doric lowest, and so on in succession.
[Illustration: FIG. 150.--MOULDINGS AND ORNAMENTS FROM VARIOUS ROMAN
BUILDINGS.]
_The Ornaments._
[Illustration: FIG. 151.--ROMAN CARVING. AN ACANTHUS LEAF.]
[Illustration: FIG. 152.--THE EGG AND DART ENRICHMENT. ROMAN.]
The mouldings with which Roman buildings are ornamented are all
derived from Greek originals, but are often extremely rough and
coarse. It is true that in some old Roman work, especially in those of
the tombs which are executed in marble, mouldings of considerable
delicacy and refinement of outline occur, but these are exceptional.
The profiles of the mouldings are, as a rule, segments of circles,
instead of being more subtle curves, and the result is that violent
contrasts of light and shade are obtained, telling enough at a
distance, but devoid of interest if the spectator come near.
[Illustration: FIG. 153.--WALL DECORATION OF (SO-CALLED) ARABESQUE
CHARACTER FROM POMPEII.]
Carving is executed exactly on the same principles as those which
govern the mouldings--that is to say, with much more coarseness than
in Greek work; not lacking in vigour, or in a sort of ostentatious
opulence of ornament, but often sadly deficient in refinement and
grace.
Statues, many of them copies of Greek originals, generally executed
with a heavy hand, but sometimes clearly of Greek work, were employed,
as well as bronzes, inlaid marbles, mosaics, and various devices to
ornament the interiors of Greco-Roman buildings; and free use was made
of ornamental plaster-work, both on walls and vaults.
Coloured decoration was much in vogue, and, to judge from what has
come down to us, must have been executed with great taste and much
spirit. The walls of a Roman dwelling-house of importance seem to have
been all painted, partly with that light kind of decoration to which
the somewhat inappropriate name of arabesque has been given, and
partly with groups or single figures, relieved by dark or black
backgrounds. The remains of the Palace of the Caesars in Rome, much of
it not now accessible, and the decorations visible at Pompeii, give a
high idea of the skill with which this mural ornamentation was
executed; our illustration (Fig. 154) may be taken as affording a good
example of the combined decorations in relief and colour often applied
to vaulted ceilings.
It is, however, characteristic of the lower level at which Roman art
stood as compared with Greek that, though statues abounded, we find no
traces of groups of sculpture designed to occupy the pediments of
temples, or of bas-reliefs fitted to special localities in the
buildings, such as were all but universal in the best Greek works.
_Architectural Character._
The nature of this will have been to a large extent gathered from the
observations already made. Daring, energy, readiness, structural
skill, and a not too fastidious taste were characteristic of the Roman
architect and his works. We find traces of vast spaces covered, bold
construction successfully and solidly carried out, convenience
studied, and a great deal of magnificence attained in those buildings
the remains of which have come down to us; but we do not discover
refinement or elegance, a fine feeling for proportion, or a close
attention to details, to a degree at all approaching the extent to
which these qualities are to be met with in Greek buildings. We are
thus sometimes tempted to regret that it was not possible to combine a
higher degree of refinement with the great excellence in construction
and contrivance exhibited by Roman architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 154.--DECORATION IN RELIEF AND COLOUR OF THE
VAULT OF A TOMB IN THE VIA LATINA, NEAR ROME.]
[Illustration: FIG. 155.--BASILICA-CHURCH OF SAN MINIATO, FLORENCE.]
CHAPTER XI.
EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
_Basilicas in Rome and Italy._
During the first three centuries the Christian religion was
discredited and persecuted; and though many interesting memorials of
this time (some of them having an indirect bearing upon architectural
questions) remain in the Catacombs, it is chiefly for their paintings
that the touching records of the past which have been preserved to us
in these secluded excavations should be studied. Early in the fourth
century Constantine the Great became Emperor, and in the course of his
reign (from A.D. 312 to 337) he recognised Christianity, and made it
the religion of the State. It then, of course, became requisite to
provide places of public worship. Probably the Christians would have
been, in many cases, reluctant to make use of heathen temples, and few
temples, if any, were adapted to the assembling of a large
congregation. But the large halls of the baths and the basilicas were
free from associations of an objectionable character, and well fitted
for large assemblages of worshippers. These and other such places were
accordingly, in the first instance, employed as Christian churches.
The basilica, however, became the model which, at least in Italy, was
followed, to the exclusion of all others, when new buildings were
erected for the purpose of Christian worship; and during the fourth
century, and several succeeding ones, the churches of the West were
all of the basilica type. What occurred at Constantinople, the seat of
the Eastern Empire and the centre of the Eastern Church, will be
considered presently.
There is probably no basilica actually standing which was built during
the reign of Constantine, or near his time; but there are several
basilica churches in Rome, such as that of San Clemente, which were
founded near his time, and which, though they have been partially or
wholly rebuilt, exhibit what is believed to be the ancient disposition
without modification.
[Illustration: FIG. 156.--INTERIOR OF A BASILICA AT POMPEII.
_Restored, from descriptions by various authors._]
Access is obtained to San Clemente through a forecourt to which the
name of the atrium is given. This is very much like the atrium of a
Roman house, being covered with a shed roof round all four sides and
open in the centre, and so resembling a cloister. The side next the
church was called the narthex or porch; and when an atrium did not
exist, a narthex at least was usually provided. The basilica has
always a central avenue, or nave, and sides or aisles, and was
generally entered from the narthex by three doors, one to each
division. The nave of San Clemente is lofty, and covered by a simple
wooden roof; it is separated from the side aisles by arcades, the
arches of which spring from the capitals of columns; and high up in
its side walls we find windows. The side aisles, like the nave, have
wooden roofs. The nave terminates in a semicircular recess called "the
apse," the floor of which is higher than that of the general
structure, and is approached by steps. A large arch divides this apse
from the nave. A portion of the nave floor is occupied by an enclosed
space for the choir, surrounded by marble screens, and having a pulpit
on either side of it. These pulpits are termed "ambos." Below the
Church of San Clemente is a vaulted structure or crypt extending under
the greater part, but not the whole, of the floor of the main
building.
The description given above would apply, with very slight variations,
to any one of the many ancient basilica churches in Rome, Milan,
Ravenna, and the other older cities of Italy; the principal variations
being that in many instances, including the very ancient basilica of
St. Peter, now destroyed, the avenues all stopped short of the end
wall of the basilica, and a wide and clear transverse space or
transept ran athwart them in front of the apse. San Clemente indeed
shows some faint traces of such a feature. In one or two very large
churches five avenues occur,--that is to say, a nave and double
aisles; and in Santa Agnese (Fig. 156a) and at least one other, we
find a gallery over the side aisles opening into the nave, or, as Mr.
Fergusson puts it, "the side aisles in two stories." In many instances
we should find no atrium, but in all cases we meet with the nave and
aisles, and the apse at the end of the nave, with its arch and its
elevated floor; and the entrances are always at the end of the
building farthest from the apse, with some sort of porch or portal.
[Illustration: FIG. 156a.--BASILICA, OR EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF
SANTA AGNESE AT ROME.]
The interest of these buildings lies not so much in their venerable
antiquity as in the fact that the arrangements of all Christian
churches in Western Europe down to the Reformation, and of very many
since, are directly derived from these originals. If the reader will
refer to the description of a Gothic cathedral in the companion volume
of this series,[28] it will not be difficult for him to trace the
correspondence between its plan and its general structure and those of
the primitive basilica. The atrium no longer forms the access to a
cathedral, but it still survives in the cloister, though in a changed
position. The narthex or porch is still more or less traceable in the
great western portals, and in a kind of separation which often, but
not always, exists between the westernmost bay of a cathedral and the
rest of the structure. The division into nave and aisles remains, and
in very large churches and cathedrals there are double aisles, as
there were in the largest basilicas. The nave roof is still higher
than the aisles--the arcade, in two stories, survives in the usual
arcade and triforium; the windows placed high in the nave are the
present clerestory. The apsidal termination of the central avenue is
still retained in almost all Continental architecture, though in Great
Britain, from an early date, it was abandoned for a square east end;
but square-ended or apsidal, a recess with a raised floor and a
conspicuous arch, marking it off from the nave, always occupies this
end of the church; and the under church, or crypt, is commonly, though
not always, met with. The enclosure for the choir has, generally
speaking, been moved farther east than it was in the basilica
churches; though in Westminster Abbey, and in most Spanish cathedrals,
we have examples of its occupying a position closely analogous to that
of the corresponding enclosure at the basilica of San Clemente. The
cross passage to which we have referred as having existed in the old
basilica of St. Peter, and many others, is the original of the
transept which in later churches has been made more conspicuous than
it was in the basilica by being lengthened so as to project beyond the
side walls of the church, and by being moved more westward. Lastly,
the two ambos, or pulpits, survive in two senses. They are represented
by the reading desk and the pulpit, and their situation and purpose
are continued in the epistle and gospel sides of the choir.
The one point in which an essential difference occurs is the position
of the altar, or communion table, and that of the Bishop's chair, or
throne. In the classic basilica the apse was the tribunal, and a
raised seat with a tesselated pavement occupied the central position
in it, and was the justice-seat of the presiding judge; and in the
sweep of the apse, seats right and left, at a lower elevation, were
provided for assessors or assistant-judges. In front of the president
was placed a small altar. The whole of these arrangements were copied
in the basilica churches. The seat of the president became the
bishop's throne, the seats for assessors were appropriated to the
clergy, and the altar retained substantially its old position in front
of the apse, generally with a canopy erected over it. This disposition
continues in basilica churches to the present day. At St. Peter's in
Rome, for example, the Pope occupies a throne in the middle of the
apse, and says mass with his face turned towards the congregation at
the high altar, which stands in front of his throne under a vast
baldacchino or canopy; but in Western Christendom generally a change
has been made,--the altar has been placed in the apse where the
bishop's throne formerly stood, and the throne of the bishop and
stalls of his clergy have been displaced, and are to be found at the
sides of the choir or presbytery.
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--SANT' APOLLINARE, RAVENNA. PART OF THE
ARCADE AND APSE.]
Many basilica churches were erected out of fragments taken from older
buildings, and present a curious mixture of columns, capitals, &c.;
others, especially those at Ravenna, exhibit more care, and are noble
specimens of ancient and severe architectural work. The illustration
which we give of part of the nave, arcade, and apse of one of these,
Sant' Apollinare in Classe, shows the dignified yet ornate aspect of
one of the most carefully executed of these buildings (Fig. 157).
In some of these churches the decorations are chiefly in mosaic, and
are extremely striking. Our illustration of the apse of the great
basilica of St. Paul without the walls (Fig. 158) may be taken as a
fair specimen of the general arrangement and treatment of the crowd of
sacred figures and subjects which it is customary to represent in
these situations; but it can of course convey no idea of the brilliant
effect produced by powerful colouring executed in mosaic, the most
luminous of all methods of enrichment. The floor of most of them was
formed in the style of mosaic known as "opus Alexandrinum," and the
large sweeping, curved bands of coloured material with which the main
outlines of the patterns are defined, and the general harmony of
colour among the porphyries and other hard stones with which these
pavements were executed, combine to satisfy the eye. A splendid
specimen of opus Alexandrinum, the finest north of the Alps, exists in
the presbytery of Westminster Abbey.
[Illustration: FIG. 158.--APSE OF THE BASILICA OF ST. PAUL WITHOUT
THE WALLS, ROME.]
Another description of building is customarily met with in connection
with early Christian churches,--the baptistery. This is commonly a
detached building, and almost always circular or polygonal. In some
instances the baptistery adjoins the atrium or forecourt; but it soon
became customary to erect detached baptisteries of considerable size.
These generally have a high central portion carried by a ring of
columns, and a low aisle running round, the receptacle for water being
in the centre. The origin of these buildings is not so clear as that
of the basilica churches; they bear some resemblance to the Roman
circular temples; but it is more probable that the form was suggested
by buildings similar in general arrangement, and forming part of a
Roman bath. The octagonal building known as the baptistery of
Constantine, and the circular building now used as a church and
dedicated to Santa Costanza in Rome, and the celebrated baptistery of
Ravenna, are early examples of this class of structure. Somewhat more
recent, and very well known, are the great baptisteries of Florence
and Pisa.
A few ancient circular or polygonal churches remain which do not
appear to have been built as baptisteries. One of these is at Rome,
the church of San Stefano Rotondo; but another, more remarkable in
every way, is at Ravenna, the church of San Vitale. This is an
octagonal building, with a large vestibule and a small apsidal choir.
The central portion, carried by eight arches springing from as many
lofty and solid piers, and surmounted by a hemispherical dome, rises
high above the aisle which surrounds it. Much elegance is produced by
the arrangement of smaller columns so as to form a kind of apsidal
recess in each of the interspaces between the eight main piers.
Another feature which has become thoroughly identified with church
architecture is the bell-tower, or campanile. This appendage, there
can be no doubt, originated with the basilicas of Italy. The use of
bells as a call to prayer is said to have been introduced not later,
at any rate, than the sixth century, and to this era is attributed a
circular campanile belonging to Sant' Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna,
a basilica already alluded to. The circular plan was, however,
exceptional; the ancient campaniles remaining in Rome are all square;
they are usually built of brick, many stories in height, and with a
group of arched openings in each story, and are generally surmounted
by a low conical roof.
The type of church which we have described influenced church
architecture in Italy down to the eleventh century, and such buildings
as the beautiful church (Fig. 155) of San Miniato, near Florence (A.D.
1013), and the renowned group of Cathedral, Baptistery, Campanile, and
Campo Santo (a kind of cloistered cemetery) at Pisa, bear a very
strong resemblance in many respects to these originals; though they
belong rather to the Romanesque than to the Basilican division of
early Christian architecture.
FOOTNOTE:
[28] 'Gothic and Renaissance Architecture,' chap. ii. p. 6.
[Illustration: FIG. 158a.--FRIEZE FROM THE MONASTERY AT FULDA.]
CHAPTER XII.
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
Constantine the Great, who by establishing the Christian religion had
encouraged the erection of basilicas for Christian worship in Rome and
Italy, effected a great political change, and one destined to exert a
marked influence upon Christian architecture, when he removed the seat
of empire from Rome to Byzantium, and called the new capital
Constantinople,[29] after his own name. Byzantium had been an ancient
place, but was almost in ruins when Constantine, probably attracted by
the unrivalled advantages of its site,[30] rebuilt it, or at least
re-established it as a city. The solemn inauguration of Constantinople
as the new capital took place A.D. 330; and when, under Theodosius,
the empire was divided, this city became the capital of the East.
With a new point of departure among a people largely of Greek race,
we might expect that a new development of the church from some other
type than the basilica might be likely to show itself. This, in fact,
is what occurred; for while the most ancient churches of Rome all
present, as we have seen, an almost slavish copy of an existing type
of building, and do not attempt the use of vaulted roofs, in Byzantium
buildings of most original design sprang up, founded, it is true, on
Roman originals, but by no means exact copies of them. In the erection
of these churches the most difficult problems of construction were
successfully encountered and solved. What may have been the course
which architecture ran during the two centuries between the refounding
of Byzantium and the building of Santa Sophia under Justinian, we can,
however, only infer from its outcome. It is doubtful if any church
older than the sixth century now remains in Constantinople; but it is
certain that, to attain the power of designing and erecting so great a
work as Santa Sophia, the architects of Constantinople must have
continued and largely modified the Roman practice of building vaults
and domes. There is every probability that if some of the early
churches in Byzantium were domed structures others may have been
vaulted basilicas; the more so as the very ancient churches in Syria,
which owed their origin to Byzantium rather than to Rome, are most of
them of the basilica type.
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--CHURCH OF SANTA SOPHIA AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
LONG SECTION. BUILT UNDER JUSTINIAN BY ANTHEMIOS AND ISIDOROS.
COMPLETED A.D. 537.]
A church which had been erected by Constantine, dedicated to Santa
Sophia (holy wisdom), was burnt early in the reign of Justinian (A.D.
527 to 565); and in rebuilding it his architects, Anthemios of
Thralles, and Isidoros of Miletus, succeeded in erecting one of the
most famous buildings of the world, and one which is the typical and
central embodiment of a distinct and very strongly marked
well-defined style. The basis of this style may be said to be the
adoption of the dome, in preference to the vault or the timber roof,
as the covering of the space enclosed within the walls; with the
result that the general disposition of the plan is circular or square,
rather than oblong, and that the structure recalls the Pantheon more
than the great Hall of the Thermae of Diocletian, or the Basilica of
St. Paul. In Santa Sophia one vast flattish dome dominates the central
space. This dome is circular in plan, and the space over which it is
placed is a square, the sides of which are occupied by four massive
semicircular arches of 100 ft. span each, springing from four vast
piers, one at each of the four corners. The four triangular spaces
between the corners of the square so enclosed and the circle or ring
resting upon it are filled by what are termed "pendentives"--features
which may, perhaps, be best described as portions of a dome, each just
sufficient to fit into one corner of the square, and the four uniting
at their upper margin to form a ring. From this ring springs the main
dome. It rises to a height of 46 ft., and is 107 ft. in clear
diameter. East and west of the main dome are two half-domes, each
springing from a wall apsidal (_i.e._ semicircular) in plan. Smaller
apses again, domed over at a lower level, are introduced, and vaulted
aisles two stories in height occupy the sides of the space within the
outer walls till the outline of the building is brought to very nearly
an exact square. Externally this church is uninteresting,[31] but its
interior is of surpassing beauty, and can be better described in the
eloquent language of Gilbert Scott[32] than in any other: "Simple as
is the primary ideal, the actual effect is one of great intricacy, and
of continuous gradation of parts, from the small arcades up to the
stupendous dome, which hangs with little apparent support like a vast
bubble over the centre, or as Procopius, who witnessed its erection,
described it, 'as if suspended by a chain from heaven.'
"The dome is lighted by forty small windows, which pierce it
immediately above the cornice which crowns its pendentives, and which,
by subdividing its lower part into narrow piers, increases the feeling
of its being supported by its own buoyancy.
"The interior thus generated, covered almost wholly by domes, or
portions of them, each rising in succession higher and higher towards
the floating hemisphere in the centre, and so arranged that one shall
open out the view to others, and that nearly the entire system of
vaulting may be viewed at a single glance, appears to me to be in some
respects the noblest which has ever been designed, as it was certainly
the most daring which, up to that time at least, if not absolutely,
had ever been constructed." After pointing out how the smaller arcades
and apsidal projections, and the vistas obtained through the various
arched openings, introduced intricate effects of perspective and
constant changes of aspect, Scott continues: "This union of the more
palpable with the more mysterious, of the vast unbroken expanse with
the intricately broken perspective, must, as it appears to me, and as
I judge from representations, produce an impression more astounding
than that of almost any other building: but when we consider the whole
as clothed with the richest beauties of surface,--its piers encrusted
with inlaid marbles of every hue, its arcades of marble gorgeously
carved, its domes and vaultings resplendent with gold mosaic
interspersed with solemn figures, and its wide-spreading floors rich
with marble tesselation, over which the buoyant dome floats
self-supported, and seems to sail over you as you move,--I cannot
conceive of anything more astonishing, more solemn, and more
magnificent."
The type of church of which this magnificent cathedral was the great
example has continued in Eastern Christendom to the present day, and
has undergone surprisingly little variation. A certain distinctive
character in the foliage (Fig. 163) employed in capitals and other
decorative carving, and mosaics of splendid colour but somewhat gaunt
and archaic design, though often solemn and dignified, were typical of
the work of Justinian's day, and could long afterwards be recognised
in Eastern Christian churches.
Between Rome and Constantinople, and well situated for receiving
influence from both those cities, stood Ravenna, and here a series of
buildings, all more or less Byzantine, were erected. The most
interesting of these is the church of San Vitale (Figs. 160, 161).
This building is octagonal in plan, and thus belongs to the series of
round and polygonal churches and baptisteries for which the circular
buildings of the Romans furnished a model; but in its high central
dome, lighted by windows placed high up, its many subsidiary arcades
and apses, the latter roofed by half-domes, and its vaulted aisles in
two stories, it recalls Santa Sophia; and its sculpture, carving, and
mosaic decorations are hardly less famous and no less characteristic.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--PLAN OF SAN VITALE AT RAVENNA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--SAN VITALE AT RAVENNA. LONGITUDINAL
SECTION.]
One magnificent specimen of Byzantine architecture, more within the
reach of ordinary travellers, and consequently better known than San
Vitale or Santa Sophia, must not be omitted, and can be studied easily
by means of numberless photographic illustrations--St. Mark's at
Venice. This cathedral was built between the years 977-1071, and, it
is said, according to a design obtained from Constantinople. It has
since been altered in external appearance by the erection of bulbous
domical roofs over its domes, and by additions of florid Gothic
character; but, disregarding these, we have alike in plan, structure,
and ornament, a Byzantine church of the first class.
[Illustration: FIG. 162.--PLAN OF ST. MARK'S AT VENICE.]
The ground-plan of St. Mark's (Fig. 162) presents a Greek cross,
_i.e._ one in which all the arms are equal, and it is roofed by five
principal domes, one at the crossing and one over each of the four
limbs of the cross. Aisles at a low level, and covered by a series of
small flat domes, in lieu of vaulting, fill up the angles between the
arms of the cross, so as to make the outline of the plan nearly
square.
The rich colouring of St. Mark's, due to a profuse employment of
mosaics and of the most costly marbles, and the splendid effects
produced by the mode of introducing light, which is admitted much as
at Santa Sophia, are perhaps its greatest charm; but there is beauty
in every aspect of its interior which has furnished a fit theme for
the pen of the most eloquent writer on art and architecture of the
present or perhaps of any day.
From Venice the influence of Byzantine art spread to a small extent in
North Italy; in that city herself as well as in neighbouring towns,
such as Padua, buildings and fragments of buildings exhibiting the
characteristics of the style can be found. Remarkable traces of the
influence of Byzantium as a centre, believed to be due to intercourse
with Venice, can also be found in France. Direct communication with
Constantinople by way of the Mediterranean has also introduced
Byzantine taste into Sicily. One famous French church, St. Front in
Perigueux, is identical (or nearly so) with St. Mark's in its plan;
but all its constructive arches being pointed (Fig. 3, page 5), its
general appearance differs a good deal from that of Eastern
churches--a difference which is accentuated by the absence of the
mosaics and other coloured ornaments which enrich the walls of St.
Mark's. Many very old domed churches and much sculpture of the
Byzantine type are moreover to be found in Central and Southern
France--Anjou, Aquitaine, and Auvergne. These are, however, isolated
examples of the style having taken root in spite of adverse
circumstances; it is in those parts of Europe where the Greek Church
prevails, or did prevail, that Byzantine architecture chiefly
flourishes. In Greece and Asia Minor many ancient churches of
Byzantine structure remain, while in Russia churches are built to the
present day corresponding to the general type of those which have just
been described.
[Illustration: FIG. 163.--FROM THE GOLDEN DOOR OF JERUSALEM. TIME OF
JUSTINIAN. A.D. 560.]
[Illustration: FIG. 164.--CHURCH AT TURMANIN IN SYRIA. 4TH AND 5TH
CENTURY.]
In ancient buildings of Syria the influence of both the Roman and the
Byzantine models can be traced. No more characteristic specimens of
Byzantine foliage can be desired than some to be found in Palestine,
as for example the Golden Gate at Jerusalem, which we illustrate
(Fig. 163); but in the deserted cities of Central Syria a group of
exceptional and most interesting buildings, both secular and sacred,
exists, which, as described by De Voguee,[33] seem to display a free
and very original treatment based upon Roman more than Byzantine
ideas. We illustrate the exterior of one of these, the church at
Turmanin (Fig. 164). This is a building divided into a nave and aisles
and with a vestibule. Two low towers flank the central gable, and it
will be noticed that openings of depressed proportion, mostly
semicircular headed, and with the arches usually springing from square
piers, mark the building; while the use made of columns strongly
resembles the manner in which in later times they were introduced by
the Gothic architects.
[Illustration: FIG. 165.--TOWER OF A RUSSIAN CHURCH.]
FOOTNOTES:
[29] _I.e._ the City of Constantine.
[30] "The edge of the world: the knot which links together East and
West; the centre in which all extremes combine," was the not
overcharged description given of Constantinople by one of her own
bishops.
[31] For an illustration see Fig. 187.
[32] 'Lectures on Mediaeval Architecture.'
[33] 'Syrie Centrale.'
CHAPTER XIII.
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE.
The term Romanesque is here used to indicate a style of Christian
architecture, founded on Roman art, which prevailed throughout Western
Europe from the close of the period of basilican architecture to the
rise of Gothic; except in those isolated districts where the influence
of Byzantium is visible. By some writers the significance of the word
is restricted within narrower limits; but excellent authorities can be
adduced for the employment of it in the wide sense here indicated.
Indeed some difficulty exists in deciding what shall and what shall
not be termed Romanesque, if any more restricted definition of its
meaning is adopted; while under this general term, if applied broadly,
many closely allied local varieties--as, for example, Lombard,
Rhenish, Romance, Saxon, and Norman--can be conveniently included.
The spectacle which Europe presented after the removal of the seat of
empire to Byzantium and the incursions of the Northern tribes was
melancholy in the extreme. Nothing but the church retained any
semblance of organised existence; and when at last some kind of order
began to emerge from a chaos of universal ruin, and churches and
monastic buildings began to be built in Western Europe, all of them
looked to Rome, and not to Constantinople, as their common
ecclesiastical centre. It is not surprising that, as soon as
differences between the ritual of the Eastern and the Western Church
sprang up, a contrast between Eastern and Western architecture should
establish itself, and that the early structures of the many countries
where the Roman Church flourished never wandered far from the Roman
type, with the exception of localities where circumstances favoured
direct intercourse with the East. The architecture of the Eastern
Church, on the other hand, adhered quite as closely to the models of
Byzantium.
[Illustration: FIG. 166.--TOWER OF EARL'S BARTON CHURCH.]
The style, so far as is known, was for a long time almost, if not
absolutely, the same over a very large part of Western Christendom,
and it has received from Mr. Freeman the appropriate designation of
Primitive Romanesque. It was not till the tenth century, or later,
that distinctive varieties began to make their appearance; and though
that which was built earlier than that date has, through rebuildings
and enlargements as well as natural decay, been in many cases swept
away, still enough may be met with to show us what the buildings of
that remote time were like.
The churches are usually small, and have an apsidal east end. The
openings are rude, with round-headed arches and small single or
two-light windows, and the outer walls are generally marked by flat
pilasters of very slight projection. Towers are common, and the
openings in them are often divided into two or more lights by rude
columns. The plan of these churches was founded on the basilica type,
but they do not exhibit the same internal arrangement; and it is very
noteworthy that many of them show marks of having been vaulted, or at
least partly vaulted; and not covered, as the basilicas usually were,
by timber roofs. Even a country so remote as Great Britain possessed
in the 10th century many buildings of Primitive Romanesque character;
and in such Saxon churches as those of Worth, Brixworth, Dover, or
Bradford, and such towers as those of Earl's Barton (Fig. 166),
Trinity Church Colchester, Barnack, or Sompting, we have specimens of
the style remaining to the present day.
By degrees, as buildings of greater extent and more ornament were
erected, the local varieties to which reference has been made began to
develop themselves. In Lombardy and North Italy, for example, a
Lombard Romanesque style can be recognised distinctly; here a series
of churches were built, many of them vaulted, but not many of the
largest size. Most of them were on substantially the same plan as the
basilicas, though a considerable number of circular or polygonal
churches were also built. Sant' Ambrogio at Milan, and some of the
churches at Brescia, Pavia, and Lucca, may be cited as well-known
examples of early date, and a little later the cathedrals of Parma,
Modena, and Piacenza (Fig. 167), and San Zenone at Verona. These
churches are all distinguished by the free use of small ornamental
arches and narrow pilaster-strips externally, and the employment of
piers with half-shafts attached to them, rather than columns, in the
arcades; they have fine bell-towers; circular windows often occupy
the gables, and very frequently the walls have been built of, or
ornamented with, coloured materials. The sculpture--grotesque,
vigorous, and full of rich variety--which distinguishes many of these
buildings, and which is to be found specially enriching the doorways,
is of great interest, and began early to develop a character that is
quite distinctive.
[Illustration: FIG. 167.--CATHEDRAL AT PIACENZA.]
Turning to Germany, we find that a very strong resemblance existed
between the Romanesque churches of that country and those of North
Italy. At Aix-la-Chapelle a polygonal church exists, built by
Charlemagne, and which tradition asserts was designed on the model of
San Vitale at Ravenna. The resemblance is undoubted, but the German
church is by no means an exact copy of Justinian's building. Early
examples of German Romanesque exist in the cathedrals of Mayence,
Worms, and Spires, and a steady advance was made till a point was
reached (in the twelfth century) at which the style may be said to
have attained the highest development which Romanesque architecture
received in any country of Europe.
The arcaded ornament (the arches being very frequently open so as to
form a real arcade) which was noticed as occurring in Lombard
churches, belongs also to German ones, though the secondary internal
arcade (triforium) is absent from some of the early examples. Piers
are used more frequently than columns in the interiors, and are often
very plain. From an early date the use of a western as well as an
eastern apse seems to have been common in Germany, and high western
facades extending between two towers were features specially met with
in that country. For a notice and some illustrations of the latest and
best phase of German Romanesque, which may with propriety be termed
"round-arched Gothic," the reader is referred to the companion volume
of this series.[34]
France exhibits more than one variety of Romanesque; for not only, as
remarked in the chapter on Byzantine Art, is the influence of Greek or
Venetian artists traceable in the buildings of certain districts,
especially Perigueux, but it is clear that in others the existence of
fine examples of Roman architecture (Fig. 168) affected the design of
buildings down to and during the eleventh century. This influence may,
for example, be detected in the use, in the churches at Autun,
Valence, and Avignon, of capitals, pilasters, and other features
closely resembling classic originals, and in the employment through a
great part of Central and Northern France of vaulted roofs.
[Illustration: FIG. 168.--VAULTS OF THE EXCAVATED ROMAN BATHS, IN
THE MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS.]
A specially French feature is the chevet, a group of apsidal chapels
which were built round the apse itself, and which combined with it to
make of the east end of a great cathedral a singularly rich and ornate
composition. This feature, originating in Romanesque churches, was
retained in France through the whole of the Gothic period, and a good
example of it may be seen in the large Romanesque church of St. Sernin
at Toulouse, which we illustrate (Fig. 169). The transepts were
usually well marked. The nave arcades generally sprang from piers
(Fig. 170), more rarely from columns. Arches are constantly met with
recessed, _i.e._ in receding planes,[35] the first stage of progress
towards a Gothic treatment, and are occasionally slightly moulded
(Fig. 171). Western doorways are often highly enriched with sculpture;
and the carving and sculpture generally, though often rude, are full
of vitality. Towers occur, usually square, more rarely octagonal.
Window-lights are frequently grouped two or more under one arch.
Capitals of a basket-shape, and with a square abacus, often richly
sculptured, are employed.
[Illustration: FIG. 169.--CHURCH OF ST. SERNIN, TOULOUSE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 170.--NAVE ARCADE AT ST. SERNIN, TOULOUSE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 171.--ARCHES IN RECEDING PLANES AT ST. SERNIN,
TOULOUSE.]
In Normandy, and generally in the North of France, round-arched
architecture was excellently carried out, and churches remarkable both
for their extent and their great dignity and solidity were erected.
Generally speaking, however, Norman architecture, especially as met
with in Normandy itself, is less ornate than the Romanesque of
Southern France; in fact some of the best examples seem to suffer from
a deficiency of ornament. The large and well-known churches at Caen,
St. Etienne, otherwise the Abbaye aux Hommes--interesting to
Englishmen as having been founded by William the Conqueror
immediately after the Conquest--and the Trinite, or Abbaye aux Dames,
are excellent examples of early Norman architecture, but the student
must not forget that additions have been made to them, which, if they
add to their beauty, at the same time alter their character. For
example, in St. Etienne, the upper part of the western towers and the
fine spires with which they are crowned were built subsequent to the
original structure, as was also, in all probability, the chevet, or
eastern limb. It seems probable also that the vaulting may not be what
was contemplated in the original plan.
St. Etienne is 364 ft. long, and is lofty in its proportions. It has a
nave and aisles, arcades resting on piers, and strongly-marked
transepts, and has two western towers with the gable of the nave
between them. The west front is well designed in three stories, having
strongly-marked vertical divisions in the buttresses of the towers,
and equally distinct horizontal divisions in the three doorways below,
and two ranges of windows, each of five lights, above. There is no
circular west window. The nave and aisles are vaulted.
Besides other cathedral churches, such for example as those of Bayeux
and Evreux, in which considerable parts of the original structures
remain, there exist throughout Normandy and Brittany many parochial
churches and monastic buildings, exhibiting, at least in some portions
of their structure, the same characteristics as those of St. Etienne;
and it is clear that an immense number of buildings, the beauty and
even refinement of which are conspicuous, must have been erected in
Northern France during the eleventh and the early years of the twelfth
centuries, the period to which Norman architecture in France may be
said to belong.
In Great Britain, as has been already pointed out, enough traces of
Saxon--that is to say, Primitive Romanesque--architecture remain to
show that many simple, though comparatively rude, buildings must have
been erected previous to the Norman Conquest. Traces exist also of an
influence which the rapid advance that had been made by the art of
building as practised in Normandy was exerting in our island. The
buildings at Westminster Abbey raised by Edward the Confessor, though
they have been almost all rebuilt, have left just sufficient traces
behind to enable us to recognise that they were of bold design. The
plan of the Confessor's church was laid out upon a scale almost as
large as that of the present structure. The monastic buildings were
extensive. The details of the work were, some of them, refined and
delicate, and resembled closely those employed in Norman buildings at
that time. Thus it appears that, even had the Conquest not taken
place, no small influence would have been exerted upon buildings in
England by the advance then being made in France; but instead of a
gradual improvement being so produced, a sudden and rapid revolution
was effected by the complete conquest of the country and its
occupation by nobles and ecclesiastics from Normandy, who, enriched by
the plunder of the conquered country, were eager to establish
themselves in permanent buildings.
Shortly after the Conquest distinctive features began to show
themselves. Norman architecture in England soon became essentially
different from what it was in Normandy, and we possess in this country
a large series of fine works showing the growth of this imported
style, from the early simplicity of the chapel in the Tower of London
to such elaboration as that of the later parts of Durham Cathedral.
The number of churches founded or rebuilt soon after the Norman
Conquest must have been enormous, for in examining churches of every
date and in every part of England it is common to find some fragment
of Norman work remaining from a former church: this is very frequently
a doorway left standing or built into walls of later date: and, in
addition to these fragments, no small number of churches, and more
than one cathedral, together with numerous castles, remain in whole or
in part as they were erected by the original builders.
Norman architecture is considered to have prevailed in England for
more than a century; that is to say, from the Conquest (1066) to the
accession of Richard I. (1189). For some details of the marks by which
Norman work can be recognised the reader is referred to the companion
volume;[36] we propose here to give an account of the broader
characteristics of the buildings erected during the prevalence of the
style.
* * * * *
The oldest remaining parts of Canterbury Cathedral are specimens of
Norman architecture executed in England immediately after the
Conquest. This great church was rebuilt by Archbishop Lanfranc (whose
episcopate lasted from 1070 to 1089), and in extent as laid out by him
was very nearly identical with the existing structure; almost every
portion has, however, been rebuilt, so that of his work only the
towers forming transepts to the choir, and some other fragments, now
remain. More complete and equally ancient is the chapel in the Tower
of London, which consists of a small apsidal church with nave and
aisles, vaulted throughout, and in excellent preservation. This
building, though very charming, is almost destitute of ornament. A
little more ornate, and still a good example of early Norman, is St.
Peter's Church, Northampton (Fig. 172), the interior of which we
illustrate. To these examples of early Norman we may add a large part
of Rochester Cathedral, and the transepts of Winchester. The transepts
of Exeter present a specimen of rather more advanced Norman work; and
in the cathedrals of Peterborough and Durham the style can be seen at
its best.
[Illustration: FIG. 172.--NORMAN ARCHES IN ST. PETER'S CHURCH,
NORTHAMPTON.]
In most Norman buildings we find very excellent masonry and massive
construction. The exteriors of west fronts, transepts, and towers
show great skill and care in their composition, the openings being
always well grouped, and contrasted with plain wall-spaces; and a keen
sense of proportion is perceptible. The Norman architects had at
command a rich, if perhaps a rather rude, ornamentation, which they
generally confined to individual features, especially doorways; on
these they lavished mouldings and sculpture, the elaboration of which
was set off by the plainness of the general structure. In the interior
of the churches we usually meet with piers of massive proportion,
sometimes round, sometimes octagonal, sometimes rectangular, and a
shaft is sometimes carried up the face of the piers; as, for example,
in Peterborough Cathedral (Fig. 173). The capitals of the columns and
piers have a square abacus, and, generally speaking, are of the
cushion-shaped sort, commonly known as basket-capitals, and are
profusely carved. The larger churches have the nave roofed with a
timber roof, and at Peterborough there is a wooden ceiling; in these
cases the aisles only are vaulted, but in some small churches the
whole building has been so covered. Buttresses are seldom required,
owing to the great mass of the walls; when employed they have a very
slight projection, but the same strips or pilasters which are used in
German Romanesque occur here also. Low towers were common, and have
been not unfrequently preserved in cases where the rest of the
building has been removed. As the style advanced, the proportions of
arcades became more lofty, and shafts became more slender, decorative
arcades (Fig. 174) became more common, and in these and many other
changes the approaching transition to Gothic may be easily detected.
We have already alluded to the many Norman doorways remaining in
parish churches of which all other parts have been rebuilt. These
doorways are generally very rich; they possess a series of mouldings
sometimes springing from shafts, sometimes running not only round the
arched head, but also up the jambs of the opening; and each moulding
is richly carved, very often with a repetition of the same ornament on
each voussoir of the arch. Occasionally, but not frequently, large
portions of wall-surface are covered by a diaper; that is to say, an
ornament constantly repeated so as to produce a general sense of
enrichment.
[Illustration: FIG. 173.--NAVE ARCADE, PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 174.--DECORATIVE ARCADE FROM CANTERBURY
CATHEDRAL.]
Norman castles, as well as churches, were built in great numbers
shortly after the Conquest, and not a few remain. The stronghold
which a follower of the Conqueror built in order to establish himself
on the lands granted him was always a very sturdy massive square
tower, low in proportion to its width, built very strongly, and with
every provision for sustaining an attack or even a siege. Such a tower
is called "a keep;" and in many famous castles, as for example the
Tower of London, the keep forms the nucleus round which buildings and
courtyards of later date have clustered. In some few instances,
however, as for example at Colchester, the keep is the only part now
standing, and it is probable that when originally built these Norman
castles were not much encumbered with out-buildings. Rochester Castle
is a fine example of a Norman keep, though it has suffered much from
decay and injury. The very large Norman keep of the Tower of London,
known as the White Tower, and containing the chapel already described,
has been much modernised and altered, but retains the fine mass of its
original construction. Perhaps the best (and best-preserved) example
is Hedingham Castle in Essex, which we illustrate (Figs. 175 and 176).
From the remains of this building some idea of the interior of the
hall--the chief room within a Norman keep--may be obtained, as well as
of the general external appearance of such a structure.
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--HEDINGHAM CASTLE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 176.--INTERIOR OF HEDINGHAM CASTLE.]
FOOTNOTES:
[34] 'Gothic and Renaissance Architecture,' chap. vii.
[35] 'Gothic and Renaissance Architecture,' chap. v. p. 62.
[36] 'Gothic and Renaissance Architecture,' chap. ii. p. 23.
[Illustration: FIG. 177.--ROUNDED ARCH OF CHURCH AT GELNHAUSEN.]
CHAPTER XIV.
CHRISTIAN ROUND-ARCHED ARCHITECTURE.
_Analysis._
Notwithstanding very wide differences which undoubtedly exist, there
is a sufficient bond of union between the Basilican, the Byzantine,
and the Romanesque styles, to render it possible for us to include the
characteristics of the three in an analysis of Christian round-arched
architecture.
_The Plan or floor-disposition_ of the basilican churches, as has been
pointed out, was distinctive. The atrium, or forecourt, the porch, the
division into nave and aisles; the transept, the great arch, and the
apse beyond it with the episcopal seat at the back behind the altar;
the ambos; and the enclosure for the choir, were typical features.
Detached towers sometimes occurred. The plan of Romanesque churches
was based upon that of the basilica; the atrium was often omitted, so
was the transept sometimes; but, when retained, the transept was
generally made more prominent than in the basilica. The position of
the altar and of the enclosure for the choir were changed, but in
other respects the basilica plan was continued. In Germany, however,
apsidal transepts (Fig. 178) were built. Towers were common,
occasionally detached, but more frequently joined to the main
building.
[Illustration: FIG. 178.--PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES AT
COLOGNE.]
Circular and polygonal buildings for use as baptisteries, and
sometimes as churches, existed both in the basilican and the
Romanesque time.
Byzantine church plans are all distinguished by their great central
square space, covered by the central dome, flanked usually by four
arms, comparatively short, and all of equal length; and the plan of
the buildings is generally square, or nearly so, in outline. Circular
and polygonal buildings sometimes occur.
[Illustration: FIG. 179.--SPIRE OF SPIRES CATHEDRAL.]
Few traces of the arrangement of military, secular, or domestic
buildings earlier than the twelfth century remain, but some examples
of a cloister at the side of the nave (generally the south side) of a
church, giving or intended to give access to monastic buildings, still
exist.
_The Walls_ of such buildings as have come down to us are, it may be
well understood, strong, since the most recent of this round-arched
series of buildings must be about seven hundred years old. Fine
masonry was not much employed till the time of the Normans, but the
Roman plan of building with bricks or rubble and casing the face of
the walls with marble or mosaic, or at least plaster, was generally
followed. The walls are carried up as gables and towers to a
considerable extent (Fig. 179), especially in Western countries.
_The Roof._--In a basilica this was of timber, in a Byzantine church
it consisted of a series of domes; in a Romanesque church it was
sometimes of timber as in the basilica, but not unfrequently vaulted.
As a general rule the vault prevailed in the West and the dome in the
East; and such examples of either sort of roof as occur in those
provinces where the other was usual, like the domed churches in parts
of France, must be looked upon as exceptional.
_The Openings_ are almost invariably arched, and seldom, if ever,
covered by a lintel. It is hardly necessary to add that the arches are
always round. Almost always they are semicircular, but instances of
the employment of a segmental arch, or of one the outline of which is
a little more than half a circle, may be occasionally met with.
Door openings are often made important both by size and decoration.
Window openings are usually small; and the grouping of two or more
lights under one head, which was so conspicuous a feature in Gothic
architecture, first appears in Byzantine buildings, and is met with
also in Romanesque ones. The mode of introducing light is to a certain
extent characteristic. The basilican churches always possess a
clerestory, and usually side windows in the aisles; and this
arrangement is generally followed in Romanesque buildings, though
sometimes, in Germany, the clerestory is omitted. The gable ends of
the nave and transepts are not usually pierced by many or large lights
(Fig. 180); and when there is a central feature, as a tower, or even a
dome, little or no light is introduced through it. On the other hand,
the Byzantine churches depend largely for light upon the ring of
windows which commonly encircles the base of the central dome, and
sometimes that of the subsidiary domes; and the gables are pierced
so as to supply any additional light required, so that windows are
infrequent in the lower walls. Broadly speaking, therefore, the
Western churches have side-lighting and the Eastern top-lighting.
[Illustration: FIG. 180.--CHURCH AT ROSHEIM. UPPER PORTION OF
FACADE.]
The great arches which carry the main domes form a notable feature in
Eastern churches, and are of very bold construction. In the basilican
churches one great arch, called "the arch of triumph," occurs, and
only one; this gives access to the apse: and a similar arch, which we
now denominate "the chancel arch," usually occupies a corresponding
position in all Romanesque churches. The arches of the arcade
separating the nave from the aisles in all Western churches are
usually of moderate span. In some ancient basilicas these arches are
replaced by a horizontal beam.
_The Columns._--In basilicas these were of antique type; very often
they had actually been obtained by the demolition of older buildings,
and when made purposely they were as a rule of the same general
character. The same might be said of those introduced into Byzantine
buildings, though a divergence from the classic type soon manifested
itself, and small columns began to appear as decorative features. In
Romanesque buildings the columns are very varied indeed, and shafts
are frequently introduced into the decoration of other features. They
occur in the jambs of doorways with mouldings or sub-arches springing
from them; long shafts and short ones, frequently supporting
ornamental arcades, are employed both internally and externally; and
altogether that use of the column as a means of decoration, of which
Gothic architecture presents so many examples, first began in the
Romanesque style.
The capitals employed in Romanesque buildings generally depart
considerably from the classic type, being based on the primitive cube
capital (Fig. 181), but, as a rule, in Eastern as well as in basilican
churches, they bear a tolerably close resemblance to classic ones.
[Illustration: FIG. 181.--CUBIC CAPITAL.]
_The Ornaments_ throughout the whole of the Christian round-arched
period are a very interesting subject of study, and will repay close
attention. In the basilican style mouldings occur but seldom: where
met with, they are all of the profiles common in Roman architecture,
but often rudely and clumsily worked. Carving partakes also of classic
character, though it is not difficult to detect the commencement of
that metamorphosis which was effected in Byzantium, and which can
hardly be better described than in the following paragraph from the
pen of Sir Digby Wyatt:--"The foliage is founded on ancient Greek
rather than on Roman traditions, and is characterised by a peculiarly
sharp outline. All ornamental sculpture is in comparatively low
relief, and the absence of human and other figures is very marked.
Enrichments were almost invariably so carved, by sinking portions only
of the surfaces and leaving the arrises and principal places
untouched, as to preserve the original constructive forms given by the
mason (Fig. 184). The employment of the drill instead of the chisel,
so common in debased Roman work, was retained as a very general
practice by the Greek carvers, and very often with excellent effect.
The foliage of the acanthus, although imitated from the antique,
quite changed its character, becoming more geometrical and
conventional in its form. That which particularly distinguishes
Lombard from Byzantine art is its sculpture abounding with grotesque
imagery, with illustrations of every-day life, of a fanciful mythology
not yet quite extinct, and allusions, no longer symbolic but direct,
to the Christian creed; the latter quality a striking evidence of the
triumph of the Roman Church over all iconoclastic adversaries in
Greece." What is here asserted of Lombard carving is true of that in
the Romanesque buildings in Germany, Scandinavia (Fig. 182), France,
and to a certain extent in Great Britain, though in our own country a
large proportion of the ornamental carving consists simply of
decorative patterns, such as the chevron, billet, and zig-zag; and
sculpture containing figures and animals is less common.
[Illustration: FIG. 182.--DOORWAY AT TIND, NORWAY. (END OF 12TH
CENTURY.)]
The mouldings of Romanesque buildings are simple, and at first were
few in number, but by degrees they become more conspicuous, and before
the transition to Gothic they assumed considerable importance (Fig.
183) and added not a little to the architectural character of the
buildings.
[Illustration: FIG. 183.--MOULDINGS OF PORTAL OF ST. JAMES'S CHURCH
AT KOESFELD.]
Coloured decoration, especially in mosaic, was a conspicuous feature
in basilican churches, and still more so in those of the Byzantine
style; such decoration in Romanesque churches was not infrequent, but
it was more commonly painted in fresco or tempera. The glass
mosaic-work to be found on the walls of Early Christian churches, both
basilican and Byzantine, but less frequently Romanesque, is most
interesting and beautiful: "it was," says the high authority already
quoted, "employed only to represent and reproduce the forms of
existing objects, such as figures, architectural forms and
conventional foliage, which were generally relieved with some slight
indication of shading upon a gold ground--the whole being bedded in
the cement covering the walls and vaults of the basilicas and
churches."
"The design of both figures and ornaments was, generally speaking,
very rude, though not without an occasional rising in some of the
figures to a certain sublimity, derivable principally from the great
simplicity of the forms and draperies and the earnest grandiose
expression depicted on their countenances. The pieces of glass
employed in the formation of this work are very irregular in shapes
and sizes, of all colours and tones of colour, and the ground tint
almost invariably prevailing is gold. The manner of execution is
always large and coarse, and rarely approaches in neatness of joint
and regularity of bedding to the (ancient Roman) 'opus majus
vermiculatus;' yet, notwithstanding these blemishes, the effect of
gorgeous, luxurious, and at the same time solemn decoration produced
is unattainable by any other means as yet employed as structural
embellishment. How noble and truly ecclesiastical in character are the
gold-clad interiors of Monreale Cathedral, of the Capella Palatina at
Palermo, of St. Mark at Venice, San Miniato at Florence, or Santi
Apollinare and Vitale at Ravenna, the concurrent testimony of all
travellers attests."
A finer kind of glass mosaic arranged in geometrical patterns was
made use of to enrich the ambos, screens, episcopal chairs, sepulchral
ornaments, and other similar fittings of churches, and was often of
great beauty. A third sort of mosaic--the Alexandrine work (opus
Alexandrinum)--used for pavements, has been already alluded to; this
was extremely effective, but its use appears to have been less general
than that of the glass mosaics for the walls.
_The Architectural Character_ of the basilican churches may be briefly
characterised as venerable and dignified, but yet cheerful and bright
rather than forbidding; they are, as interiors, impressive but not
oppressive, solemn but not gloomy. Comparatively little attention was
paid to external effect, and there is not often much in them to strike
the passer-by. The character of Byzantine interiors is far more rich,
and even splendid; but it is more gloomy, and often is solemn and
grand to the last degree. In many cases these churches possess fine
exteriors; and for the level sky-line produced by the long straight
roofs of the basilica, a more or less pyramidal composition, showing
curved outlines rather than straight ones, is substituted. The
architectural character of the Romanesque buildings varies extremely
with the districts in which they are erected; but, generally speaking,
it may be described as picturesque, and even sometimes romantic; the
appearance of towers, prominent transepts, and many smaller decorative
features serves to render the exteriors telling and varied, though
often somewhat rude and primitive. A solid and somewhat heavy
character distinguishes the interiors of some varieties of Romanesque
buildings--such, for example, as our own Early Norman; but in our
fully-developed and late Norman, and still more in the latest German
Romanesque churches, this disappears almost entirely, and much beauty
and even lightness of effect is obtained, without any loss of that
richness which is characteristic of more ancient examples.
[Illustration: FIG. 184.--BYZANTINE BASKET-WORK CAPITAL FROM SAN
MICHELE IN AFFRICISCO AT RAVENNA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--ARABIAN CAPITAL. FROM THE ALHAMBRA.]
CHAPTER XV.
MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE.
Few revolutions more sudden, more signal, and more widespread are
recorded in history than that which covered not only the East but part
of the West with the Mohammedan religion and dominion. Mohammed was
born either in the year 569 or 570 of the Christian era, and died A.D.
652. The year of the Hegira, the era from which Mohammedans compute
their chronology, is A.D. 622, and within little more than a century
from this era the Prophet was acknowledged, and the suzerainty of the
Caliph recognised eastwards, in Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and
Persia, and in India as far as to the Ganges; and westwards along the
north coast of Africa, in Sicily, and in Spain. It was only to be
expected that such a wonderful tide of conquest and such a widespread
change of religion should before long leave its impress on the
architecture of the continents thus revolutionised; and accordingly a
Mohammedan style soon rose. This style did not displace or override
the indigenous art of the various countries where it prevailed, as
Roman architecture did in the age of universal dominion under the
Empire; it assimilated the peculiarities of each country, and so
transmuted them, that although wherever the religion of Mohammed
prevails the architecture will at a glance confess the fact, still the
local or national peculiarities of each country remain prominent.
The Arabs, a nomadic race who lived in tents, do not seem to have been
great builders even in their cities. We have no authentic accounts or
existing remains of very early buildings even in Mecca or Medina, as
the oldest mosques in those cities have been completely rebuilt. It is
to Egypt and Syria that we must turn for the most ancient remaining
examples of Saracenic architecture. These consist of mosques and
tombs.
_Egypt._
A mosque--or Mohammedan place of worship--has two forms. The earlier
mosques are all of them of a type the arrangement of which is
simplicity itself. A large open courtyard, resembling the garth of a
cloister, with a fountain in it, is surrounded cloister-wise by
arcades supporting timber roofs. On the side nearest Mecca the arcades
are increased to several rows in depth, so as to cover a considerable
space. This is the part in which the congregation chiefly assembles;
here a niche or recess (termed Kibla), more or less enriched, is
formed in which the Koran is to be kept, and hard by a pulpit is
erected. For many centuries past, though not, it is believed, from the
very earliest times, a minaret or high tower, from the top of which
the call to prayer is given, has also been an indispensable adjunct to
a mosque.
The second sort of mosque is a domed, and sometimes vaulted building
of a form chiefly suggested by the Byzantine domed churches, with a
central space and four short arms. This sort of mosque became almost
universal in Turkey and Egypt after the capture of Constantinople by
the Turks, and the appropriation to Moslem worship of Santa Sophia
itself. The tombs are ornate and monumental buildings, or sanctuaries,
of the same general character as the domed mosques, and often attached
to them.
[Illustration: FIG. 186.--HORSE-SHOE ARCH.]
From very early times the arches, in the arcades which have been
described as virtually constituting the whole structure of the simpler
sort of mosque, were pointed. Lubke claims as the earliest known and
dated example of the pointed arch in a Saracenic building, the
Nilometer, a small structure on an island near Cairo, which contains
pointed arches that must have been built either at the date of its
original construction in A.D. 719, or at latest, when it was restored
A.D. 821. The Mosque of Amrou, however, which was founded very soon
after the conquest of Egypt in A.D. 643, and is largely made up of
materials obtained from older buildings, exhibits pointed arches, not
only in the arcades, which probably have been rebuilt since they were
originally formed, but in the outer walls, which are likely, in part
at least, to be original.
[Illustration: FIG. 187.--EXTERIOR OF SANTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE.
SHOWING THE MINARETS ADDED AFTER ITS CONVERSION INTO A MOSQUE.]
Whatever uncertainty may rest upon these very remote specimens of
pointed architecture, there is little if any about the Mosque of Ibn
Tulun, also at Cairo, and built A.D. 885, or, according to another
authority, A.D. 879. Here arcades of bold pointed arches spring from
piers, and the effect of the whole structure is noble and full of
character. From that time the pointed arch was constantly used in
Saracenic buildings along with the semicircular and the horse-shoe
arch (Fig. 186).
From the ninth century, then, the pointed arch was in constant use. It
prevailed in Palestine as well as in the adjacent countries for two
centuries before it reached the West, and there can be no doubt that
it was there seen by the Western Crusaders, and a knowledge of its use
and an appreciation of its beauty and convenience were brought back to
Western Europe by the returning ecclesiastics and others at the end of
the First Crusade.[37]
In the eleventh century the splendid Tombs of the Caliphs at Cairo
were erected,--buildings crowned with domes of a graceful pointed
form, and remarkable for the external decoration which usually covers
the whole surface of those domes. By this time also, if not earlier,
the minaret had become universal. This is a lofty tower of slender
proportions, passing from a square base below to a circular form above
(Fig. 187). A minaret is often divided into several stages. Each stage
is then marked by a balcony, and is, generally speaking, a polygon
of a greater number of sides than the stage below it.
[Illustration: FIG. 188.--ALHAMBRA. HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.]
In the interiors of Saracenic buildings what is generally known as
honeycomb corbelling is constantly employed to fill up corners and
effect a change of plan from a square below to a circle or octagon
above. This ornament is formed by the use of a series of small
brackets, each course of them overhanging those below, and produces an
effect some idea of which may be gathered from our illustration (Fig.
188) of the Hall of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra. The interiors
when not domed are often covered by wooden or plaster ceilings, more
or less richly decorated, such as are shown in the view of one of the
arcades of the Mosque "El Moyed," Cairo (Fig. 189), where the
horse-shoe and pointed arches can both be seen. This illustration also
shows timber ties, at the feet of the arches, such as were commonly
used by the earlier Saracenic builders.
The surfaces of the interiors of most Mohammedan buildings in all
countries are covered with the most exquisite decorations in colour.
Imitations of natural objects being forbidden by the Koran (a
prohibition occasionally, but very rarely, infringed), the Saracenic
artists, whose instincts as decorators seem to have been unrivalled,
fell back upon geometrical and flowing patterns and inscriptions, and
upon the use of tiles (Fig. 190), mosaics, inlays, patterns impressed
on plaster, and every possible device for harmoniously enriching the
surfaces with which they had to deal. Several of our illustrations
give indications of the presence of these unrivalled decorations in
the buildings which they represent (Fig. 195). Windows are commonly
filled by tracery executed in stone or in plaster, and glazed with
stained glass, and many of the open spaces in buildings are occupied
by grilles, executed in wood, and most effective and rich in design.
[Illustration: FIG. 189.--MOSQUE 'EL MOYED' AT CAIRO.]
[Illustration: FIG. 190.--ARABIAN WALL DECORATION.]
[Illustration: FIG. 191.--PLAN OF THE SAKHRA MOSQUE AT JERUSALEM.]
_Syria and Palestine._
Syria was one of the countries earliest overrun by the Arab
propaganda, and Jerusalem was taken by the Caliph Omar as early as
A.D. 637. He there built a small mosque, though not the one which
commonly goes by his name. Two mosques of great antiquity and
importance, but the origin of which is a matter of dispute among
authorities, stand in the Haram enclosure at Jerusalem. One of these
is the octagonal building called the Sakhra (Figs. 191-2), known in
the Moslem world as the Dome of the Rock, popularly called the Mosque
of Omar, and occupying, as is all but universally admitted, part of
the site of the Temple itself. Whether this is a "nearly unaltered
Christian building of the fourth century," or a construction of
Abd-el-Malek, the second Caliph, erected in the year 688, has been
debated keenly; but what is beyond debate is that this structure is
very Byzantine, or, to speak with more exactness, very like some of
the buildings of Justinian in plan and section, and that from early
times it was in the possession of the Saracens, and was regarded by
them as the next most venerable and sacred spot in the world after
Mecca. Much the same difference of opinion prevails as to the origin
of the neighbouring mosque, El Aksah, which bears an undoubted general
resemblance to an ancient basilica, though having no fewer than
seven parallel avenues. This building has with equal confidence been
attributed to the fourth and the seventh century. It is fortunately
quite unnecessary here to do more than point out that these mosques,
whatever their origin, were in use at least as early as the eighth
century, and that the beautiful Dome of the Rock must have exercised a
great influence on Mohammedan art, and, notwithstanding some
differences of plan, may be fairly regarded as the prototype of many
of the domed mosques and tombs to which allusion has been made. The
decorations shown in our illustration of the Sakhra are, it is right
to observe, most of them of a date centuries later than the time of
the original construction of the building.
[Illustration: FIG. 192.--SECTION OF THE SAKHRA MOSQUE AT JERUSALEM.]
_Sicily and Spain._
The spread of Mohammedan architecture westward next claims our notice;
but want of space will only permit us to mention a small though
interesting group of Saracenic buildings which still remains in
Sicily; the numerous specimens of the style which exist on the north
coast of Africa; and the works erected by the Saracens during their
long rule in Spain. The most celebrated Spanish example is the
fortress and palace of the Alhambra, begun in 1248, and finished in
1314. This building (Fig. 188) has been measured, drawn, and fully
illustrated in an elaborate monograph by our countryman Owen Jones,
and has become popularly known by the beautiful reproduction of
portions of it which he executed at the Crystal Palace, and of which
he wrote an admirable description in his 'Guide-book to the Alhambra
Court.' The Mohammedan architecture of Spain is here to be seen at
its best; most of its features are those of Arab art, but with a
distinguishing character (Fig. 193).
[Illustration: FIG. 193.--DOORWAY IN THE ALHAMBRA.]
Two other well-known examples are, the Giralda[38] at Seville, and
the Mosque at Cordova. The Giralda is a square tower, in fact a
minaret on a magnificent scale, divided into panels and richly
decorated, and shows a masculine though beautiful treatment wholly
different from that of the minarets in Cairo. The well-known Mosque at
Cordova is of the simplest sort of plan, but of very great extent, and
contains no less than nineteen parallel avenues separated from one
another by arcades at two heights springing from 850 columns. The
Kibla in this mosque is a picturesque domed structure higher than the
rest of the building. The columns employed throughout are antique ones
from other buildings, but the whole effect of the structure, which
abounds with curiously cusped arches and coloured decoration, is
described as most picturesque and fantastic.
_Persia and India._
Turning eastwards, we find in Turkey, as has been said, a close
adherence to the forms of Byzantine architecture. In Persia, where the
people are now fire-worshippers, the Mohammedan buildings are mostly
ruined, and probably many have disappeared, but enough remains to show
that mosques and palaces of great grandeur were built. Lofty doorways
are a somewhat distinctive feature of Persian buildings of this style;
and the use of coloured tiles of singular beauty for linings to the
walls, in the heads of these great portals, and in other situations to
which such decoration is appropriate, is very common: these
decorations afford opportunity for the Persian instinct for colour,
probably the truest in the whole world, to make itself seen.
In India the wealth of material is such that an almost unlimited
series of fine buildings could be brought forward, were space and
illustrations available. A large part of that vast country became
Mohammedan, and in the buildings erected for mosques and tombs a
complete blending of the decorative forms in use among Hindu and Jaina
sculptors with the main lines of Mohammedan art is generally to be
found. The great open quadrangle, the pointed arch, the dome, the
minaret, all appear, but they are all made out of Indian materials.
Perhaps not the least noteworthy feature of mosques and tombs in India
is the introduction of perforated slabs of marble in the place of the
bar-tracery which filled the heads of openings in Cairo or Damascus.
These are works of the greatest and most refined beauty: sometimes
panels of thin marble, each pierced with a different pattern, are
fitted into a framework prepared for their reception; at others we
meet with window-heads where upon a background of twining stems and
leaves there grow up palms or banian-trees, their lithe branches and
leaves wreathed into lines of admirable grace, and every part standing
out, owing to the fine piercings of the marble, as distinctly as a
tree of Jesse on a painted window in a Gothic cathedral.
The dome at Bijapur, a tomb larger than the Pantheon at Rome, and the
Kutub at Delhi, a tower not unfit to be compared with Giotto's
campanile at Florence, are conspicuous among this series of monuments,
and at Delhi one of the grandest mosques in India (Fig. 194) is also
to be found. The series of mosques and tombs at Ahmedabad, however,
form the most beautiful group of buildings in India, and are the only
ones of which a complete series of illustrations has been published.
These mosques are remarkable for the great skill with which they are
roofed and lighted. This is done by means of a series of domes raised
on columns sufficiently above the general level of the stone ceilings,
which cover the intervening spaces, to admit light under the line of
their springing. The beauty of the marble tracery and surface
decoration is very great. Pointed arches occur here almost invariably,
and in most cases the outline of the opening is very slightly turned
upwards at the apex so as to give a slight increase of emphasis to the
summit of the arch. The buildings are not as a rule lofty; and though
plain walls and piers occur and contrast well with the arched
features, pains have been taken to avoid anything like massive or
heavy construction. Great extent, skilful distribution, extreme
lightness, and admirably combined groupings of the features and
masses, are among the fine qualities which lend to Mohammedan
architecture in Ahmedabad a rare charm.
[Illustration: FIG. 194.--GRAND MOSQUE AT DELHI, BUILT BY SHAH JEHAN.]
The religion and the art of Islam seem destined to live and die
together. Nothing (with the one exception of the suggestion of the
pointed arch to Western Europe at the very moment when Romanesque art
was ripe for a change) has developed itself or appears likely to grow
out of Mohammedan architecture in any part of the wide field to which
the attention of the reader has been directed; and in this respect the
art of the Mohammedan is as exclusive, as intolerant, and as infertile
as his religion. The interest which it must possess in the eyes of a
Western student will rise less from its own charms than from the fact
that it first employed the pointed arch--that feature from which
sprang the glorious series of Western Christian styles to which we
give the name of Gothic. This arch, indeed, appears to have been
discovered by the very beginners of Mohammedan architecture, at a time
when the style was still plastic and in course of growth, and the
beauty of Saracenic art is due to no small extent to the use of it;
but in the employment of this feature the Western architect advanced
much further than the Saracen even at his best could go. The pointed
architecture of the Middle Ages, with its daring construction, its
comprehensive design, its elaborate mouldings, and its magnificent
sculptures, is far more highly developed and more beautiful than that
of the countries which we have been describing, though in its
treatment of the walls it cannot surpass, and indeed did not often
equal, the unrivalled decoration of plane surfaces which forms the
chief glory of Mohammedan art.
[Illustration: FIG. 195.--ENTRANCE TO A MOORISH BAZAAR.]
FOOTNOTES:
[37] The First Crusade lasted from A.D. 1095 to A.D. 1099.
[38] 'Gothic and Renaissance Architecture,' p. 141.
INDEX.
Abbaye aux Dames, Caen, 231
" Hommes, Caen, 230
Abbey, Westminster, 204
Agora, 114
Alhambra, 258, 263
Amphitheatre at Arles, 161
" Nimes, 161
" Pola, 161
" Rome (Coloss.), 158
" Sutri, 148
" Verona, 161
Anthemios of Thralles, _Architect_, 211
Appian Way, 145
Apollodorus of Damascus, _Architect_, 155
Aqueduct at Nimes (Pont du Gard), 171
" from Praeneste to Rome, 145
" at Rome (Aqua Claudia), 171
" " (Anio Novus), 171
" at Segovia, 171
" at Tarragona, 171
Arch at Autun (Porte d'Arroux), 172
" Jerusalem (Golden Gate), 220
" Rome (of Constantine), 172
" " (of the Goldsmiths), 173
" " (of Sept. Severus), 172
" " (of Titus), 172
" Treves (Porta Nigra), 172
Asoka, 65
Baalbek, ruins at, 149
Basilica at Rome (Constantiniana), 155
" " (Emilia), 154
" " (Julia), 155
" " (Portia), 154
" " (Sempronia), 155
" " (Ulpia), 155
" Treves, 155
Basilica-church at Florence (S. Miniato), 209
" " Ravenna (S. Apollinare in Classe), 206, 209
" " Rome (S. Agnese), 201
" " Rome (S. Clemente), 199
" " Rome (S. Paul without the walls), 205
" " Rome (S. Pietro), 201
Baths of Agrippa, 162
" Caracalla, 162
" Diocletian, 164, 191
Bharhut, 71
Birs-i-Nimrud, 45
Bridge over the Danube (Trajan's), 170
" Tagus (Hadrian's), 170
" Tiber (Pons Sublicius), 170
Campo Santo, Pisa, 209
Castle of S. Angelo, 174
Cathedral at Canterbury, 233
" Durham, 234
" Exeter, 234
" Monreale, 249
" Peterborough, 234, 235
" Piacenza, 224
" Pisa, 209
" Rochester, 234
" Rome (S. Peter's), 205
" Venice (S. Mark's), 217
" Winchester, 234
Chaitya, 67
Chapel in Tower of London, 232, 233
Chehil Minar, 56
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 112
Church at Aix-la-Chapelle, 225
" Caen (Abb. aux Hommes), 230
" " (Abb. aux Dames), 231
" Constantinople (S. Sophia), 211
" Earl's Barton, 224
" Milan (S. Ambrogio), 224
" Northampton (S. Peter's), 234
" Paris (Madeleine), 185
" Perigueux (S. Front), 218
" Ravenna (S. Vitale), 208, 215
" Rome (S. Maria degli Angeli), 164
" " (S. Maria ad Martyres), 166
" Rome (S. Stefano Rot.), 208
" Toulouse (S. Sernin), 227
" Turmanin, Syria, 221
" Verona (S. Zenone), 224
Circus Maximus, Rome, 143, 161
Cloaca Maxima, Rome, 141
Cnidus, Lion tomb at, 110
Colosseum, 158
Column of Marcus Aurelius, 173
" Trajan, 173
Decoration of Egyptian buildings, 37
Erechtheium, 107
Forum of Nerva, 191
Gate, Golden, at Jerusalem, 220
Gate at Perugia, 141
Giralda, 265
Hall, S. George's, Liverpool, 185
Ictinus, _Architect_, 88
Isidoros of Miletus, _Architect_, 211
Keep at Colchester, 237
" Hedingham Castle, 239
" Rochester Castle, 238
" Tower of London, 237, 239
Kutub, 266
Lats, 65
Lotus Column, 32
Lysicrates, Choragic Monument of, 112
Maison Carree, Nimes, 149
Mammisi, 25
Manephthah, 24
Manetho, 15
Mastaba, 20
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, 110
Mosque at Ahmedabad, 266
" Cairo (of Amrou), 254
" " ("El Moyed"), 258
" " (of Ibn Tulun), 256
" Cordova, 265
" Delhi, 266
" Jerusalem (El Aksah), 261
" " (Sakhra), 261
" (the Nilometer), 254
Mugheyr, buildings at, 44
Mycenae, Treasury of Atreus, 85
" Gate of the Lions, 86
Obelisks, 36
Pagoda at Nankin, 76
Palace at Khorsabad, 46
" Rome (of the Caesars), 174
" Spalatro (of Diocletian), 174, 192
Pantheon, 164
Parthenon, 88-91, 99-101
Persepolis, buildings at, 55
Persian columns, 57
Pheidias, _Sculptor_, 91
Pont du Gard, Nimes, 171
Porta Nigra, Treves, 172
Pylon, 25
Pyramid of Cephren, 16
" Cheops, 16
" Mycerinus, 16
Ram Raz, 72
Rome, Cloacae at, 141
Scopas, _Sculptor and Architect_, 109, 112
Silchester, ruins at, 143
Sutri, ruins of an amphitheatre, 143
Temple at Athens (Erechtheium), 107
" " (Parthenon), 88-91, 99-101
" " (of Jupiter Olym.), 149
" Baalbek, 149
" Corinth, 81, 87
" Ephesus (of Diana), 109
" Honan, 75
" Ipsamboul, 31
" Karli (Chaitya), 67
" Karnak, 26
" Lomas Rishi cave, 67
" Nigope cave (Chaitya), 67
" Nimes (Maison Carree), 149
" Orange (ruins), 157
" Paestum, 92
" Rome (of Jupiter Capitolinus), 142
" " (of Q. Metellus Macedonicus), 145
" " (of Antoninus and Faustina), 147
" " (of Fortuna Vir.), 147
" " (of Vesta), 153
" " (Pantheon), 164
" Sanchi (Tope), 67
" Tegea (of Athena Alea), 112
" Tivoli (of Vesta), 153
Temples, Egyptian, 25
" Shinto, 77
Theatre of Balbus, 156
" " Marcellus, 156
" " Mummius, 156
" at Orange, 157
" of Pompey, 156
Thermae, _see_ Baths
Tomb at Ahmedabad, 266
" " Bab-el-Molouk (Belzoni's), 24
" " Bijapur, 266
" " Castel d'Asso, 139
" of Cecilia Metella, 173
" " Cyrus, 54
" " Darius, 59
" " Hadrian, 174
" " Regulini Galeassi, 141
Tombs, Egyptian, 20
" Lycian, 85
" Cnidus (Lion), 110
Tope at Sanchi, 67
Tower at Delhi (Kutub), 266
" Seville (Giralda), 265
Treasury of Atreus, 85
Typhonia, 25
Usertesen I., 29
Wall of China, Great, 76
Way, Appian, 145
Westminster Abbey, 204
Wurkha, ruins at, 46
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS
OF
ART HISTORY OF ALL AGES
Each Volume contains numerous Illustrations, and is strongly bound for
the use of Students. Price 5_s._
_NOW READY._
BY PROFESSOR T. ROGER SMITH AND JOHN SLATER, B.A.
ARCHITECTURE: CLASSIC and EARLY CHRISTIAN. Comprising
the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and
Early Christian. Illustrated with upwards of 200
Engravings, including the Parthenon, the Erechtheium,
the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Colosseum, the Baths
of Diocletian, &c.
BY PROFESSOR T. ROGER SMITH AND EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A.
ARCHITECTURE: GOTHIC and RENAISSANCE. Showing the
progress of Gothic Architecture in England, France,
Germany, Italy, and Spain, and of Renaissance
Architecture in the same Countries. Illustrated with
more than 100 Engravings, including many of the
principal Cathedrals, Churches, Palaces, and Domestic
Buildings in England, and on the Continent.
BY GEORGE REDFORD, F.R.C.S.
SCULPTURE: EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN, GREEK and ROMAN. With 160
Illustrations, including Examples of the Works of the
most celebrated Greek Sculptors, a Map of Ancient
Greece, and a Chronological List of Ancient Sculptors
and their Works.
BY EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A., AND PERCY R. HEAD, B.A.
PAINTING: CLASSIC and ITALIAN. Including Painting in
Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Pompeii; the Renaissance in
Italy; Schools of Florence, Siena, Rome, Padua, Venice,
Perugia, Ferrara, Parma, Naples and Bologna. Illustrated
with 80 Engravings of many of the finest Pictures of
Italy.
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A., AND EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A.
PAINTING: GERMAN, FLEMISH and DUTCH. Including an
Account of the Works of Albrecht Duerer, Cranach, and
Holbein; Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memling; Rubens,
Snyders, and Van Dyck; Rembrandt, Hals, and Jan Steen;
Wynants, Ruisdael, and Hobbema; Cuyp, Potter, and
Berchem; Bakhuisen, Van de Velde, Van Huysum, and many
other celebrated painters.
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.
PAINTING: ENGLISH and AMERICAN. Including an account of
the Earliest Paintings known in England; the works of
Holbein, Antonio Moro, Lucas de Heere, Zuccaro, and Marc
Garrard; the Hilliards and Olivers; Van Dyck, Lely, and
Kneller; Hogarth, Reynolds, and Gainsborough; West,
Romney, and Lawrence; Constable, Turner, and Wilkie;
Maclise, Mulready, and Landseer, and many other
celebrated painters.
_Nearly ready._
BY GERARD SMITH, EXETER COLL. OXFORD.
PAINTING: SPANISH and FRENCH. Including the Works of
Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, and Murillo; Poussin,
Claude Lorrain, Le Sueur, Watteau, Chardin, Greuze,
David, and Prud'hon; Ingres, Vernet, Delaroche, and
Delacroix; Corot, Diaz, and Millet; Courbet, Regnault,
Troyon, and many other celebrated artists.
_In preparation._
Transcriber's Note
Archaic spelling has been preserved as printed, for example, Egean
instead of AEgean.
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.
The following amendments have been made:
Page 67, footnote--X. amended to XI.--"See Chap. XI. for
an illustration of a Christian Basilica."
Page 101--Theseium amended to Theseum--"Temple of Theseus
(Theseum), at Athens, 465 B.C."
Page 211--Isodoros amended to Isidoros--"... Anthemius of
Thralles, and Isidoros of Miletus, ..."
Page 270--114 amended to 116--"Agora, 116"
Page 270--148 amended to 143--"Amphitheatre at Sutri, 143"
Page 270--205 amended to 206--"Basilica-church at Rome
(S. Paul without the walls), 206"
Discrepancies between items in the List of Illustrations and actual
captions have been preserved as printed.
Figure 115--Guilloche is missing from the List of Illustrations in the
original text. This omission has been preserved in this e-text.
Figures 116 and 117 were out of sequence on page 136 (with Figures
105-110). They have been moved to their proper place in the sequence
of Figures. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so
that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.
The advertising material has been moved to the end of the book.
End of Project Gutenberg's Architecture, by Thomas Roger Smith and John Slater