=Palaces.=--Augustus set the example of _How to Study Architecture

choosing the Palatine Hill, to which successive emperors, particularly

Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and Septimus Severus, made additions

of increasing splendour. Nothing remains but ruins, which, however,

show that the principal apartments were as follows: the Tablinum or

throne-room; Basilica, or hall of justice; Peristylium or rectangular

garden-court, enclosed with colonnades; Triclinium, or Banquet Hall;

Lararium or domestic temple for the household gods and the Nymphæum.

A remarkable example is the =Palace of Diocletian at Spalato, Dalmatia=,

built A.D. 300. The plan, rectangular in shape and covering an area of

4½ acres, about the same, in fact, as that of the Escoriál in Spain,

seems to have been laid out on the lines of a Roman camp. A square tower

occupies each of the corners, while three of the sides were pierced with

entrances, flanked by octagonal towers, which were distinguished as the

“golden,” the “iron,” and the “bronze” gateways. From these extended

colonnaded roads which met in the centre, thus dividing the area into

two northern sections, probably used by the principal officers of the

household and the guests, and a large southern portion reserved for the

imperial palace, and two temples. One of these was dedicated to

=Æsculapius=; the other, circular in plan, to =Jupiter=.

The architecture was of a somewhat debased character, but offers certain

interesting features of transition to the later style of the Romanesque.

Thus, in the northern gateway an entablature is not employed, and the

arches rest directly on the capitals of the columns.

=Domestic Buildings.=--The domestic architecture comprised three forms:

the _domus_, or city residence of the well-to-do; the _insula_, or city

tenement house, and the rich man’s country house or _villa_.

The last term comprises the house and its accompaniments of beautifully

laid-out grounds and gardens. On a colossal scale of magnificence was

the =Villa of Hadrian= erected at =Tivoli=, where the whole area amounted

to seven square miles. It included, besides the usual palace apartments,

a gymnasium, thermæ and theatre, disposed amid terraced gardens,

peristyles, ornamental water-basins, and fountains.

Some idea in miniature of the luxurious villa of the Romans is to be

gained from the various villas excavated in the summer resort of

Pompeii, such as the =House of Pansa= and the =House of Vetius=. It

comprised a rectangle bounded on three sides by narrow streets and on

the fourth by the garden. The lower story contained shops, opening on to

the streets, as in the case of many modern hotels. The principal

entrance to the house itself was a portico through which the visitor

passed into an _oecus_ or reception room. On the right of this were the

quarters of the kitchen and on the left was the _triclinium_ or

dining-room for use in cold weather. The reception-room led into a

peristyle court open to the sky, with covered colonnades that afforded

protection from the sun, while the rain was caught in an _impluvium_ or

central cistern. On one side of the court extended a row of _cubicula_

or sleeping apartments, another row of which lined one side of the

_atrium_. This also was an open court, furnished with an impluvium, and

protected from the weather on its sides by the extended eaves of the

adjacent roofs. The atrium was the public reception place in which the

owner of the house interviewed his clients and transacted business.

Accordingly it had a separate entrance from the street.

The walls of the principal apartments were decorated with paintings,

many of which involved architectural features; the floors were laid with

mosaics and the timber ceilings were probably painted and gilded, their

roofs being constructed of terra-cotta. The blocks of dwellings, called

_insulæ_, seem to have anticipated our modern apartment and tenement

houses, for they were carried up through many stories and housed

numerous families. It is probable that they involved few conveniences,

as we understand them to-day; the important necessity of water, for

instance, being met by public fountains, which supplied drinking water,

and by the public baths that made provision for cleanliness and health.

=Bridges, Aqueducts.=--Among the great public works achieved by the Romans

were roads, aqueducts, and bridges; and, although these were, strictly

speaking, engineering masterpieces, the use of the arch in the last two

brings them within the scope of architectural grandeur. The visible

signs, and indeed the symbol of Roman civilisation, were the roads which

pushed their way forward to the limits of the Empire, as far as possible

with a directness that swerved aside from no obstacle, and with a

solidity of foundation that in many parts of the world survives to-day.

And a corresponding solidity allied with the dignity of simplicity of

design characterised the bridges. The best preserved in Italy is the

five-arched =Bridge of Rimini=, while impressive examples are found in the

favoured province of Spain; at =Cordova=, for instance, and =Toledo=.

The Romans were lavish users of water, for purposes of luxury as well as

necessity. They understood the simple hydraulic law that water will rise

in pipes to its own original level and applied the system in their

buildings. But since pipes of lead and bronze were costly and none too

durable, they dispensed as far as possible with their use, conveying the

water in lofty aqueducts, with a fall, as Vitruvius recommended, of 6

inches in 100 feet, so that the water was delivered from a height at

the spot it was needed. The channel, constructed of concrete, lined with

cement, was conducted upon a series of concrete arches, faced with

brick; the arches being of immense height and sometimes in several

tiers. The =Anio Novus=, constructed A.D. 38, was sixty-two miles in

length and entered =Rome= on arches carried over the =Aqua Claudia=, which

was erected at the same time and is still one of the water supplies of

Rome. The finest existing example, however, is the so-called

=Pont-du-Gard=, near =Nîmes=, which forms part of an aqueduct twenty-five

miles long. For a distance of about 900 feet it is composed of three

tiers of arches, crossing the valley 180 feet above the River Gard.

* * * * *

In conclusion, the genius of the Roman architect consisted in his

faculty of organisation, which enabled him to take the principles of

Hellenic architecture and apply them to a great variety of requirements.

What his architecture lost in refinement, it more than gained in

flexibility and resourcefulness, while creating for itself a distinction

of structural grandeur. It refertilised the Hellenic which had

threatened to become a barren style and produced a style that not only

was richly competent to serve the needs of its own time, but has proved

capable of being further developed to new needs. It involved principles

that had their influence on Romanesque and consequently on Gothic

architecture, became the source from which Renaissance architecture was

evolved, and, even in our own day, are still capable of new and active

service.

BOOK IV

POST-CLASSIC PERIOD

CHAPTER I

EARLY CHRISTIAN CIVILISATION

As the power of Rome waned and the Empire became disintegrated, the

force of Christianity increased and spread and the organisation of the

Church became consolidated. The immediate followers of Christ looked for

their Lord’s reappearance as a Jewish Messiah. Paul, however, taught

that there was no distinction in the sight of Christ between Jew and

Gentile and treated Christianity as a philosophic system of ethics,

applicable to all races and conditions of rich and poor. His view

prevailed and Christianity became a great proselytising force.

Its idea of a universal brotherhood appealed especially to the

multitude, while men and women of the highest classes were attracted by

its ideals of better and purer living. For the period was one of social

unrest and of havoc of old faiths and standards of conduct. Profligacy

was sapping the vitals of the state and of society, and the need of new

moral ideals was insistent. “No one thing about Christianity commended

it to all, and to no one thing did it owe its victory, but to the fact

that it met a greater variety of needs and met them more satisfactorily

than any other movement of the Age.”

Its growth was further facilitated by the proselytising zeal of its

adherents. Christianity spread not only throughout the Roman Empire in

Europe, but also fastened upon Asia Minor and North Africa, taking firm

root especially in Egypt, the intellectual centre of the Empire, and

extending even to the Germanic tribes which were to become the

conquerors of Rome.

Its power, moreover, was strengthened by its organisation. In the

beginning each congregation had been independent. It had its officers,

deacons, who cared for its poor; elders or presbyters, who, as the

council of the church, looked after its interests; and its overseer,

episcopus, or bishop, the chief of the presbyters. In course of time, as

the church of a given city sent out branches to neighbouring towns and

rural districts, the bishop of the parent community came to have

authority over a group of congregations. In time the bishops of a

province learned to look for guidance to the highest religious officer

of the provincial capital, who acquired the high importance of a

“Metropolitan.” And above him in dignity were the “Patriarchs” of such

cities as Antioch and Alexandria, while the Bishop of Rome was acquiring

the greatest influence. “In brief, the government of the Church was

becoming a monarchy.” (Botsford.)

Constantine, recognising the advantage of allying himself with such an

organisation, issued in 313 the Edict of Milan, which placed all

religions on an equal footing. Furthermore, to set at rest the

dissensions which were threatening to disrupt the organisation of the

Church, he summoned a council of the representatives of all the great

branches of the Church to meet in Nicæa, to decide upon a creed which

should be acceptable to all.

For with the growth of the Church, Christianity had become encumbered

with doctrines that hardened into dogmas, and by this time a controversy

was raging over the rival dogmas upheld by two officers of the Church in

Egypt, Athanasius and Arius. Both held that Jesus Christ was the Son of

God, but Arius maintained that He had proceeded from the Father and was

therefore second to the latter, while Athanasius proclaimed the absolute

equality of the Father and the Son. The Council of Nicæa pronounced the

latter doctrine to be orthodox and branded the Arian as heresy. The

Nicene Creed, in which the orthodox was embodied, was accepted in the

West, but in the East, the Arian dogma continued to be held.

Apart, however, from its bearing on this question, the Council of Nicæa

was an event of profound importance. This first Œcumenical Council, or

Council representative of the whole Christian world, not only was an

object lesson of the widespread power of the Church, but also exalted

the clergy to a high position of spiritual authority amid the temporal

distractions of the time.

Constantine, upon his deathbed, accepted the Christian faith. Some fifty

years later Theodosius made Christianity the sole religion of the state

and the pagan temples were closed.

By degrees the spiritual power of the Church was reinforced by the

temporal. The beginning of this change is sometimes dated from the act

of the Frankish king, Pepin, to whom the Pope appealed to stem the

attack of the Lombards, then pushing south from their possessions in

Northern Italy and threatening Rome. Pepin drove them back and handed

over a considerable slice of territory to the Pope, to swell the

so-called “Patrimony of St. Peter.” The latter, from this time on,

became a source of increasing wealth, which enabled the Popes to

maintain armies and play the part of princes in the world of politics.

Meanwhile, the temporal power of the Western Church, centred in the

Papacy, had been helped by Constantine’s removal of the capital of the

Empire to Constantinople. Two circumstances contributed to the change.

By this time the Senate had lost even the semblance of authority, and

the real source of government was in the consent of the armies.

Secondly, the frontiers chiefly threatened were the eastern ones.

Constantine accordingly selected as the site of a Nova Roma, the ancient

Greek city of Byzantium. It, too, had its seven hills, occupying a

promontory between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmora, a spot

defended, as well as beautified, by nature and already an important

gateway of commerce, both by sea and land, between Europe and the East.

Constantine planned the new city of Constantinople on extensive lines

and set an example of magnificent building that was continued by his

successors; so that Constantinople continued for a thousand years to be

the Eastern bulwark of European civilisation, until it was conquered by

the Moslems in 1453.

Among the results of this change of the capital was, firstly, that the

Empire gradually separated into East and West; secondly, that

Constantinople became the centre of culture, and, as darkness settled

down upon the West, the almost sole refuge of learning and the arts. In

the beginning Roman architects directed the character of the new city,

but even then the artisans who executed the work were either Byzantines

or Greeks, attracted to the new city from various parts of Hellas and

Asia Minor. In consequence architecture and the other arts gradually

became impressed with a new character, which, for convenience’ sake, is

styled Byzantine. It represents, in the case of architecture, a mixture

of Roman, Greek, and Oriental; and involved, as we shall see, the

treatment of old principles in a new spirit of invention.

The change was encouraged by the contact of Byzantium with Eastern and

African civilisation. For as the Western Empire declined in power, the

Eastern grew; extending its sway in Asia, where it came into conflict

with the Parthians and Persians, and along the northern littoral of

Africa. The Metropolitan Bishop of Byzantium became to the Eastern

Churches what the Metropolitan Bishop of Rome was to the Western; and

exercised a spiritual headship over the Coptic Church in Alexandria, the

Syrian Church in Antioch, the Nestorian Church in Ctesiphon, and the

Armenian in Asia. Over this widely spread area religious art flourished,

coloured in each locality by racial influences, all of which influences

in a measure reacted upon the capital city of Byzantium.

Meanwhile, in the West, the Church was labouring to reorganise a settled

condition of society by assisting the consolidation of authority. A case

in point is the welding of the Frankish tribes into some semblance of a

nation. By 486 they had found a great leader in Clovis, who led them

across the Rhine, conquered the Romans at Soissons, and proceeded to

extend his sway over Gaul. To consolidate his power he married Clotilda,

a princess of the Burgundian Goths, and accepted her faith of

Christianity. It chanced that she professed the orthodox belief, unlike

the majority of the Burgundians and the other German tribes at this time

in Gaul, who were Arians. Consequently the Roman Church threw the weight

of its influence on the side of Clovis and helped him to found a

monarchy in France that endured under the title of Merovingian, so

called from Merovech, the grandfather of Clovis.

In time the vigour of the Merovingian kings declined, until the actual

power was wielded by the steward of the royal household, the Mayor of

the Palace. Gradually this office became hereditary in a dynasty of

rulers known as Carolingian or Charles Dynasty. The first great Charles

was Mayor Charles, surnamed Martel or the Hammer; the last, Charlemagne,

or Charles the Great. The former derived his name from the crushing

blows he inflicted upon his enemies, particularly the Saracens, the

followers of Mohammed, who by this time (732) had replaced the Vandals

along the north coast of Africa, conquered the Visigoths in Spain, and

were threatening France. Charles met them at Poictiers or Tours, and in

a complete victory saved Christianity to Europe.

Charles remained simply Mayor; but the title of King was assumed by his

son, Pepin, who was first elected by the Franks and then anointed by the

Church, thus ascending the throne with the consent of the Pope. We have

already noted how he repaid the debt. He was succeeded by his son

Charlemagne, whose dream was to found an empire upon the ruins of the

Roman. It was fulfilled to the point that he extended Frankish sway over

Germany, as far as the Elbe, and into Italy. In the last named country

he conquered the Lombards and signalised the completeness of the

conquest by assuming the iron crown of Lombardy. On Christmas Day, A.D.

800, as he was kneeling at prayer in the Church of St. Peter in Rome,

Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Romans.

It was the aim of Charlemagne to establish his government on Roman

lines, to which end he reintroduced Roman laws and methods of

civilisation and ordained that Latin should be the official language.

The city selected as his capital was Aachen--Aix-la-Chapelle.

[Illustration: S. APOLLINARE NUOVO, RAVENNA

SHOWING CLASSICAL COLUMNS AND “IMPOST”: MOSAICS; ARCH OF TRIUMPH AND

APSE. P. 201]

[Illustration: S. APOLLINARE-IN-CLASSE, RAVENNA

EXTERIOR OF APSE. DETACHED CAMPANILE. P. 201]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF KALB-LAUZEH, SYRIA

SHOWING APSE, WOODEN ROOF, SUPPORTED BY SMALL COLUMNS ON CORBELS; ROUND

ARCHES ON PIERS. P. 200]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF TURMANIN, SYRIA

RUDIMENTS OF SUBSEQUENT ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC TREATMENT OF WEST FRONT.

P. 200]

CHAPTER II

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

When the “Peace of the Church” had been proclaimed by Constantine and

Christians were able to worship openly, the age of church-building

commenced, the Emperor himself setting a lead. After the edict of

Theodosius, making Christianity the State religion, many of the pagan

temples were adapted to the purposes of the Christian ritual, or their

columns and decorative features were appropriated for the building of

new churches. The former practice accounts for the preservation of the

Parthenon, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Theseus at Athens. An instance

of the method of conversion is to be traced in the =Cathedral of

Syracuse, Sicily=, which occupies the site of an ancient temple. Walls

were built between the Doric columns of the peristyle, while the walls

of the cella were pierced so as to communicate with the peristyle, which

thus served as aisles. Another instance is that of a temple in

=Aphrodisias=, in Caria, Asia Minor, where the walls of the cella were

entirely removed, and walls were built outside the peristyle to form

aisles, while to increase the length of the nave the front and rear

portico columns were set in line with the others.

=Basilican Plan.=--These changes coincided with the general adoption of

the basilica plan in the case of new buildings. For the early Christian

churches show very little regard for the appearance of the exterior.

Attention was concentrated on the interior, in fitting it for ritual

worship and in beautifying it, and to both these objects the basilica

plan most readily contributed.

The earliest example in Rome of a church so planned is that of =St. John

Lateran=, which, however, has been completely remodelled by subsequent

additions. The next in point of time was the =Cathedral Church of St.

Peter=, erected near the spot in which the saint was martyred in the

circus of Nero. It was torn down in 1506 to make room for the present

cathedral commenced by Julius II; but the appearance of its principal

façade is known from Raphael’s mural painting “Incendio del Borgo,” in

the stanze of the Vatican, and there is a record of its plan. The latter

shows that the basilica building was approached by an atrium, surrounded

by either colonnades or arcades, enclosing a rectangular space, open to

the sky and having a fountain in the centre. With the water the

worshippers sprinkled themselves, a symbol of purification still

preserved in the “holy-water” vessel, placed inside the entrance of

Roman Catholic churches.

The end arcade, abutting on the church proper, was used by penitents and

called the _narthex_. The body of the church was divided, as in the

basilica halls, into central nave and side aisles--the latter sometimes

double. Across the end of the nave extended the _bema_ or sanctuary,

corresponding to the space raised and enclosed for litigants and lawyers

in the basilica. Its ends projected beyond the line of the main

building, forming rudimentary transepts, which may have been used as

sacristies for the robing of the clergy and the preservation of the

sacred vessels and other ritual objects. The central part of the bema

was elevated and occupied by the altar which was surmounted by a

_baldachino_ or canopy, supported on four columns. Behind the altar was

the apse, lined with seats; those of the Roman assessors being now

occupied by the presbyters, while the centre one of the quæster or

praetor became the bishop’s throne. For the transference of the latter

to the side of the choir was of later date.

The officiating priest stood behind the altar, facing the congregation

and the east. For as yet the main façade was not the western, a fact of

interest when we recall that while the Hellenic architects built facing

the four points of the compass and made the chief entrance on the east,

the Romans were indifferent to the matter of orientation.

In certain instances as that of =S. Clemente=, in =Rome=, the accommodation

for the choir projected from the bema into the nave. It was enclosed

with low screen walls called _Cancelli_ (whence was derived the word

chancel); the side walls projecting to afford space for two reading

desks, or _ambones_; respectively, the Gospel _ambo_ and the Epistle

_ambo_.

=Treatment of Columns.=--There were two ways of treating the columns. In

the earlier type of churches, the aisles were spanned by arches, while

those of the nave supported an entablature. But this necessitated a

narrow intercolumniation, considerably obstructing the view.

Accordingly, the practice ensued of placing the columns further apart

and surmounting them with arches. The first example of this use of

_arcades_ in a nave is believed to occur in the northern gallery of the

=Palace of Diocletian= in =Spalato, Dalmatia=. Both methods continued to be

employed and were sometimes combined in the same building. Over the

entablature or arches, as the case might be, was a high stretch of wall,

rising above the level of the aisle roof, pierced with a row of

_clerestory_ windows. The nave and aisles terminated in arches, that of

the former, the principal entrance to the sanctuary, being called the

Arch of Triumph. The roofs were of timber; that of the nave rising to a

ridge and finishing at each end in a gable, while a slope from below the

clerestory covered the side aisles. The construction work of the roofs

was usually hidden in the interior by flat ceilings, beamed and

coffered.

The decoration of the interior included the use of antique columns,

which were sometimes adapted to their new place by cutting down or

removing the bases. The walls above the nave arcading or entablature

were adorned with mosaics, which also embellished the space above the

Arch of Triumph and the semi-dome of the apse. The floors were covered

with geometric patterns of marble sliced from columns and other antique

fragments.

The principal examples of basilican churches, still existing in =Rome=,

are =St. Paul-without-the-walls=, =S. Clemente= and =S. Maria Maggiore=. The

first named is of modern construction, completed in 1854, but preserves

the plan and dimensions of the older church which was destroyed by fire

in 1823. It had been begun in 380 by Theodosius, on a plan closely

following that of the old St. Peter’s, except that the transepts of the

bema project less and the atrium was abandoned, leaving only the

narthex. Its construction and embellishment were continued by other

emperors and by many popes, the munificence of the latter being

commemorated in a series of portrait medallions of the popes which

extends in a band above the arcade-arches on each side of the nave. The

wall space above them is veneered with rare marbles, enclosing panels

filled with paintings representing incidents in the life of St. Paul.

Amid the somewhat extreme sumptuousness of the interior a feeling of the

older character of a basilican church is preserved in the mosaics of the

fifth century which adorn the arch of triumph, and in those of the apse

which date from the early part of the thirteenth century.

=S. Maria Maggiore= presents an original basilican plan of nave and single

aisles, from each of which during the Renaissance was built out a square

side chapel, surmounted by domes, giving the plan the form of a cross.

But the interior of the nave dates from the time of Sixtus III in the

fourth century and shows on each side a series of Ionic columns,

supporting an entablature. Above this, as also over the arch of triumph,

are mosaics of the fifth century.

The =Church of S. Clemente= is notable for the retention of the atrium and

also for the termination of the aisles in apses, a feature which

suggests Byzantine influence.

=Circular and Polygonal Plans.=--In addition to the basilican buildings of

this period were some which involved a circular or polygonal plan,

suggested probably by the circular temples and tombs of the Romans. They

were applied in the early Christian era both to tombs, which in some

cases were afterward converted into churches, and to baptistries. The

latter were independent buildings, so called from their use at first

solely for the sacrament of baptism. In later times, however, it became

the custom to place the font inside the church; yet as late as the

eleventh century was erected the famous =Baptistry of Florence=, in which

even to this day every child born within the city is baptised.

The examples in Rome of circular or polygonal buildings are the

Baptistry which forms part of the group of buildings of =S. John Lateran=,

the =Tomb of S. Constanza=, the daughter of Constantine, which was

converted into a church in 1256, and the church of =S. Stefano Rotondo=.

The general character of the Roman tomb was a circular mass,

superimposed on a square podium. The cylindrical mass was sometimes

decorated with pilasters, supporting an entablature, and occasionally

was surrounded by a peristyle, while its roof was apt to be conical.

In early Christian architecture this principle of construction was

developed. The peristyle was enclosed by outer walls, and the lower part

of the walls of the cylindrical mass was replaced by columns. Thus, in

the =Baptistry of S. John=, which has been called the =Baptistry of

Constantine=, the conical roof is supported by a circle of eight columns,

in two stories.

The =Tomb of S. Constanza= has a dome which is supported on twelve pairs

of granite columns, while the wall of the circular aisle is inset with

sixteen recesses, alternately apsidal and rectangular in shape, one of

the latter being opened through to form the entrance. The sarcophagus of

the saint which formerly occupied one of the niches, is now in the

Vatican Museum. Its sides are carved with genii gathering grapes--a

motive which is also represented in the mosaics that adorn the vaulting

of the church’s circular aisle.

=S. Stefano Rotondo=, though much reduced from its original size, is said

to be still the largest circular church in existence. The wall of the

cylinder, surmounted by a wooden conical roof, is supported on a

circular entablature, carried by antique columns. It was surrounded,

when built by Simplicius in the fifth century, by double circular

aisles, covered by a sloping roof. The latter was supported by columns

and arches, while the external wall was decorated with pilasters. Traces

of these are still apparent; otherwise the outer aisle has disappeared

and the present exterior represents the walling up of the spaces between

the columns. This was done by Nicholas V in the fifteenth century, by

which time the edifice, once richly decorated with marble veneers and

mosaics, had fallen into decay. Its lateral walls are now covered with

horribly naturalistic scenes of martyrdom, executed at the end of the

seventeenth century.

=Syrian Examples.=--Syria has disclosed to explorers--of whom the late

Marquis of Vogüé and Dr. H. C. Butler of the American Archæological

Expedition have been the foremost--a number of interesting monuments,

both civic and religious, erected between the third and eighth

centuries. While details of moulding and ornament appear to have been

copied from those of Roman remains, the methods of construction were

worked out by the builders themselves. They seem to have retained the

Phœnician preference for using the largest stones that could be

quarried, transported, and put in place. Thus, arches were frequently

carved out of a single stone, and when voussoirs were used, they were

either few in number or, if numerous, of great height and depth. Large

slabs of stone were also employed for roofing, especially in houses. In

imitating antique details the architects appear to have had little if

any feeling for their constructional origin or meaning; the capital and

half the shaft of a column, for example, being carved out of one piece

of stone, while the remainder of the shaft and the base were cut out of

another. On the other hand, they developed for themselves certain fine

features of construction, as for instance, in the arcading of their

basilican churches, in which the columns were sometimes replaced by

large rectangular piers, carrying arches of great width. An example of

this impressive method is found in the interior of the =Church of

Kalb-Lauzeh=. This corresponds with the larger =Church of Turmanin=, the

western façade of which shows a very independent spirit of design. It

has a broad arched entrance, flanked by two square towers, connected

over the doorway by an open gallery, constructed with columns.

A corresponding inventiveness marked their use of the basilican plan. A

fine example is the large =Church of S. Simeon Stylites= at =Kalat-Seman=.

The nucleus of the plan is an octagonal court, open to the sky, in the

centre of which stood the pillar on which the saint spent thirty years

of his life. This court forms the intersection or crossing of four

rectangular wings, arranged in shape of a cross, each one of which has a

basilican form, the nave and aisles of the eastern one terminating in

apses.

Another very interesting plan occurs in the =Cathedral at Borah=. It

presents a circle inscribed in a square, in the angles of which are

apsidal recesses projecting from the circle. Moreover, from the east

side of the square project three short rectangles, terminating in apses,

which suggest the prolongation of the nave and aisles that have been

interrupted by the circle. Nothing but the foundations of this church

remain. Meanwhile, the =Church of S. George= at =Esrah= shows a similar plan

and is surmounted by a high elliptical dome. It is conjectured that

these two churches were the prototypes of =S. Sergius, Constantinople=,

and =S. Vitale= at =Ravenna=, which will be discussed later, and of many

corresponding churches of Byzantine architecture.

=Ravenna.=--In the development of early Christian architecture a very

interesting part was played by Ravenna. For this city, situated on the

Adriatic (though the sea has since receded to a distance of six miles),

was the chief port by which the trade of Constantinople or Byzantium

entered Italy. Accordingly some of the tombs and churches present a

fusion of Byzantine and Syrian influences with Roman. The change from

the basilican type is especially marked in the character of the plan and

by the adoption of domes.

Thus the =Baptistry of Ravenna= is an octagonal structure, surmounted by a

dome of hollow tiles. The =Tomb of Galla Placidia= is cruciform in plan

with a lantern raised over the crossing or intersection of the arms of

the cross. The lantern is pierced with four windows and surmounted by a

dome, supported on pendentives--a method of construction, peculiarly

Byzantine, which will be considered presently.

When Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostro-Goths and ruler of Northern

Italy, selected Ravenna as his capital, he built the =Church of S.

Apollinare Nuovo=, importing twenty-four marble columns from

Constantinople and employing Byzantine artists and artisans. The plan is

basilican, though the atrium and apse have been removed by subsequent

alterations, but the interior is richly embellished with Byzantine

mosaics. The latter also adorn the larger basilican =Church of S.

Apollinare-in-Classe=, so called from its being situated near the port.

Its columns also are distinguished by the peculiarly Byzantine feature

of the _impost block_, to be described later.

After the death of Theodoric in 536 the Emperor Justinian, having

through his general, Belisarius, routed the Goths from the country, made

Ravenna the political capital of Italy, under the authority of an

exarch. Then was built, probably as Court Church, the famous example of

Byzantine influence, the =Church of S. Vitale=. We will return to this

after a consideration of what is involved in the Byzantine style.

=Byzantine.=--The term Byzantine is applied to the style of architecture

gradually developed in Byzantium after Constantine, in A.D. 324,

transferred the capital of the Roman Empire to that city. Its

distinctive features are the use of brick and stone in place of

concrete; the use of imposts in connection with columns and arches; the

character of the carved ornament applied to surfaces and, most important

of all, a system of covering rectangular spaces with domes. It reached

its highest point of development under the Emperor Justinian, between

the years 527 and 565.

The style was the result of evolution; a product of the combination of

principles of construction derived from Roman, Early Christian and

Syrian architecture, and from the traditional methods of the Iran

builders of Assyria; affected in matters of decoration by the luxurious

taste of the Orient.

The favourite material of Byzantine builders was brickwork; the bricks

being one and one-half inches in thickness, like the Roman, and laid

between layers of mortar of similar thickness. In the case of cornices

the bricks were moulded to the required contours and when used for the

shafts of columns were circular in outline. The mortar was composed of

sand, lime, and crushed pottery, tiles, or bricks. Except in the case of

marble columns which were cut and put in place by masons, the whole of

the preliminary work was done by bricklayers who constructed the entire

“carcass” of the building. When this

[Illustration: FROM THE INTERIOR OF SAN VITALE, RAVENNA

SHOWING THE “IMPOST” ABOVE COLUMN, AND DECORATION.

Pp. 202-204, 207]

[Illustration: TOMB OF GALLA PLACIDIA, RAVENNA

P. 201]

[Illustration: SECTION OF SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS, CONSTANTINOPLE

SHOWING FLUTED OR MELON-SHAPED DOME, SUPPORTED ON EIGHT ARCHES AND

“SQUINCHES.” NOTE LIGHTS ROUND DOME. P. 206]

[Illustration: DIAGRAM

SHOWING HOW THE PENDENTIVES, RESTING ON FOUR ANGLES OF A SQUARE, PROVIDE

A CIRCULAR BASE FOR THE DOME. P. 205]

[Illustration: SECTION OF S. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE

SHOWING PENDENTIVE DOME. P. 207. SMALL DIAGRAM, AT RIGHT, SHOWS HOW A

DOME WAS MADE TO REST ON EIGHT PIERS ENCLOSING AN OCTAGON, BY NICHES OR

SQUINCHES.]

[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF S. SOPHIA

SHOWING THE IMMENSE BUTTRESSES THAT SUSTAIN THE THRUST OF THE DOME.

MINARETS ADDED LATER ARE OF CHARACTERISTICALLY TURKISH TYPE. P. 207]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF S. SOPHIA

SHOWING PENDENTIVES AND THREE OF THE DOME ARCHES (TWO OF WHICH ARE

CLOSED AND PIERCED WITH LIGHTS). NOTE ALSO RING OF LIGHTS ROUND NECK OF

DOME. PP. 202, 205, 207]

[Illustration: PLAN OF S. SOPHIA

P. 208]

[Illustration: PLAN OF S. MARK’S, VENICE

P. 209]

[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF S. MARK’S, VENICE

SHOWING GOTHIC DETAILS IMPOSED ON BYZANTINE DESIGN. P. 209]

had dried and settled, the masons and the decorators completed the work,

by overlaying the walls, domes, and pediments of the interior with

marble or mosaics.

The floors were paved with richly coloured marbles, in _opus sectile_ or

_opus Alexandrinum_. Marble, also, cut in thin veneers and arranged so

that their veining produced symmetrical designs, was applied to the

walls. Marble, again, but incised with carved ornament, covered the

soffits of the arches, the archivolts, and spandrels, while the vaulting

was resplendent with mosaics, composed of figures and ornaments,

executed in enamelled glass upon a background of gold or blue or, more

rarely, pale green.

Colour was pre-eminently the motive of the interior decoration and to

this end carved work was subordinated. The ornament was in very low

relief, spreading over the surface in intricate patterns, that suggest

the delicate enrichment of lace. Mouldings were replaced by bands of

mosaic or marble, carved or smooth. The chief motive of the carved

ornamentation was the mingling of the acanthus and anthemion. The

treatment of both was rather Hellenic than Roman; the foliage having

pointed ends; but it was deeply channelled and drilled with deep holes

at the springing of the leaves. In fact, the use of the drill as well as

the chisel was characteristic of Byzantine carving and emphasises the

suggestion of the ornament being raised rather than, as in Roman

decoration, applied. Corresponding to the general flatness of the

ornament is the constraint of the contours of the mouldings, suggestive

of Asiatic languor and in marked contrast to the vigorous profiles of

classic architecture. The impression, indeed, of the whole scheme of

decoration is rather one of soft richness, as carving melts into colour

and colour deepens and glows and finally passes into the gold or depths

of azure of the vaulting.

When the supply of antique columns was exhausted the Byzantine

architects began to imitate them, but soon departed from the classic

type. In certain cases the capital retained something of its derivation

from the Ionic or Corinthian styles; but gradually a new type was

evolved, which was distinguished by being convex to the outside rather

than concave. The motive appears to have been to give additional support

to the arch, for which purpose an _impost_ was, as the name implies,

“placed upon” the capital. It consists of a block, which projects beyond

the edges of the capital to fit the extra thickness of the wall and may

represent, as has been suggested, the survival of a part of the

architrave of the discarded entablature. In the decoration of the

capitals the foliage was sometimes enclosed in frames of interlace, or

the latter took the form of a basket, on which birds are perching.

=Pendentive Dome.=--We have now to consider the most characteristic

feature of Byzantine architecture--the Dome. Briefly, in the 200 years

that divided Justinian from Constantine the Byzantine architects

perfected a principle of dome construction by which they crowned a

square plan with the circle of a dome.

The Romans confined their domes to circular or polygonal buildings.

Meanwhile they had worked out the construction of groined vaulting upon

four supports. The Byzantine achievement was to make four supports carry

a dome. It was accomplished by developing the element of

construction--the _pendentive_.

We have already noted the bas-relief found at Koyunjik, which shows that

the Assyrians understood the crowning of small square buildings with

domes. While actual examples have perished, the tradition of this

construction seems to have survived in the East. For in the third

century A.D., when the Persians established the Sassanian Empire under

the impulse of a movement that sought to restore the ideals and habits

of the old national life, the builders erected domes in the palaces of

Serbistan and Firuzabad.

The method they adopted was to bridge each angle of the square, at some

distance below the top, with a small arch. On these they erected two

small arches that projected beyond the face of the original arch and

accordingly extended the width of the bridge. They continued this

process of superimposing tier upon tier of arches, until the bridge was

level with the top of the square, by which time the latter was

transformed into an octagon. Then, by inserting a _corbel_ or bracket in

each angle of the octagon and taking advantage of the thickness of the

masonry, they were able to adjust a dome to the structure. This system

of dome-support, we shall find, was adopted in Gothic architecture,

where the arches are called _squinches_.

Another method of dome-support, found in the =Mosque of Damascus= and

frequently employed in the churches of Asia Minor, was to bridge the

angle with a semi-circular niche.

Meanwhile what the Byzantine architects developed was a geometrically

exact system of converting the square into a circle by means of concave

triangular members that are specifically called _pendentives_.

The character and function of a pendentive may be readily grasped by a

practical experiment. Cut an orange into two hemispheres. Lay the flat

of one on four reels, placed at the four angles of a square, inscribed

within the circle. These reels represent the piers on which the

pendentives are to be constructed. Now by four perpendicular incisions

of the knife cut off the segments of the hemisphere that project beyond

the square. The lateral spaces between the piers will now be spanned by

four arches. Finally, a trifle above the top of the arches, make a

horizontal cut, removing the upper part of the hemisphere. The rind

which remains represents the four pendentives. The flesh inside of it

may be likened to the timber centering used in the construction of the

pendentives and, now that the latter are completed, may be removed.

Remove also the flesh from inside the upper part of the hemisphere. It

will then be a hollow cap, which you can replace on the top of the

pendentives. You now have an instance of a dome and pendentives included

in a single hemisphere. More usually, however, the architect makes the

curve of the dome different from that of the pendentives. Frequently,

too, to give the dome superior distinction, he constructs a cylindrical

wall on the circle of the pendentives, and on this _drum_, as it is

called, elevates his dome.

Scientifically stated: “If a hemisphere be cut by five planes, four

perpendicular to its base and bounding a square inscribed therein, and

the fifth parallel to the base and tangent to the semi-circular

intersection made by the first four, there will remain of the original

surface only four triangular spaces bounded by arcs of circles. These

are called pendentives.” (Professor Hamlin.)

* * * * *

The first church built by Justinian was =SS. Sergius and Bacchus= in

=Constantinople=. The part dedicated to the latter saint--a small

basilica--was destroyed by the Turks. The remainder presents the plan

of a rectangle enclosing an octagon on which rests a dome of a curious,

fluted, melon shape.

A few years later was erected the church of =S. Vitale= in =Ravenna=,

probably as the Court Church. Its plan is an octagon within an octagon;

the inner one being surmounted by a dome.

The domical arrangement of both these churches may have been originally

derived from the =Pantheon=, modified by the example in Rome, of what is

called the =Temple of Minerva Medica=, though it was probably a nymphæum.

This building is decagonal with niches projecting from nine of the

sides, while the tenth provides the entrance. The dome, of concrete

ribbed with tiles, is built over an inner decagon of ten piers carrying

ten arches. These in turn support a decagonal drum, pierced with

windows, the angles at the top being filled in with rudimentary

pendentives. The same principle of construction reappears in both =S.

Sergius= and =S. Vitale=; the dome of the latter being composed, for the

sake of lightness, of earthenware, amphora-shaped pots, the bottom of

one being fixed in the lip of another. It is sheathed on the outside

with a wooden roof.

This =Church of S. Vitale= became the model on which Charlemagne based his

domical church at =Aix-la-Chapelle=, which was built as a royal tomb, A.D.

796-814, and was afterward used as the crowning-place of the Emperors of

the West.

=S. Sophia.=--Finally, the pendentive system was fully developed in

Justinian’s church in Constantinople dedicated to the =Holy Wisdom--Hagia

Sophia=, called, though erroneously, =S. Sophia=. It marks the highest

development of the Byzantine genius for domical construction.

The architects were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, who

began the work in 532 and finished it in 537. The plan shows four mighty

piers, 25 feet square, set at the angles of a square of 107 feet. These

support four arches and intermediate pendentives of noble height, the

apex of the dome being 175 feet from the pavement. For the original

dome, having collapsed in 555, was replaced by a higher one, lighted by

the introduction of forty circular-headed windows around the spring of

the curve; an arrangement not only excellent in admitting light to the

interior, but also as wonderfully impressive in its way as the single

eye of the =Pantheon=. Rows of small circular headed windows are also

pierced in the screens which fill in the north and south arches.

Abutting on the east and west arches of this central mass are

semi-domes, supported upon the central piers and two others. And from

these project, as in =S. Sergius= and =S. Vitale=, small semicircular domes,

sustained by an upper and lower story of arcades. Thus was created a

vast oval-ended hall, 267 feet long by 107, from every part of which the

summit of the dome is visible.

Outside this central feature are two side-aisles, each having two

stories, separated from the nave by arcading and formed of a series of

columns and vaulting. As in all Early Christian and Byzantine churches

which have upper and lower galleries, the former were occupied by women

worshippers. The outer walls on the north and south sides, as the plan

shows, are reinforced by immense buttresses, 25 feet wide and 75 long,

which appear on the outside of the buildings like huge pylons. On the

inside they are pierced with arches on each story. These buttresses

withstand the thrust of the dome which is reinforced on the east and

west by the semi-domes.

The edifice, which occupies practically a square, is approached on the

west side by a narthex of magnificent proportions, 200 feet long by 30

wide, which is divided like the aisles into an upper and lower story. So

far “the plan resembles that of =S. Sergius=, if the latter were cut in

half and a dome on pendentives inserted over the intervening square and

the whole doubled in size.” In front of the narthex, however, extends a

second one, opening, as in some of the basilican churches, into an

atrium.

The exterior walls are faced with alternate courses of brick and stone

and the domes, all of which are visible, are covered with a sheathing of

lead.

=S. Mark’s, Venice.=--=S. Sophia= is a marvel not only of construction but

also of unity of design. It is in this respect, among others, that it is

superior to =S. Mark’s= in =Venice=, which was erected by Byzantine builders

at the end of the eleventh century. Venice, like Ravenna, was in close

touch with Constantinople and when she determined to build a cathedral

to her patron saint, to replace an earlier basilican church destroyed by

fire, it was natural that she should look to that city for the character

of the design as well as for artists and artisans to execute it. The

actual model was the =Church= of the =Holy Apostles=, in Constantinople,

founded by Constantine, rebuilt by Justinian, and destroyed by the Turks

in 1463 to make room for the mosque of Sultan Mahomet II.

The plan is a Greek cross, that is to say, a cross with the four parts

of practically equal length, grouped around a central square. Each of

the five divisions is crowned by a dome, supported on pendentives and

reinforced by transverse barrel vaults. The transept and choir domes are

slightly smaller than the ones over the crossing and the nave, because

of the restrictions of space caused by the chapel of S. Isadore in the

north transept, the Ducal Palace on the south, and the retention of the

apse of the ancient basilica. Originally all the domes were sheathed

externally with lead, but at a later date were covered with the

lead-sheathed wooden lanterns now existing. With their high-pitched

curves and ornamental terminals they represent a serious deviation from

the true Byzantine style.

A similar departure from the latter is exhibited in the west façade.

This was completed in the fifteenth century and involves a curious

mixture of Orientalism and fanciful Gothic with features, such as the

clusters of columns in two tiers, flanking the five entrances, which

serve no structural purpose and have no architectural justification.

They are purely picturesque. But =S. Mark’s= was the city’s shrine, to

which each succeeding century added some embellishment and often with

more zeal than discretion.

It is the interior rather that commands our admiration. For

notwithstanding certain distractions, even here, of later debased styles

of mosaic, enough of the tenth and eleventh century embellishments

remain to dignify the decoration. And in no other building in the world

is there so marvellous an ensemble of coloured marbles, alabaster, and

glass mosaics; or such subtleties, delicacies, and complexities of light

and shadow.

=Greece and Russia.=--In Greece and Russia the Byzantine has continued to

be the official style of the Greek Church. In Russia, however, many

fantastic elements have been introduced, particularly the bulbous form

of the domes.

As an example of domestic Byzantine architecture may be mentioned the

=Monastery of Mount Athos= on a promontory of Saloniki, overlooking the

Ægean Sea.

“In Armenia are also interesting examples of late Armeno-Byzantine

architecture, showing applications to exterior carved detail of

elaborate interlaced ornament, looking like a re-echo of Celtic M.SS.

illumination, itself, no doubt, originating in Byzantine traditions.”

(Hamlin.)

CHAPTER III

MUHAMMEDAN, ALSO CALLED SARACENIC CIVILISATION

The introduction at this point of Muhammedan or Saracenic architecture

unfortunately breaks the continuity of the evolution of Early Christian

and Byzantine architecture into the Romanesque and thence into the

Gothic. Accordingly, some writers reserve this chapter until the end of

their book, treating it as an independent interlude.

That method, on the other hand, has the disadvantage of not giving the

subject its proper place in the sequence of history; and since an

important motive of the present volume is to represent the growth of

architecture as the product of changing conditions of civilisation, it

seems more in accordance with this aim to let the conditions govern the

order in which the architectural phases are presented. So, in the

inevitable choice between two evils of arrangement we will select that

which, from our point of view, seems to be the least.

For it is true that Muhammedan or Saracenic civilisation represents but

an interlude in the progress of Christian civilisation. What, however,

would have been the outcome, if Charles Martel, in 732, had not crushed

the advance of the Muhammedans into France? They might have fastened

upon the latter as they had upon Spain, the north of Africa, Egypt,

Syria. From France they might have descended upon Italy, and gradually

drawn tighter the circle of their conquest until the Western as well as

the Eastern Empire was entirely in their grasp. It needs but a little

effort of imagination to realise that on the issue of the battle of

Poictiers hung the fortunes of Europe; the survival of European

civilisation and possibly the continuance of Christianity.

In fact, what was trembling in the balance was the extension of a new

and vigorous power over a social order that, except in the Frankish

kingdom, had grown more and more disintegrated and feeble. For in the

decline of Rome even her conquerors had been involved; the various other

Gothic nations in adapting the decay of her system had been corrupted by

it. The only unifying and uplifting force that glimmered amid the

general prostration was that of the Church, which might have been

engulfed in Islamism if the Franks had not prevailed at Poictiers.

For in the present day we associate Islamism with the unprogressive

nations, whereas in the eighth century it was the symbol of

progressiveness. Its spiritual ideal was, at least, as high as that of

Christianity; while its intellectual and material ideals were superior

to those of Europe.

Shall we speak of Saracenic civilisation or Saracenic architecture as

some do, or follow the example of others who substitute the term

Muhammedan? The former word was probably derived from the Latin

_Saraceni_, which was employed by the Romans to designate the Bedouins

who roamed a part of the Syro-Arabian desert, and committed depredations

on the frontier of the Empire. In the Middle Ages Saracen came to be

used as a general term for Moslems, especially those who had penetrated

into Spain. This latter use is too narrow, while the general use conveys

no meaning.

Muhammedan, on the other hand, implies a follower of Muhammed or

Mahomet, and it was the oneness of faith that first united the Arab

tribesmen and in time gave a uniformity of ideal to their spread of

conquest from the Pillars of Hercules to Northern India. While the

character of the civilisation varied throughout this vast empire, being

coloured by local and racial characteristics that reacted on the styles

of architecture, it was everywhere impregnated with one belief. There is

no god but Allah and Muhammed is his prophet.

Muhammed was born about 570 in Mecca, in the Arabian peninsula; a place

hitherto of little importance, which had a cube-shaped sanctuary, the

Kaaba, enshrining a Black Stone. It was the token or fetish of some god

of nature; for some kind of nature worship, including the worship of the

Sun, Moon, and Earth seems to have been the traditional religion of

Arabia. Meanwhile, Judaism had penetrated into the country and

Christianity had followed. Each figured in Muhammed’s imagination as a

world religion. Both professed one God. One had its prophets; the other,

its Messiah, and both its book of inspired revelation.

Accordingly, when the vision of Muhammed embraced the idea of founding

at once a new nation and a new religion, he borrowed from both Judaism

and Christianity and proclaimed himself the new prophet or Messiah of

the one God and made known the New Revelation, which was embodied in the

Koran. The faith of Islam, as preached by Muhammed and practised by him

and his followers, was essentially one of proselytising by force. “The

sword,” he taught, “is the key of Heaven and Hell. A drop of blood shed

in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, avails more than two months

of fasting and prayer. Whoso falls in battle his sins are forgiven. At

the Day of Judgment his wounds shall be resplendent with vermilion and

odoriferous as musk, and the loss of limbs shall be supplied by angels’

wings.”

Muhammed’s self-imposed task of subjugating and uniting Arabia for the

Arabians was begun after his flight from Mecca to Medina, the celebrated

_Hejira_ (Arab _hijra_) which occurred on the Jewish Day of Atonement,

Sept. 30, A.D. 622. The further work of conquering the countries on

which the Arab tribes had been dependent, Syria, Abyssinia, Persia, was

continued by his followers.

Of great importance in the history of architecture was the conquest of

Persia (632-651), for here the Muhammedan influence developed a style

that was distinguished by fine structural as well as aesthetic qualities

and generally developed a beautiful revival of the various arts of

decorative design. And it was Persian Muhammedan that strongly

influenced the architecture of India, where Muhammedan conquest was

established about A.D. 1000.

Meanwhile, the Arabic Muhammedans had founded a dynasty under the

Ommayads with its capital in Damascus and a later one under the

Abassids, whose most celebrated caliph was Haroun-el-Raschid of Bagdad,

made famous by the “Thousand and One Nights.” Conquest was extended

westward, gradually comprising Egypt, the north of Africa, Sicily, and

Spain.

In 1453 the Crescent displaced the Cross in Constantinople.

Yet, notwithstanding the divisions of the Muhammedans and the immense

distances separating them, a unity not only religious but also

intellectual was maintained. The Muhammedans learned rapidly from the

peoples they conquered and established for the diffusion of learning a

sort of university system of travelling scholarships. Aided by Arabic as

the universal language of learning, students journeyed from teacher to

teacher, from the Atlantic to Samarcand, gathering hundreds of

certificates. The education was designed to turn out theologians and

lawyers; but theology included studies in metaphysics and logic, and the

canon law required a knowledge of arithmetic, mensuration, and practical

astronomy.

Technical education was maintained by gilds who perpetuated the

“mysteries” of the craft through a system of apprenticeships. And it is

to be noted that there was no distinction made between so-called arts

and so-called crafts. The gild-system covered all kinds of constructive

work from engineering to the making of a needle, and if the work

permitted elements of beauty and decoration these were, as a matter of

course, included. Hence the proficiency and inventiveness and exquisite

perfection of workmanship displayed by the Muhammedan craftsmen.

But their Koran enjoined a literal obedience to the Mosaic law against

“the making of any graven image, or the likeness of anything that is in

Heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.”

Accordingly, there were no sculptors or painters in the full sense of

the term; only decorators of moulded, engraved, or coloured ornament,

the motives of which were confined to conventionalised flower and leaf

forms and to geometric designs of practically endless variations of the

straight line and curve, in meander, interlace, and fret, into which

they often wove texts from the Koran or the sacred name of Allah. It is

to these designs by Arab artists, influenced to some extent by

Byzantine, that the term _arabesque_ was first applied.

Meanwhile it was the practice of Muhammedanism to absorb as far as

possible the traditions of each nation it conquered. Gradually,

therefore, the strictness of its orthodoxy was modified. In Persia, for

example, the representation of animals was permitted in the arts of

design, and the representation of human beings followed.

Similarly, the architectural style of each locality was affected by the

previously existing architecture. The examples which remain are chiefly

of mosques, tombs, houses, and palaces.

The word mosque comes to us through the French mosquée; the Spanish

equivalent is mesquita, while the Arabs call the “place of

prostration”--_masjid_. The nucleus of every one is the _mihrab_ or

niche in a wall, indicating the _kibleh_ or direction of the Great

Mosque at Mecca, with its shrine, the Kaaba. Beside the mihrab was a

pulpit, _mimbar_, for preaching, and sometimes in front of it, for the

reading of the Koran, stood a _dikka_ or platform raised upon columns.

Shelter for the worshippers was provided by arcades, which in the

immediate vicinity of the mihrab were often enclosed with lattice work,

thus forming a prayer-chamber--_maksura_. The size of the mosque was

indefinitely enlarged by the addition of more arcades, surrounding

usually an open court, in the centre of which, as in the atrium of the

Early Christian basilicas, was a fountain for ritual ablution.

The tomb was usually distinguished by a dome and during the lifetime of

its founder served the purpose of a pleasure-house; corresponding

somewhat to the Roman nymphæum, and, as in the case of the Taj Mahal,

set in the midst of a beautiful system of gardens, water-basins, and

terraces.

In his house also the Muhammedan jealously guarded his domestic privacy.

He followed the Romans in leaving the exterior of his house plain,

while centering all its luxury and comfort around an open interior

court. Special quarters were provided for the women and the seclusion of

their lives within the harem led to two features which are

characteristic of Oriental houses, the balcony and the screen. That the

occupants might take the air, balconies were built out from the walls

both of the court and the exterior; and screened with lattice work, on

the designs of which great skill and beauty were expended.

The palaces represented the extension of the house-plan by the addition

of halls of ceremony. Sometimes, as in the case of the Alhambra, they

combined the character of a citadel, and were always generously supplied

with water, as well for the ablutions enjoined in the Koran, as for

purposes of beauty. The Arabs, in fact, readily learned the Roman

methods of engineering and hydraulics and in their houses and cities and

in the irrigation of land carried the system to a high degree of

perfection.

The system by which learning and culture circulated throughout the

Muhammedan world was illustrated in the spread of the arts of design.

Persia, for example, was a centre of the ceramic art, and wherever the

Muhammedan civilisation spread, the art of pottery was revived and took

on new and distinctive splendour. Enamel colours of the purest tones and

finest translucence were developed and the glazes were distinguished by

extraordinary lustre. They were lavished not only on vessels of

practical service but also on tiles for the decoration of walls.

With equal originality the Muhammedan artists developed the metal crafts

both in the direction of tempering the metal and in its decoration;

introducing and carrying to a wonderful pitch of perfection the

engraving, encrusting and inlaying of the surfaces with ornamental

designs; a process known as damascening, since Damascus was the earliest

important centre of the craft.

Further, in weaving they developed a corresponding skill and feeling for

design. Rugs and carpets, laid on the floor or spread over doorways,

were the chief furnishing of a Muhammedan home, while a small rug was

carried by the worshipper or his servant to the Mosque to protect his

bare feet while he prayed. These “prayer rugs” were frequently

embellished with a representation of a mihrab, enclosed in borders

bearing Koran texts, and were of silk of finest weave; that is to say,

with an extraordinary number of knots to the square inch. There is a

fragment of silk weave in the Altman collection at the Metropolitan

Museum, of Indian craftsmanship, each square inch of which embraces 2500

knots.

In a way, however, the very exquisiteness of Muhammedan craftsmanship

prepared the way for its decay. It originated in the limitation of

motives permitted to the decorator, who in consequence had to satisfy

his love of perfection by resort to delicacies and intricacies of design

beyond which there was no further possibility of creative invention.

CHAPTER IV

MUHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE

The Koran prescribed that every believer when praying should face toward

Mecca. This could be done as readily in the open desert as in a

building, so the early mosques were probably of little importance. It

was only as the Arab tribesmen extended their conquests to the

neighbouring civilisations and came in touch with the temples of

antiquity and the churches of the present, that they began to raise

handsome places of worship for their own religion.

As Muhammedanism spread eastward through Syria to Persia and later to

India and westward into Egypt, along the northern shore of Africa into

Spain and finally occupied Constantinople and Turkey, it absorbed much

of the civilisation of each country and employed the constructive

methods, the workmen, and the materials which it found ready to hand.

Consequently, the architectural expression of Muhammedanism, while

retaining everywhere certain essential characteristics, varies locally.

It offers notable distinctions according as it is found in Syria,

Persia, India, Egypt, Spain, and Turkey.

=Mosque of Mecca.=--The =Great Mosque of Mecca=, called by Moslems the Haram

El Masjid el Haram, or Baisullahi el Haram, the “House of God, the

Prohibited,” represents a succession of additions, extending from early

Muhammedan times to the middle of the sixteenth century. It comprises an

enclosure, 300 yards square, the walls of which are pierced with

nineteen gateways and

[Illustration: MOSQUE OF EL AZHAR, CAIRO

SHOWING EGYPTIAN TYPES OF MINARETS]

[Illustration: SULIEMANIYEH OR MOSQUE OF SULIEMAN

FOLLOWS STYLE OF S. SOPHIA. NOTE THE SURROUNDING CLOISTERS AND TYPE OF

MINARETS. P. 228]

[Illustration: ARCADES OF THE MOSQUE, NOW CATHEDRAL, OF CORDOVA, SPAIN

NOTE EXTENSIONS OF COLUMNS TO SUPPORT UPPER ARCHES. PP. 221, 224]

[Illustration: COURT OF THE LIONS, ALHAMBRA]

[Illustration: CONJECTURED RESTORATION OF THE PAVILION OF MIRRORS, AND

GARDENS

OF THE PALACE OF ISPAHAN]

[Illustration: RESTORATION OF COLLEGE OF SHAH HUSSEIN: ISPAHAN

SHOWING ARCADED FRONT AND LOFTY CENTRAL GATEWAY; ALSO BULBOUS FORM OF

DOME. P. 229]

[Illustration: MOSQUE OF AKBUR, FUTTEHPORE-SIKRI

NOTE GATEWAY, ARCADES AND SERIES OF LITTLE DOMES. P. 230]

[Illustration: TAJ MAHAL, AGRA

ERECTED BY SHAH JEHAN AS A TOMB FOR HIS WIFE. IN DISTANCE THE “PEARL

MOSQUE”, ANOTHER OF HIS MONUMENTS. P. 230]

embellished with minarets. The chief sanctuary is the Kaaba, so called

from its resemblance to a cube, of about 40 feet measurement, to the

outside of which, on its southeast angle, is affixed the sacred Black

Stone, the chief object of veneration. The shrine is surrounded to a

depth of 20 yards by successions of colonnades with pointed arches.

=Arcades.=--These arcades, affording protection to the worshippers, are a

feature common to all mosques; the direction of the arcades being

usually at right angles, though occasionally parallel to, the wall of

the mihrab--the niche which points toward Mecca. For columns the early

Muhammedan builders relied upon what they found in the buildings which

they replaced or remodelled; mixing the styles Egyptian, Roman, and

Byzantine, and bringing their different sizes to conformity by setting

blocks upon the capitals. To resist the thrust of the arches, wooden

tie-beams were built into the masonry at the spring of the arches, and

utilised for the hanging of lamps and lanterns. As these became a

recognised feature of mosques, the beams were retained even after the

skill of the builders had made them unnecessary as ties.

=Domes.=--The roofs are flat, constructed of timber, and on the inside

coloured and gilded. A dome frequently crowns the _maksura_ or prayer

chamber, and the tomb of the saint, when the latter is included in the

sacred precincts. Almost always the dome surmounts a square plan and to

accommodate the latter to the circle the Muhammedan architects invented

a method of construction that corresponds to the Byzantine pendentive.

In principle it goes back to the ancient method of bridging over a space

by setting the stones on each side of it in layers that project over

one another until the two sides meet at the top. The Muhammedan builders

filled in the corners of the square with tiers of projecting brackets or

corbels with niches between them. At first they placed corbel above

corbel and niche above niche, but in time alternated them, so that the

niches in one tier were astride of the corbels in the tier below them.

This method of filling in the angles of the square, so as to bring the

latter to a circle, came to be known as “stalactite” work and from being

used as a constructive expedient was developed into a system of

decoration that was frequently extended over the whole ceiling of the

vault.

The exterior of the dome was seldom spherical, as in Byzantine

architecture, but took the form of the _pointed_, or the _ogee_, or the

_horseshoe_ arch. It was built, either of brickwork in horizontal

courses, covered inside and out with plaster; or, in later mosques, of

horizontal layers of stone, engraved on the exterior with horizontal

patterns. Windows were frequently ranged round the lower part. In some

old tombs of the thirteenth century, as that of =Sheik Omar=, inside the

East Gate of Bagdad, the dome is pineapple shaped.

The walls were built of local materials and decorated either with stone

or brick in alternate courses, or with plaster, inset with precious

stones or veneered with glazed tiles.

=Minarets.=--A distinctive feature of the mosque was the minaret, a lofty

tower of lighthouse form, from the balcony of which the muezzin summoned

the faithful to prayer. While the minarets show a general similarity of

character, the details vary in different countries. Thus, in Persia they

rise from a circular base and are crowned by a round cap; in

Constantinople the base is round, octagonal, or square and the top is

finished with a cone; while in Cairo the top is flat. The shafts vary

from circular to polygonal, and are usually divided into three tiers of

balconies--though the Persian is generally distinguished by one--carried

round the shaft and supported by corbels, which in some instance are

embellished with stalactite ornament.

During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the mosques

became an aggregation of buildings, including the tomb of the founder,

residences for priests, schools and hospitals. They correspond, in fact,

to mediæval monasteries, and the evolution of their styles presents a

certain parallel to the contemporary evolution of Gothic architecture.

=Syria.=--Among the existing mosques in Syria are those of =El-Aksah= on the

Temple platform at Jerusalem and of =El-Walid= in Damascus, both of which

are planned like a basilica. Also on the Temple platform is the =Dome of

the Rock=, misnamed the =Mosque of Omar=, the central feature of which is a

circular space, crowned by a dome, which was rebuilt by Saladin in 1189.

=Egypt.=--In Egypt one of the oldest is the =Mosque of Amru= in Cairo, in

which the square open court is surrounded by arcades, set at right

angles to the mihrab and supported by columns taken from Byzantine and

Roman buildings. Somewhat similar in plan is the =Mosque of Tulun=, where,

however, the arcades run parallel to the mihrab wall and the wide

pointed arches are supported upon massive piers.

Then follow, during the period that corresponds to the development of

Gothic architecture, the =Mosque of= =Kalaoom=; that of =Sultan Hassan=,

which is cruciform in plan; that of =Sultan Barbouk=, celebrated for its

minarets and the beauty of the dome over the founder’s tomb; and the

small but richly decorated =Mosque of Kait-Bey=. In the prayer-chamber

(maksura) of the last-named appears, besides the stalactite

embellishment of the mihrab, a distinctive decoration of the arches. In

one case the arches are composed of voussoirs alternating in colour; in

the other the alternation is still further emphasised by the

interlocking shapes into which the voussoirs are cut, so that they fit

together with the variety and the exactness of a Chinese puzzle.

=Spain.=--Spain offers a very favourable opportunity for the study of

Muhammedan architecture. The =Mosque of Cordova=, begun by the Caliph

Abd-el-Rahman in 786, was enlarged by successive additions, until it

presents the appearance of a forest of columns and arches, apparently of

unlimited extent. There are said to be 860. The arcades are in two

tiers, the upper arches being supported on posts which are placed on the

capitals of the lower ones and at the same time form abutments to the

lower arches. In most cases the arches are of horseshoe form; but

elsewhere, as in the vestibule to the mihrab chamber the upper horseshoe

arches surmount a tier of cinquefoil or five-scalloped ones, and the

posts on which they abut are faced with attached columns. A remarkable

additional feature is the interlacing between the upper and lower arches

of portions of multifoil arches; so arranged that they appear to bridge

over the space between the alternate lower column and at the same time

to spring over the capitals of the intermediate upper column. The

arrangement is a striking instance of the Arab invention in the use of

repetition of motive, a use, in this case, governed by constructive

reasonableness as well as imposed by the desire for subtlety of

elaboration.

The =Mosque of Cordova= is second in size to the =Great Mosque of Mecca=.

Though the superb adornments of mosaics and red and gold ceilings have

suffered from decay and restoration and its vista of arcades is blocked

in parts by the coro (choir), erected when the edifice was converted

into a cathedral, it is still a marvellous memorial of Cordova’s

supremacy as the most learned, cultured, and prosperous caliphate in

Islam.

In Toledo there is nothing approaching the magnificence of the Mosque of

Cordova. Among the remains are the churches of =S. Cristo de la Luz= and

=Santa Maria la Bianca=, which are mosques converted to the Catholic

ritual.

At Seville beside the much renowned =Alcazar= or Castle, is the celebrated

tower, =Giralda=, so named from the weather vane (giradillo), a figure of

Faith with a banner, some 305 feet from the ground. It surmounts the

Renaissance top of three stories, added in 1568 to the old tower, which,

as an altarpiece in the cathedral shows, originally terminated in

battlements. These suggest that the building was erected as a watch

tower or, may be, as a symbol of power. Its plan is a square of 45 feet,

the walls being about 8 feet thick, built of material from Roman and

probably Visigothic remains. Its surface is pierced by twenty windows,

many of which are subdivided by columnettes, and embellished with sunken

panels, enriched with arabesques. The =Giralda= is under the special

protection of SS. Justa and Rufina--a fact commemorated in the

above-mentioned picture and in another by Murillo, now in the Provincial

Museum. It was used as a model for the design of the tower of the

Madison Square Garden, New York.

The =Alhambra, Granada=, represents the best preserved as well as the most

perfect example of the Moorish-Arabic genius. It was a fortress-palace,

much of it built on the brink of the rock, the steep slopes of which

were used to construct the lower stories of baths, offices, and

guardrooms. The exterior has no impressiveness, though the original

grouping of walls and roofs must have been highly picturesque. Its

halls, chambers, and remains of a mosque are clustered about two

rectangular courts or patios, which are joined like the two parts of an

“L”--the “Court of the Alberca” and the “Court of the Lions.” From one

of the ends of the Alberca Court projects the “Hall of the Ambassadors”;

from the other the “Hall of the Tribunal,” while the long sides of the

Court of Lions open respectively into the “Hall of the Abencerrages” and

the “Hall of the Two Sisters.”

The “Court of the Lions” is so called from the fountain in its centre,

an immense marble basin supported upon twelve lions, which form a

remarkable exception to the Muhammedan rule against representing the

image of any living thing. Both these Courts are arcaded, the columns,

set singly or in pairs, or groups, exhibiting, as do all the columns in

the Alhambra, distinctive features in their capitals, which are

separated by a high necking from the shaft.

It is, however, in the interior of the halls that the decoration reaches

its finest pitch and nowhere more than in the “Hall of the Two Sisters,”

which formed the culminating feature of the harem quarters. The name is

supposed to have been derived from two slabs of marble in the pavement

but may well have been suggested by the window, which occupies a bay and

is divided by a small column and two arches into two lights. The walls,

above a high wainscot of lustred tiles, are encrusted with flat moulded

arabesques, representing a delicate lacelike tracery of leafy vines and

tendrils, still tinctured with the red, blue, and gold that formerly

enriched them. The arabesques melt into the stalactite embellishments

which completely cover the hollow of the dome; created, as it seems, by

giant bees, whose cells hang down like grape-clusters in an endless

profusion of exquisite intricacy. Time was when this unsurpassable

delicacy of magnificence glowed with gold touched into a thousandfold

diversity of tones, by the light of hanging lamps.

As an expression of the Arabic genius in the direction of subtlety this

represents finality. It embodies the culture of a race that in its

learning as in its art had been devoted to the exaltation of details;

and embodies also the latent instinct of a desert-wandering race whose

eye had been little habituated to varieties of form, but saturated with

colour and in the watches of the night had been long familiar with the

mystery of vaulted sky, sown with star-clusters and hung with the

jewelled lamps of planets. It was characteristic also of the Oriental

fondness of abstraction that revels in subtleties and loves to merge

itself in the contemplation of the infinite. It is the kind of

decoration that being denied the reinforcement of nature was bound to

evolve sterility.

=Turkish.=--When the Seljuk Turks, after occupying many parts of the

Byzantine Empire, finally took Constantinople, they converted =S. Sophia=

into a mosque, and more or less closely followed its style in the

mosques they themselves erected.

Thus the =Suleimaniyeh= or =Mosque of Suleiman= the Magnificent, repeats the

central dome and the two apses of the Christian building, preserving

also the flatness of the dome-form. It is approached by a fore-court,

surrounded on all its sides by cloisters, roofed with a succession of

smaller domes, and embellished at the angles with minarets. These have

circular shafts terminating in sharply pointed cones. In the garden of

the mosque are the octagonal, dome-crowned tombs of the founder and his

favourite wife, Roxelana.

The =Ahmedizeh=, or =Mosque of Ahmed= is square in plan, with a central

dome, flanked by four apses, the angles being filled in with four

smaller domes. The interior is lined with coloured tiles, while that of

the =Suleimaniyeh= is veneered with marble.

The public fountains are distinctive features of the city. In one near

S. Sophia, for example, the water-basin, octagonal in shape and covered

with a dome-like grille of ironwork, is enclosed in an octagon of arches

that support a sloping roof which extends in wide eaves and is

surmounted by a dome.

=Persia.=--In point of time Persia enters early into the Muhammedan

conquest, but we have reserved the consideration of it until later,

because she did not reach the height of her renewed splendour in the

arts until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then contributed

to the Muhammedan art of India.

When Muhammedanism extended to Persia, it came in touch with the

decaying Sassanian empire that from A.D. 226 to 641 had withstood the

power of Rome and extended its sway nearly to the gates of India. The

remains of its architecture consist chiefly of palaces such as those at

=Serbistan=, =Firuzabad=, and =Ctesiphon=. In these, with an inventiveness of

their own and on a great scale, the builders combined elements of

Assyrian and Roman architecture--square, domed chambers, barrel-vaulted

halls, and portals formed of huge arches, elliptical or horseshoe in

shape.

The direct evidence of this style on the earliest Muhammedan buildings

has disappeared owing to the devastation of the Mongol invasion under

Genghis Khan; but the Sassanian influence is conjectured from the later

architecture which grew up after A.D. 1200. Important examples are to be

found in =Bagdad=, =Teheran=, and =Ispahan=. Among the memorials in the last

named city is the =Great Mosque=, which has an open court, surrounded by

two-storied arcades. Its special features include portal-arches, rising

above the highest of the adjoining walls; vaulted aisles,

_bulbous-shaped_ domes, and minarets of peculiar elegance. The walls are

decorated with enamelled tiles.

=India.=--Persian-Muhammedan architecture, probably because of the

Sassanian influence, was superior to the Arabian-Muhammedan in

constructive elements and represents more fully a developed style. Many

of its elements reappear in Indian-Muhammedan architecture, which by the

beginning of the fifteenth century was developing a style distinguished

alike by the grandeur of the whole and the structural meaning of the

details. The finest example of this early period is the =Jama Musjil=

(Principal Mosque), at =Ahmedabad=, which Shah Ahmed reconstructed out of

a Hindu temple. The Hindu influence is still apparent in the massive

detached pillars that buttress the chief entrance.

The style reached its full development of structural logic, dignity, and

beauty under the Mogul dynasty (1526-1761). By this time the Muhammedan

architects had developed a method of dome support, different both from

the Byzantine and the Arabic pendentive, which combined corbels, ribs,

vaulting surfaces, and corner _squinches_. The last named are arches

placed diagonally at the angles to bring the square to an octagonal,

which was the favourite form of plan adopted for tombs. Of these the

most imposing is the =Tomb of Mahmud= at =Bijapur=.

A noble example of the earlier Mogul style is the =Mosque of Akbar= at

=Futtehpore-Sikri=. Especially noteworthy are the southern and western

gateways. They tower up with emphatic assertion and yet with a finely

proportioned relation to the flanking arcades. This is due in a great

measure to the arches of the arcades being repeated with more elaborate

detail in the recess of the gateway, where also an upper tier of arches

balances the architrave of the arcades. These tiers of arches, leading

up to the semi-dome of the ceiling give a contrast of grace to the

sterner lines of the exterior arch, and introduce gradations of

refinement into its monumental scale.

The later example, =Taj Mahal, Agra=, erected by Shah Jehan (1627-1658) is

distinguished by less force and a greater delicacy and refinement.

Though it is said to have been designed by a French or Italian

architect, it is regarded as the last word of beauty in

Indian-Muhammedan architecture and one of the most beautiful

architectural monuments in the world.

This royal tomb, used as a ceremonial hall during its founder’s

lifetime, stands upon a marble platform, 18 feet high and 313 feet

square, at the corners of which spire up minarets of circular, that is

to say, of Persian design. The building occupies a square plan of 181

feet, from which the corners have been removed; the façades being

composed of two tiers of deeply recessed arches, interrupted by four

monumental portals, which correspond, though with greater refinements of

proportion and detail, to those of the Mosque of Futtehpore-Sikri. The

central dome of bulb-form rises upon a lofty drum to a height of 80 feet

with 58 feet diameter, and is balanced by four small domes, supported on

columns. The material of the whole is white marble, enriched with

carvings and inlays of jasper, bloodstone, and agate. The =Taj Mahal=, as

exquisite as it is imposing, is set like an immense jewel in an

enchanting scheme of garden-planning that includes terraces, lakes,

fountains, and foliage.

CHAPTER V

EARLY MEDIÆVAL CIVILISATION

The period of architecture to which this chapter forms an introduction

is from A.D. 1000 to 1200. It is usually known as the Romanesque period

because the architecture in certain structural particulars represented a

return to Roman methods. But the application of the principles varied in

different parts of what had been the Roman Empire under the influence of

local conditions; according as the locality was Northern Italy, or

Northern or Southern France, or England, or the Rhine Provinces of

Germany.

On the other hand, when we come to consider the social and political

conditions, the word Romanesque is too narrow. It was, it is true, a

period of gradual reconstruction of order upon the ruins of the Roman

Empire and one of the forces that made for order was the partial revival

by Charlemagne of Roman Law. The latter became a model by which the slow

process of organising society anew could shape itself. So far, at least,

the social tendency of the period was Romanesque. But after all, this

was only a detail of the new order, and by no means the most

significant.

Indeed the attempt to revive an empire was in itself reactionary and

opposed to the spirit of the time. For the latter was groping toward the

organising of independent nationalities. The millions who had

overwhelmed the Roman Empire possessed a certain kinship of race and

language; but they were divided into tribal units which clung to their

separate identities, the more so as the difference of localities in

which they settled increased their separateness. Thus the movement of

the time was a slow change from tribal to national unity, and the

gradual construction of a social and political order, suited to their

racial instinct of independent freedom. The advance was much more rapid

in social than in political order. For centuries the independent and

adventurous spirit of the various peoples was to keep them embroiled in

constant warfare, postponing the settlement of national landmarks. Back

of this political chaos, however, was a steady and sure growth in social

order, which, indeed, was largely assisted by the necessity of

self-preservation.

While popes, emperors, kings, dukes, and counts were fighting in

colossal or petty rivalries, the “honest man,” as the saying is, “came

into his own.” The merchants grew in importance, the craft-gilds

consolidated their strength, and the cities became oases of comparative

order. It was an age distinguished by the growth of “communes”; that is

to say, of burgs, boroughs, and cities, possessing certain rights of

self-government and immunity from indiscriminate taxation. Not that

these privileges escaped infringement. The fight for them had to be

perpetually maintained and the fortunes of the commune varied from time

to time. Yet the seed of self-government was sown, to stay in the soil

of every Teutonic nation.

The rise of the commune was partly due to the Feudal system, which had

its origin in the “fee” or tenure in land. As the system came to be

worked out, the tenant held in fief from an overlord, who in turn held

from some more powerful overlord and so on up to the King. When the

latter went to war, the word was passed down and each overlord had to

bring his quota of men, which he made up from the levies of the

overlords below him. It thus became an automatic method of raising an

army, of which the lowest knight with his few followers was the unit. On

the other hand, the ease with which the method could be put in operation

and the need of constant preparation for it, maintained a condition of

warlike feeling, that in the absence of a great war broke out in

jealousy and strife among the several constituent parts of the system.

It was to guard against the inevitable miseries of this constant turmoil

that the merchants and artisans built their homes and shops around some

burg or castle, to the lord of which they looked for protection, walls

of defence being gradually built around the city, until it became

fortified with the castle as a citadel. The benefits were mutual.

Commerce and trade could be pursued in comparative peace, while the lord

in return for his protection would receive a portion of the profits to

finance his various expeditions or intrigues. To consolidate their

influence the merchants formed themselves into merchant gilds, while the

citizens established craft-gilds in the various trades.

Thus gradually both commerce and trade spun a network of peaceful

activity and comparative stability over the otherwise troubled world,

knitting together its remotest parts. For while the agricultural

population was tied to the soil, and passed with its transfer from one

owner to another, the condition of commerce and to some extent of trade

was fluent. Merchants travelled and had their agents in distant

countries; and even the artisan might move from place to place and

enroll himself for the time being in the local gild of his craft. And

the merchants became also the bankers of their time: those of Lombardy,

for example, loaning money to kings as well as to other merchants; the

memory of which is preserved in “Lombard Street,” in London’s financial

centre.

These merchants had become wealthy by trading in the merchandise from

the East and increased their wealth by distributing the merchandise

throughout the West. Milan, therefore, speedily grew in importance

because she commanded the roads leading over the passes of the Alps.

Thence the chief stream of commerce led at first through Provence.

Later, German cities like Augsburg and Nuremburg, became powerful and

prosperous on the road to such northern ports as Lübeck and Hamburg,

while the Rhine became the highway of commerce to Bruges, Ghent, and

Brussels.

The gilds perpetuated what came to be called the “mystery” of their

crafts by organisations which combined a system of apprenticeship with

what we know to-day as a trade-union. One of these was the gild of

masons from which Freemasonry derived. It included various grades from

the ordinary worker of stone and marble, through the men skilled in

carved work, up to the few who were capable of designing and supervising

the construction. And although the tradition that these mason-gilds

travelled from place to place has been discredited, it is still allowed

that some of these master-masons or architects, as we call them to-day,

must have acquired a fame which caused them to be engaged by other

cities than their own.

Meanwhile, there was another great influence operating in the interests

of social order--that of the Church. Many bishops occupied positions

corresponding to that of a feudal lord and some even went to war at the

head of their troops. The cathedrals, like the castles, became the

nuclei of cities. Moreover, the Religious Orders were increasing in

numbers and in influence, both spiritual and temporal. There had been a

widely held expectation that the end of the world was to come in 1000

B.C. After the fateful date had passed, people breathed more freely with

a fresh zest of life and thankfulness to Heaven; and the Church

generally and, in particular, the Religious Orders, put themselves at

the head of this great revival. They became the leaders of a great

popular religious and civic enthusiasm that found expression especially

in church and cathedral building.

The earliest Order, the Benedictine, had been founded by S. Benedict in

the sixth century and spread through the west of Europe, obtaining firm

hold in England. The Cluniac Order, with its headquarters in the Abbey

of Cluny in the Department of Saone et Loire, France, was established in

909 and in 1080 S. Bruno founded the Carthusian Order, whose chief

monastery in France was the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble. A little

later came the Cistercians, and the Augustinian Orders, while the

twelfth century saw the founding of the Dominican Order of Preaching

Friars and the following century the establishment of the mendicant

order of Franciscans. Nor does this summary complete the list. The

orders rivalled one another in the number and efficiency of their

monasteries, which were the centres not only of religion but also of

learning, art, and economic life, affording guest-houses for travellers

and serving as hospitals, schools, and colleges.

The monastery was usually erected around a square enclosure still

called in England a “close,” surrounded by cloisters. On one side of it

adjoined the Church or Minster which, if it were cruciform, extended its

transept along one side of the cloister, while the nave occupied

another. Along the opposite side of the enclosure ran the refectory, or

common feeding-room of the brotherhood, while the fourth side was

occupied with dormitories. Grouped around this plan were the abbot’s

lodging, guestrooms, school, and dispensary, the bake-house and

granaries, fishponds, gardens, and orchards. And in some quiet room

where the light was favourable, certain of the brothers plied the task

of scribes and illuminators. Happy the monastery that could boast a

master-miniaturist or one who was of surpassing merit as a master-mason.

Down to the thirteenth century “Architecture was practised largely by

the clergy and regarded as a sacred science.”

The influence of monkish architects may have had much to do with the

change of the cathedral or church plan from basilica to cruciform, which

is characteristic of this period. The clergy continued to be separated

from the laity and the extra accommodation needed for the monks of a

large monastery caused the apse to be replaced by a chancel, which was

raised by several steps from the level of the nave. It contained the

stalls for the monks and was divided from the nave by a screen

(cancellus), which was surmounted by a gallery or loft, in which the

rood (cross) stood.

This rood-loft could be utilised for sacred tableaux which were given

for the edification of the people at certain festivals. At Christmas,

for example, the choirboys, playing the part of angels, would sing from

it the chant of Peace and Good Will, while a representation of the

Manger and the Kneeling Shepherds was displayed upon the top of the

chancel steps. For the Church recognised the power of drama to affect

the imagination, and in time the tableaux developed into “Passion Plays”

and “Mystery Plays.” In fact the nave of the church or cathedral was

treated as the meeting place for the laity and was used for a variety of

secular purposes in connection with the life of the community, while the

towers could be used, if necessary, for watch towers and for the safe

storing of treasure.

Further among the circumstances that made a more ordered and more human

condition of society was the code of chivalry, demanding of all knights

or “fully armoured and mounted men,” a high sense of honour, gallantry

in battle and peace, and courtesy to women. Charlemagne had gathered

round him twelve “paladins” or paragons of knightly virtue, and the fame

of their example inspired to deeds not only of valour but of courtly

grace. Thus, in Provence, Spain, and Northern Italy there flourished the

graceful art of the Troubadour, which was paralleled in the Danube

provinces by that of the Minnesingers. The troubadours, originally of

noble birth, including princes in their ranks and one king, Richard the

Lion-Hearted, invented and sang songs to music of their own composing,

thus setting a model for the wandering troubadours and minstrels who

later travelled professionally from castle to castle, not overlooking,

we may be sure, audiences of people that might be gathered in the

churches.

Chivalry was turned to shrewd account by the Church. It could not curb

the instinct of fighting but could direct it and did so by enjoining

upon knightly penitents a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Such expeditions

grew in number and size, travelling armed for protection on the

journey, and out of them came the Crusades for the recovery of the Holy

Spots in Palestine from the Moslem. These were far from being unmixed

blessings to the people, but at least they diverted for a time the

turbulence and left the cities freer opportunity of growth. And many a

noble on returning home, would build the church or chapel that he had

vowed, determined, perhaps, that it should rival in beauty some example

he had seen upon his wanderings.

In view even of the few particulars summarised above, how is it possible

to relegate this period to “The Dark Ages” or even to dismiss it as

negligible, summing it all up as part of the Middle Ages, between the

fall of Rome and the revival of a knowledge of Classic learning and art

in the fifteenth century? It is to the Italians of the Renaissance that

we owe this distortion of history. Properly speaking there was no

Renaissance or Rebirth; but at least from the time of Charlemagne onward

a steady growth in civilisation, and how vigorous it was,

notwithstanding the many setbacks, due to the continuing confusion, may

be gathered from the architecture of the period.

It is well to bear in mind that after the death of Charlemagne his

empire gradually fell apart. A German empire extended from the Rhine to

the Danube and was in constant conflict with the Popes to exert its sway

over Northern Italy; the growth of the communes or free cities being

perpetually disturbed by siding with one or other of the

contestants--the Imperial or Ghibelline and the Papal or Guelph.

France, meanwhile, was not yet a united nation. The kings of the House

of Capet held only the so-called Ile de France or Royal Demesne,

extending from Paris to Orleans, and were surrounded on all sides by

independent Duchies and Countships, with which they were constantly at

war. The Duchy of Normandy had been established to the north by Rollo

and in 1066 his descendant, William, conquered England.

These distinctions of territory help to explain the variations of the

Romanesque architecture, as it grew up, respectively, in Northern Italy,

the Rhine Provinces, Ile de France, Southern France, Normandy, and

Norman England.

[Illustration: PISA CATHEDRAL, CAMPANILE AND BAPTISTRY

PP. 244, 247]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF PISA CATHEDRAL

SHOWING A GLIMPSE OF THE NECK OF THE DOME SUPPORTED ON CORNER ARCHES,

THAT TAKE THE PLACE OF PENDENTIVES. P. 246]

[Illustration: S. AMBROGIO, MILAN

EARLY EXAMPLE OF RIB-VAULTING. P.240]

[Illustration: S. MICHELE, PAVIA

SHOWING RUDIMENTARY DIVISION OF WEST FRONT AND USE OF ARCADING. P. 251]

[Illustration: THE CERTOSA, OR CHURCH OF THE CARTHUSIAN ORDER, PAVIA

ROMANESQUE WITH RENAISSANCE LANTERN AND WEST FAÇADE. P. 313]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF VÉZELAY, FRANCE

EARLY EXAMPLE OF GROIN-VAULTING REPLACING BARREL-VAULTING. P. 253]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF ABBAYE-AUX-DAMES, CAEN

EARLY EXAMPLE OF CLERESTORY AND OF SEXPARTITE VAULTING. P. 254]

[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE CHURCH OF CLUNY ABBEY

WHICH IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY WAS THE INTELLECTUAL CENTER OF EUROPE. PP.

236, 253]

[Illustration: DOORWAY OF SALAMANCA CATHEDRAL

SHOWING PART OF THE BEAUTIFUL DOME OVER THE CROSSING. P. 260]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES, COLOGNE

NOTE THE ARCADING EMBELLISHMENTS AND GROUPING OF THE TOWERS. P. 259]

[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON TOWER

EARL’S BARTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. P. 255]

[Illustration: IFFLEY CHURCH, NEAR OXFORD

P. 257]

[Illustration: ST. JOHN’S CHAPEL, TOWER OF LONDON

P. 255]

[Illustration: NAVE OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL

NOTE THE GIRTH OF PIERS AND CHEVRON ORNAMENT. VAULTING, EARLIEST EXAMPLE

IN ENGLAND, COMPLETED 1133. P. 256]

[Illustration: PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL

P. 256]

[Illustration: ENGLISH ROMANESQUE DETAIL

BILLET MOULDING

CHEVRON MOULDING

BALL-FLOWER MOULDING

EASTON HAMPSHIRE

TOWER WINDOW, BUCKNELL, OXON

CASSINGTON, OXON

LATE NORMAN. ST. JOHN’S DEVIZES

STEETLEY DERBYSHIRE

GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL

EARLY NORMAN ARCH. WESTMINSTER HALL]

CHAPTER VI

EARLY MEDIÆVAL OR ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

Romanesque is the term applied to the architectural style of the early

Middle Ages which prevailed from 1000 to 1200. It manifests considerable

variety, according to locality, but at the same time a distinct

character common to all branches, in that it embodied a return to

certain Roman principles of construction, modified more or less by early

Christian and Byzantine methods. It represents a stage in the evolution

of Gothic architecture.

In such localities as the North of Italy and Provence, where Roman

remains were plentiful, the Romanesque architecture made free use of

antique columns and details. But in the Rhine Provinces, the North of

France, and England, the lack of such materials and of skilful workmen

encouraged the substitution of the pier for the column and caused the

latter to be of simpler and in many cases ruder design. Necessity, in

fact, compelled the adoption of new forms. Moreover, the desire of the

Church to build permanently led to the use of stone in place of

inflammable timber, especially in the building of the roofs.

Accordingly, the use of vaulting was revived.

It was out of the application of these necessities of construction that

the Romanesque style was evolved.

=Chevêt.=--The basilica plan became gradually modified. The nave and

aisles were retained, but the chancel, with or without an apse, was

carried farther back and the length of the transepts prolonged, so that

in time the cruciform plan prevailed and acquired a symbolic

significance. A special feature, gradually introduced, was the _chevêt_

which formed an _ambulatory_ around the sides of the choir and the

semi-circle of the apse, and could be divided up into chapels dedicated

to individual saints.

=Vaulting.=--In the earlier examples the nave was covered with a

barrel-vault, the thrust of which was sustained in the first place by

strengthening the nave walls by the omission of clerestory windows and,

secondly, by the weight of barrel-vaults over the side aisles, their

thrust, in turn, being sustained by thickening the outer walls and

keeping the windows small. As a further reinforcement of the walls,

projecting piers of masonry were built into them, which in time became

features of the external decoration.

Gradually the barrel-vault was superseded by groin vaults; at first in

the aisles and later over the nave as well. The groin vaulting over the

aisles represented, as in Roman times, the intersection of two

semicircular vaults. But since the nave was usually twice the width of

the aisles, each of the nave bays would be oblong in plan. Accordingly

two of these were included in one square bay, which took in two of the

nave arches and corresponded to two aisle bays.

In some instances a shaft was carried up from the intervening pier on

each side of the nave, supporting an intermediate transverse arch, so

that the vaulting became sexpartite, or divided into six compartments.

Whether the bay were six part or four part, the curve of all the

groins--longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal--were semicircular.

Accordingly, since the diagonals had a longer diameter, their curves

rose above the others. This variation was met by giving a concave or

domelike surface to each of the compartments, so that the workmen were

able to adjust the stones to the differences of the curves.

=Rib-vaulting.=--While this was possible in the actual operation of

placing the stones, it would have needed exceedingly delicate

calculation to build timber centering adjusted in advance to these

domelike surfaces. Moreover, the ponderousness of the dome nave vaulting

had made the use of timber centering extremely costly, even where timber

was plentiful; while in districts sparsely supplied the cost had been

prohibitive. Consequently, the ingenuity of the builders devised a

system of construction that reduced the need of timber centering to a

minimum. This was the system known as rib-vaulting. Briefly, it

consisted in spanning the space--longitudinally, transversely, and

diagonally--with preliminary arches of masonry, thus forming a skeleton

frame composed of what are known as ribs. Each of these ribs, being

comparatively light, could be constructed on a single moveable and

expansible piece of centering, called a _cerce_. When the ribs had set,

they offered sufficient support to hold up the doming of the

compartments while it was being laid.

To some extent this method of construction had been anticipated by the

Romans who in certain instances built preliminary transverse ribs to act

as permanent centerings of the vault, in the masonry of which the ribs

were buried from sight. The reintroduction of this device and its

further development, as above described, originated with the Lombard

architects. This has been definitely determined by the English

architect, Arthur Kingsley Porter, who has proved that the adoption of

the system was prompted by the scarcity of wood in this locality. From

Italy it spread to France, where it made its appearance in the Ile de

France about 1100 or some 60 years after its adoption in Lombardy. It

was at first employed purely as a necessary constructive expedient.

Later its æsthetic possibilities came to be recognised, and the rib was

developed by the Gothic architects into an element of great beauty, one

of the characteristic features of the Gothic style.

Meanwhile, the use of vaulting by the Romanesque architects affected the

character of the exterior. Mention has already been made of the masonry

piers and the massive outside walls, pierced with small windows. For the

further support of the vaulting-thrust towers were freely used. While in

Italy the campanile was frequently detached from the main edifice, the

towers in western and northern Romanesque churches became elements of

prominence in the design. A pair frequently flanked the apse or four

rose in the angles of the transepts and choir, while another pair,

sometimes connected by a gallery, flanked the west end. A tower or dome

might also surmount the _crossing_ of the nave and transepts. The towers

were square, polygonal, or circular, divided into stories which were

pierced with windows or embellished with arcades. They were crowned,

like the nave and aisles, with an exterior sloping roof.

=Arcading.=--The arcading, which now became a favourite method of

embellishing walls, was of two kinds; either being _open_ and permitting

a passageway at the back of them, or with columns and arch mouldings

attached to the wall, in the manner known as _blind arcading_. Another

feature for strengthening as well as embellishing the wall was the use

of masonry piers, which, resting on a plinth, projected from the wall

only as far as the width of the cornice.

The exteriors, in fact, were no longer, as in early Christian churches,

plain and almost barn-like, but assumed a varied picturesqueness that,

however, was distinguished by a fine structural unity.

The arch, whether used in interior or exterior arcading or for the tops

of doors and windows, was round; usually semicircular but occasionally

_stilted_, the ends of the semicircle, that is to say, being raised on

perpendicular lines. The later introduction of the pointed arch, it may

be added, marks the transition from Romanesque to Gothic.

A characteristic development of the Romanesque style is the treatment of

the doors and windows. The jambs or sides were carried back in a series

of angular recesses, which were filled with small columns, whose abaci

frequently united in a continuous moulding. In many cases the angular

recesses of the jambs were prolonged around the arch.

The shafts of columns were decorated with fluting, which might be

perpendicular, spiral, or barred like trellis-work. The capitals, except

when antique Corinthian or Ionic columns were utilised, display a

variety of embellishments, sometimes influenced by Byzantine examples,

at other times representing an original working out of foliage motives,

often rude in treatment, but, especially in the German work, vigorously

decorative.

In the nave arcading, that is to say the series of arches on each side

of the nave, the supports consisted of square piers, to the faces of

which columns were attached. From two of them sprang the arches; a third

supported the vaulting of the aisles, while a fourth was run up to a

higher level to carry the vaulting of the nave.

=Italian Romanesque.=--Since the Romanesque style was coloured by the

locality in which it appeared, it is necessary to study examples of it

as they are found respectively in Italy, France, the Rhine Provinces,

Spain, and England.

The Italian examples are conveniently subdivided into those of Northern,

Central, and Southern Italy, or, more specifically, into the examples

found in the districts north of the River Po, between the Po and the

Tiber, and south of the latter. Of these the northern, to be considered

later, are the most important, since they show, as we have noted, a more

adventurous spirit in the matter of construction.

CENTRAL ITALY.--On the other hand, the builders of Central and Southern

Italy still followed the simple basilican plan and retained the wooden

roofs and, in consequence, clerestory windows. They raised, however, in

many cases the level of the choir and placed a crypt chamber beneath it;

which sometimes, as in =S. Miniato=, =Florence=, is open to the nave. But

their inventiveness was displayed rather in the details of decoration.

Central Italy being rich in marbles, the use of this material for

embellishing the exterior and the interior with bands and geometric

designs was carried to such a perfection as virtually to constitute a

style. The most beautiful example is that of =S. Miniato=, where, too, the

open woodwork of the roof has been restored to its original colouring of

gold, green, blue, and red.

Another notable example of this developed style of decoration is

presented at =Pisa=, in the group of buildings comprising the =Cathedral=,

=Campanile=, and =Baptistry=. Here the façades are embellished--one might

almost say composed, for the embellishment is applied so

constructionally--with tiers of blind arcades or of open arcades of red

and white marble. Those of the Baptistry received in the fifteenth

century additions of Gothic canopies and traceries, but the front of the

Cathedral and the circular Campanile retain their original character.

The Baptistry, also circular in plan, is crowned by an outer

hemispherical dome, through which penetrates a conical dome, which in

the interior is supported on four piers and eight columns. The influence

of Byzantine workmen is seen here as well as in the dome which crowns

the crossing of the Cathedral. The transepts of the latter are prolonged

beyond the basilica plan and terminate in apses.

The Campanile, which comprises eight stories embellished with arcading,

is known as “The Leaning Tower,” since it inclines from the

perpendicular about 13 feet in a height of 179, the greatest inclination

being in the ground story, after which there is a slight recovery toward

the perpendicular. It was begun in 1174 and completed in 1350. Vasari,

the historian of Italian artists, writing some 200 years later, ascribes

this lean to a settlement of the foundations. His explanation, though

occasionally disputed, had been generally accepted, until the

investigations of Professor William H. Goodyear, in 1910, established

the fact that the inclination was intentional and provided for from the

start of the work.

The tower is constructed of an exterior and an interior cylinder of

masonry, the space between them being occupied by a spiral staircase.

The steps of the latter were individually measured by Professor

Goodyear, who has set forth the results in a Bulletin of the Brooklyn

Institute of Arts and Sciences (Jan. 21, 1911). Briefly, they show that

the treads of the steps vary in height and that they incline sometimes

toward the inner wall, sometimes toward the outer. In this way they tend

to create a balance of strains on the whole structure, which is further

secured by increasing the strength of the inner walls, where the

inclination is inward. That the careful calculation involved in this was

not due to an afterthought or the necessity of remedying the effects of

a settlement is proved by the fact that the inclination begins at the

lowest step.

Why then was this design adopted? Professor Goodyear furnishes the

answer in two subsequent Bulletins. Reduced to briefest terms it is

this: The Pisan Baptistry also has an inclination from the normal, both

perpendicular and horizontal. Thus, in the south façade there is an

inclination in the horizontal lines of 2 feet 2 inches toward the choir.

Meanwhile, the vertical lines of the west façade are perpendicular to

this slope and, consequently, the front inclines inward toward the nave.

And these are only instances of a number of asymmetries that occur

throughout the cathedral, all of which are proved to have been

intentional in the original design.

Further, the asymmetries at Pisa bear a close analogy to the numberless

asymmetries that appear in S. Mark’s, Venice. The latter was built by

Byzantine workmen, who therein followed the Oriental and the Hellenic

dislike of formal mathematical regularity; and it is the Byzantine

tradition again which in this respect, as in other details of

decoration, domes and so forth, influenced the Romanesque group of

buildings at Pisa. The order in which they were erected is, the

Cathedral, Baptistry, and Campanile; so that in the Leaning Tower the

architects merely carried the principle of asymmetry to an extreme

pitch.

The influence of Pisa is found in =S. Michele= and =S. Martino= in =Lucca=,

and in the =Cathedral of Pistoia=.

=South Italy.=--The most important SOUTHERN examples are found in Sicily,

which in the tenth century was overrun by the Saracens, who in the

following century were routed by the Normans. Consequently, the

Saracenic influence is mingled with the Byzantine in the =Cathedral of

Monreale=, near =Palermo=. The plan is basilican, with apses at the eastern

ends of the nave and aisles. The choir is raised. The arches of the nave

are pointed but not recessed, and are supported on columns, with

Byzantine capitals. The aisle walls have a dado of white marble, twelve

feet high, inlaid with borders, composed of porphyry, while the arches

and clerestory of the nave are embellished with mosaics of biblical

subjects, framed in arabesque borders. Of a sombre richness of colour,

they display the Byzantine characteristic of severity of design, and

impart to the interior a solemn grandeur.

=North Italy.=--It is in NORTHERN Italy, particularly in the Lombard

churches, that the constructional development is most marked. For, while

the plan remained basilican, only occasionally showing well-defined

transepts, the architects devoted their energies to the problem of

vaulting. A notable instance is =San Ambrogio, Milan=, which is an early

example of the use of ribs in vaulting. The original church, erected in

the ninth century, had wooden roofs; but in the rebuilding the nave was

divided into four square bays, and immense piers were constructed to

carry the diagonal, transverse, and longitudinal ribs.[6] Of

corresponding massiveness are the transverse ribs, while to support the

strain on the longitudinal ribs intermediate piers were introduced with

an upper and a lower tier of double arches. These open into the two

stories of the groin-vaulted aisles, which are given this treatment in

order to act as buttresses to the thrust of the nave vaults. This

compelled the omission of clerestory windows, thus adding to the

sombreness of effect. Indeed the whole suggestion is one of

ponderousness. It is the work of men experimenting with a new method of

construction and intent for the present on achieving stability. The

combination of the latter with dignity of height and the grace of

lightness was yet to be developed in the Gothic treatment of the ribs.

The west end is approached by a narthex, opening into an arcaded atrium.

In the external decoration of the triple apse of the east end appears

the rudimentary principle of the open arcade. The walls above the

semi-dome and beneath the wooden exterior roof are crowned with a

cornice, composed of arches supported upon corbels, the space between

each being penetrated with a niche. This produces a series of deep

shadows, in contrast with which the actual construction of the corbels

assumes a lightness of effect. It was the preliminary step to the

substitution of small detached columns for the corbels and the

development of external arcading.

The open arcading in its full development appears in the west façade of

=S. Michele=, =Pavia=, where it serves its characteristic purpose of

constructively lightening the effect of the cornice of the roof. In this

instance, as in many of the Lombard façades, the nave and aisles are

included in a single gable, their interior separation being marked upon

the exterior by masonry piers. Into this façade also, as in the older

part of the exterior of =San Ambrogio=, are set pieces of earlier

sculptured ornament. These exhibit a strange mingling of grotesque

animals with Scandinavian interlaces and Byzantine features--a notable

fact, since they correspond with the sculptured ornament found on some

of the Rhenish churches. This suggests that Lombard workmen were

employed in Germany and that they brought back with them some of the

German taste for symbolism in ornament.

In the west front of the =Cathedral at Piacenza=, we find the same use of

single gable and masonry piers, but the cornice arcade is supplemented

by two horizontal bands, that mark the division of the aisles into two

stories. Moreover, each of the three entrances is embellished with a two

storied porch, supported on columns that rest on recumbent lions. Over

the nave porch the wall is penetrated by a characteristically Romanesque

feature--a _rose_ or _wheel_ window. A comparison of this façade with

the elaborate ones of Central Italy illustrates the preference of the

Lombard architects for organic disposition of decoration rather than

decoration for the sake of decoration.

An important feature of North Italy is the Campanile. Intended, it is

supposed, as a symbol of power, it is usually detached from the church,

and square in plan. The walls are simply treated, being reinforced

often with masonry piers, but interrupted with as few windows as

possible, while the top is marked by one or two stories of arcaded

windows and is crowned with a pyramidal or conical roof.

FRENCH ROMANESQUE

The map of France at the end of the tenth century shows the Royal

Domain, the Ile de France, a dense forest with Orleans, the city of

learning, at one end, and at the other, Paris, the city of the

future--hemmed in on all sides by counties and duchies over which the

Capetian King held little more than nominal suzerainty. For the purpose

of architectural study these territories may be divided into north and

south, on a line with the River Loire. Thus, to the north belong the Ile

de France, Normandy, and Brittany; to the south, Provence, Aquitaine,

Anjou, and Burgundy.

Everywhere the builders were intent upon the problem of vaulting; but

were influenced in the south by local conditions. In Provence, for

example, the seat of Roman civilisation, not only does classical

influence appear in the details, but the vaulting is of the old Roman

kind. =Notre Dame=, =Avignon=, is a well-known instance. And the

barrel-vaulting was continued throughout the neighbouring Duchy of

Aquitaine. Here, however, another influence intervened. The district had

close commercial relations with Venice, Ravenna, and Byzantium, and it

is reflected in the domical vaulting of many of the churches.

=S. Front=, =Perigeux=, for example, resembles S. Mark’s, Venice, in having

the plan of a Greek cross, surmounted by five pendentives. The arches,

however, are _pointed_; of great depth, resting on piers, pierced with

passages. In the =cathedral= of the neighbouring city, =Angoulême=, a Latin

cross is substituted for the Greek in plan. The aisleless nave is

surmounted by three stone domes, roofed on the exterior. Over the

crossing rises another dome, visible outside, which is raised upon a

drum that is pierced with pointed windows, disposed in pairs. The

southern transept is still crowned with a tower, its fellow to the north

having been destroyed in 1568.

This building served as a model for the =Abbey of Fontevrault= in =Anjou=.

In Burgundy the most renowned of the numerous monastic establishments

was the =Benedictine Abbey= of =Cluny=. Until the building of the present S.

Peter’s, its abbey church was the largest and most magnificent in

Christendom. The plan was a basilica with double aisles, the east end

terminating in a _chevêt_ (shě-vay´); that is to say, an apse surrounded

by a circular aisle, divided into chapels; in this case five in number.

The nave was arcaded with pointed arches and spanned by an immense

barrel vault. Groined vaulting, on the other hand, is supposed to have

covered the aisles.

Groined vaulting takes the place of barrel-vaulting in the nave of the

=Church of Vézelay=, and was also used in the ante-chapel, erected some

thirty years later. But by this time the builders, in order to reduce

the thrust, adopted a pointed section for the ribs--the first instance

in France of the pointed groined vault, which was successfully developed

later by the Gothic architects.

It is to be noted that the early vaulting, erected by the Clunisian

architects, compelled the abandonment of the clerestory windows. The

thrust of the great barrel vault of the nave was sustained either by

high side aisles with either transverse or groined vaults over the bays,

or by barrel vaults over the aisles, which in turn were supported by

the massive outer walls. For the use of the flying buttress had not yet

been adopted.

Meanwhile, the northern climate demanded the additional light provided

by a clerestory, and the architects of Normandy applied themselves to

the problem. It was to be solved later in Gothic architecture by the use

of pointed groin vaulting, but, pending this discovery, a method of

vaulting was employed which is known as sexpartite. For the square bay

was crossed in the centre by another transverse arch, which, when cut by

the two diagonals, produced a plan of six parts. This, however,

necessitated two narrow skew vaults, meeting in the centre, which was

awkward in appearance. The method is illustrated in =S. Etienne=, the

great church of the =Abbaye-aux-hommes= and =La Trinité= of the

=Abbaye-aux-Dames=, both in =Caen=. These and other churches of Normandy

such as the Abbey church of =Mont-St. Michel=, are characterised by an

adventurous spirit as well as logic of design, marking a distinct

progress toward the Gothic.

ENGLISH ROMANESQUE OR NORMAN

The audacity and resourcefulness of the Norman builders found extensive

opportunity after the conquest of England. But few remains survive of

Anglo-Saxon architecture, and they suggest that the buildings were of a

rude kind. They were constructed of rubble work, reinforced with engaged

piers and ashlar masonry at the corners, arranged in what is called

“long and short” courses. The columns were short, stumpy cylinders

crowned with one or two square blocks, and the details of doorways and

windows were roughly hewn with an axe, though in the case of certain

belfry windows, jambs of baluster shape, seem to have been turned upon

a lathe. The openings were either round-topped, suggesting a clumsy copy

of the Roman style or else triangular, as if perpetuating a form of

timber construction. The plan of the church appears to have been of the

simplest, representing an oblong nave, separated by an arch from the

smaller oblong of the chancel; the latter being lower than the nave and,

on the inside, approached by two or three descending steps. The

arrangement seems to have been derived from the example of the Celtic

churches, as also was the habit of erecting towers, which, however, are

not circular as in Ireland, but square without buttresses. One example

of such a tower exists at =Earl’s Barton=, =Northamptonshire=, in which

occur balustered windows.

The Normans, therefore, had a free field for their architectural

enterprise and, while they immediately commenced the erection of castles

to overawe the country, they also erected monasteries and cathedrals,

designed to surpass in size and magnificence the ones in Normandy. While

following the latter in a general way, the English examples were

characterised, on the one hand, by a more massive and picturesque

treatment, and, on the other, owing probably to the scarcity of skilled

labour, by simpler and less refined details.

The capitals of columns, for instance, were usually of the cubic-cushion

form, as may be seen in =S. John’s Chapel= in the =Tower of London=. The

piers were often round and frequently clustered with columns, the round

arches being recessed and framed with round mouldings. The latter, in

the case of doorways and windows, were enriched with ornament carved in

zig-zag, chevrons, billets, and beaked heads. The plan was apt to be

longer than that of the French churches, and the elevations were

proportionately lower. Vaulting was, for the present, confined to

smaller churches and the side aisles of the larger; but the nave walls

of the cathedrals were built sufficiently massive to support the

vaulting which in some cases was subsequently added. The clerestory

windows were set toward the outer part of the wall, the remaining space

being occupied by a passageway, which, in front of the windows was

screened from the nave by three arches.

While the Norman style, as the English-Romanesque is usually called in

England, appears in many cathedrals, the character of it has been

greatly modified by later additions. But the finest example still

existing is that of =Durham=; next to which come =Peterborough= and portions

of =Norwich=. The tower above the crossing, which became a distinction of

English cathedrals and is so imposing a feature of =Durham=, was added

much later. But the original nave (1096) is a remarkable example of

massive Norman construction, the round piers having a diameter nearly

equal to the span of the arches and being channelled with flutings and

spirals. The vaulting was completed in 1133 and is said to be the

earliest example of Norman vaulting in England. Another notable feature

of Durham Cathedral is the so-called Galilee chapel, which, in imitation

of the ante-chapel in Caen, takes the place of a porch at the west end.

It was used by penitents.

At =Peterborough= the nave, only second to Durham as an example of Norman

at its finest, is still covered with the original wooden ceiling,

divided into lozenge shapes and painted. It is believed to be the oldest

wooden roof in England. The Norman parts of =Norwich Cathedral= are the

long, narrow, aisleless nave, the transepts, and the choir with its

chevêt of chapels. =Ely=, again, has Norman nave and transepts; =Bristol=, a

Norman chapter house; =Oxford=, nave and choir; =Southwell=, Norman nave,

transepts, and towers; =Winchester=, transepts and towers; while =Worcester=

has a Norman crypt, transepts, and circular chapter house. The last

named is the only one of this design in England. Original Norman work is

also to be found in the transepts at =Canterbury=, while the narrowness of

its choir is due to the preservation of two Norman chapels.

In England the interior wall spaces and vaulting were decorated with

paintings, for in this branch of decorative work the Normans found no

scarcity of skill, since the Anglo-Saxon school of miniaturists,

originally started by Celtic missionaries, had attained a high degree of

proficiency, and now developed the principles of missal-painting into

the larger and freer scope of mural decoration.

A good example of the small Norman church is that of =Iffley=, near

Oxford. Especially interesting is the west front. In the larger examples

this feature underwent change with the introduction of the pointed arch;

but here is a distribution of the gabled end into three well defined and

excellently proportioned stories, pierced, respectively, with a doorway,

circular window, and an arcade of three windows. All are deeply recessed

and enriched with characteristic moulding, and the effect, while a

trifle barbaric, is vigorously decorative.

RHENISH ROMANESQUE

In the Rhenish Provinces is found the most fully developed Romanesque

style, characterised by the fewest local differences. When, during the

years 768-814, Charlemagne built his royal tomb-church, which with

subsequent Gothic additions is now the =Cathedral= of =Aix-le-Chapelle=, he

adopted the plan of S. Vitale in Ravenna and imported classic columns.

Moreover, the Rhine Provinces possessed many remains of Roman

architecture. Later they became closely allied by commerce with Northern

Italy and seem to have employed the services of Lombard architects.

All these circumstances tended to make Rhenish Romanesque resemble that

of Northern Italy. On the other hand, it developed a style more

constructively adventurous, vigorous, and picturesque; while at the same

time it was on the whole more systematically organised than the French.

It was, however, about fifty years behind the latter in its development

which began late and continued longer.

A typical example of the earlier period of Rhenish Romanesque is the

=Cathedral at Worms= (1110-1200). Its design shows features that are

characteristically Rhenish: an apse at both the west and east end,

flanked in each case by two towers; the use of transepts at the west end

as well as the east (the eastern ones being here omitted), the erection

of octagonal lanterns over both crossings, and entrances on the north

and south sides instead of the west.

The exterior exhibits a well-defined orderliness and picturesqueness.

The walls are reinforced with projecting piers and pierced with deeply

recessed, round-arch windows. Noticeable also is the effective use of

corbel arcades beneath the gable ends of the roofs and in various string

courses, while the richer emphasis of open arcades is applied with equal

discretion and effectiveness. Another noteworthy feature in the towers

is the use of dormers to embellish the conical or octagonal roof, which

in effect are rudimentary spires.

Other early representative cathedrals are those of =Spires=, =Treves=, and

=Mayence= while to the later period belongs the =Church of the Apostles=,

=Cologne= (1220-1250). It offers a varied application of the same features

in a singularly perfect design. The transepts and choir present a

cluster of three apses round a low, octagonal lantern. The nave is

short, twice the width of the side aisles and has western transepts and

a square western tower. Especially fine are the exterior embellishments

of the apses, consisting of two stories of blind arcading, surmounted by

open arcades beneath the roof, while a corresponding sense of

proportional dignity characterises the grouping of the eastern towers

and lantern and the solitary distinction of the western tower. Here, as

in three other examples of triapsal churches in =Cologne=--=S.

Maria-in-Capitol=, =S. Martin=, and =S. Cunibert=--the domical vaulting is

supported by squinches or pendentives.

The earliest example of nave vaulting is found in the =Cathedral of

Mayence=, closely followed in the Cathedrals of =Spires= and =Worms= and the

abbey church at =Laach=.

SPANISH ROMANESQUE

In Spain great impetus was given to cathedral building by the recapture

of Toledo from the Moors in 1085. In architecture, as in painting, the

Spaniards seem to have sought their artistic impulses from abroad, since

the most important example of their early Romanesque style--the

Cathedral of =Santiago de Compostello=--is a modified copy of =S. Sernin=,

at =Toulouse=, =Aquitaine=. The plan is a Latin cross with aisles not only

flanking the nave but also carried round the transepts and choir apse

in the manner of the French chevêt. The aisles are groin-vaulted, while

a lofty barrel vault covers the nave, and an octagonal lantern crowns

the crossing.

A special feature of Spanish Romanesque, also derived apparently from

Aquitaine, is the beauty of the dome, which covers the crossing, as in

the old =Cathedral of Salamanca=, the =Collegiate Church= at =Toro= and the

=Cathedral of Zamora=. They are circular in the interior and octagonal on

the outside with large turrets in the angles of the octagon. The

interior dome is carried upon pointed arches, between which and the

spring of the vault, in the case of Salamanca, are two tiers of arcaded

windows. For the admission of light the arrangement is excellent, while

the general character of these domes, covered on the outside with a low,

steeple-like roof of stone, is admirably monumental.

Another characteristic Spanish feature, met with in some churches, as

for example, that of =San Millan=, =Sagovia=, is an open cloister, on the

outside of the aisle, from which doors open into it.

Carved ornament was rather sparingly applied, and except in minute

details suggests no Moorish influence.

BOOK V

GOTHIC PERIOD

CHAPTER I

LATE MEDIÆVAL CIVILISATION

The change in architectural style, known as the Gothic, which began in

the twelfth century and reached its full development in the thirteenth,

represents so wonderful an expression not only of constructive genius

but also of spiritual aspiration that one would fain peer through the

mist of the past to discover the kind of civilisation that produced it.

The general conditions that shaped the civilisation we have already

noticed in the chapter on Early Mediæval Civilisation. There we

recognised the threefold influences of the power of the Church, the

extension and growing importance of Commerce, and the results of the

various Crusades. And these still continued to be the motive forces of

the later and fuller civilisation.

Prominent among the causes of the confused conditions in Western Europe

was the multiplicity of rival authorities; which it had been

Charlemagne’s dream to subordinate to a centralised authority, emulating

that of the Roman Empire. But, while his attempt at temporal domination

failed, the more spiritual dominion exercised by the Church proved to be

a unifying agency. Through the influence which she exerted over

conscience and consequently over the actions of men through the

Sacraments of Confession and Penitence, she was able in considerable

measure to curb the license of feudalism. Furthermore, by allying

herself with the growing power of the burgher classes in cities and

standing as the champion of the defencelessness of the lower classes in

cities and country, she became the great adjuster of the fearful social

inequalities of the period.

Her policy was one of checks and counter-checks. She could not subdue

the forces that made for disorder; but could and did restrain them. Thus

her support of the burghers built up a new force in the community that,

through trade and commerce, made for stability and set up the

constructive arts of peace as a make-weight against the destructive

conditions that the internecine strife of the nobility engendered. And

these last she further checked by utilising the enthusiasm for Crusades,

which had been first stirred by the missionary zeal of Peter the Hermit

in 1096. This first expedition, under Godfrey de Bouillon, resulted in

the capture of Jerusalem from the Arabs and the establishment of a

Christian Kingdom in Palestine. The six other Crusades, terminating with

the second expedition of Louis IX (St. Louis) of France in 1270, failed

to recover Jerusalem which had been recaptured by the Arabs. But in the

course of them a Latin kingdom had been established in Constantinople

under Count Baldwin of Flanders and a kingdom also had been formed in

Cyprus. It is unnecessary to attempt to follow these various expeditions

in detail, the more so that they represented only incidents in what had

become a perpetual progression of movement toward the East. It is the

effect of this that really concerns us here.

The effect may be studied in relation to the spirit that was stimulated,

and to the economic and educational influence involved. The Church

originally favoured the Crusades as a means both of diverting the

savagery of the fighting class from internecine strife to distant

warfare and of intensifying religious faith and feeling. While it was

not strong enough to crush the fighting spirit, it could consecrate it

to some kind of an ideal, and thereby succeeded in tempering the stupid

savagery of feudalism with the finer spirit of chivalry. An idealism of

knighthood was encouraged that reverenced women, protected the weak,

redressed the wrongs of the oppressed, and wedded to the courtesies of

life a fervour of religious faith. Amidst the ugliness of the times

there sprang up the blue flower of an ideal of beauty that affected in

some measure both the spiritual and the social life. How real and

intense was the spirituality of the times may be gathered from its

excesses, as evidenced in the cruelties of the Crusade against the

Albigenses for their heresies, and in the pathetic tragedies of the

Children’s Crusades. In 1212 a French shepherd boy, named Stephen,

induced thousands of boys to follow him to Marseilles, promising to lead

them dry-shod through the sea to Palestine, and a boy of Cologne, named

Nicolas, led an army of twenty thousand children toward Italy. Such of

the French children as reached Marseilles were kidnapped and sold to

slavery in Egypt, while the German host perished from privations,

leaving only a memory that is preserved in the legend of the Pied Piper

of Hamelin.

In the wake of military expeditions to the East there followed the

adventurers of commerce. Trade routes were opened up, the earliest of

which and for a long time the most important was by way of Venice, over

the Brunner Pass and up the Rhine to Bruges. And commercial relations

meant the continual passing backward and forward of persons in the

pursuits of peace and, in consequence, a growing intercourse between the

members of different nationalities. The old isolation of the western

and northern nations was gradually removed, and the individual’s narrow

horizon became broadened by travel, his restricted ideas of life

enlarged and enlightened by contact with the alien and superior culture

of the East. For it was in Constantinople and among the Arabs in Asia

Minor, Syria, and Egypt that secular learning at this period flourished.

Accordingly, as a result of the Crusades, Western Europe indulged a

taste for foreign travel, which stimulated a prodigious adventurousness

that operated in the things of the spirit and the intellect as well as

in the material conduct of life. Geography, for example, began to arouse

a practical interest. It changed the attitude of men’s minds to the

outside world, opening up new paths of travel by land and sea and,

equally, new conceptions of the possibilities of the world and of life.

The interest also in Crusades aroused the desire to record them and an

impetus was given to historical writings, which, partaking largely of

romance, led to a renewed interest in such old romances as those of the

Knights of the Round Table of the Arthurian Legend and of Charlemagne’s

Paladins.

A most significant testimony to the character of the civilisation of the

thirteenth century is afforded by the voluminous writings of Vincent of

Beauvais, who held the post of “reader” in the monastery of Royaumont,

on the Oise near Paris, which was founded by Louis IX. His work, written

in Latin and entitled the “Speculum Universale” or “Universal Mirror,”

is an encyclopædia of the knowledge of the Middle Ages; a mirror, in

fact, of the mind of the age of great cathedral building. It is divided

into three parts: the _Speculum_, respectively, _Naturale_,

_Doctrinale_, and _Historiale_; to which a _Speculum Morale_ was added

by another hand, being mainly a compilation from the works of Thomas

Aquinas and other contemporary writers.

The “Speculum Naturale” has been described as a gigantic commentary on

the first chapter of Genesis. It opens with an account of the Trinity,

and of the attributes and orders of angels; proceeds to discuss our own

world, light, colour, the four elements, and Lucifer and his fallen

angels. Then it proceeds to the phenomena of time, the motions of the

heavenly bodies, and the wonders of the sky in thunder, dew, rain, and

so forth. Thence it treats of dry land, seas, and rivers, agricultural

operations, precious stones, plants, fruits, not omitting their use in

medicine. Other chapters discuss birds, fishes; another domesticated and

wild animals, serpents, bees, and insects, the seasons, and the

calendar. Then man is dealt with, his anatomy, his organs, and five

senses, and the phenomena of sleep, dreams, ecstasy, memory, reason, and

so forth.

The “Speculum Doctrinale,” intended as a practical manual of knowledge,

covers the subjects of grammar, logic, rhetoric, including a Latin

vocabulary of some six thousand words; discusses the virtues and gives,

under the head of “economic art,” directions for building, gardening,

and agriculture, while under the head of “mechanical art,” it describes

the work of weavers, smiths, armourers, merchants, hunters, sailors, and

generals. Then, after prescribing rules for the preservation of health,

it proceeds to mathematics, under which it includes music, geometry,

astronomy, astrology, and weights and measures. And here it is

noteworthy that the author displays an acquaintance with the Arabic

numerals.

The “Speculum Historiale” begins with the creation of the world and

continues a sacred and secular narrative down to the conversion of

Constantine to Christianity. The “origines” of Britain are discussed and

the story carried on to Mahomet and Charlemagne, after which comes a

history of the First Crusade, a dissertation on the Tartars, and,

finally, a short narrative of the earlier Crusade of St. Louis. One

chapter is devoted to miracles. The history is largely composed of

quotations from a variety of available sources, sacred and secular,

which include Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic writers--known to the author

through popular Latin versions--Eusebius, Seneca, Cicero, Ovid, Julius

Cæsar, the Early Fathers of the Church, and the Mediæval writers,

Sigebert de Gembloux, a Belgian Chronicler (1030-1112), and William of

Malmesbury (1095-1142). The last named, an English monk of the Abbey of

Malmesbury, wrote “De Gestibus Regum Anglorum,” a history of the English

Kings, and a continuation, entitled “Historia Novella,” bringing the

story down to 1142--works which have formed the basis of subsequent

histories of England.

=Palaces.=--Augustus set the example of building himself a palace,