Part 6

A curious monument was that of the Horatii, consisting of a rectangular block of masonry, containing the sepulchre, surmounted by four stone cones, grouped around a fifth and higher one. These probably had a symbolical meaning, as a similar structure, called the tomb of Porsenna, is said to have existed in Etruria.

By far the most magnificent building of the kind was the Mausoleum, or Mole of Hadrian, the ruins of which now go by the name of the Castel St. Angelo. The tomb rose conspicuously on the banks above the Tiber, on a square foundation; its two upper stories were circular in plan, and decorated with colonnades and statuary, and the whole was capped by an immense roof, terminated by a pineapple of bronze.

The tombs of St. Helena and St. Costanza were circular structures similar to that of Cæcilia Metella, the cone of earth, however, being replaced by a dome. The interior of the tomb of St. Costanza was divided by columns which sustained a vault connecting with the outer wall.

The practice of burning bodies and preserving their ashes gave rise also to the building of columbariums, rectangular structures containing in their walls receptacles for funereal urns.

In the valley of Jerusalem the hypogee was the form of sepulchre commonly adopted, its entrance being decorated with a colonnade of one of the Roman orders.

Basilicas were the law courts of the Roman people and places of assembly for the transaction of their daily affairs. On the exterior, these buildings were surrounded by numerous courts and porticos, where the merchants assembled daily to discuss their affairs or to await the result of the trials conducted within. In the interior they contained a large hall or nave flanked by side aisles, preceding a transept or further room which was terminated by a semicircular apse. This apse was occupied by the magistrate while presiding in the cases submitted to his decision.

The ruins of the basilicas of Titus and Maxentius remain, at the present day, in sufficient preservation to show that in the one a flat ceiling of timber was employed, and in the other a system of intersecting vaults similar in construction to those of the baths of Caracalla. There are traces of several ancient buildings of this kind, but it is supposed that many were pulled down by the Christians, who erected churches on their sites, using the old basilica as their model.

The plan was, in reality, but an improvement on that of the Roman temple, the side aisles and transepts being naturally developed additions to the older cella to which the apse had been added previously in many examples.

The great administrative power governing the erection of the buildings of Rome was one of the most remarkable features connected with them. Architecture with the Romans was a means to an end, this end being the construction of edifices suiting their requirements and their desire for display. No scope was allowed for individual talent or ingenuity, unless employed in the carrying out of a distinct programme, laid down by those in power; each building forming part of a great scheme, prevailing throughout the conquered world.

In Greece architectural works were produced in the different cities and states under the guidance of independent artists, with the co-operation of their fellow-citizens who were eager to attain the true principles of art; in Rome and the Roman world, art was entirely subservient to a system of politics which ran through all departments.

The vast wealth which flowed into the capital from tributary provinces was the great mainstay which permitted the execution of so many vast and expensive structures, forming a collection never surpassed. Roman art corresponded with the national character, for it was coarse and ostentatious, but at the same time vast and strong. The population of Athens delighted in intellectual pursuits, in philosophy, in art; it crowded the seats on the slope of the Acropolis to enjoy the wit and satire of Æschylus and Sophocles, and the palæstra to witness the development of bodily grace and dexterity, while the Romans flocked to the Colosseum for the enjoyment of scenes of blood and carnage, to gaze upon the slaughter of captives and the anguish of animals. The force of their government, nevertheless, was unquestionable; their patriotism, unlike that of the Greeks, was unaffected by civic jealousies or party feeling; they trod rough-shod upon the nations, but they planted everywhere the imprint of their heroic civilization and made their capital the centre of the world, and left to it, for all ages, the proud appellation of the Eternal City.

VI.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN STYLE.

After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity, in the fourth century, the Christians who, as a persecuted sect had hitherto held their religious observances in hiding, in the catacombs of Rome, adopted the basilica as the most convenient form of building for the purposes of their worship. The bishop occupied a throne in the apse, surrounded by the presbyters or fathers of the church, and the congregation of the faithful filled the central nave.

For several centuries this plan was but little changed, the only notable additions to it being the continuation of the transept beyond the line of the walls of the nave, thus making it cruciform; the occasional substitution of double aisles, making five divisions in the body of the church, instead of the original three, and the addition of a tower or belfry.

All subsequent churches, whether Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance were constructed on but slight modifications of this original plan, which, in fact, was itself evolved from that of the Roman temple.

Illustration: PLAN OF THE OLD BASILICA OF ST. PAUL’S BEYOND THE WALLS.

A - Apse T - Transept N - Nave X - Narthex]

The first basilicas erected for Christian worship had double aisles; this form was, however, soon discontinued, probably owing to the difficulty of observing the offices of the clergy from the outer aisle. Of these St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s beyond the walls, and St. John Lateran were the finest examples. The first-named was built upon the site of the present cathedral, and was removed in the sixteenth century to make room for it. Its dimensions were of notable size, being about 380 feet long by 212 feet in width. It was preceded by an atrium, or open court, surrounded by a colonnade, in which the Christians met to transact their affairs. The basilica of St. Paul’s was destroyed by fire in the early part of this century, and a new structure resembling the old was erected in its place on a scale of great magnificence. The columns of its Corinthian colonnade and the floor are of polished marble and the wooden roof lavishly ornamented with carving and gilding. The transept is enriched with mosaics, and contains a baldachin over the altar, in which malachite and other choice stones have been used unsparingly.

A typical basilica was generally arranged as follows: The atrium or quadrangular open court, surrounded by porticos, preceded the main building, or was replaced by a porch composed of columns sustaining a low roof which was called the narthex. Within, the structure was divided into a nave, side aisles, transept, and apse. The nave (derived from “navis,” a vessel, symbolical of that of St. Peter) was loftier than the adjoining aisles, the upper wall being usually panelled with pictures and pierced at the top by a range of windows, from which the Gothic clerestory was derived later on. In one or two instances where the side aisles had a second story or upper gallery for the women, the panels and windows were placed in the outer wall.

The interior lines of columns were usually of the Ionic or Corinthian orders, having been taken from older buildings, but if new they were of stouter proportions than the Classical models. These columns supported either a continuous architrave or circular arches.

Wooden doors, often covered by chased bronze, were hung in the main entrance and the wall above was usually pierced by a round window or bull’s-eye, afterward developed into the rose window. At the other end of the nave a wide arched opening, called the triumphal arch, connected it with the transept.

An enclosure, separated from the body of the church by a balustrade, at the upper end of the nave, contained the seats of the choristers and the reading-desks.

The altar was placed in the transept and was frequently surmounted by a baldachin composed of four or six columns supporting a light dome. Behind the altar in the centre of the apse was the throne (cathedra) occupied by the bishop (episcopus), being raised by steps from the semicircular stone seats (exedra) used by the presbyters, which were covered with carpets. The walls of the transept and apse were inlaid with mosaic inscriptions and pictures, in which the head of our Saviour, the figures of saints and holy emblems were the chief subjects. Deep blue, purple, and green were the prevailing colours and the letters were of gold. The floors were decorated with mosaic patterns. The roofs were either flat with sunken panels framed with mouldings and gilded ornaments, or else showed the open trussed wood-work, though the latter was the exception. Externally there was no attempt at enrichment, the exterior generally offering a great contrast to the lavish internal decorations.

At the present day nearly all the basilicas have undergone transformation, the old roofs have been replaced, the walls covered with a modern adornment of pilasters and gaudy paintings, the colonnades have been broken through to allow of entrances to side-chapels, or disfigured by the heterogeneous decoration of the eighteenth century, and the exteriors treated with renaissance façades.

Nevertheless the general plan and arrangements have remained substantially the same, and we have very interesting specimens of this class of building in St. Maria Maggiore, St. Agnese, San Clemente, and others, in Rome, San Appolinare, in Ravenna, the basilicas at Torcello, in the Venetian lagoons, and later examples in St. Ambrogio, of Milan, and St. Maria Sopra Minerva, in Rome. The basilica at Torcello was built mainly from fragments of an older church upon the mainland at Altino. The bishop’s throne is one of the most interesting and best preserved examples we have.

The Greek name for this, cathedra, was the origin of our term cathedral, applied to churches containing the bishop’s seat, there being no architectural distinction between the buildings.

From the tombs of the Romans the Christians derived their conception of the edifices which they used as baptisteries. Their exterior walls were either polygonal or circular, and of severe simplicity. The interiors were generally divided by a row of columns sustaining a round vault, and forming a circular enclosure in which the font was placed. A wall, carried on these columns, contained windows, and served as a lantern to light the building. This wall occasionally supported a dome. San Stephano Rotondo, in Rome; St. Angeli, in Perugia, and St. Vitale, in Ravenna, are the best examples among the many found in Italy.

San Stephano has a double range of interior columns, taken from Roman temples, the one supporting an entablature, and the other a series of arches. The church has been much modified by successive alterations, and the interior is ornamented with curious paintings, representing the sufferings of the martyrs.

The baptistery of St. Angeli is smaller, but has preserved its original form in a greater degree.

St. Vitale is a type of structure much copied in subsequent buildings. It is itself modelled on the so-called temple of Minerva Medica, differing only in having an octagon instead of a decagon plan. Of this Fergusson gives the following account:

“It certainly belongs to the best days of the Roman empire, if, indeed, it be not a Christian building, which I am very much inclined to believe it is, for on comparing it with the baptistery of Constantine and the tomb of St. Contanza, it shows a considerable advance in construction on both of these buildings, and a greater similarity to San Vitale, at Ravenna, and other buildings of that time, than to anything else now found in Rome.

It has a dome eighty feet in diameter, resting on a decagon of singularly light and elegant construction. Nine of the compartments contain niches, which give great room on the floor, as well as variety and lightness to the general design. Above this is a clerestory of ten well-proportioned windows, which give light to the building; perhaps not in so effective a manner as the one eye of the Pantheon, though by a far more convenient arrangement, to protect from the elements a people who did not possess glass.

“So far as I know, all domed buildings erected by the Romans up to the time of Constantine, and, indeed, long afterward, were circular in the interior, though they were sometimes octagonal externally. This, however, is a polygon both internally and on the outside, and the mode in which the dome is placed on the polygon shows the first rudiments of the pendentive system, which was afterward carried to such perfection by the Byzantine architects, but is nowhere else to be found in Rome. It probably was for the purpose of somewhat diminishing the difficulties of this construction that the architect adopted a figure with ten instead of eight sides.”

The plans of the temple of Vesta and of the baptistery of Constantine have been placed here next to one another in order to show the transposition of the columns from the exterior to the interior, which is the chief distinction between the Roman circular buildings and Christian baptisteries.

VII.

THE BYZANTINE STYLE.

Constantine and his mother St. Helena built churches in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Antioch, and embellished Constantinople with numerous splendid edifices. The Eastern basilicas preserved the same character in their construction as those of Italy, but their component parts were more homogeneous, the materials being specially prepared, instead of being borrowed from ancient buildings. The first vigour of emancipated Christianity found vent not only in the erection of edifices devoted to its religious observances, but in the infliction of irreparable injury upon the pagan monuments of Greece and Rome. Constantine brought many fragments of these Classical buildings to the new capital, but they have been destroyed, together with the palaces, churches, and baths which he built there, in successive invasions, by fire, or by earthquakes.

In Thessalonica there are two good examples of early basilicas—the old mosque and the five-aisled church of St. Demetrius; and in Northern Syria there are many admirable specimens. Of these the churches at Rouheilia, Kalb-Louzeh, and Tourmanim deserve special mention.

The latter is a particularly successful building, designed in the new style growing out of the older Roman one, and is a model structure, being constructed exactly in accordance with the requirements of the early Church.

In plan, the Syrian conventual buildings depart but slightly from that of the basilicas of Rome, but in their interior treatment they show a gradual secession from the rules which govern Classical buildings, retaining only their useful and discarding their merely ornamental features.

When the seat of the empire had been transferred to Byzance, the Christians carried with them the principles of the arch and the vault and combined them in a new form of structure. This construction, differing from that employed in Rome, combined with Eastern or late Greek forms of ornament, produced a new style called the Byzantine.

The distinctive feature of this method of construction was the placing of the circular dome, not upon a cylindrical drum, as had been done by the Romans in the Pantheon and other buildings, but upon four walls, square in plan, surmounted by semicircular arches, with the intervening spaces occupied by pendentives. To each side of this central square was joined a nave of the same length, forming thus in plan a Greek cross, that is, one having each arm equally long. These naves were usually short, more frequently semicircular than rectangular, and often terminated by an apse.

We have seen, in the baptistery of St. Vitale, at Ravenna (in which Greek artists were undoubtedly employed), a tendency to reduce the number of sides of polygonal buildings supporting circular domes; the architects of Byzance were therefore merely taking another step in the same direction when they placed the dome upon a quadrilateral substructure.

To comprehend the pendentive, let us take a circle and inscribe within it a square; at the four angles of the square we will place solid piers of masonry and connect them with semicircular arches. Let us now suppose that a hemispherical dome had been built upon this circle as plan, and we will see that the planes of the arches and the plane passing at the level of the top of the keystones of the arches, in intersecting this dome, would leave but four triangular portions of it. These triangular portions are called pendentives, and are the only portions of the original hemisphere which are actually built. As this hemisphere would have been necessarily constructed of materials the joints of which would have radiated from the centre of the sphere, so also do the joints of the pendentives radiate from this same centre, which is identical with the centre of the original circle. The plane passing at the level of the top of the keystones in intersecting the hemisphere describes another circle, upon which the actual dome is placed. The question has not been established satisfactorily whether the Byzantine architects really understood the pendentive, as in many instances they resorted to less scientific methods of filling in the vacant spaces between the arches and the upper dome, but the only logical method of constructing it is that which has just been described.

In building domes, it was not uncommon in the East to replace stonework by light terra-cotta pipes, fitting into each other, giving great lightness and comparative strength.

Justinian gave a marked impetus to architectural work and to the building of religious edifices in particular. He commissioned Anthemius of Thralles, and Isidor of Miletus, to execute the plans for the new church of St. Sophia, upon the site of an older building of Constantine, also dedicated to the “Holy Wisdom,” which had been burnt during an emeute soon after it had been repaired by Theodosius.

Justinian had already built the church of Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, on a plan nearly identical with that of St. Vitale, at Ravenna, with the exception that the whole structure was externally in the form of a square, enclosing the octagon supporting the dome. This served as a stepping-stone to the conception of the larger church, which became the type of all subsequent Byzantine constructions.

By comparing the plans of the Pantheon, the temple of Minerva Medica, the baptistery of Constantine, St. Vitale, at Ravenna, and the church of Sergius and Bacchus, in the order in which they are enumerated, with that of St. Sophia, the sequence and continuous progress of domical construction is at once apparent, and such comparison explains the successive steps in a more satisfactory manner than a folio of description.

“The church of St. Sophia,” says M. Texier, “is built on a square plan, 251 feet long by 186 feet wide. In the centre of this square rises the dome, the diameter of which, measuring 108 feet, determines the width of the nave. The dome is supported by four great arches and four pendentives. Two hemispheric vaults abut against the two arches, which are perpendicular to the axis of the nave, giving it an oval appearance. Each of these hemispheres is itself pierced by two smaller hemispheres carried on columns. This superposition of domes, whose points of abutment are not visible, gives to the whole structure a lightness difficult to realize.”

The church is built upon a foundation of béton twenty feet deep. It is preceded by an atrium surrounded by a portico of the Ionic order. The nave is entered by a double narthex, or porch, extending along the whole width of the West front. The interior, both floor and walls, was formerly adorned with rich marbles, and paintings upon a ground of gold. The dome was built of light bricks faced with hard cement and mosaic, and was lighted by forty windows. Originally a painting of the Holy Father was placed in the centre of the dome, and four cherubim in the pendentives. The latter are still to be discerned under the coat of whitewash with which the Turks have hidden the original magnificence of the interior.

The apse, lighted by three windows, contained the throne and seat of the Church fathers. The columns supporting the great arches and the galleries, originally occupied by the women, are of rare marble, eight of them having, it is said, formed part of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, being brought, together with the spoils of many Eastern and Western buildings, to adorn the great edifice. The foliage of their capitals is fine and sharp and intricately interlaced, having no resemblance to the Classic models beyond a debased form of the volute which terminates their upper corners. This style of ornament is a distinguishing feature of the Byzantine style, and reappears in many examples both in the East and West.

The church, commenced in the year 532, took sixteen years to build, during which time incredible sums were expended upon it. When completed, the appearance it presented was most magnificent, resulting not only from the rich marbles, wood-work, paintings, and mosaics with which it was decorated, but also from the countless candelabras, curtains, precious vases, and golden vessels with which it was furnished. After the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in the year 1453, St. Sophia was converted into a mosque, and suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks. It is only within recent years that any attempt at preserving its original splendour has been made.

The architectural principles upon which St. Sophia was constructed were reproduced in all Byzantine buildings in Italy and France as well as in the Orient. In Turkey, indeed, the edifices subsequently erected are almost counterparts of the original structure, the mosque of Suleiman and that of Achmet, built as late as 1610, embodying almost identical features of construction.

In Athens there are two or three small Byzantine churches, which, though differing greatly in point of size, are founded upon the plan of the mother church; and in Asia Minor generally and Armenia especially, there are a great number; notably the churches of Daghour and Pitzounda and the cathedral of Anim.

The decoration of some of the latter differs from the usual Byzantine methods in the frequent revival of Classic forms, and in the use of thin pilasters, carrying blind arches on the exterior.

This feature reappears in the buildings of Italy, influenced by the style, particularly at Pisa.

In some later buildings a new manner of obtaining light was introduced, by raising the dome upon a cylindrical drum, supported by the four arches and pendentives of the older system. St. Nicodemus, of Athens, is one of the best examples of this.