foreign forms, and owing to the disturbed state of the Empire never brought to perfection, formed the germ of a new school of architecture, adopted and developed by the Teutonic races of Europe; and in this school the round arch formed the principal feature both constructive and decorative, as exhibited in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. CHAPTER IV. BYZANTINE AND SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE, HE division of the Roman Empire by the the seat of government from the banks of the Tiber to the shores of the Bosporus about the year A.D. 330, was followed by the development of new features in Christian art. The name of Byzantine was given to the style now in vogue, from its originating at Byzantium, which was the ancient name of the city of Constantinople, founded according to the old poetic fable by Byzas, the son of Neptune, B.C. 656, but chosen and appropriated by Constantine as the nucleus of his new empire, and henceforth named after himself.* Nearly all * Constantine filled his new capital with statues and works of art derived from the ancient Greek cities then in ruins, particularly Ephesus, Corinth, and Delphi. Gibbon states that the brazen pillar formed of three serpents twisted together that supported the golden tripod consecrated to Phoebus at Delphi by the victorious Greeks, after their defeat of Xerxes (see note on p. 46), was in existence at Constantinople when he wrote. G traces of Greek forms were now lost in the adoption of Byzantine proportions, and it is the fact that the earlier buildings erected can scarcely be considered more than a debased form of Roman construction. The model of the Christian Church, instead of being confined to the rectangular basilica, approached more to a polygonal structure, the ground-plan of which was in the form of a Greek cross, that is, a cross with four arms of equal length, each of these arms being mostly surmounted by its own dome, which clustered round the great cupola in the centre. These cupolas or domes were built on the principle of the Arch, and were supported on semicircular arches and piers. The capitals to these pillars consisted merely of a cubical block of stone, splayed or tapered downward to fit on to the top of the pillar, and adorned by a carved representation of foliage, or basket-work picked out with gold and colour. Often old Roman, Corinthian, and Composite capitals were used again, the abaci being covered with a larger stone or impost to give a larger base for the arch. to spring from, as in addition to the mere downward weight of an entablatured arrangement, the columns had now to sustain the diagonal or outward pressure of the arch. The mighty central dome was usually coloured blue on the inside and powdered with golden stars, to typify the star-bespangled canopy of the eternal heavens resting over the earthly worshippers. This grand feature, however, did not always maintain its central position, owing to the additional length caused by adding a choir or chancel to the eastern arm. As a rule, all openings in walls, whether for doors or windows, or the spaces between columns, were bridged over by an arch, though the lintel was not rejected when circumstances required it. Also if a continuous series of openings was required, equivalent to a colonnade, the same principle was used, the columns being connected by an arch instead of an architrave. In the entablatured system of construction used by the Greeks columns were connected and spaces covered by the horizontal beam; in the style now in vogue, they were more often connected and covered by the geometrically constructed arch-thus showing the commencement of a purely arcuated style, fully developed afterwards in the Romanesque. The Byzantine style was capable of much decoration; and the rich splendour of colour and abundant use of gold and mosaic adorning the interior of the domes and the interior wall surfaces rendered the interiors most gorgeous and imposing. Mosaic decoration, both for walls, interiors of domes, and pavements, was largely used in Byzantine architecture. Almost every church or baptistery that was erected contained specimens of this art, and many beautiful examples have been discovered imbedded under whitewash and plaster. Specimens of ancient mosaics belonging to this period are still in existence in Santa Sophia at Constantinople, though covered,* a church at Salonica, the Baptistery of Constantine at Rome, and the Basilica and Baptistery at Ravenna founded in the fourth century, the magnificent Church of San Vitale, A.D. 547, and the Mausoleum of Placida, also at Ravenna. The Church of Santa Sophia, whose dome was unequalled by any of the vaulted halls of Rome, originally built by the emperor Constantine, about A.D. 325, was dedicated, not as ordinarily supposed to a saint of that name, but to the Hagia Sophia (Divine Wisdom), i.e. the Eternal Wisdom of God, the Logos or second person of the Trinity. It was partly rebuilt by Constantius the son of Constantine, and Theodosius the younger, but was totally destroyed during the Nika sedition. The present building was erected by Justinian (about A.D. 537) on Constantine's foundations in the short *Mr. Layard's paper on Mosaic Decoration,' Builder, Dec. 5, 1868. |