Architecture Part 2

With their supplementary buildings the baths covered a s.p.a.ce some 110 yards square, and beneath them were many vaulted rooms for the attendants on the bathers. Amongst their ruins were found the masterpieces of sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules and the Farnese Bull, but when they were first placed there, there is no evidence to prove.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Temple of Vesta, Rome]

Larger and more imposing in appearance even than the Baths of Caracalla were those of Diocletian, that were capable of accommodating more than 3000 bathers and were built about A.D. 303. The grand hall or tepidarium and the barrel-vaulted entrance portico were most successfully converted in the sixteenth century into the church of S. Maria degli Angeli by Michael Angelo, and one of two circular structures that flanked the encircling wall was later consecrated under the name of S. Bernardo, and is still used as a place of wors.h.i.+p.

Next in importance to the Thermae rank the Amphitheatres of the Roman Empire, in which gladiatorial contests and other trials of skill took place, and without which no town however small was considered complete.

Though their detail was almost exclusively borrowed from the Greeks--tiers of arches resting on columns and surmounted by an entablature rising one above the other--their architects managed to impress on them a distinctive character of their own. Finest of all still existing examples is the Flavian Amphitheatre, generally known as the Coliseum at Rome, which occupies the site of the famous Golden House of Nero, and was completed about A.D. 70. It is of elliptical plan, measures some 612 by 515 feet, and was from 160 to 180 feet high.

It was capable of containing some 80,000 spectators, and was for a long period the chief meeting-place of the Roman citizens. The exterior is four stories high and consists of a series of three rows of arches, the lowest with Doric, the second with Ionic, and the third with Corinthian capitals, the last surmounted by a row of Corinthian pilasters, forming a fourth story, which is supposed to have been originally of wood and to have been rebuilt in stone considerably later. The groups of seats, which, with the central arena they commanded, were protected from the weather by a moveable awning called the velarium, corresponded with the exterior stories, and to each tier a staircase led up, wide vaulted corridors connecting the various entrances with each other, running round the entire building, the whole producing a most harmonious and pleasing effect.

At Verona, Capria, Pola, and Pezzuoli in Italy, at Syracuse in Sicily, and at Arles and Nimes in France are remains of important Roman amphitheatres, and of the rarer theatres used for dramatic entertainments must be named the two well-preserved examples at Pompeii, the ruins of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus at Athens, and most ancient of all, the remains of the so-called Theatre of Marcellus at Rome now incorporated with the Orsinii Palace, all which appear to have resembled the Coliseum to a great extent in their general style and decoration.

Of the vast and imposing palaces built or added to by successive Roman emperors, that included audience chambers, basilicas, stadia for athletic games, galleries, state dining-halls, baths, and many suites of apartments for various purposes, there exist unfortunately but a few remains. Nero's Golden House, several of the ruins of which were excavated in the 16th century, and inspired Raphael with some of the decorative details of the loggia of the Vatican, is said to have covered more than a mile of ground, and at one time the whole of the Palatine Hill was occupied by stately edifices, with the Palace of Augustus in the centre and those of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and Septimius Severus, who greatly added to and modified the work of his predecessors, grouped about them, but all that can now be fully identified are some of the ground plans with a few of the minor details of structure. To atone for this however, much of the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato in Dalmatia, to which that emperor withdrew after his abdication in A.D. 305, which originally formed a small town in itself, is still to a great extent intact, including a temple now used as a cathedral, a gallery 520 feet long by 24 wide, and a few of the covered arcades that originally connected its various parts.

What is left of the so-called Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli near Rome proves that it too was of vast extent, with a great variety of buildings, different suites of rooms having been occupied according to the seasons, and at Pompeii and Herculaneum, thanks to the remarkable preservation of many of the houses in them, notably that named after Pansa, the domestic architecture of the private citizens of the great Roman Empire, of which picturesque arcaded courts were a noteworthy feature, can be well studied, as well as that of the temples, triumphal arches, public baths, &c., all of which greatly resembled those of the Capital.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arch of t.i.tus at Rome]

Whether the Romans were or were not the first people of Western Europe to use the arch, they certainly took a very great delight in it, setting up ornately decorated examples of it at the entrances to their towns, their fora, and their bridges, as well as in commemoration of great victories in war and of the completion of civic enterprises. Most remarkable of those still standing in Rome are the Arch of t.i.tus of one span only, erected in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor after whom it is named; the triple-span arch of Septimius Severus, and the smaller one of Constantine. Though they were rather triumphs of engineering skill than works of architecture properly so called, the fine stone built aqueducts such as those in the Campagna of Rome and at Nimes must be mentioned here on account of the aesthetic effect of the long rows of lofty arches, and a few words must also be said of the Pillars of Victory, of which that of Trajan at Rome is the most notable still extant, adorned as it is with a spiral of finely sculptured bas-reliefs.

In the early days of the Roman power it was customary to cremate the dead, the ashes being preserved in urns that were ranged in cells known as Columbaria, generally hewn in the living rock. As time went on, however, the Egyptian mode of sepulchre was adopted. Bodies were embalmed and laid in stone or marble coffins which were placed in the bas.e.m.e.nts of tombs of two or more stories, surmounted by round towers with pointed or circular roofs. Of these complex resting-places of the dead the finest now in existence is the Mole or Mausoleum of Hadrian, known as the Castle of S. Angelo, at Rome, which is some 300 feet high and was originally encased in marble. No burial was allowed within the walls of a Roman city, but the approaches were generally lined with tombs as at Rome, at Pompeii, and elsewhere, most of them, though on a smaller scale, of a similar plan to that of Hadrian.

CHAPTER IV

EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE

It was in the low, gloomy, dimly lighted subterranean galleries known as catacombs, hewn in the living rock near Rome, that Christian architecture may be said to have had its first crude beginnings. The pa.s.sages in the walls of which the graves of the dead were hollowed out, widened at intervals into s.p.a.cious vaulted halls, where the persecuted followers of the crucified Redeemer met in secret for wors.h.i.+p or to take part in the funeral services for those they had lost.

It was long taken for granted that it was not until the first issue in A.D. 313 of the Edict of Milan by Constantine, Emperor of the West, and Licinius, Emperor of the East, that the professors of the new faith ventured to erect above ground buildings for the exercise of the rites of their religion, but recent discoveries prove that Christian churches were built as early as the 3rd century in many parts of the Roman empire. To quote but two cases in point, relics of a circular one with a small apse at the eastern end have been found at Antepellius in Asia Minor, and of one of the basilican type at Silchester in England.

Moreover, heathen temples were occasionally converted into churches, whilst basilicas were sometimes used for Christian services just as they were.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of a Basilica]

Some few early Christian churches were possibly modelled on cla.s.sic tombs such as those referred to in the chapter on Roman architecture, but the more usual form was the basilican, the altar having been placed on the raised platform within the semicircular apse at the eastern end, the bishops and clergy occupying the seats a.s.signed in halls of justice to the praetor and his a.s.sessors, whilst the congregation met in the nave and aisles. Ere long, however, to this general plan was added the distinctive feature of transepts or transverse pa.s.sages running across the entrance to the apse, thus giving to the whole building the form of a cross. Later structural changes were the erection of an arch above the altar, the heightening of the nave, the connecting of the columns between the nave and aisles by arches instead of horizontal architraves, the introduction of windows, to which the collective name of the clerestory or the clear-story was given, in the semicircular heads of the arches and more rarely into the upper part of the low external walls of the aisles, the apse, which was gradually lengthened eastwards, being left comparatively dark, the only light proceeding from the main body of the church. Simultaneously with or in some cases earlier than these alterations, a portico known as the narthex was added at the western end, extending across the whole width of the nave and aisles, for the use of those, such as catechumens or penitents, who were not privileged to enter the church itself. The narthex in its turn was set within an atrium or outer colonnaded court, in the centre of which was a fountain, used by wors.h.i.+ppers for ablutions before entering the consecrated building.

A minor characteristic of early Christian churches was the richness of the internal decoration, mosaics that is to say, patterns or pictures made of many coloured pieces of gla.s.s or stone, combined in certain examples with marble carvings and gilding, adorned the vaulting, the wall, and even the floor, a kind of mosaic known as the _opus alexandrinum_ being generally used for the last, the whole producing a very gorgeous but harmonious effect.

One of the most interesting existing early Christian churches, that remains very much what it was when first completed, is that of the Nativity at Bethlehem, built in A.D. 327 by the Empress Helena when on her quest for the True Cross, with the Convent to which it originally belonged, that was destroyed by the Turks in 1236 and later restored by the Crusaders. The Church of the Nativity rises above a natural cave now converted into a crypt or vaulted subterranean chamber. It is of cruciform plan, and though its unpretending exterior is of brick, the interior has four rows of ma.s.sive stone pillars dividing the nave from the aisles, which as well as the choir at the eastern end have semicircular apses.

Contemporary with this humble building, that is closely a.s.sociated with all the most sacred memories of the early Church, were the vast basilican places of wors.h.i.+p erected at Rome by Constantine and his immediate successors, which have unfortunately been either destroyed or so much modified as to retain little of their distinctive character. The Cathedral of S. Peter occupies the site of one of them, which had five aisles, a nave 80 feet wide, a comparatively small apse, and a n.o.ble atrium; the Church of S. Giovanni in Laterano retains but a few details of its predecessor of the same name, but that of S. Paolo fuori le Mura or St. Paul without the walls, built by Theodosius in 386, is supposed to be a true copy, so far as structure is concerned, of the grand basilica destroyed by fire in 1823. It has a nave 280 feet long by 78 wide, and the whole building is 400 feet in length by 200 wide. A n.o.ble arch spans the intersection of the transepts, and lofty columns with richly carved capitals divide the nave from the aisles and the latter, of which there are five, from each other, but the roof is only a flat wooden one, the external walls are wanting in dignity and solidity, whilst the height, 100 feet only, is quite out of proportion with the otherwise n.o.ble dimensions.

Another very fine early basilican church in Rome is that of S. Maria Maggiore, occupying the site of a 5th century building, some of the marble columns of which with Ionic capitals have been incorporated in the later structure. The Churches of S. Agnese and S. Lorenzo are also of basilican plan, and have both the somewhat rare feature of galleries over the aisles. The former is but little altered since its erection, whilst the latter has gone through a long series of vicissitudes. It was founded in the 4th century and greatly added to in the 5th by Sixtus III, who joined a second church on to it, so that it had an apse at each end. Both these apses, with the walls between the earlier and the later buildings, were pulled down in the 13th century by order of Pope Honorius III, who had the earlier church converted into a choir and the later into a nave, with very satisfactory results.

Even more interesting than S. Lorenzo is S. Clemente, Rome, that consists of two buildings of widely separated dates one above another, the lower, which now serves as a crypt, supposed to have been built at the beginning of the 6th century, the upper not until 1108. Both are of the same general plan as the other basilican churches described, with certain differences in minor details, including in the more modern portion a low marble screen dividing the choir and altar from the nave.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Church of S. Clemente]

To many of these early churches fine cloisters, that is to say, arcaded colonnades encircling the outer walls, were added, those that once enclosed the ancient basilica of S. Paola fuori le Mura being among the finest still preserved, that may be said to have antic.i.p.ated the beautiful ambulatories of later monastic and collegiate buildings.

In other cities of the Roman empire are many noteworthy early basilican churches, including S. Apollinare Nuovo within and S. Apollinare in Cla.s.se without the walls of Ravenna, the cathedral of Torcello, that is connected by a narthex with the later S. Fosca, in which the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine style is shadowed forth, and the cathedrals of Parenzo and Grado in Istria, the former retaining almost intact its beautiful colonnaded atrium, the latter chiefly remarkable for its fine mosaic pavement.

In addition to the early churches of basilican plan are a few of circular form, such as that at Rome enshrining the tomb of S. Constanza, the daughter of Constantine, dating from about A.D. 354, which has a domed roof and vaulted aisles, the 5th century church of S. Stefano Rotondo in the same town, the latter, though greatly modified in detail, still preserving its two concentric ranges of columns, S. Vitale at Ravenna, and S. George at Salonika, that has a circular nave but an oblong chancel and apse, whilst the 6th century tomb of Theodoric is typical of the use of a similar plan in sepulchral monuments.

In the first centuries of the Christian era it was customary for the ceremony of baptism to be performed in buildings known as baptisteries, apart from, but close to, cathedrals and important parish churches.

These buildings were as a general rule of circular or octagonal plan with a tank in the centre of the interior, of size sufficient for the total immersion of candidates. The earliest and also one of the finest existing examples is the Baptistery of Constantino that rises close to S. Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, and is two stories high, with a central domed roof of timber and flat-ceilinged aisles, the ma.s.sive porphyry columns dividing them from the s.p.a.ce set apart for the ceremony of baptism, being surmounted by slender pilasters. Another fine early Baptistery is that at Nocera, which resembles that of Constantine in general plan and style.

The Christians of Egyptian descent, to whom the name of Copts has been given, evolved a style of building that combined with oriental traditions certain details of western architecture. They were very early familiar with the dome, and employed it in churches of a basilican ground-plan even before it was adopted in the Roman Empire. Moreover, certain of the barrel vaults and arches in Coptic places of wors.h.i.+p were pointed, so that the most distinctive characteristic of Gothic architecture may be said to have been to some extent antic.i.p.ated. Except for the effective feature of the dome the exteriors of these buildings were plain and unpretending, but the interiors were in many cases lavishly decorated with marble mosaics. Other peculiarities were the division of the eastern extremity into three semicircular or square recesses, each containing an altar, the use of an elaborately carved screen shutting off the choir or chancel from the nave and aisles, and the introduction of galleries above the latter for the use of the women of the congregation.

Specially noteworthy examples of Coptic architecture are the two churches in Upper Egypt known as the White and Red Convents, the former supposed by some authorities to be even older than the church of the Nativity of Bethlehem, the 6th century church of Dair-as-Suriani in the Desert, and the 8th century S. Sergius or Abu Sargah at Cairo, whilst in the oasis of El Bagawat have recently been excavated a large number of sepulchral chapels, dating probably from the 5th century, many of which have domed cupolas greatly resembling in structure those of considerably later Byzantine buildings.

In Syria, as well as in Egypt, are many very interesting early Christian churches, including the vast complex 5th century building at Kalat-Seman dedicated to S. Simeon Stylites, which has four basilicas, each with an apse, grouped about a central octagon; the 6th century church at Sergiopolis; and the smaller contemporaneous ones at Qalb Lorzeh and Roueiha; all of which, though they resemble in general plan the basilicas of Rome, have certain details that appear to shadow forth the characteristics of the Romanesque style, notably in the first the cruciform bays dividing the nave from the aisles, in the second, the use of the lobed arch, and in it and the Roueiha building the grouping of the clerestory windows.

Asia Minor is also rich in examples of early Christian architecture, of which one of the most remarkable is the 5th century S. Demetrius at Salonika, of basilican plan with transepts at the eastern end, nave arcades resembling those of S. Clemente, Rome, and galleries above the aisles, such as those of the Coptic places of wors.h.i.+p quoted above. With it must be named the 6th century church in the same city, now used as a mosque, under the name of Eski Djuma, and the considerably later churches at Bin Bir Kilissi that have only recently been explored and are of basilican plan with barrel-vaulted roofing.

CHAPTER V

BYZANTINE AND SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE

The term Byzantine has been given to the style of architecture which was the outcome of the fusion of the best building traditions of the East and of the West, the former contributing the distinctive structural feature of the dome, with the minor details of richness of colouring and lavishness of decoration, the latter dignified symmetry of proportion and scientific solidity of construction.

It was in Byzantium, when in 330 the first Christian Emperor chose it as his headquarters, and its name was changed in his honour to Constantinople, that the union which was to be so prolific of results took place. Unfortunately however none of the churches erected under the auspices of Constantine in the new capital have been preserved, the sole relic of his reign, so far as architecture is concerned, being the foundations of the apse of a church, now replaced by a considerably later building, in which he had the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem enclosed. The oldest existing church in Constantinople is a basilica of the Roman type dating from 463, with nothing distinctive of the new style about it, but there is historical evidence that the n.o.ble S.

Sophia, in which that style reached its fullest development, was preceded in Constantinople by other grand buildings of a similar type, including one dedicated to the Holy Apostles which was cruciform in plan and had five domes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. Sophia, Constantinople]

The most distinctive peculiarity of Byzantine architecture is the roofing over of square s.p.a.ces with the aid of the pendentive, a clever expedient already explained, that was carried to great perfection by the builders of Constantinople and those who elsewhere followed their example. Previously employed in comparatively small structures, it now became the fundamental principle for the roofing over of s.p.a.ces of a great variety of extent, groups of domes and semi-domes, in many cases supplemented by tapering towers rising with imposing effect from ma.s.sive outer walls. The long aisles and nave of the Roman and early Christian basilicas were replaced by a more or less square plan, lofty piers spanned by arches upholding the central cupola, whilst the galleries above the aisles rested on slender columns such as were also employed to rail off the sanctuary and narthex from the main body of the building.

The whole of the interior, which was lighted from windows in the dome, was most profusely decorated, the walls having dados or slabs of different coloured marbles supplemented by mosaics, with which every portion of the domes, semi-domes, and pendentives were also covered, whilst the columns, in many cases of variegated marble, had beautifully carved capitals of an infinite variety of design.

It is customary to divide the history of the development of Byzantine architecture into two distinct periods, the first extending from the 4th to the close of the 6th century, the second from the 8th to the 13th century, there having been a pause between them during which no buildings of any importance were erected owing to the wars which convulsed alike the East and the West. As already stated, no actual buildings belonging to the earlier portion of the first period remain, but there exist in S. Vitale at Ravenna and still more in S. Sophia at Constantinople unique examples of the golden age of Byzantine architecture, the inspiring influence of which was felt throughout the whole of Europe and the greater part of Asia. The former church, begun about 526, is of octagonal plan, each division, except that containing the choir, with an apse of its own, and though the interior has been greatly spoiled by restoration, the general effect of the vaulted roofing, marble casing of the walls, and mosaics of the eastern end is extremely fine. San Vitale is, however, altogether excelled by the world-famous S. Sophia, now the chief mosque of Constantinople, which occupies the site of a basilica built under Constantine, that was burnt down early in the reign of Justinian. The latter emperor at once ordered the erection of its successor, appointing as architects Anthemios of Thralles and Isodoros of Miletus.

Begun in 532 and completed in 537, S. Sophia is of very simple yet most dignified external appearance, so symmetrical is the grouping of its many domes and semi-domes, whilst the interior, though it has none of the rich colouring usual in oriental buildings, is unsurpa.s.sed in the harmony of its structural details, all of which lead up, as it were, to the huge central dome, the lower portion of which is pierced with a series of small windows throwing a flood of light upon the vast circular s.p.a.ce below. The general plan is square, but a fine narthex consisting of two s.p.a.cious halls one above the other projects slightly beyond the actual church at the western end. The nave, which is 106 feet wide by 225 long, has a semicircular apse with small recesses opening out of it at either end, and is separated from the aisles by rows of closely set columns with ornate capitals, spanned by arches upholding two-storied arcaded galleries, roofed in by semi-domes, except at the northern and southern ends, which have walls with numerous small windows. One large western window illuminates the nave, and there is also a double circle of lights round the apse, the galleries, and the narthex.

Other interesting early Byzantine buildings are the Baptistery at Kalat-Seman and the church of S. George at Ezra, both in Syria, each of which is of square plan with an octagonal central s.p.a.ce, the latter having the comparatively unusual feature of a dome upheld by what is known as a drum, that is to say a low vertical wall instead of pendentives. The church of S. Sergius at Constantinople, contemporaneous with S. Sophia, is specially noteworthy on account of the introduction in it of a cla.s.sic entablature, combined with distinctive Byzantine features, with which may be named the much-restored S. Lorenzo at Milan and the church of the Virgin at Misitra, the ancient Sparta.

To the second period of Byzantine Architecture belong not only several fine buildings in Constantinople, but others in Greece, Asia Minor, the North of Italy, and elsewhere, all of which, though they have the leading structural features of the style, are distinguished by certain minor local characteristics. The most noteworthy in the capital are the now secularised church of S. Irene, founded by Constantine and rebuilt considerably later, and the church of the Chora monastery, specially remarkable for its beautiful mosaics, whilst in Greece the Churches of S. Nicodemus at Athens and that of Daphni not far from it, with the two monastic churches at Stiris and the churches of S. Sophia and S. Elias, at Salonika, are all thoroughly Byzantine, bearing a close resemblance to each other. They are all, however, excelled by the great Cathedral of S. Marco at Venice, which rivals even S. Sophia in the exquisite beauty of the interior and excels it in the ornate richness of the exterior.

Founded early in the 9th century, S. Marco was partially destroyed in 978 and rebuilt soon afterwards in the original style, that of a basilica without transepts, but in the second half of the 11th century it was completely transformed by additions converting it into a cruciform building, roofed over by five domes of the same size, and with five arcaded porches at the western end that form one of the grandest facades in the world. Numerous columns of many covered marbles uphold graceful arches, the spandrels, or triangular s.p.a.ces between them filled in with gleaming mosaics, and above them rise other arches that contrast well with tapering towers supported on slender pilasters to which the domes beyond form an admirable background. Within the church to which this magnificent narthex gives entrance, an infinite variety of harmonious details combine to produce an entrancing effect: one charming vista succeeding another, the whole flooded with light from a vast number of windows, there being no less than eighty in the domes alone.

Mosaics of different dates and greatly varying aesthetic merit completely clothe the surfaces of the vaulting, the capitals of the columns--many of which, by the way, are purely decorative, upholding no arches--are elaborately carved, and the flooring is of marble, slabs of considerable size being set in patterns of tesserae.

In the various countries which fell under the influence of the followers of Mahommed a style of architecture was evolved that had marked affinities with the Byzantine, the first mosques having been designed, it is supposed, by Christian architects of Oriental origin, who retained the square or circular ground-plan of early churches, though they modified the interior to suit the requirements of the new religion, introducing, for instance, a central tank for ablutions. Mosques intended for wors.h.i.+p only, generally had flat roofs, the use of the dome being at first distinctive of a burial place, but as it very soon became usual to inter in mosques, the dome came to be quoted as a distinctive feature of them. By degrees simple unadorned mosques were replaced by vast buildings with many arcaded courts entered from ornate lateral doorways, whilst certain characteristic features were introduced, of which the chief were the stalact.i.te vaulting, the name of which explains itself, the horse-shoe arch, and the minaret, the last named a turret of several stories gradually decreasing in circ.u.mference, each with a balcony of its own from which the mueddin calls the faithful to prayer.

Pointed arches were also constantly employed as well as the form known as cusped, that is to say one with a triangular projection springing from the inner curve. A minor but most significant characteristic of Saracenic architecture is the elaborate surface decoration in which geometrical designs, letters, &c., are interwoven with consummate skill, but in which no figures of animals are ever introduced, the representation of life being strictly forbidden by the Koran.