see caption and text
FIG. 60.—THERMÆ OF CARACALLA. PLAN OF CENTRAL BLOCK.

A, Caldarium, or Hot Bath; B, Intermediate Chamber; C, Tepidarium, or Warm Bath; D, Frigidarium, or Cold Bath; E, Peristyles; a, Gymnastic Rooms; b, Dressing Rooms; c, Cooling Rooms; d, Small Courts; e, Entrances; v, Vestibules.

Larger View

THERMÆ. The leisure of the Roman people was largely spent in the great baths, or thermæ, which took the place substantially of the modern club. The establishments erected by the emperors for this purpose were vast and complex congeries of large and small halls, courts, and chambers, combined with a masterly comprehension of artistic propriety and effect in the sequence of oblong, square, oval, and circular apartments, and in the relation of the greater to the lesser masses. They were a combination of the Greek palæstra with the Roman balnea, and united in one harmonious design great public swimming-baths, private baths for individuals and families, places for gymnastic exercises and games, courts, peristyles, gardens, halls for literary entertainments, lounging-rooms, and all the complex accommodation required for the service of the whole establishment. They were built with apparent disregard of cost, and adorned with splendid extravagance. The earliest were the Baths of Agrippa (27 B.C.) behind the Pantheon; next may be mentioned those of Titus, built on the substructions of Nero’s Golden House. The remains of the Thermæ of Caracalla (211 A.D.) form the most extensive mass of ruins in Rome, and clearly display the admirable planning of this and similar establishments. A gigantic block of buildings containing the three great halls for cold, warm, and hot baths, stood in the centre of a vast enclosure surrounded by private baths, exedræ, and halls for lecture-audiences and other gatherings. The enclosure was adorned with statues, flower-gardens, and places for out-door games. The Baths of Diocletian (302 A.D.) embodied this arrangement on a still more extensive scale; they could accommodate 3,500 bathers at once, and their ruins cover a broad territory near the railway terminus of the modern city. The church of S. Maria degli Angeli was formed by Michael Angelo out of the tepidarium of these baths—a colossal hall 340 × 87 feet, and 90 feet high. The original vaulting and columns are still intact, and the whole interior most imposing, in spite of later stucco disfigurements. The circular laconicum (sweat-room) serves as the porch to the present church. It was in the building of these great halls that Roman architecture reached its most original and characteristic expression. Wholly unrelated to any foreign model, they represent distinctively Roman ideals, both as to plan and construction.

see caption and text
FIG. 61.—ROMAN THEATRE. (HERCULANUM.)
(From model.)

PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. The earliest Roman theatres differed from the Greek in having a nearly semicircular plan, and in being built up from the level ground, not excavated in a hillside (Fig. 61). The first theatre was of wood, built by Mummius 145 B.C., and it was not until ninety years later that stone was first substituted for the more perishable material, in the theatre of Pompey. The Theatre of Marcellus (23–13 B.C.) is in part still extant, and later theatres in Pompeii, Orange (France), and in the Asiatic provinces are in excellent preservation. The orchestra was not, as in the Greek theatre, reserved for the choral dance, but was given up to spectators of rank; the stage was adorned with a permanent architectural background of columns and arches, and sometimes roofed with wood, and an arcade or colonnade surrounded the upper tier of seats. The amphitheatre was a still more distinctively Roman edifice. It was elliptical in plan, surrounding an elliptical arena, and built up with continuous encircling tiers of seats. The earliest stone amphitheatre was erected by Statilius Taurus in the time of Augustus. It was practically identical in design with the later and much larger Flavian amphitheatre, commonly known as the Colosseum, begun by Vespasian and completed 82 A.D. (Fig. 62). This immense structure measured 607 × 506 feet in plan and was 180 feet high; it could accommodate eighty-seven thousand spectators. Engaged columns of the Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian orders decorated three stories of the exterior; the fourth was a nearly unbroken wall with slender Corinthian pilasters. Solidly constructed of travertine, concrete, and tufa, the Colosseum, with its imposing but monotonous exterior, almost sublime by its scale and seemingly endless repetition, but lacking in refinement or originality of detail and dedicated to bloody and cruel sports, was a characteristic product of the Roman character and civilization. At Verona, Pola, Capua, and many cities in the foreign provinces there are well-preserved remains of similar structures.

see caption and text
FIG. 62.—COLOSSEUM. HALF PLAN.

Closely related to the amphitheatre were the circus and the stadium. The Circus Maximus between the Palatine and Aventine hills was the oldest of those in Rome. That erected by Caligula and Nero on the site afterward partly occupied by St. Peter’s, was more splendid, and is said to have been capable of accommodating over three hundred thousand spectators after its enlargement in the fourth century. The long, narrow race-course was divided into two nearly equal parts by a low parapet, the spina, on which were the goals (metæ) and many small decorative structures and columns. One end of the circus, as of the stadium also, was semicircular; the other was segmental in the circus, square in the stadium; a colonnade or arcade ran along the top of the building, and the entrances and exits were adorned with monumental arches.

see caption and text
FIG. 63.—ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.
(From model in Metropolitan Museum, New York.)

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND COLUMNS. Rome and the provincial cities abounded in monuments commemorative of victory, usually single or triple arches with engaged columns and rich sculptural adornments, or single colossal columns supporting statues. The arches were characteristic products of Roman design, and some of them deserve high praise for the excellence of their proportions and the elegance of their details. There were in Rome in the second century A.D., thirty-eight of these monuments. The Arch of Titus (71–82 A.D.) is the simplest and most perfect of those still extant in Rome; the arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum (203 A.D.) and that of Constantine (330 A.D.) near the Colosseum, are more sumptuous but less pure in detail. The last-named was in part enriched with sculptures taken from the earlier arch of Trajan. The statues of Dacian captives on the attic (attic = a species of subordinate story added above the main cornice) of this arch were a fortunate addition, furnishing a raison-d’être for the columns and broken entablatures on which they rest. Memorial columns of colossal size were erected by several emperors, both in Rome and abroad. Those of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius are still standing in Rome in perfect preservation. The first was 140 feet high including the pedestal and the statue which surmounted it; its capital marked the height of the ridge levelled by the emperor for the forum on which the column stands. Its most striking peculiarity is the spiral band of reliefs winding around the shaft from bottom to top and representing the Dacian campaigns of Trajan. The other column is of similar design and dimensions, but greatly inferior to the first in execution. Both are really towers, with interior stair-cases leading to the top.

TOMBS. The Romans developed no special and national type of tomb, and few of their sepulchral monuments were of large dimensions. The most important in Rome were the pyramid of Caius Cestius (late first century B.C.), and the circular tombs of Cecilia Metella (60 B.C.), Augustus (14 A.D.) and Hadrian, now the Castle of S. Angelo (138 A.D.). The latter was composed of a huge cone of marble supported on a cylindrical structure 230 feet in diameter standing on a square podium 300 feet long and wide. The cone probably once terminated in the gilt bronze pine-cone now in the Giardino della Pigna of the Vatican. In the Mausoleum of Augustus a mound of earth planted with trees crowned a similar circular base of marble on a podium 220 feet square, now buried.

The smaller tombs varied greatly in size and form. Some were vaulted chambers, with graceful internal painted decorations of figures and vine patterns combined with low-relief enrichments in stucco. Others were designed in the form of altars or sarcophagi, as at Pompeii; while others again resembled ædiculæ, little temples, shrines, or small towers in several stories of arches and columns, as at St. Rémy (France).

PALACES AND DWELLINGS. Into their dwellings the Romans carried all their love of ostentation and personal luxury. They anticipated in many details the comforts of modern civilization in their furniture, their plumbing and heating, and their utensils. Their houses may be divided into four classes: the palace, the villa, the domus or ordinary house, and the insula or many-storied tenement built in compact blocks. The first three alone concern us, and will be taken up in the above order.

The imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill comprised a wide range in style and variety of buildings, beginning with the first simple house of Augustus (26 B.C.), burnt and rebuilt 3 A.D. Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero added to the Augustan group; Domitian rebuilt a second time and enlarged the palace of Augustus, and Septimius Severus remodelled the whole group, adding to it his own extraordinary seven-storied palace, the Septizonium. The ruins of these successive buildings have been carefully excavated, and reveal a remarkable combination of dwelling-rooms, courts, temples, libraries, basilicas, baths, gardens, peristyles, fountains, terraces, and covered passages. These were adorned with a profusion of precious marbles, mosaics, columns, and statues. Parts of the demolished palace of Nero were incorporated in the substructions of the Baths of Titus. The beautiful arabesques and plaster reliefs which adorned them were the inspiration of much of the fresco and stucco decoration of the Italian Renaissance. At Spalato, in Dalmatia, are the extensive ruins of the great Palace of Diocletian, which was laid out on the plan of a Roman camp, with two intersecting avenues (Fig. 64). It comprised a temple, mausoleum, basilica, and other structures besides those portions devoted to the purposes of a royal residence.

see caption and text
FIG. 64.—PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. SPALATO.

The villa was in reality a country palace, arranged with special reference to the prevailing winds, exposure to the sun and shade, and the enjoyment of a wide prospect. Baths, temples, exedræ, theatres, tennis-courts, sun-rooms, and shaded porticoes were connected with the house proper, which was built around two or three interior courts or peristyles. Statues, fountains, and colossal vases of marble adorned the grounds, which were laid out in terraces and treated with all the fantastic arts of the Roman landscape-gardener. The most elaborate and extensive villa was that of Hadrian, at Tibur (Tivoli); its ruins, covering hundreds of acres, form one of the most interesting spots to visit in the neighborhood of Rome.

see caption and text
FIG. 65.—HOUSE OF PANSA, POMPEII.

s, Shops; v, Vestibule; f, Family Rooms; k, Kitchen; l, Lavarium; P, P, P, Peristyles.

There are few remains in Rome of the domus or private house. Two, however, have left remarkably interesting ruins—the Atrium Vestæ, or House of the Vestal Virgins, east of the Forum, a well-planned and extensive house surrounding a cloister or court; and the House of Livia, so-called, on the Palatine Hill, the walls and decorations of which are excellently preserved. The typical Roman house in a provincial town is best illustrated by the ruins of Pompeii and Herculanum, which, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., have been partially excavated since 1721. The Pompeiian house (Fig. 65) consisted of several courts or atria, some of which were surrounded by colonnades and called peristyles. The front portion was reserved for shops, or presented to the street a wall unbroken save by the entrance; all the rooms and chambers opened upon the interior courts, from which alone they borrowed their light. In the brilliant climate of southern Italy windows were little needed, as sufficient light was admitted by the door, closed only by portières for the most part; especially as the family life was passed mainly in the shaded courts, to which fountains, parterres of shrubbery, statues, and other adornments lent their inviting charm. The general plan of these houses seems to have been of Greek origin, as well as the system of decoration used on the walls. These, when not wainscoted with marble, were covered with fantastic, but often artistic, painted decorations, in which an imaginary architecture as of metal, a fantastic and arbitrary perspective, illusory pictures, and highly finished figures were the chief elements. These were executed in brilliant colors with excellent effect. The houses were lightly built, with wooden ceilings and roofs instead of vaulting, and usually with but one story on account of the danger from earthquakes. That the workmanship and decoration were in the capital often superior to what was to be found in a provincial town like Pompeii, is evidenced by beautiful wall-paintings and reliefs discovered in Rome in 1879 and now preserved in the Museo delle Terme. More or less fragmentary remains of Roman houses have been found in almost every corner of the Roman empire, but nowhere exhibiting as completely as in Pompeii the typical Roman arrangement.

WORKS OF UTILITY. A word should be said about Roman engineering works, which in many cases were designed with an artistic sense of proportion and form which raises them into the domain of genuine art. Such were especially the bridges, in which a remarkable effect of monumental grandeur was often produced by the form and proportions of the arches and piers, and an appropriate use of rough and dressed masonry, as in the Pons Ælius (Ponte S. Angelo), the great bridge at Alcantara (Spain), and the Pont du Gard, in southern France. The aqueducts are impressive rather by their length, scale, and simplicity, than by any special refinements of design, except where their arches are treated with some architectural decoration to form gates, as in the Porta Maggiore, at Rome.

MONUMENTS: (Those which have no important extant remains are given in italics.) Temples: Jupiter Capitolinus, 600 B.C.; Ceres, Liber, and Libera, 494 B.C. (ruins of later rebuilding in S. Maria in Cosmedin); first T. of Concord (rebuilt in Augustan age), 254 B.C.; first marble temple in portico of Metellus, by a Greek, Hermodorus, 143 B.C.; temples of Fortune at Præneste and at Rome, and of “Vesta” at Rome, 83–78 B.C.; of “Vesta” at Tivoli, and of Hercules at Cori, 72 B.C.; first Pantheon, 27 B.C. In Augustan Age temples of Apollo, Concord rebuilt, Dioscuri, Julius, Jupiter Stator, Jupiter Tonans, Mars Ultor, Minerva (at Rome and Assisi), Maison Carrée at Nîmes, Saturn; at Puteoli, Pola, etc. T. of Peace; T. Jupiter Capitolinus, rebuilt 70 A.D.; temple at Brescia. Temple of Vespasian, 96 A.D.; also of Minerva in Forum of Nerva; of Trajan, 117 A.D.; second Pantheon; T. of Venus and Rome at Rome, and of Jupiter Olympius at Athens, 135–138 A.D.; Faustina, 141 A.D.; many in Syria; temples of Sun at Rome, Baalbec, and Palmyra, cir. 273 A.D.; of Romulus, 305 A.D. (porch S. Cosmo and Damiano). Places of Assembly: Fora—Roman, Julian, 46 B.C.; Augustan, 40–42 B.C.; of Peace, 75 A.D.; Nerva, 97 A.D.; Trajan (by Apollodorus of Damascus, 117 A.D.) Basilicas: Sempronian, Æmilian, 1st century B.C.; Julian, 51 B.C.; Septa Julia, 26 B.C.; the Curia, later rebuilt by Diocletian, 300 A.D. (now Church of S. Adriano); at Fano, 20 A.D. (?); Forum and Basilica at Pompeii, 60 A.D.; of Trajan; of Constantine, 310–324 A.D. Theatres (th.) and Amphitheatres (amp.): th. Pompey, 55 B.C.; of Balbus and of Marcellus, 13 B.C.; th. and amp. at Pompeii and Herculanum; Colosseum at Rome, 78–82 A.D.; th. at Orange and in Asia Minor; amp. at Albano, Constantine, Nîmes, Petra, Pola, Reggio, Trevi, Tusculum, Verona, etc.; amp. Castrense at Rome, 96 A.D. Circuses and stadia at Rome. Thermæ: of Agrippa, 27 B.C.; of Nero; of Titus, 78 A.D. Domitian, 90 A.D.; Caracalla, 211 A.D.; Diocletian, 305 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; “Minerva Medica,” 3d or 4th century A.D. Arches: of Stertinius, 196 B.C.; Scipio, 190 B.C.; Augustus, 30 B.C.; Titus, 71–82 A.D.; Trajan, 117 A.D.; Severus, 203 A.D.; Constantine, 320 A.D.; of Drusus, Dolabella, Silversmiths, 204 A.D.; Janus Quadrifrons, 320 A.D. (?); all at Rome. Others at Benevento, Ancona, Rimini in Italy; also at Athens, and at Reims and St. Chamas in France. Columns of Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius at Rome, others at Constantinople, Alexandria, etc. Tombs: along Via Appia and Via Latina, at Rome; Via Sacra at Pompeii; tower-tombs at St. Rémy in France; rock-cut at Petra; at Rome, of Caius Cestius and Cecilia Metella, 1st century B.C.; of Augustus, 14 A.D.; Hadrian, 138 A.D. Palaces and Private Houses: On Palatine, of Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, Septimius Severus, Elagabalus; Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli; palaces of Diocletian at Spalato and of Constantine at Constantinople. House of Livia on Palatine (Augustan period); of Vestals, rebuilt by Hadrian, cir. 120 A.D. Houses at Pompeii and Herculanum, cir. 60–79 A.D.; Villas of Gordianus (“Tor’ de’ Schiavi,” 240 A.D.), and of Sallust at Rome and of Pliny at Laurentium.

14. Lanciani: Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 89.

CHAPTER X.

EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.

Books Recommended: Bunsen, Die Basiliken christlichen Roms. Butler, Architecture and other Arts in Northern Central Syria. Corroyer, L’architecture romane. Cummings, A History of Architecture in Italy. Essenwein (Handbuch d. Architektur), Ausgänge der klassischen Baukunst. Gutensohn u. Knapp, Denkmäler der christlichen Religion. Hübsch, Monuments de l’architecture chrétienne. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome. Mothes, Die Basilikenform bei den Christen, etc. Okely, Development of Christian Architecture in Italy. Von Quast, Die altchristlichen Bauwerke zu Ravenna. De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea. De Vogüé, Syrie Centrale; Églises de la Terre Sainte.

INTRODUCTORY. The official recognition of Christianity in the year 328 by Constantine simply legalized an institution which had been for three centuries gathering momentum for its final conquest of the antique world. The new religion rapidly enlisted in its service for a common purpose and under a common impulse races as wide apart in blood and culture as those which had built up the art of imperial Rome. It was Christianity which reduced to civilization in the West the Germanic hordes that had overthrown Rome, bringing their fresh and hitherto untamed vigor to the task of recreating architecture out of the decaying fragments of classic art. So in the East its life-giving influence awoke the slumbering Greek art-instinct to new triumphs in the arts of building, less refined and perfect indeed, but not less sublime than those of the Periclean age. Long before the Constantinian edict, the Christians in the Eastern provinces had enjoyed substantial freedom of worship. Meeting often in the private basilicas of wealthy converts, and finding these, and still more the great public basilicas, suited to the requirements of their worship, they early began to build in imitation of these edifices. There are many remains of these early churches in northern Africa and central Syria.

EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN ROME. This was at first wholly sepulchral, developing in the catacombs the symbols of the new faith. Once liberated, however, Christianity appropriated bodily for its public rites the basilica-type and the general substance of Roman architecture. Shafts and capitals, architraves and rich linings of veined marble, even the pagan Bacchic symbolism of the vine, it adapted to new uses in its own service. Constantine led the way in architecture, endowing Bethlehem and Jerusalem with splendid churches, and his new capital on the Bosphorus with the first of the three historic basilicas dedicated to the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). One of the greatest of innovators, he seems to have had a special predilection for circular buildings, and the tombs and baptisteries which he erected in this form, especially that for his sister Constantia in Rome (known as Santa Costanza, Fig. 66), furnished the prototype for numberless Italian baptisteries in later ages.

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FIG. 66.—STA. COSTANZA, ROME.

The Christian basilica (see Figs. 67, 68) generally comprised a broad and lofty nave, separated by rows of columns from the single or double side-aisles. The aisles had usually about half the width and height of the nave, and like it were covered with wooden roofs and ceilings. Above the columns which flanked the nave rose the lofty clearstory wall, pierced with windows above the side-aisle roofs and supporting the immense trusses of the roof of the nave. The timbering of the latter was sometimes bare, sometimes concealed by a richly panelled ceiling, carved, gilded, and painted. At the further end of the nave was the sanctuary or apse, with the seats for the clergy on a raised platform, the bema, in front of which was the altar. Transepts sometimes expanded to right and left before the altar, under which was the confessio or shrine of the titular saint or martyr.

An atrium or forecourt surrounded by a covered arcade preceded the basilica proper, the arcade at the front of the church forming a porch or narthex, which, however, in some cases existed without the atrium. The exterior was extremely plain; the interior, on the contrary, was resplendent with incrustations of veined marble and with sumptuous decorations in glass mosaic (called opus Grecanicum) on a blue or golden ground. Especially rich were the half-dome of the apse and the wall-space surrounding its arch and called the triumphal arch; next in decorative importance came the broad band of wall beneath the clearstory windows. Upon these surfaces the mosaic-workers wrought with minute cubes of colored glass pictures and symbols almost imperishable, in which the glow of color and a certain decorative grandeur of effect in the composition went far to atone for the uncouth drawing. With growing wealth and an increasingly elaborate ritual, the furniture and equipments of the church assumed greater architectural importance. A large rectangular space was retained for the choir in front of the bema, and enclosed by a breast-high parapet of marble, richly inlaid. On either side were the pulpits or ambones for the Gospel and Epistle. A lofty canopy was built over the altar, the baldaquin, supported on four marble columns. A few basilicas were built with side-aisles, in two stories, as in S. Lorenzo and Sta. Agnese. Adjoining the basilica in the earlier examples were the baptistery and the tomb of the saint, circular or polygonal buildings usually; but in later times these were replaced by the font or baptismal chapel in the church and the confessio under the altar.

see caption and text
FIG. 67.—PLAN OF THE BASILICA OF ST. PAUL.

Of the two Constantinian basilicas in Rome, the one dedicated to St. Peter was demolished in the fifteenth century; that of St. John Lateran has been so disfigured by modern alterations as to be unrecognizable. The former of the two adjoined the site of the martyrdom of St. Peter in the circus of Caligula and Nero; it was five-aisled, 380 feet in length by 212 feet in width. The nave was 80 feet wide and 100 feet high, and the disproportionately high clearstory wall rested on horizontal architraves carried by columns. The impressive dimensions and simple plan of this structure gave it a majesty worthy of its rank as the first church of Christendom. St. Paul beyond the Walls (S. Paolo fuori le mura), built in 386 by Theodosius, resembled St. Peter’s closely in plan (Figs. 67, 68). Destroyed by fire in 1821, it has been rebuilt with almost its pristine splendor, and is, next to the modern St. Peter’s and the Pantheon, the most impressive place of worship in Rome. Santa Maria Maggiore,15 though smaller in size, is more interesting because it so largely retains its original aspect, its Renaissance ceiling happily harmonizing with its simple antique lines. Ionic columns support architraves to carry the clearstory, as in St. Peter’s. In most other examples, St. Paul’s included, arches turned from column to column perform this function. The first known case of such use of classic columns as arch-bearers was in the palace of Diocletian at Spalato; it also appears in Syrian buildings of the third and fourth centuries A.D.

see caption and text
FIG. 68.—ST. PAUL BEYOND THE WALLS. INTERIOR.

The basilica remained the model for ecclesiastical architecture in Rome, without noticeable change either of plan or detail, until the time of the Renaissance. All the earlier examples employed columns and capitals taken from ancient ruins, often incongruous and ill-matched in size and order. San Clemente (1084) has retained almost intact its early aspect, its choir-enclosure, baldaquin, and ambones having been well preserved or carefully restored. Other important basilicas are mentioned in the list of monuments on pages 118, 119.

RAVENNA. The fifth and sixth centuries endowed Ravenna with a number of notable buildings which, with the exception of the cathedral, demolished in the last century, have been preserved to our day. Subdued by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 537, Ravenna became the meeting-ground for Early Christian and Byzantine traditions and the basilican and circular plans are both represented. The two churches dedicated to St. Apollinaris, S. Apollinare Nuovo (520) in the city, and S. Apollinare in Classe (538) three miles distant from the city, in what was formerly the port, are especially interesting for their fine mosaics, and for the impost-blocks interposed above the capitals of their columns to receive the springing of the pier-arches. These blocks appear to be somewhat crude modifications of the fragmentary architraves or entablatures employed in classic Roman architecture to receive the springing of vaults sustained by columns, and became common in Byzantine structures (Fig. 73). The use of external arcading to give some slight adornment to the walls of the second of the above-named churches, and the round bell-towers of brick which adjoined both of them, were first steps toward the development of the “wall-veil” or arcaded decoration, and of the campaniles, which in later centuries became so characteristic of north Italian churches (see Chapter XIII.). In Rome the campaniles which accompany many of the mediæval basilicas are square and pierced with many windows.

The basilican form of church became general in Italy, a large proportion of whose churches continued to be built with wooden roofs and with but slight deviations from the original type, long after the appearance of the Gothic style. The chief departures from early precedent were in the exterior, which was embellished with marble incrustations as in S. Miniato (Florence); or with successive stories of wall-arcades, as in many churches in Pisa and Lucca (see Fig. 90); until finally the introduction of clustered piers, pointed arches, and vaulting, gradually transformed the basilican into the Italian Romanesque and Gothic styles.

SYRIA AND THE EAST. In Syria, particularly the central portion, the Christian architecture of the 3d to 8th centuries produced a number of very interesting monuments. The churches built by Constantine in Syria—the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (nominally built by his mother), of the Ascension at Jerusalem, the magnificent octagonal church on the site of the Temple, and finally the somewhat similar church at Antioch—were the most notable Christian monuments in Syria. The first three on the list, still extant in part at least, have been so altered by later additions and restorations that their original forms are only approximately known from early descriptions. They were all of large size, and the octagonal church on the Temple platform was of exceptional magnificence.16 The columns and a part of the marble incrustations of the early design are still visible in the “Mosque of Omar,” but most of the old work is concealed by the decoration of tiles applied by the Moslems, and the whole interior aspect altered by the wood-and-plaster dome with which they replaced the simpler roof of the original.

see caption and text
FIG. 69.—CHURCH AT KALB LOUZEH.

Christian architecture in Syria soon, however, diverged from Roman traditions. The abundance of hard stone, the total lack of clay or brick, the remoteness from Rome, led to a peculiar independence and originality in the forms and details of the ecclesiastical as well as of the domestic architecture of central Syria. These innovations upon Roman models resulted in the development of distinct types which, but for the arrest of progress by the Mohammedan conquest in the seventh century, would doubtless have inaugurated a new and independent style of architecture. Piers of masonry came to replace the classic column, as at Tafkha (third or fourth century), Rouheiha and Kalb Louzeh (fifth century? Fig. 69); the ceilings in the smaller churches were often formed with stone slabs; the apse was at first confined within the main rectangle of the plan, and was sometimes square. The exterior assumed a striking and picturesque variety of forms by means of turrets, porches, and gables. Singularly enough, vaulting hardly appears at all, though the arch is used with fine effect. Conventional and monastic groups of buildings appear early in Syria, and that of St. Simeon Stylites at Kelat Seman is an impressive and interesting monument. Four three-aisled wings form the arms of a cross, meeting in a central octagonal open court, in the midst of which stood the column of the saint. The eastern arm of the cross forms a complete basilica of itself, and the whole cross measures 330 × 300 feet. Chapels, cloisters, and cells adjoin the main edifice.

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FIG. 70.—CATHEDRAL AT BOZRAH.

Circular and polygonal plans appear in a number of Syrian examples of the early sixth century. Their most striking feature is the inscribing of the circle or polygon in a square which forms the exterior outline, and the use of four niches to fill out the corners. This occurs at Kelat Seman in a small double church, perhaps the tomb and chapel of a martyr; in the cathedral at Bozrah (Fig. 70), and in the small domical church of St. George at Ezra. These were probably the prototypes of many Byzantine churches like St. Sergius at Constantinople, and San Vitale at Ravenna (Fig. 74), though the exact dates of the Syrian churches are not known. The one at Ezra is the only one of the three which has a dome, the others having been roofed with wood.

The interesting domestic architecture of this period is preserved in whole towns and villages in the Hauran, which, deserted at the Arab conquest, have never been reoccupied and remain almost intact but for the decay of their wooden roofs. They are marked by dignity and simplicity of design, and by the same picturesque massing of gables and roofs and porches which has already been remarked of the churches. The arches are broad, the columns rather heavy, the mouldings few and simple, and the scanty carving vigorous and effective, often strongly Byzantine in type.

Elsewhere in the Eastern world are many early churches of which even the enumeration would exceed the limits of this work. Salonica counts a number of basilicas and several domical churches. The church of St. George, now a mosque, is of early date and thoroughly Roman in plan and section, of the same class with the Pantheon and the tomb of Helena, in both of which a massive circular wall is lightened by eight niches. At Angora (Ancyra), Hierapolis, Pergamus, and other points in Asia Minor; in Egypt, Nubia, and Algiers, are many examples of both circular and basilican edifices of the early centuries of Christianity. In Constantinople there remains but a single representative of the basilican type, the church of St. John Studius, now the Emir Akhor mosque.

MONUMENTS: Rome: 4th century: St. Peter’s, Sta. Costanza, 330?; Sta. Pudentiana, 335 (rebuilt 1598); tomb of St. Helena; Baptistery of Constantine; St. Paul’s beyond the Walls, 386; St. John Lateran (wholly remodelled in modern times). 5th century: Baptistery of St. John Lateran; Sta. Sabina, 425; Sta. Maria Maggiore, 432; S. Pietro in Vincoli, 442 (greatly altered in modern times). 6th century: S. Lorenzo, 580 (the older portion in two stories); SS. Cosmo e Damiano. 7th century: Sta. Agnese, 625; S. Giorgio in Velabro, 682. 8th century: Sta. Maria in Cosmedin; S. Crisogono. 9th century: S. Nereo ed Achilleo; Sta. Prassede; Sta. Maria in Dominica. 12th and 13th centuries: S. Clemente, 1118; Sta. Maria in Trastevere; S. Lorenzo (nave); Sta. Maria in Ara Coeli. Ravenna: Baptistery of S. John, 400 (?); S. Francesco; S. Giovanni Evangelista, 425; Sta. Agata, 430; S. Giovanni Battista, 439; tomb of Galla Placidia, 450; S. Apollinare Nuovo, 500–520; S. Apollinare in Classe, 538; St. Victor; Sta. Maria in Cosmedin (the Arian Baptistery); tomb of Theodoric (Sta. Maria della Rotonda, a decagonal two-storied mausoleum, with a low dome cut from a single stone 36 feet in diameter), 530–540. Italy in General: basilica at Parenzo, 6th century; cathedral and Sta. Fosca at Torcello, 640–700; at Naples Sta. Restituta, 7th century; others, mostly of 10th-13th centuries, at Murano near Venice, at Florence (S. Miniato), Spoleto, Toscanella, etc.; baptisteries at Asti, Florence, Nocera dei Pagani, and other places. In Syria and The East: basilicas of the Nativity at Bethlehem, of the Sepulchre and of the Ascension at Jerusalem; also polygonal church on Temple platform; these all of 4th century. Basilicas at Bakouzah, Hass, Kelat Seman, Kalb Louzeh, Rouheiha, Tourmanin, etc.; circular churches, tombs, and baptisteries at Bozrah, Ezra, Hass, Kelat Seman, Rouheiha, etc.; all these 4th-8th centuries. Churches at Constantinople (Holy Wisdom, St. John Studius, etc.), Hierapolis, Pergamus, and Thessalonica (St. Demetrius, “Eski Djuma”); in Egypt and Nubia (Djemla, Announa, Ibreem, Siout, etc.); at Orléansville in Algeria. (For churches, etc., of 8th-10th centuries in the West, see Chapter XIII.)

CHAPTER XI.

BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

Books Recommended: As before, Essenwein, Hübsch, Von Quast. Also, Bayet, L’Art Byzantin. Choisy, L’Art de bâtir chez les Byzantins. Lethaby and Swainson, Sancta Sophia. Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco. Pulgher, Anciennes Églises Byzantines de Constantinople. Salzenberg, Altchristliche Baudenkmäle von Constantinopel. Texier and Pullan, Byzantine Architecture.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER. The decline and fall of Rome arrested the development of the basilican style in the West, as did the Arab conquest later in Syria. It was otherwise in the new Eastern capital founded by Constantine in the ancient Byzantium, which was rising in power and wealth while Rome lay in ruins. Situated at the strategic point of the natural highway of commerce between East and West, salubrious and enchantingly beautiful in its surroundings, the new capital grew rapidly from provincial insignificance to metropolitan importance. Its founder had embellished it with an extraordinary wealth of buildings, in which, owing to the scarcity of trained architects, quantity and cost doubtless outran quality. But at least the tameness of blindly followed precedent was avoided, and this departure from traditional tenets contributed undoubtedly to the originality of Byzantine architecture. A large part of the artisans employed in building were then, as now, from Asia Minor and the Ægean Islands, Greek in race if not in name. An Oriental taste for brilliant and harmonious color and for minute decoration spread over broad surfaces must have been stimulated by trade with the Far East and by constant contact with Oriental peoples, costumes, and arts. An Asiatic origin may also be assigned to the methods of vaulting employed, far more varied than the Roman, not only in form but also in materials and processes. From Roman architecture, however, the Byzantines borrowed the fundamental notion of their structural art; that, namely, of distributing the weights and strains of their vaulted structures upon isolated and massive points of support, strengthened by deep buttresses, internal or external, as the case might be. Roman, likewise, was the use of polished monolithic columns, and the incrustation of the piers and walls with panels of variegated marble, as well as the decoration of plastered surfaces by fresco and mosaic, and the use of opus sectile and opus Alexandrinum for the production of sumptuous marble pavements. In the first of these processes the color-figures of the pattern are formed each of a single piece of marble cut to the shape required; in the second the pattern is compounded of minute squares, triangles, and curved pieces of uniform size. Under these combined influences the artists of Constantinople wrought out new problems in construction and decoration, giving to all that they touched a new and striking character.

There is no absolute line of demarcation, chronological, geographical, or structural, between Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. But the former was especially characterized by the basilica with three or five aisles, and the use of wooden roofs even in its circular edifices; the vault and dome, though not unknown, being exceedingly rare. Byzantine architecture, on the other hand, rarely produced the simple three-aisled or five-aisled basilica, and nearly all its monuments were vaulted. The dome was especially frequent, and Byzantine architecture achieved its highest triumphs in the use of the pendentive, as the triangular spherical surfaces are called, by the aid of which a dome can be supported on the summits of four arches spanning the four sides of a square, as explained later. There is as little uniformity in the plans of Byzantine buildings as in the forms of the vaulting. A few types of church-plan, however, predominated locally in one or another centre; but the controlling feature of the style was the dome and the constructive system with which it was associated. The dome, it is true, had long been used by the Romans, but always on a circular plan, as in the Pantheon. It is also a fact that pendentives have been found in Syria and Asia Minor older than the oldest Byzantine examples. But the special feature characterizing the Byzantine dome on pendentives was its almost exclusive association with plans having piers and columns or aisles, with the dome as the central and dominant feature of the complex design (see plans, Figs. 74, 75, 78). Another strictly Byzantine practice was the piercing of the lower portion of the dome with windows forming a circle or crown, and the final development of this feature into a high drum.

CONSTRUCTION. Still another divergence from Roman methods was in the substitution of brick and stone masonry for concrete. Brick was used for the mass as well as the facing of walls and piers, and for the vaulting in many buildings mainly built of stone. Stone was used either alone or in combination with brick, the latter appearing in bands of four or five courses at intervals of three or four feet. In later work a regular alternation of the two materials, course for course, was not uncommon. In piers intended to support unusually heavy loads the stone was very carefully cut and fitted, and sometimes tied and clamped with iron.

Vaults were built sometimes of brick, sometimes of cut stone; in a few cases even of earthenware jars fitting into each other, and laid up in a continuous contracting spiral from the base to the crown of a dome, as in San Vitale at Ravenna. Ingenious processes for building vaults without centrings were made use of—processes inherited from the drain-builders of ancient Assyria, and still in vogue in Armenia, Persia, and Asia Minor. The groined vault was common, but always approximated the form of a dome, by a longitudinal convexity upward in the intersecting vaults. The aisles of Hagia Sophia17 display a remarkable variety of forms in the vaulting.

see caption and text
FIG. 71.—DIAGRAM OF PENDENTIVES.

DOMES. The dome, as we have seen, early became the most characteristic feature of Byzantine architecture; and especially the dome on pendentives. If a hemisphere be cut by five planes, four perpendicular to its base and bounding a square inscribed therein, and the fifth plane parallel to the base and tangent to the semicircular intersections 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 (Fig. 71 a). When these are built up of masonry, each course forms a species of arch, by virtue of its convexity. At the crown of the four arches on which they rest, these courses meet and form a complete circle, perfectly stable and capable of sustaining any superstructure that does not by excessive weight disrupt the whole fabric by overthrowing the four arches which support it. Upon these pendentives, then, a new dome may be started of any desired curvature, or even a cylindrical drum to support a still loftier dome, as in the later churches (Fig. 71 b). This method of covering a square is simpler than the groined vault, having no sharp edges or intersections; it is at least as effective architecturally, by reason of its greater height in the centre; and is equally applicable to successive bays of an oblong, cruciform, and even columnar building. In the great cisterns at Constantinople vast areas are covered by rows of small domes supported on ranges of columns.

The earlier domes were commonly pierced with windows at the base, this apparent weakening of the vault being compensated for by strongly buttressing the piers between the windows, as in Hagia Sophia. Here forty windows form a crown of light at the spring of the dome, producing an effect almost as striking as that of the simple oculus of the Pantheon, and celebrated by ancient writers in the most extravagant terms. In later and smaller churches a high drum was introduced beneath the dome, in order to secure, by means of longer windows, more light than could be obtained by merely piercing the diminutive domes.

Buttressing was well understood by the Byzantines, whose plans were skilfully devised to provide internal abutments, which were often continued above the roofs of the side-aisles to prop the main vaults, precisely as was done by the Romans in their thermæ and similar halls. But the Byzantines, while adhering less strictly than the Romans to traditional forms and processes, and displaying much more ready contrivance and special adaptation of means to ends, never worked out this pregnant structural principle to its logical conclusion as did the Gothic architects of Western Europe a few centuries later.

DECORATION. The exteriors of Byzantine buildings (except in some of the small churches of late date) were generally bare and lacking in beauty. The interiors, on the contrary, were richly decorated, color playing a much larger part than carving in the designs. Painting was resorted to only in the smaller buildings, the more durable and splendid medium of mosaic being usually preferred. This was, as a rule, confined to the vaults and to those portions of the wall-surfaces embraced by the vaults above their springing. The colors were brilliant, the background being usually of gold, though sometimes of blue or a delicate green. Biblical scenes, symbolic and allegorical figures and groups of saints adorned the larger areas, particularly the half-dome of the apse, as in the basilicas. The smaller vaults, the soffits of arches, borders of pictures, and other minor surfaces, received a more conventional decoration of crosses, monograms, and set patterns.

see caption and text
FIG. 72.—SPANDRIL. HAGIA SOPHIA.

The walls throughout were sheathed with slabs of rare marble in panels so disposed that the veining should produce symmetrical figures. The panels were framed in billet-mouldings, derived perhaps from classic dentils; the billets or projections on one side the moulding coming opposite the spaces on the other. This seems to have been a purely Byzantine feature.

CARVED DETAILS. Internally the different stories were marked by horizontal bands and cornices of white or inlaid marble richly carved. The arch-soffits, the archivolts or bands around the arches, and the spandrils between them were covered with minute and intricate incised carving. The motives used, though based on the acanthus and anthemion, were given a wholly new aspect. The relief was low and flat, the leaves sharp and crowded, and the effect rich and lacelike, rather than vigorous. It was, however, well adapted to the covering of large areas where general effect was more important than detail. Even the capitals were treated in the same spirit. The impost-block was almost universal, except where its use was rendered unnecessary by giving to the capital itself the massive pyramidal form required to receive properly the spring of the arch or vault. In such cases (more frequent in Constantinople than elsewhere) the surface of the capital was simply covered with incised carving of foliage, basketwork, monograms, etc.; rudimentary volutes in a few cases recalling classic traditions (Figs. 72, 73). The mouldings were weak and poorly executed, and the vigorous profiles of classic cornices were only remotely suggested by the characterless aggregations of mouldings which took their place.

see caption and text
FIG. 73.—CAPITAL WITH IMPOST BLOCK, S. VITALE.

see caption and text
FIG. 74.—ST. SERGIUS, CONSTANTINOPLE.

PLANS. The remains of Byzantine architecture are almost exclusively of churches and baptisteries, but the plans of these are exceedingly varied. The first radical departure from the basilica-type seems to have been the adoption of circular or polygonal plans, such as had usually served only for tombs and baptisteries. The Baptistery of St. John at Ravenna (early fifth century) is classed by many authorities as a Byzantine monument. In the early years of the sixth century the adoption of this model had become quite general, and with it the development of domical design began to advance. The church of St. Sergius at Constantinople (Fig. 74), originally joined to a short basilica dedicated to St. Bacchus (afterward destroyed by the Turks), as in the double church at Kelat Seman, was built about 520; that of San Vitale at Ravenna was begun a few years later; both are domical churches on an octagonal plan, with an exterior aisle. Semicircular niches—four in St. Sergius and eight in San Vitale—projecting into the aisle, enlarge somewhat the area of the central space and give variety to the internal effect. The origin of this characteristic feature may be traced to the eight niches of the Pantheon, through such intermediate examples as the temple of Minerva Medica at Rome. The true pendentive does not appear in these two churches. see caption and text
FIG. 75.—PLAN OF HAGIA SOPHIA. Timidly employed up to that time in small structures, it received a remarkable development in the magnificent church of Hagia Sophia, built by Anthemius of Tralles and Isodorus of Miletus, under Justinian, 532–538 A.D. In the plan of this marvellous edifice (Fig. 75) the dome rests upon four mighty arches bounding a square, into two of which open the half-domes of semicircular apses. These apses are penetrated and extended each by two smaller niches and a central arch, and the whole vast nave, measuring over 200 × 100 feet, is flanked by enormously wide aisles connecting at the front with a majestic narthex. Huge transverse buttresses, as in the Basilica of Constantine (with whose structural design this building shows striking affinities), divide the aisles each into three sections. The plan suggests that of St. Sergius cut in two, with a lofty dome on pendentives over a square plan inserted between the halves. Thus was secured a noble and unobstructed hall of unrivalled proportions and great beauty, covered by a combination of half-domes increasing in span and height as they lead up successively to the stupendous central vault, which rises 180 feet into the air and fitly crowns the whole. The imposing effect of this low-curved but loftily-poised dome, resting as it does upon a crown of windows, and so disposed that its summit is visible from every point of the nave (as may be easily seen from an examination of the section, Fig. 76), is not surpassed in any interior ever erected.

see caption and text
FIG. 76.—SECTION OF HAGIA SOPHIA.

The two lateral arches under the dome are filled by clearstory walls pierced by twelve windows, and resting on arcades in two stories carried by magnificent columns taken from ancient ruins. These separate the nave from the side-aisles, which are in two stories forming galleries, and are vaulted with a remarkable variety of groined vaults. All the masses are disposed with studied reference to the resistance required by the many and complex thrusts exerted by the dome and other vaults. That the earthquakes of one thousand three hundred and fifty years have not destroyed the church is the best evidence of the sufficiency of these precautions.

see caption and text
FIG. 77.—INTERIOR OF HAGIA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE.

Not less remarkable than the noble planning and construction of this church was the treatment of scale and decoration in its interior design. It was as conspicuously the masterpiece of Byzantine architecture as the Parthenon was of the classic Greek. With little external beauty, it is internally one of the most perfectly composed and beautifully decorated halls of worship ever erected. Instead of the simplicity of the Pantheon it displays the complexity of an organism of admirably related parts. The division of the interior height into two stories below the spring of the four arches, reduces the component parts of the design to moderate dimensions, so that the scale of the whole is more easily grasped and its vast size emphasized by the contrast. The walls are incrusted with precious marbles up to the spring of the vaulting; the capitals, spandrils, and soffits are richly and minutely carved with incised ornament, and all the vaults covered with splendid mosaics. Dimmed by the lapse of centuries and disfigured by the vandalism of the Moslems, this noble interior, by the harmony of its coloring and its impressive grandeur, is one of the masterpieces of all time (Fig. 77).

LATER CHURCHES. After the sixth century no monuments were built at all rivalling in scale the creations of the former period. The later churches were, with few exceptions, relatively small and trivial. Neither the plan nor the general aspect of Hagia Sophia seems to have been imitated in these later works. The crown of dome-windows was replaced by a cylindrical drum under the dome, which was usually of insignificant size. The exterior was treated more decoratively than before, by means of bands and incrustations of colored marble, or alternations of stone and brick; and internally mosaic continued to be executed with great skill and of great beauty until the tenth century, when the art rapidly declined. These later churches, of which a number were spared by the Turks, are, therefore, generally pleasing and elegant rather than striking or imposing.

see caption and text
FIG. 78.—PLAN OF ST. MARK’S, VENICE.

FOREIGN MONUMENTS. The influence of Byzantine art was wide-spread, both in Europe and Asia. The leading city of civilization through the Dark Ages, Constantinople influenced Italy through her political and commercial relations with Ravenna, Genoa, and Venice. The church of St. Mark in the latter city was one result of this influence (Figs. 78, 79). Begun in 1063 to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire, it received through several centuries additions not always Byzantine in character. Yet it was mainly the work of Byzantine builders, who copied most probably the church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Justinian. The picturesque but wholly unstructural use of columns in the entrance porches, the upper parts of the façade, the wooden cupolas over the five domes, and the pointed arches in the narthex, are deviations from Byzantine traditions dating in part from the later Middle Ages Nothing could well be conceived more irrational, from a structural point of view, than the accumulation of columns in the entrance-arches; but the total effect is so picturesque and so rich in color, that its architectural defects are easily overlooked. The external veneering of white and colored marble occurs rarely in the East, but became a favorite practice in Venice, where it continued in use for five hundred years. The interior of St. Mark’s, in some respects better preserved than that of Hagia Sophia, is especially fine in color, though not equal in scale and grandeur to the latter church. With its five domes it has less unity of effect than Hagia Sophia, but more of the charm of picturesqueness, and its less brilliant and simpler lighting enhances the impressiveness of its more modest dimensions.

see caption and text
FIG. 79.—INTERIOR OF ST. MARK’S.

In Russia and Greece the Byzantine style has continued to be the official style of the Greek Church. The Russian monuments are for the most part of a somewhat fantastic aspect, the Muscovite taste having introduced many innovations in the form of bulbous domes and other eccentric details. In Greece there are few large churches, and some of the most interesting, like the Cathedral at Athens, are almost toy-like in their diminutiveness. On Mt. Athos (Hagion Oros) is an ancient monastery which still retains its Byzantine character and traditions. In Armenia (as at Ani, Etchmiadzin, etc.) 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 MSS. illumination, itself, no doubt, originating in Byzantine traditions. But the greatest and most prolific offspring of Byzantine architecture appeared after the fall of Constantinople (1453) in the new mosque-architecture of the victorious Turks.

MONUMENTS. Constantinople: St. Sergius, 520; Hagia Sophia, 532–538; Holy Apostles by Justinian (demolished); Holy Peace (St. Irene) originally by Constantine, rebuilt by Justinian, and again in 8th century by Leo the Isaurian; Hagia Theotokos, 12th century (?); Monétes Choras (“Kahiré Djami”), 10th century; Pantokrator; “Fetiyeh Djami.” Cisterns, especially the “Bin Bir Direk” (1,001 columns) and “Yere Batan Serai;” palaces, few vestiges except the great hall of the Blachernæ palace. Salonica: Churches—of Divine Wisdom (“Aya Sofia”) St. Bardias, St. Elias. Ravenna: San Vitale, 527–540. Venice: St. Mark’s, 977–1071; “Fondaco dei Turchi,” now Civic Museum, 12th century. Other churches at Athens and Mt. Athos; at Misitra, Myra, Ancyra, Ephesus, etc.; in Armenia at Ani, Dighour, Etchmiadzin, Kouthais, Pitzounda, Usunlar, etc.; tombs at Ani, Varzhahan, etc.; in Russia at Kieff (St. Basil, Cathedral), Kostroma, Moscow (Assumption, St. Basil, Vasili Blaghennoi, etc.), Novgorod, Tchernigoff; at Kurtea Darghish in Wallachia, and many other places.

17. “St. Sophia,” the common name of this church, is a misnomer. It was not dedicated to a saint at all, but to the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), which name the Turks have retained in the softened form “Aya Sofia.”

CHAPTER XII.

SASSANIAN AND MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE.

(ARABIAN, MORESQUE, PERSIAN, INDIAN, AND TURKISH.)

Books Recommended: Bourgoin, Les Arts Arabes. Coste, Monuments du Caire; Monuments modernes de la Perse. Cunningham, Archæological Survey of India. Fergusson, Indian and Eastern Architecture. De Forest, Indian Architecture and Ornament. Flandin et Coste, Voyage en Perse. Franz-Pasha, Die Baukunst des Islam. Gayet, L’Art Arabe; L’Art Persan. Girault de Prangey, Essai sur l’architecture des Arabes en Espagne, etc. Goury and Jones, The Alhambra. Jacob, Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details. Le Bon, La civilisation des Arabes; Les monuments de l’Inde. Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament. Parvillée, L’Architecture Ottomane. Prisse d’Avennes, L’Art Arabe. Texier, Description de l’Arménie, la Perse, etc.

GENERAL SURVEY. While the Byzantine Empire was at its zenith, the new faith of Islam was conquering Western Asia and the Mediterranean lands with a fiery rapidity, which is one of the marvels of history. The new architectural styles which grew up in the wake of these conquests, though differing widely in conception and detail in the several countries, were yet marked by common characteristics which set them quite apart from the contemporary Christian styles. The predominance of decorative over structural considerations, a predilection for minute surface-ornament, the absence of pictures and sculpture, are found alike in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Indian buildings, though in varying degree. These new styles, however, were almost entirely the handiwork of artisans belonging to the conquered races, and many traces of Byzantine, and even after the Crusades, of Norman and Gothic design, are recognizable in Moslem architecture. But the Orientalism of the conquerors and their common faith, tinged with the poetry and philosophic mysticism of the Arab, stamped these works of Copts, Syrians, and Greeks with an unmistakable character of their own, neither Byzantine nor Early Christian.

ARABIC ARCHITECTURE. In the building of mosques and tombs, especially at Cairo, this architecture reached a remarkable degree of decorative elegance, and sometimes of dignity. It developed slowly, the Arabs not being at the outset a race of builders. The early monuments of Syria and Egypt were insignificant, and the sacred Kaabah at Mecca and the mosque at Medina hardly deserve to be called architectural monuments at all. The most important early works were the mosques of ’Amrou at Cairo (642, rebuilt and enlarged early in the eighth century), of El Aksah on the Temple platform at Jerusalem (691, by Abd-el-Melek), and of El Walid at Damascus (705–732, recently seriously injured by fire). All these were simple one-storied structures, with flat wooden roofs carried on parallel ranges of columns supporting pointed arches, the arcades either closing one side of a square court, or surrounding it completely. The long perspectives of the aisles and the minute decoration of the archivolts and ceilings alone gave them architectural character. The beautiful Dome of the Rock (Kubbet-es-Sakhrah, miscalled the Mosque of Omar) on the Temple platform at Jerusalem is either a remodelled Constantinian edifice, or in large part composed of the materials of one (see p. 116).

The splendid mosque of Ibn Touloun (876–885) was built on the same plan as that of Amrou, but with cantoned piers instead of columns and a corresponding increase in variety of perspective and richness of effect. With the incoming of the Fatimite dynasty, however, and the foundation of the present city of Cairo (971), vaulting began to take the place of wooden ceilings, and then appeared the germs of those extraordinary applications of geometry to decorative design which were henceforth to be the most striking feature of Arabic ornament. Under the Ayûb dynasty, which began with Salâh-ed-din (Saladin) in 1172, these elements, of which the great Barkouk mosque (1149) is the most imposing early example, developed slowly in the domical tombs of the Karafah at Cairo, and prepared the way for the increasing richness and splendor of a long series of mosques, among which those of Kalaoun (1284–1318), Sultan Hassan (1356), El Mu’ayyad (1415), and Kaîd Bey (1463), were the most conspicuous examples (Fig. 80). They mark, indeed, successive advances in complexity of planning, ingenuity of construction, and elegance of decoration. Together they constitute an epoch in Arabic architecture, which coincides closely with the development of Gothic vaulted architecture in Europe, both in the stages and the duration of its advances.

see caption and text
FIG. 80.—MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN, CAIRO: SANCTUARY.
a, Mihrâb, b, Mimber.

The mosques of these three centuries are, like the mediæval monasteries, impressive aggregations of buildings of various sorts about a central court of ablutions. The tomb of the founder, residences for the imams, or priests, schools (madrassah), and hospitals (mâristân) rival in importance the prayer-chamber. This last is, however, the real focus of interest and splendor; in some cases, as in Sultan Hassan, it is a simple barrel-vaulted chamber open to the court; in others an oblong arcaded hall with many small domes; or again, a square hall covered with a high pointed dome on pendentives of intricately beautiful stalactite-work (see below). The ceremonial requirements of the mosque were simple. The-court must have its fountain of ablutions in the centre. The prayer-hall, or mosque proper, must have its mihrâb, or niche, to indicate the kibleh, the direction of Mecca; and its mimber, or high, slender pulpit for the reading of the Kôran. These were the only absolutely indispensable features of a mosque, but as early as the ninth century the minaret was added, from which the call to prayer could be sounded over the city by the mueddin. Not until the Ayubite period, however, did it begin to assume those forms of varied and picturesque grace which lend to Cairo so much of its architectural charm.

ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. While Arabic architecture, in Syria and Egypt alike, possesses more decorative than constructive originality, the beautiful forms of its domes, pendentives, and minarets, the simple majesty of the great pointed barrel-vaults of the Hassan mosque and similar monuments, and the graceful lines of the universally used pointed arch, prove the Coptic builders and their later Arabic successors to have been architects of great ability. The Arabic domes, as seen both in the mosques and in the remarkable group of tombs commonly called “tombs of the Khalîfs,” are peculiar not only in their pointed outlines and their rich external decoration of interlaced geometric motives, but still more in the external and internal treatment of the pendentives, exquisitely decorated with stalactite ornament. This ornament, derived, no doubt, from a combination of minute corbels with rows of small niches, and presumably of Persian origin, was finally developed into a system of extraordinary intricacy, applicable alike to the topping of a niche or panel, as in the great doorways of the mosques, and to the bracketing out of minaret galleries (Figs. 81, 82). Its applications show a bewildering variety of forms and an extraordinary aptitude for intricate geometrical design.

see caption and text
FIG. 81.—MOSQUE OF KAÎD BEY, CAIRO.

DECORATION. Geometry, indeed, vied with the love of color in its hold on the Arabic taste. Ceiling-beams were carved into highly ornamental forms before receiving their rich color-decoration of red, green, blue, and gold. The doors and the mimber were framed in geometric patterns with slender intersecting bars forming complicated star-panelling. The voussoirs of arches were cut into curious interlocking forms; doorways and niches were covered with stalactite corbelling, and pavements and wall-incrustations, whether of marble or tiling, combined brilliancy and harmony of color with the perplexing beauty of interlaced star-and-polygon patterns of marvellous intricacy. Stained glass added to the interior color-effect, the patterns being perforated in plaster, with a bit of colored glass set into each perforation—a device not very durable, perhaps, but singularly decorative.