DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0383
Chap. IY.
BASILICAS.
319
for the assessors or others engagecl in the business being transacted.
In front of the apse was placed an altar, wherl sacrifice was performed
before commencing any important pnblic business.1
Externally this basilica could not have been of much magnificence.
It was entered on the side of the Eorum (on the left hand of the plan
and section) by one triple doorway in the centre and two single ones
on each side, covered by shallow porticos of columns of the same
lieight as those used internally. These supported statues, or rather, to
judge from the coins representing the building, rilievos, which may
have set off, but could hardly have given much dignity to, a building
designed as this was. At the end opposite the apse a similar arrange-
ment seems to have prevailed.
This mode of using columns only half the height of the building must
have been very destructive of their effect, and of general grandeur,
but it became about this time rather the rule than the exception, and
afterwards was adopted for temples and every other class of buildiugs,
so that it certainly was an improvement when the arch took the place
of the horizontal architrave and cornice, which always suggested a
roof, and became singularly incongruous when applied as a mere
ornamental adjunct. The interior of the basilica was, liowever, the
important element to which the exterior was entirely sacrificed, this
transition, wliich we have before alluded to, taking place much faster
in basilicas, which were an entirely new mode of building, than in
temples, whose form had become sacred from long tradition.
The Basilica of Maxentius, which was probably not entirely finished
till the reign of Constantine, was rather broader than that of Trajan,
being 195 ft. between the walls, but it was 100 ft. less in lengtli. The
central aisle was very nearly of the same width, being 83 ft. between
the columns, and 120 ft. in height. There was, however, a vast differ-
ence in the construction of the two ; so much so, that we are startled
to see how rapid the progress had been during tlie interval of less
than two centuries that liad elapsed between the construction of the
two basilicas.
In this building no pillars are used except 8 great columns in front
of the piers, employed merely as ornaments, or as vaulting shafts were
in Gotliic cathedrals, to support in appearance, though not in construc-
tion, the springing of the vaults. The side aisles are roofed by 3
great arches, each 72 ft. in span, and the centre by an immense inter-
secting vault in 3 compartments. The form of these will be under-
stood from the annexed sections, one taken longitudinally, tlie other
across the building. As will be seen from them, all the thrusts are
collected to a point and a buttress placed there to receive them:
indeed almost all the peculiarities afterwards found in Gothic vaults
are here employed on a far grander and more gigantic scale than tlie
Gothic architects ever attempted; but at the same tirde it must be
1 This basilica is generally represented as logy would lead us rather to infer that it was
having an apse at either end ; but there is no not the case.
authority whatever for tliis, and general ana-
BASILICAS.
319
for the assessors or others engagecl in the business being transacted.
In front of the apse was placed an altar, wherl sacrifice was performed
before commencing any important pnblic business.1
Externally this basilica could not have been of much magnificence.
It was entered on the side of the Eorum (on the left hand of the plan
and section) by one triple doorway in the centre and two single ones
on each side, covered by shallow porticos of columns of the same
lieight as those used internally. These supported statues, or rather, to
judge from the coins representing the building, rilievos, which may
have set off, but could hardly have given much dignity to, a building
designed as this was. At the end opposite the apse a similar arrange-
ment seems to have prevailed.
This mode of using columns only half the height of the building must
have been very destructive of their effect, and of general grandeur,
but it became about this time rather the rule than the exception, and
afterwards was adopted for temples and every other class of buildiugs,
so that it certainly was an improvement when the arch took the place
of the horizontal architrave and cornice, which always suggested a
roof, and became singularly incongruous when applied as a mere
ornamental adjunct. The interior of the basilica was, liowever, the
important element to which the exterior was entirely sacrificed, this
transition, wliich we have before alluded to, taking place much faster
in basilicas, which were an entirely new mode of building, than in
temples, whose form had become sacred from long tradition.
The Basilica of Maxentius, which was probably not entirely finished
till the reign of Constantine, was rather broader than that of Trajan,
being 195 ft. between the walls, but it was 100 ft. less in lengtli. The
central aisle was very nearly of the same width, being 83 ft. between
the columns, and 120 ft. in height. There was, however, a vast differ-
ence in the construction of the two ; so much so, that we are startled
to see how rapid the progress had been during tlie interval of less
than two centuries that liad elapsed between the construction of the
two basilicas.
In this building no pillars are used except 8 great columns in front
of the piers, employed merely as ornaments, or as vaulting shafts were
in Gotliic cathedrals, to support in appearance, though not in construc-
tion, the springing of the vaults. The side aisles are roofed by 3
great arches, each 72 ft. in span, and the centre by an immense inter-
secting vault in 3 compartments. The form of these will be under-
stood from the annexed sections, one taken longitudinally, tlie other
across the building. As will be seen from them, all the thrusts are
collected to a point and a buttress placed there to receive them:
indeed almost all the peculiarities afterwards found in Gothic vaults
are here employed on a far grander and more gigantic scale than tlie
Gothic architects ever attempted; but at the same tirde it must be
1 This basilica is generally represented as logy would lead us rather to infer that it was
having an apse at either end ; but there is no not the case.
authority whatever for tliis, and general ana-