DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0869
Chap. tii. cathbdrals of bittonto and matera.
805
The cathedral at Bittonto is even richer and niore ornate than the
two chnrches at Bari. Like them, it is a three-aisled basilica with a
square east end, with the same peculiar ornament of two windows
with pillars supported hy elephants. Its west front (woodcut No. 653)
may he taken as the type of almost all those of this province. Over
the richly-sculptured porch are two windows filled with an imperfect
kind of tracery, and ahove these a circular window of rich design sur-
mounted hy a very ornamental hood. The same arrangement on ahout
the same scale occurs at Bari, Altamura, and Ruvo; and on a some-
what smaller scale in the churches of Gallatina, Brindisi, and Barletta.
The great ancl peeuliar heauty of the cathedral at Bittonto is its south
front, one angle of which is shown in the last woodcut; hut it hecomes
richer towards the east, where it is aclorned with a portal of great
magnificence ancl heauty. Tlie richness of its open gallery under what
was the roof of the side aisles is unsurpassed in Apulia, and prohahly
hy anything of the same kind in Italy.
654. Window in the south side of the Cathedral Church in Matera. A. J, R. G. del.
The cathedral church at Matera is of almost equal importance with
those just mentioned, with this peculiarity, that its west front is plain
and unimportant, and all the decoration has heen lavished on its south
front, which faces the piazza. There are two entrances on this face,
that towards the east heing as usual the richest. Ahove these are a
range of richly-ornamented windows, ancl a little out of the centre is
805
The cathedral at Bittonto is even richer and niore ornate than the
two chnrches at Bari. Like them, it is a three-aisled basilica with a
square east end, with the same peculiar ornament of two windows
with pillars supported hy elephants. Its west front (woodcut No. 653)
may he taken as the type of almost all those of this province. Over
the richly-sculptured porch are two windows filled with an imperfect
kind of tracery, and ahove these a circular window of rich design sur-
mounted hy a very ornamental hood. The same arrangement on ahout
the same scale occurs at Bari, Altamura, and Ruvo; and on a some-
what smaller scale in the churches of Gallatina, Brindisi, and Barletta.
The great ancl peeuliar heauty of the cathedral at Bittonto is its south
front, one angle of which is shown in the last woodcut; hut it hecomes
richer towards the east, where it is aclorned with a portal of great
magnificence ancl heauty. Tlie richness of its open gallery under what
was the roof of the side aisles is unsurpassed in Apulia, and prohahly
hy anything of the same kind in Italy.
654. Window in the south side of the Cathedral Church in Matera. A. J, R. G. del.
The cathedral church at Matera is of almost equal importance with
those just mentioned, with this peculiarity, that its west front is plain
and unimportant, and all the decoration has heen lavished on its south
front, which faces the piazza. There are two entrances on this face,
that towards the east heing as usual the richest. Ahove these are a
range of richly-ornamented windows, ancl a little out of the centre is