DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#1008
944
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTUEE.
Book X.
liad come over tlie style. It had departed more and more from the
columnar arrangements of the Greeks, in the place of which arches,
together with domical and vaulted forms, had gradually come into use ;
and a new architecture was almost completely invented hefore the
change of religion seemed to demand it.
During the next two centuries, from the time of Constantine to that
of Justinian, a style prevailed which may properly he called the Eo-
manesque, or Christian Eoman, differing hut slightly from the Eagan
Eoman, which preceded it. The sarne style continued to he practised
in Eome itself during nearly the whole of the middle ages; and in
Elorence, Pisa, and generally along the western shores of Italy, till a
late period. In Lomhardy, and in all those parts of Europe to which
the Indo-Germanic harharians penetrated, and which they suhdued,
the Eomanesque was superseded hy the harharian styles, properly
called Gothic, which entirely revolutionised the art, giving it new
vigour and greater variety and heauty than either the Eoman or Eo-
manesque was capahle of attaining.
Owing to the paucity of examples, and the imperfect mode in which
those whicli do exist have hitherto heen examined, it is not so easy to
define exactly the changes which took place in this style in the East.
We know that the circular temple of the Minerva Medica, that in Dio-
cletian’s palace at Spalatro, the haptistery of Constantine at Eome,
the church which he huilt over the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and
the round churches at Eavenna and elsewhere, are all very nearly iden-
tical in style; and that the church at Bethlehem, and the hasilicas at
Eome and Eavenna, are in like manner modifications of the hasilicas of
Pagan Eome ; and as far as verhal descriptions can he. relied upon, we
may assert the same of the early churches at Antioch, Alexandria, and
Constantinople.
At a very early period the separation commenced hetweenthe churches
of the East and the West. These two great divisions ofthe Empire
were inhahited hy different races of people, and it was consequently
impossible that thev could practise the same religious forms, or he
content with the same styles of art. At some future period it may he
possihle for us to trace the origin and progress of tliis schism in art. At
present we must he content to hegin our history with the age of Jus-
tinian, when the revolution was nearly complete, and Byzantine archi-
tecture had assumed an independent form, widely differing hoth from
the Eomanesque and from the Gothic, and wliich contained within itself
the germ of all that was more fully developed in the succeeding ten or
twelve centuries.
It is necessary therefore to hear in mind that there are three great
divisions of true Christian art:—-
Eirst, the Eomanesque, or Christianised Eoman;
Secondly, the Gothic, or tliat style which was practised hy tlie
Teutonic and Celtic races wherever they predominated in Europe;
And, thirdly, the Byzantine, or the style used hy all the Slavonic
races of Europe as distinguished frorn the Teutonic, and generally by
all nations professing the Greek form of the Christian religion. This
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTUEE.
Book X.
liad come over tlie style. It had departed more and more from the
columnar arrangements of the Greeks, in the place of which arches,
together with domical and vaulted forms, had gradually come into use ;
and a new architecture was almost completely invented hefore the
change of religion seemed to demand it.
During the next two centuries, from the time of Constantine to that
of Justinian, a style prevailed which may properly he called the Eo-
manesque, or Christian Eoman, differing hut slightly from the Eagan
Eoman, which preceded it. The sarne style continued to he practised
in Eome itself during nearly the whole of the middle ages; and in
Elorence, Pisa, and generally along the western shores of Italy, till a
late period. In Lomhardy, and in all those parts of Europe to which
the Indo-Germanic harharians penetrated, and which they suhdued,
the Eomanesque was superseded hy the harharian styles, properly
called Gothic, which entirely revolutionised the art, giving it new
vigour and greater variety and heauty than either the Eoman or Eo-
manesque was capahle of attaining.
Owing to the paucity of examples, and the imperfect mode in which
those whicli do exist have hitherto heen examined, it is not so easy to
define exactly the changes which took place in this style in the East.
We know that the circular temple of the Minerva Medica, that in Dio-
cletian’s palace at Spalatro, the haptistery of Constantine at Eome,
the church which he huilt over the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and
the round churches at Eavenna and elsewhere, are all very nearly iden-
tical in style; and that the church at Bethlehem, and the hasilicas at
Eome and Eavenna, are in like manner modifications of the hasilicas of
Pagan Eome ; and as far as verhal descriptions can he. relied upon, we
may assert the same of the early churches at Antioch, Alexandria, and
Constantinople.
At a very early period the separation commenced hetweenthe churches
of the East and the West. These two great divisions ofthe Empire
were inhahited hy different races of people, and it was consequently
impossible that thev could practise the same religious forms, or he
content with the same styles of art. At some future period it may he
possihle for us to trace the origin and progress of tliis schism in art. At
present we must he content to hegin our history with the age of Jus-
tinian, when the revolution was nearly complete, and Byzantine archi-
tecture had assumed an independent form, widely differing hoth from
the Eomanesque and from the Gothic, and wliich contained within itself
the germ of all that was more fully developed in the succeeding ten or
twelve centuries.
It is necessary therefore to hear in mind that there are three great
divisions of true Christian art:—-
Eirst, the Eomanesque, or Christianised Eoman;
Secondly, the Gothic, or tliat style which was practised hy tlie
Teutonic and Celtic races wherever they predominated in Europe;
And, thirdly, the Byzantine, or the style used hy all the Slavonic
races of Europe as distinguished frorn the Teutonic, and generally by
all nations professing the Greek form of the Christian religion. This