DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0576
540
BYZANTINE-LOMBARDIC ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.
tradition and less influenced by examples, they early arrived at forms
much more divergent from those of the classical period than those of
Italy, and their style, reacting on the Italian, produced that very
beautiful combination of which Pisa Cathedral is a type, and St.
Mark’s at Venice an extreme exampie. This style generally pervaded
the whole south of Italy, with the exception of Rome ; ancl, from
the elements of which it was composed, may fairly be designated
Byzantine Italian.
While this was going on in the south, the Longobards, and other
Barbarians who invaded the north of Italy, seized on this type and
worked it out in their own fashion. They, however, conceived the
421. Apse of Basilica at Torcello.
desire to give a more permanent character to their churches by
covering them over with stone vauited roofs, which led to most
important modifications of the style. It may probably be correct to
assert that no Romano-Byzantine or early Romanesque church has, or
ever had, a vaulted nave. On the other hand, there is hardly a
Barbarian church which the builders did not aspire to vault, though
they were frequently unable to accomplish it. It was this vaulting
mania which led to the invention of compound piers, pointed arches,
buttresses, pinnacles, and all the numerous peculiarities of the G othic
BYZANTINE-LOMBARDIC ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.
tradition and less influenced by examples, they early arrived at forms
much more divergent from those of the classical period than those of
Italy, and their style, reacting on the Italian, produced that very
beautiful combination of which Pisa Cathedral is a type, and St.
Mark’s at Venice an extreme exampie. This style generally pervaded
the whole south of Italy, with the exception of Rome ; ancl, from
the elements of which it was composed, may fairly be designated
Byzantine Italian.
While this was going on in the south, the Longobards, and other
Barbarians who invaded the north of Italy, seized on this type and
worked it out in their own fashion. They, however, conceived the
421. Apse of Basilica at Torcello.
desire to give a more permanent character to their churches by
covering them over with stone vauited roofs, which led to most
important modifications of the style. It may probably be correct to
assert that no Romano-Byzantine or early Romanesque church has, or
ever had, a vaulted nave. On the other hand, there is hardly a
Barbarian church which the builders did not aspire to vault, though
they were frequently unable to accomplish it. It was this vaulting
mania which led to the invention of compound piers, pointed arches,
buttresses, pinnacles, and all the numerous peculiarities of the G othic