DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25500#0154
98
COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE.
the vaults are covered with sheets of lead, a quarter of an inch
thick, fastened to wood laths, resting on the vaults without
any wood roofing. Hollow earthenware was used in order
to reduce the thrust on the supporting walls.
A good idea of a Byzantine dome (No. 49) is obtained
by halving an orange, cutting off four slices, each at right
angles to the last, to represent the four arches; scoop out
the interior; then the portion above the crown of these
semicircles is the dome, and the intervening triangles
are the pendentives. At first the domes were very flat;
in later times they were raised on a drum or cylinder.
e. Columns were often, in the earlier buildings, brought
from more ancient structures. These were naturally not so
numerous in the East, as in the neighbourhood of Rome,
consequently the supply was sooner exhausted; and thus
an incentive to design fresh ones was provided. Capitals
generally took the form shown in the illustration (No. 54),
and consisted in the lower portion of a cube block with
rounded corners; over this was placed a deep abacus, or
block, representing the expiring classic architrave, and
which aided in supporting the springing of the arch, naturally
larger in area than the shaft of the column.
An altered shape of capital was advisable, as an arch
instead of a beam had to be supported, for which a convex
form was better adapted. The surfaces of these capitals
were carved with incised foliage of sharp outline, having
drilled eyes as a relief (No. 54).
Columns were always subordinate features, and often only
introduced to support galleries, etc., the massive piers alone
supporting the superstructure.
f. Mouldings.—Internally these were subordinate to
the decorative treatment in marbles and mosaic. Flat splays,
enriched by incised or low relief ornamentation, are used.
Externally the simple treatment of the elevations in flat
expanses of brickwork, etc., did not leave the same scope
for mouldings as in other styles.
g. Decoration is the most interesting feature in the style;
the walls being lined with costly marbles, and with figures in
glass mosaic, in contrast to the painted frescoes which were
more generally adopted in western Romanesque churches.
COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE.
the vaults are covered with sheets of lead, a quarter of an inch
thick, fastened to wood laths, resting on the vaults without
any wood roofing. Hollow earthenware was used in order
to reduce the thrust on the supporting walls.
A good idea of a Byzantine dome (No. 49) is obtained
by halving an orange, cutting off four slices, each at right
angles to the last, to represent the four arches; scoop out
the interior; then the portion above the crown of these
semicircles is the dome, and the intervening triangles
are the pendentives. At first the domes were very flat;
in later times they were raised on a drum or cylinder.
e. Columns were often, in the earlier buildings, brought
from more ancient structures. These were naturally not so
numerous in the East, as in the neighbourhood of Rome,
consequently the supply was sooner exhausted; and thus
an incentive to design fresh ones was provided. Capitals
generally took the form shown in the illustration (No. 54),
and consisted in the lower portion of a cube block with
rounded corners; over this was placed a deep abacus, or
block, representing the expiring classic architrave, and
which aided in supporting the springing of the arch, naturally
larger in area than the shaft of the column.
An altered shape of capital was advisable, as an arch
instead of a beam had to be supported, for which a convex
form was better adapted. The surfaces of these capitals
were carved with incised foliage of sharp outline, having
drilled eyes as a relief (No. 54).
Columns were always subordinate features, and often only
introduced to support galleries, etc., the massive piers alone
supporting the superstructure.
f. Mouldings.—Internally these were subordinate to
the decorative treatment in marbles and mosaic. Flat splays,
enriched by incised or low relief ornamentation, are used.
Externally the simple treatment of the elevations in flat
expanses of brickwork, etc., did not leave the same scope
for mouldings as in other styles.
g. Decoration is the most interesting feature in the style;
the walls being lined with costly marbles, and with figures in
glass mosaic, in contrast to the painted frescoes which were
more generally adopted in western Romanesque churches.