Yale University Library

39002041936924

HISTORY

OF

MEDIEVAL ART

BY
Dr. FRANZ von REBER
DIRECTOR OF THE BAVARIAN ROYAL AND STATE GALLERIES OF PAINTINGS
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY AND POLYTECHNIC OF MUNICH

TRANSLATED BY
JOSEPH THACHER CLARKE

WITH 422 ILLUSTRATIONS AND A GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1887

Copyright, 1886, by Harper & Brothers.

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

List of Illustrations . Page vii
Introduction . . . . . . xxi
Early Christian and Byzantine
Architecture  1-7 1
Beginnings of Christian Art, 1, 2.
Catacombs of Rome, 3-13. Alexan
dria and Syracuse, 13-15. Oratories,
15. Halls of Assemblage, 16. Pri
vate Basilicas, 16-18. Most Ancient
Places of Public Worship, 19. First
Christian Basilicas, 20-22. Their
Form, 22-36. Employment of An
tique Temples, 36. Concentric Struct
ures, 37-39. Mortuary Chapels and
Baptisteries, 39-46. S. Stefano Ro-
tondo, 46. Condition of Art in the
Eastern Empire, 47-49. Byzantine
Architecture, 50-63. Georgia and
Armenia, 64-66. Russia, 66-71.
Early Christian and Byzantine
Painting and Sculpture. 72-118
Paintings of the Catacombs, 72-79.
Employment of Antique Mural Dec
orations, 79, 80. Mosaics in the Ba
silicas, 80-85. Byzantine Mosaic
Work, 85-91. Troubles of the Icon
oclasts, 92. Miniature Painting, 93-
98. Debasement of Monumental Art,
98, 99. Enamel, 100. Decline of
Sculpture, 101. Statues, 102-106.
Reliefs upon Sarcophagi, 106-109.
Ivory Carvings, no- 112. Work in
Precious Metals, 11 2-1 15. General
Character of Sculpture and Painting,
115, 116. Russia, 116. 118.

ASIA. — The Persians under the
Sassanid.e. The Indian and
Eastern Asiatic Races, Page 1 19-154
Sassanian Architecture, 120-124.
Sassanian Sculpture, 124-127. Late
Growth of Indian Art, 128. Monu
ments erected by King Asoka, 129,
130. Monuments of the First Chris
tian Centuries, 131 -133. Chaitya
Grottos, 134-137. Vihara Grottos,
138, 139. Buddhist Style, 140-143.
Jaina Style, 144, 145. Dravidian
Style, 146, 147. Indian Sculpture,
148-150. Painting, 151. China and
Japan, 151-154.
Mohammedan Art . . . 155-201
Textile Origin, 156- 158. Byzan
tine Influence, 159, 160. Buildings
in Egypt, 160-171. The Style in Per
sia, 172. Transformation of Indian
Architecture, 172-176. Development
of Moorish Architecture in Southern
Spain, and the Older Style of Cordo
va, 1 77-1 8 1 . The more recent Style of
Seville and Granada, 1 82-1 91. Sicily
and the Northern Coast of Africa, 191
192. Norman Successors in Sicily
192, 193. Later Persia, 193. Turkey,
194. Sculpture, 195-197. Textile In
dustry, Mosaic and Painting, 198-201.
The Christian Art of the North
until the Close of the Carolin-
gian Epoch  202-249
The Beginnings of Christian Art
among the Germanic Races, 203. The
Ostrogoths, 204-207. The Buildings

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

of the Lombards, 207. Gaul and West
ern Germany in the Time of the Me
rovingians, 208-214. Few Remains
preserved, 214, 215. Buildings of the
N Carolingian Epoch, 216-232. Sculpt
ure of the Ostrogoths and Lombards,
233-235- Races of the North : Braided Work,
Wood-carvings, and Metal Work be
fore Charlemagne, 235-238. Influ
ence of Charlemagne, 239, 240. Ivory
Carvings, 240, 241.
Painting: Mosaics and Wall Paint
ing, 241, 242. Miniature Painting,
243, 245-249.
Romanic Architecture in Germa
ny  Page 250-308
Supremacy of the Germans and
their Position towards the Church,
250-253. Ecclesiastical Architect
ure of Saxony, 254-273. The Rhenish
Countries, 274, 275. Westphalia, 276.
Hesse and Franconia, 277. Southern
Germany, 278-280. First Vaulted
Constructions in the Rhenish Prov
inces, 281-293. Slow Advance of
Saxony, 294. The North -German
Lowlands, 294, 295. Suabia and Ale-
mannia, 295, 296. Convents, 297-301.
Castles, 301-307. Dwellings, 307, 308.
Architecture of the Romanic
Epoch  309-396
Italy : Its Political Fortunes, 309,
310. Province of the Po, 311-320.
Venice, 320-322. Central Italy, 323.
Tuscany, 324-329. Southern Italy
and Sicily, 330-335.
France: Southern France, 335-346.
Auvergne, 347-349. Burgundy, 350-
353. Western Switzerland, then a
Province of Burgundy, 353, 354.
Western France, 355-359. Norman
dy, 360-366. Position of the Mid
land Provinces of France, 367.
Spain : The Visigoths, 368, 369.
Asturias, 370-372. Moorish Influ
ences, 373. Prodominance of the In
fluence of Southern France, 374-378.

Great Britain : Timbered Archi
tecture of the Anglo-Saxons, 378, 379.
Norman Architecture, 380-387. Scot
land and Ireland, 388-390.
Scandinavia : Timbered Architect
ure of Norway, 391 -394. Rarity of
Stone Constructions, 394, 395. Swe
den, 396.
Painting of the Romanic Epoch,
Page 397-439
Retention of Traditional Forms,
397- 398-
Germany : Monastic Art — Mural
Decoration, 399-404. Paintings upon
Panelled Ceilings, 405. Painting upon
Panels, 406, 407. Glass Painting, 408,
409. Weaving and Embroidery, 410.
Miniatures, 411-422. '
Italy: Position of Italy in the Tenth
and Eleventh Centuries, 423. By-
zantinism, 424, 425. Lower Italy and
Sicily, 426. Venice, 426, 427. Tus
cany, 427. Textile Industry, 428.
Painting upon Panels, 428, 429. Min
iature Painting, 430.
France: Its Inactivity, 430, 431.
Mural Painting, 432. Glass Painting,
433. Tapestries, 433, 434. Miniature
Painting, 434, 435. Spain, 436. Eng
land, 437, 438. Scandinavia, 439.
Sculpture of the Romanic Epoch,
440-479
Its Subordinate Position, 440.
Germany: Stone Sculpture, 441-
447. Wood Carvings, 447, 448. Prefer
ence for Metal Work — Bronze Gates,
449-451. Bronze Funeral Monuments
and Baptismal Fonts, 452, 453. Gold
smiths' Work, 454-459. Utensils of
Metal, 460, 461. Ivory Carving, 461-
464. Italy: Rude beginnings of Stone
Sculpture, 464-466. Improvements
in this branch, 467. Classicism in
Lower Italy, 468, 469. Sculpture in
Bronze, 470, 47 1 . Goldsmiths' Work,
472. France: Stone Sculpture, 473-477.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Bronze Casting of the Dinandiers
and Enamel Work of Limoges, 477-
479. Spain, England, and Scandi
navia, 479.
Gothic Architecture in France,
Page 480-519
Character of the Innovation, 480,
481. Artistic Conditions in France,
482. Normandy and Burgundy, 483.
St. Denis, 484, 485. The Early Goth
ic Style, 485-495. The Style of the
Thirteenth Century, 496-498. Slow
Advance of Normandy and Burgun
dy, 499. Southern France, 500. West
ern France, 501. The Fully - devel-
oped style, 502-^12. Its Debasement,
512-517. Palatial Architecture, 517,
518. Dwellings, 518, 519.
The Extension of Gothic Archi
tecture  520-593
B Dependence of the Remainder of
Europe upon France, 520.
England: Early English Style, 521-
527. The Decorated Style, 528-530.
The Perpendicular Style, 531-533.
Ireland and Scotland, 533.
Germany : Transitional Period,
534-542. Imitation of French Mod
els, 542-545. Predominance of the
French Style in the Rhenish Cathe
drals, 545-549- French Architects,
550, 551. Variety and Logical Charac
ter of German Gothic, 552, 553. Tow
ers, 553, 554. Equal-aisled Churches,
554-559. Decline, 560. Convents, 561.
Palaces, 562. Town - halls, Guild
halls, Hospitals, Dwellings, 563, 564.
Italy: Obscurity of the Begin
nings, 565, 566. Gradual Introduc
tion of the Style, 567. The Edifices
of the Franciscans and Dominicans,
568, 569. Cathedrals, 570-572. Pict
uresque Character, Mixed Style, 572-
578. Lower Italy, 579. Secular
Buildings, 580, 581.
Spain: Reign of Ferdinand III.
and Alfonso the Wise, 582-584. In
creasing Luxury, 585, 586. Convent

and Secular Buildings, 586, 587.
Portugal, 587.
The Netherlands: Belgium — Ca
thedrals, 588-590. Public Buildings,
590. Holland, 591, 592.
Scandinavia and the Countries
of the East . . . Page 592, 593
The Sculpture . of the Gothic
Epoch . '. ~  594-644
Altered Circumstances, 594-596.
France: Inferiority of Sculpture
compared to Architecture, 596, 597.
Development in the Thirteenth Cen
tury, 598, 599. Degeneration, 599,
600. Funeral Monuments, 601, 602.
Metal Work, 602, 603.
The Netherlands : The Schools of
Dinant and Tournay, 603. Activity
in Dijon, 604-606.
England : Dependence upon
France, Italy, and Germany, 607.
Funeral Monuments, 608-610. Ec
clesiastical Sculpture, 610, 611.
Germany : Transitional Epoch, 611,
612. Sculptures of Naumburg, 613.
Sculptures of the Rhenish Cathe
drals, 614,615. Nuremberg, 615,616.
Funeral Monuments in Stone, 617,
618. Sculpture in Clay, Wood, and
Metal, 619-622. Preponderance of
Wood Carving, 622, 627. Its Reflex
Influence on Stone Sculpture, 627-
629. The Foundery of Nuremberg,
629-632. Italy : Study of the Antique, 632-
634. Giovanni Pisano and his Pu
pils, 635-641. Metal Sculpture, 641,
642. Spain, 642-644. The East and
North-east of Europe, 644.
Painting of the Gothic Epoch, 645-710
Unfavorable Circumstances, 645,
646. Preponderance of Glass Paint
ing and Illumination, 647-649.
France: Mural Painting and Stain
ed Glass, 649-651. Neglect of Panel
Painting, 651,652. Influence of the

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Library of Louis IX. upon Illumina
tion, 652, 653. Collections of Charles
V. and his Brothers, 653-655. Influ
ence of the Netherlands, 654. J. Fou-
quet, 656, 657.
England: Dependence upon the
Continent, 657, 658.
Italy: Contrasts between Italian
and French Art, 658, 659. Cimabue
and Guido of Siena, 660. Giotto,
661-666. School of Giotto, 666-668.
School of Siena, 668-671. Masolino
and Fiesole, 671, 672. Panel Paint
ing, 673, 674. Illumination, 675.
Germany: Reminiscences of the
Romanic Style, 676. Mural Paint
ings in Churches and Palaces, 677-
680. Architectural Style of the Paint
ings upon Glass, 681. The Textile
Arts, 682. Panel Painting in Prague

and Cologne, 683-687. In Nurem
berg, 687-690. In Suabia, 690-693.
In Bavaria and Austria, 694. Illumi
nations,. Wood-cuts, and Engravings,
695-698. The Netherlands: Mural Paint
ing and Stained Glass, 698. The
Textile Arts, 699. Beginnings of
Panel Painting, 699, 700. The Broth
ers Van Eyck, 700-704. School of
Ghent and Bruges, 704, 705. Rogier
Van der Weyden and the School of
Brabant, 705, 706. Dierik Bouts and
the Dutch School, 707. Memling,
707, 708. Followers, 708. Illumi
nations, 708, 709.
Conclusion, 709, 710.
Index of Artists' Names . . 719
Index of Places  723

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

EAELY OHEISTTAN AND BYZANTINE AEOHITEOTUEE,

I. The Mythrasum under S. Clemente
in Rome. (G. B. de Rossi, "Bul-
letino di Archeologia Cristiana."
Roma, 1863, seq.) . . . 1
2. Plan of the Catacomb of Calixtus.
(G. B. de Rossi," Roma Sotterra-
nea." Roma, 1864-1867.) . . 5
3. Third Crypt of the Northern Pas
sage in the Catacomb of Calixtus.
(The same.) .... 7
4. Papal Vault in the Catacomb of Ca
lixtus. (The same.) ... 8
5. Forms of Tombs in the Catacombs.
(F. X. Kraus, "Roma Sotterra-
nea." Second Edition. Freiburg,
1879.) . . . 9
6. Plan of a Crypt in the Ccemeteri-
um ad septem Columbas. (The
same.) . . . . .10
7. Section of a Crypt in the Catacomb
of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus.
(The same.) . . . .12
8. Section and Plan of Part of the
Catacombs of Alexandria. (G. B.
de Rossi," Bullet, di Arch. Crist."
Roma, 1863, seq.) . . .14
9. Antique Mausoleum (Canina, Via
Appia) and Oratories. (G. B.
de Rossi, "Roma Sotteranea."
Roma, 1 864-1 867.) . . .15
10. Antique Palace Basilicas. (L. Ca
nina, Via Appia and F. Reber,
"Die Ruinen Roms." Second
Edition. Leipzig, 1875.) . . 18
11. Basilica of St. SymphOrosa. (F. X.
Kraus, " Roma Sotteranea." Frei
burg, 1879.) . ... .21
12-14. Plans of St. Peter, S. Clemente,
and S. Paolo fuori le Mura in
Rome. (J. G. Gutensohn and J.

FIGURE PAGHt
M. Knapp, "Die Basiliken des
Christlichen Rom." Muenchen,
without date.) . . . 23, 24
15. View of the Interior of S. Pietro in
Vincoli. (The same.) . . 25
16. View of the Interior of S. Prassede
in Rome. (The same.) . . 20
17. View of the Interior of S. Agnese
near Rome. (The same.) . . 31
18. Section of the Basilica of S. Paolo
fuori le Mura near Rome. (The
same.) ..... 32
ig. View of a Part of the Basilica of S.
Apollinare in Classe near Raven
na. (H. Otte, ' ' Geschichte der ro-
manischen Baukunst in Deutsch-
land." Leipzig, 1874.) . . 34
20. Cupolas of the late Roman Epoch.
(L. Canina," Gli Edifizi di Roma
Antica." Roma, without date.) . 38
21. So-called Temple of Minerva Med-
ica. (H. Huebsch, ' ' Die alt-
christlichen Kirchen. " Karlsruhe,
1862.)  39
22. Plan and Section of S. Constanza in
Rome. (The same.) . . .41
23. Plan and Section of the Baptistery
of the Lateran. (The same.) . 42
24, 25. Baptisteries near the Basilica of
S. Ursiana and near S. Teodoro
in Ravenna. (G. B. de Rossi,
" Bullet, di Arch. Crist," Roma,
1863, seq.)  43
26, 27. .The Mortuaiy Chapel of Galla
Placidia in Ravenna. Views of
Interior and Exterior. (From a
Photograph.) . . .44, 45
28. Basilica of Turmanin in Syria. (M.
De Vogue\ ' ' Syrie Centrale. " Par
is, 1865.)  49

Vlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGURE PAGE
29. Plan and Section of S. Lorenzo in
Milan. (H. Huebsch," Die alt-
christlichen Kirchen. " Karls
ruhe, 1862.) . . . .52
30. Plan and Section of S.Vitale in Ra
venna. (H. Otte, " Handbuch
der kirchlichen Kunstarchaeol-
ogie." Fifth Edition. Leipzig,
1884.)  53
31. Byzantine Capitals from S.Vitale in
Ravenna. (From Photographs
and J. Gailhabaud, Monuments.
Paris, 1846.) ••• 55
32. Plan of the Church of St. Sergius in
Constantinople. (H. Huebsch, as
above.) .... 56
33. Plan of the Church of St. Sophia in
Constantinople. (W. Salzenberg,
"Altchristliche Baudenkmale von
Constantinople." Berlin, 1864.) 57
34. View of the Interior of the Church
of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

35

36.

37.

(Reconstruction, from a Photo
graph.) 
Plan of the Church of St. Irene.
(II. Huebsch, as above.) .
Plan and Section of the Pantepoptes
Church in Constantinople.^ (D.
Pulgher," Les Anciennes Eglises
Byzantines de Constantinople."
Vienne, 1878.) ....
Church at Ani. (From a Photo
graph.) . ...
38. Church of Our Lady (Pakrova) near
the Cloister Bogolubor. (E.Viol-
let-le-Duc, ' ' L' Art Russe. " Par
is, 1877.) . ...
39, 40. Cupola-towers of the Church of
St. Sophia at Kiev, and of the
Vassili Blaggenoi in Moscow.
(The same.) ....
House of a Russian Boyar. (The
same.) ....

41

59

60

6365

67

69

70

EAELY OHEISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING AND SOULPTUEE.

42. Orpheus and the Animals. Wall-
painting in the Catacomb of Ca
lixtus. (L. Perret, "Les Cata
combs de Rome." Paris, 1851-
I855-)  72
43. Decorated Crypt in the Catacomb
of Calixtus, called that of Ocea-
nus. (G. B. de Rossi, "Roma
Sott." Roma, 1864-1867.) . 74
44. Noah in the Ark. Wall-painting
in the Catacomb of Calixtus. (L.
Perret, as above.) . .77
45. Fresco in the Catacomb of S. Ag-
nese. The Good Shepherd and
other representations. (The same.) 78
46. Wall-decoration of the Basilica of
Junius Bassus. After a drawing
by A. da Sangallo, now in the
Barberini Library. (G. B. de
Rossi, " Bullet, di Arch. Crist."
Roma, 1863, seq.) . . 80
47. Mosaic in the Apse of S. Pudenziana
in Rome. (J. Labarte, " Histoire
des Arts Industriels en Moyen-
Age." Paris, 1864.) . . .81
48. Mosaic on the Triumphal Arch of S
Paolo fuori le Mura near Rome
(J. G. Gutensohn and J. M
Knapp, as above.) . . .83

49. Mosaic in the Apse of SS. Cosma e
Damiano in Rome. (The same.)
50. Mosaic Portrait of the Emperor Jus
tinian in the Chapel of All Saints
of S. Apollinare Nuovo in Raven
na. (From a Photograph.) . .
51. The Empress Theodora with the La
dies of her Court in S. Vitale.
Mosaic in that Church. (From a
Photograph.) ....
52. St. Agnes. Mosaic in the Apse of
the Church of S. Agnese near
Rome. (L. Perret, as above.) .
53. Miniature from the Codex of Dios-
corides, now in the Imperial Li
brary of Vienna. (J. Labarte, as
above.) ....
54- Jacob and his Sons. From Genesis,
now in the Imperial Library of
Vienna. (The same.)
55. Miniature from the Syrian Gospel of
Zagba, now in the Laurentiana in
Florence. (The same.)
56. The Emperor Manuel Palseologus,
with the Imperial Prince and
Princess. Miniature from a By
zantine Codex now in the Louvre.
(The same.)
57. Byzantine Enamel from the Binding

84

S7

91

94

95

97

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

IX

of a Codex now in the Library
of S. Marco, Venice. (The same.) ioo
58. Statue of the Good Shepherd in the
Museum of the Lateran. (L.
Perret, as above. ) . . .104
59. Statue of St. Peter in the Church of
S. Pietro, Rome. (From a Pho-
• tograph.) ..... 105
60. Odysseus and the Sirens. Fragment
of an Early Christian Relief.
(From a Photograph.) . . 106
61. Relief carved upon a Sarcophagus
in the Museum of the Lateran.
(L. Perret, as above.) . . . 107
62. The Passage of the Red Sea. Re

lief upon a Sarcophagus in Spala-
tro. (" Jahrbuch der k. k. Cen-
tralcommission fllr Erhaltungder
Baudenkmaler." Vol. V.) . 108
63. Coffin of Lead, found at Saida, Phoe
nicia ; now in Cannes. (G. B.
de Rossi, ' ' Bullet, di Arch. Crist. "
Roma, 1863, seq.) . . . 109
64. Diptych of the Consul Anastasius,
A.D. 515, in the National Li
brary, Paris. (From a Photo
graph.) . . . . .111
65. The Two Marys at the Sepulchre.
Relief of Gold in the Louvre.
(J. Labarte, as above.) . . 113

ASIA.

66. Facade of the Palace of Khosru at
Ctesiphon. (E. Flandin et P.
Coste, " Voyage en Perse. " Par
is, s. a.) 
67. Section of one of the Domed Halls
of Firuz-Abad. (The same.)
68. Facade of the Palace of Sarbistan.
(The same.) ....
69. Sassanian Capital, from Ispahan.
(The same.) ....
70. Sassanian Monument at Takht-i-
Gero. (The same.) .
71. The Capture of the Emperor Valeri
an by Shahpur I. Rock-cut Re
lief at Nakhsh-i-Rustam. (The
same.) 
72. Restored View and Section of the
Great Tope of Sanchi. (J. Fer-
gusson, " History of Indian and
Eastern Architecture." London,
1867). . . .
73. Restored Half View and Section of
the Tope qf Manikyala. (The
same.) 
74. The Nigope Grotto near Barabar.
(The same.) ....

119

123

124

125

126

• 131

132

135

75. Chaitya Temple of Bhaja. (The
same.) ..... 136
76. Plan and Section of the Chaitya
Temple of Karli. (The same.) . 137
77. Plan of the Vihara Grotto of Ajanta.
(The same.) .... 140
78. Buddhist Supports with Console
Capitals. (The same.) . . 142
79. Buddhist Columns with Floral and
Animal Ornamentations. (The
same.) . . . 143
80. Columns of the Jaina Style. (The
same.)  145
81. The so-called Rathas of Mahavelli-
pore. (The same.) . . . 147
82. Relief from the Tope of Amravati.
(J. Fergusson, " Tree and Serpent
Worship ; or, Illustrations of My
thology and Art in India. " Lon
don, 1868.) .... 149
83. Relief from the Tope of Sanchi.
(The Same.) . . .150
84. Pagoda of Tung-Chow, China. (J.
Fergusson, " History of Indian
and Eastern Architecture. " Lon
don, 1876.) . . . .153

MOHAMMEDAN AET,

85. Facade of the Alcazar, Seville.
(From a Photograph.) . .155
86. Plan and Section of the Kubbet-es-
Sachra (Mosque of the Rock), Je
rusalem. (M. De Vogue, " Le
Temple de Jerusalem." Paris,

1864.)

160

87. Plan of the Mosque of Amru, Cairo.
(J. Fergusson, " Handbook of
Architecture." London, 1859.) •
88. Interior of the Mosque of Amru
in Cairo. (From a Photograph.)
89. View of the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun

163

166

in Cairo. (From a Photograph.) 168

X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

90. View of the Mosque of Kait-Bey in
Cairo. (From a Photograph) . 170
91. Plan of the Mosque of Ajmir. (J.
Fergusson, ' ' History of Indian
and Eastern Architecture. " Lon
don, 1876.) .... 173
92. View of the Mosque of Kalburgah.
(The same.) . . . . 175
93. Plan of the Mosque of Jumma at
Bijapur. (The same.) . .176
94. Plan and Section of the Chief Cu
pola of the Mosque of Jumma
at Bijapur. (The same.) . . 177
95. Plan of the Mosque of Cordova.
(J. Fergusson, "Handbook of
Architecture." London, 1859.) 179
9(6. View of the Interior of the Mosque
of Cordova. (From a Photo
graph.)  180
97. The Giralda of the Cathedral of
Seville. (From a Photograph.) 183
98. Arcade of the Alcazar in Seville.
(Westermann's "Illustrirte Mo-
natshefte. " Braunschweig, 1883.) 184

99. Capitals from the Alhambra. (From
a Photograph.) . . .186
100. Part of the Court of the Myrtles
in the Alhambra. (Girault de
Prangey, ' ' Monuments Arabes et
Moresques de Cordova, Sevilla
et Grenade." Paris, 1 83 5-1 839.) 188
101. The Court of the Lions in the Al
hambra. (The same.) . . 189
102. The Kuba near Palermo. (H. Gai
ly Knight, ' ' Saracenic and Nor
man Remains to Illustrate the
Normans in Sicily." London,
1840.)  192
103. Marble Relief from Granada. (Gi
rault de Prangey, as above.) . . 197
104. Miniature in a Manuscript of Ibn
Zafer, of Sicily, Library of the
Escurial. (From a Photograph.) 198
105. Painting from the Hall of Judg
ment in the Alhambra. (Girault
de Prangey, as above.) . . 199
106. Painting from the Hall of Judg
ment in the Alhambra. (The
same.) ..... 200

THE OHEISTIAN AET OF THE NOETH UNTIL THE CLOSE OF THE
CAEOLINGIAN EPOCH.

107. Part of the so-called Palace of The-
odoric in Ravenna. (From a
Photograph.) .... 202
108. Restored Plan and Section of the
Cathedral of Treves. (Ch. W.
Schmidt," Baudenkmale in Tri
er." Trier, 1836-1845.) . . 203
109. Capital from the so-called Palace
of Theodoric. (R. Rahn,"Ein
Besuch in Ravenna." Leipzig,
1869.)  205
no. Mausoleum of Theodoric in Raven
na. (From a Photograph.). . 206
in. Baptistery of the Patriarch Calix
tus in S. Giovanni, Cividale.
( ' ' Jahrbuch der k. k. Centralcom-
mission." II. Wien, 1857.) . 207
112. The Baptistery of Poitiers. (J.
Gailhabaud, " Monuments An-
ciens et Modernes." Paris, 1850.) 215
113. Plan and Section of the Minster
of Aix-la-Chapelle in its Original
Arrangement. (Altered from
E. Foerster, " Denkmale der

deutschen Baukunst, Bildnerei
und Malerie." Leipzig, 1853-
1869.)  219
114. Restored View of the Choir of the
Nuns in the Abbey Church of
Essen. (F. V. Quast und H.
Otte, "Zeitschrift fUr christ-
liche Archseologie und Kunst."
I. Leipzig, 1856.) . . . 222
115. View of the Interior of the Church
of Ottmarsheim. (Golbery et
Schweighaeuser, " Antiquites
d Alsace.") .... 223
116. Plan.of the Church of Ottmarsheim.
(The same.) .... 223
117- Plan of the Chapel of St. Michael
in Fulda. (H. V. Dehn-Rot-
felser, " Mittelalterliche Bau-
denkmaelerinKurhessen." Cas-
sel, 1866.) . . . . 225
118. Details of Columns from the Chap
el of St. Michael in Fulda. (The
same.)  226
119. The Carolingian Cloister Plan of

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. Gall. (F. Keller, " Bauriss
des Klosters von St. Gallen vom
Jahre 820." Zurich, 1844.) . 227
120. Portal of the Cloister of Lorsch.
(J. Gailhabaud, as above.) . 230
121. Pilaster Capital from the Portal of
Lorsch. (The same.) . . 231
122. Capital and Impost from the West
ern Wing of the Cloister Church
of Corvey. (W. Luebke, "Die
mittelalterli <mm Kunst in West-
falen." Leipzig, 1853.) . . 232
123. Relief from the Front Side of the
Altar of Duke Pemmo in the
Church of St. Martin in Cividale.
("Jahrbuch der k. k. Central-
commission." II. Wien, 1857.) 234
124. So-called Pax of the Duke Ursus
in Cividale. (The same.) . 235
125. Sword of King Childeric, now in
the Louvre. (J. Labarte, as
above.)  237
126. Crown of Reccesvinthus, King of
the Visigoths, now in the Musee
Cluny, Paris. (The same.) . 238
127. Brooch of German Workmanship
dating to the Eighth Century ;
found at Wittislingen. Now in
the National Museum of Mu
nich. (From a Photograph.) . 239

128. The Chalice of Thassilo in Krems-
muenster. (H. Otte,"Handbuch
der kirchlichen Kunstarcheeo-
logie." Fifth Edition. Leipzig,
1884.)  240
129. Relief of Ivory, the work of the
Monk Tutilo of St. Gall. (R.
Rahn, " Gcschichte der bilden-
den Kuenste in der Schweiz. "
Zurich, 1876.) .... 241
130. Miniature from the Gospel of Du-
row, Seventh Century. Trinity
College, Dublin. (J. O. West-
wood," Facsimiles of the Mini
atures and Ornaments of Anglo-
Saxon and Irish Manuscripts."
London, 1868.) . . . 243
131. St. Matthew the Evangelist, from a
Miniature dating to the Eighth
or Ninth Century. St. Gall. (The
same.)  244
132. Initial IN from the Evangeliarium
of Godescalc. National Library
of Paris. (R. Rahn," Das Psal-
terium Aureum von St. Gallen."
St. Gallen, 1878.) . . .246
133. David Feigning Madness. Minia
ture from the Codex Aureus of
Charles the Bald in St. Gall.
(The same.) .... 248

EOMANIO AEOHITEOTUEE IN GEEMANY.

134. The Abbey Church of Laach. (E.
Foerster, as above.) . . . 250
135. Plan of a normal Romanic Basili
ca, that of Hecklingen. (L. Put-
trich, ' ' Denkmale der deutsch-
en Baukunst des Mittelalters in
Sachsen." Leipzig, 1835-1852.) 255
136. Plan of the Romanic Basilica of
Paulinzelle. (The same.) . . 256
137. Plan of the Church of St. Gode-
hard, Hildesheim. (E.W. Hase,
W. Stock, and others, " Die mit-
telalterlichen Baudenkmaeler
Niedersachsens. " Hannover,
1856-1882.) . . . .257
138. Typical Romanic Column. (Draw
ing by P. Rueckert.) . . 258
139. Capitals from Huyseburg. (H.
Otte, ' ' Geschichte der roman-
ischen Baukunst in Deutschland."
Leipzig, 1874.) . . .259

140. Capitals from Hamersleben and
Alpirsbach. (E. W. Hase, W.
Stock, as above.) . . . 260
141. Capitals from the Abbey Church
of Brauweiler. ( Fr. Bock,
" Rheinlands Baudenkmaeler
des Mittelalters." Koeln, with
out date.) . . . .261
142-144. Systems of the Cloister Church
of Paulinzelle, the Collegiate
Church of Gernrode, and the
Collegiate Church of St. Micha
el at Hildesheim. (L. Puttrich,
as above, and E. W. Hase, as
above.)  262
145-147. Systems of the Church of Drue-
beck, the Church of Our Lady
at Halberstadt, and the Church
of Thalbuergel. (The same,
etc.) . .... 263
148. Interior of the Collegiate Church

Xll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

of Gernrode. (L. Puttrich, as
above.)  265
149. Section of Early Christian and Ro
manic Windows. (Drawing by
P. Rueckert.) . . . .266
150, 151. Portals of Altenzelle and Thal-
buergel. (L. Puttrich, as above.) 268
152. Romanic Decorations. (H. Otte,
' ' Geschichte der romanischen
Architektur." Leipzig, 1874.) . 269
153. Church of St. Michael at Hildes
heim. (E. W. Hase, W. Stock,
as above.) .... 270
154. Plan of the Cathedral of Bremen.
(H. A. Mueller, "Der Dom zu
Bremen." Bremen, 1861.) . 273
155. Plan of the Convent Church of
Limburg - on - the - Hardt. (F.
W. Geier, and R. Goerz, " Denk-
male der romanischen Baukunst
am Rhein." 1846.) . . . 274
156. Western Facade of the Cathedral
of Treves, as it appeared in the
Eleventh Century. (Chr. W.
Schmidt," Baudenkmale in Tri
er." Trier, 1836-1845.) . . 276
157. Western Front of the Cathedral of
Paderborn. (W. Luebke, " Die
mittelalterliche Kunst in West-
falen." Leipzig, 1853.) . . 277
158. Plan of the Convent Church of
Hersfeld. (F. V. Quast, " En-
twicklung der kirchlichen Bau
kunst des Mittelalters." 1858.) 278
159. Plan of the Cathedral of Gurk.
(The same.) .... 279
160. Crypt of St. Gereon in Cologne.
(F. Bock, as above.) . . . 282
161. Plan of the Cathedral of Speyer.
(Gailhabaud, Monuments, etc.) . 286
162. View of the Cathedral of Speyer.
(The same.) .... 287
163-165. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Mayence, Speyer, and Worms.
(F.V. Quast, " Die romanischen
Dome des Mittelrheines zu
Mainz, Speier, Worms." Berlin,
1853.) .... 288, 289
166-168. Systems of the Convent Church
of Laach, St. Mauritius in Co
logne, and the Convent Church

of Knechtsteden. (H. Otte, as
above.) .... 289, 290
169, 170. View of the Interior and Plan
of St. Mary of the Capitol in
Cologne. (S. Boisseree, " Denk-
male der Baukunst am Nieder-
rhein." 1843.) . . . 292
171, 172. View of the Interior and Plan
of Great St. Martin in Cologne.
(F. Bock, as above.) . . . 293
173. Corbel -table from the Convent
Church at Jerichow. (H. Otte,
as above.) . . . . 295
174. Longitudinal Section showing the
Southern Side of the Convent
Church at Diesdorf. (F. Adler,
"mittelalterliche Backsteinbau-
werke des preussischen Staates."
Berlin, 1859.) .... 296
175. Detail of the Cloister of the Nonn-
berg at Salzburg. ("Jahrbuch
der k. k. Centralcommission. "
II. Wien, 1857.) . . . 299
176. Cloister of the Great Minster of
Zurich. (R. Rahn," Geschichte
der bildenden Kuenste in der
Schweiz." Zurich, 1876.) . 300
177. Barbacan of Sonnenberg near
Wiesbaden. ("Jahrbuch des
Vereins von Alterthumsf reunden
im Rheinlande." XXVIII ) . 302
178. Northern Side of the Niederburg
at Ruedesheim. (Krieg von
Hochfelden, " Geschichte der
Militaerarchitektur." 1859.) . 303
179. Restored Section and View of the
Eastern Facade of the Palace of
Dankwarderode in Brunswick.
(L. Winter, " Die Burg Dank
warderode zu Braunschweig. ''
Braunschweig, 1883.) . . 304
180. Restored Section and View of the
Imperial Palace of Gelnhausen.
(The same.) .... 305
181. Western Facade and Section of the
Palace of the Wartburg. (The
same.)  306
182. Section of the Double Chapel of
Landsberg. (E. Foerster, as
above.)  307

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

xill

AEOHITEOTUEE OF THE EOMANIO EPOCH.

309

314

315

318

319

183. Interior of S. Ambrogio in Milan
(From a Photograph.)
184. Detail of the Cloister in the Con
vent of Gerusalemme, Bologna.
Tenth Century. (O. Mothes,
" Die Baukunst des Mittelalters
in Italien." Jena, 1882-1884.) 312
185. Section of S. Tommaso at Almen-
no. (F. Osten," Die Bauwerke
in der Lombardei vom 7-14 Jahr-
hundert." Darmstadt, without
date.) ....
186. Plan and System of S. Abondio in
Como. (C. Boito, ' ' Architettura
del Medio Evo in Italia." Mi-
lano, 1880.)
187. Plan and System of SS. Pietro e
Paolo in Bologna. (F. Osten, as
above.) ....
188. Plan and System of S. Micchele in
Pavia. (V. Ruprich - Robert,
' ' L' Architecture Normande aux
XL et XII. Siecles." Paris,
1884.) ' 
189. Plan and System of the Cathe
dral of Parma. (F. Osten, as
above.)  320
190. Plan and System of the Cathedral
of Modena. (The same.) . . 321
191. Plan of the Church of St. Mark in
Venice. (C. Boito, as above.) . 322
192. Portal of the Cathedral of Civita
Castellana. (C. Boito, as above.) 324
193. Portal of S. Giusto in Lucca. (O.
Mothes, as above.) . .325
194-196. Plan, Longitudinal Section,
and View of the Southern Side
of the Cathedral of Pisa. (M.
G. Rohault de Fleury, "Les
Monuments de Pise au Moyen-
Age." Paris, 1866.) . 326-328
197. Plan and Section of S. Giovanni
degli Eremiti in Palermo. (O.
Mothes, as above.) .
198, 199. Systems of the Exterior and
Interior of the Cathedral of Mon-
reale. (C. Boito, as above.)
200. S. Maria del Gradillo in Ravello.
(O. Mothes, as above.)
201. Plan and Section of the Chapel of
St. Thomas at Molleges. . (H.

332

333

334

Revoil, " Architecture Romane
du Midi de la France." Paris,
I873-) • ¦ . • .337
202. Systems of St. Gabriel near Taras-
con, St. Pierre -de-Reddes, and
St. Martin - de - Londres. (The
same.)  338
203. Exterior View and Section of the
Apse of St. Jean-de-Moustier.
(The same.) . . . .339
204. Portal of St. Trophrme at Aries.
(From a Photograph.) . . 340
205, 206. Sections of St. Guillem-du-
Desert, St. Honorat, upon the
Island of Lerins, and the Con
vent Church of Vaison. (H.
Revoil, as above) . . 341, 342
207, 208. Plan of St. Guillem-du-D^sert,
and of the Convent Church of
Vaison. (The same.) . . 344
209. Cloister of the Convent of Vaison.
(The same.) .... 346
210, 211. Section, System, and Plan of
Notre-Dame in Clermont. (J.
Gailhabaud, as above.) . 347, 348
212. Plan of the Abbey Church of Cluny.
(W. Luebke, ' ' Geschichte der
Architektur." Sixth Edition.
Leipzig, 1885.) . . .352
213. System of Vezelay. (M. Viollet-
le-Duc, " Dictionnaire Raisonne
de TArchitecture Francaise. "
Paris, 1858, sv:) . . .353
214. Interior of the Church of St. John
in Grandson. ( R. Rahn, as
above.) ..... 355
215. Plan, Longitudinal Section, and
View of St. Front in Perigueux.
(J. Gailhabaud, as above.) . 357
216. Facade of the Cathedral of An-
gouleme. (From a Photograph. ) 359
217. Norman Capitals. (V. Ruprich-
Robert, ' ' L'Architecture Nor-
mandie au XI. et XIII. Siecles
en Normandie et en Angle-
terre." Paris, 1884, sv.) . . 361
218, 219. Systems of the Churches of
Ecrainville and St. Germain at
Pont-Audemer. (The same.) . 362
220-222. Systems of the Churches of
Jumieges, Mont - Saint - Michel,

XIV

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

and St. Georges at Boscherville.
(The same.) .... 364
223, 224. Systems of Ste. Trinite and
St. Etienne in Caen. (The same.) 365
225. Plan and System of S. Adrian in
Tufion. (" Monumentos Arqui-
tectonicos de Espana. " Ma
drid, 1859-1884.) . . . 369
226. Plan and Interior of S. Cristina in
Lena. (The same.) . . . 370
227, 228. Facade, Longitudinal Section,
and Plan of S. Maria of Naran-
co. (The same.) . . 371, 372
229. Plan and System of S. Miguel de
Escalada. (The same.) . . 373
230. Plan and System of S. Millan at
Segovia. (The same.) . . 375
231. Plan and System of S. Isidoro in
Leon. (G. E. Street, "Some
Account of Gothic Architecture
in Spain." London, 1865.) . 376
232. Plan and System of Santiago of
Compostella. (The same.) . 377
233, 234. View of Tower and Details of
Columns of Earls Barton. (J.
Britton, " The Architectural An
tiquities of Great Britain. " Lon
don, 1835.) . . . 379, 380
235. Interior of the Chapel of St. John
in the Tower of London.
(" Sketches of the Tower of
London." London, without
date.)  381

236. System of the Nave of Steyning
Church. (Britton, as above.) . 382
237. Plan of the Cathedral of Durham.
(W. Luebke and J. Caspar, "At
las zu F. Kugler's Kunstge-
schichte." Stuttgart, 1858.) . 383
238. System of the Exterior of the Cathe
dral of Durham. (C. Schnaase,
' ' Geschichte der bildenden
Kuenste im Mittelalter." , Sec
ond Edition. Duesseldorf,i87i.) 384
239. System of the Cathedral of Peter
borough. (J. Britton, " Cathe
dral Antiquities of Great Brit
ain." London, 1836.) . . 386
240. System of the Abbey Church of
Waltham. (V. Ruprich-Robert,
as above.) .... 386
241. Section of St. Sepulchre at Cam
bridge. (The same.) . . 387
242. Plan and View of the Church of
Urnes. (J. C. C. Dahl, " Denk-
maeler der Holzbaukunst in den
inneren Landschaften Norwe-
gens." Dresden, 1837.) . . 392
243. Plan and View of the Church of
Borgund. (The same.) . . 393
244. Old Stone Mill, Newport, Rhode
Island. (A. Von Minutoli, " Der
Dom zu Drontheim und die
mittelalterlich christliche Bau
kunst der skandinavischen Nor-
mannen." Berlin, 1853.) . . 395

PAINTING OF THE EOMANIO EPOCH.

245. Fragment of a Mosaic Pavement in
the Crypt of St. Gereon in Co
logne. (F. Bock, as above.) . 397
246. The Awakening of Lazarus. Wall
Painting at Oberzell. (F. X.
Kraus, " Die Wandgemaelde in
der S. Georgskirche zu Oberzell."
Freiburg, 1884.) . . . 401
247. The Last Judgment. Wall Paint
ing at Oberzell. (The same.) . 402
248. Painting of the Apse of the Low
er Church of Schwarzrheindorf.
(E. Aus' M. Weerth, " Kunst-
denkmaeler des christlichen
Mittelalters in den Rheinland-
en. " Leipzig, 1857, seq.) . 403
249. Adam and Eve. Painting upon the
Ceiling of St. Michael in Hildes- ,

heim. (J. M. Kratz," Decken-
gemaelde in der S. Michaels-
kirche zu Hildesheim." 1856.) 405
250. The Virgin. Antependium of St.
Walpurgis in Soest, now in the
Museum in Muenster. (CI. von
Heereman von Zuydewyk, " Die
aelteste Tafelmalerei Westfa-
lens." Muenster, 1882.) . 407
251. Altar-piece from the Wiesenkirche
in Soest, now in the Museum of
Berlin. (The same.) . . 408
252. Window of Stained Glass in the
Cathedral of Augsburg. (Th.
Herberger, " Die aeltesten Glas-
gemaelde im Dom zu Augsburg."
Augsburg, i860.) . . . 40g
253. Glass Painting from the Middle

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

XV

Window of the Choir of the
Church of St. Maternianus,
Buecken. (C. W. Hase, W.
Stock, as above.) . . . 410
254. Woven Dorsel from Quedlinburg.
( ' ' Zeitschrif t f ur bildende
Kunst." Leipzig, 1882.). . 411
255. The Healing of the Blind. Min
iature of the Codex Egberti,
Treves. (F. X. Kraus, " Die
Miniaturen des Codex Egberti
in der Stadtbibliothek zu Trier."
Freiburg, 1884.) . . . 414
256. The Healing of Cripples and Lep
ers. From the Codex of Echter-
nach in Gotha. (K. Lamprecht,
" Der Bilderschmuck des Codex
Egberti zu Trier und des Co
dex Epternacensis zu Gotha."
Bonner Jahrb. LXX.) . .415
257. Dedicatory Illustration of the Mis
sal of Henry II. Library of
Munich. (E. Foerster. as above.) 416
258. The Last Supper. Pen-drawing
from the Antiphonarium of St.
Gall. (R. Rahn, as above.) . 420
259. Miniature from the Hortus Delici-
arum of Herrad von Landsperg.
(Chr. H. Engelhardt, "Herrad
von Landsperg." Stuttgart, 18 18.) 421
260. The Mothers of Bethlehem. From
Werinher's " Liet von der Ma-
get," in the Library of Berlin.
(F. Kugler, " Die Werinhero,
Saeculi XII. Monacho Tegem-
seensi." Berlin, 1831.) . . 422

261. Temptation of St. Anthony. Wall
Painting in S. Sepolcro, Barletta.
(D, Salazaro, " Studi sui Monu-
menti della Italia Meridionale
dallV. Al XIII. Secolo." Nap.
1871-1880.) . . . .425
262. Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem.
Mosaic in the Capella Palatina,
Palermo. (The same.) . . 427
263. Crucifix in the Chapter - house of
the Cathedral of Pistoja. (From
a Photograph.). . . . 429
264. Mosaic Pavement in Cruas, South
ern France. (H. Revoil, as
above.)  431
265. Wall Painting from the Chapter
house of St. Trophfmein Aries.
(The same.)  432
266. St. Benedict giving the Rules of his
Order to the Brothers. Minia
ture from a Codex of Southern
France, now in the British Mu
seum. (E. A. Bond and E. M.
Thompson, " The Palseographi-
cal Society." Vol. III. Lon
don, 1873-1883.) . . .435
267. The Council of Toledo. Minia
ture from the Codex Vigilanus
in the Escurial. (From a Photo
graph.) . . . .436
268. King Edgar between the Virgin
and St. Peter. Miniature from
the Codex of Edgar, in the Brit
ish Museum. (E. A. Bond and
E. M. Thompson, as above.) . 438

SOULPTUEE OF THE EOMANIC EPOCH.

269. Sculptured Portal of Vezelay in
Burgundy. (From a Photo
graph.)  440
270. Relief in the Minster of Basle.
(W. Luebke, " Geschichte der
Plastik." Third Edition. Leip
zig, 1880.) .... 442
271. Carved Support from the Crypt of
the Cathedral of Freising. (J.
Sighart, " Geschichte der bil-
denden Kuenste im Koenigreich
Bayern." Munchen, 1862.) . 444
272. The Pulpit of Wechselburg. (From
a Photograph.) . . . 445
273. Carving of Wood from St. Emmer-

amnus, Ratisbon. (J. Sighart, as
above.)  448
274. Adoration of the Magi. Relief
upon the Bronze Gates of Hildes
heim. (E. Foerster, as above.) 450
275. Part of one of the Bronze Doors
of the Cathedral of .Augsburg.
(From a Photograph.) . .451
276. Tomb of the Pretender Rudolph
of Suabia, in the Cathedral of
Merseburg. ' (W. Luebke, ' ' Ge
schichte der Plastik." Third
Edition. Leipzig, 1880.) . . 452
277. Antependium of Gold from the
Minster of Basle, now in the

XVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Musee Cluny at Paris. (W.
Wackernagel, "Die goldene Al-
tartaf el von Basel." Basel, 1857.) 455
278. Ambo in the Choir of the Minster
of Aix-la-Chapelle. (E. Aus'm
Weerth," Kunstdenkmaeler des
Mittelalters in den Rheinland-
en." Leipzig, 1857, seq.) . . 456
279. Shrine of Charlemagne in the Min
ster of Aix-la-Chapelle. (The
same.) ..... 457
280. Portable Altar in the Collegiate
Church of Melk. ("Atlas kirch-
licher Denkmaeler des Mittelal
ters im oesterreichischen Kaiser-
staate, Herausgegeben von der
k.k.Centralcommission." Wien,
1872.)  459
281. Altar Candlestick at Klosterau-on-
the-Inn. (J. Sighart, as above.) 460
282. Aquiminalia of Bronze. ("Atlas
kirchlicher Denkmaeler," as
above.)  461
283. Cover of a Codex of the Abbess
Theophanu, A. D. 1039-1054, in
the Treasury of the Collegiate
Church of Essen. (W. Luebke,
' ' Vorschule zum Studium der
kirchlichen Kunst." Leipzig,
1866.)  463
284. Pulpit in the Church of St. Mi
chael, Groppoli. (From a Photo
graph.)  466

1'1'Jl'UD 285. Sculptured Frieze of Gruamons and
Adeodatus above the Portal of
S. Andrea in Pistoja. (From a
Photograph.) ... 467
286. Relief from the Pieve of Ponte Alio
Spino. (W. Luebke, ' ' Geschichte
der Plastik." Third Edition.
Leipzig, 1880.) . . . 468
287, 288. Busts, known as that of Pietro
delle Vigne and that of Sigel
Gaita Rufolo, in the Museum of
Capua and in the Cathedral of
Ravello. (D. Salazaro, as above.) 469
289. Part of a Bronze Door of the Ca
thedral of Pisa. (W. Luebke,
as above.) .... 471
290. The Daughter of Herodias de- ,
mands the Head of John the
Baptist. Relief upon a Capital
of St. Sernin, now in the Muse
um of Toulouse. (M. Viollet-
le-Duc, as above.) . . . 474
291. Tympanon of the Porte Saint-Ursin
at Bourges. (M. De Caumont,
" Abecedaire ou Rudiment
d' Archeologie. " Paris, Caen,
Rouen, 1851.) .... 476
292, 293. Sculptures from the Portal of
Notre-Dame in Corbeil, now in
St. Denis. Head of a King,
said to be Clovis, and Head of
a Queen, said to be Clotilde.
(M. Viollet-le-Duc, as above.) . 478

GOTHIC AEOHITEOTUEE IN FEANCE.

294. View of the Cathedral of Bourges.
(From a Photograph.) . . 479
295, 296. Systems of the Cathedral of
Autun and the Portico of the
Abbey Church of Vezelay. (M.
Viollet-le-Duc.) . . .484
297-299. Plans of the Cathedrals of
Noyon, Paris, and Sens. (The
same.) ..... 488
300, 301. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Noyon and Paris. (The same.) 491
302-304. Towers of St. Germain at Aux-
erre, the Church of the Holy
Trinity at Vendome, and the
Cathedral of Chartres. (The
same.) ..... 495
305. Section of the Sainte Chapelle at
Paris. (The same.) . . . 497

306. Section of the Gothic Part of the Ca
thedral of Poitiers. (The same.) 501
307. Plan of the Cathedral of Alby.
(The same.) .... 502
308-310. Plans of the Cathedrals of
Chartres, Rheims, and Amiens.
(The same.) .... 503
311-313. Capitals from the beginning of
the Thirteenth to the middle of
the Fourteenth Century. (The
same.)  505
314-316. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Bourges and Amiens, and the
Nave of the Abbey Church of
St. Denis. (The same.) . . 507
317. System of Buttresses of the Nave
of St. Denis. (The same.) . 510
318. Facade of the Cathedral of Rheims.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

XVll

(W. Luebke, "Geschichte der
Architektur." Sixth Edition.
1884.)  511
319, 320. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Seez and St. Ouen at Rouen.
(M. Viollet-le-Duc, as above.) . 514

321. Interior of St. Ouen at Rouen.
(From a Photograph.) . . 515
322. The Palace of the Louvre in the
Time of Charles V. (According
to the Restoration of Viollet-le-
Duc, as above.) . . . 518

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC AEOHITEOTUEE.

323. View of the Cathedral of Glouces
ter. (J. Britton," Cathedral An
tiquities." London, 1836.) . 520
324, 325. Plans of the Cathedrals of Can
terbury and Salisbury. (The
same.) .... 522, 523
326, 327. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Canterbury and Salisbury. (The
same.) . . . . . . 525
328. Western Facade of the Cathedral
of Salisbury. (The same.) . 527
329, 330. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Lichfield and Ely. (The same.) 529
331. 332- Systems of the Cathedrals of
Winchester and Gloucester.
(The same.) .... 532
333. 334- Plan an|i System of the Ca
thedral of Bamberg. (E. Foer
ster, as above.) .... 537
335. System of the Collegiate Church of
Fritzlar. (L. Hoffmann and H.
von Dehn - Rotfelser, " Mittel
alterliche Baudenkmaeler in Cur-
hessen." Kassel, 1866.) . . 538
336. System of the Cathedral of Naum-
burg. (L. Puttrich, as above.) . 538
337, 338. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Osnabrueck and Muenster. (W.
Luebke, ' ' Die mittelalterliche
kunst in Westfalen." Leipzig,
1833-) ¦ • • -539
339. Plan of the Church of the Virgin
on the Harlungerberge near
Brandenburg. (F. Adler," Mit
telalterliche Backsteinbauwerke
des preussischen Staates. " Ber
lin, 1862, etc.) . . . .540
340. Plan of the Choir of the Church of
the Cistercians at Ebrach, Fran-
conia. (H. Otte, "Geschichte
der romanischen Baukunst in
Deutschland. " Leipzig, 1874.) 542
341. Plan of the Cathedral of Magde
burg. (Clemens, ' ' Mellin und
A

Rosenthal, der Dom zu Magde
burg." 1831-1838.) . . 543
342. System of the Church of St. George
at Limburg-on-the-Lahn. (G.
Moller, "Denkmaeler der
deutschen Baukunst." Frank
furt und Darmstadt. 1820.) . 544
343, 344. Plan and System of the Church
of Our Lady at Treves. (W.
Chr. Schmidt, as above.) . . 545
345, 346. System and View of the Min
ster of Freiburg. (G. Moller, as
above, and H. Otte," Handbuch
der christlichen Kunstarchaeo-
logie," etc.) . . . 546, 547
347, 348. Plan and System of the Ca
thedral of Cologne. (S. Boisse-
r^e, ' ' Geschichte und Beschrei-
bung des Domes von Koeln."
Second Edition. Muenchen,
1842.)  549
349. Section of the Cathedral of Halber-
stadt. (Lucanus, ' ' Der Dom zu
Halberstadt."). . . .550
350. System of the Church of St. Cath
erine at Oppenheim. (F. H.
Mueller, "Die Katharinenkirche
zu Oppenheim. " Frankfurt,
1853.)  551
351. System of the Cathedral of Ratis-
bon. (E. Foerster, as above.) . 551
352. Section of the Church of St. Elisa
beth at Marburg. (G. Moller,
as above.) .... 555
353. System of the Church of St. Elisa
beth at Marburg. (The same.) 557
354. System of the Wiesenkirche at So
est. (W. Luebke, "Die mittel
alterliche kunst in Westfalen."
Leipzig, 1853.). . . .557
355. System of the Church of St. George
at Noerdlingen. (C.Th.Pohligin
Luetzow's ' ' Zeitschrift fiir bil-
dende Kunst." Leipzig, 1882.) 557

xvin

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

356. View of the Church of the Virgin
at Prenzlau from the East. (G.
Kallenback, " Chronologie' der
deutsch mittelalterlichen Bau
kunst." Atlas. Muenchen,i849.) 559
357. Column of the Herrenhaus at Maul-
bronn. (E. Paulus," Die Cister-
zienserabtei Maulbronn." Sec
ond Edition. Stuttgart, 1882.) 560
358. Column of the Cloister of the Ca
thedral at Eichstaedt. (J. Sig
hart, as above.) . . . 560
359. South-eastern Corner of the Clois
ter of the Cistercian Convent
of Maulbronn. (E. Paulus, as
above.) ..... 561
•360, 361. Plan and System of S. Andrea
at Vercelli. (F. Osten, "Die
Bauwerke der Lombardei vom
7-14 Jahrhundert." Darmstadt,
without date.) .... 566
362, 363. Plan and System of S. Fran
cesco at Assisi. (J. Gailhabaud,
as above.) .... 568
364, 365.. Plan and System of S. Anas-
tasia at Verona. (A. Essenwein,
in den " Mittheilungen derk. k.
Centralcommission." V. Wien,
i860.) .... 569

366, 367. Plan and System of the Ca
thedral of Florence. (J. Gailha
baud, as above.) . . . 571
368. Facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto.
(W. Luebke, "Geschichte der
Architektur." Fifth Edition.
Leipzig, 1875.) . . .575
369, 370. Systems of the Cathedrals of
Lucca and Bologna. (W. Lueb
ke, in den " Mittheilungen der
k. k. Centralcommission." V.
Wien, i860.) . . . .577
371. Street View in Siena. (Rohault
de Fleury, " La Toscan au Moy-
en-Age." Paris, 1873.) . . 581
372. Plan of S. Vicente at Avila. (G.
E. Street, " Some Account of
Gothic Architecture in Spain."
London, 1865.) . . . 583
373. View of the Choir of the Cathedral
of Toledo. (The same.) . . 584
374. Facade of S. Pablo in Valladolid.
(From a Photograph.) . . 587
375. Plan of the Cathedral of Tournay.
(W. Luebke, ' ' Geschichte der
Architektur. " Sixth Edition.
Leipzig, 1885.) . . . 589
376. Plan of the Cathedral of Antwerp.
(The same.) .... 590

GOTHIC SOULPTUEE.

377. Monuments in the Choir of the
Princes, Church of St. Elisabeth,
Marburg. (H. Otte, " Archseo-
logie des Mittelalters." Fifth
Edition. Leipzig, 1883.) . . 594
378. Statue of Christ, from the Cathe
dral of Amiens. (M. Viollet-le-
Duc, as above.) . . . 597
379, 380. Madonnas from the Cathedral
of Amiens, dating from the be
ginning and from the end of the
Thirteenth Century. (The same.) 600
381. Statues of Prophets from the Fount
ain of Moses in the Carthusian
Convent of Dijon. (From Pho
tographs.) .... 605
382, 383. Monuments of Bishop Brid-
port and William Longspee in
the Cathedral of Salisbury. (J.
Britton, "Cathedral Antiqui
ties." London, 1836.) . . 608
384. The Death of the Virgin. Tym-

panon Relief from the Cathedral
of Strasburg. (W. Luebke, ' ' Ge
schichte der Plastik." Third
Edition. Leipzig, 1880.) . . 614
385. Figure of a Prophet from the Church
of Our Lady, Nuremberg. (C.
Schnaase, " Geschichte der Bil-
denden Kuenste im Mittelalter."
Second Edition. Duesseldorf,
1869, seq.) .... 616
3S6. Funeral Monument of Queen Uta
in the Church of St. Emmeram-
nus at Ratisbon. (E. Foerster,
as above.) .... 617
387. Engraved Brass from the Tomb of
the Priest Gerard von Lynden at
, Nossendorf, near Demmin. (W.
Luebke, " Vorschule zum Studi-
um der kirchlichen Kunst des
deutschen Mittelalters." Fifth
Edition. Leipzig, 1866.) . . 618
388. Monument of the Archbishop Con-

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

XIX

rad II. von Weinsperg in the
Cathedral of Mayence. (C.
Schnaase, as above.). . . 619
389. Madonna from Blutenburg, now in
the National Museum of Mu
nich. (W. Luebke, ' ' Geschichte
der Plastik." Third Edition.
Leipzig, 1880.) . . .625
390. Part of the Monument of Emperor
Louis the Bavarian in the Church
of Our Lady, Munich. (The
same.) ..... 628
391. Baptismal Font in the City Church
of Wittenberg, by Hermann Visch-
er. (J. G. Schadow, " Witten-
bergs Denkmaeler der Bildnerei,
Baukunst und Malerei." Ber
lin, 1825.) .... 630
392. Tomb of Archbishop Ernst in the
Cathedral of Magdeburg, by
Peter Vischer. (C. G. Cantian,
' ' Ehernes Grabmal des Erz-

bischof Ernst von Magdeburg."
1822.X  631
393. Relief upon the Pulpit of Niccolo
Pisano in the Baptistery of Pisa.
(From a Photograph.) . . 634
394. Relief upon the Pulpit of Giovanni
Pisano in S. Andrea of Pistoja.
(From a Photograph.) . . 636
395. Madonna della Cintola, by Giovan
ni Pisano, in the Cathedral of
Prato. (W. Luebke, ' ' Geschichte
der Plastik." Third Edition.
Leipzig, 1880.) . . . 637
396. Agriculture. Relief upon the Cam
panile of Florence. (From a
Photograph.) .... 640
397. Funeral Monument of King Juan
II. and his Wife in the Carthu
sian Convent of Miraflores. (J.B.
Waring, "Architectural, Sculpt
ural, and Picturesque Studies in
Burgos." London, 1852.) . 643

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

398. Cologne Triptych, dating from the
close of the Fourteenth Century.
Museum of Cologne. (From a
Photograph.) .... 645
399. Part of one of the Windows of St.
Denis, Paris. (J. Labarte, as
above.) ..... 650
400. Scene from the Story of Joseph.
Miniature from the Psalter of
St. Louis. (A. Lecoy de la
Marche," Les Manuscripts et la
Miniature." Paris, without date.) 653
401. Miniature Portrait of Louis IX.
From a Document referable to
about A. D. 1320. National
Archives, Paris. (The same.) . 654
402. Miniature Portrait of King Charles
V. From a Document dated
A. D. 1379. National Archives,
Paris. (The same.) . . . 655
403. St. Martin and the Beggar. Minia
ture by J. Fouquet. Collection
of Feuillet de Conches, Paris.
(The same.) .... 656
404. Madonna Ruccellai, by Cimabue,
in S. Maria Novella at Flor
ence. (Woltmann-Woermann,
. " Geschichte der Malerei." Leip
zig, 1879.) . . . .661

405. The Awakening of Lazarus. Wall
Painting by Giotto in S. Maria
dell' Arena at Padua. (From a
Photograph.) .... 664
406. The Vow of Poverty. Painting by
Giotto upon the Ceiling of S.
Francesco at Assisi. (Woltmann-
Woermann, as above.) . . 665
407. The Martyrdom of St. George. Fres
co in the Capella S. Felice of
S. Antonio at Padua. (Crowe
und Cavalcaselle, ' ' Geschichte
der italienischen Malerei." Leip
zig, 1869-1876.) . . . 669
408. Part of the Fresco of Simone di
Martino in the Town - hall of
Siena. (From a Photograph. ) . 670
409. Madonna, by Tommaso da Mutina.
Belvedere, Vienna. (From a
Photograph.) .... 674
410. Wall Painting of the Church of the
German Knights at Ramersdorf.
(E. Aus'm Weerth, as above.) . 677
411. The Adoration of the Magi. Wall
Painting in the Choir of the
Church of S. Afra, Schelklingen,
Wurtemberg. (From a Photo
graph, published, with a Descrip
tion, by W. Hummel.) . . 679

XX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

412. The Dance of Death. Scene from
the Mural Paintings in the
Church of the Virgin, Berlin.
(W. Luebke, ' ' Der Todtentanz
in der Marienkirche zu Berlin."
Berlin, 1861.) . . . .680
413. Glass Painting from Konigsfelden,
Switzerland. (R. Rahn, " Ge
schichte der bildenden Kuenste
in der Schweiz. " Zuerich, 1876.) 682
414. Early Cologne Triptych in the Mu
seum of Cologne. (From a Pho
tograph.) ..... 683
415. The Presentation in the Temple.
Panel Painting of the School of
Cologne, dating from the mid
dle of the Fourteenth Century,
in the Museum of Cologne.
(From a Photograph.) . . 684
416. Madonna in the Rose Garden.
Panel Painting by Master Ste-
phan, in the Museum of Co
logne. (From a Photograph.) . 686

417. The Crucifixion. ' Panel Painting
by Wolgemut, from the Church
of the Holy Trinity at Hof.
(From a Photograph.) . . 689
418. St. Valentin before the Emperor.
Panel Painting by B. Zeitblom,
in the Gallery of Augsburg.
( Woltmann - Woermann, as
above.)  692
419. The Annunciation. Miniature from
the Mariale of Archbishop Ernst
of Prague, in the Bohemian Mu
seum of that Town. (Wolt
mann-Woermann, as above.) . 696
420, 421. The Virgin and St. John, from
the Altar of the Brothers Van
Eyck, in S. Bavo at Ghent.
(Seemann, " Kunstgeschichtliche
Bilderbogen. ") . . . 702
422. Madonna of Canon Van der Paele,
by Jan van Eyck, in the Acade
my of Bruges. (The same.) . 704

INTRODUCTION.
As it has been set forth in the preceding volume, the art of an
tiquity was divided into groups, corresponding to the various na
tionalities : so separated that a decided dependence of one upon the
other was seldom brought about, and even more rarely maintained.
The ethnographical character, language, religion, and culture of the
Mesopotamians differed entirely from those of the Egyptians, and
both were altogether opposed to those of the Hellenes. The ar
chitecture of each of the groups thus formed was dissimilar in gen
eral arrangement, as well as in details ; their sculpture and painiing
were as unlike in ideals and subjects as in types.
The fundamental differences between these groups were much
more marked than were the differences which resulted in any one of
them through the most long-continued development. Recent dis
coveries in Chaldea have shown that the art of the Upper Tigris,
during the eighth century B. C, was directly founded upon that
which had been practised more than three thousand years before in
Lower Mesopotamia. Still more uniform was the culture and art
of the Egyptians, — from the age of the Pyramids, or at least from
that of Rameses, to the invasion of Egypt by the Persians. Even
the Greeks, — a race infinitely more capable of development, — re
tained the same principles and forms in their architecture from the
archaic temples of Sicily and Ionia to the buildings of the Alexan
drian epoch, and in their sculpture preserved the elements of the
same national art from the groups of ./Egina to the frieze of Per-
gamon, — exhibiting in both branches a character altogether distinct
from that of the Oriental nations. Indeed, the essential character
istics of Hellenic art remained unaltered even after Greece had lqst
her political independence. For as the Ptolemies, unable to Hel-
lenize Egypt, themselves became Egyptian, and as the Seleucidae,
at least on the Euphrates, furthered the civilization of Nebuchad-

xxii INTRODUCTION.
nezzar and Darius, rather than that of Alexander, so also did Greece
maintain its peculiar culture long after the catastrophes of Chairo-
neia and Kynoskephalai.
The art of Greece deservedly became of greater importance
than did that of the Oriental nations, — its influence being extended
throughout all Europe, and indeed never altogether lost, down to
the present day. Greek civilization, in its further extension, first
manifested its supremacy among the Romans, who had incorporated
European and Asiatic Hellas into their vast empire. This was a
success of Greek principles far surpassing that brought about by
the conquests of Alexander, although the spread of Hellenism had
been greatly furthered by him and his successors. For while the
culture of the Greeks had no permanence in the Oriental provinces
of the Diadochi, because of the entire dissimilarity of races and con
ceptions, its character, predominantly European, found in the East
ern 'and Western Empires all circumstances favorable to its expan
sion and to its maintenance. It was neither necessary nor desirable
for Roman imperialism, tolerant as it was, to make such concessions
in religious, administrative, and social respects as had been forced
upon the Diadochi. Thus it was not during the age of Alexander,
but after the establishment of the Roman power, that Hellenism
became truly international.
Mediaeval art was the direct outgrowth of this Roman Hellenism.
The chief differences were in the subjects represented, these being
naturally in accordance with the requirements of the early Christian
communities ; in regard to form and method art remained classic
for many centuries, the decadence steadily continuing. Thus early
Christian art in the western provinces of the Empire, and particu
larly in Italy and the countries dependent upon it, may in all re
spects be considered as a debasement of the Roman. The case
was otherwise in the Eastern Empire, where art, and especially ar
chitecture, had attained, during the age of Justinian, a character not
resulting altogether from an imperfect reproduction of the Roman
types. Byzantine architecture, it is true, was largely dependent
upon the vaulted, more particularly the domical, constructions of
the Romans ; and the mosaics of Ravenna may even more directly
be considered as forming a stage in the decline of Roman painting.

INTRODUCTION. XX111
Still, it is not to be denied that, on the whole, we have here to deal
with a style of much independence. Byzantine art even became in
a certain sense national, through the readoption of Oriental ele
ments which, since the rise of Hellenic culture, had had no direct
influence upon classical antiquity. This was in accordance with the
peculiar character of the Eastern Empire, — composed of Oriental as
well as of Occidental provinces. The methods of artistic expression
were thus in harmony with the constitution of the State. To this
was added the retention of a very considerable technical ability,
which exercised the more influence upon the Western nations the
more rapidly the art of Rome declined. It gradually came to be
recognized that good traditional methods were only to be found in
the Eastern Empire, and after the seventh century Byzantine works
were justly regarded as the finest throughout Christendom. Their
importation as well as their imitation were alike extensive. The
fame which attached to the throne of Byzantiom as the only sur
viving representative of the Imperial power of Rome, was greatly
increased by the ability and energy of Justinian, and was reflected
upon the artistic industries of Byzantiom and its dependencies. As
the dominion of the Eastern Empire, based upon its legal and eccle
siastical organization, outlasted the short-lived States founded by
the Germanic conquerors of the Western Empire, so also was the
supremacy of the Byzantines maintained in artistic respects.
Nevertheless, the art of Byzantiom was unable to attain a posi
tion corresponding to that occupied before it by the Graeco-Roman
styles, and after it by the French Gothic : the Eastern Empire was
too remote from the rapidly developing nations of Western Europe.
The language and ecclesiastical institutions of Byzantiom were al
together foreign to the conceptions of Occidental races, especially
the Germanic, who found more points of contact and sympathy in
the civilization of the Western than in that of the Eastern Empire.
The classic style of Rome was in a course of rapid decline, but its
civilization and its religion had been the first to influence the North
ern nations, and were, in a certain sense, perpetuated, Latin becom
ing the language of the Church and of all higher culture. Byzan
tine tendencies affected only the Imperial court, and even that but
superficially. Moreover, they were received only from secondary

xxiv INTRODUCTION.
sources, such as Ravenna or Lower Italy, where they had been
modified through the influence of other elements. Hence, in archie
tecture the basilical system, with classic Roman details, and in
painting the style of the frescos of the Catacombs, were long re
tained. The change from these was brought about by rude and
barbarous innovations and by independent, but altogether untrained
and uncouth attempts, rather than by any resort to Byzantine meth
ods, which were held to be both difficult and unsuitable.
The greatest promise of future development was given by the
nations founded in the West of Europe by Germanic races after the
migration. From the combination of the vigorous elements of the
North with the outworn civilization of Christian Rome arose the
new system of European States. The political relations which form
the chief subject of mediaeval history had been entered upon even
before the eighth century: they culminated under the reign of Char
lemagne, who conferred upon his Germanic empire a great and en.
during power. Notwithstanding this, the culture furthered by this
great ruler differed so little from that which had immediately pre
ceded it, that the accession of Charlemagne marks the beginning of
no such new period in the history of art as in that of politics. In
the former field the work of Charlemagne bore the character of
a continuation of the antique traditions, with scarcely a trace of in
dependent innovations, — national peculiarities not even having been
considered desirable. Aix-la-Chapelle was to become a new Rome ;
and when other models than those provided by the Italian capital
were chosen, they were derived only from Ravenna, the metropolis of
the Western Empire, and perhaps from Milan and its vicinity. The
Roman towns of the Rhenish provinces which had been spared by
the Germanic immigrants were also not/without influence. This is
plainly evident in the palaces and churche's of the Emperor, and in
the contemporary works of sculpture, 'as models for which antique
statues, — instance the equestrian figure of Theodoric from Ravenna,
— bronze gates, and ornamented parapets wefe- brought from be
yond the Alps. The case must have been similar In paintino- the
mosaics and mural decorations of Byzantiom •haVing-been- of less in
fluence than those of Rome, which, introduc'ed^trirougfr. Lombardy
seem to have been directly imitated in all works; "excepting those

INTRODUCTION. xxv
where unaccustomed subjects required independent conceptions and
treatment. Charlemagne appears to have tolerated, rather than en
couraged, the novel methods employed in these instances, and he
can hardly have regarded with favor the Celtic style of intertwined
ornaments, introduced through the illuminated manuscripts of the
scholars and missionaries of England and Ireland.
A far greater degree of stylistic independence than that pos
sessed by the Carolingians was developed by the Moslems. This
was not the case at first, however. The warlike hordes led by
Omar and his successors brought, at least, no monumental art
with them from their native country, and borrowed most of their
artistic forms from Persia, India, and the subjugated provinces of
the Eastern Empire. But in the course of time they were able to
combine those various elements with their own independent meth-
ods of design, derived from native textile industries, and thus to
form a style of perfect unity. The rise of Arabian art resulted in
a contrast between Oriental and Occidental civilization, comparable
to the dualism which obtained during antiquity. It is not from any
unjust prejudice in favor of our own culture, or from any exagger
ated conception of its merits, that the art of the Mohammedan East
is regarded as less important than that of the West, and in the
present volume is treated less in detail. Apart from its almost
entire lack of works of sculpture and painting, its architecture is
destitute of that constructive logic which renders the buildings of
the mediaeval Occident so interesting and so instructive. Moreover,
the influence of the Orient upon the development of European art
was of less moment than one might be inclined to suppose. In
Spain itself, where the contact of the two civilizations was "more
intimate and longer continued than in any other part of Europe,
even at the time of the Crusades, the brilliant art of the Moors ex
ercised but a subordinate influence upon that of the Christians.
In Sicily, owing to circumstances which will hereafter be explained,
Moslem elements were somewhat more extended, and yet not far
beyond the limits of the island. The court of Charlemagne, though
connected in several ways with the Mohammedan power, was, in
artistic respects, wholly unaffected by it ; and German art, after the
age of the Ottos, borrowed from the East no elements of import-

XXVI INTRODUCTION.
ance, notwithstanding the inclination of the Hohenstaufens tow
ards the culture of Sicily. In short, the assumption that the
Gothic had its root in the architectural methods of the Moors, has
been proved erroneous, and the detailed consideration of the growth
of Mohammedan art is hence of no direct importance in elucidat
ing the development of that of Europe.
Antique traditions were maintained in the Occident until the
period of the Ottos. The artistic methods of the East had contin
ued to decline, notwithstanding the stability of the Byzantine Em
pire, and had been but little improved through attempts to intro
duce original traits, such innovations having been too isolated and
too barbarous to exercise any important effect upon the style. It
was not until the middle of the tenth century that the reproduc
tions of the older types were given up in favor of a more inde
pendent activity, and that new forms gradually began to supplant
those which had previously obtained. This movement did not,
however, result in a contemporaneous and equal improvement of
all the arts. Painting and sculpture could not at once be freed from
their subordination; they were still almost entirely restricted to the
decoration of furniture and utensils, and of manuscripts. Architect
ure, on the other hand, advanced rapidly. The delight in creation
increased with the awakening independence, and with the success
attained through experience. In some districts the development
thus resulting within a single century was greater than that observ
able _sjric^Jh^lirja£_-of_Jiistinian, — that is to say, for nearly a thou
sand years. From the horizontally ceiled basilicas .ofthg ("Hf-ir*. to
the vaulted cathedfa-l^-Q-f-Mayence^and Speyer, the advance is so
constant, so rational, and so organic that, in Germany, at least, it is
1 1 to be regarded as constituting in itself a new style: excellent alike
Kin its clear plan, its constructive system, and in the variety and ar-
'tistic perfection of its forms.
In the year iioquGermany was as prominent among European
nations in artistic as in political respects. Its influence, however,
was not of great extent. Western France, Northern Italy, and some
districts of Eastern and Northern Europe adopted the principles of
German architecture; but in the main the French and Italians fol
lowed an independent course of development. The Provence and

INTRODUCTION. Xxvii
Tuscany based their style upon reminiscences of the antique, while
the Therian peninsula and the islands of Great Britain derived-thek.
artistic methods exclusivejyfrom France.
After the middle of the twelfth century, mediaeval art found its
most brilliant, and jmportant expression in the heart of Northern
France. The advance was at first almost entirely limited to archi
tecture, the methods of which, after a comparatively short period of
development, were adopted by the neighboring countries. The cen
tre of European culture was removed from Germany to France, be
coming of a higher perfection and exercising a wider influence in
the Gothic than in the Romanic epoch. AH the countries. of Eu-
rope, with the- ^vr^ptinn nf those HpppnHpnt upon -Byzaniiom,
adogjgrl t,hp sBSiW style. In some a certain independence resulted
from the combination of native with the foreign methods ; this was
notably the case in Germany, where the transitional style is to be
regarded as an eminently successful compromise, and where, more
over, the new principles were carried to their extreme and logical
consequence. The Gothic was treated with the greatest freedom
by the Italians, who adop_ted_only such of its conj^u^tivejm^_deco-|
rative features_as_could readily be broughLinto harmciny,miih,-tlieir
existing architecture. F.arh nf rhp Trnli-in prmrinr-pr_rprainprl irg„pp.
riiliar_r]Tn^f;|-frigrirgj trip inflnpnrp of the French style in the Papal
States, for instance, being scarcely perceptible.
The circumstances which affected architecture exercised an in
fluence also upon the other arts, but in these latter the national
peculiarities-became somewhat more prominent. The sculpture of
France, at the beginning of the Gothic, was inferior to that of Sax-jj
ony during the transitional period ; but it continued to improve, in
connection with the decoration of architectural members, until it
reached a perfection_fully equal to that of the French architecture
of the thirteenth century. The many statues and reliefs referable ,
to this stage of development are far superior to the similar works
of the Romanic epoch, and to the sculptured ornamentations of
furniture and utensils dependent upon the traditions of early
Christian and Byzantine art. In the_Gothic period scujjjtureagain
attained__Jxi_a — mo-H-u-mental character, stone becoming_ the .chief
material, in the place of metal. The French portal sculptures of

xxviii INTRODUCTION.
the thirteenth century were equalled only by the marble works of
Italy. The rise of French sculpture was not due alone to the trans
ference of artistic activity from the hands of the monks to those
1 of the laity, — important as this was, in sculpture as in architect
ure. The hieratic limitations of monastic art were, indeed, over
come ; but this change is not in itself sufficient to account for the
/appearance of that depth of feeling and that classic_beauty of form
whichuate-so- remarkable in the. sculptures of Rheims. Nor are
these characteristics wholly to be explained by the removal of the
centre of European civilization from Saxony and the Rhenish prov
inces to the heart of France. The cause of this elevation of aes
thetic ideals is rather to be sought in the extension of all culture,
which,— previously restricted to courts and toAlerical circles,— now
first became general, and exercised a direct influence upon every
form of artistic expression. The changes thus brought about in the
civilization of Europe were of such far-reaching importance that the
| characteristic feaJur^s-^f-th^-jGothic style are noLjKholly-.expIicable
by jtlie-i»irti«-«M!W^ A distinct
line of demarcation is hence to be drawn between these two styles,
notwithstanding the appearance of transitional phases, — in this as
in other revolutionary epochs of civilization.
German sculpture during the early Gothic ages was but of sec
ondary importance, — the Rhenish provinces being in this respect
largely dependent upon France : Saxony and Franconia upon the
schools established at Freiberg and Wechselburg towards the close
of the preceding epoch. In a later age, on the other hand, when
the artistic activity of France had greatly declined, Germany over
came its archaic conservatism, and at last attained an independent
position. The predominance of the burgher element in the free
r,, cities of Germany elevated the conceptions and ideals of the mid-
' die class, and transformed the cycle of ecclesiastical representations.
This national movement in sculpture corresponded to the develop
ment of the equal-aisled churches in architecture. Wood-carving
. was much cultivated, influencing not only sculpture in stone, but
even painting.
Italy made still fewer concessions to the artistic methods of

INTRODUCTION. xxix
France in sculpture than in architecture. Niccolo Pisano did but
follow the example of his predecessors of Southern Italy in basing
his style upon that of ancient Rome. This tendency has been re-
garde^ %§ th" hprrinniin.m.of the B enaisgapre, — a view-w-hkluha&4ed
to the gi^atfi&t. confusion in the historical treatment of me.disval
ar£. In reality, Niccolo's recourse to antique models was as little
related to. the Renaissance as were the studies of the artists of Em-''
peror Frederick II. It is as erroneous to connect this movement
with that of the Quatrocento as it would be to ascribe a similar
importance to Carolingian art, to the ivory carvings of the age of
Henry IL, to the works at Freiberg and Wechselburg, or to the
noble Gothic sculptures of Rheims. It is true that this study of
ancient models led to a distinct improvement, and, in a certain
sense, to a re-birth of classic art. But that individuality of the art-.
ist, which should be regarded as the cbif*" ^Hr*rfar'Air 0f f^" v."-
naissancgjjs wholly Jacking. Local traits and the character of the
age predominate, in the school of Pisa, over the personal equation
of its chief exponents. As a sculptor Niccolo is to be considered a
master of the Romanic style, or of the transition between the Ro
manic and Gothic rather than of the Renaissance,— and the same
may be said of his Saxon contemporaries, the sculptors, of Freiberg
and Wechselburg. Giovanni Pisano, the son of Niccolo, appears, on *
the other hand, as a true representative of the Gothic. Notwith
standing his almost entire freedom from the influence of France|/|
he was inspired by the same spirit as were the artists of Rheims, —
the difference in the results being mainly due-ioJais classic training.
This Gothic tendency was maintained by the successors of Giovanni.
Andrea Pisano and Giotto, although these latter again gravitated
towards the antique. An anachronism, in point of character as well
as of time, is plainly felt in the attempt to class Arnolfo di Cam-
bio, to whom the Gothic architecture of Italy owes its greatest em
inence, with the sculptors of the fifteenth century, — or to consider
Giotto, the architect of the Gothic Campanile of Florence and the
greatest painter of mediaeval Italy, as an artist of the Renaissance,
on account of the classic tendencies of his sculpture.
The case was similar with painting. In the period of the great
est development of Gothic architecture, France cultivated chiefly

XXX INTRODUCTION.
two branches^ illumination and painting upon glass. Germany fol
lowed this example, attaining great perfection in stained glass, and
adopting new methods in miniature painting. The decorative ten
dencies of French miniatures and their brilliant coloring, — of but
little truth to nature, and evidently an imitation of the effect of
transparencies, — did not obtain on the east of the Rhine. The pen
drawings of Germany followed that method of illustration which
afterwards led to the all-important wood-cut and copper engraving.
In Brabant and Flanders, on the other hand, French miniature
painting gradually resulted in the development of panel painting, —
the first great works of which, in the Netherlands, are referable to
the beginning of the fifteenth century. This art was as little re
lated to the Renaissance as was the sculpture of the Pisan school.
The painting of Flanders and Brabant is to be regarded as the per
fected outcome of mediaeval conceptions and methods rather than
as the beginning of the new period. It also bears the stamp of
organized schools and of local peculiarities, — not of the ability and
personality of individuals. Hence the attempt to determine the
artists of the many unsigned pictures of this period can never be
altogether successful. Moreover, in the age of Jan van Eyck and
Rogier, architecture was still purely Gothic, and, indeed, all civiliza
tion was mediaeval. In the school of Cologne, as in those of Schon-
gauer, Zeitblom, and Wolgemut, — all of which were in some meas
ure dependent upon the painting of Brabant, — no higher degree of
emancipation is observable than in the ornamental types employed
by Gutenburg, whose invention was destined to so greatly further
the spread of the new ideas. The altar of Kaisheim, painted by
the older Holbein early in the sixteenth century, is as entirely
Gothic as the Sacrament - house of Adam Kraft in the Church of
St. Laurence at Nuremberg. In short, the influence of the Renais
sance did not make itself felt in Germany before the sixteenth cen
tury. Among its first representatives in that country, only Hans
Holbein the younger was trained in the new school, Peter Vischer
and Albert Diirer having founded their artistic methods directly
upon those of the Middle Ages.
The pre-eminence of Italy, after the first decades of the fifteenth
century, may be compared to that of France in the middle of the

INTRODUCTION. xxxi
twelfth ; it was, in artistic respects, more than fifty years in advance
of the rest of Europe. Indications of this improvement are indeed
evident before the advent of the Quatrocento, although at the be
ginning of that century the art of Italy was still entirely Gothic.
The greatest Gothic painter of Italy, Giotto, and the greatest sculp
tor, Giovanni Pisano, were followed by a generation of mediaeval
artists. Masolino and Fiesole were also representatives of the Mid
dle Ages, the latter, especially, being truly Gothic in the conception
and form of his work. Gothic traditions were not altogether dis
continued until the age of the architect Brunellesco, — of the paint
ers Masaccio and Lippi, — and of the sculptors Ghiberti, Donatello,
and Robbia.
The scope and arrangement of the present volume have been
adapted to this view of the historical advance of Mediaeval Art. A
glance at the Table of Contents will show the logical sequence
which it has been the endeavor of the author to follow. The hope
is entertained that in this regard an improvement has been made
upon earlier histories of art. If the reader find the arrangement to
be simple and natural, the purpose of the author will have been at
tained : the works of his predecessors, following other systems, have
seemed to him to lack these qualities. Should, however, this plan
be found disadvantageous and defective, the chief claim of the book
upon the attention of scholars will be lost. The value of such a
history cannot depend upon details. An extended description of
the various monuments was hence, within the limits of a single vol
ume, as undesirable as it was impossible. For similar reasons, a
citation of the hundreds of monographs could not be attempted.
Many of these relate solely to works of art to which, in a general
history, but few words can be devoted. In the present case, there
fore, the value of such references would not justify the loss of space
which they must occasion. It has been the great desire of the
author to present a history of artistic evolution more logical and
more consequential than those with which he was acquainted. If
he has succeeded in this, he may trust that the book will prove of
value to those readers whose desire it is to obtain a general view
of the artistic development of the Middle Ages.

Fig. i. — The Mythrseum under S. Clemente in Rome.

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE
ARCHITECTURE.
CHRISTIAN communities, in various parts of the Roman Em
pire, had attained a certain degree of organization as early as
the epoch of the three Flavian emperors — Vespasian, Titus, and
Domitian. In like manner the first activity in Christian art dates
back to the time when the prophesied destruction of Jerusalem
was fulfilled : to a period when antique Roman art was still at the
height of its development, maintaining a perfection which it had
reached hardly a century previous — that is to say, shortly before
the commencement of our era.
One might be inclined to suppose that the earliest artistic pro
ductions of the Christians, aside from the difference of the subjects
represented, would have shared the generally high standard of the
work of the first century, and would have been distinguished, above
the mass of later creations, equally with the Pagan monuments dat
ing from the time of Hadrian and Antoninus. This, however, was
not the case. Architecture, chief of Roman arts, had fallen into
almost entire neglect ; and there was little furtherance of sculpture
and painting, perhaps because of the Jewish anathema still resting
upon graven images. The Christian religion, at first, rarely received
I

2 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
its recruits from the classes of the rich and the aristocratic ; far the
greater number came from the obscure multitudes of those that
labored and were heavy laden. The funeral rites of these humble
people were without ostentation; their simple monuments were
the work of common artisans or of untrained hands, and could not
be remotely compared to the imposing constructions of imperial
Rome, as exhibited in the mausoleums of the emperors, or even in
such fine private tombs as those bordering the Appian Way. In
deed they were far from wishing to imitate such examples. This
was not alone due to the extreme poverty and ,the despised posi
tion of the Christians, who, for a long time, were considered only
as the lowest sect of the Jews, nor to their contempt for display;
they were forced by repeated persecutions to avoid all pretension
which might easily have excited their enemies to destroy even the
monuments of the dead.
Yet the common opinion, that disturbance of the graves accom
panied every interference with the Christians, and was the cause of
their peculiar choice of burial-places, is not well founded. The im
portant researches of the brothers De Rossi * have decided beyond
a doubt that the Christian cemeteries, which often occupied sites
previously used for interment, though newly adapted to the pecul
iar requirements of the sect, were generally situated upon tracts
bought for this use and officially surveyed, thus of course being
well known to the temporal authorities. This publicity brought
no danger, for the Roman law gave protection to the dead without
distinction of person or religious belief. The subterranean cham
bers and passages could thus be peacefully and regularly developed,
without attempt at secrecy ; indeed the portals or entrances to the
staircases could not well be hidden. But when the Christians, in
times of fanatical persecution, extended their burrowings beyond
the boundaries assigned to them, united various groups of subter
ranean tombs, or deviated from the natural arrangement of the
* G. B. de Rossi : Roma sotterranea cristiana descritta ed illustrata. Roma, 1864-
1867. The same, Bulletino di archeologia cristiana. Roma, 1863 sq. Compare also :
F. X. Kraus, Roma sotterranea. Die romischen Katakomben. 2d Edition. Freiburg i.
B. 1879. — Theoph. Roller, Les Catacombes de Rome. Paris, 1879, 1881. — Vict. Schultze,
Die Katakomben. Die altchristlichen Grabstatten, ihre Geschichte und ihre Monumente.
Leipzig, 1882.

THE CATACOMBS. 3
spaces so as to produce within a square area a labyrinthic confu
sion of corridors and niches, or when they covered with earth the
entrances from above ground, replacing them by secret shafts, these
alterations had nothing to do with the original architectural plan
or with the artistic accessaries, only becoming necessary in times
when the violence of persecution trespassed upon the public regu
lations and set at naught the protection afforded by the State to
every place of burial. The catacombs have derived their name
from the cemetery of S. Sebastiano, which was called Ad Catacum-
bas by a chronographer writing as early as A. D. 354, this appella
tion having been extended to all subterranean galleries used by the
Christians for interment. From the earliest times it was the cus
tom of the sect to inhume, not to burn, the bodies of their dead,
and this custom was of decisive influence in determining the ar
rangement of their sepulchres. Burial in roughly-built vaults was,
it is true, not entirely excluded ; this method, which was general in
heathen Rome, being originally followed by the Christians. But
their chambers for this purpose were never built above ground.
The catacombs thus appear, in some measure, as a reminiscence
of the grotto tombs prevalent not only in the native country of
Christianity, but also among the Romans of the Republican era,
after the practice of burning the bodies had been given up, — as for
instance in the so-called tomb of the Scipios. Even in those ear
lier times it often occurred that large families could not be accom
modated in one chamber, and it had been found necessary to gain
more room by arranging lateral passages, with or without larger
recesses. In the cemeteries of the united and rapidly increasing
community of Christians such an extension of the place of burial
was even more requisite. They were obliged to crowd the corri
dors and chambers closely together, to double and treble their
capacity by excavating more deeply, and to extend the entire area,
until, by the uniting of sepulchres which had previously been iso
lated, an extensive necropolis was formed.
It is scarcely possible to give an adequate account of the his
torical development of the catacombs. The oldest cemeteries of
this kind have been but insufficiently explored ; their original ar
rangement has been rendered uncertain by extensive alterations,

4 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
and they have often been choked with debris, or entirely destroyed.
The cemetery of the Vatican is quite lost for the purposes of com
parison, by reason of the changes brought about through the build
ing of St. Peter's. Of the other cemeteries, dating back to the
apostolic age : those of Lucina, or Comodilla, near St. Paul's, on
the Via Ostiensis ; of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria Nova ; of Ostri-
anum, or Fontis S. Petri, between Via Salaria and Nomentana ; and
of Domitilla, on the Via Ardeatina, — only the last has been system
atically investigated, and this but in part. We find in them little
that is peculiarly Christian. They represent, it is true, the first
patriarchal government of the Christian congregations, by main
taining the character of family burial-places, but they show no
traces of that community of sepulchre which in course of time
became general. Christian land-owners took advantage of the Ro
man law, which permitted the burial even of executed criminals
upon private tracts situated without the city, as is proved by the
fact that the_earlieat martyrs_ jDf_Uie_C.hurch_w.ere interred on the
Appian^ Way, the Via Ostiensis, and -the_Via Aurelia. The tombs
found at these places were constructed of masonry, instead of being
merely excavated in the tufa formation ; they have niches for sar
cophagi, stuccoed architectural ornaments which but rarely appear
after the third century, frescoes of a classical style, inscriptions
with but slight traces of the Christian belief, and, finally, are with
out those small resting-places for the bodies, in the walls of the
chambers and passages, which afterwards appear. All these pe
culiarities distinguish the apostolic cemeteries from the later Chris
tian places of interment. The typical form of the catacomb first
appears completely determined in the third century, notably in the
plan of that of CaJixius, although the earlier cemeteries — of Prae-
textus, on the Appian Way, and of Maximus and Jordani, on~thA
Via Salaria— dating to the second century, may have decided many
features of the arrangement. We limit our present consideration,
therefore, to the former representative necropolis, with its various
extensions, especially as_ this complex alone has been thoroughly
examined and jpublished.
The Catacomb of Calixtus had its origin without doubt in a
family burial-ground of considerable extent which was comprised

CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS.

5

among the possessions of the Cmcilia_gens, and in which members
of the Cornelia gens and the Pomponia gens had, as relatives, some
right. Before the Christian necropolis was laid out upon the site,
the whole area must have been divided into several small ceme
teries. The most important of these, before the Christian era, was
probably that adjoining the Appian Way, and distinguished by a
mausoleum of some eminence. This tract was not at first acquired
by the Church. The dependents of the Roman families before

15 20 25 .[tr.

Fig. 2. — Plan of the Catacomb of Calixtus.
a. Original excavation, b. Later extension.
mentioned appear to have been buried at a greater distance from
the high-road. The Christian remains here discovered, which date
to the first century, are few in number. From various stamps upon
bricks, inscriptions and other evidences, it is plain that in the time
of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, before A.D. 177, the tract ad
joining the Appian Way (the Coemeterium 'Lucinae) had become
of less importance than the burial-grounds situated south of the
Via Appia Ardeatina, which were afterwards united, and formed
the Catacomb of Calixtus. According to the convincing deductions

6 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
iof G. B. de Rossi, this was the age when the most celebrated Chris-
| tian representative of the original proprietors, St. Cecilia, suffered
martyrdom. To this epoch are to be ascribed the six small cham
bers and the extended corridors approached by two parallel stair
cases, in which spaces the owners, after having been converted,
buried not only the members of their own families, but others of
the Christian faith. {Fig. 2, a.)
The latter usage, increasing more and more, led ultimately to
the formal grant of the tract to the Church. This transfer was
probably made on the occasion of a decree concerning communal
sepulchres, promulgated by the Emperor Septimius Severus in the
; year 197. It is in this business that the Christian Church first
appears as a corporative body, in the legal sense of the word.
When Zephyrinus assumed the papacy, in the year in which this
edict was promulgated, he named Calixtus, who afterwards also
became pope, as his deacon, and appointed him supervisor of these
cemeteries, declaring them to be under the direct administration
of the Church — a control which had not been thought of before,
when the private burial-places had only occasionally, and as a
favor, been made accessible to the Christians. This centralization
was further confirmed by the papal founder giving up the right to
be buried by the side of St. Peter in the vault of the Vatican, — a
privilege which he enjoyed as head of the Church, — and ordering
his body to be interred in the new Christian necropolis. This ex
ample was followed during the succeeding century by nearly all
the popes. A kind of open secret was, however, still maintained
in regard to the cemetery, which prevented its being called by any
term expressing the true importance of the site. Sometimes it was
designated by the name of the founder, Zephyrinus, sometimes by
,' that of the patroness, St._Cecilia, and more commonly still by that
¦jof the first supervisor, Calixtus. It is not possible to decide with
absolute certainty what changes were effected in the chambers of
this catacomb upon its coming under the jurisdiction of the
Church ; but it is probable that, even during the first years, several
new spaces were added to those already opening from the northern
corridor, that passages laid out in the plan of the Caecilian com
plex were excavated, and that several of those existing were con-

CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS. 7
siderably enlarged. (Fig. 2, b.) An entirely new story upon a lower
level was projected, and this extension was, in fact, commenced by
providing a broad and deep staircase. But it was soon found that
the lower stratum of earth differed from that previously worked in,
and lacked the necessary solidity for tunnellings of this kind ; the
scheme was therefore relinquished. It is particularly unfortunate
that we are not able to determine in what relation the chief vault
of the necropolis, namely the burial chamber of the popes, stood to
the cemetery as it was before the time of Calixtus. This chamber

Fig. 3. — Third Crypt of the Northern Passage in the Catacomb of Calixtus. First Period.
may well have existed under the Caecilians — it may even have been
the tomb of St. Cecilia herself, as the remains of her body, when
discovered in the ninth century, were not lying in their original
position, but in a tomb which could not have been one of those
earliest excavated. It is at least certain that, in the course of time,
the Papal Vault was subjected to many changes. In form and
decoration it may be assumed to have resembled at first the cham
ber opposite to it, which is called, from the painting upon the ceil
ing, that of Orpheus; but we can only judge of the vault from the
remains of the restoration, made in the time of Pope Damasus
(A.D. 366-384), in which state it is represented by Fig. 4.

8 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
The general plan of the. Catacomb of Calixtus (Fig. 2) is of ex
treme simplicity. The chief corridors form an oblong comprising
nearly the whole area, and are connected by several parallel pas
sages running transversely. The resting-places for the dead (loculi)
appear in all spaces, being cut into the tufa walls in several tiers,
and of such dimensions that each is capable of receiving one body
lying in the direction of the passage. These tombs were finally
closed by a slab of stone, or walled up with bricks. Niches shaped

Fig. 4.— Papal Vault in the Catacomb of Calixtus.
a. Present condition. .. Restored view.
like an arch (arcosolia) do not at first appear, the ceilings being
either horizontal or only slightly curved. (Fig. 5.) The small,
almost cubical chambers (cryptae or cubicula), are fewer in number
than the corridors; their ceilings are commonly curved, and but
rarely provided with openings for light and air (luminaria). These
chambers contained sarcophagi (mensae) reserved for eminent per
sonages ; being covered with large slabs of marble, the coffers were
frequently used as altar- tables. Masonry of brick was employed

CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS. 9
when found necessary, and all the walls were thinly covered with
stucco, whitewashed and roughly painted.
The persecutions with which the third century began, disturbed
for the first time the regular development of the plan. At that
period seem to have been formed those hidden labyrinthic galleries
which led from the side farthest from the street to the neighbor
ing sand-pits, in order that, in case of surprise, an escape might be
provided, and that the believers, when watched by informers, might
find unobserved entrance by means of ladders and ropes. As in
general the persecutions were directed against the congregations
rather than against the cemeteries, the extension of the latter was
carried regularly forward. Indeed, from the death of Septimius

Ai^l^A^.

"wmnnipWlf^*"'
Fig. 5. — Forms of Tombs in the Catacombs.
a. Loculus. b. Arcosolium.

Severus, in the year 211, to the beginning of the persecution under
Decius, in 250, the work was pursued with great diligence, and but
rarely interrupted.
After the founder of the necropolis, Pope Zephyrinus, had
been interred there, in the year 218, even the bodies of the
chief officers of the Church who had died in exile were permitted
to be publicly brought, with funeral rites, and laid in the Papal
Vault. Pope Fabianus connected the oldest enclosure of the
Cemetery of Calixtus with a second tract, situated upon the other
side of the Via Appia Ardeatina, which had likewise belonged to
the Caecilian_family ; and, probably in 249, with still a third ad
joining complex, which appears to have been given to the Church
by Anatolia, daughter of the Consul Aemilianus, who died in that
year. This last catacomb received, in later times, the name of St.

IO

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

Eusebius. (Alexander Severus had even permitted assemblages of
the Christians .in the city itself, and under so tolerant a rule the
cemeteries of course remained undisturbed. Philippus Arabs was
still more favorably inclined towards the sect, and in his time per
mission was granted to erect buildings above the burial-grounds,
such as the cella with the three apses, which will be referred to
below. The experience of years had fundamentally changed the plan of
excavation. In proportion as the corridors diminished, the crypts
increased, and generally bordered both sides of the galleries. In
stead of the simple mensae (Fig. 5), arched niches were introduced
for distinguished individuals. In order that the chambers might be

Fig. 6. — Plan of a Crypt in the Coemeterium ad septem Columbas.
better ventilated, efforts were made to gain light and air through
shafts, which openings served also for carrying away the displaced
earth. The third cemetery, that of St. Eusebius, displays for the
first time a successful arrangement of two stories. It was particu
larly desirable to provide larger spaces for the accommodation of as
semblages, and this was effected chiefly through the combination of
several chambers, although these never attained, in the Necropolis
of Calixtus, the extent of the halls in the Catacomb of S. Agnese,
and in the Coemeterium ad septem Columbas on the Salita del
Cocomero (Fig. 6).

THE CATACOMBS. II
The bloody persecution under Decius, in the year 250, seems
not to have molested the catacombs as places of burial, and the
persecution of Valerian, A.D. 257-258, was directed solely against
the assembling of congregations. Pope Sixtus II. , in the year 258,
while administering the service in the Cemetery of Pretextatus,
amid numerous believers, was seized and beheaded before the altarJ
yet no objection was made to the burial of his body in the Papal
Vault of the Cemetery of Calixtus. It is true that at this period
the Christians destroyed the staircases to the oldest of these cata
combs, only leaving open the secret entrances through the sand
pits; but this seems to have been done in a season of panic which
quickly passed, and, from the time of Gallienus until towards the
close of the reign of Diocletian, the Christians continued in undis
turbed peace to bury their popes in the Papal Vault, then called
after the martyr, Pope Sixtus. They also extended the necropolis
itself beyond the boundaries of the three tracts before mentioned,
to the Cemetery of S. Soteridis, situated at the west, thus doubling
the area enclosed.
Under Diocletian and Maxentius (A.D. 303-306) the danger of
confiscation threatened that part of the cemeteries distinguished by
greater age and containing the Papal Vault, this interference being
proposed with the view of attacking the ecclesiastical community at
its greatest stronghold. The Christians, affrighted by the impending
profanation of the sacred resting-places of their martyrs, could only
protect them by hastily covering the catacombs and passages with
earth. Much was thus preserved for the excavations of modern
times. Still it is to be taken into consideration in this regard, that
the vestiges now discovered have frequently been disarranged by
the burrowings which, after the cessation of the persecutions, had
been extended regardless of the boundaries of the original plan.
The debris with which the catacombs had been filled during the
persecutions under Diocletian was partially removed at the time
when Pope Damasus (A.D. 366-384) restored the chief crypt, which
he provided with a new approach, and, in great measure, with new
surroundings. This was long after the Christians had been formally
permitted to enter into possession of their confiscated property.
In later ages the burial-places of the sect increased more and more,

12 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
and after the beginning of the fifth century were built almost ex
clusively above ground. The catacombs continued to be peculiarly
venerated, until the devastation of the Longobards under Aistulf
(A.D. 755) rendered it desirable to remove the remains of the popes
and martyrs into the basilicas of the city for safe -keeping. This
was accomplished under Paschalis I., who, in 817, transported the
„ bones from the Papal Vault, as well as the coffin of St. Cecilia, still
'intact at that time, from the ruined cemetery to the churches of
St. Praxedes and St. Cecilia; while the burial-grounds outside of the
walls, with exception of the Catacomb of Domitilla, remained, in
part at least, open and known. The chief necropolis, neglected, fell

Fig. 7. — Section of a Crypt in the Catacomb of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus.

into decay after this time, and has been re-opened and examined for
the first time within our own century. The Papal Vault was dis
covered in 1854.
The form of the other cemeteries of Rome, dating from the
second and third centuries of our era, resembles in the main that
of the Necropolis of Calixtus (Fig. 7). The number, the extent,
and the multitude of tombs contained in these cemeteries is aston
ishing. The earth underneath even the most distant suburbs of
Rome was honey-combed with corridors and chambers. They are
found upon nearly all the high-roads leading from the city. G. B.

THE CATACOMBS. 1 3
de Rossi has explored not less than twenty-six of the larger cata
combs, dating from the time of the persecutions, several of which
complexes consist of united groups of more primitive places of
burial. A list of these is here adjoined, giving the names in use
before the reign of Constantine, with the later appellations in pa
rentheses: on the Via Appia, the Coemeteria Calixti, Praetextati, and
ad Catacumbas (S. Sebastiani) ; on the Via Ardeatina, the Coemeteria
Domitillse (S. S. Petronillae, Nerei, et Achillei) and Basilei (S. S.
Marci et Marcelliani) ; on the Via Ostiensis, the Coemeterium Como-
dillae (S. S. Felicis et Adaucti) ; on the Via Portuensis, the Coeme
terium Pontiani ad ursum pileatum (S. S. Anastasii et Innocentii);
on the Via Aurelia, the Coemeteria (S. P-ancratii) Lucinae (S. S. Pro-
cessi et Martiniani) and Calepodii (S. Calixti in Via Aurelia); on the
Via Flaminia, the Coemeterium (S. Vajentini) ; somewhat aside from
this latter street the Coemeterium ad septem Columbas (ad caput
S. Joannis) ; on the Via Salaria vetus, the Coemeterium Basilae (S.
Hermetis and S. Pamphyli); on the Via Salaria nova, the Coemeteria .
Maximi (S. Felicitatis), (S. Saturnini), Jordanorum (S. Alexandri),
and Priscillae (S- S. Silvestri et Marcelli) ; on the Via Nomentana,
the Coemeterium Ostrianum (Fontis S. Petri) ; on the Via Tibur-
tina, the Coemeteria (S. Hippolyti) and Cyriacae (S. Laurentii), and
(S. Castuli) ; on the Via Latina, the Coemeteria (S. Gordiani), (S. Ter-
tulliani), and Aproniani (S. Eugeniae). -
It may be assumed that similar catacombs existed in all those
larger cities where Christian congregations were formed, in so far
as the character of the earth would permit of such excavations.
Only a few of these, however, have- become known. Next in im
portance to those of Rome ranks that of St. Januarius in Naples,
the chief portal of which is so imposing that it hardly appears to
have been constructed for the original cemetery, but rather to have
been erected in later times, as a monumental entrance for the net
work of combined corridors and chambers. In the catacombs of Syra
cuse is a baptismal crypt in use at the present day. The Cemetery
of Alexandria, discovered a few decades ago, shows a well-propor
tioned arrangement of cubical chambers, and the peculiarity of a
different system of niches, which, instead of being excavated with
their axes parallel to the passages, are sunk transversely. (Fig. 8.)

H

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

As the entrance buildings of the Catacomb of Calixtus were, for
the most part, destroyed as early as the time of the persecutions, it
is difficult to say what may have been their architectural charac
teristics. The portal near the Catacomb of Domitilla, having be
longed to a very early Christian tomb, certainly cannot be con
sidered as a type. A covered chamber, perhaps after the style of
the smaller columbaria, appears to have protected the staircase,
when this did not proceed from within some family mausoleum of

.-••¦ : A; -\ E E/ v

IFTi
mil m

itlltllAAAAA>'.*A^lM^

Fig. 8. — Section and Plan of Part of the Catacombs of Alexandria.

masonry antedating the Christian era. We must distinguish be
tween these entrances and the oratories (called also Memories, Mar-
tyria, or Confessiones), which seem to have been erected to mark
above ground the central points of the areas of the various ceme
teries. The oratory, consecrated afterwards to St. Sixtus and Sti
Cecilia, standing over the second tract of the Catacomb of Calixtusf
dates from the period before the persecution of Decius, the pon
tificate of Fabianus, A. D. 250. Others, partially preserved, like that
of S. Soteridis, situated not far from the preceding, and a similar

ORATORIES.

15

building near the Basilica of Symphorosa, nine miles from Rome,
on the Via Tiburtina, seem to be of but little later date. (Figs. 9
and 11.) The ground -plans are oblong, with semicircular enlarge
ments on three sides, the fourth having formed the entrance. Al
though these oratories served the double purpose of the larger
crypts, which were both monumental tombs and places of worship,
it still appears that their form is derived les.s from the plan of the
round -topped arches above the niches for the bodies than from the
direct prototypes offered by antique mausoleums, such as are found
on the Via Appia. (Comp. Canina, Via Appia, tv. 20.)
These oratories and the crypts of the catacombs could not suffice
for the considerable spaces required by Christian ceremonies. Other

Fig. 9A. — Antique Mauso
leum on the Appian Way.

Fig. 9B. — Oratory of
SS. Sixti et Cseciliae.

Fig. 9c. — Oratory of
S. Soteridis.

halls of assemblage existed from the earliest times in those cities
where Christian communities had been formed, these being gen
erally provided by the dwellings of the more wealthy converts.*

* J. G. Gutensohn und J. M. Knapp, Denkmale der christlichen Religion, oder Samm-
lung der altesten christlichen Kirchen oder Basiliken Roms vom 4. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert.
(Letter-press by Ch. C. J. Bunsen.) Munchen, 1822-1827. — L. Canina, Ricerche sull' archi-
tettura pi_. propria dei tempi cristiani. Roma, 1846. — A. Chr. A. Zestermann, Die an-
tiken und die christlichen Basiliken. Leipzig, 1847. — F. v. Quast, Ueber Form, Einrichtung
und Ausschmilckung der altesten christlichen Kirche. Berlin, 1853. — J. A. Messmer, Ueber
den Ursprung, die Entwickelung und Bedeutung der Basilika in der christlichen Baukunst.
1854. — The same, Ueber den Ursprung der christlichen Basilika, in Quast and Otte's Zeit-
schrift filr christliche Archaologie und Kunst. II. 1859. — H. Hiibsch, Die altchristlichen
Kirchen nach den Baudenkmalen und alteren Beschreibungen. Karlsruhe, 1858. — W.
Weingartner, Ursprung und Entwickelung des christlichen Kirchengebaudes. Leipzig,
1858. — O. Mothes, Die Basilikenform bei den Christen der ersten Jahrhunderte. Leipzig,

l6 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
The rite of the Last Supper had been inaugurated in the triclinium
of a private house, and the followers of Christ could have no objec
tion to holding their religious exercises in rooms of this kind. After
the Ascension the Apostles had assembled in an " upper chamber,"
and it was thus that the disciples met in later times— not only for
their agapse, or love-feasts, but for every kind of devotional service.
/This custom is particularly mentioned as having maintained in
! Ephesus, and the traditions of gatherings in the houses of Pudens,
i Cecilia, Eutropia, Lucina, Anastasia, and others prove beyond a
doubt that in Rome some chambers, if not the dining-rooms, of
private dwellings were similarly employed. Such halls acquired
by this usage a certain consecration, and they seem,\not uncom
monly, to have been set apart entirely for religious purposes, being
more and more adapted to their ecclesiastical character by altera
tions both of plan and of decoration. Of this kind were those
rooms the remains of which were discovered in the eighteenth
century near S. Prisca, in the House of Pudens, and quite recently
(in 1878) on the Monte della Giustizia, not far from the Baths of
Diocletian. The use of these buildings for religious services may
at times have been interrupted, as G. B. de Rossi (Bullet, christ.
1870, 153) assumes to have been the case with the structure, sim
ilar to a triclinium, under the primitive Basilica of S. Clemente.
Even in the Apostolic age this room had served for Christian
gatherings ; yet at the time of the persecutions it was con
fiscated, transformed into a chapel of Mithras, and not given
back to the Christians until the reign of Constantine the Great.
(Fig 1.)
The Christian congregations increased so rapidly that even the
largest dining-rooms no longer sufficed to accommodate them ; they
thus found it necessary to occupy the most spacious chambers pro
vided by the Roman dwelling. These were the private basilicas,
or ceremonial and judgment halls. The credit of having directed
1865. II. Edition, 1869. — J. P. Richter, Der Ursprung der abendlandischen Kirchenge-
baude. Wien, 1878. — H. Holtzinger, Die romische Privatbasilika. Repertorium fur Kunst-
wissenschaft, Vol. V. Berlin und Stuttgart, 1882. — G. Dehio, Die Genesis der christlichen
Basilika. Sitzungsberichte der hist. CI. der kgl. bayr. Akad. der Wissenschaften. Mtln-
chen, 1883.

PRIVATE BASILICAS. 1 7
the attention of investigators to this prototype is due to J. A.
Messmer. The form of the private basilica in the houses of the
Roman aristocracy has been described in the History of Ancient
Art.* It was there . shown that they differed essentially from the
original type of the forensic basilica. The chief differences are, first,
that the colonnades of the interior did not extend entirely around the
central oblong, but, after the manner of the hyperoon in the larger
Hellenic temples, were restricted to the two long sides; and, second,
that the nave was higher than the side aisles. Both these pecul
iarities resulted from the original hall having been enclosed by
other rooms of the Roman dwelling. The elevation of the nave
became necessary because, in a space thus surrounded, windows
could not be opened through outer walls, as had been the case in
the free-standing, forensic basilicas ; .and if the light were not to be
admitted through an aperture in roof and ceiling,, an arrangement
of windows was only possible by thus increasing the height of the
nave. Such a construction could, in its turn, only be carried out
by giving up the end galleries: it was thus alone that the great
weight and thrust of the clerestory, with its independent roof and
ceiling, could be supported. The end walls might then be strength
ened, and the columns in great measure relieved of their burden.
This disposition of side aisles, differing from the original type of
the public Roman basilica, as displayed in the Basilica Porcia on
the Forum Romanum, is noticeable in the Villa of the Quinct-il-
ians, on the Appian Way, according to the plans given by Canina.
(Fig. 10.) As the present writer predicted in an earlier work, the
same feature has since been found in the palace basilica of the
Domus Flavia upon the Palatine, mentioned by Plutarch (Popl. 15).
It is evident from various sources that the basilicas of private
houses were used as places of assemblage by Christian communities
before the time of Constantine. The pseudo-Clementine Recogni-
tiones, which certainly date from the first half of the third century,
relate that one Theophilus, a rich citizen of Antioch, gave the great
basilica of his house to the Christians as a hall for gatherings.
* " History of Ancient Art," by Dr. Franz von Reber. Revised by the author ; trans
lated and augmented by Joseph Thacher Clarke. Harper & Brothers, New York.
2

1 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
Similar accounts have been handed down by Hieronymus (Ep. ad
Ocean.) concerning the basilica in the Palace of the Lateran, which
was famous even as early as the first century of our era; and also
by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxvii. 3), who speaks of the Basilica
Sicinini— which in later ages appears to have become the Basilica
Liberiana (S. Maria Maggiore)— having been used by the Christians.
Other early Christian churches may, with reasonable probability, be
considered to have been remodelled from the great halls of Roman
dwellings, although it cannot be directly proved that these were at
any time employed originally as private basilicas. Such is the Ba-

Fig. 10. — Antique Palace Basilicas.
». Plan of the Basilica of the Domus Flavia on the Palatine. _ . Plan of the Basilica in the Villa of the
Quinctilians on the Appian Way.
silica Pudensiana, near S. Maria, in Trastevere, which, if its first ar
rangement for this purpose really dates back to the year 224, is as
old. as A. D. 145. Such is also the Basilica of Junius Bassus, after
wards known as that of S. Andrea,. in Catabarbara, which preserved,
even until the sixteenth century, a decoration of the walls ante
dating Christian. times, (Fig. 46^ And, finally, such is the Basilica
Sessoriana.(S. Croce, in Gerusalemme), which was part of a palace
of Cbnstantine, consecrated . as a church in the year 330, it is said
at the instance of St. Helena. Hiibsch's examination of this latter
building, as it at present appears after many alterations, has made
it probable . that two-storied side aisles were originally under one

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN BASILICAS. 1 9
roof, with a nave of equal height. More recent investigators in
the field of Christian archaeology have recognized private basilicas,
adapted to the Christian ceremonial, in several churches of Africa.
Halls of assemblage such as these could hardly have been kept
quite secret ; and the complaint (Minucius, c. viii. x. xxxii.) that the
Christians had no public places of worship, and carried on their de
votions in hidden corners, can certainly not be applied, in a literal
sense, to the entire epoch before Constantine. A house for Chris
tian meetings is mentioned as existing at Edessa as early as the
year 202. A passage of Lampridius (Vita Alex. Sev. xlix.) must
certainly be considered to refer to some place of worship outside
of a private building, he stating that when the Christians contended
with the tavern-keepers for a locus publicus, the Emperor Alexander
Severus (222-235) decided "it to be better that the place should
be used for the worship of God, in whatsoever manner, than for
carousing." The edict of A. D. 259, whereby Gallienus restored to
the Christians those cemeteries and consecrated rooms which had
been taken away from them during the persecution under Decius
(250-253), speaks for the existence of independent churches in the
cities. And the observation of Optatus Milevitanus (de Schism.
Donat. ii.) — that there were in Rome, soon after the persecution
of Decius, more than forty basilicas — can hardly be taken to refer
merely to the chapels of cemeteries, or to the oratories of private
houses. It is quite natural, and is moreover susceptible of proof,
that the places of Christian worship were greatly increased in
number throughout the entire Roman empire during the freedom
from persecution which was enjoyed from the reign of Decius un
til that of Diocletian. But it is not less certain that very few
of the churches, whose existence had at that time become gen
erally known, escaped destruction during the persecution under
Diocletian, A. D. 302. Hence we are acquainted with no Chris
tian basilica built for purposes of worship before the age of Con
stantine. The Christian communities do not at first appear to have been
unreasonably particular as to the nature of the places where they
held their assemblages. They employed without distinction the
larger rooms of the Roman dwelling, beginning, as before said,

20 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
with the triclinium inaugurated by the Last Supper, but Soon tak
ing advantage of the greater size and more convenient arrangement
of the private basilicas, whose name as well as whose form became
typical for Christian houses of worship. The word basilica was
used synonymously with church shortly before the time of Con
stantine, appearing at first in Africa, instead of the earlier designa
tions: proseukterion, kyriakon, dominicum, ecclesia, and conventicu-
lum. It is true that the author of the " Itinerarium Burdigalense,"
A.D. 330, thought it necessary to explain the name of the Constan
tine Basilica at Jerusalem. But Constantine himself, in his letter
to Bishop Macarius of that city, uses the word without further
ado ; and it also appears, in 326, in the dedicatory inscription of
the church at Castellum Tingitanum. Optatus Milevitanus, writing
towards the end of the fourth century, employs the term to desig
nate all places of worship existing before the time of Diocletian,
without distinction as to form. In the forensic basilica only the
name had remained, while the hall itself had been so freely devel
oped that at last scarcely a trace of the original type is to be rec
ognized, as for instance in the Basilica of Maxentius. The Chris
tian basilica, on the other hand, retained not only the name but
also the characteristic arrangement of the private basilica, even at
a time when the church had long outgrown the domestic privacy
in which the design had originated.
It is well known that the public and victorious development of
the Christian Church dates from the year 312, when Constantine
put an end to all persecutions by the battle of Saxa Rubra. The
previous destruction of sacred edifices only served to increase the
architectural activity of the following epoch. The persecutions of
Diocletian were thus, in several ways, a direct advantage, and freed
the ecclesiastical construction from many cramping reminiscences.
The building of churches was carried on with such energy that, in
a few years, private places of assemblage became unnecessary. The
holding of divine service in the houses of the faithful was dis
countenanced by the Council of Laodicea, in the year 328. It thus
came about that churches only continued in their former private
places when it was possible to free them entirely from the sur
rounding dwelling-rooms, as was the case in S. Andrea Catabarbara,

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN BASILICAS.

21

S. Pudenziana, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, S. Giovanni in Laterano,
and S. Maria Maggiore. This concentration of communities made
a multiplication of the church buildings unnecessary, notwithstand
ing the great increase of the congregations ; in fact, it was possible
to supply the twenty-five parochial districts into which Rome was
divided by Pope Marcellus (308-3 10) with smaller basilicas already
existing. All these churches were of the same general form, those
which were erected in place of the cemetery chapels also displaying
the basilical plan.
As the type appears fully determined, even in the structures
erected by Constantine, it is not possible to recognize a regular
development of the Christian basilica by considering the edifices
in chronological sequence. The date of some of these primitive
churches is not known, and others have been subjected to altera-

i»'WttMI1W'WlW|l'«w»»llllll«|M!ai'iCl 'milium

^feeaSBBnw uiniifiirf mi mMUMllli'HllliiiimuHn'ii ¦ 1 : 1 1 1 1.^ 1 i . ¦ 1 1 . 1 u : 1 1 1 ¦ 1 ; i--i : iiTITi iiii i m l:"llll^W^,l,fB,IllWWH, 11.111111 I
TIVOLI <  ViaTiblirtino.  =>- ROMA
0 S 10 20 SoMtr.
Fig. 11. — Basilica of St. Symphorosa.

tions so extensive that their original disposition is no longer plain.
A certain clumsy simplicity, common to the unpretentious churches
of many centuries, cannot be taken as a criterion of age ; side by
side with such structures are often to be found magnificent and
imposing works, in which ecclesiastical architecture has attained a
relatively high degree of perfection. It would be natural to seek
for the original type in the basilicas of those cemeteries which were
early neglected and covered with debris, as for instance in the
Basilica of St. Symphorosa on the Via Tiburtina (Fig. 1 1), recently
excavated, in that of St. Generosa on the Via Portuensis, and of
St. Petronilla on the Via Ardeatina, the first two of which examples
have piers, the last columns, in the interior. But the peculiarities
of these buildings must rather be ascribed to the influence of earlier

22 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
edifices occupying their sites, to other local considerations, and to
a general poverty-stricken and hasty construction, than regarded as
definite indices of an architectural development. Among the idio
syncrasies thus explicable may be mentioned the appearance of an
apse upon the long side of the Basilica of St. Generosa, and the
trapezoidal plan of the body of the church in the Basilica of St.
Petronilla. Of the better known cemeterial basilicas near Rome
only the older part of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, with its two-storied
side aisles, and the general disposition of S. Agnese, are to be as
cribed to the first construction, so that these two churches are not,
in other respects, at least, important illustrations of primitive forms.
The larger basilicas of the city itself are thus the most noteworthy
landmarks of this phase of architectural history, and, unfortunately,
the more ancient of these, which were founded during the reign of
Constantine or soon after, have either been torn down and recon
structed, or otherwise totally changed in appearance. Such are S.
Pietro in Vaticano and S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Paolo fuori le
mura and S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, as well as the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity in Bethle
hem, the Basilica of Tyre, the Church of St. Irene in Constantinople,
and a few others. In order to complete the picture, we are hence
obliged to admit much later edifices to our consideration.
The early basilicas were commonly so oriented that the entrance
was upon the east side. A rectangular court, called the aithrion,
aula, mesaulion, or atrium, was built before them, the front of this
being formed by a portico : the vestibulum, or outer narthex. The
atrium itself was a peristyle of approximately square plan. In the
centre of the court thus surrounded by colonnades was a fountain,
known as the phiale or cantharus, which was used for washing, or at
least for wetting the hands before entering the sacred edifice. In
some few cases a baptistery was included in the atrium, as will be
explained later on. After the sixth century the enclosed space
was used as a burial-ground, and from this time was also known as
the paradisus — or as the hortus or cepotaphium, in reference to the
trees and bushes with which the grounds were planted, as is the
custom at the present day in our church-yards and cemeteries. In
its fundamental character the atrium is analogous to the outer

TYPICAL BASILICAS.

23

court of Solomon's Temple and to the Latin templum ; its form,
however, is certainly derived from the private basilica of the Ro
man dwelling, which was, in this respect also, the prototype of thg
early Christian church. It is the original atrium or peristyle of
the ancient house, the great antechamber of all the living rooms,
which, for ritualistic purposes, was freed with the basilica from the
surrounding complex. Few of the early basilicas now known are
provided with an atrium ; in Rome there is but a single example,
that of S. Clemente, and the superstructure of this was not built
until towards the close of the ninth century (872-882). (Fig. 13.)

Fig. 12. — Plan of the Original Church of St. Peter in Rome.

It may hence be assumed that, in Rome at least, this addition of
an atrium was exceptional ; it was generally found sufficient to
build before the front of the church a court (pronaos, propyld),
which extended across the entire width of the facade, or appeared
as a portico supported upon two or four columns. This court or
portico was known as the narthex. When to an atrium there was
added a transverse colonnade, before or inside the basilica, this was
called the inner narthex. Having entered the portal of the basilica
itself, the visitor found himself upon the small side of an oblong
space, the farther end of which was extended by an apse. In rare

24

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

cases there was only one nave, without columns, as at Rome in
S. S. Cosma e Damiano and in S. Balbina. The usual form of the
basilica was three-aisled, being divided by two rows of columns
extending along its length. The more magnificent edifices of this
class were often five -aisled, like St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome

Fig. 13. — Plan of S. Clemente in Rome.
(Figs. 12 and 14), and the churches of Constantine at Jerusalem
and Bethlehem. The number of aisles, however, was not always
determined by the size of the building: instance the grand Basilica
Liberiana (Maria Maggiore), in Rome, which has only three aisles,
while the small Basilica of St. Reparatus at Orleansville in Algiers,

Fig. 14. — Plan of S. Paolo fuori le mura, near Rome.
built in the year 325, and the basilicas at Ibrim in Armenia, and
at Sueideh in Central Syria, had five. Almost without exception
in Rome, and frequently also in the provinces, the columns intro
duced into the earlier churches were taken from ancient monuments,
chiefly from those of the Corinthian order. In later times, when

BASILICAL CONSTRUCTION.

25

well-preserved antique columns became more rare, the supports for
the interiors of the basilicas were taken from various edifices and
were often of different dimensions, so that barbarous incongruities
were not uncommon. Among the basilicas of Rome, that of S.
Maria Maggiore is entirely Ionic ; its forty-four magnificent gran
ite columns, with their entablature, are to be ascribed to the con
struction of Pope Liberius (352-366). The only example of the

Fig. 15. — View of the Interior of S. Pietro in Vincoli.

Roman Doric order is S. Pietro in Vincoli, dating from the middle
of the fifth century. (Fig. 15.) Basilicas with piers instead of col
umns are not frequently met with ; three examples in the neigh
borhood of Rome are the Basilicas of S. Symphorosa (Fig. 11) and
S. Generosa, both attributed to Constantine, and that of S. S. Vin-
cenzo ed Anastasio alle tre fontane, built between the years 625
and 638.
The support for the wall above the columns was at first the

26 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
straight entablature of architrave, frieze, and coriiice, as it had been
employed in the original private basilicas. This feature appeared
in the central aisle of the Constantine Church of St. Peter, and in
the crypt of the older part of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, and is still
to be seen in perfect preservation in S. Maria Maggiore. But the
drawbacks attending such a lintel construction were too great to
admit of its retention by later builders. The fundamental nature
of the classic entablature, as representative of roof and ceiling, ren
dered it little adapted to bear the great weight of a superimposed
wall. To this must be added static considerations of the most de
cisive character; the very considerable free span of the architrave,
from one capital to another, exposed the structure to grave dan
gers, inasmuch as the fracture of a single beam would inevitably
result in the fall of all the masonry above it. In view of these
objections the ancient Romans but rarely placed one lintel colon
nade above another — as in the case of the oldest basilicas, in the
Septizonium, etc. — wisely preferring to adopt a system of piers and
arcades for buildings of several stories, and to treat their engaged
columns and entablatures in relief, as a mere decoration of these
massive supports. For the basilicas the beam construction had
the great disadvantage that the heavily laden entablature made it
necessary to place the columns so closely together that the wor
shippers, assembled in the side aisles, were prevented from having
a good view of the religious ceremony which was being performed
at the end of the nave. Something might have been gained for
the support of the enormous mass of masonry by introducing the
thickest and strongest columns, such as the Doric ; but this would
not materially have affected the relative width of the intercolum-
niations, which were, indeed, smaller in the Doric than in the other
orders ; moreover, the Doric style, as an organic whole, at this
time no longer existed. It would have been more natural for the
builders of the early churches to adopt, instead of the colonnades,
the piers and arcades made familiar, after the Imperial epoch, by
such successful structures as the forensic basilicas, notably that
of Julia, and by the theatres, amphitheatres, aqueduct bridges, etc.
But this system of construction appears rarely, and only in the
roughest form ; the piers were not ornamented with pilasters, en-

BASILICAL CONSTRUCTION. 27
gaged columns, or entablatures in relief, and the further develop
ment of this solution of the architectural problem was reserved
for the period of the Romanic style. The taste and the traditions
of the early Christians led them to prefer the column which, for a
thousand years, had characterized the exterior of the classic tem
ples, and was now considered fit to maintain a similar dignity in
an ecclesiastical interior.
To meet in some measure the static and artistic difficulties
which thus arose, the primitive Christian builders resorted to that
compromise between a colonnade and an arcade which had made
its appearance, shortly before the creation of the first basilicas, in
the Palace of Diocletian at Spalatro. By adopting a free-standing
shaft, instead of a pier ornamented with engaged columns, a rea
sonably secure support was obtained for the wall above, and, what
was of more importance, a greater width of the intercolumniation
immediately resulted. The profile of the architrave was retained
in the mouldings of the archivolt, this contradiction of the original
constructive significance of the member not being felt as an objec
tion at a time when the organic functions of the columnar style
had long ceased to be understood, and the forms had become a
mere decoration of the arches and vaults of Roman engineering.
On the contrary, as long as it was desired to retain the round shaft
in any functional importance, and to keep step with the increasing
height of the Christian interior, there was no alternative but to
adopt it as a support for arches instead of for beams. And it can
not be denied that, compared with the heavy piers of Roman archi
tecture, a certain elegance was thus attained. The rhythmical move
ment of the archivolts gave a picturesque variety which the straight
and horizontal lines of the Greeks had avoided ; and the further
introduction of arches and vaults in the ceiling was thus rendered
more natural and harmonious in design. It is to be observed in
this connection that the debasement of the Greek entablature, and
loss of the sense of aesthetic reason in all columnar architecture,
had long preceded the basilical era, and should be imputed to the
Romans rather than to the Christians.
Since it has become known that arcades supported upon col
umns were employed as early as the time of Diocletian, the inquiry

28 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
as to whether they were introduced into the Constantine basilicas
is of no great historical importance. At all events the form, in cer
tain modifications, is noticed in the circular edifice of S. Constanza.
The best example is perhaps the Basilica of S. Paolo fuori le mura,
which was burned in 1823, and is now almost entirely rebuilt; the
features in question date, however, from the enlargement of the
church by Valentinian II. (A. D. 386). The arcades of S. Agnese
fuori le mura, which display but few Constantine reminiscences, are
not earlier than the year 686. It is certain that a connection of the
columns by arches was early introduced, and that this manner of
supporting the clerestory walls was only given up in those few cases
where blocks of an antique entablature were available, and, by the
ease with which they could be employed, overruled the better con
structive principles. Even in this case the recognized objections
were met, as well as might be, by various expedients, avowed or
hidden. An example of an openly displayed device is seen in the
three immense arches which cross the nave and support the roof
and ceiling of the Basilica S. Prassede (Fig. 16), built between the
years 817 and 824. A hidden construction of the kind exists in the
same building, where three relieving arches, placed above the en
tablature, transfer the weight of the imposed masonry from the free
span of the horizontal beam to the axes of the columns. The latter
makeshift is also evident in the Basilica S. Maria in Trastevere, but
this was built at such various epochs that it is now impossible to
say whether the peculiarity under consideration should be assigned
either to A. D. 224, 337, 357, or even to 11 39. In other cases of ba
silicas with arches above the columns it was found necessary to in
crease the strength of the supports, as in S. Maria in Cosmedin, where
the porticos in question are probably older than the restoration of
772-795, and in the Basilica of S. Clemente (872-882), in both of which
buildings the shafts are reinforced at certain distances by broad piers.
There was generally a cornice just over the arches, this being at
times surrounded by a part of the wall treated as an attica, above
which the masonry was continued to the ceiling of the nave with
out vertical or horizontal divisions, but pierced by several round-
arched windows. These windows commonly agreed in number and
position with the arcades beneath them. The openings were origi-

BASILICAL CONSTRUCTION.

29

nally closed by thin slabs of marble, perforated with circular holes
in order to increase the supply of light which could not have been
sufficiently provided by even the most translucent limestone; this
primitive expedient has only been preserved in rare cases, as in the
older part of S. Lorenzo and in S. Vincenzo alle tre fontane. Often
the apertures may have been merely closed by draperies. Window-

Fig. 16. — View of the interior of S. Prassede.

glass, although mentioned in the fourth century (Lactant. de opif.
Dei 8), was seldom used by the early Christians, and sheets of trans
parent stone (fenestrae gypseae), were not much more common.
Windows of colored glass were probably not introduced until the
ninth century. (Anastas. Vit. Leon. III.)
Occasionally the side aisles were doubled by being made two-
storied (Fig. 17), instead of by widening the plan as in the fi^e-aisled

30 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
basilicas. This arrangement of a gallery had been customary in the
forensic halls, but appears to have been seldom employed in the
private basilicas of the ancients. The result was that the clerestory
windows were much elevated, and the proportionate height of the
nave increased. Even in the common basilical construction the
great mass of masonry above the columns had presented serious
difficulties ; in the two-storied edifice, although the height of the
gallery columns was reduced as much as possible, the disadvantages
became still more weighty. These static objections, and the lack
of unity in design, more than counterbalanced the advantages de
rived from the extended accommodation, and from the separation
of the congregation according to sex and social rank. Thus, in the
Occident at least, the two-storied basilicas were in all ages excep
tional; among the churches of Rome they are only met with in
S. Agnese (Fig. 17), the Quattro Coronati, and the older part of
S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.
The nave was terminated by a gable, the inclination of which
did not greatly differ from that customary in classic times. The
roofs above the side aisles leaned against the upper walls of the
nave, abutting just below the clerestory windows. The ceiling
appears originally to have been sheathed and coffered, but this
antique manner of treatment was given up as early as the end of
the fourth century (Optatus Milevitanus), and the roofing beams
were openly displayed, the timbers being more carefully hewn and
decorated by painting. This display of the roof construction had
at times been employed by Greek and Roman builders. It was
now made to appear as a barbarous debasement (Fig. 17), entirely
at variance with the principles of classic architecture, by the omis
sion of any architrave or emphasized wall plate as a support : the
high wall, undivided by architectural memberment, being at best
provided only with isolated brackets under the ends of the chief
beams. With the exception of the termination of the apses there
is no appearance of vaulting in any early Christian basilica. Dis
tricts poorly furnished with timber, such as Syria, had ceilings
formed of stone lintels, a construction which, of course, greatly
cramped the width of the plan. The arcades were quite incapable
of resisting the great thrust which would have been brought to

BASILICAL CONSTRUCTION.

31

bear against them by a vault over the broad nave. Indeed, the
inadequate character of the columns as supports led to a diminu
tion of the thickness of the wall quite at variance with its height,
and the preservation, through so many centuries, of such carelessly
built masonry of tufa and brick is due rather to the extraordinary
excellence of the Roman mortar than to any wisdom of design.
At the end of the basilica opposite to the entrance there was
an enormous arch, not much less in width than the nave itself, and
generally supported upon two large columns standing close to the

Fig. 17. — View of the Interior of S. Agnese near Rome.
wall. This was at first known as the triumphal arch. It had be
come necessary by the introduction of an apse of semicircular plan,
terminated above by a half dome, an extension of the nave which
had found its prototypes not only in the antique forensic basilica,
where it had served as the seat of the judges, but also in many
Roman temples, such as that of Venus and Roma, where it ap
peared as a niche for the sacred statues. (Fig. 18.) In the larger
churches the apse was sometimes separated from the triumphal
arch by an interposed transept, which in height and width was

32 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
equal to the nave, and in length was either the same as the total
width of all the aisles, as, for instance, in S. Croce in Gerusalemme,
S. Maria Maggiore, and S. Maria in Trastevere, or was projected
beyond them so as to give the plan of the entire building the form
of a cross, as in the old churches of S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. Giovanni
in Laterano, S. Prassede, etc. Even in the nave, with its many
columns, the lack of architectural memberment was felt, and in the
transept this defect was still more apparent. With exception of a
few windows, generally arranged to suit only the dimensions of the
nave, the walls of the transept were quite bare, so that their ex
tended surfaces appeared painfully monotonous. The horizontal
ceiling above them was even more bald than in the body of the
church. The apse received its name from the half dome by which

^k:

Fig. 18. — Section of the Basilica S. Paolo, Rome.
it was terminated ; it was at first also called concha, tribuna, exedra,
and chorus. It retained in great measure its original character,
serving as the seat of the ecclesiastical officers : the bishop or chief
priest of the church, with his attendants, taking the place which
the praetor and his assessors had occupied in the forensic basilica.
Generally the apse formed a projection upon the exterior of the
building, and had a separate roof ; but sometimes it was enclosed
by other rooms which presented a straight facade upon the rear.
In rare instances, such as the Basilica of St. Reparatus in Orleans-
ville, and the Basilica of Erment in Egypt, these supplementary
spaces were themselves provided with apses upon the east and
west. At times smaller apses were built as terminations of the side
aisles in the line of their axes ; examples of this arrangement are :

BASILICAL CONSTRUCTION. 33
S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Clemente, S. Maria in Domnica in Rome,
the Basilica of Bethlehem, etc. Architectural details were sparsely
employed ; even a moulding at the impost of the vault was ex
ceptional, and the older apses had no windows at all.
The meagre and monptonous architecture of these buildings
was greatly helped out by a magnificent colored decoration. Beau
tiful pavements of costly and tastefully arranged marble slabs re
placed the mosaics of the ancients. The lower part of the walls,
especially of the transept and the apse, was reveted with patterned
marbles ; while the upper part, either throughout, or at least upon
the triumphal arch and in the apse, was inlaid with mosaics. These
decorations will be described in the chapters on painting. But the
other furnishings of the interior cannot, as in the case of those cus
tomary in the Middle Ages, be considered under the head of sculp
ture. The thrones in the apse (cathedrae) often display an orna
mentation in relief, but the remaining appointments rarely go be
yond mere architectural forms and a simple revetment. This is the
case with the seats (subsellid) for the subordinate priests in the apse,
with the plain altar-table (mensa) covered with a canopy supported
by columns (ciborium), — with the gratings (cancelli) separating the
presbytery, which often extended far into the nave, — and, finally,
with the furnishings of the ambones, where the gospels and the
epistles were read.
The exterior of the basilica, in its bareness, long betrayed its
derivation from a hall originally enclosed by a complex of small
rooms, and planned with no reference to its appearance from with
out. This simplicity and lack of decoration was perfectly in charac
ter with the contrast to Greek conceptions presented by the inner
life and outer abnegation of Christianity. The concentration of
interest: upon the religious ceremonies carried on within, allowed
scarcely a thought to be given to the exterior of the church. The
constructive scheme of the building was only expressed on the out
side by the different heights of side aisles and nave, and by the semi-
cylindrical projection of the apse. The horizontal ceiling nowhere
required a buttressing of the walls which supported it, and the same
was the case with the half dome of the apse, the thrust of which was
chiefly directed within. It was only in rare instances that expres-
3

34 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
sion was given to that aesthetic principle of all architecture which
requires the forfns of the exterior to set forth, as distinctly as may
be, the arrangement of the interior, in such wise that a memberment
of the outer walls should represent the inner arcades. Before the
two basilicas of St. Apollinaris at Ravenna, which are as late as the
sixth century, there was but a single example of walls decorated by
pilaster-like projections, and by arches in relief, so as to form a kind
of frame for the windows (Fig. 19), name
ly, the Basilica Pudenziana in Rome, the
present disposition of which dates back
to the fourth century. Generally the
masonry was carried up in perfectly un
broken surfaces, and the cornices were
made in the simplest possible fashion.
The spoils of classic monuments, which
often served to enrich the interior, were
never utilized for the facades. The Chris
tian builders were incapable of introduc
ing original features in place of the an
cient architectural garb which they re
jected, and took refuge in childish tricks
of bricklaying*, placing the bricks diago
nally, leaning them together so as to form
triangles, etc. Not unfrequently they
even placed the roof upon the bare wall,
.without any intermediate cornice, as had been done with the ceil
ing in the. interior; poverty, of ideas and roughness of execution
could go no further.
In this epoch there were but few and tentative beginnings of
the tower building which was destined to play so important a part
in later Christian ages. The oldest structures of the kind, those of
Ravenna, were all erected after the sixth century, unless an excep^
tion be made in favor of the Campanile of S. Francesco in that city,
which Hubsch assumes to be as old as the fifth century. The
towers were isolated from the basilicas, with the ground -plan of
which they stood in no connection. It is uncertain whether the
square or the round variety is the more primitive; the former is

Fig. 19. — View of a Part of the
Basilica of S. Appolinare in
Classe.

BELFRIES AND INTERIOR DECORATIONS. 35
met with in the before -mentioned Campanile, examples of the
latter are, the towers of the Cathedral and the Basilica of S. Apol-
linare in Classe. In towers of square plan the thickening of the
corners by vertical bands was a decoration which naturally resulted
from the construction ; in the round ones the memberment was
limited to horizontal cornices and to a few small windows which
served to light the staircase within. The belfry Was fofmed by
groups of round -arched windows, and above this the roof was car
ried up in pyramidal or conical shape. .The simple pile thus result
ing agreed well with the unpretentious exterior of the early Chris
tian basilica.
Notwithstanding its extreme bareness the appearance of the
church from without maintained a certain dignity and even gran
deur. The numerous and rather insignificant windows, and the
low side aisles, by determining a comparatively small scale, caused
the dimensions of the entire building to appear larger than they
really were. This was the case, even in a more marked degree,
with the interior, which was similarly influenced by the many and
proportionately low columns. The view along the nave, bordered
by two or four ranges of shafts, was varied and impressive, and its
total length was effectively increased by the vaulted apse of curved
plan. It would be difficult to conceive of a more successful arrange
ment than the combination of nave, side aisles, and apse for provid
ing so extended a hall of assemblage, and for emphasizing the site
of the altar where religious ceremonies we're performed. Antique
architecture presents no example of a better solution of this prob
lem. The classic temple was developed chiefly upon the exterior;
and while it amply sufficed as a shrine for a sacred statue and as
a repository for Votive offerings, would have been entirely unsuited
to Christian rites, which required a gathering of the entire congre
gation under one roof.
In principle this architectural solution was simple; in execution
it was often rich and even lavish. In the five-aisled basilicas a forest
of columns, of granite or of costly marbles, almost entirely hid the
plain walls of the side aisles. The clerestory, the triumphal arch,
and the apse were incrusted with bright colors, gilding, and mosaics,
so that here also the lack of architectural memberment was little

36 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
felt. And the ceilings, whether horizontally sheathed and coffered,
or open to the beams of the roof, were generally carved and deco
rated with colors and gold. The bare monotony of the walls and
mouldings is only felt to-day because the original paintings and
mosaics have become effaced, or have entirely disappeared. Even
in such a state the early basilicas still make a noble and harmonious
impression, and fully convince us that the choice of this form was
eminently fortunate, and worthy of retention and development for
more than a thousand years.
Although the basilica is by far the most important product of
early Christian architecture in Western Europe, buildings of other
classes yet remain to claim our attention. The transformation of
antique temples to suit Christian requirements hardly deserves con
sideration in this connection, common as a rehabilitation of the kind
was, for but little original work was thereby introduced. In refer
ence to such adaptations it has become the fashion (G. B. de Rossi)
to maintain that the Christian emperors were wisely desirous of
preventing the destruction of the temples of the ancients ; but this
preservation was, in reality, rather owing to an interference with
selfish abuse of the buildings and their materials by individuals,
than to any real respect for them as monuments of art. It is true
that Constantine only demolished those fanes which had become
renowned as centres of primitive religious observances, and that his
immediate successors did little more than proscribe Pagan sacrifices;
but as early as the time of Honorius, in the year 399, it was ordered
that all the temples in the country should be destroyed, and only
those in large towns be suffered to remain, "as civic ornaments."
This decree was renewed by Theodosius (A.D. 426) in these words:
"All Pagan temples still remaining in perfect preservation are to be
destroyed, or consecrated by the sign of the cross." It was certainly
a great exception when the same Emperor permitted the Temple
at Osdroene to stand, and commanded the statues of the deities
which were in it to be considered rather according to their value as
works of art than as religious symbols. It is not clear how literally
these indefinite and often contradictory ordinances were carried into
effect; but it is probable that the demolition was entered upon
willingly enough by the Christians, who could thus obtain the valu-

ANTIQUE CIRCULAR EDIFICES. 37
able materials used for their basilicas and other public edifices, and
even for their private dwellings. By constant employment of an
cient columns, entablatures, and other members, the power of inde
pendent design had become almost entirely lost to the Christian
stone-cutters. The squared blocks, so easily acquired by the de
struction of ancient edifices, were hardly less welcome, while the
fragments of marble not thus employed found their way into the
lime -kilns. It is true, the preservation of the temples from ruin
would have been a matter of considerable care and expense, an
exertion which the early Christians were not likely to make except
in the case of those sanctuaries which had been consecrated to the
new faith. The words of St. Augustine (Ep. 154), in which it is
declared to be praiseworthy " that Pagan temples should be made
serviceable to the public and to the honor of the true God," may
with quite as much probability be interpreted as a recommendation
to use the overthrown stones for the construction of churches, as to
counsel the preservation and consecration of the structures them
selves. Far more important was a class of buildings destined, in later
times, to be developed into a new style of architecture, namely
the circular and polygonal edifices which served as baptisteries and
mortuary chapels.* For these, also, classic models were not lack
ing : the baptisteries were analogous to the round and vaulted halls
of the Roman baths, and the churches of circular plan to certain
forms of antique funeral monuments, the general nature of their
employment thus remaining unchanged. Cylindrical spaces, both
vaulted and timber-roofed, had been frequently used by the ancients
for religious purposes; but the influence of the round and columned
temples, such as those of Rome and Tivoli, was but little felt by

* F. A. Quast, Die altchristlichen Bauwerke zu Ravenna vom 5.-6. Jahrhundert.
Berlin, 1842. — W. Salzenberg, Altchristliche Baudenkmale von Constantinopel vom 5.-
12. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1854. — Ch. Texier and Popplewell- Pullan, Byzantine Archi
tecture. London, 1863. — H. Hubsch, Die altchristlichen Kirchen. Karlsruhe, 1863. — R.
Rahn, Ueber den Ursprung und die Entwickelung des altchristlichen Central- und Kup-
pelbaues. Leipzig, i860. The same, Ein Besuch in Ravenna, Jahrbticher der Kunst-
wissenschaft. Leipzig, 1868. Separate reprint. Leipzig, 1869. — D. Pulgher, Les anciennes
eglises Byzantines de Constantinople. Vienne, 1878.

38

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

the Christian builders. The comparison of the monopteros with
the circular church, like that of the oblong peripteros with the ba
silica, offers little but contrasts. The principal development of the
pagan temple was always upon the exterior, while the ecclesias
tical edifices constantly tended to an extension of the plan and
ornamentation of the interior. This extension was effected by
increasing the entire area, and by emphasizing the semicircular
niches added to the cylinder, as well as by transferring the colon
nade from without to within.
It cannot indeed be proved that the enlargement of the edifice
by such niches was a recognized expedient as early as the time of

Fig. 20. — Cupolas of the late Roman Epoch.
So-called Temple of Jupiter . . Hall of the Baths of Caracalla. c. So-called Temple of Romulus

at Spalatro.

on the Via Appia.

the Diadochi ; but it is reasonable to assume with Adler that the
Pantheon of Agrippa was the perfected result of a long series of
architectural experiments, and not the first application of so great
a. constructive system. The principle so nobly expressed in the
Pantheon appears afterwards in other round temples, like that of
Romulus on the Via Appia, and that of Jupiter in the Palace of
Diocletian at Salona. As might be expected from the original
destination of the Pantheon as a caldarium, we find the same gen
eral design in several thermae, among others in the Baths of An
toninus Caracalla, where the niches pierced the enclosing walls of
the structure, and reduced the masonry left between them to free
standing piers. (Fig. 20 b). The effect of this last change was

ANTIQUE CIRCULAR EDIFICES.

39

rather to open than to extend the enclosed space ; but this could
be easily altered by closing the apertures with semicircular apses,
as exemplified in the Roman building called in the Middle Ages
the Terme di Galuccio, and in modern times the Temple of Mi
nerva Medica. (Fig. 21.) In the Temple of Jupiter at Spalatro
(Fig. 20 a) the circular plan had been transformed on the exterior
to an octagon ; in the Temple of Minerva Medica a polygon ap
pears upon the inside also, the walls being divided into ten piers,
connected by arches supporting the decagonal superstructure. The

5 10 20 30
Fig. 21. — So-called Temple of Minerva Medica.

spaces between the piers are closed by apses which form semicir
cular projections upon the exterior, and considerably augment the
area of the enclosure. The ten-sided drum is joined with the hemi
spherical vault in such a manner that the straight-lined walls inter
sect with the cupola, thus forming ten segments around its base.
The funeral monuments of circular plan were similarly provided
with niches, these proving particularly advantageous as receptacles
for sarcophagi. Instances are the so-called Temple of Romulus on
the Via Appia (Fig. 20 c), and notably the Tomb of Helena, the

40 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
mother of Constantine, now known as the Torre pignattara, near
the Porta Maggiore, in which the massive cylindrical wall is pro
vided upon the interior with eight niches, alternately of rectangu
lar and of circular plan. Both of these buildings are similar in
character to the Pantheon, the exterior resemblance being increased
in the latter instance by a portico. In early Christian churches the
extension of the circular plan by apses was by no means uncom
mon, as is proved by the Church of St. George at Thessalonica,
the two round chapels near St. Peter's in Rome, the octagon of St.
Aquilinus near S. Lorenzo in Milan, and others. But in general
the space required by the congregations was so great that a mere
enlargement by niches was not sufficient. It therefore became
necessary to transform the cylinder, which bore the cupola, from a
continuous wall to isolated supports, as had been done in the Baths
of Caracalla, and furthermore to adopt, instead of apses like those
of the Temple of Minerva Medica, a concentric passage outside of
these supports. The enclosed area was thus more than doubled.
The oldest examples of this kind are : a church on the Via Nomen-
tana near Rome, built to receive the body of Constantia, daughter
of Constantine, who died in the year 354, and the Baptistery of the
Lateran, which was probably erected about the same time. In the
former (Fig. 22), the dome is supported by twenty- four columns,
coupled two and two, and placed radially. Twelve short entabla
tures provide sufficient imposts for the " loop-hole " arches, which
are of course larger in diameter without than within. Above them
is a cylindrical drum perforated with windows. The semicircular
vault, similar to that of the Temple of Minerva Medica, is a con
struction of brick ribs filled in with a casting of cement. The sur
rounding passage is covered with a barrel vault rising to only half
the height of the cupola. A curious retention of former construct
ive methods is noticeable in the unnecessary thickness of the circu
lar enclosing wall, which here stood jn no connection whatever with
the dome. A kind of pronaos was attached to the edifice.
The construction of the Baptistery of the Lateran (Fig. 23) dis
plays less ingenuity, but is interesting because of a direct adaptation
of the columnar system of the basilica to a concentric plan. The
inner octagon is upheld by eight simple shafts, upon the straight

S. CONSTANZA.— BAPTISTERY OF THE LATERAN.

41

entablature of which a second story of columns is superimposed.
The original character of the ceiling and the roof is not now to be
determined, but the weak supports were hardly adapted to bear a
vault of masonry. The portico, with its two beautiful columns of

2 J * £

Fig. 22. — Plan and Section of S. Constanza in Rome.

porphyry, is part of the first construction, and so also is the baptis
mal font in the centre of this comparatively small edifice. Al
though baptisteries and mortuary chapels were generally built as
simple cylindrical halls, without surrounding passages, other exam
ples of the two modes of extension above described are not lacking.

42

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

The Baptistery of S. Maria rotondo at Nocera near Naples is similar
to the Church of S. Costanza, differing only in that its cupola is not
elevated upon a wall, but springs directly from the archivolts, so
that the roof of the central space rises but little above the lower
lean-to roof. The principal church of Antioch is even more closely
related to the Baptistery of the Lateran. This octagonal structure

Pk

1 MiM i:M In

i : i

Fig. 23. — Plan and Section of the Baptistery of the Lateran.
can hardly be considered as the architectural prototype of S. Lo
renzo in-Milan; it may better be compared to the six-columned
Baptistery of Aquileja, and to the somewhat more recent eight-
columned Baptistery of the Cathedral at Novara. The combination
of the basilical columnar system with a central plan, as in the Bap
tistery of the Lateran, attains its greatest size in S. Stefano rotondo
in Rome, built by Pope Simplicius (A.D. 468-483). Instead of
two stories we here meet with a duplication of the concentric pas-

CONCENTRIC EDIFICES.

43

sages: an extension based upon the same principle as the repetition
of the side aisles in the larger basilicas. Twenty Ionic columns
surround the central space. This, although cramped in comparison
with the entire edifice, is still so great in diameter that the horizon
tal ceiling could not be constructed without the introduction of
two intermediate supports, which appear in every way a disfigure
ment to the plan. The encircling passages are divided by columns
and piers placed radially, an inorganic and ugly arrangement that,
from the first, disturbed the unity of an interior which, in later
times, has suffered greatly from restorations. The Mosque of
Omar at Bethlehem, dated by recent authorities to the age of Con
stantine, shows a far better solution of the constructive problem

Fig. 24. — Baptistery near the Basilica
of S. Ursiana, in Ravenna.

Fig. 25. — Baptistery near S. Teo-
doro in Ravenna.

which occasioned these difficulties. It is true, this building is of
somewhat smaller dimensions.
The transformation of the circular plan to a decagon and an
octagon naturally led to an important change in the design, by
which the building was made to appear as a square upon the ex
terior, an eight-sided interior being the result of thickening certain
parts of the masonry. At first the four corners were taken up by
apses, the vaulting of which formed the transition from the square
substructure to an octagonal upper wall. Examples of this dispo
sition are, the Baptistery of the Cathedral at Naples, and notably
two Baptisteries at Ravenna: that of the Orthodox Community
near the Basilica S. Ursiana, built about the year 425, and that of
the Arians, near S. Teodoro, referrable to the first half, of the sixth

44

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

century. (Figs. 24 and 25.) The peculiar advantages of the cupola
above a rectangular plan became evident when the square walls of
these structures were transformed to isolated supports, as had already
been effected in the octagonal and decagonal edifices. The dome
was thus made to rest upon four piers connected by semicircular
arches, and it was possible to extend the vaulted space upon all

Fig. 26. — View of the Interior of the Mortuary Chapel of Galla Placidia (SS. Nazaro e
Celso) in Ravenna.

sides. This was done both by niches, such as had already appeared
in the Confessiones of the Cemeteries built before the time of Con
stantine (Fig. 9), and more successfully, by enlarging the entire plan.
to the form of a cross, the soffits of the four main arches being
continued as barrel vaults.
It is more than doubtful whether this' great advance had ap-

CHAPEL OF GALLA PLACIDIA.

45

peared in the Constantine Church of the Apostles in Constanti
nople. The plan of the building was, it is true, in the form of a
Greek cross, but this does not necessarily assure the existence of
vaults over the nave and transepts ; and the statement that the in
terior was provided with ranges of columns, as were the ordinary
basilicas, may almost be taken as a proof to the contrary. The
Church of the Apostles was long used as a place of interment for
the imperial family, and hence it is not improbable that the general
form of its plan may have determined that of the mortuary chapel,
(S. S. Nazaro e Celso), built at Ravenna, about the middle of the

Fig. 27. — View of the Exterior of the Chapel of Galla Placidia.

fifth century, by the Empress Galla Placidia, whose tastes must have
been influenced by her Byzantine education (Figs. 26 and 27). At
all events this chapel is the first accurately dated example of the
important construction before described. In it the circular base of
the hemisphere was not planned to lie within the central square,
but without, so that the diameter of the dome is only complete in
the diagonal, the four chief arches being made to support vertical
walls intersecting with the vault. If the ceilings of the Confes
siones above the Catacombs of Calixtus were really provided with

46 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
domes, the advance made in the Chapel' of Galla Placidia is re
stricted to the introduction of rectangular and barrel vaulted nave
and transept in place of the original apses. But the innovation,
even if no more than this, was one of signal importance, and exer
cised a decisive influence upon Byzantine architecture.
The mortuary chapels of Constantia in Rome and of Galla
Placidia in Ravenna are the prototypes of the two chief systems of
design employed in Byzantine ecclesiastical edifices. The first,
based in principle upon the hemispherically vaulted halls of the
baths and funeral monuments, of the. ancient Romans, results in
the extension of the central space by a concentric passage. The
second, which applied to buildings of square plan a constructive
scheme previously restricted to polygons, developed the subsidiary
niches into extended wings of independent architectural signifi- •
cance, and determined the oblong, or cruciform plan, — so universal .
in the Byzantine period. If the before -mentioned hypothesis of
the Alexandrian origin of such vaulted halls as the Pantheon of
Agrippa be left out of the question, it may be broadly asserted
that the beginnings of both these arrangements are Occidental.
Their further development, however, is almost entirely Oriental.
The example of S. Stefano rotondo at Rome, where the basilical
principles are retained in an architectural relation to which they are
not at all adapted, clearly shows the inability of western builders to
deal with an extended concentric design. After the fall of the
Western Empire, Rome remained, for nearly a thousand years, un
productive. As early as the middle of the fifth century it was sur
passed in artistic creation by the previously unimportant city of
Ravenna, which, having become the residence of the rulers of Italy,
was brought into close relations with Constantinople and the
Levant. The removalof the imperial residence from Rome to Byzantium
by Constantine, in the year 326, rendered a division between the
civilization of the Eastern and Western Empire inevitable. Durin°-
the fourth century the differences were little felt ; but at the time
when Arcadius and Honorius, the sons of Theodosius, determined
the boundaries of their realms, the separation of the Orient and Oc
cident had become definite. The ancient inheritance had fallen

CULTURE OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 47
into very different hands. While the tendency of the Germanic
barbarians of the North was rather to disintegrate than to promote
Western civilization, the Oriental influence, always present in the
Eastern Empire, steadily continued to modify the character of
Graeco-Roman culture and art. As had been the case a thousand
years before, the Greeks were brought into contact with the repre
sentatives of primitive Asiatic civilizations on the shores of the Bos
porus. But this contact was far from becoming as fruitful as it
had been in earlier times; from the union of Roman enervation with
Oriental languor nothing could be born but the long decrepitude of
Byzantine Christianity. The experience of old age was not entire
ly lacking, but the occasional arousing to important tasks was only
followed by greater weakness.
At first all circumstances seemed to favor the combination of
-European and Asiatic ideas. The power of the emperors, as estab
lished by the beginning of the fourth century, represented the prin
ciples of Oriental despotism ; and Christianity was similar in many
important respects to the Oriental religions from which it had been
.developed. Asiatic and Roman customs and conceptions were read
ily interchanged, and there was no disturbance through such incom
patibilities as were becoming more and more felt in the West. But
the trunk was too rotten and the graft too degenerate to bring
forth a fair fruit. The evil qualities of Oriental society are evident
throughout : luxury, despotism, a superstitious religion, and a slavish
obedience to temporal powers. Both Court and Church were Orien
talized, and the most noteworthy artistic achievements were made
in the sefvice of that love of display peculiar to both. It is not sur
prising that, under such circumstances, the more important. tasks fell
to the share of architecture, but it was hardly to be expected that
they could have been dealt with so successfully.
When Constantine built his new "capital all the arts were still
Roman. The larger churches of Constantinople were, without ex
ception, basilicas, and this form was prevalent also in the Asiatic
and African provinces.. Circular edifices at this time were as rare
in the Orient- as in the Occident. The Rotunda over the Holy
Sepulchre, the Chapel of the Ascension at Jerusalem, St. George in
Thessalonica, and the round churches of Derba and Heliopolis are

48 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
indeed among them ; but of these the three last were probably built
after the age of Constantine. The octagonal Church of Antioch,
before referred to, appears to have been of a rude and primitive
construction, and the eight-sided edifice built by the father of Greg
ory of Nazianzos in his native city, during the second half of the
fourth century, can hardly have been more important. Churches of
concentric plan were few in number, not only in Africa and Asia,
but in Constantinople itself, until the reign of Justinian (A. D. 527),
which ruler is known to have still erected basilicas in his capital in
Jerusalem, and upon Mount Sinai. The basilical system was re
tained for centuries, with but slight alterations, in Algiers, in the
Cyrenaica, in Egypt, and in Asia Minor. The Oriental custom of
separating the sexes caused two-storied side aisles to be the rule,
and the only differences of style observable in these churches result
ed from the helpless and incorrect imitation of classic details when
the supply of antique columns and entablatures was exhausted.
Even in tracts where an almost entire lack of timber and a long
tradition of vaulting would seem to have called for the introduction
of stone ceilings, the retention of the basilical type was almost ex
clusive. This was the case with Central Syria. The land between
Mount Lebanon and the desert has become peculiarly interesting
from the fact that fhe flourishing and populous period of its history,
which began with the Roman occupation, in A. D. 105, was brought
to a sudden close in the seventh century, the result being that a
great number of important monuments have remained unchanged
by later restorations, — wonderfully preserved in a deserted country.
The remoteness of Central Syria from the civilized world, together
with the unusual restrictions dependent upon the nature of its
building materials, combined to give a more marked individuality to
the basilicas, and indeed to all the architectural monuments of the
country, than is to be found in any other Roman province. This is
especially the case with the group of cities in the district of Haow-
ran, south of Damascus, where the lack of timber was most felt, and
where it had been found necessary to construct even the roof and
ceiling of stone. In order to reduce the width of the plan, so as to
permit the employment of stone lintels, a complicated system of
projecting brackets and supporting arches was introduced. In more

SYRIAN BASILICAS.

49

northern tracts a fine limestone favored accurate workmanship and
masonry, and there was also timber sufficient to supply the most
necessary beams. Because of this freedom from the cramping re
strictions of the south we meet here with a series of buildings which,
if less original, were' of greater artistic perfection. The develop
ment of the facades was particularly effective, as for instance in the
Basilica of Turmanin. (Fig. 28.) The portico, formed by a round

Fig. 28. — Basilica of Turmanin in Syria.

arch, is flanked -upon either side by low towers ; these rise in two
stories to the height of the nave, where they are terminated by ga
bles, and are provided with broad, square-headed windows, each of
which is divided by a small column. The detail of the stone-cutting
is of especial beauty, the influence of the debased style of Baalbec
and Palmyra being less evident than that of early Phoenician archi
tecture. The Golden Portal of Jerusalem, which dates to the sixth
jCentury, perhaps offers the closest parallel to this sharp and exact
carving. A change was made, however, during the reign of Justinian
(A.D. 527-565), and the brilliant development of the concentric plan
,was begun in the East. Ravenna, it is true, appears in the advance
4

50 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
of the movement, but this city had been affected rather by Byzan
tine than by Roman influences, even as early as the time when it
was chosen by Honorius as the capital of the Western Empire in
preference to Milan, where his father, Theodosius, had resided.
These relations qf Ravenna to Byzantium were in great measure
decided by the position and commerce of the Italian city, and were
maintained after the Ostrogoths had come into power. They were
important among the considerations which induced the Governor
of the West, under Justinian, to take up his abode on the coast of
the Adriatic during the reunion of the Roman Empire. The archi
tectural features of Ravenna, after the beginning of the sixth centu
ry — in particular, the crabbed debasement of the Corinthian or com
posite capital — are met with at this period throughout the entire
Eastern Empire, but not in other parts of Italy; hence it appears
probable that they were imported from the Orient. Even the
materials for the more important members were commonly brought
from the East, not unfrequently carved ready for use, as is the case
with the columns of the oldest basilicas of Ravenna, which are of
marble from Prokonesos, on the Sea of Marmora. Both the Church
and the Government of Byzantium are known to have been directly
concerned in the erection of S. Vitale. And attention has been
called to the fact that a certain Julianus, who built the Basilica
of S. Apollinare in Classe, as well S. Vitale, was not only called
Treasurer (Argentarius), but actually held that office, assisting the
latter church with the means of the Eastern Empire, by the orders
of the Byzantine authorities. *
If the hypothesis of Hubsch — which has been accepted by
Schnaase — concerning the date of S. Lorenzo in Milan, could be
proved correct, the priority of that city in the development of the
concentric plan would be assured ; for neither the round Church of
Antioch nor the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople can be
considered as prototypes of this form. S. Lorenzo is now repre
sented only by the imitation built by Martino Bassi in the second
half of the sixteenth century. Were it ascertained that the original
edifice was really erected towards the beginning of the fifth century,
and was consequently older than the Chapel of Galla Placidia, we
should be obliged to consider it as an important predecessor of the

S. LORENZO. 51
circular buildings of Justinian, for the appearance of which archi
tectural history could offer no explanation. The priority of the
concentric plan would then be due neither to Byzantium nor to
Ravenna, but to Milan. The construction of S. Lorenzo is an ad
mirable combination of the square and polygonal plan, the central
space forming an irregular octagon, the four sides in the diagonal of
which are smaller than those parallel to its axes. By the addition
of piers at the corners of the square the three on each of the nar
rower sides form groups fully equal in static efficiency to single and
massive supports, the dome thus resting upon the angles of the
plan. The four longer sides of the octagon are enlarged by apses
with two-storied colonnades, the parallel extension of the outer
passage being thus determined. It was not thought desirable to
continue the irregularity of the octagon in the compartments of
the cupola, and an equalization was effected beneath the springing
of the dome by projecting arches on the sides parallel with the
diagonals of the fundamental square. (Fig. 29.)
It needs no argument to prove that so successful a system,
evidently the result of long experience, could not have made its
appearance a century earlier than the first examples of the ex
tended concentric plan otherwise known, — especially in a town
quite remote from those places where this peculiar architectural
type is first assured. It might, perhaps, be nearer the truth to as
sume such a priority for the old Cathedral of Brescia, with its cir
cular dome supported upon eight piers and its concentric passage,
as the date usually adopted for the erection of this building,
which assigns it to the seventh century, is by no means certain.
A church of S. Lorenzo is mentioned in documents as early as the
middle of the fifth century, but this may well have referred to a
primitive Christian structure upon the same site, possibly a basilica,
just as St. Sophia in Constantinople was preceded by an edifice
dating to the age of Constantine. The concentric church of Milan
may therefore be considered as later than S. Vitale in Ravenna,
S. Lorenzo appearing rather as a secondary combination of the
systems observable in S. Vitale and St. Sergius, than as the model
of either of these structures.
S. Vitale in Ravenna and St. Sergius in Constantinople were

52 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

Fig. 29. — Plan and Section of S. Lorenzo in Milan.
built at very nearly the same time, the first having been begun
in the year 526, the latter soon after Justinian's ascension to the
throne, A.D. 527. The ground-plan of S.Vitale (Fig. 30) is a regu-

S. VITALE.

53

lar octagon, both in the central space, the dome of which is sup
ported upon eight piers, and in the surrounding passage. In plan
the sides of the high piers are radial ; they are connected by round
arches. Above, the octagon is transformed to a sixteen-sided poly
gon by small projecting niches, the predecessors of the pendentives

Fig. 30. — Plan and Section of S. Vitale in Ravenna.
which in later times became of such importance. The impost of
the hemispherical cupola is thus very nearly circular. The round
base of the dome is inscribed within the central octagon, — not with
out, as has been seen to be the case in the Temple of Minerva
Medica. To insure lightness the vault was built of pottery vessels,

54 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
the end of each of these resting in the orifice of the one next to it,
the whole being cast in cement. This manner of construction was
not uncommon in antique Roman architecture, and was dependent
upon the exceptionally firm character of Italian mortar. Seven of
the eight large spaces between the piers are provided with niches
similar to those in the Temple of Minerva Medica, in each of which
four columns, in two stories, support a half cupola (conch), resting
against the main arches between the piers. The eighth space, in
which the altar was placed, is a rectangle covered with an cross
vault, and terminated by an apse projecting beyond the octagon
of the exterior, this appearing in plan semicircular within and po
lygonal without. The general form and the position of the win
dows in the apse are of a design which does not appear in Rome,
but which was common throughout the Byzantine Empire, even
in basilicas. The gallery extends around the entire passage, with
exception of this space for the altar; its ceiling was not timbered
but vaulted, an extremely complicated construction resulting from
the trapeze -shaped divisions, and the intersections of the before-
mentioned niches.
The general effect of the interior is quite different from that
of the Occidental basilica. In the latter the extreme simplicity of
the architectural conception is severe and grand ; in the concentric
church the far greater technical ability, in the service of Oriental
imagination, produces a wonderful richness and variety. The num
ber of great and small semicircles in plan, arches, and vaults, with
the avoidance of parallel, and especially of horizontal lines, gives
to the whole a soft and luxurious character quite foreign to classic
architecture. The Eastern influence is further evident both in the
form and color of the ornamentation. The general type of the tra
peze-shaped Byzantine capitals (Fig. 31) appears fully determined
in the lower range of columns in S.Vitale. The Corinthian and
composite varieties are here no longer imitated; the most primi
tive outline of the capital is again taken up, the transition between
the circular shaft and the square abacus upon which rests the archi
trave, archivolt, or impost, being effected by a straight-lined pro
jection. The flat ornament of the plain block thus resulting is
distinctly Oriental and textile in character, the borders and sides

BYZANTINE INTERIORS.

55

having narrow intertwined and braided work in place of the con
ventionalized foliage of classic decorations. The effect of the whole
was rather dependent upon gilding and the colors of Oriental tap
estry than upon sculpture in relief. The same peculiarities appear
in a second form of the capital, common in Constantinople, of which
there is but one specimen in Ravenna ; in it the echinos is of a cir
cular or reeded horizontal section, and is covered with a fine net
work of conventionalized leaves and tendrils. A kind of impost
upon the top of the capital is provided by a block which takes the
place of the upper members of the antique entablature, and is ref
erable rather to an Asiatic than to a Roman origin. The influence

Fig. 31. — Byzantine Capitals, from S. Vitale in Ravenna.

of the East, not that of Rome, is further evident in the colored mar
bles of the shafts and in the patterns of revetments and of pave
ments. The bareness of the brick masonry may be compared to
the neglect of the exterior, so painfully felt in the early Christian
basilicas ; but this contrast between great magnificence within and
a monotonous poverty without is quite in agreement with the con
ceptions of the Orient.
The chief defects of the general arrangement, especially in the
atrium of S. Vitale, become evident by a comparison of this church
with that of St. Sergius in Constantinople. The construction of

56

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

the latter, with its cupola supported upon eight piers, is in the'
main the same ; but in it the pendentives have reached their full
development as spherical triangles, forming, as it were, lower por
tions of an intersected dome. The cupola, instead of being hemi
spherical, is divided into sixteen compartments. One of the. most
important characteristics of the plan (Fig. 32) is the arrangement
of the whole in a rectangle, which harmonized the church with the
neighboring structures, and provided a more natural and fitting
place for the narthex than was the case in S. Vitale. The surround
ing passage being planned with
out such enlargement by apses in
the lines of the axes, as we have
observed in S. Lorenzo in Milan,
it became necessary to adopt sim
ilar niches in the diagonals in or
der that the widths of the lateral
and of the corner spaces on the
floor and in the galleries should
not be too dissimilar. In the cen
tral enclosure the sides parallel
to the square were consequently
formed by straight lines. There
was, of course, no gallery on the
side opposite the entrance, where
stood the altar.
The most important and the
most perfect monument of By
zantine architecture, St. Sophia in-
Constantinople (Church of the Divine Wisdom), was begun but little
after S. Vitale and St. Sergius. The Constantine basilica which
stood upon the site had been burned in the year 532, on the occa
sion of an uprising of the populace, and Justinian took advantage
of this to commemorate his victory by a magnificent rebuilding.
It was probably the destruction of the earlier church by the flames
which led to the adoption of fire- proof vaulting throughout the
new edifice. Never before had this system of construction been
attempted on so extended a scale. It cannot be regarded as a

^^fc::":"^i:":."^,:;:7^i".:";M!-""::,^_^_lSsM IS

ssWji^w"fssT"i3_*r"

~t_

::__j;;e^________

0 5 10 aoMtr,
Fig. 32.— Plan of the Church of St. Ser
gius in Constantinople.

ST. SOPHIA.

57

mere chance that both the architects to whom the task was in
trusted were Asiatics by birth — Isidoros of Miletos and Anthemios
of Tralles. In five years after the fire the new church was ready
for consecration. Soon after this it was much injured by an earth
quake, but was restored with even greater splendor, according to
the plans of the younger Isidoros, a nephew of the first architect.
It is well known that, after having served as a Christian church for
nearly a thousand years, the building has become the chief mosque

Fig. 33. — Plan of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

of the Turks, and under them has not only been disfigured^but has
been left in such a state of neglect that the ruin of this wonderful
monument is reported to be imminent.
The general plan of St. Sophia (Fig. 33) is a cross, over the
centre of which is a majestic dome, 30 m. in span and almost 54 m.
in height, this being supported upon arches rising from four piers.
The arms of the cross in the long axis are formed by two enormous
apses, the conches of which exercise their thrust against the main
cupola ; hence the chief piers only required strengthening by but-

58 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
tresses upon the sides. The central dome is united with the two
great apses to a single nave, 72 m. in length, which is further en
larged by three subsidiary niches at either end, the one in the middle
of the western side forming the entrance, while that opposite to it
was reserved for the altar. The enclosure of the whole in a square,
as in St. Sergius, was naturally brought about by the introduction
of straight side aisles, the ends of which are bordered, in a some
what disjointed fashion, by the lateral niches of the chief apses.
The side buttresses are opened by large arches, in a manner similar
to that which had been adopted in the forensic Basilica of Maxen-
tius in Rome, but with the addition of galleries. The gradation of
the circle and the semicircles of the plan, from the dome to the
niches, corresponds to the rhythmical ascent of the arches and
conches to the terminating cupola. The four triangles between
the piers and the dome are occupied by pendentives. The bold sur-
based dome appears the more light and airy because pierced by
forty small windows, through which a glory of light is thrown into
the central space. Throughout the entire building the illumination
is profuse; there are twenty-four windows in the side walls above
the northern and southern galleries, and as many more in the
conches of the east and west, the nave thus receiving light from
nearly a hundred orifices. Great as is this total it is equalled by
the number of windows in the side aisles. This brilliant light fell
upon a decoration of unequalled magnificence. The hundred col
umns, and the revetments of the walls and piers, are of green
Thessalian and red Theban marble, and of costly stones of every
hue from all the quarries between Arabia and the Alps. In the
presbytery the altar, the ambones, and the columns were of silver.
The extended surfaces of the upper walls and vaults were covered
with mosaics upon gold ground. There was no part of the interior
which did not tax all the resources of a lavish acre.
Great as was this magnificence it was surpassed by the artistic
conception of the monument. In this enormous enclosure the ad
vantages of a nave, or at least of an emphasized longitudinal axis,
and of many of the rectangular forms of the basilica, were happily
combined with the majesty, the rhythmical picturesqueness, and the
safety from fire peculiar to the vaulted churches of concentric plan.

ST. SOPHIA.

59

The problem of the most advantageous combination of a dome with
lateral aisles was here definitely solved. The Church of St. Sophia
was the proudest achievement of the Byzantine style, and for centu
ries was justly regarded as a model. The fact should not, however,
be overlooked that this building shared in full measure the chief

F'g- 34- — View of the Interior of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

defect of Byzantine, and indeed of all early Christian architecture,
namely, the one-sided development of the interior at the expense
of the exterior. Its brick masonry, without revetment, displays no
traces of any design beyond the utilitarian construction of the en
closure. There is something excessively clumsy in the heavy and
unmembered side piers, in the exterior transition between the cupola

6o

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

and the square, and in the many squat buttresses which surround
the subsidiary apses. And a confused character of agglomeration
resulted, even before the later additions, from the diverging lines of
the windows, the varied curves of the apses, and the unrelated sur
faces of the different roofs. To this it must be added that the
conches, whose metal sheathing rests directly upon the vaulting,
appear to sink into the walls beneath them, these being carried up
vertically upon the exterior as high as the windows in the curves.
In short the impression made by the
whole exterior is helpless. It is nothing
more than a literal and unimaginative ex
pression of the construction adopted for
the grand interior, from which the archi
tect was neither able nor apparently de
sirous to obtain an aesthetic effect.
Justinian by no means limited his ex
ertions to this one successful task. In
Constantinople alone there were twenty-
five churches which were built or re
modelled during his reign. Of these we
need mention only the Church of St.
Irene (Fig. 35), remarkable for the ap
pearance in it of two cupolas of equal
size, whereby the nave became even
more extended and similar to that of a
"____. basilica. This building must have served
-Plan of the Church of as a model for the Church of St. Mark in
Venice, unless, indeed, the sanctuary in
Alexandria, dedicated to the same saint,
may have been of similar plan, and of more direct influence upon
the Venetian work of the eleventh century. The creations of Jus
tinian were to be found in all the eastern provinces — Greece, Asia
Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Northern Africa. With a love
for works of engineering, and utilitarian constructions generally,
which was worthy of his ancient Roman predecessors, he built,
not churches alone, but bridges, aqueducts, hospitals, and caravan
saries, in great number and in every part of the country. He

Fig- 35--
St. Irene, in Constantinople.

LATER DOMED CHURCHES. 6l
did not fail to make extensive additions to the imperial palaces
built by Constantine, introducing the new style in such structures
as the so-called Chalke, and the summer palace, or Heraeon, on
the Asiatic side of the Bosporus.
Justinian was, indeed, for the Byzantine epoch what Trajan and
Hadrian had been for an earlier age ; and, like them, he failed to
bequeath to his immediate successors his genius as a ruler and his
fostering love of the arts. As early as the end of the sixth century
architectural activity had greatly diminished in the Eastern Em
pire ; and in the following ages the endless intrigues of the court
and the troubles with the iconoclasts brought monumental building
almost to a stand-still. Of public edifices the palaces alone were
multiplied and extended by halls and pavilions, particularly under
Theophilus (A.D. 829-842). When at last Basilius, the founder of the
Macedonian dynasty, which ruled between 867 and 1057, again en
couraged ecclesiastical architecture, the artistic spirit had long been
lost, and the churches were little more than mechanical repetitions
of the types developed in the time of Justinian. Almost without
exception a dome was erected above a square central space, which
was extended to a cruciform plan by the wings naturally resulting
from the retention of the four piers. These wings were commonly
covered with barrel vaults, thus returning to the primitive arrange
ment of the Chapel of Galla Placidia. The angles formed by the
arms of the. cross at the intersection of the side aisles gave oppor
tunity for the introduction of smaller cupolas, which were sometimes
erected also above the narthex, or at the ends of the nave and tran
sept. In order to assure to the main dome a dominating position
among these groups it was often stilted upon a drum, and the gen
eral tendency was to increase the height of the elevations while re
ducing the size of the plan. The effect of the exterior was thereby
somewhat improved, as the cupolas no longer appeared to sink into
the walls, but rose hemispherically above the circle of windows,
which were transferred to the drum. An effective memberment of
engaged columns, or pilasters, and arches in relief was frequently
applied to the apse, which continued polygonal upon the exterior.
Such architectural details, however, long remained very meagre. A
noticeable characteristic of churches of this kind is the alternation

62 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
of courses of brick and stone, which horizontal bands of color pro
vided an agreeable contrast to the round outlines of the cupolas
and vaults. But, while the exterior gained, the interior deteriorated,
both in construction and decoration. The barrel-vaulted nave and
transept, with their narrow openings to the side aisles, increased the
possibility of seeing the altar from the subsidiary spaces, but the
smaller apses were lost to the enclosure by being occupied by the
prothesis (chamber for votive offerings) and by the diakonikon (sac
risty). The cornices shrivelled up, and the colored decoration of
mosaics and paintings which remained could not compensate for the
lack of architectural memberment. The narthex, generally placed
before the chief entrance, was sometimes supplemented by an exo-
narthex. When it became two storied, the upper part being used
as a gynaikeion, it was found impossible to bring this gallery into
any organic connection with the body of the church, so that the
effect of the whole did not remotely approach that afterwards at
tained by the Romanic transept.
The type here described is seen in a number of churches in
Constantinople now transformed into mosques. Among them may
be mentioned the Church of St. Andrew, now Hodja Mustapha Pa
sha Jamissi, which was built soon after the age of Justinian, and is
remarkable for the apses terminating the transept ; the Church of
St. Theodore, now Mefa Jamissi, probably built in the tenth cen
tury, with barrel -vaulted wings and double narthex. Also the
mortuary Chapel of Romanus Lacapenus, now Budrum Jamissi, built
in the year 918 ; and, similar to it, the Pantepoptes Church, now
Eski Imaret Jamissi, erected in the eleventh century. Fig. 36 dis
plays the plan and section of the last of these edifices, which may
be considered as typical. We may include in this list the Panto-
krator Church, now Zeirek Jamissi, built in the twelfth century, with
one dome, barrel-vaulted transept, and double narthex ; and finally,
the Church of the Saviour, Kahrije Jamissi, erected in the eleventh
century on the foundations of a building of the age of Justinian,
in which the general arrangement is made less clear and organic
by the addition of a chapel (parekklissioii) upon the right side,
whereby the transept is much cramped, the side apses quite iso
lated, and the entire interior disfigured. This building, with its

EXTENSION OF BYZANTINE ART.

63

six cupolas, has become of especial importance to the history of art
as the only church of Constantinople in which the mosaics and
paintings upon the vaults and tympanons, the marble revetments
of the lower wall surfaces, and the ornamental reliefs of the arches
and capitals, have not been destroyed by the fanatical vandalism
of the Turks. Although some of the good qualities of Justinian's
work were still retained, the general effect is so commonplace and
mechanical that but little delight can be taken in these remains.

t-M  1 — I  !  h-

-!Mr.

A ,<* l* "twi ¦¦¦*

lyA__ JJLa

1 ,H -CWfi^f

jmstizxikmmi I

1 » ; CjL
Till fhAAlli
y -;\:*Pf; ";Aff

Cu

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§ B l/&m^
CM
1 r
mmmm
1 H; :< ' - • *xiF ^4\#
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Fig. 36. — Plan and Section of the Pantepoptes Church in Constantinople.
Unthinking continuance in one rut was inevitable in the nation
which developed Byzantine architecture, and resulted from the des
potism and slavish subjection, the dogmatism and passive reception
of ecclesiastical doctrines, which charact'erized the civilization of
the Eastern Empire.
The Byzantine style was a combination of Oriental and Occi
dental elements which had been united on the shores of the Bos
porus. When once its chief characteristics had been determined
64 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
it was transferred, unchanged, to the most remote provinces. Five
hundred years after Roman culture had embraced the entire civiU
ized globe, and affected even semi-barbarous tracts, the influence
of Byzantium was similarly extended over the greater part of the
world then known, and to lands previously quite uncivilized. The
centre of culture had been removed somewhat farther eastward,
but the extent of its influence was scarcely diminished. At the
East, in distant Asia, the Sassanidae borrowed more from the By,
zantine stock than they had contributed to it. In the south-east
newly -arisen Mohammedan art received its first and its most im
portant impetus, even more directly, from the same source. The
north-east of Europe and the Asiatic shores of the Pontos retained
the Byzantine civilization longer than did the capital itself; indeed,
in these countries its traces are evident even to-day. In Italy such
maritime emporiums as Ravenna, and its successor Venice, were
chiefly Byzantine in character; while, even in political respects,
certain towns of Magna Graecia and Sicily long continued in inti
mate connection with Constantinople. Even the Germanic lands
felt this influence : in architecture, at least, through the mediation
of Italy, and in painting, with its branches, mosaic work and illu
mination, directly from the Bosporus. We shall subsequently ex
amine the art of the more important of these countries, particularly
the Orient, Italy, and Germany, in reference to these factors ; but
the districts on the shores of the Black Sea, which were little more
than provinces of Byzantium, may here be considered as supple
mentary to Byzantine art, in so far as they present individual pecu
liarities of development.
Chief among these provinces was Armenia, and, dependent upon
it, Georgia.* Extending from the southern slopes of the Caucasus
to the borders of Persia, these countries were affected by the same
historical movements. Armenia had been Christianized, as early
as the beginning of the fourth century, by missionaries sent from
Rome, but its art had 'soon after become decidedly Byzantine.
Through the spread of the monophysitic doctrines of Eutyches,
* Ch. Texier, Description de TArmenie. Paris s. a. — D. Grimm, Monuments d'archi-
tecture Byzantine en Georgie et en Armenie. St. Petersbourg, 1859.

ARMENIA.

65

however, it had become isolated, not only from Rome and Byzan
tium, but from all the Christian countries of the East. The result
of this isolation was the development of a peculiar architectural
style, showing in many ways the influence of Syria. In the eccle
siastical edifices of Armenia the central dome, with nave, transept,
and four subsidiaiy spaces filling out the angles of the cruciform
plan, was certainly a direct imitation of Byzantine models; but the
appearance of gables at the ends of the nave and transept is rather
referable to classic and Oriental prototypes. The polygonal plan
and straight-lined roofing of the cupola also differed decidedly from

£==

Fig. 37- — Church at Ani.

the forms customary in Constantinople. The close proximity of the
country to Persia and Syria is particularly evident in the ornament
al details, which are almost exclusively composed of motives taken
from braided or woven work, resembling in this respect the decora
tions of northern Germanic art. Similar indications are to be found
in the attempts to support the dome upon reeded pillars instead of
upon piers. These peculiarities are' well exemplified in the most
important monument of Armenia, the Cathedral of the capital city,
Ani (Fig. 37), built in the beginning of the eleventh century— an
edifice which bears witness to the great architectural abilities of
5

66 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
this remarkable people, especially when it is considered that they
could not have been affected by the northern European art of the
Romanic epoch. After the twelfth century Asiatic influences con
tinued to increase, until Armenia was almost entirely given over to
Mohammedan civilization ; yet, in ecclesiastical architecture at least,
the native traditions were long retained.
Georgia was even more closely related to the culture of the
Eastern Empire. It was Christianized from Byzantium and always
remained faithful to the Greek Church. Its connection with Ar
menia, in artistic respects, was only temporary, and came to an end
after the tenth century. The churches of Georgia are narrow in
plan and tall in elevation, but these proportions were common, in
later times, throughout many of the dependencies of the Byzan
tine Empire, as, for instance, in Greece, Servia, and the greater part
of Russia. Because of its enormous extent and the peculiar and tenacious
character of its artistic work, Russia is by far the most important
of the countries influenced by Byzantine civilization.* In it alone
Byzantine art has continued to be practised up to the present day.
Unfortunately it came under these influences in an age when the
style of the Eastern Empire had declined into mechanical manner
ism. Christianity, and with it a higher civilization, was not generally
introduced into the Muscovite Empire before the end of the tenth
century, until Vladimir the Great had been baptized at Kherson on
the occasion of his marriage with the Byzantine princess Anna,
A. D. 988. It was therefore not strange that the Byzantine style,
when it first appeared on the steppes of the Don and the Dnieper,
was quite without connection with the Greek colonies on the north
ern coast of the Black Sea. Kiev, the Russian capital at that time,
consisted entirely of wooden huts, and the four hundred chapels
which it is known to have contained shortly after the death of
Vladimir, can have been only small, timbered constructions. The
more important ecclesiastical edifices of the country, often built by
Greek architects, were at that time certainly few in number. But

* E. Viollet le Due, L'Art Russe, ses origines, ses elements constitutifs, son apogee, son
avenir. Paris, Morel 1877.

RUSSIA.

67

the churches of St. Sophia at Kiev, Novgorod, and Tchernigof, which
must have resembled the great fane upon the Bosporus in general
arrangement as well as in name, soon exercised a decisive influence
upon the rude and untrained inhabitants of Southern Russia.
The style became some
what altered after the end
of the twelfth century, when
native workmen, and even na
tive designers, took the place
of architects previously sum
moned from Constantinople.
The Byzantine traditions were
affected by traits more pe
culiarly Asiatic : derived, on
the one hand, from Armenia,
through the districts of the
Caucasus, on the other from
the interior of the great con
tinent, beyond the Ural Moun
tains. The Church of Our
Lady (Fig. 38) near the Clois
ter Bogolubor in the govern
mental district of Vladimir,
built in the year 1165, was
Byzantine in general arrange
ment ; yet it displays the in
fluences of Armenia in the
portal, low galleries, and en
gaged pillars, and of distant
Asia in the turnip -shaped
cupola and the curved lines
of the roof. These influences
are also evident in the Church
of St. Demetrius at Vladimir, built between the years 1194 and
1 197, where the arcades in relief are Armenian, while the decora
tion of conventionalized foliage is distinctly Asiatic.
Architectural motives from the far East naturally continued to

Fig. 38.

-Church of Our Lady (Pakrova) near
the Cloister Bogolubor.

68 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
take the place of those from the West after the inroads of Genghis
Khan had resulted in the subjugation of Russia to the Mongolians
(A.D. 1237-1480). The occupation of the country by the Tartars
was, upon the whole, unfavorable to the development of Russian
art ; still it appears that the luxury and magnificence exhibited by
the commanders of these Asiatic hordes was not without its effect
upon the courts of native princes and boyars, whose life had previ
ously been of patriarchal simplicity. The Russian artists who, from
choice or from necessity, followed the retinue of the Tartars, re
turned to their homes strongly impressed with the Asiatic spirit,
and this was readily adopted by a population of kindred race.
The tall, turnip-shaped cupolas, rising from low and solid masses of
masonry, — the ornamentation, similar in treatment to that of India
and Persia, — the use of bright and often crude colors, the capricious
outlines of cornices and mouldings, — all point to intimate relations
with Eastern Asia. The system of squinch vaulting, shown in
Figs. 39 and 40, by which the transition was effected from a square
plan to the tall cupolas, was determined by a constructive principle
entirely different from that of the pendentives of S. Vitale in
Ravenna, or of S. Lorenzo in Milan, being based upon the same
Asiatic methods to which must be ascribed the complicated stalac
tite vaults of Arabian architecture.
By the middle of the fifteenth century a style had thus become
prevalent in Russia, the chief elements of which had been derived,
not only from Constantinople, but from Persia and the farther
East. It is surprising that this development was not more notice
ably affected by two historical events, which otherwise were of the
greatest moment, — namely, the taking of Constantinople by the
Turks in 1453, and the emancipation of Russia from the yoke of
the Tartars in 1480. Byzantine art had taken too deep root in
the Muscovite Empire to be greatly disturbed because of the
occupation of its native soil on the Bosporus by the Moham
medans ; and Byzantine painting, having become nationalized in
Russia, continued as general and as unaltered as it did in the
districts dependent upon Mount Athos for their supply of ecclesi
astical pictures. The intercourse with Asia had been furthered
rather than lessened by the driving out of the Tartars. After the

RUSSIA. 69
middle of the fifteenth century Italian and German artists were
imported, in preference to Byzantines, into the rapidly advancing
city of Moscow, which, in 1328, had become the capital of the
country ; but by this time the peculiarities of Russian art were so
fully determined that these foreigners were unable to introduce the
principles of design which had been so successfully developed in

Fig. 39. — Plan and section of a Cupola-
tower of the Church of St. Sophia at
Kiev.

Fig. 40. — Plan and Elevation of a
Cupola-tower of the Vassili Blaggenoi
in Moscow.

their native lands. In 1475 the Italian architect Rid. Fioravanti was
summoned from Bologna to superintend the rebuilding of the Church
of the Assumption of the Virgin in the Kremlin ; yet he seems to
have been desired rather as a skilful constructor than as a designer,
being only required to copy the Cathedral of Vladimir. Hence
the nationality of the architect is only evident in the decorative
details of this building, the five turnip -shaped cupolas of which

70 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.
appear decidedly Asiatic. The Church of the Annunciation in the
Kremlin, built between 1489 and 1508, bore a similar relation to its
architect, an Italian by the name of Alvisio. The remarkable edifice
Vassili Blagennoi in Moscow, built in 1554 by Ivan the Cruel, in
commemoration of the subjugation of Kazan and Astrachan, shows
the ascendency maintained by Oriental elements in spite of the
employment of Italian and German builders. The whimsical and
overloaded decorations of India, Persia, and the Mohammedan

Fig. 41.— House of a Russian Boyar, according to the Restoration of Viollet le Due.
East were here lavishly introduced. Towers and cupolas, with a
profusion of arches, gables, cornices, and disjointed architectural
forms, were so dominant as almost entirely to conceal the funda
mental construction. The eighteen chapels are arranged in two
stories, in a manner recklessly unrelated, and the whole is so lack
ing in unity of design that the plan- seems the accidental result of
the changing tastes and requirements of very different ages.
This inorganic character was, in great measure, owing to the
prevalence of the timbered constructions introduced centuries be-

RUSSIA. 7*i
fore by the Asiatic population of Russia. The Byzantine style
did not permit the application of this method of building to the
more important ecclesiastical edifices, but. in domestic architecture
it had always continued to be practised and perfected. The dwell
ings throughout the country were, almost without exception, built
of wood, and even in the large cities there were no houses of stone
until the middle of the fifteenth century, when Occidental customs
were beginning to be introduced into Moscow. The architectural
forms determined by a timbered construction allow of so little vari
ation that the wooden houses of the Alps and of Russia are strik
ingly similar in general appearance. The peculiarities of such Rus
sian structures as that illustrated by Fig. 41 are mainly referable to
eastern and southern Asiatic types, particularly to those of India.
In them are apparent the influence of primitive Asiatic carpenter
ing, introduced into Russia over the Caspian Sea and across the
Ural Mountains, and this element of design was maintained in full
force by constant communication between Russia and the original
home of the Arian race. In India timbered prototypes can be
traced even in grottos hewn from the native rock. In Russia the
curves of the wooden roof and the carved and turned work of the
smaller members were similarly transferred to a monumental archi
tecture of stone, and with them came also such confused and dis
jointed arrangements of plan as that before referred to.
It is evident that Indian and Persian motives are readily capa
ble of combination with the art of Russia, while it is no less certain
that the forms of Oriental and Italian renaissance, which have been
introduced into that country by the upper classes of society, are
too foreign to allow of their assimilation.
While we are unable to assent, in all particulars, to the ingenious
speculations of Viollet le Due concerning the history and prospects
of Russian art, we must at least admit that a further advance of the
national architecture in the directions above indicated is not only
possible, but full of promise for the future.

mm-' im p ; »
^M'A''1': i%
-WjF^ ^K|LpH .
>  3
-*,
Fig. 42.— Orpheus and the Animals. Wall-painting in the Catacomb of Calixtus.

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINT
ING AND SCULPTURE.
THE equilibrium which had been maintained by the ancient
Greeks between architecture, painting, and sculpture, had been
disturbed, even in the times of the Romans, by a decided leaning in
favor of the first of these arts. Among the Christians* architecture
fully retained this supremacy, but the relations of the two other arts
were considerably altered. The important decorative field which
had been assigned to painting by the ancients was extended as the
architectural detail gradually disappeared, while sculpture was al
most entirely withdrawn from monumental tasks and restricted to
the decoration of utensils. But neither the extension nor the re
striction of their exercise was of more than secondary influence
upon their artistic character. A decadence had been fully declared

* L. Perret, Catacombes de Rome. Paris, 1851-1855. 6 voll. — Barbet de Jouy, Les
Mosaiques chretiennes des basiliques et des eglises de Rome. Paris, 1862. — J. Labarte,
Histoire des arts industriels au moyen age. Paris, 1862-1866. — R. Garucci, Storia dell'
arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa. Prato, 1874. 4 voll. — J. P. Richter, Die
Mosaiken von Ravenna. Wien, 1878. — G. B. de Rossi, Musaici cristiani. Roma, s. a.
Compare also the works referred to in the preceding chapter.

POSITION OF THE CHURCH TOWARDS ART. 73
before a Christian art began to grow from the antique, and continu
ance led only to a still deeper debasement. This evil state of affairs
was made worse by the limitation of sculpture to every-day work,
by the hasty execution of the paintings, and by the mechanical
methods adopted by the mosaic workers.
Indications of the preponderance of painting over sculpture had
indeed been perceptible as early as the Alexandrian and the Roman
epochs ; but the change did not become absolute until the general
introduction of the peculiar views of Christianity. In contrast to
the outwardness of the Greek and Roman religions, the inner life of
Christianity favored painting, as more expressive of the feelings of
the soul than sculpture. In the former art a comparative lack of
beauty of form is much less felt than in the latter. This loss of ex
ternal loveliness was an inevitable result of the general decline of all
artistic work in the Roman Empire, especially after the second cen
tury. It agreed well with the spirit of early Christianity, which
altogether rejected the charms of the senses, being particularly de
sirous of avoiding, in religious representations, the adoption of the
accustomed types of antique art, — that is to say the ideal human
form. In agreement with the description of the prophet Isaiah, who
had announced the Messiah as of " no form nor comeliness," and as
of " no beauty," the figure of Christ was conceived by the fathers of
the Church in direct opposition to human standards. Thus the gen
eral debasement of art and the conceptions of Christianity worked
together to destroy that perfection of outward appearance which is
the vital principle of all art. Sculpture suffered more than painting
by this combination, inasmuch as the latter could more easily make
up for the loss of formal beauty by the expression of feeling. The
beginnings of Christian painting, as they are seen in the pre-Con-
stantine catacombs, are to be distinguished "from the contemporary
works of pagan Rome only by modest innovations, and by more
hasty and untrained execution. Architectural perspectives, such as
those common in Pompeii, do not appear at all. The simple com
positions were divided into panels, between which were introduced
vases of fruit, thyrsus-rods, hanging draperies and masks, fluttering
birds, floating genii, dolphins, and various mythological beasts — the
decorations being altogether similar to those of the Roman colum-

74

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.

baria (Fig. 43). But this work is everywhere poorer and less artis
tic. The excessive zeal of Origen, who declared the admission of
sculptors and painters into Christian communities to be not per
missible, certainly did not result in their entire exclusion. But we
find nowhere a well-planned, artistic treatment, nowhere the hand
of a true artist. In short, primitive Christianity gave no impulse to
the arts. Representations of sacred subjects were condemned alto
gether by Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria, at the beginning

Fig. 43.— Decorated Crypt in the Catacomb of Calixtus, called that of Oceanus.
of the third century ; and as late as the Council of Elvira in Spain,
in the year 305, paintings of holy subjects (quod colitur et adoratur)
were forbidden. The fear of profanation may have somewhat in
fluenced this decision, though it cannot have been of great weight.
The existence of the danger is, however, proved by the discovery,
in 1856, of a sgraffito upon a wall on the southern slope of the Pal
atine, where a crucifix is shown before which the Christian Alexa-
menos worships the Saviour, who is portrayed with the head of an
ass. The fear that artistic representations might provide cause and

CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AND ALLEGORIES. 75
proof for persecution was certainly a more important consideration ;
and there was always a certain solicitude that pictures might prove
a temptation to return to heathen idolatry, a traditional distrust
which had not been weakened through its inheritance by the Chris
tians from the Jews. The converted Israelites had strong preju
dices, national as well as religious, against art, and these prejudices
were naturally accepted by the Gentiles who entered the Christian
communities. Nevertheless, the asceticism of the fathers of the Church cannot
have been entirely in harmony with the conceptions of Occidental
converts, who had long been accustomed to painted and sculpt
ured representations of the human figure. The laymen were not
always sufficiently imbued with religious transcendentalism to be
come wholly freed from the pleasures of the senses. The varied
scenes of the Old and New Testaments offered as wide a scope for
the imagination of the artists as had previously been found in the
classic poems, which had provided the subjects for Greek and Roman
works df art. The metaphors and parables, among the most salient
features of the Christian doctrines, led to the common employment
of allegorical representations, which had the further advantage of
being comprehended only by the initiated, thus providing no incen
tive to profanation or persecution. Owing to these reasons alle
gories were favored from the earliest times, and, by the middle of
the second century, had become general in Christian art. They
appear simultaneously with the before -mentioned classical and
mythological decorations, indifferent to the Christian conceptions
of that age ; and so universal was this manner of expression that
Clemens of Alexandria, who was otherwise decidedly opposed to
pictures and images, even attempted to reduce the allegories most
commonly employed to a system.
The better known symbols, such as those occurring upon the
coffers of the catacombs, can scarcely be considered as works of art.
Chief among these is the figure of the cross, which at times is com
bined with the monogram of Christ, or is indicated by the form of
an anchor or of a ship with disproportionately long main-yards : the
simplest characters being regarded as the most fitting because ap
proaching most nearly to writing. The favorite A and __ are, in-

76 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
deed, of later date, but the word IX0YS (fish) was early introduced,
its separate letters being the initials of the words 'Ii}<to__ Xp«rro_
9eou Yioe 2wr .p (Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Redeemer).
Most of the pictorial symbols are of a very simple nature, such as
bread, chalice, olive-branch, palm, wreath, vine, and sheep, or fish,
dove, peacock, cock, phoenix, lamb, and stag. To the same category
belong the attributes of the Evangelists, which, without doubt, were
derived from the combinations of winged animals universal among
the earlier Semitic nations, these being at first assigned, without
definite discrimination, to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Such simple ornaments, or rather secret signs, when employed
for the decoration of larger surfaces, could not long satisfy either the
clergy or the builders, and accordingly we find that, notwithstanding
the deprecating attitude of the elders of the Church, representations
from the Old and New Testaments appear among the ornamental
wall-paintings in the cemeteries of the second century. These
were not always merely symbolical, as is evident from the ceme
teries of Domitillae, Priscillse, and Praetextati. That such decorations
were hot absolutely excluded by the Church is proved by the Ne
cropolis of Calixtus, which was under its special supervision. Still
it may be assumed that the ecclesiastical authorities were more in
clined to permit allegorical presentation of mystic symbols, which
were easily understood by the initiated, than paintings of biblical
scenes. Examples of such symbolism are the harvesting of grapes
and olives by genii, — Amor and Psyche, — and, notably, Orpheus play
ing upon the lyre (Fig. 42), the mystic virtue of which is praised
by Clemens of Alexandria, before the end of the second century, —
that is to say, before the statues of Christ and of Orpheus had been
placed side by side in the Lararium of the Emperor Alexander
Severus, and the Christian doctrines thus brought in direct parallel
with antique mythology. The banqueting scenes, which had long
before been common in ancient graves, were readily referred by the
faithful to the miracle at Cana, to the miracle of the loaves and
fishes, and to the eucharist, hence becoming popular at a very early
period. The Old Testament provided subjects for historical paint
ings before the New, scenes prophetic of Christianity being pre
ferred. Chief among these are the Fall of Man (Fig. 45), the Offer-

BIBLICAL SCENES.

77

ings of Cain and Abel, Noah with the dove (Fig. 44), the Sacrifice
of Isaac, Moses at the rock (Fig. 45) and on Mount Sinai, Daniel
in the lion's den, the three youths in the fiery furnace, and Jonah
swallowed by the whale, vomited forth again, and sleeping under the
gourd (Fig. 45) — these last being of frequent occurrence as symbolical
of the death and resurrection of Christ. Subjects from the New
Testament are more rare, and scenes of the Passion are almost en
tirely lacking. . The awakening of Lazarus, as typical of the resur
rection of the dead, is frequent in places of burial, while the miracu-

Fig. 44. — Noah in the Ark. Wall-painting in the Catacomb of Calixtus. •
lous healing of the blind, the lame, and the woman with the issue
of blood are also represented. The parable of the Good Shepherd
(Fig. 45) offered a most fitting illustration of the relation of Christ
to the Church, and was especially common because free from the
iconic tendencies so displeasing to the fathers. Images of Christ
himself do not occur among the paintings of the pre-Constantine
catacombs, and the Virgin was only introduced in the scene of the
Adoration of the Magi. Portraits of the Apostles and of eminent
individuals of the Christian community are also met with, the dead
being usually shown in an attitude of prayer with uplifted hands.

78 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
The method of painting was either fresco or secco, according as
it was executed at the same time with the plastering or was after
wards applied upon an old and dry ground. Color and modelling
were equally rude and inartistic, the former being often restricted
to local tones without effects of chiaroscuro, the latter limited to a
simple drawing of brown lines. The whole design was very corn-

Fig. 45- — Fresco in the Catacomb of S. Agnese. The Good Shepherd and other represen
tations.
monly carried out in two colors, a reddish brown and a bluish green.
The ornamental details were rapidly painted with a full brush upon
the light background, without geometrical exactness, but in well
subordinated colors ; decorative foliage, birds, and genii sometimes
appear in a monochromatic treatment. The execution is never care
ful and accurate, but a certain taste and facility are observable. As

BASILICA OF JUNIUS BASSUS. 79
might be supposed from the serious frame of mind natural to paint
ers working in these subterranean tombs, the general character of
the representations is quiet and even solemn, but they offer little
expression of that inner life^of the soul which devout believers of
the present day so often expect to find. The number of figures
taking part in the sacred scenes is small and their attitudes conven
tional, so that the general impression is rather symbolic than histor
ical and real.
Before the age of Constantine Christian painting was almost en
tirely restricted to the subterranean cemeteries. It appears proba
ble that the places of worship above-ground were as rarely deco
rated with Christian subjects as they were erected for Christian
purposes. The Basilica of Junius Bassus in Rome, built by him in
the year 317 for pagan use, and given to the Church in 470 by Fl.
Valila (afterwards known as S. Andrea in Catabarbara), proves how
little objection the early Christians made to the retention of pro
fane wall-paintings already existing in halls consecrated to the new
worship. Pope Simplicius considered it only necessary to give the
apse a Christian character by the introduction of new mosaics, and
the walls of the Basilica retained their original adornments until the
unfortunate demolition of the entire edifice in the sixteenth century.
These decorations (Fig. 46), known by descriptions and drawings
made shortly before their destruction, were executed in a truly
magnificent incrustation (opus sectile), of the most costly materials,
and represented various mythological subjects and scenes from pro
fane history. In the times before Constantine the Christians appear
to have been even more conservative. But when, after the cessation
of the persecutions, Christianity emerged from the gloomy cata
combs, and buildings were erected solely for ecclesiastical purposes,
painting found an important field in the enormous wall-surfaces of
the basilicas, which needed the adornment of color the more because
of their poverty in architectural memberment.
This adornment took the form of mosaics, a manner of decora
tion which had been employed for floors from the earliest times, but
which previously had only in rare instances been extended to walls.
The introduction of perspective views, and especially of such figure
subjects as occur in the mosaics- of Pompeii, is not aesthetically jus-

80 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
tifiable in the ornamentation of a level floor, which should be re
stricted to flat patterns. It was with a just appreciation of this
principle of design that the Christians greatly simplified the inlaying
of their pavements. For the elaborate decoration of walls, on the
other hand, mosaic work
j-va,__ ^ ggQ^IX*^'*'-'*^'^^'

offered a rich and mon
umental method of in
crustation, the brilliancy
and permanency of which
were effective even when
the artistic design and
execution were mediocre.
This work was not in
tended to be seen in
very close proximity; it
was applied only to the
upper part of the walls
of the apse, the triumph
al arch, the nave, and
sometimes, also, to the
facade of the basilicas,
and to the conches and
cupolas of the churches
of concentric plan, — the
lower part of the walls
being simply reveted
with slabs of colored
marble. In the time of Con
stantine pictorial mosa
ics must have been rare.
In those parts of the Baptistery of the Lateran and of the Mort
uary Chapel of Constantia where the original construction still re
mains, decorations of this kind are limited to golden foliage upon
blue ground, with birds, genii, and various Christian symbols in the
panels. The first connected compositions probably made their ap
pearance in the apses. The oldest known example is the mosaic of

Fig. 46. — Wall -decoration of the Basilica of Junius
Bassus. After a drawing by A. da Sangallo, now
in the Barberini Library.

APSE OF S. PUDENZIANA.

8l

S. Pudenziana in Rome, dating to the end of the fourth century
(Fig- 47)- It represents Christ enthroned in the middle of a low
exedra, beyond the tiled roof of which are seen the buildings of the
Heavenly Jerusalem and a hill surmounted by a cross. At the feet
of the Saviour sit ten of the twelve apostles,— the two missing, and
the lower part of the bodies of those remaining, were obliterated
during the restoration made in the year 1588. The characteristic
attitudes and the expression of the faces are still apparent, — the
relative importance of St. Peter and St. Paul, who are seen in profile,
being indicated by their positions next to the throne. Behind them

Fig. 47. — Mosaic in the Apse of S. Pudenziana in Rome.

stand two women holding wreaths, who may be considered either as
S. Pudenziana and St. Praxedis, or as representatives of the Church
of the Jews and the Church of the Gentiles. The symbols of
the Evangelists float above in the blue sky, which is streaked with
light clouds. The design is not without life and truth, being in this
respect equal to the best frescos in the catacombs of the third and
fourth century, while it far surpasses them in correctness and beauty
of form and in mechanical execution.
The superiority of the mosaics over the wall-paintings is not
due to any improvement in the general style of art ; this could only
have been brought about through the introduction of entirely new
6

82 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
elements. But the influence of the altered position of the Church
in regard to pictorial decorations is sufficiently plain, — an active
encouragement having, in the course of years, taken the place of
the decided disapprobation at first felt in regard to all representa
tions of the human form. Constantine, Valentinian, Valens, and
Gratian had accorded important privileges to painters and mosaic
workers, and these, as well as other emperors, had repeatedly rec
ommended the preservation of antique masterpieces as the best
models. The effect of this was greatly to improve the training of
all artists, and mention is particularly made that in Antioch the
schools of the rhetoricians and philosophers were deserted, while
the studios of painters and sculptors were crowded. But all such
protection and encouragement were of little more avail than is
medical aid to a hopelessly decrepit body: the limits of life might
be somewhat extended, and disease for a time arrested, but the or
ganism could not be rejuvenated by such means.
The works of the fifth century show a still further decadence,
well illustrated by such examples as the mosaic on the front wall
of S. Sabina, executed between the years 422 and 432, representing
personifications of the Church of the Jews and the Church of the
Gentiles, — the series of biblical scenes on the lateral walls of
S. Maria Maggiore (A.D. 432-440), — and especially the mosaic
upon the triumphal arch of S. Paolo fuori le mura, which is to be
ascribed to the year 440 (Fig. 48). The last of these is so inferior
to the historical subjects depicted in S. Maria Maggiore, that were
it not for the certainty derived from an inscription of the Empress
Galla Placidia, we should hardly believe so great a deterioration
possible in so short a time, and should have assumed a much later
date. The figures of the apostles at the bottom of the arch still
maintain a certain classic correctness and dignity, but the drawing
of the breast and the expression of the face of Christ are barbar
ously distorted, and the gestures of the twenty-four elders of the
Church helpless and wooden. The background of gold, at that time
not common in Rome, and the Byzantine nationality of the Empress
who presented this mosaic to the Church, naturally lead to the sup
position that we have here to deal with the work of designers from
Ravenna, who had not been able to profit by the opportunities for

TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF S. PAOLO.

83

studying the antique models through which the artists of Rome
itself still preserved the slight degree of classic excellence apparent
in the decorations of S. Maria Maggiore.
The characteristics of the mosaic upon the triumphal arch of
S. Paolo are to be considered rather as due to what may be called
proto-Byzantine influences, than taken as direct evidences of the
debasement of Roman art in the fifth century. On the other hand,
the mosaic in the apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano (Fig. 49), which is
nearly a hundred years later than the preceding work, is in every

Fig. 48. — Mosaic on the Triumphal Arch of S. Paolo fuori le mura in Rome.

way an example of such debasement, and may perhaps be regarded
as the last monument of early Christian art in Rome. The figure
of Christ stands in the centre, the right arm uplifted in the atti
tude of teaching, while the patrons of the Church, St. Cosmo and
St. Damian, advance upon either side, preceded by the four chief
apostles. In general composition, as well as in the proportion of
the figures and the drapery, this work is far superior to that in
S. Paolo ; but even here a certain senile degeneration may be ob
served in the heads of the saints, and the color and shadows of the
garments display a greater degree of hardness than can be explained

84

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.

and excused by the inherent defects of mosaic work. The diligence
and exactness required by this mode of execution had indeed been
of beneficial effect, and the hasty and careless style of the frescos
in the catacombs had been entirely avoided; but the inlaying of
small cubes of colored glass and stone was no less attended with
signal disadvantages. A harmonious blending of color was ex
tremely difficult to attain, and the greatest possible care in execu
tion could not compensate for the lost sense of artistic composition,

Fig. 49. — Mosaic in the Apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano in Rome.

and of just relation between the figures and the landscape of the
background, which, in some slight degree at least, had been main
tained in the mosaic of S. Pudenziana. In later works the figures
stand isolated like statues, the heads are all full-face, while the sky
and landscape, entirely without perspective, are nothing more than
conventional indications.
It would not be justifiable to speak of a style of mosaic pecul
iarly Roman ; but it is probable that, throughout Italy, the work
ers in this branch during the fifth and sixth centuries came under
Roman influence, equally with all other Italian artists of that period.

MOSAICS OF RAVENNA. 85
The mosaics of Milan, in SS. Satiro e Aquilino, and of Naples, in
the Baptistery of the Cathedral, do not contradict this assumption.
In Ravenna, however, there appears at an early period a certain
independence, or, to speak more correctly, a combination of Occi
dental and Oriental motives in which the latter are the more promi
nent. As has been pointed out in treating of the architecture of
Ravenna, this combination was determined by the position and
commercial relations of that city, even at the time when it was
still the chosen capital of the Emperor of the West ; and these in
fluences naturally became still more decisive when it was subse
quently degraded to a mere official residence of a Byzantine exarch,
in the middle of the sixth century, after fifty years' subjugation to
the Ostrogoths.
The mosaics of Ravenna, antedating the age of Justinian, do
not greatly differ from contemporary Roman works. The artistic
character of those in the Baptistery of the Orthodox sect (S. Gio
vanni in Fonte, built between the years 425 and 430) and those of
the Mortuary Chapel of Galla Placidia (SS. Nazaro e Celso, built
before the year 450) is superior to that of the mosaics in the
Basilica of S. Paolo in Rome ; and these effective decorations have
the advantage of being seen entire, and in a comparatively perfect
state of preservation. The figures of St. John the Baptist in the
cupola of the Baptistery, and of the Good Shepherd in the tympa-
non above the entrance to the mortuary chapel, have, in composi
tion, drawing, action, and picturesque conception, better preserved
the antique traditions of good workmanship than any Roman mo
saic, with the exception of that in the apse of S. Pudenziana. Still,
the superior beauty of these figures may, in great measure, be
attributed to the individual ability of the artists who executed
them. And, as in all the other decorations of these two build
ings, a certain coarseness of detail is apparent, from which the
Roman works were free, at least until the beginning of the sixth
century. It is not strange that the mosaics, dating to the period when
Ravenna was occupied by the Ostrogoths, A.D. 497 to 553, often
show the work of untrained hands. This is the case in the Baptis
tery of the Arians (S. Maria in Cosmedin) and in the Court Church

86 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
of Theodoric (the Basilica of S. Martino in coelo aureo), afterwards
known as S. Apollinare nuovo. The influences which introduced
into architecture the barbarous style of the Palace facade and the
Tomb of Theodoric appeared also in the incrusted decorations of
the walls, — closely as these were imitated from earlier works of the
kind in Ravenna. The mosaics in the nave of S. Martino in coelo
aureo, for the greater part contemporaneous with the erection of
that building, are almost perfectly preserved, and are particularly
interesting on account of their subjects : the scene of the Passion
being represented, with omission of the more painful episodes of
the Scourging of Christ, the Crown of Thorns, and the Crucifixion.
After the expulsion of the Ostrogoths from Northern Italy the
country became a Byzantine province, and Oriental influences en
tirely superseded these traces of northern barbarism. As has been
previously shown, in the consideration of the architecture of the
Eastern Empire, the characteristics of Byzantine art had been de
termined, in the new capital on the Bosporus, by that combination
of Graeco- Roman and Oriental elements from which resulted the
popular civilization, the religion, and the imperialism of the East.
These characteristics are even more strikingly evident in the paint
ings and in the monumental decorations than in the architecture
of Byzantium. They exhibit most clearly the servile subjugation
of the people, the luxurious and magnificent ceremonial of the
Court and Church, the crafty despotism of the emperors, in contrast
to the republicanism which still retained its hold upon the western
world, and the low superstition which had taken the place of the
comparatively apostolic relations of Roman Christianity.
Some evidences of this are observable in Ravenna after the di
vision of the empire in A. D. 395 ; but when the city was made the
residence of the Exarch of the East it became even more Byzantine
than Byzantium itself. Only a few years after the completion of
the classic mosaics in the apse of the Roman Basilica of St. Cosmo
and St. Damian, there appeared in Ravenna a number of Byzantine
works by which a new era of Christian art may be said to have been
inaugurated. Among these are the lower series of mosaics in the
nave of S. Apollinare nuovo, and a fragment of a portrait of Jus
tinian in the chapel of All Saints in the same church (Fig. 50), — the

MOSAICS OF RAVENNA.

87

mosaics in the private chapel of the Archiepiscopal Palace, — and,
notably, those in the choir of S. Vitale, which building has been al
ready described as one of the earliest churches of extended con
centric plan. The forensic dress, still universal in Roman repre
sentations, is here exchanged for courtly and liturgic garments, the
forms and attitudes being cramped and stiffened to a mere parade,

Fig. 50.  Mosaic Portrait of the Emperor Justinian in the Chapel of All Saints of
S. Apollinare nuovo in Ravenna.
which takes the place of all freedom of action, truth to nature, and,
consequently, of all ideal beauty. The proportions of the human
body are neglected and incorrect, and even those parts, like the
face, hands, and feet, which are not hidden by the pretentious gar
ments and accessories, have lost not only their natural but their
traditionally correct forms ; the extremities are more a*nd more re
duced in size, and a certain senile expression appears in faces both

88 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
old and young. A dead and cold asceticism has taken the place
of observation and delight in healthy nature.
This change of style is most noticeable in the treatment of .
unusual subjects. In the accustomed religious representations a
certain imitation of the early Christian and Roman types was un
avoidable, as is evident in the group in one of the conches of S.
Vitale, where Christ appears enthroned between St. Vitalis and the
founder of the church, Bishop Ecclesius, — this being in all proba
bility the oldest mosaic in the building, and consequently referable
to the# time before Justinian. Very different is the portrayal of
those new subjects which in themselves agreed so well with Byzan
tine conceptions, such as the two ceremonial pictures in the choir,
representing upon, one side the Emperor Justinian, surrounded by
his senators and guards, and accompanied by the Bishop Max-
imian and his ecclesiastical officials, and on the other the Empress
Theodora, carrying a votive offering and followed by the ladies of
her court. (Fig. 51.) In contrast to the almost contemporaneous
mosaic in the apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano the modelling is here
nothing more than a hard outline of straight bars. As was once
the case in Assyria, the diadems of pearls, the necklaces and em
broideries, the patterns of stuffs and borders are made the most
prominent and important features. The lineaments of the stiff and
ugly faces are rendered in hard, broad lines ; the staring eyes are
too large ; the cramped hands and helpless feet have lost all organic
connection with the body, of which but little is to be seen behind
the long and badly drawn garments.
In the other mosaics of S. Vitale we find the same stiffness and
awkwardness of the outlines, the same senility and vacancy of the
features, — in short, the same perversion of old artistic traditions, and
incapacity in dealing with new tasks. The mannerism is so pervasive
that all individual character, all organic movement, all human sen
timent is entirely absent. The study of earlier works of art, which
had long taken the place of a direct observation of nature, was
neglected. In order to convey to the observer any conception of
the scene depicted, the chief attention was devoted to the merely
exterior accessories ; the lifeless forms were imitated from conven
tional types, which, in course of time, had been empirically deter-

MOSAICS OF RAVENNA.

89

mined. These types, far removed from any ideal perfection of the
human body, these figures of saints without physical and without
psychical character, were at last to. be distinguished only by the
names inscribed at their sides. The value of the mosaics was re
duced to the general effect of their colors as seen in the dim in
terior of the Byzantine churches, the richness of this decoration
being dependent chiefly upon the harmonious tones of the pat
terned stuffs and jewelled borders of the draperies, the designs of
which were generally borrowed from Oriental motives.

Fig. 51. — The Empress Theodora with the Ladies of her Court in S. Vitale. Mosaic in
that Church.

In Ravenna the difference between the mosaics of S. Vitale and
the others of this debased style is so slight that it is difficult to
class them chronologically. The incrusted decorations in the Basil
ica of S. Apollinare in Classe are even harder and stiffer than those
of the before-mentioned church, but this may perhaps be explained
by the fact that few of these works are contemporaneous with the
original building of the Basilica, which was dedicated in the year
549, while those in the lower part, representing the ceremonial
grant of privileges to Bishop Reparatus (?) by Constantine IV.,

90 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
Heraclius, and Tiberius, may be as recent as the years between 672
and 677. Moreover, the restorations of these mosaics have been so
numerous that the conclusions arrived at from their present appear
ance are perhaps deceptive.
In Rome, also, afterthe end of the sixth century, two influences
combined to hasten the degeneration of mosaic work : on the one
hand the introduction of barbarous elements into the native art ;
on the other the imitation of Byzantine models. Both these ten
dencies are recognizable in the mosaic upon the triumphal arch in
S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, which was probably executed under Pope
Pelagius II. (A.D. 578-590), and now appears upon the inner side
of the arch because of the addition, in later times, of a chief nave in
place of the original apse. The same characteristics are evident in
a similar mosaic in the apse of S. Teodoro, on the north-western
slope of the Palatine, and especially in the extensive incrustations
in the apse of S. Agnese, which probably date to the original con
struction of that edifice in the years between 625 and 638 (Fig.
52). The latter example is without parallel in stiffness and man
nerism, in the excessively long proportions of the human body, the
cramped and diminutive extremities, in flatness of the draperies
and the formlessness of their wide borders. The works subsequent
to the middle of the seventh century, like the mosaics in the apse
of S. Venanzio, a chapel of the Baptistery of the Lateran, and those
of S. Stefano rotondo are similar in general character to the dec
orations of S. Agnese. The mosaic on the triumphal arch of S.
Nereo ed Achilleo, near the Baths of Caracalla, those in the apse
of S. Maria della navicella on the Caelius, and in that of S. Pras
sede, show that the influence of the energetic Leo III., the con
temporary of Charlemagne, could do little more than delay for a
short time the continually progressing debasement of the art. The
mosaics in the apses of S. Cecilia and S. Marco are again distinctly
inferior to those preceding them, and mark a further stage in the
decline towards barbarism.
In the Eastern Empire, the true home of Byzantine art, fewer
specimens of the earliest mosaic works have been preserved' than
are found in Ravenna and Rome. Indications seem to show that,
in the ages before Justinian, painting in the Orient was almost en-

MOSAICS OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE.

91

tirely dependent upon Occidental schools, — the influence of the
farther East, in this branch of art, not making itself felt before the
middle of the sixth century. The mosaics in the Church of St.
George in Salonica are similar
in style to those in the two
Baptisteries of Ravenna, and
do not exhibit the specifically
Byzantine character described
above. Even in some of the
incrustations in the Church of
St. Sophia in Constantinople,
which possibly are as old as the
time of Justinian, there is still
evident a certain classic spirit
of design, — the last attempt to
maintain the artistic traditions
of the antique. But it is im
possible to refer with certainty
any of the mosaics in this chief
church of Byzantium to the
sixth century. The large pict
ure in the tympanon above the
middle entrance to the narthex,
showing a sovereign in adora
tion before Christ, was at first
supposed, from its similarity to
the mosaic in Ravenna inscribed
with the name of Justinian, to
be the portrait of that ruler,
but it has since been proved to
represent an emperor of a much
later epoch, either Heraclius
(A. D. 610-640) or Basilius the
Macedonian (A.D. 867-886). ^
The artistic monuments of the Byzantine Empire have not as yet
been adequately investigated, and it is scarcely to be hoped that
many memorials of the earliest periods of development will there

Fig. 52. — St. Agnes. Mosaic in the Apse of
the Church of S. Agnese.

92 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
be discovered, — the terrible uprisings of the Iconoclasts in the
eighth century having destroyed nearly all the works of sculpture
and painted decorations preceding their age.
It has been asserted that the devastations of the Iconoclasts led
to the introduction of a distinct artistic style ; this perhaps goes too
far, still it is certain that the movement exercised a decided influ
ence upon the later tendencies of Byzantine painting. The most
noticeable effect was the change in the subjects represented. The
previous inclination to fill the churches with pictures had gone be
yond the decoration of the walls, and led to the idolatrous worship
of single figures. These miraculous images were not admitted to be
the work of man, but were proclaimed to have fallen from heaven,
to have been dug from the bowels of the earth, or obtained in some
similar mysterious manner. Others were said to be as old as the
religion itself, such as the picture of Christ in Edessa, given by the
Saviour himself to the messengers of King Abgarus, and the many
portraits of the Madonna painted by the Evangelist Luke, etc.
Idolatry of this kind excited the ridicule of the unbelieving, the
serious disapprobation of the Church, and, finally, the forcible inter
ference of the temporal powers. In the year 726 the Emperor Leo,
the Isaurian, pronounced his momentous edict against the worship
of images, in consequence of which he and his successors upon the
Eastern throne had many and bloody encounters with the fanatical
populace, excited by certain monastic sectaries. This destruction
of earlier artistic monuments, and interference with the production
of the customary sacred pictures, resulted in a change in the tra
ditional manner of representation, and gave to all succeeding Byzan
tine art a somewhat different character. The objections had not
been raised against painting itself, but against the portrayal of
^Christ, of the Virgin, and of the Saints ; thus the attention of artists
was diverted from sacred subjects to other themes, and the merely
decorative treatment of the ecclesiastical edifices again became of
importance. Upon the whole this was an advantage. It was a return to the
usages of the earlier Christians, and to the conceptions entertained
by Tertullian, which had been founded upon a fear of the very de
generation combated by the emperors of the eighth century. The

MINIATURES. 93
decorative style promoted effects of color and favored the introduc
tion of Oriental motives, which were quite in character with the love
of magnificence and display common to the period, and which for
the incrusted treatment of surfaces were far superior to those of the
Occident. The representation of profane instead of hieratic sub
jects opened a wide field for the exercise of new ideas, and this
class of work found extensive application in the rapidly increasing
palaces. The adversaries of the Iconoclasts made many complaints
that the sacred edifices were disfigured by the new style of painting,
asserting, for instance, that the plant forms and birds, which took
the place of the Christian symbols and devotional images in a
Church of the Virgin in one of the quarters of Constantinople, gave
the building the appearance of "a fruit -garden and bird-cage."
But this taunt should rather be ascribed to the prejudices of party
feeling than taken as a proof of any real unsightliness. If the dec
orative figures which superseded the pictures of Christ and the
Virgin had not in themselves been pleasing they would hardly have
continued to be introduced into the churches after the active inter
ference of the Iconoclasts had been brought to an end by the de
cisions of the Council of Nicea, in the year 787. The works of the
Emperor Theophilus (A.D. 829-842) may serve as an illustration
of this retention of profane subjects in a later age. \
One branch of the art, the painting of miniatures, was greatly
advanced by the action of the Iconoclasts. Illuminated manuscripts
had been known from the earliest times and were especially common
in Egypt ; but in the classic period they were comparatively rare,
being employed only for didactic works, such as the writings of
physicians, mathematicians, astronomers, and architects. The libra
ries of the Diadochi do not appear to have contained many works of
this kind, and M. Varro's " Hebdomades vel De Imaginibus " was
certainly an exception. The word miniature itself, is of great an
tiquity, its derivation pointing to a time when a simple pen drawing
or writing was touched up with red lead (minium). But a system
atic employment of illumination as a branch of art did not obtain
until Christian times.
We are acquainted with no miniatures older than the epoch of
Constantine. The illustrations of the Iliad in the Ambrosiana in

94

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.

Milan, and those of the Vatican Virgil, do not antedate the fifth
century ; while those in the manuscript of Terence in the Vatican,
and in that of Nicander in the National Library of Paris, although
imitated from classic, or at all events pre-Constantine models, are
themselves the work of a still later period. There are few examples
of the illumination of other than religious writings, the most perfect

Fig- 53-— Miniature from the Codex of Dioscorides, now in the Imperial Library of
Vienna.

and most classic of these being the Codex of Dioscorides, now in
the Imperial Library of Vienna, which was executed about the year
500 for the Princess Juliana Anicia, daughter of Placidia and Olyb-
rius. Throughout this work, and especially in the dedicatory illus
tration (Fig. 53), there is evident an almost antique composition and
drawing, combined with a careful and well-studied execution which

ILLUMINATED CODICES. 95
contrasts most favorably with the hasty and incorrect character of
other representations of that age. Although these miniatures must
be attributed to an artist of the Eastern Empire, they are but little
disfigured by the defects of the Byzantine style. The manuscript
contains a series of scientific illustrations — drawings of plants, snakes,
beetles, and birds, — resembling in treatment those of the didactic
works of the Greeks and Romans.
The Christian codices of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries,
although magnificently written in golden letters upon purple parch
ment, are illustrated with miniatures of an extremely coarse and
incorrect style. This is the case with the fragment of a Genesis in

Fig- 54- — Jacob and his Sons. From Genesis, now in the Imperial Library of Vienna.
the Greek language, now in the Imperial Library of Vienna, in
which the scenes are depicted with a certain dramatie life and in
tensity, but are marred by careless execution and neglect of all the
laws of composition: the designer contenting himself with repre
senting his subject in the most crude and prosaic form by which his
idea could be conveyed (Fig. 54). In all these miniatures but little
distinction can be made between the work of Greek and of Roman
schools, the art of illumination differing in this respect from that of
monumental painting. The leaves of a Latin Bible, dating to the
sixth century, now in the Royal Library of Berlin, are decidedly
superior in design and execution ; but this may in some measure be

96 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.
explained by the greater individual ability of the artist. This is
also the case with a Book of Joshua, of the same age, in the Library
of the Vatican, in which the close imitation of an earlier original
and the excellence of the work are due rather to an especially
devoted and careful copyist than to any direct influence of the
Occidental art of that period. In general the illuminations of the
Western Empire were vastly inferior to the two specimens just
mentioned ; for instance, the Latin Bible from the Cloister of Mont-
amiata, in the Laurentiana of Florence, is far more rude and inartist
ic, although of about the same date. It is natural that the minia
tures should be the more naive and unskilful the more remote the
district in which they originated ; indeed it is surprising that, even
in such provincial works, traces of classic principles of design are
still recognizable. These characteristics appear in a Syrian Gospel,
in the Laurentiana of Florence, written in the year 586, by a priest
named Rabula, at Zagba, in Mesopotamia, which is remarkable for
a picture of the Crucifixion, one of the earliest known representa
tions of this subject (Fig. 55).
The action of the Iconoclasts was as destructive to the minia
tures and illuminated manuscripts of the preceding ages of the
Eastern Empire as it was to its monumental paintings. Not only
single copies, but entire collections of illustrated books were de
stroyed, the Library of Constantinople being burned in the year
730. But the restrictions placed upon painting by the Council of
A.D. 787 were not extended to miniatures and illuminations, and
the greater freedom permitted in the choice of subjects was favor
able to the development of these minor branches of art. The
Byzantine Court, especially during the sway of the Macedonian
dynasty, did much to promote scientific culture, whereby the pro
duction of illustrated manuscripts was increased. Still, it is not
possible to recognize any important advance in illuminations during
the last half of the ninth and the first half of the tenth centuries,
notwithstanding the fact that several important examples of the
art date to this period. Among these may be mentioned the Codex
of Gregory of Nazianzos, now in the National Library of Paris,
written between the years 867 and 886, and adorned with minia
tures representing a great variety of subjects; also the Topogra-

ILLUMINATIONS OF THE TENTH CENTURY.

97

phy of Cosmos, in the Vatican, a work directly imitated from older
models, arid displaying an antique perfection of form very remark
able in this age. And, finally, a Psalter of the beginning of the

Fig- 55- — Miniature from the Syrian Gospel of Zagba, now in the Laurentiana in Florence.

tenth century, and a Gospel of not much later date, both in the
National Library of Paris, which are distinguished by a free treat
ment, combined with antique conceptions and methods of design.
Compared with these earlier works, a great decline of the art is
7

98

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.

evident in manuscripts dating to the end of the tenth century, even
in those executed by order of the emperors. In the before -men
tioned Psalter the design of the illustrations has an almost antique
beauty, very similar to the wall-paintings of Pompeii; but before
the termination of the eleventh century the figures represented are
little better than puppets.
All attempt to convey an
idea of the proportions and
forms of the human body
is given up, the images are
ranged side by side with
out mutual relations, and,
as had been the case two
thousand years before in
Assyria, all the character
istics of drapery were ig
nored in the treatment of
the robes: the sack -like
surfaces being filled in with
flat patterns of damask and
embroidery. The composi
tion is entirely wanting in
the higher qualities of ar
tistic conception; the forms
are stiff and mechanical,
and the only tolerable feat
ures of the work are to be
found in its mechanical ex
ecution, — the choice and
employment of colors be
ing g9od, and the details
being rendered with much neatness and accuracy (Fig. 56).
A similar decadence is also evident in monumental painting, and
especially in mosaic work, which soon lost the impetus given to it
by the ascension to the throne of Basilius I. the Macedonian, in the
year 867. Few of the specimens now preserved can be accurately
dated ; but historical accounts indicate an extensive production,

Fig. 56. — The Emperor Manuel Palseologus, with
the Imperial Prince and Princess. Miniature
from a Byzantine Codex now in the Louvre.

MODELS OF MOUNT ATHOS. 99
and, in some measure, an original style to have been maintained
towards the close of the ninth century. This was particularly the
case with the representation of profane subjects, the walls of the
palaces being covered with historical scenes alternating with floral
decorations. The Church itself interfered with the further devel
opment of religious art : the second Council of Nicea issuing the de
cree that the design of sacred subjects should not be left to the
invention of the artist, who was required to imitate certain fixed
models (probata legislatid), and strictly to follow the ecclesiastical
traditions. This put an end to all original creation, and restricted
sacred painting to a schematic repetition of given recipes, reducing
religious art to a mere trade. The use of books of models, and
practical apprenticeship, took the place of talent and individuality,
all artistic independence being not only unnecessary but absolutely
forbidden. The works of Dionysios of Fourna-Agrapha and o*f
Kyrillos of Chios, dating to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
known as the models of Mount Athos, served as the standard for
five hundred years, and gave not only the necessary technical in
struction in painting, but also the tenets of composition and types
of all the canonical ideas, — to deviate from which was heresy.
It would be wrong, however, to characterize this action of the
Church as the sole, or even as the chief factor in the debasement
of Byzantine art. The degeneration was intimately connected with
the continual decline of all Byzantine culture, which, after a su
perficial contact with the civilization of the farther East, was inca
pable of assimilating new and vital elements. The Eastern Empire
could not be regenerated. The last traces of antique art were lost
in soulless imitation of imitations ; artistic work became from age
to age more mechanical and more unreal, losing all appreciation
and even pretence of beauty, which quality, in as far as the human
body was concerned, was held by the ascetic tenets of the Christian
Church not only in disesteem but in positive condemnation. The
love of magnificent and careful execution, and of harmonious and
decorative effects, was the last of good attributes to retain its hold,
appearing, even to-day, in the work of those people living to the
north and east of the Black Sea whose art has developed upon the
Byzantine basis.

IOO

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING.

The ecclesiastical canonization and determination of the types
admitted to be orthodox, and especially the maintenance of a didac
tic and moral character, so influential among races in many respects
little better than half civilized, worked together to extend the exer
cise of the art of painting, which, during the troublous times of
the Iconoclasts, had been almost entirely restricted to miniatures.
Thus it came to pass that, in the lands subject to the Greek Church,
no surface of a wall or vault, indeed scarcely a
pier or column, was without pictorial decora
tion, no hovel was without its ikonostasis, the
breast of no peasant without its painted amu
let. The workman-like training resulting from
this excessive production had a direct effect
upon other branches of artistic industry. Much
attention was paid to textile art, liturgic and
courtly garments as well as robes of honor being
embroidered with designs similar in motive to
those of the Orient. Examples of these are
the dress of the Empress Theodora upon the
mosaic of S. Vitale (Fig. 51), and the imperial
dalmatica, which is said to have been used at
the coronation of Charlemagne in Rome, but
which is more probably a Greek work of the
eleventh century. Cloisonne enamel was great
ly in favor because of its durability and brilliant
effect. This manner of treatment was not in
troduced until considerably later than the time
in the Library of s. of Justinian, when it was employed for the dec-
Marco, Venice. oration of ecclesiastical metal work, such as cru
cifixes, reliquaries, the covers of sacred books,
chalices, etc., and also for objects of princely luxury. In point of
execution, enamels of this kind were related both to the work of
goldsmiths in relief and to miniature painting (Fig. 57). Threads
of gold filigree were soldered upon plates of gold or gilt, these
forming the visible borders of the local colors, which were cast as
a flux into the spaces between them. The effect thus produced is
that of a miniature mosaic or incrustation. The largest and most

Fig. 57- — Byzantine En
amel from the Bind
ing of a Codex now

RESTRICTIONS OF SCULPTURE. IOI
important specimen of cloisonne enamel is the Pala d'oro, on the
high altar of the Church of St. Mark in Venice. This work, repre
senting a great number of figures, is assumed, with much probabil
ity to have been executed in Constantinople, A.D. 976, as an ante-
pendium. A similar combination of painting and jewellery appears
in the revetment of pictures, especially those of the Virgin, with gar
ments, backgrounds, halos, etc., of beaten metal, or of enamels and
precious stones set in gold and silver. This barbarous decoration
did not, however, become common until a comparatively late period.
The development of sculpture among the early Christians and
Byzantines was analagous to that of painting. The position of the
former art was in so far the more favorable as it could not well be
executed with the hasty carelessness possible in the frescos, and as
it could not become a merely mechanical trade, like mosaic work.
But sculpture, from the very beginning of the period now under
consideration, was comparatively neglected, and in the course of
succeeding centuries was more and more rarely employed for im
portant works. It was far less adapted to the genius of Christian
ity than was painting. Those fathers of the Church who inveighed
against the fine arts objected most of all to sculpture, fearing the
danger of paganism to Christian communities rather from the idol
atrous adoption of carved images of the ancient gods than from
any works of painting, which latter art was in classic times but sei-
dom employed for the representation of sacred subjects. More
over, the Mosaic law had particularly condemned sculpture, and
the prejudices of the Jewish converts naturally exercised a decisive
influence upon the attitude of. the primitive Church in such mat
ters. Thus from the outset sculpture was almost restricted to pro
fane work, being but rarely extended to tombs, sarcophagi, etc.,
and to liturgic utensils, in which application the art was degraded
to mere decoration. For representations of the Godhead sculpture
was deemed entirely unfit.
The employment of sculpture for profane subjects was contin
ued, and even increased, after Constantine had established Chris
tianity as the official religion of the State. The portrait statues
of that emperor display the debased style which has been described

102 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
in treating of the Triumphal Arch of Constantine in Rome* Still
it is evident that the traditions of good workmanship inherited
from classic times were longer retained in sculpture than in paint
ing, and particularly in mosaic work. The conventional attitudes
and gestures which had been established by the typical portrait
statues of the imperial age of Rome did much to maintain this
fixity of. style, as they took in great measure the place of artistic
invention and direct study of nature, which was entirely lacking
in these latter centuries. On the other hand, the exhibition of
statues of this kind in public places tended greatly to increase the
production. At the time of Ammianus Marcellinus the upper
classes took extreme satisfaction in having themselves immortal
ized by images of gilded bronze, and it was the summit of ambition
to be honored by an emperor or by a municipality with such a
portrait statue. The excavations in the Forum Romanum and in
the Forum of Trajan in Rome have brought to light a great num
ber of pedestals, the inscriptions upon which refer to celebrated
men of this late period.
The portrait statues of the emperors were especially numerous
among these works. The most notable specimen preserved until
the present day, and at the same time one of the largest of ancient
sculptures known, is the bronze statue of Theodosius (?) in Barletta.
A great number of similar images, known from accounts of con
temporary writers, have been destroyed for the value of their metal.
Some of the most important among these were elevated upon mon
umental columns, like those of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
Aurelius in Rome ; this variety became particularly common in
Byzantium after the erection of a column of porphyry eighty feet
high by the Emperor Constantine. The silver portrait statues of
Arcadius and Honorius were followed, in the year 543, by the
equestrian statue of Justinian, near the Church of St. Sophia, in
Constantinople, which important work was unfortunately melted
down in the sixteenth century, with the bronze column upon which
it stood. It is fully described by Byzantine authors, who speak of it
as the work of a certain Eustathius, — the last Greek sculptor whose
* " History of Ancient Art," by Dr. Franz von Reber. Am. Ed. p. 463.

PORTRAIT STATUES. IO3
name is known to history. The column, reveted with bronze, was
one hundred and five feet high. Upon the projecting abacus of its
capital stood the colossal horse, which, together with the imperial
rider, was about 6 m. high. From the accounts given the figures
appear to have resembled in design the Capitoline equestrian statue
of Marcus Aurelius. This combination of an equestrian statue
with a column is contrary to aesthetic principles, and the same ob
jection may be urged with equal force against the portrait statues
of women elevated upon tall supports, such, for instance, as that of
the Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian. The custom of erecting
imperial images of this kind continued for two centuries after the age
of Justinian, the later works being also known by descriptions and,
in rare instances, — such as the statue of Phokas, dating to the year
608, — by fragmentary remains. The imperial portraits last men
tioned in literature are those of Constantine VI., who died A.D. 787.
In works of sculpture such as these Christian art had no part :
the religious character was recognizable only by the subject repre
sented, not in any way by the artistic treatment. The images of
Christ, of St. Peter, and of St. Hippolytus, whether known by de
scriptions or by the statues themselves, were neither iconic nor
indeed in any way peculiarly Christian, but belonged to general
classes universal in antiquity, namely, when standing, to the ideal
statues of philosophers and poets, and when sitting, to those of
rhetoricians. There is no good reason to doubt the existence of
that image of Christ which, as Eusebius of Caesarea tells us, was
dedicated at Paneas, or at Caesarea Philippi, in Palestine, by the
woman who was healed of an issue of blood, which statue is said
to have been thrown down by the Emperor Julian the apostate,
and carried off by the Christians to a church. But the portrait-
like' resemblance of such a figure is more than questionable; it
could at best have been made only according to a verbal descrip
tion ; such a work had at first no devotional significance, and should
be classed with the honorary statues of celebrated men. The same
was the case with the statue or bust of Christ which, according to
Lampridius, the Emperor Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235) placed
in his Lararium, next to the figures of Apollonius of Tyana, Or
pheus, and Abraham ; and also with the bronze statue of the

104 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
Saviour which the Emperor Constantine erected in the Chalke
at Byzantium. The nature of the place in which the last work was
exhibited leaves no doubt that it was entirely destitute of any eccle
siastical character. The negative result of the investigations made
in this matter by the sister of
Constantine, may be taken as
a further proof that no iconic
representations of Christ were
then in existence, although the
traditional type,— of which the
oldest known example is the
mosaic above the Triumphal
Arch of the Church of S. Paolo
fuori le mura, — may possibly
have been founded upon the
traditions of eye-witnesses.
In this respect little impor
tance can be attached to the
superstitious tales concerning
the miraculous image of Christ
in Edessa, and none whatever
to the works attributed to the
skill of St. Luke as a portrait-
painter, or to the legend of the
impression of the face of the
Saviour upon the handkerchief
of St. Veronica, which is proved
to have originated in the Occi
dent as late as the fourteenth
century. In fact the opinion
was unsettled during the ear
liest ages of the Church whether the appearance of Christ had
been ugly or beautiful : the tradition of the second and third cen
turies being inclined to the former, while that of the fourth cen
tury favored the latter assumption.* The learned St. Augustine

Fig. 58. — Statue of the Good Shepherd, in
the Museum of the Lateran.

* The tradition of the uncomeliness of Christ (Justin. Dial, cum Tryph., 85, 88, 100)

PORTRAITS OF CHRIST.

105

says distinctly that it was not at all known (penitus ignoramus)
how Christ looked. For these reasons it was found desirable to

Fig. 59. — Statue of St. Peter in the Church of S. Pietro, Rome.
substitute symbols in place of iconic representations of the Sav
iour. One of the most popular of these was the figure of the
sprang from a desire to see realized in him a trait of the Messianic prophecy (Isa. liii. 2,
etc.). It does not appear before the attempts to demonstrate this identification, and, after
the legend was firmly established, was naturally relinquished as distasteful to the Church
militant.

io6

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.

Good Shepherd (Fig. 58), which frequently appears in the cata
combs, and continued in vogue until the age of Constantine.
The physical characteristics of some of the saints, especially of
those who lived in Rome, must have been better known, and repre
sentations of them may have approached more nearly to truth of
portraiture. There exist, however, only two sculptures of saints
which -can be ascribed to an early period, namely, the marble
statue of St. Hippolytus, dating to about the year 235, found in the
catacombs of S. Lorenzo and now in the Museum of the Lateran,
the upper half of which, with the head, is a modern restoration,—
and the bronze statue of St. Peter in his church at Rome, which,

Fig. 60. — Odysseus and the Sirens. Fragment of an Early Christian Relief.

from an inscription formerly upon the base, appears to be a Byzan
tine work of the fifth century (Fig. 59). In attitude and drapery
the first of these does not differ materially from the profane works
of the third century ; but the bronze statue of St. Peter has, at least
in a slight degree, the character of a portrait, some resemblance to
the individual doubtless having been maintained, through the cen
turies previous to the execution of this work, by small bronze me
dallions of the apostles, and by miniatures of a golden bust painted
upon a blue ground between two layers of glass.
The sculpture of reliefs was much more common in early Chris
tian times than that of statues. Decorations of this kind upon
sarcophagi followed, at least in regard to subject, the development

RELIEFS UPON SARCOPHAGI.

IO7

of painting as it appears in the catacombs, while they are distinctly
superior in artistic respects. In the reliefs, also, classical reminis
cences are not wanting : scenes from the athletic games of the an
cient circus, as upon the sarcophagus of Leucis in Terni, or Odysseus
and the Sirens (Fig. 60), figuring as allegories of temptation. Among
the few of these works which can be dated the most important in
many ways are the sarcophagi of Helena and Constantia, of the
time of Constantine, which have been removed from the mortuary
chapels bearing their names to the Museum of the Vatican. The
sculptures in high -relief upon these gigantic coffers of porphyry
have but few Christian characteristics, the subjects represented
upon that of Helena being warlike scenes, and upon that of Con
stantia genii gathering grapes among a foliage of acanthus leaves.

Fig. 61. — Relief carved upon a Sarcophagus in the Museum of the Lateran.
Themes more peculiarly Christian are introduced upon two sarcoph
agi of about the same period: that of Junius Bassus (f 359), in
the Crypt of the Vatican, and that of Anicius Probus (f 395), in
the Pieta Chapel of St. Peter's. The subjects represented upon the
first of these are chiefly chosen from the New Testament, while
upon the second Christ and the Apostles take the place of Apollo
Musagetes and the Muses, previously so common. A great num
ber of marble sarcophagi, ornamented with symbolic representations
and scenes from the Old Testament, which have now been collected
in the Museum of the Lateran, appear to be of a somewhat earlier
date; notable among them is the coffer of Junia Julia (Fig. 61).
The unskilled and careless execution of the sculptures upon it be
trays the hand of an artisan rather than an artist, but the themes
illustrated are so closely related to those of the paintings in the

108 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
catacombs, both as regards choice of subject and general concep
tion, that the work cannot be ascribed to a later period than the
age of Constantine. Similar to it, at least in the treatment of the
figures as youthful genii, is the fragment discovered by J. B. de Rossi
in Spoleto: a vessel steered by Christ and rowed by the Evangelists,
John, Mark, and Luke, all the figures being designated by inscrip
tions. A sarcophagus in the church of the Franciscans at Spalatro,
which cannot be of a much more recent date, is of quite a different
style, the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the destruc
tion of Pharaoh and his army being represented in a manner which
distinctly shows the influence of the spiral reliefs upon the columns
of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius (Fig. 62). Some sarcophagi in
the Museum of the Lateran, dating from the fourth or, at the latest,

Fig. 62. — The Passage of the Red Sea. Relief upon a Sarcophagus in Spalatro.
from the fifth century, are carved with subjects from both the Old
and the New Testaments, the figures being placed together without
plan or division, and in a very different arrangement from those
upon the sarcophagus of Bassus, where the various scenes are di
vided and framed in with columns, entablatures, niches, and pedi
ments. Still there is no lack of symmetry and artistic disposition
of the figures in the former compositions, and, closely as they are
crowded together, their significance is yet perfectly plain. In gen
eral the treatment in relief is a further debasement of the imperfect;
Roman style ; although the modelling is quite flat, the bodies are
conceived as if they were statues in the round, and are more com
monly shown in full face than in profile.
Among the early Christian sarcophagi in the Museum of the
Lateran many are entirely plain ; others are decorated with simple

RELIEFS UPON SARCOPHAGI.

IO9

ornaments of straight lines, — carved with single figures at the cor
ners, — or with the double breast-pieces of husband and wife upon
a circular and ribbed background. Numerous sarcophagi are found
in the crypt of St. Peter's and in other churches and collections of
Rome. Early Christian coffers of carved marble are also met with
in Ravenna, Milan, Naples, Ancona, Spoleto, Aries, Lyons, Mar
seilles, Aix, Rheims, Saragossa, and in various places of Northern
Africa and the Byzantine Empire. Occasionally coffers of lead
were used instead of chests of stone, these being usually without
reliefs, or occasionally with simple decorations like those upon two
specimens in the Museum of Angers, the age of which is uncertain.

HBBBBB'l  lj,

Fig. 63. — Coffin of Lead, found at Saida, Phoenicia ; now in Cannes.

Two richly ornamented coffins of lead (Fig. 63), discovered by Baron
Lyklarna in Saida in Phoenicia, now in Cannes, are hence the more
important. In the opinion of G. B. de Rossi these works are to be
ascribed rather to the time before Constantine than to a later date.
They are particularly remarkable because of the occurrence of the
monogram of Christ with the symbolic IX0T2, and have upon
either side a fine frieze of grapes and vines, chalices and doves, the
cast forms of which still preserve reminiscences of the early Phoeni
cian style, determined by beaten metal work. Some parts of the
design, especially the figures resembling yEsculapius, upon the ends
of the coffers, might well have been taken for antique. The em-

UO EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
ployment of carved sarcophagi was discontinued in the sixth cen
tury, after the ornamentation of figures in relief had been displaced
by simple symbols, such as those upon the coffers in the Mortuary
Chapel of Galla Placidia, dating to the fifth century.
Among the minor branches of art, carvings in ivory retained a
place in popular favor for a longer period. The most important
specimens of this work were the diptychs, or double writing tablets,
ornamented upon the outer side with reliefs, and covered upon the
inner surfaces with a thin coating of wax, upon which memoranda
were scratched with a stylus. Such tablets were much in vogue
among the upper classes during the imperial epoch, as objects of
luxury and as New-year's gifts. In the year 384 it was determined
by law that the privilege of using these diptychs should be re
stricted to the consuls, who were permitted to present them to
their friends on the occasion of the public games instituted at the
time of their accession to office. The consular diptychs thus have
the advantage of being accurately dated, this making a considera
tion of them especially important to the history of trie development
of sculpture. Their artistic value, however, is usually not great, a»d
is, moreover, much influenced by the locality of their execution and
the individual ability of the carver. Specimens dating to the fourth
century are rare, the most noteworthy of these being the diptych
of Rufus Probianus, ascribed to the year 322, now in the Royal
Library of Berlin. Those of the fifth century are far more numer
ous ; among them are a single tablet of Flavius Felix, A.D. 428, in
the National Library at Paris ; the diptych of Areobindus the elder,
A. D. 434, in the Ambrosiana of Milan ; that of Flavius Astyrius,
A.D. 449, in the Museum of Darmstadt ; and lastly, the fine diptych
referable to the first half of the fifth century, in the treasury of the
cathedral at Monza, which shows upon one side the portrait of
Galla Placidia with her son Valentinian III., and upon the other
that of Consul Aetius. In all these works Italian reminiscences of
the classic Roman methods of sculpture are still evident. In the
diptychs of the sixth century this style is entirely exchanged for that
of Byzantium. The diptych of the consul Areobindus the younger,'
A. D. 506, in the Antiquarium of Zurich, and that of Anastasius,
A.D. 515, in the National Library of Paris (Fig. 64), — the former

IVORY CARVINGS.

Ill

representing a combat with a lion in an amphitheatre, the latter a
circus race under the figure of the consul, — both show the stiff and
clumsy forms and the heavy proportions which, in combination with
the Oriental magnificence of the embroidered garments, are charac
teristic of Byzantine designs.
Ivory carvings of religious sub
jects for liturgic purposes were sim
ilar in style to these profane works.
Chief among them were the diptychs,
or tablets, used by the priests in read
ing lists of names, etc., to the congre
gation, and also those tables of pray
ers from which the canonical tablets,
still in use in the Catholic Church,
appear to have been derived. Carv
ings of ivory were also used for the
covers of books, especially of missals,
and were for this purpose mounted in
gojd and decorated with jewels and
enamels. This kind of binding be
came general when the change was
made from a scroll to a book of
leaves, the latter having evidently
been considered at first as a combi
nation of the manuscript and the dip
tych. To this category belong the
carved panel of ivory in the Cathe
dral of Salerno, with the story of
Ananias and Sapphira, and the four
tablets in the British Museum, upon
which', among other scenes of the Pas
sion, the Crucifixion is represented.
As the style of the latter sculpture
does not appear to be later than the
fifth century, it is without doubt the earliest appearance of this
subject. Similar works of about the same date are preserved in
the cathedrals of Milan and Como, the Church of S. Michele in

Fig. 64. — Diptych of the Consul
Anastasius, A.D. 515, in the Na
tional Library, Paris.

112 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
Murano, the National Library in Paris, and the collections of Bres
cia and Darmstadt.
In Constantinople the use of these tablets continued general for
centuries, and their decorations were but little influenced by the
action of the Iconoclasts. The antique elements of design, how
ever, gradually disappeared, and carving in ivory, following the de
basement of the miniatures and mosaics, became stiffer, more life
less, and less artistic, while still maintaining in great measure the
original delicacy and exactness of execution. The tablet in the
Musee Cluny in Paris, representing the Emperor Otto II. with the
Princess Theophano, — without doubt a memento of their marriage
in the year 972, — and that with the portraits of the Emperor Ro-
manus IV. and his wife, dating from the year 1068, show the exces
sively long and lean forms of the body, the heavy brocade draperies,
and the general hardness and stiffness characteristic of all Byzan
tine figures.
Carvings in ivory were also employed from the earliest period
for various other utensils, as, for instance, for the pyxis or box in
which the Host was kept. The specimen, dating probably to the
third century, now in the Museum of Berlin, is one of the earliest
and most beautiful, the style of its decorations being almost classic.
Upon the cylinder is represented the Sacrifice of Isaac, and Christ
teaching among the Apostles. A similar vessel, but dating to the
sixth century, is now in the Musee Cluny in Paris. The subjects
upon this latter example are the well-known miracles of Christ in
healing the sick and raising the dead. In artistic treatment it is
decidedly inferior to the earlier work. The largest ivory carving of
the early Christian epoch is the cathedra of the Bishop Maximian,
which was executed between the years 546 and 552, and is now pre
served in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Ravenna. It displays
numerous representations of single figures and groups, surrounded
by a framework of foliage and various animals. The different parts
of the work are of very unequal value, the decorations being de
cidedly better than the figures.
Mention must also- be made of the work in precious metals
which at this period flourished throughout the East, and particu
larly in Constantinople. Enamelling was most common, and those

WORKS OF PRECIOUS METAL. 1 13
few branches of goldsmiths' work which are to be considered under
the head of sculpture are but rarely of artistic importance. The
die-cutting of Byzantium had at all times been inferior to that of
Rome. Soon after the age of Constantine even gold coins show
flat heads in full face, with but little individuality; and after Jus
tinian they were debased to most barbarous types. The artistic

&&w$i&$ffl^mi

Fig. 65.— The Two Marys at the Sepulchre. Relief of Gold in the Louvre.
treatment of the large empaistic works in gold and silver did not
even equal the intrinsic value of the metals themselves. A relief of
gold, now in the Louvre, representing the two Marys before the
angel who guards the sepulchre, may serve as an example (Fig. 65).
The character of the Greek inscription makes it impossible to con
sider this work as antedating the tenth century, hence it is not
8

114 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
surprising that its style shows no understanding of the principles
of modelling in relief, but is entirely dependent upon the design
of late Byzantine paintings and miniatures. The golden cover of
the binding of the Gospel of Charles the Bald, now in the Library
of Munich, which is stated in an inscription to have been attached
to the codex in the year 975, by the Abbot Romuald of St. Em-
meramnus in Ratisbon, is known to be of Italian or German work
manship, but it is entirely Byzantine in character, and consequently
an exact imitation of Eastern models. The same is the case with
the design of the most magnificent example of this kind, the Ante-
pendium of the high altar of S. Ambrogio in Milan, — a worthy
companion-piece to the Pala d' oro in Venice. The Master Wol-
vinus, who is mentioned in an inscription upon the Antependium,
can hardly have been a Byzantine. In view of the lack of effect in
all these works it appears natural that a decided preference should
have been shown for enamels, — the brilliant and richly colored
effects of which were so well suited to the Byzantine taste. The
desire for magnificence in the decorations of palaces and altars was
readily satisfied with goldsmiths' work of small artistic value, with
ornaments of filigree, and with a gaudy incrustation of jewels.
The true materials of monumental sculpture, — marble and
bronze, — were but rarely employed after the time of the Iconoclasts.
Sculpture in the full round was interdicted, equally with painting,
by the council of A. D. 754, by which time other circumstances had
already led to an almost entire neglect of this branch. Even after
the council of A. D. 787 had again countenanced painting, sculpture
still remained under the ban, as a peculiarly heathenish art. Ex
cepting merely decorative works, no Byzantine marble carvings are
met with after the eighth century. It is, however, certain that the
discontinuance of this art was not alone due to the action of the
Iconoclasts ; for in the Occident, which was but little influenced by
this movement, the decline of sculpture is hardly less observable.
The six figures, in stucco relief and larger than life, of Sts. Chrysog-
onus and Zoiles, Anastasia, Agape, Chionia and Irene, which dur
ing the eighth century were placed as votive offerings in a chapel
of the cloister of the Benedictines at Cividale, in Friuli, are isolated
and exceptional works, appearing in style as direct translations

BRONZE CASTINGS. 1 15
of Byzantine paintings, and wholly without understanding of the
peculiar methods of sculpture. These figures display in a striking
manner the total loss of the antique traditions of monumental
sculpture at this period.
Casting in bronze was entirely discontinued, and even the cast
ing of smaller utensils decorated in relief, which had been frequent
in the early Christian epoch, was no longer practised. As sculpture
in precious metals had been superseded by enamel, so also was
empaistic work exchanged for a surface ornament of damaskeen
and niello. The bronze doors executed in Italy during the eleventh
century are examples of this new style of treating metals ; particu
larly worthy of mention are those of Amalfi, Monte Casino, S.
Paolo fuori le mura at Rome, S. Angelo on Monte Gargano, Atrani,
Salerno, and of S. Marco at Venice. Similar to them are the doors
of some Russian churches, notably that of the Cloister at Susdal and
that of the Church of the Assumption in Moscow. In these works
modelling in relief is exceptional, the decoration being effected by
engraved lines filled with silver wire or with a colored flux, while
the faces and naked extremities were lightly engraved upon thin
plates of silver. As might be expected from the date of their ex
ecution, the design of the figures is monotonous and stiff, meagre
and attenuated beyond human semblance. It may with reason be
assumed that we have here to deal with technical methods derived
from the East, and it is worthy of note that very similar dam
askeened and engraved metal work is still common in Mohammedan
lands. In reviewing the achievements of early Christian and Byzantine
painting and sculpture in their entirety we are forced to acknowl
edge their importance, notwithstanding many and great defects.
The withering and petrifying degeneration of classic art was already
fully declared in the time of Constantine, and must be considered
as an hereditary ailment of Byzantine Christianity. The traditional
types of antique art were necessarily retained, but could not be
rejuvenated by succeeding generations. The empires of the East
and West, which were for centuries the only representatives of
European civilization, were connected in too many ways with the
culture of classic times and of Eastern Asiatic nations to be able to

Il6 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE SCULPTURE.
introduce new forms in the place of those which had become de
based by continual repetition. Thus the fate of Byzantine art, as
Schnaase has suggested, may be compared to that of Tithonos,
beloved by Eos, to whom the gods, at her request, had granted
immortality, but not eternal youth, and who was thus condemned
to drag out a long existence of the most wretched decrepitude.
Still all was not utterly bad ; even in the later ages Byzantine
painting retained some important merits. A certain dignity and
magnificence was maintained, and even increased, being recogniz
able in all the mosaics of the Eastern Empire. And the harmo
nious unity called style was also preserved, in ideal as well as in
material respects, — that is to say, both in the agreement of subject
and manner of representation, and in the correct relation of the
material and the form. The methods of technical execution were
almost always intelligent and careful, and from the combination of
antique traditions and Oriental influences there resulted a peculiar
individuality well adapted to the requirements of the age and cult
ure. This unity of style was maintained in details as well as in
general composition, and bears a striking testimony to the rational
and moderate side of the Byzantine character.
The Byzantines not only had all that artistic competence which
it is possible to acquire by special training, — namely, that relating
to the traditional treatment of subjects and the typical forms, as
well as to all the technical branches, — but they transmitted these
acquirements to their most distant dependencies. As has been
shown in the preceding chapter, the influence of Byzantium in
architectural respects was extensive; and Byzantine painting was
so widely known that there was scarcely a Christian country pre
vious to the eleventh or twelfth century not directly or indirectly
influenced thereby. The present consideration must be limited to
those districts most immediately connected with the Byzantine
Empire, and especially to Russia, inasmuch as Georgia and Ar
menia, although offering important developments of Byzantine ar
chitecture, were almost entirely without noteworthy works of paint
ing or sculpture.
In Russia there are few memorials of ancient sculpture,— the
sarcophagus of the Grand -duke Jaroslaw, in Kief, is quite excep-

RUSSIA. 117
tional, and the bronze doors at Novgorod, Susdal, and Moscow are
either Byzantine works, as is evident from their popular designation
of Korssun (i. e., Chersonese) gates, or they are of German origin,
as is the case with those dating to the twelfth century in Novgorod,
which were probably brought from Magdeburg.
In Russian painting, on the other hand, the production was
excessive, but without the interest which attaches to Russian ar
chitecture. The Byzantine types were reproduced with servile ex
actness, being regarded almost as a branch of the liturgy ; they had
developed as an integral part of the ecclesiastical ordinances, and,
like the dogmas, had become immutable. In short, the canons of
pictorial art in the Eastern Church were as unchangeable as the
texts of the sacred books. Thus it came about that religious
miniatures, as well as the monumental paintings, which appeared
upon all parts of the interior of the church, and especially upon the
wall behind the altar (Ikonostasis), have maintained even to-day the
original characteristics in such a degree that the most recent relig
ious pictures are at times to be distinguished from those of the
thirteenth century only by experts, while the Russian or Byzantine
origin is often only to be determined by the language of the in
scriptions. As in the Greek Empire, the types are senile and ugly,
lean and attenuated ; the flesh-tints are brownish and dark ; the mag
nificent garments are drawn with straight folds, and are frequently
represented by sheets of beaten gold and silver mounted with jew
els. The Russian painters' book Podlinnik is closely related to that
of Mount Athos, from which it differs only in unimportant details.
Its models for single images and for large compositions are the
same as those determined by the Byzantine Church. The fame of
Master Andreas Rubleff, who flourished towards the end of the
fourteenth century, appears to have depended mainly upon his
artistic orthodoxy. When Ivan III., at the end of the fifteenth
century, brought painters, as well as architects, from Italy, their
employment actually occasioned public disturbances; and when a
new painters' book, called Stoglaff, had been instituted upon the
basis of Rubleff's art, an edict, promulgated by the Grand-duke in
the year 155 1, gave to it the force of an absolute law, so that even
rulers so favorably inclined to Occidental civilization as Peter the

Il8 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ART.
Great could not venture the slightest interference with its statutes.
By such means was the Byzantine-Korssun style preserved from the
influence of the Italian Renaissance ; and it is thus that in Russia
the painting of the Eastern Empire has dragged on its existence
until the present day. An exception is, however, to be made in
favor of certain academic circles which, since the beginning of the
nineteenth century, have endeavored to follow the development of
modern European art. It. remains to be seen whether these at
tempts will succeed in effecting a compromise which shall combine
in religious painting the requirements of modern civilization with
the Byzantine elements, while not deviating from the narrow rules
laid down by the ordinances of the Greek Church.

ilP&i
Fig. 66. — Facade of the Palace of Khosru at Ctesiphon.

ASIA.
THE PERSIANS UNDER THE SASSANID^E. THE INDIAN AND
EASTERN ASIATIC RACES.
' I ""HE great mission of Mohammed was contemporary with the
•*- highest development of the Byzantines. At that time his
Arabian tribe was perhaps the most uncivilized of all those races
of Asia and the European and African shores of the Mediterranean
which were destined so soon to embrace the faith of Islam. Some
of these races still maintained a culture as old as the history of the
world. Thus Egypt could trace back its art for more than three
thousand years, — being then in the fourth phase of its development :
the empire of the Pharaohs had been followed by the Hellenistic
Ptolemies, and, after Caesar, by a Roman civilization ; before this
had been thoroughly adopted it was in its turn replaced by early
Christian elements from both Italian and Byzantine sources. Simi
lar changes, after even shorter lapses of time, had affected the

120 PERSIA UNDER THE SASSANIDJJ.
Syrian coast. Phoenician art was even less able to hold its own
against the Hellenistic tendencies of the Seleucidae than had been
the Egyptian ; and Palestine, the native country of Christianity, was
naturally more readily adapted to receive Christian culture than was
the valley of the Nile. The case was the same in Asia Minor, where
native art had at a very early period been exchanged for that of the
Greeks. After the incorporation of the kingdom of Pergamon into
the Roman empire, the land soon adopted the early Christian con
ceptions and types, and finally became quite Byzantine through the
influence of the neighboring capital of Constantine upon the Bos-
poros. Some tracts of Asia Minor even attained an independent
importance in these last phases of development, as we have seen to
be the case with Armenia.
The history of art in these countries during the ages before their
adoption of Mohammedanism has been related in the " History of
Ancient Art" and in the preceding chapters of the present book ; but
the culture of the interior of Asia and the south-eastern parts of
the great continent must be considered anew in this connection.
The civilization of Persia, which, under Cyrus, had taken the
place of primitive Mesopotamian traditions, lost its position more
readily than did that of the far more ancient Egyptian empire.
Notwithstanding the enormous extent of Persia, — from the Indus
to the boundaries of Europe, — the realm not only lacked the sta
bility of age, but time and means for its consolidation. The three
centuries of Hellenism under the Seleucidae which followed the
overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander, and the two hun
dred years of Parthian misrule and destruction had almost entirely
obliterated the ancient traditions, when Ardashir, — claiming descent
from the ancient Achaemenidae, — founded in the year 226 the new
Persian empire and that new dynasty called, after the name of
Ardashir's father (Sassan), the Sassanidae. Although the artistic
conceptions of the Sassanians were similar in many ways to those
of the Persians, from whom they claimed to be directly descended,
they were too heavily handicapped with Graeco-Roman and barba
rian, and in later times even with Byzantine, influences to be able
to create an original monumental art.
We are acquainted with no important architectural remains and

ARCHITECTURE. 121
with but few memorials of sculpture dating from the period of the
foundation of the empire of the Sassanidae.* The erection of tem
ples or other buildings intended for worship was as little to be ex
pected from the later adherents to the doctrines of Zoroaster as
from the ancient Persians, and no vestiges of palatial architecture
are referable to the century which witnessed the renewed life of this
remarkable people. If the ruin of the palace of Diarbekr, upon
the upper Tigris, is indeed to be ascribed to Shahpur II. (A.D. 310-
380), its ornamentation of engaged columns of the Corinthian order
is a direct indication of Greek or Roman influence. Such classic
elements are hardly recognizable in the remains of the Palace of
Firuz-Abad, which was unquestionably erected by the king Firuz
(Pheroses, A. D. 460-488), and which is consequently the oldest
monument of the Sassanidae the age of which is assured. The
palace was of very considerable dimensions, covering an oblong
103 m. long and 55 m. broad. The grand entrance, upon one of
the narrow sides, led through two transverse corridors to three
domed halls, behind which the living-rooms were grouped around
a square court. This interior portion is similar in plan to the pal
aces of the ancient Persians, the influence of which is otherwise evi
dent only in the cornices of the doors and niches. Classic pilasters
and architraves also appear, but by far the most important of the
reminiscences point to a retention of early Mesopotamian tradi
tions. These are noticeable in the exceedingly heavy walls of the
front, which are over four metres in thickness, — in the engaged col
umns and pilasters without bases and without capitals, — and in the
entire lack of all isolated columns. On the other hand, a system
of vaulting is universally employed, to the exclusion of horizontal
ceilings: the doors, windows, and the narrow passages within the
thickness of the walls being round -arched, while the barrel -vaults
and cupolas are of a parabolic outline. Both these systems of
stone ceiling had appeared, at least in their beginnings, in the
primitive architecture of Assyria. The peculiar custom of giving
to the arches and vaults a larger diameter than was required by the
opening between the vaults beneath them was probably due to a
* E. Fiandin et P. Coste, Voyage en Perse. 4 vols. Paris, s. a.

122

PERSIA UNDER THE SASSANID^.

desire to increase the stability of these supports. The most im
portant achievement is the fine solution of the problem of covering
a hall of square plan with a dome: the place of the Byzantine pen
dentives being taken by a number of squinches, or arches of stepped
projection, somewhat similar in construction to those of San Lo
renzo in Milan. (Compare Fig. 67.)
The oblong Palace of Sarbistan is of much the same disposition,
but of smaller dimensions, being only 41 m. long by 36 m. broad.

Fig. 67. — Section of one of the Domed Halls of Firuz-Abad.

There is here but one domed hall before the square court, and this
without the ornamentation of the ancient Persian door and window
cornices. On the other hand, the oblong spaces are provided with
columns, which are placed close to the wall and connected longi
tudinally and latitudinally by arches. The shafts are scarcely three
metres in height, and, like the somewhat lighter engaged columns
of the facade (Fig. 68), are without bases and capitals. It is remark
able that, in contrast to those of Firuz-Abad, the arches and even

ARCHITECTURE.

123

the cupola-vaults of Sarbistan are smaller in diameter than the dis
tance between their supports.
The most magnificent of the ruined palaces is that of Ctesiphon,
probably erected by the Solomon of the Sassanidae and contempo
rary of Justinian, the great Khosru I., Nushirvan (A.D. 531-579),
who founded his new capital on the Tigris opposite to the ancient
city of Seleucia, which had remained in ruins since the third cen
tury after Christ. The entrance facade of this palace now alone
remains, and is known as Takht-i-Chosru (Throne of Khosru). Its
enormous door is over twenty-five metres high. The facade (Fig.
66) is profusely ornamented with engaged columns and pilasters in

Fig. 68. — Facade of the Palace of Sarbistan.

relief arranged in three stories, not without variety and an under
standing, of the constructive and artistic advantages obtained by
proportions diminishing as they ascend, but still made most un
pleasant to the eye by a want of correspondence in the vertical
arrangement of the shafts. It is not certain whether the plain
trapeze - shaped capitals of the engaged columns, which are very
similar to those of Byzantine architecture, were imitated from
Eastern models ; but the ornamentations of other capitals of this
period, found at Ispahan, Bi-situn, etc. (Fig. 69), seem to lend sup
port to the assumption. The arches and vaults of Ctesiphon are,

124

PERSIA UNDER THE SASSANIDAE.

in the majority of cases, larger in diameter than the distance be
tween their supports, but at times, also, they are smaller, — the
building thus combining, evidently without definite reasons based
upon constructive advantages, the before -mentioned peculiarities
of Firuz-Abad and of Sarbistan.
Of the two varieties in the form of the arch, that introducing
a diameter larger than the distance between the supports is by far
the most important, because destined, in later times, to be devel
oped into a new architectural form. The upper corners of the
piers, or supporting-walls, at first formed a useless angle, which, not
having received an independent significance by an impost cornice,
was soon chamfered off so as to form a continuation of the line
of the curve. There thus resulted the so-called horseshoe arch,
— that is to say, that
form in which the
semicircle is contin
ued along the stilt
at its base by two
small segments. The
horseshoe shape ap
pears distinctly pro
nounced in a monu
ment at Takht-i-Gero,
on Mount Zagros, the mouldings of which display the characteristics
of Seleucidan and Roman architecture, and which consequently
cannot be ascribed to a more recent date than the fifth century
after Christ (Fig. 70). This shape of the arch, however, was not
definitely determined, or, at all events, did not become of importance
as an indication of style, until the Arabs had imitated it, without
doubt from Sassanian prototypes, and employed it in preference
to all other forms.
The sculpture of the Sassanians is more interesting, though per
haps not more artistic, than their architecture. The memorials
of the former art are numerous, for traditions inherited from the
Achaemenidae inclined the later kings to celebrate their deeds by
rock-cut reliefs. The history of ancient Persia and Xenophon's
Cyropaedia clearly show the powerful and warlike race to have pos-

Fig. 69. — Sassanian Capital, from Ispahan.

SCULPTURE.

125

sessed certain heroic and knightly traits which remind us of the
chivalry of the Middle Ages. Among the Sassanians these charac
teristics seem to have been increased by the long subjugation
of their country during the Alexandrian epoch, and by their con
tinual combats with the hostile Parthians and with the Roman
legions. We find institutions similar in nature to those of Euro
pean chivalry in the martial training of the mounted nobility, in
the order of battle, in the armor of richly ornamented helmets,
coats of mail^ lances, large swords and shields, and in the magnifi
cent caparisons of the horses. The equestrian figure of King
Khosru II., Parviz, entirely clad in a suit of chain-armor, as it ap
pears upon a relief
of the rock-cut mon
ument at Takht-i-
Bostan, might be
introduced without
change into the
picture of an Occi
dental tournament.
These fantastic
and knightly char
acteristics are
blended, in the
first period of Sas
sanian sculpture,
with Roman in
fluences. This is especially evident in the allegorical figures of
victories, and in the representation of the vanquished Romans. A
favorite subject of the early Sassanians is the capture of the Roman
Emperor Valerian by Shahpur I., in the year 250, this appearing at
Shahpur, Darabgerd, and Nakhsh-i-Rustam (Fig. 71). It is remark
able that in these representations the artists did not only portray
the Romans, known to them by the prisoners of war, with their
peculiar facial types, characteristic gestures and costumes, but even
adopted for these figures a certain classic style, differing most de
cidedly from the traditional positions and draperies of the Sassa
nian king and his retinue. On the other hand, this imitation of

Fig. 70. — Sassanian Monument at Takht-i-Gero.

126

PERSIA UNDER THE SASSANIDAE.

Western models was in many ways quite as helpless and lacking
in intelligence as had been the employment of Greek forms by the
ancient Persians.
In other respects the style of Sassanian sculpture was based
upon that of the earlier inhabitants of their land, the Assyrians and
Persians. This is apparent in the almost exclusive limitation of the
subjects to warlike and hunting scenes,— in the ceremonial parades,
at times combined with mythical or allegorical figures,— and in the
greater ability displayed in dealing with historical conceptions than

Fig. 71. — The Capture of the Emperor Valerian by Shahpur I.
Rock-cut Relief at Nakhsh-i-Rustam.

with individual conditions. From this peculiarity there resulted, in
both epochs, a certain dryness, like that of inventories, a monoto
nous design of the minor figures, and a tendency to crowded com
positions. The dependence upon the earlier art is also recogniza
ble in the liking for a fleshy fulness of the bodies, for the luxuriant
curled locks of hair and beard, and for rich apparel and jewellery.
The lack of understanding in the rendering of the forms of the
human body, noticeable in the ancient art of Persia, is even more
painfully felt in Sassanian sculpture. The draperies are puffed out

PAINTING. 127
into thick cushions around the shapeless limbs, or flutter in many
folds, so as to represent the waving of silken stuffs blown by the
wind. • This wild play of the wind with locks of hair, with the ends
of garments, ribbons, etc., is increased in the same degree as the
forms and proportions of the bodies become abnormally voluptuous
and heavy. This degeneration is the more pronounced the more
Sassanian sculpture deviates from that of the Romans and Byzan
tines, — turning from the influences of the neighbors upon the West
to those upon the East, — especially to India.
The same peculiarities would, without doubt, have appeared in
the painting of the Sassanians had memorials of this art been pre
served to us. If k is permissible to draw conclusions from later
Persian paintings of the Mohammedan epoch, we may assume that
this branch of art, — although traditionally popular among the Per
sians, both in application of pigments and in weaving and embroid
ery, — must still have stood upon a lower level than sculpture and
architecture, by reason of its fantastic and incorrect drawing, irreg
ular composition, and harsh coloring.
Persia was the first country invaded by advancing Mohamme
dans, and the tracts bordering this land upon the south-east, beyond
the Indus, could not long remain uninfluenced by the new faith.
India* unquestionably possessed a high degree of culture during
the ages which have been considered in the "History of Ancient
Art," maintaining, indeed, one of the oldest civilizations of the world;
still it has not been deemed advisable to treat of its art in connec
tion with that of classical antiquity. The art of this earliest period
is but little known ; it appears probable that it did not attain to
any notable importance before the Christian period, and it certainly
did not reach its full development before the Middle Ages. More
over, the political history of India, without which a coherent ac
count of Indian art is not possible, is comparatively recent. Before
the invention of printing India had produced more books than any
* J. Fergusson : Tree and Serpent Worship ; or, Illustrations of Mythology and Art in
India in the First Centuries after Christ. London, 1868.— The S^me : History of Indian
and Eastern Architecture. London, 1876. — The Same : The Cave Temples of India.
London, 1880.

128 INDIA.
other country, — namely, between ten and eleven thousand works, —
among them many of greater antiquity than are elsewhere to be
found, such as the Vedas and the Manu, dating to the first half of
the second millennium before Christ ; but not one of all these is,
strictly speaking, a historical work. The chronicle of the island of
Ceylon after 250 B. C, contained in the Mahawanso, and the lists
of kings from Chandragupta down to the extinction of the dynasty
of Andhra, i.e., from 325 B.C. until about A.D. 400, given in the
Puranas, convey no distinct historical conceptions, and are limited
to unimportant provinces. The epigraphical remains of the country
have as yet been but little investigated.
The ethnographical relations of the Indian races are by no
means clear. It is only certain that the highest position was taken
by the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans, a tribe which had emigrated from
Central Asia, by the way of the upper Indus, probably before the
beginning of the third millennium before Christ,— which had lived
long in the Punjab, and had attained to the height of its power
about 2000 B.C. As is evident from the much later epic poem
Ramayana, which deals with this period of supremacy, this popu
lation was peaceable and nomadic. It is not known how it came
about that, eight centuries later, in the ages described in the epic
Mahabharata, barbarous and warlike hordes appear in place of the
Arian shepherds ; and we are quite as much in the dark concern
ing the origin of the Dravidians, a race supposed to have been of
Turanian derivation, which had immigrated from beyond the lower
Indus, — as well as concerning a third race, the Dasyus, which may
possibly have been of Slavonic extraction.
The lyric character of the early Indian epics was as little favora
ble to the development of the formative arts as were the dreamy
and metaphysical speculations of Buddha (Sakya Muni), the great
reformer of the East, who was born in 623 B. C. at Ayodhya, the
modern Oudh, on the slopes of the Himalayas. The intercourse
with Western nations was of more decisive influence upon the arts
of India, these relations having been intimate as early as the time
of the first kings of the Maurya dynasty, 325-188 B.C., notably
during the reign of Chandragupta, the Sandrokottos of the Greeks.
This king even received, at his palace of Palibothra, now Patna, on

ARCHITECTURE. 129
the Ganges, Greek ambassadors, — among them Megasthenes, who
was sent by King Seleucus of Syria. The Hellenic influence, fur
thered by the campaigns of Alexander and the continual inter
change of embassies between India and the courts of Antiochus,
Antigonus, Ptolemy, Philadelphus, and Magas of Cyrene, is distinct
ly evident in the structures erected by Asoka (272-236 B. C), the
grandson of Sandrokottos.
Asoka was the Constantine of Buddhism, — sending missionaries
to Cabul, Cashmere, Thibet, Pegu, and Ceylon, and transforming,
within one generation, an obscure sect to one of the most wide
spread religions of the world. But although he filled all the prov
inces of India with Buddhist monuments, he was still not able to
lay the foundations of a truly national art. Both the religion and
the character of the people were without the fundamental elements
requisite for such a development. The former was without that
healthy and sympathetic appreciation of the outer world which
leads to delight in beauty, while the latter was entirely lacking
in that sense of definite form, of static logic, and of the aesthetic
expression of constructive requirements, upon which the devel
opment of a noble architecture is dependent. In like manner
the nation had no conception of normal and typical forms in the
representation of the living organism, and was thus incapable of
achievements in painting and sculpture as well, — the fanciful and
impractical symbolism, and the voluptuousness and monstrosity of
Indian art putting the discipline of regular training out of the
question. Before the age of Asoka all the architecture of the country was
of wood, — the employment of stone appearing to have been re
stricted to works of engineering, to foundations, the fortifications
of cities, quays, canals, and bridges. The primitive forms deter
mined by methods of timbered construction were imitated, and
gave the most salient characteristics to Indian architecture, appear
ing alike in all those varieties of the native style which resulted
from the ethnographical differences of the Hindoo races.
This fundamental character is recognizable even in those monu
ments, the nature of which is in no wise akin to buildings of wood.
Chief among these are the funeral piles known (in Sanscrit) as
9

130 INDIA.
dhagobas, or stupas, and from the colloquial Pali \thupd\ as topes,
which for the greater part were erected to contain sacred relics of
Buddha. At the death of the reformer, in 543 B. C, eight cities
contested for the honor of possessing his corpse, and commenced
the dismemberment of his body, which has since been continued
almost infinitely. Not one«of the original monuments now exists,
but the topes built by Asoka seem to indicate that the first mau
soleums of this kind were similar in form to the tumuli of Lydia
and Etruria, — the main difference being that the superstructure
above the cylindrical drum is not conical but hemispherical, or of
parabolic outline, this round form leading to the popular tradition
that the tope was intended to represent the bubble chosen by
Buddha as the symbol of transitoriness. The construction of the
interior, which, with exception of the small chambers destined to
receive the relics, was of solid masonry, does not indeed determine
this round form, wherein an imitation of the Indian roofing is per
haps recognizable: the soft and feminine character of the Indians,
the full-breastedness, so to speak, of their luxurious ideals, inclining
them in general to the adoption of convex curves.
If it be true that Asoka erected eighty-four thousand of these
reliquary topes, it is evident that they can have been neither of
great size nor of elaborate construction. Without doubt many of
those now preserved date to the time of Asoka, at least in their
kernel, for it was customary to increase the diameter of the struct
ure by additional revetments, which themselves contained minor
relics. But we cannot determine the age of any monuments of this
kind older than the group of sixty topes near Bhilsa, a city of the
kingdom of Bhopal, all of which appear to date to the first cen
tury after Christ. The largest among these, the tope of Sanchi
(Fig. 72),has a lower diameter of only 36 m. and a height of 15 m.,
nearly one-third of which latter dimension represents the elevation
of the slightly diminished substructure. The summit of this tumu
lus was accessible by an inclined plane or a flight of steps, and was
originally provided with a balustrade. The solid dome, built of
brick and clay, was faced with hewn stones coated with stucco,
and, as is evident from representations of topes upon reliefs, either
painted or ornamented by sculptures. The before-mentioned rep-

ARCHITECTURE.

131

resentations and the rock-cut dhagobas in the interior of the Chaitya
Caves, which will be described below, show the summit to have
been crowned by a shrine with stepped and projecting roof, doubt
less the imitation of a reliquary, and to have been shaded by a
broad canopy shaped like an umbrella.
The group of topes of Gandhara, on either side of the upper
Indus, between Cabul in Afghanistan and Manikyala in the Punjab,

is Kir.

Fig. 72. — View and Section of the great Tope of Sanchi.

is more recent, having been built during the first seven centuries of
the Christian era. The most important of these monuments are
those in the vicinity of Manikyala itself, many of which appear to
have been erected in the first century. One of them (Fig. 73) is of
hemispherical form, elevated upon two distinct cylinders decorated
with pilasters and measuring 38 m. and 47 m. in diameter, exclusive
of the staircases. Several chambers for relics indicate enlargements
of the structure at various times, the last of which alterations ap-

132 INDIA.
pears, from coins found in connection with it, to have been as late
as A. D. 720.
The form of these topes is by no means always the same. As
the cones of the Etruscan tumuli are of various angles of elevation,
so also do the topes at times rise in parabolic outline to the altitude
of towers. This is the case with the tope of Sarnath, near Benares,
on the Ganges, probably built in the sixth century after Christ, the
height of which is 38 m. and the lower diameter only 28 m. ; and
also with a smaller tope in the same vicinity, built about A. D. 500,
and known as Jarasandha-ka-Baithak, which, with a diameter of lit-

u I I , , d

Fig. 73. — Restored Half View and Section of the Tope of Manikyala.
tie more than 8 m., attains to twice that height. The tope of Sar
nath appears, however, to be of somewhat different character from
the majority of these structures, it containing no relics and having
been erected merely to commemorate the presence of Buddha upon
that spot. The monument of Buddh Gaya, a tower-like edifice of
many stories, erected opposite to the extremely ancient and cele
brated bo-tree (feus religiosa), is rather to be considered as a tem
ple than as a tope.
The remains of but few of the topes now present a true and
complete picture of their original appearance. Whatever has been
spared by zealous sectarians and Mohammedan iconoclasts has

ARCHITECTURE. 1 33
generally been destroyed by the heavy rains of India and by the
luxuriant plants, the roots of which penetrate and crumble even
the firmest masonry. The topes were particularly liable to this
disintegration, not only because of the carelessness and want of
solidity of their construction, but because they were in greater part
built only of bricks cemented with clay and reveted with stucco.
Many of the topes are enclosed by railings which, although exe
cuted in stone, reproduce the forms of a wooden fence with extreme
accuracy. The vertical posts, placed at regular intervals, are con
nected by several horizontal beams, the oval or lens-shaped section
of which, and the character of their joints with the uprights, so dis
tinctly indicate a timbered construction that it is quite impossible
to recognize from a drawing (Fig. 72) that they are of stone. The
entrance-portals of these enclosures are also imitated from carpentry
work, translated into stone with a profuse ornamentation of figures
in relief, the forms of which are similarly related to carvings in wood.
These enclosures do not appear in connection with all the topes,
those of the great group of Gandhara either being entirely without
the fence, or with an imitation of the railings in relief upon the
revetment of the substructure (Fig. J$).
In some instances there stood before the portals of the enclos
ures peculiar monuments known as Stambhas, or Lats, destined to
commemorate the victories or merits of the rulers, and hence simi
lar in general character to the steles and obelisks of antiquity.
Several of these, distinguished by inscriptions of Asoka, and con
sequently accurately dated, distinctly display Occidental, and nota
bly Hellenistic forms, this being no doubt due to the introduction
of Greek culture into India after the campaigns of Alexander and
the exchange of embassies between Asoka and the courts of the
Diadochi. The best known lat is that near Feroz Shah in Delhi ;
the most remarkable that found in 1837 ]ying upon the ground
in the fort of Allahabad and re-erected upon a modern pedestal.
The inscriptions upon the latter monument date from the time of
Asoka (272-236 B.C.) to Samudra Gupta (A.D. 380-400). The
shaft has a diameter of .95 m. below, diminished to .65 m. above,
and together with its base attains a height of 13 m. The abacus
is ornamented with anthemions and astragals of a design closely

134 INDIA.
resembling Hellenic details ; the remainder of the capital is missing.
In those cases where the capital is preserved, as on the triumphal
columns of Sankissa, in the Doab, and of Bettiah, in Tirhut, it pre
sents a certain likeness to a part of the Persian composite capitals
of the age of Xerxes by a wreath of leaves bent downward. Groups
of lions or elephants also appear among the forms employed as
terminal decorations.
More important in character than the lats which stood before
the topes were those erected before the rock-cut grottos. These
caves are among the most interesting monuments of ancient Indian
architecture. The appearance of their exterior, which was provided
with porticos of columns or of piers, was generally much the same ;
but the arrangement of the interior is so different as to require us
to divide the grottos into two distinct classes : the Chaityas, or
lofty halls resembling the interior of a basilica, and the Viharas, or
cloister-like dwellings for the priests, with low rooms of assemblage
supported by columns or piers, and a complex of adjoining small
chambers. These caves are generally found in groups, twenty or
thirty of them often being in close proximity. As far as they are
at present known, the grottos of the two varieties, over a thousand
in number, appear to have been for the greater part created in
connection with the worship of Buddha, not more than two or
three per cent, of the entire number being works of the Brahmans,
and but seven or eight per cent, of the Jainas. More than nine-
tenths of those concerning which we have information are situated
in the presidency of Bombay, separate groups appearing throughout
India to the borders of Afghanistan.
It has been thought that some of the chaitya caves may ante
date the age of Asoka. But inasmuch as the grotto of Sattapanni,
in Behar near Rajagriha, before which the assemblage of the year
543 B.C. is supposed to have been held, is still, in the main, a natural
cavity, the chaityas near Barabar, about thirty kilometers to the
north of Gaya, should perhaps be considered as the most ancient
examples of artificial caves known. Of these the grotto of Sudama,
or Nigope, which is dated by an inscription to the twelfth year of
the reign of Asoka (i.e., 260 or 264 B.C.), and another, referable to
the nineteenth year of the same reign, are of extreme simplicity and

ARCHITECTURE.

135

wholly without artistic ornamentation, being plain barrel- vaulted
chambers connected with a circular space, the ceiling of which is
formed like a cupola (Fig. 74). The grotto of Lomasrishi at the
same place, little more recent than those before mentioned, displays,
on the other hand, the first attempts to create a portal of inde
pendent importance.
The chaityas of Bombay are far more important, one of them,
known as the grotto of Bhaja, appearing to be as old as the third
century before Christ.. Its interior is now exposed to view, as the
timbered construction which formerly closed the facade (Fig. 75)
has entirely disappeared. According to the representation of sim
ilar monuments which are carved
in the right and left upper cor
ners of the front, the wood-work
must have formed a heavy horizon
tal entablature at the height of the
impost, and have closed the open
ing below with a light tracery.
The interior forms a hall 18 m.
long, divided into three aisles by
two ranges of columns, each con
sisting of eleven octagonal shafts
which incline inward and are with
out bases and capitals. The nar
row side aisles were continued Fig. 74.— The Nigope Grotto near Barabar.
around the inner end of the grotto,
forming a semicircular passage like an apse, this being divided from
the main body of the hall by five piers. The rock-cut ceiling of the
nave imitates the form of a stilted barrel-vault. The apse is termi
nated by a conch, and this, as is evident from the remains still pre
served, was ornamented with wooden arches shaped like the ribs of
a ship, in direct imitation of the free-standing timbered prototypes.
The ends of the purlins which existed in the original carpentry are
exactly copied upon the facade of the grotto. A small tope stands
in the semicircle of the nave, taking the place of the altar within
the apse of the Christian church, and increasing the similarity of the
chaitya caves to the typical basilicas. Although the four rock-cut

136

INDIA.

temples of Ajanta are several centuries more recent than the grotto
of Bhaja, one of them closely resembles it in general arrangement.
The polygonal columns at Ajanta are also without bases and capi
tals, but they are not inclined ; the wooden arches still appear upon
the ceiling, but, at least in the apse, are only, carved in imitation
upon the native rock. The facade of wood seems to have been
similar to that of Bhaja, and, like it, has disappeared with the ex
ception of slight traces in the sockets of the beams.

Fig. 75.— Chaitya Temple of Bhaja.

The facade with the portal, originally of timber, appears to have
been translated into stone as early as the second century before
Christ. This is the case with the chaitya caves of Bedsa and
Nassik, which are particularly interesting as direct copies of the
pointed-arched roof of carpentry. The first of these is further re
markable because of two stambhas before its entrance, the capitals
of which steles display an imitation of a reliquary upon the wreath

ARCHITECTURE.

137

of leaves bent downward, and above this groups of horses and
elephants, with male and female riders.
The largest and the most beautiful chaitya cave among all the
rock -cut temples of India is that of Karli, between Bombay and
Punah, dating, according to the inscriptions of Maharaja Bhuti or
Deva Bhuti, from about the year 80 B. C. The facade is rendered
exceptionally imposing by a portico cut from the native rock and
provided with a gallery of wood-work. This has now entirely dis-

Fig. 76.— Plan and Section of the Chaitya Temple of Karli.

appeared, but its arrangement is evident from the mortises cut to
receive the ends of the beams. Before it stood a fine stambha,
upon the polygonal shaft of which is a capital consisting of a
reliquary and a group of four recumbent lions above a wreath
of leaves bent downward, of the type described above. The inte
rior of the chaitya of Karli is remarkably well preserved, even the
wooden ribs of the barrel-vault and of the conch still remaining
intact. With the exception of seven shafts in the apse, which are

138 INDIA.
treated like polygonal piers without bases and capitals, the columns
of the interior, — fifteen upon either side of the hall, — are similar in
form and decoration to the stambhas (Fig. 76). The chaitya tem
ples of Ajanta, Ellora, Kenheri, Salsette, Dhumnar, Kholvi, and of
many other places in India, are by no means lacking in interest, but
a consideration of their individual peculiarities would lead us too
far afield.
The viharas, or Buddhist cloisters, appear throughout India in
great number, frequently in connection with the chaitya caves. Of
the structures of this kind but few, excepting those carved in the
native rock, have been preserved to the present day, the more im
portant and extensive free-standing buildings being only known to
us from the descriptions of the Chinese pilgrims Fa Hian (about
A. D. 400) and Hiouen Thsang (about A. D. 640). The latter of
these travellers has given an account of the cloister Malanda, built
in the first century after Christ near Rajagriha, an ancient capital
south of Patna, the Monte Casino of India ; he relates that it was
for the greater part four-storied and built around numerous courts,
providing accommodation for ten thousand priests and alumni, be
sides one hundred lecture-rooms. Even more extravagant are the
tales told by Fa Hian concerning a certain five-storied vihara, which
contained five hundred chambers on the ground-floor, four hundred
in the second story, three hundred in the third, two hundred in the
fourth, and one hundred in the fifth, while the exterior of each of
the stories imitated the form of a different animal.
Mr. Fergusson has pointed out that the terraced pyramids, the
so-called rathas of Mahavellipore (compare Fig. 81), present some
analogies to the description of Fa Hian ; still, the accounts given
by the Chinese pilgrims are not sufficient to convey an adequate
idea of these monuments of Indian architecture. The few free
standing buildings remaining in the tracts bordering India upon
the north-east do not make up for this lack of information. The
ruins of similar structures at Jamalgiri, Takht-i-Bahi, and Shah-
dehri so distinctly display the influence of the Seleucidae, which
had probably been introduced through Bactria, that in many re
spects we should be inclined to consider them as the works of
Greek rather than of Indian architects. Thus there remain for our

ARCHITECTURE. 1 39
consideration only the rock-cut viharas of the central part of India,
constructions which never attained the size of the before-mentioned
free-standing cloisters, but from which, nevertheless, much informa
tion concerning those buildings is to be derived, by reason of the
exact imitation of many characteristic details in the carving of the
rock. The fully developed architectural form of these viharas, like
that of the chaitya temples, does not appear to have been deter
mined until a comparatively recent period of Indian antiquity.
The Hathi Gumpha, or elephant grotto, of the mound of Udaya-
giri, near Cuttack (Orissa), known from inscriptions to have been
the work of King Asoka, who lived about the same time as Aira,
appears to be in the main a natural cavity. Several other grottos
of the same place, dating to a period before the Christian era,
also display an entire inability to develop halls of any consider
able size, or to adapt fitting architectural forms to the interior
of the excavation. The Ganesa grotto, for instance, has but two
chambers besides an atrium supported upon five columns; while
that of Rani has only two chambers, without a central space, be
hind a portico of nine columns. The piers of the Ganesa grotto
are chamfered at half height, so as to transform the square plan
to an octagon ; but in place of the capitals there are simply curved
projections, which appear as precursors of the console capitals de
veloped in later times (Fig. 78). Still another vihara of the
mound of Udayagiri shows how little the design of the facade was
formed after any established architectural type, the exterior taking
the shape of a tiger's head, whose open mouth forms the entrance
to the single chamber of the interior.
Several viharas in the western part of India, antedating the
Christian era, are decidedly more developed than those before
mentioned ; this is particularly the case with the chaityas of Bhaja
and of Bedsa and with two of the grottos at Ajanta. The first of
these, the most ancient, has five chambers, to which access is pro
vided by a passage cut directly into the rock and remaining open
at the front. The second has nine chambers, grouped around a
hall which is terminated at the inner end by an apse. The older
of the two grottos of Ajanta, above referred to, consists of a square

140 INDIA.
hall with four chambers opening from it. The interior of the more
recent (Fig. jy), which was probably constructed but shortly before
the Christian era, displays for the first time a hypostyle hall with
four columns, besides an atrium or portico of two columns, and
nine chambers, arranged in perfect regularity upon three sides of
the hall. In later times the arrangement of the atrium and its
columns was little varied, but, on the other hand, the hypostyle
hall was frequently omitted altogether, as is the case with the
viharas of Nassik, which date to the first three Christian centu
ries. The general features manifest in Ajanta continued to be fur
ther developed in later constructions of the kind. A rectangular
plan, — tetrastyle or octostyle atria, — grand hypostyle halls, similar
in plan to the many-columned courts of
Greece, — and regular ranges of chambers
on three sides of the halls became gener
al, as did also the introduction of chapels
in the middle of the rear wall, — as, for
instance, in several viharas of Ajanta, in
the grotto at Bagh, in the Durbar grotto
at Salsette, and elsewhere.
In common with the architecture of
Fig. 77-— Plan of the Vihara almost all civilized nations, the forms of
Grotto of Ajanta. the columns exemplify most clearly the
peculiarities of the various styles. The
development of the isolated support is more readily followed in
the viharas than in the chaitya grottos. As in Egypt, the treat
ment of the shaft results from the chamfering of the angles of a
pier of square plan, the eight and the sixteen sided prism being
thus determined. The most primitive transformation of the rec
tangular pier is that appearing in the Ganesa grotto referred to
above, where the number of angles is only increased for a short
space in the middle of the support (Fig. 78, b). A second phase
of development is marked by the adoption of the octangular plan
for the entire height of the shaft, as, for instance, in the chaitya
temple of Bhaja (Fig. 75). A favorite device of later times was to
divide the height of the column into sections of rectangular, octan
gular, and sixteen sided plan, the greatest number of angles being

ARCHITECTURE. 141
in the middle of the shaft. There was no channelling to emphasize
the arrises ; but an ornamentation, at times in horizontal bands, is
frequently applied to mask the junctures of the different prisms
(Figs. 78, a andc).
As was the case with the columnar orders of the Egyptians and
of the Greeks, two distinct classes of capitals early appear in the
architecture of India: the one developed from expedients of con
struction, the other resulting from a decoration of floral, and even
of animal forms. The first of these varieties gives aesthetic ex
pression to the necessary projection of the capital, by placing con
soles in the direction of the ceiling beams, thus fulfilling, in a
highly satisfactory manner, the requirements of an intermediate
member between the support and the imposed weight. The ad
vantages of this arrangement appear especially in those cases where
the column stands beneath the intersection of two main beams, so
that the brackets are affixed to four sides of the shaft. The three
illustrations of Indian console capitals given in Fig. 78 plainly show
that these projections, as soon as they have obtained a higher de
velopment than that observable in the piers of the Ganesa grotto,
are similar in principle to the spirally ornamented brackets of As
syrian and Phoenician capitals, and consequently to the perfected
Ionic helix of Greece.
The second manner of treatment, based upon a floral decoration,
was, in Egyptian architecture, extended to the entire column ; in
India, on the other hand, it was usually restricted to the capital and
to the base. In the latter case, as in the former, the bud or the
calix of a flower was the form most commonly imitated, this model,
however, being treated with the greatest freedom. The tendency
to repeat the horizontal divisions of the shaft by encircling bands,
and to multiply the members both of the capital and of the base,
was so unfavorable to the design as a whole that the floral sup
ports of India did not remotely attain to the organic unity of the
Egyptian lotos columns, — even as the chamfered piers above de
scribed were inferior to the proto-Doric shafts of Beni-hassan. The
luxuriant vegetation of India perhaps accounts for the overloaded
character of the floral column. Rows of leaves, bent both upward
and downward, appear upon the calix capitals in a manner resem-

142

INDIA.

bling that observable in the Persian monuments of the age of
Xerxes, to the details of which one of the capitals of the Vihara
Grotto at Ajanta (Fig. 79, c) is strikingly similar. A capital of the
Yadnya-Sri Grotto (Fig. 79, b), placed beneath an abacus with pro
jecting brackets, approaches in form the spirals of the Ionic style,
as it is ornamented by twisted foliage falling at the four corners
over a heavy roundel similar in character to an echinus. This
transformation of the round section of the capital to a square is

Fig. 78.— Buddhist Supports with Console Capitals.
a. From a Grotto at Ajanta. b. From the Ganesa Grotto c. From a Grotto at Ajanta.
near Cuttack.

perhaps to be derived from that form of the column in which a
reversed calix forms the lower part of the capital, correspond
ing to the similar but upright ornament of the base, while the
bud of the flower seems to be enclosed in a square shrine re
sembling the Buddhist reliquaries described above. Decorations
of this kind have already been met with upon the stambhas and
the interior supports of the chaitya halls. One of the columns

ARCHITECTURE.

143

of the Nahapana Grotto at Nassick, answering to this description,
is represented by Fig 79, a. The images of animals, — lions, horses,
elephants, or oxen, as in the last-mentioned instance, with or with
out human figures, — are also transferred from the stambhas to the
capitals of columns, where they are employed to mask the juncture
of the support with the horizontal beam, — much in the same way
as were the double-headed lions and bulls of Persian architecture.

Fig. 79. — Buddhist Columns with Floral and Animal Ornamentations.

«. From the Nahapana Grotto
at Nassick.

.. From the Yadnya-Sri Grotto
at Nassick.

From a Vihara Grotto
at Ajanta,

When consoles are added to floral capitals, but little height is
commonly allowed to these projections. The architrave is low,
indeed not much thicker than a board, while the other members of
the entablature are generally hidden behind a projecting cornice of
convex profile. The ceilings are formed by a simple construction
of intersecting beams, this carpentry being as exactly imitated in
the grottos df India as in the rock-cut tombs of Etruria.
The domestic edifices of India continued to be built almost
exclusively of wood. As far as the forms can be judged from the
analogies of ecclesiastical architecture, and from the representations

144

INDIA.

on reliefs, the terminations of doors and windows were of the same
pointed arch which has been noticed in the outline of the topes,
and in the portals and vaults of the chaitya caves. The different
stories were probably set back so as to form narrow terraces, the
reliefs showing balustrades, similar to those used for the enclosure
of the topes, to have been so arranged as to hide the lower part of
the windows. The uppermost story receded even more from those
below it, — the terrace surrounding it being covered with a lean-to
roof, which was upheld by the posts of the balustrade. Many-
storied buildings seem to have been the rule.
In the beginning of the seventh century after Christ Buddhism
was decidedly upon the wane. Troublous times followed, during
which the history of India is a blank, or at best a confused account
of civil wars which for three centuries devastated the country. At
the, end of this period Buddhism appears limited to a small cor
ner of Bengal, — in the West flourished the Jaina sects, an out
growth of the older religion, — in the East the worship of Vishnu, —
in the South that of Siva.
Jainism soon became pre-eminent, and extended itself over the
greater part of Western Asia. Concerning the beginnings of its art
little is known, but it seems at first to have been entirely depend
ent upon that of the Buddhists. The peculiar style of the Jainas
does not appear to have been fully developed much before the
eleventh century, and is thus almost of modern origin. We hence
limit our description to its earliest period and. to its most rudi
mentary traits.
The most important characteristics of this style were determined
by the exclusive adoption of stone in place of timbered construc
tions, both the general design and the details being decisively in
fluenced thereby. The forms of arches and vaults do not imitate
the curved and pointed ribs of wood, as in the architecture of the
Buddhists, but present themselves as a development of the primi
tive system of the false arch, — that is to say, of horizontal courses
of masonry so projecting as to form a ceiling. In place of the
massive topes we find, among the Jainas, the so-called Sikras, or
Vimanas, structures somewhat resembling the Tholoi of Greece.
The external appearance of these monuments indicates the shape

ARCHITECTURE.

'45

of the high, pointed arched chamber within." They are of square
plan, elevated upon a cubical substructure,. and are terminated upon
the exterior by a dome similar in form to a flattened melon. With
these vimanas are connected more or less complicated colonnades,
the design of which shared the tall proportions of the tholoi, and
was not without a certain
magnificence and charm.
In the columns of this
style the four -sided con
sole capital is repeated at
two -thirds the height of
the shaft (Fig. 80), serving
here as the impost of a
peculiar strut, which pro
vided a support for the
middle of the horizontal
beam. The wide span of
the architrave, rendered
possible by this rational
expedient, was connected
with a complicated ceiling
construction, which form
ed, by a system of squares
alternately parallel to the
sides and to the diagonal
of the plan, a varied and
pleasing system of coffers.
The buildings of the Jaina
style, commonly restricted
to moderate dimensions,
thus attained a light and
graceful character. On the other hand, numerous temples and
chapels erected at various periods were often combined with a
single complex, so as to form an extended city of sacred edifices.
The holy mountain of Satrunjaya, near Palitana, and the buildings
at Girnar, not far from Puttun Somnath, are remarkable examples
of such aggregates. ;
10

Fig. 80. — Columns of the Jaina Style.

a. From the so-called Ganthai at
Khajuraho (seventh century).

b. From the Temple of Gy -
raspore (ninth century). -

146 INDIA.
A third style, differing both from that of the Buddhists and that
of the Jainas, is known by the name of Dravidian. This style was
employed as well by the worshippers of Vishnu as by those of Siva,
— the artistic work of these sects, which were otherwise so antag
onistic, being so similar that their sculptures are generally distin
guishable only by the subjects represented. The monuments of
the Dravidians are not as old as those of the Buddhists. There
are but few instances of works of this style dating to the fifth or
sixth centuries, chief among which are the so-called Rathas of Ma-
havellipore, near Madras; and even those of the eighth or ninth
centuries, such as the kylas buildings of Ellora and ^the great tem
ples of Purudkul (Pattadkul), are exceptional. Indeed, by far the
greater number of the monuments of Dravidian art were erected
subsequently to the Middle Ages, — the period of its greatest ac
tivity being as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Hence, this manner of building would not come under our present
consideration at all, were it not that the immutability of Dravidian
designs permits us to see even in the latest works, such as the Pe-
rumal Pagoda, at Madura, a close similarity to the original forms of
the style, so that modern edifices may serve as direct illustrations
of the ancient remains.
The Rathas of Mahavellipore (Fig. 81) are carved from enbrmous
isolated blocks of granite. Upon the exterior they were carried to
a certain degree of completion, but the chambers within were left
partially excavated and unfinished, probably on account of the
difficulties presented by fractures in the rock. Two of the rathas
are of small dimensions, each side of the approximately square plan
measuring between 3 m. and 4 m., with a height of from 5 m. to
6 m. ; a third is 8 m. square and 10 m. high. These three struct
ures seem to have been modelled after the viharas of the Buddhists,
and in their turn served as prototypes for the free-standing viman
as of the Dravidians. The two remaining rathas are oblong, and
follow in some measure the arrangement of the Buddhist chaityas.
The Dravidian style appears far more developed in the Kylas of
Ellora, which probably dates from the ninth century. This rock-
cut temple, — one of the most important works of Indian architect
ure, — consists of a connected series of monuments which, instead

ARCHITECTURE.

147

of being hewn out of isolated rocks, as at Mahavellipore, are ex
cavated from a solid plateau according to a regular plan. The
quarrying out of the extensive court, leaving the entire temple stand
ing within it, must have been a task of enormous difficulty. More
over, at Ellora the interior was not neglected, as was the case in
the before-mentioned rathas, and the rigid symmetry of the original
design excluded all adaptation of the plan, during the progress of
the work, to the peculiarities of the geological formation.
The ornamentation of these rock -cut monuments, favored by
the manner of their execution, was profuse, but this was far sur-

Fig. 81. — The so-called Rathas of Mahavellipore.

passed by the sculptured decorations of the free-standing Dravidian
temples, which were so overloaded as to render a systematic de
scription of them here impossible. The most fantastic decorations,
consisting of floral and animal forms as well as of patterns of
straight and curved lines, are combined with mouldings and cornices
in a manner so disconnected that the entire structure appears un
organized and without fundamental static principles. The decora
tive details, like the vegetation of the country, form a rank over
growth, entirely burying the constructive members beneath a
whimsical and distorted ornamentation.
It would lead us too far to follow in detail all the remaining

148 INDIA.
architectural styles of India, — the chief works of which, moreover,
do not come under our present consideration, inasmuch as they
were created subsequently to the mediaeval epoch and to the Mo
hammedan invasion. The Chalukyan style, which appeared in the
Dekan, between the southern coasts of India and the Ganges, and
that style which extended from the Ganges to the slopes of the
Himalayas, were both formed by a combination of the Jaina and
Dravidian styles, in such a manner that with the former the Dravid
ian, and with the latter the Jaina, elements were the most promi
nent. Among the Himalaya Mountains themselves, as in the Pun
jab during the Buddhist period, Western influences are plainly
recognizable. None of these districts, however, produced a fully
pronounced and characteristic style : in great measure because of
the interruption of the natural development by the invasion of the
Moslems, and by the introduction through them of Persian ele
ments. The difficulties presented to a systematic consideration of
Indian art by the anomalous character of the monuments are
greatly enhanced by the almost entire lack of trustworthy historical
information in regard to these works. Even less is to be gathered
concerning the art of the countries to the east of India, among
which Siam, Cambodia, and Java alone have been explored, and
are not entirely without historical data. Still it is certain that their
civilization, especially in the Southern districts, is more closely re
lated to that of China than to that of India.
Among a people so entirely in conformity with the nature by
which they were surrounded, leading so passive and adventitious a
life as did the inhabitants of India, circumstances were as unfavor
able to sculpture as to architecture. The employment of decorative
carvings was, it is true, so extensive as even to interfere with the
development of the architectural structure. But the art is lacking
in the most important fundamental principles,— namely, in the de
voted study of normal and typical forms, as well as of individual
peculiarities, and, above all, in energy of conception and treatment.
The dreamy and effeminate life of India rendered all higher devel
opment of sculpture impossible, not permitting it to attain an in
dependent and clearly pronounced individuality, and giving it the
nerveless character of a plant growth while allowing full license to

SCULPTURE.

149

a capricious and arbitrary imagination. As the architecture was
without a dominating framework based upon static laws, so were
the works of sculpture soft and formless, flaccid of muscle, and ap
parently without a bony structure. In some representations of per
fect quiet and drowsy reflectiveness, as in the images of Buddha
and of various deities in the Indian Pantheon, native sculpture at
tains a great perfection of style by reason of the entire harmony
between the subject and the manner of expression. But as soon as
it passes beyond the limits of this inert and introspective dream
world, the art appears feeble and inadequate.
This inadequacy is not evident in sculpture alone, and should
not be regarded as resulting from any special lack of aptitude for
that art. In poetry, for
instance, the great epics OTggJHI
Ramayana and Mahabha-
rata, as well as Kalidasa's
Sakuntala, the products
of very different periods,
are alike essentially lyric :
although displaying great
acuteness and delicacy of
appreciation, they cer
tainly do not favor the
creation of individual
and sharply characterized
forms. These visionary
Indian gods of fixed gaze,
whose noiseless chariot wheels raise no dust, who cast no shadows,
and walk without touching the ground, lend themselves as little to
pictorial representations as do the images of the Christian Apoca
lypse. The monstrous creations with many heads, arms, eyes, etc.,
on one body, appear most unfavorably in the formative arts, and
the preparatory work of the poets, in Greece so serviceable, was in
this respect a positive disadvantage to Indian sculpture and paint
ing. Drawbacks of this nature are particularly apparent in the por
trayal of legendary and historical subjects, in which the action is
superficial and without real force, the flaccid muscles of the body

Fig. 82. — Relief from the Tope of Amravati.

150 INDIA,
appearing incapable of energetic movement. This impotence is
not relieved by the multiplication of the extremities, nor by the
sprawling postures of the arms and legs, which rather appear to be
disjointed, or, at best, to be outstretched in a lazy and ineffectual
manner. Nevertheless a certain beauty cannot be denied to Indian art,—
even as the Hindoos themselves are to be reckoned as the most
comely among the Asiatic races, being pleasing of countenance,
with tall and graceful figures and delicately formed extremities.
Nor was the race lacking in an appreciation of these merits, as the
works of the Indian poets abundantly prove. Still the chief de
light is found in round, voluptuous, and graceful forms, — in a

Fig. 83. — Relief from the Tope of Sanchi.

smooth and soft flesh, which hides the structure of bones, sinews,
and muscles. Hence the larger the dimensions of the sculptures
the more inadequate does the treatment appear : for while the mere
outline may be sufficient for a pleasing effect in works of small
scale, in colossal figures the lack of modelling and the vacancy of
the surfaces is painfully evident. In these respects the Indian
works contrast most unfavorably with the sinewy vigor of the
sculptures of Egypt, or with the heavy muscular force of those of
Mesopotamia. The peculiar disposition of the Indians, and especially the sensi
tive appreciativeness of their nature, though so unpropitious to

PAINTING. 1 5 1
sculpture, might be supposed to be decidedly favorable to painting,
and particularly to the expression of human feelings through that
art. Yet although representations of imaginary landscapes are
known to have been attempted at an early period, it still appears
that the Hindoos never elevated painting above a mere colored
decoration. Indeed their painting is less important than their
weaving and embroidery, and, at least in the decoration of utensils
and the drawing of miniatures, seems to have been left in the hands
of women. The weaving of carpets, for which the Indians had
been famed from the earliest times, was evidently cultivated to the
disadvantage of painting, which art was employed in more exten
sive tasks only as a substitute for textile decoration. Few vestiges
of painting dating to the earlier periods of Indian history have been
preserved ; and it is not always safe to draw inferences from modern
works in regard to the characteristics of a former style. We are
thus obliged to content ourselves with the authority of the literary
remains in maintaining that colored decorations were popular among
the ancient Indians, but were not elevated from a mere ornamenta
tion of walls and utensils by common artisans to an independent
artistic importance. In those exceptional cases where painting at
tained to some eminence this was probably due chiefly to the inter
est of the subject represented, and to the decorative general effect
of the composition. This was, at all events, true in regard to the
sculptures in relief, which must have been the more similar to paint
ings, inasmuch as the reliefs, devoid of all formal regularity, had
themselves deviated from the principles of sculpture and approached
to the character of painting.
The art of the great countries of Eastern Asia is strikingly dif
ferent from that of India. The practical and rational tendencies of
the Chinese and Japanese have led them to consider usefulness as
the criterion of all human activity; they have thus been saved from
sinking into that dreamy life of transcendental speculation peculiar
to the Hindoos. The close ethnographical relations of the Chinese
with the Polynesian races rendered them little inclined to adopt the
artistic influences of the South and West, even after the time when
the religion of Buddha had in great part superseded the native doc-

152 CHINA.
trines of Confucius. The intellectual disposition of the inhabitants
of the celestial empire is so sober-minded and unimaginative that
there can be but little doubt that the third religion of the country,
that of Lau-tse (the Prophet of Reason), which is so entirely in ac
cordance with the national character, will continue to be further and
further extended among the Chinese. The formative arts, in their
higher significance, thus have had no existence among this people,
who are even destitute of the more universally appreciated art of
poetry. As they have ever done all things with reference to the
greatest practical usefulness, every branch of workmanship has
steadily flourished among the Chinese since a period of history
more remote than that illustrated by the memorials of any other
people, with exception, perhaps, of the Egyptians and the Mesopo-
tamians. As is well known, the Chinese have preceded the Occi
dentals in technical inventions of the most various kinds.
So entirely lacking was the feeling for monumental architecture
among the Chinese, on the other hand, that even their works of
engineering were seldom of important dimensions, and never at
tained to a real grandeur of design. The great Chinese wall, built
about 200 B. C, is unduly celebrated, notwithstanding its length
of over two thousand kilometers, as it nowhere attains a greater
height than 6 m. It did not serve the purpose for which it was
built, and the attempt to form a boundary fortification of this extent
was not repeated. Long-continued peace and the surety of owner
ship in Eastern Asia rendered the construction of works of military
engineering unnecessary. In China those classes of society were
lacking which elsewhere have fostered monumental constructions:
there was no luxurious and magnificent hierarchy, and no warlike
hereditary nobility. Even the imperial palaces were not remarkable
for stability and for imposing architectural effects, and it is not
strange that the subjects were little inclined to erect enduring
structures for the benefit of later generations.
In those works which were not created to serve the ends of
practical usefulness, and which are to be especially considered as
monuments of art, the Chinese and Japanese displayed little more
than a childish trifling. Their art consequently is doll-like, — not
without its charms in those cases where the dimensions and pur-

ARCHITECTURE.

153

poses of the works agreed with this tendency, but mean and inade
quate when dealing with grand monumental problems. Chinese
temples, even when enlarged far beyond the dimensions of the ordi
nary village pagodas, always retained a certain similarity to the
pavilions of a pleasure -garden. The methods of construction, as
well as the materials employed in the decoration of such edifices,
as, for instance, lacquered wood
and porcelain, degrade architect
ure to a level with the manu
facture of utensils. The curved
edges of roofs, the unnaturally
twisted ends of the beams, orna
mented with fantastic carvings,
the dangling bells, etc., have no
higher character than a coquet
tish prettiness, and cause the
buildings to appear like magni
fied bric-a-brac. The entire art
of China may be described as
an extension and elaboration
of the peculiar toys of that
country. The funeral monu
ments resemble nothing more
than Louis Quatorze clocks and
similar rococo ornaments, for
which, indeed, since the intro
duction of Chinese porcelain
into Europe, they have not un
frequently served as direct mod
els. The richly adorned portals (pailus), though executed in stone,
appear to be a whimsical imitation of elaborate cabinet-work. The
temple towers (taas) are like magnified centre-pieces of banqueting-
tables, and compare most unfavorably with the topes of Indian
architecture,— the senseless reduplication of the encircling roofs
painfully suggesting the stuttering repetition of one syllable in the
place of a rational architectural language. (Fig. 84.) The most
celebrated of these structures is the porcelain tower of Nankin,

Fig. 84. — Pagoda of Tung-Chow, China.

154 CHINA.
built between A.D. 1412 and 143 1, which reaches the height
of 70 m.
The sculpture and painting of Eastern Asia was of a similar toy
like Character. The methods of workmanship and the materials
devoted to these arts can be fittingly employed only in works of
small dimensions — sculpture being chiefly represented by porcelain
models ; painting by lacquered work and water-colors. An astound
ing technical ability is recognizable in almost all instances, but for
mal beauty and the higher qualities of art are rare. The images,
even when not professedly caricatures, or of a comical nature, sel
dom rise above the character of graceful and pleasing trifles. More
over, in the great majority of cases, they are adapted to practical
employment, the petty nature of the Chinese delighting especially
in the careful ornamentation of utensils. An elevated and monu
mental art is incompatible with such aesthetic limitations and with
so prosaic a turn of mind.

Fig. 85. — Facade of the Alcazar, Seville.

MOHAMMEDAN ART.*

*" 1 "HE civilization of Asia had already passed through the phases
-*- of artistic development described in the foregoing chapters,
when the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, — who had previous-

* Description de I'Egypte. Etat modeme. Tom. XVIII. Paris, s. a. — A. de Laborde,
Voyage pittoresque et historique d'Espagne. • Paris, 1812. — J. J. Hittorf et L. Zanth, Ar
chitecture modeme de la Sicile. Paris, 1826-1835. — P. Coste, Architecture arabe de
Kaire. Paris, s. a. — Girault de Prangey, Monuments arabes et moresques de Cordova, Se
ville et Grenade. Paris, 1835-1839. — Choix d'ornements moresques de l'Alhambra (A con
tinuation of the preceding work). — Essai sur l'architecture des Arabes et des Mores en
Espagne, en Sicile et en Barbarie. Paris, 1841. — Monuments arabes d'Egypte, de Syrie et
d'Asie Mineure. Paris, 1846. — H. Gaily Knight, Saracenic and Norman Remains, to illus
trate " The Normans in Sicily." London, 1840. — J. Goury and Owen Jones, Plans, Eleva
tions, Sections and Details of the Alhambra. Paris, 1842. — M. de Vogue, Le Temple de
Jerusalem. Paris, 1864. — F. v. Schack, Die Poesie und Kunst der Araber in Spanien und
Sicilien. Berlin, 1865. — Prisse d'Avennes, L'Art Arabe d'apris les monuments de Kaire.
III. Voll. Paris, 1869. II. Ed.

156 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
ly taken no part in the great historical movements of antiquity, —
came forth from their desert homes to accomplish their high mis
sion. This was the third invasion of barbarians into that portion
of the world which owed its civilization to antiquity. It was des
tined to be more important than the first migration of the northern
European races, which, having no artistic traditions of their own,
were entirely receptive of the Graeco- Roman culture; and more
permanent than the second movement of Central Asiatic hordes,
which retreated without leaving lasting memorials behind them.
The early followers of Mohammed were intellectually superior to
the races of the second migration, and, if inferior to those of the
first in this respect, had at least the advantage of possessing a
highly important religion of their own, which assured to them a
more peculiarly national culture than it was possible for the Chris
tianized tribes of Northern Europe to maintain in the face of the
antique traditions of Rome. It is hence not strange that the civili
zation of the Moslems more rapidly attained to an independent
development than did that of the Germanic races.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to form any adequate idea of
the artistic achievements of the Arabian people in the epoch before
Mohammed. With the exception of poetry, which is less influ
enced by geographical limitations, the arts of this barren and inac
cessible land appear to have attained but slight independent develr
opment, and to have profited but little by the more advanced civ
ilization of neighboring countries. The geogiaphical character of
their native country did not incline these "Children of the Wind"
to settle in permanent habitations. Mounted upon noble horses,
they drove their herds from one pasturing ground to another, carry
ing upon the backs of camels all their household possessions,— the
amount of which was limited to the capacity of this beast of burden,
in order not to interfere with the mobility of the horde. Theif
building was consequently restricted to hurdles and tents, their
works of carving and colored design to weapons and to woven
fabrics. This nomadic character was retained in the few cases of perma
nent settlements. Even in the towns the sacred places remained
little more than simple enclosures, and none of the artistic produc-

ARCHITECTURE. 1 57
tions attained to a monumental importance. The finer utensils, and
all those articles which can be manufactured only by a regular and
settled industry, were without doubt imported from neighboring
countries, in exchange for the raw materials carried by the advent
urous inhabitants of the desert to the ports of Arabia and thence to
Syria, Persia, and Egypt. It will be remembered that it was during
commercial journeys into Syria that Mohammed conceived those
ideas which were destined to bring so great a part of the world
under the sway of his countrymen. The indigenous arts seem to
have been limited to weaving and tapestry. Seated upon the backs
of swaying dromedaries, during the long journeys of the migratory
tribes, the women spun the fine threads of wool, and during the
halts of the caravans at noonday and evening, wove and embroid
ered the carpets and garments with all that wonderful imaginative
ness of design which appears in the romances and epic poems of
the Arabian story-tellers. This textile industry was transferred in
later times to the provinces of Shusistan and Faris in Southern
Persia, where it was developed in the so-called Susandshird, a nee
dle-work upon plain ground, closely related to the high-warp tapes
try (hautelisse) of France* This bright play of woven threads
forms the basis of Arabian art. The tents of the sheiks and the
hangings of the sacred Caaba, at Mecca, must have presented the
characteristic forms of Arabian decoration long before these were
united to an architectural structure. This decoration of textile
derivation is the only characteristic which the architecture of the
Arabians has preserved unaltered in all those parts of the three
continents then known which were conquered and civilized by
them. A conquering people easily transfers to the subjugated country
its language and its customs, its poetry and science, its industry
and even its sculpture, — but rarely its architecture. The aboriginal
methods of construction frequently predominate even in those in
stances where the invaders brought with them a decidedly superior
style of building, as was the case in Egypt under the Hellenistic
* J. Karabecek, Die persische Nadelmalerei Susandschird. Ein Beitrag zur Entwick-
lungsgeschichte der Tapisserie de haute lisse. Leipzig, 18S1.

158 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
Ptolemies. If the conquerors be without an independent and fully
developed architecture, it is almost unavoidable that they should
adopt the forms previously existing in the country which they have
occupied. The new inhabitants may, however, modify the general
plan, and may introduce a foreign character, illustrative of their
former artistic conceptions, betraying, it may be, their lack of ex
perience or of ability for similar constructions. They generally
base their ornamentation upon national traditions, derived from
other branches of artistic workmanship, — the decorations most
clearly speaking the language of the invaders. It is only after a
certain period of experiments that a decided compromise between
the aboriginal and the imported elements is effected, and that a
peculiar style is determined, differing considerably in the various
districts occupied by the conquering people.
It was thus with the Arabians. In the short period of one hun
dred years after the fall of the last of the Sassanidae (Yezdigird III.,
A.D. 641), the Moslems had conquered not only all the countries
bordering Arabia, but almost all the civilized lands of that epoch,
from the Ganges to the Strait of Gibraltar, — the most enormous
tract over which a victorious race has ever carried its arms. Before
the eyes of these fanatical sons of the desert there arose the archi
tectural monuments of the antique and of the early Christian civili
zations, — they had but to choose which of these structures were
best adapted for them to imitate in their religious edifices. The
temples of the Egyptians, Syrians, Mesopotamians, Indians, Greeks,
and Romans, could not serve the followers of Mohammed as mod
els, on account of the inadequate accommodation provided by their
cramped interiors. And the styles of all these races were, during the
seventh century after Christ, in more or less advanced stages of
debasement. Furthermore, the followers of Mohammed abhorred
every taint of idolatry, and consequently rejected the architectural
methods employed by these religions. The position of the Koran
in regard to Judaism and Christianity was entirely different. The
Christian buildings especially were more nearly adapted to the
conceptions and the rites of the Mohammedans, and presented
themselves the more directly as models, inasmuch as the greater
part of the countries at first invaded by the Moslems had been

ARCHITECTURE. 1 59
Christianized, — namely, the southern lands of the eastern Roman
Empire, the northern coast of Africa, the islands of the Mediter
ranean, etc. The early Christian and Byzantine churches were
more frequently remodelled than destroyed by the Arabs, this
adaptation being continued until the invaders had prepared them
selves for independent architectural efforts and the development
of a peculiar style.
If we may judge from the condition of Syria, the Mohammedan
occupation was at first characterized by great toleration. The
severe Omar even permitted the Christians of Damascus to hold
religious services in the basilica of St. John, which had been trans
formed into a mosque, the eastern part of the building becoming
Mohammedan, the western remaining Christian. This remarkable
state of things continued for seventy years. More important were
the alterations and imitations of Christian buildings which early
appear in Syria. The seven-aisled mosque El-Aksa in Jerusalem,
probably begun by Omar, A.D. 638, and completed by Abd-el-Malek,
692, was, without doubt, formed by the rebuilding of a basilica, per
haps of the church of St. Mary, erected by Justinian. The cele
brated Kubbet-es-Sachra (Mosque of the Rock), on the site of the
altar for burnt offerings of Solomon's Temple, is so closely related
in plan, construction, and details to the cupola churches of the
earlier Byzantine style that it has even been asserted that this
building was a Christian church re-arranged for the purposes of Mo
hammedan rites. Modern investigations, however, make it more
probable that it was entirely built under Abd-el-Malek, A.D. 688,
but by Byzantine architects and masons. (Fig. 86.) It was quite
natural that the caliphs and their emirs should employ architects of
the eastern empire, practising the Byzantine style, in the .first Chris
tian countries which they had conquered, and this is, moreover,
proved to have been the case by repeated accounts of the caliphs
inviting architects even from the court of the Byzantine emperors.
Such an interchange is not surprising in view of the ready recogni
tion of the earlier civilization in many other ways. The adminis
trative accounts of the empire of the caliphs, for instance, were
entirely- in the hands of Christian Greeks, while the masterpieces
of Greek literature, early translated into Arabic, were thoroughly

i6o

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

studied in the schools of Bagdad, Cairo, and" Cordova, at a time
when they were almost unknown in the lands not occupied by
the Saracens.

Fig. 86. — Plan and Section of the Kubbet-es-Sachra (Mosque of the Rock), Jerusalem.
The Arabian conquerors attained to a greater independence in
Egypt. This country was first invaded from Syria by Amru, one
of Omar's generals, at a time subsequent to the occupation of
Persia. But Egypt had unquestionably contributed to the first

ARCHITECTURE. l6l
development of Arabian culture : its influence was more easily in
troduced across the Red Sea, from Assouan and Edfu to Mecca
and Medina, than was that of Syria through the trackless deserts
of the North. As early as the times of the exodus the civilization
of Egypt was introduced by nomadic tribes into Northern Arabia.
The Caaba of Mecca, antedating the age of Mohammed, probably
owed its arrangement to some similar transferrence of Egyptian
ideas, — perhaps indirectly, as we are led to believe from the re
semblance of this ancient national fane of the Arabians to the
Mosaic tabernacle, which was a repetition, in movable tents, of the
Egyptian temple* It is true that the only information we have
concerning the primitive form of the Caaba is that it was a cubical
cella, similar to the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle of Moses and
of the Temple of Solomon, and stood, like them, within an enclosed
court. If the enclosure of the Caaba consisted of a covered colon
nade with wooden supports and open towards the court, like that of
the Mosque of Mohammed in Medina, it certainly must have resem
bled the peristyle boundaries of the Egyptian temple area even
more closely than did the fence of poles and hangings surrounding
the Mosaic tabernacle.
Whatever may have been the influence of Egypt upon the prim
itive civilization of Arabia, it is certain that the Moslems made no
attempt to form their architecture after the models presented by
the structures of the Pharaohs, as they had done after those of the
Byzantines. The stupendous monuments which they saw upon the
banks of the Nile were far removed from Mohammedan ideals.
Their abhorrence of the idolatry of the ancient Egyptians must of
itself have prevented them, even as it had the Christian builders of
the first centuries, from attempting to imitate these works. The
influence of the Egyptian temples was thus limited to the en
closure of the court, which was transformed from the simple wall
surrounding the primitive Arabian fane to a monumental peristyle
of considerable dimensions.
The colonnades surrounding the mosques were, in the earliest
works of the Moslems, even in Egypt, formed almost exclusively of

* " History of Ancient Art," by Dr. Franz von Reber, p. 143, etc.
II

1 62 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
classic, and particularly Corinthian, columns, Byzantine types being
rare. The shafts and capitals were frequently taken from Roman
or early Christian buildings, or were directly imitated from such
models. The classic entablature, on the contrary, never appears,
having been given up almost entirely by the early Christian- build
ers. The archivolts present from the first a novel appearance, be
ing either pointed or horseshoe-shaped.
These forms of the arch, which are directly characteristic of
Arabian architecture, did not originate in Egypt, nor do we find
them among the decorative details brought by the Moslems from
their Arabian home. Both are, however, to be traced, during the
ages preceding the invasion of the Moslems, in the countries first
occupied by them, — namely, in Mesopotamia and Persia : the pointed
arch appearing in the Assyrian epoch, the horseshoe under the
Sassanidae. In the chapter treating of the art of the Sassanians
the development of the horseshoe arch was described, and it was
shown that this fdrm was not determined by static considerations.
The pointed arch was of greater constructive importance, but its
employment by the Arabians was due less to a perception of the
material advantages offered by it, than to a preference for lighter
and more graceful proportions than those of the Byzantine round
arch. The desire to decrease the weight of the wall may have
somewhat favored the introduction of the pointed arch, but the
consideration which chiefly led to its adoption was the greater
height of opening afforded by it, and the consequent airiness and
lightness of the structure. To this is to be added the preference
of the adventurous and fanciful Moslems for uncommon forms, and
perhaps for the similarity of the pointed and the horseshoe arch to
the looped-up curtains or the round-cut openings of the tent. The
combination of both varieties, the pointed horseshoe arch, which
became common in later times, particularly resembles such hang
ings, as does also the Persian keel-shaped arch. The true impor
tance of these forms was not yet understood, the consequential
development of the pointed arch into the pointed vault being re
served for later times. In the architecture of the Moslems the
archivolts were only employed to support a light ceiling of wood,
upper stories not appearing at first in the more important edifices.

ARCHITECTURE.

163

On the other hand, it was probably due to ancient Egyptian
models, rather than to the traditions of Arabian design, that in
Egypt the mosques were not placed in the exact centre of the
square enclosure, as would seem the more natural arrangement.
It was perhaps in imitation of the ancient Christian atrium that
the middle of the court was chosen as the position of the fountain
used for the ablutions prescribed by Mohammedan rites, while the
covered space in which the worshippers assembled for prayer adjoined
one of the four sides of
the enclosure (compare
Fig. 87), — much in the
same manner as the
hypostyle hall was con
nected with the peri
style court of the Egyp
tian temple. But, in
contrast to both the
ancient Egyptian and
early Christian courts,
the side of the en
closure formed by the
hall was not empha
sized upon the interior
facade. The ranges of
columns were extend
ed without alteration
around all four sides of
the court, which thus differed from the Christian atrium in not
having the character of a vestibule. The area required for the
hall, or rnihrab, was provided in the simplest possible manner by
multiplying .the colonnades on the side of the court chosen for
the purpose. It is to be observed that in these edifices the chief
axis of the rnihrab was never distinguished by greater dimensions,
as was the clerestory of the Christian basilicas, or the middle
aisle of increased height introduced into the hypostyle hall of
the more important Egyptian temples, such, for instance, as that
at Karnak. This is particularly remarkable, as the Moslems, who

Fig. 87. — Plan of the Mosque of Amru, Cairo.

164 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
worship with their faces towards Mecca, were even more strict
ly obliged than were the Pagans or the Christians to turn in a
given direction while engaged in prayer, and as the orientation
of sacred edifices to the cardinal points of the compass had been
previously observed in almost all the temples and churches of the
East. But the Arabians, while maintaining the general arrange
ment of their plan, paid little attention to the orientation of the
entire building, indicating the direction in which the worshippers
were to turn for prayer by the introduction of a special chapel
(kiblah), which consequently stood in no organic connection with
the main lines of the edifice, often adjoining some unimportant
corner of the rnihrab. The position of the pulpit (mimbar), the
seat of the caliph or of his representative (maksura), and the tombs
of the founders or patrons of the mosque, were similarly introduced
without reference to the general plan. These points were fre
quently indicated upon the exterior by cupolas, generally of horse
shoe outline, which rose unsymmetrically above the flat ceiling of
the colonnades, and being constructed of light carpentry did not
generally require additional supports in the interior. The stand
point for the muezzin, who called the faithful to prayer, was pro
vided by the tall minarets, which were nothing else than narrow
spiral staircases enclosed by a wall and terminated by a small encir
cling gallery. The position of these towers was determined solely
by topographical considerations and the desire to render the voice
of the muezzin audible to the greatest possible number of the in
habitants. The outer walls of the older mosques were as bare as
those of a fortress, their only ornamentation being the entrance por
tals; these were more frequently arranged in the corners than in
the axes of the square court.
The structure was entirely without an organic architectural
memberment; but this gave the greater scope to a graceful and
fantastic ornamentation. As the Moslem carries his prayer-carpet
with him to the mosque, even so did the Mohammedan artist cover
the floors, the walls, and even the gratings of the windows, with
patterns similar in character to those of tapestry. This style of
decoration, which has with good reason been called arabesque, gives
unity and a national character to an architectural framework bor-

ARCHITECTURE. 165
rowed from various quarters. The arabesques are as unlimited and
as continuous as the works of the weaver, hence they permit no pro
jections of the wall and no architectural members similar to cor
nices. The walls most suitable for the Mohammedan decorator
are uninterrupted like the floors ; they are similarly treated, being
covered with flat textile patterns and at most framed in by slight
ornamental borders. In cases where the architectural structure
rendered such a treatment impossible, — as in the case of spandrels
or cupolas, — the ornamentation, while retaining the motives derived
from embroidery and weaving, was transformed to a delicate relief,
which in appearance holds a middle place between a fine fretwork
and a drapery of lace. This, like the decorations of perfectly plain
surfaces, was executed on a stucco revetment. The Arabian stalac
tite vault is a striking instance of the inability of Mohammedan
architecture to develop an organic decoration from the constructive
principles employed. The diminutive members of which they are
composed repeat the same forms from the impost to the summit
of the vault with the same multiplicity and ingenuity of arrange
ment observable in the surface ornamentation of the walls. These
stalactites first appear upon the pendentives, and continue to be
most frequently employed in that position. The constructive prin
ciple involved is that of the false vault, formed by repeated hori
zontal projections.
In these decorations the play of complicated designs and of
bright colors is inimitable, the clear outlines of the flat stucco re
liefs increasing the effects of light. The principle of this treatment
of the wall is the same as that recognizable in antiquity among
several Oriental races, notably among the Phrygians ; but the taste
and technical ability of the Arabians produced a result far superior
to the textile works, and to the architectural ornamentations imi
tated therefrom, which are to be observed among any other people.
This is explicable by the concentration of the artistic industry of
the nation for centuries upon this one branch, the weaving and
embroidering of tapestries being the only work that can be prac
tised during continual journeyings, and consequently that which
has always been the most natural to nomadic races. While the
sheep, goats, and camels of the tribe provide the materials for this

1 66

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

manufacture, the occupation of weaving and embroidery is the
greatest resource to the women while in the desert ; moreover, both
the tent and the naked earth upon which it stands require carpets
and hangings in place of the wood and stone employed by the
inhabitants of fixed abodes. The patterns of this textile work
were transferred to the decoration of mural surfaces as soon as the
movable tent of the desert was exchanged for settled dwellings and
for monumental edifices.

Fig. 88. — Interior of the Mosque of Amru, in Cairo.

The Mosque of Amru, in Cairo (Figs. 87 and 88), founded in the
year 643, — consequently only twenty-one years after the Hegira —
is the oldest known architectural creation of the Arabians beyond
the limits of their native country. In it the arrangement before
described appears fully determined. The building is nearly square,
and presents upon the exterior an almost entirely bare wall. The
colonnade on the side of the court towards the entrance is formed

ARCHITECTURE. 1 67
by one range of columns, that at the right by three, at the left by
four, while that on the side opposite the entrance, the mihrab, is
extended to six ranges. All these columns appear to have been
taken from Roman and Byzantine buildings. The majority of the
capitals are of the Corinthian order. To equalize their height they
are surmounted by piers of masonry, of the same plan as the aba
cus, which are connected with the neighboring supports by means
of wooden beams. From these piers rise horseshoe arches some
what pointed at the summit, the impost being marked by a very
slight projection. Throughout the building the archivolts run in
one direction ; the horizontal ceiling of wood is placed upon them
without the intervention of decorative members of any kind. The
centre of the open court is occupied by a fountain, surrounded by
eight columns which uphold an octagonal cupola. The remaining
details seem to have conformed to the description given above,
but few traces of the colored decoration of the walls are now
recognizable. The details of the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun in Cairo (Fig. 89),
which was built in the year 879, have remained in a better state of
preservation. Its arcades are fivefold in the mihrab and threefold
upon the other sides of the court. The arches are supported upon
piers, those standing at the corners being provided with peculiar
engaged columns, the plan of which is three-quarters round. The
archivolts are of horseshoe shape, slightly curved inward and
sharply pointed at the summit ; their soffits are richly decorated
with arabesques, and the outer sides of the curves have fringe-like
borders. The fountain, in the middle of the court, is erected upon
a square foundation, the superstructure becoming octagonal by the
chamfering ofvthe corners, while the pointed cupola is of circular
plan. The minaret, though but little ornamented, is of imposing
proportions ; it stands at one corner of the court, rising from a
massive square base which is diminished in accordance with the
ascending lines of the spiral staircase to an exceedingly tall and
narrow tower.
The want of conformity between these two most ancient
mosques of Cairo is very striking, and an arrangement of plan quite
independent of previous designs of the class appears also in the

1 68

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

mosques of El-Daher and El-Azhar, dating to the tenth century, in
that of El-Hakim, of the eleventh, and in the mosques of Barkuk
and Salaheddin Yussuf, of the twelfth century. The later exam
ples, although each offering new solutions of the architectural prob
lem, do not display important constructive improvements, and no
one form of columns or archivolts decidedly predominates. In the
curves of the arches some Occidental reminiscences are occasionally
recognizable, these having, without doubt, been introduced by the
Crusaders. The most important monument erected in Egypt by

Fig. 89. — View of the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun, in Cairo.
the Arabs is certainly the Mosque of Hassan, A.D. 1356, in which
the European influences are even more apparent than in the
Mosque of Yussuf. The court, which in the earlier examples was
so extensive, is here contracted to a small opening for admitting
light, situated at the intersection of two main aisles. The transepts
are covered with high barrel vaults of pointed profile, supported
upon low walls, this construction being of a massive and heavy
character which is not elsewhere met with in the works of Arabian
architecture. The four quadrangular corner areas, outside of the

ARCHITECTURE. 1 69
main aisles, are occupied by small chambers, so as to enclose the
entire plan in an oblong, — this being as regular as the neighboring
streets, which were not quite parallel, would permit. A square
mausoleum, in which the founder of the mosque was buried, ad
joined the complex. This structure was surmounted by an im
mense cupola, the pendentives of which are formed by stalactite
vaults. The pointed dome was only provided with windows in the
drum, being otherwise perfectly plain, like the vaults of the main
aisles. If the dome had been placed above the intersection, so as
to cover the court, instead of rising above a prolongation of one of
the aisles, the plan would have presented a striking similarity to
the edifices of the Romanic epoch, especially to those of South
western France, as well as to some of the structures of less archi
tectural importance which had appeared among the Persians under
the Sassanidae. The double towers upon the main front, rising at
either side of the mausoleum, also remind us of the Romanic bel
fries. On the other hand the magnificent portal, with its elaborate
surface decora'tion derived from textile patterns, and with its pro
jecting cornices, clearly displays the artistic traditions of Asia.
The Mosque of El-Moyed in Cairo, which was founded in the
year 141 5, is distinguished by a similar portal, and by an effective
arrangement of different colored ashlar stones in horizontal courses.
In this building recourse is again had to the original arrangement
of an extensive court surrounded by colonnades. As the stock of
antique columns was by this time not sufficient to supply the de
mand, a new kind of support was introduced, which, forming a
compromise between the column and the shaft, is exceedingly awk
ward in appearance. Indeed the entire structure, notwithstanding
the lavish gildings of its ceiling, is one of the most unsuccessful
efforts of its time. On the other hand, the Mosque of Kait-Bey in
Cairo, built about 1483, the exterior of which much resembles that
of the Mosque of El-Moyed, is remarkable for a magnificent orna
mentation of the most beautiful design, rendering this compara
tively small building, both within and without, one of the gems
of Mohammedan architecture in Egypt. (Fig. 90.) The minaret
and the mausoleum of the founder, which stand in connection with
the edifice, are of particularly graceful and pleasing forms.

170

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

There are but few remains of the domestic and civic architecture
of the Mohammedans in Egypt which can with certainty be referred
to the earliest epoch. But it may be assumed that
the style employed in structures of this class, after
having been once fully developed, was but little
altered during later centuries, — so that the general
character of the dwellings and public buildings of
the first centuries after the occupation may perhaps
be understood from a study of the examples of
this kind still erected in the country by the Moham
medans. The exterior of the private house is plain
and uninviting. The
portal is in some cases
richly decorated, but
is always calculated
to offer resistance to
forcible intrusion. In
the lower story the
windows are small and
irregularly disposed,
but above this they
are wide and airy,
being supplied with
a projecting lattice
work, which takes the
place of the Italian
balconies, and the
oriel windows of the
north. The dwelling-
rooms do not open
towards the narrow
street, but towards
a large inner court,
which is rendered ex
tremely picturesque
by colonnades and fantastic arcades, by pavements of colored mar
bles or of glazed tiles, by fountains and by the woven hangings of

Fig. 90. — View of the Mosque of Kait-Bey in Cairo.

ARCHITECTURE. 171
the doors and windows. A dais of masonry takes the place of fur
niture in the sleeping and living rooms. The proportions of the
plan and elevations and the treatment of the ceilings give to all
these spaces, and particularly to the baths, a most pleasing effect,
which is heightened by an elaborate polychromatic decoration.
The Arabians have always retained a peculiar veneration for
water. Even in private houses the surroundings of this life-giving
element are pre-eminently adorned, while the decorations of the
public fountains are often magnificent. This is the case, for instance,
with the fountain known as that of Abderrahman, and with that
near Souq el Asr, both in Cairo. Among the other public build
ings which present the opportunity for monumental treatment, the
khans and caravansaries are deserving of mention, although they
seldom attain to an artistic importance.
We are not able to say in what measure these peculiarities, de
veloped upon Egyptian soil, were derived from the Arabian root,
inasmuch as all the earlier Mohammedan remains of Bagdad, the
more ancient seat of the caliphs, were destroyed entirely during
the plundering of this city by the Mongolians, between the years
1220 and 1405. This loss is the more to be regretted as Persia,
the first country conquered by the Arabians, must have been the
scene of the earliest development of Mohammedan art, — and as
Bagdad itself, which was so long the chief centre of Islamism, must
have exercised a decisive influence upon all the other countries oc
cupied by the faithful. We cannot pronounce the name of Haroun
al Raschid, the great. contemporary of Charlemagne, without bring
ing up the vision of a culture more brilliant and more magnificent
than that of any contemporary power. The fame of the newly
arisen architecture of Bagdad penetrated even beyond Moham
medan lands: Theophilus, emperor of Byzantium, A.D. 829 to 842,
built his summer palace in imitation of a structure standing on the
banks of the Tigris. It is to be assumed that ancient Persian,
Sassanian, and northern Indian influences determined the style
which appeared in the empire of the older caliphs. But it remains
to be seen whether historical and archaeological investigations con
cerning the few remains referable to the first Mohammedan occupa
tion of Persia will clearly display this development.

172 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
The architectural activity of Mohammedan Asia was removed,
rather than diminished, when, towards the end of the ninth century,
the power of Bagdad began to decline. The emancipation of Egypt
on the one side, and of Bokhara on the other, which took place
during the reign of Al Motamed, A.D. 870 to 891, did not mate
rially affect the national civilization. The Samanian caliphate of
Shiraz was maintained but little more than a century, from A.D.
932 to 1056, and, on the west of the Indus, the dynasty of the
Ghaznavides, founded by Sabuktagin, was of not much longer dura
tion, the flourishing city of Ghazni having been destroyed in the
year 1183. An extensive and most fertile field was opened to Mo
hammedan civilization when the troops of Shahab-ud-Din, of the
race of Ghori, invaded India in the year 1 190, the entire peninsula
being subjugated by the founders of the Turkoman dynasty of
Pathan within half a century after the capture of Delhi and Canouge,
in A. D. 1 193 and 1 194.
The buildings of Ghazni referable to the caliph Mahmud, A. D.
977 to 1030, were more closely related to the contemporaneous
mosques of Cairo than to the Buddhist and Jaina temples of India,
but in the heart of India the native models were almost directly
imitated by the Moslem invaders during the first centuries. The
extreme variety of ancient Indian architecture resulted in the ap
pearance of a great number of corresponding Mohammedan styles;
Fergusson enumerates not less than thirteen of these, some of which
existed at the same time, in various districts of the country, while
others succeeded one another from age to age. The original Indian
forms, particularly of columns and piers, and their ornamental de
tails, appear in almost all these styles, while the arrangement of
the plan was more peculiarly Arabian.
The dynasty of Pathan at once began to build, with all that ar
chitectural ability and delight in monumental creations which have
always been characteristic of the Turanian races, and with a talent
for arrangement far superior to that of the Hindoos. All decorative
details were, however, still left in the trained hands of the subju
gated Indians, the patterns being directly copied from the structures
of the Buddhists, and especially of the Jainas, in the same way as
the architects of the early Christian basilicas imitated the details of

ARCHITECTURE.

173

ancient Roman monuments. The oldest mosque in India, that of
Kutub at Old Delhi, A.D. 1196 to 1235, has columns of the same
kind as those of the Jaina temple Vimala Sah in Mount Abu. The
interior of the Mosque of Canouge, which was originally a temple
of the Jainas, displays none of the characteristics of Mohammedan
design, although the plan has been transformed to an arrangement
resembling that of the Mosque of Amru in Cairo. Reminiscences
of the Indian styles appear also in the later Mosque of Dhar, near
Mandu, in that of the fort at Jaunpore, and in some mosques at
Ahmedabad and else
where. One of the most
striking peculiarities
of these edifices is
the great lack of con
structive ability dis
played in the arches,
notwithstanding the
preference for point
ed and keel -shaped
portals and cupolas.
The keel-shaped arch
es on the western
side of the Mosque
of Kutub, as well as
the few cupolas of
this building, are ei
ther formed entirely
by horizontal courses of projecting stones, or are partly built in
this manner, and terminated by blocks of stone leaned together.
Another example of the application of this principle of the false
arch is noticeable in the keel-shaped archivolts of the Mosque of
Ajmir, built between A. D. 1200 and 1230. The structure enclosing
the court of this building, formed by a great number of columns,
is surmounted by no less than thirty-two monolithic cupolas (Fig.
91). The shafts, which are placed at a right angle, support a
slab lying in the diagonal, so as to transform "the plan to an octa-

Fig. 91.— Plan of the Mosque of Ajmir.

174

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

gon, which readily served as the impost of the small circular vault.
This arrangement was imitated from the Jainas, and was long re
tained by the Mohammedan architects of India. These two mosques,
decorated in the Jaina style, are among the most elaborate examples
of their kind ; in constructive respects, however, they are not im
portant. The curious Indian minarets of the earlier epoch appear
rather as memorial columns, after the manner of the Lat monu
ments, than as the towers of mosques intended solely to provide a
standpoint for the muezzin. A striking instance of the slight con
structive significance of these towers is given by the celebrated min
aret of the Mosque of Kutub at Delhi ; rising from a circular plan
of 15.5 m. lower diameter, and stepped five times in regular diminu
tion, it attains to a total height of seventy-three metres. The five
galleries, supported upon cornices formed by the projection of the
horizontal courses, are as insignificant in design as are the channel-
lings and reedings of the three lower divisions, which cause them to
appear like a bundle of shafts and pilasters.. A higher importance
is to be attached to the ingenious attempts to effect the transition
from a square substructure to an octagon, and to a circular impost
for a cupola, by means of pointed-arched pendentives, projecting
one above the other, as they appear in two vaulted edifices near the
Mosque of Kutub at Delhi, namely, the mausoleums of Altumsh,
A.D. 1235, and of Ala Ud-din Khilji, A.D. 13 10. The method of
forming pendentives by means of small pointed arches which, pro
ceeding from the angles of the square, increase in number, row by
row, as they ascend, is not known to have been introduced into any
structure more ancient than a mosque of Delhi dating to the four
teenth century. In principle these pendentives were related to the
stalactite vaults of Egypt and of Spain.
Little by little the Mohammedans of India emancipated them
selves from the soft and luxurious influences of the Hindoos, — the
architectural works of the stern Tugluck Shah, the founder of New
Delhi, being a most important step in this direction. Jaina col
umns and piers were still employed in the new style, but its chief
characteristics are extreme simplicity of decoration and the intro
duction of rnore thorough and monumental constructive methods.
The Mosque of Jaunpore, where Khoja Jehan declared his indepen-

ARCHITECTURE.

175

dence in the year 1397; that of Ahmedabad, founded by Ahmed
Shah in 141 1; that of Kalburgah, built between 1347 and 1435;
and of Mandu, as well as the enormous mausoleums at Butwa, dis
play more and more important dimensions, while discarding the
elaborate decorations derived from the native inhabitants. An im
portance rarely met with in the West is assigned to the kiblah, by
means of superimposed colonnades and extensive symmetrical halls
covered by cupolas, the effect of the structure being heightened by
the omission of the court upon the entrance side. In some instances

Fig. 92. — Mosque of Kalburgah.
the entire court is replaced by a great number of small domes, as is
the case in the Mosque of Kalburgah (Fig. 92), the interior of which
is provided with a hundred supports and covered by seventy-six
cupolas. In architectural respects the greatest importance is to be
attached to the elaborate and tasteful arrangement of the penden
tives of the .chief domes, which, however, did not appear before the
sixteenth century. The pendentives of the Mosque of Jumma (Figs.
93 and 94), and of the grave of Mahmud at Bijapur, are constructed
upon a most ingenious principle, and are particularly interesting, in
asmuch as their design is without doubt related to the round-arched

176 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
squinch pendentives of Russia. But these edifices belong to a later
period than that with which we are at present concerned, as do
also the marvellous constructions of the empire of the Great Mogul,
which was founded in the year 1494 by Baber, a lineal descendant
of Tamerlane. The buildings at Gualior, New Delhi (Jehan-Abad),
Futtehpore Sikri, Allahabad, Secundra, Mehal, Agra, etc., are all
subsequent to the Middle Ages, some of them being as recent as the

Fig. 93. — Plan of the Mosque of Jumma at Bijapur.
eighteenth century. The dynasty of Pathan has been celebrated for
having " built like giants and decorated like jewellers." This might
be said with equal truth of the Great Moguls, who erected, at New
Delhi and at Agra, mosques, palaces, and mausoleums of the most
imposing dimensions, all of which combined a harmonious arrange
ment of plan and an intelligent construction with a fine elaboration
of the decorative details not even surpassed by the works of the
Moors in Spain. The influence of the architecture of the Moguls,

ARCHITECTURE.

177

after the sixteenth century, upon that of all Mohammedan Asia,
and even that of Russia and Turkey in Europe, was quite as great
as the influence of the traditions of Byzantium had been upon
the beginnings of Mohammedan art. On the other hand, the pow
erful dynasty of Akbar the Great, who died in the year 1605, fully
profited by the advances of Occidental civilization.
The most western districts of the world known to the ancients had
been subjugated by the followers of the prophet even before Moham
medanism had reached its eastern limits, the banks of the Ganges and
the Brahmaputra. The western movement did not proceed by the

Fig. 94. — Plan and Section of the chief Cupola of the Mosque of Jumma, at Bijapur.

most natural and easy channel, the Mediterranean Sea, which had been
so frequented by the Phoenician and Greek colonists and merchants,
and was, indeed, the centre of this antique civilized world. It was per
haps fortunate for Europe that the people of the desert long remain
ed incapable of sea voyages of such great length. They chose the route
through the Sahara, whose arid wastes were familiar to the Bedouins,
subjugating one by one the ancient settlements of Northern Africa.
The city of Kairvan, near Tunis, was the most important creation
of the conquerors during the seventh century, soon after the end of
which they had reached the Strait of Gibraltar. But few decades
later they occupied the most flourishing provinces of Spain.
12

178 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
Abderrahman, of the house of Moaviah, previously tributary to the
Abassides, established in Spain an independent kingdom, with Cor
dova as its capital, which realm was nearly equal in importance to
that of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, and was destined to flourish
for a longer period than the Mesopotamian empire. The Christian
churches were at first employed as mosques, the Christians being
permitted, with the same toleration as in Damascus, to practise their
rites side by side with the Mohammedans. But an independent
architectural activity soon made itself felt, and gave to Cordova an
importance equal to that of Bagdad, Cairo, or Delhi. As, in the
architecture of the latter cities, the influence of the monuments of
the Persians, the Byzantines, and the Jainas was plainly recogniza
ble, so also, in the constructions of the Moors in Spain, the columnar
details of the Roman and the early Christian structures were com
bined with the traditions brought from Egypt, the arches being al
most always of the horseshoe form.
Abderrahman himself did not live to see the fulfilment of his
proud desire to erect a mosque which should surpass those of Da
mascus, Bagdad, and Jerusalem. It was only after a period of con
struction extending over more than two hundred years, from 785 to
IOOO, that the Mosque of Cordova attained to its unequalled dimen
sions and magnificence. The arrangement of the Arabian court
made it possible to extend the plan by various additions, until the
area occupied was four times as large as that originally projected.
Three distinct extensions are recognizable. At first that part of the
building which served as the mihrab was enlarged upon the south
ern side by colonnades, and terminated by an imposing row of chap
els. Subsequent to this, eight additional aisles were added upon
the east, the court being proportionately increased in width. And
finally, the court itself, by the introduction of a forest of columns,
was transformed into a covered hall, this being provided, in its turn,
with a new and more extensive court upon the north, the plan thus
occupying an enormous rectangle, 180 m. long and 136 m. broad
(Fig. 95).
By these alterations the position of the longitudinal axis of the
building was changed, so that the chief hall was no longer in the
centre of the entire structure. In most of the monuments of Mo-

ARCHITECTURE.

!/9

hammedan architecture this would not have been felt as a disadvan
tage : even in the Egyptian models a symmetrical disposition was
never strictly observed, and, as the position of the kiblah, was only
determined by the direction towards Mecca, it seldom stood in any
connection with the main lines of the enclosure. In the case of
Cordova, however, the main axis was more emphasized than it had
been in the Egyptian prototypes, inasmuch as the central aisle,
which was, moreover, somewhat broader than the others, led directly

Fig. 95. — Plan of the Mosque of Cordova.

to the kiblah, — a structure surrounded upon either side by a num
ber of chapels of symmetrical arrangement. Upon the exterior this
want of symmetry was little to be remarked, as the enclosing walls,
which were as thick as those of a fortress, were only divided by but
tresses of various dimensions placed at unequal intervals, and by a
number of horseshoe-arched portals and windows, arranged solely
with reference to convenience of access and of illumination.
The court, occupying less than one-third of the entire extent of
the building, is surrounded upon three sides by a simple colonnade,

i8o

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

the supports of which are coupled at irregular intervals, quite with
out reference to the position of the entrances. On the side of the
mihrab heavy piers connected by pointed arches form the portals
which give access to the nineteen aisles of the hall. The mihrab
covers an area of 16,000 sq. m. The roof of this enormous space
was originally supported by more than a thousand columns, eight
hundred and fifty of which still remain (Fig. 96). Their shafts

Fig. 96. — View of the Interior of the Mosque of Cordova.
are of gray and red granite, jasper and white marble, brought from
all the quarries of Spain and of the neighboring countries. The
bases were either omitted altogether, or have been hidden by the
pavement, which is now relaid upon a higher level. The capitals
are almost all of the Corinthian order, and are of very similar de
sign. It is probable that only those in the western part of the build
ing are of antique or early Christian origin, the others being rough
imitations, executed at the time when the mosque was erected.

ARCHITECTURE. l8l
The projecting members above the capitals are similar to the cor
responding details of the early Christian columnar construction ;
they serve as .an impost for the lower horseshoe arches, which act
as braces between the short piers above them, these latter uprights
bearing the semicircular archivolts. An open roof of carpentry,
sheathed with lead, originally rested upon the summits of the archi
volts, nineteen ridges corresponding to the aisles of the interior, so
that the gutters ran directly above the ranges of columns. This
roof was replaced in 171 5 by light vaults. The direction towards
the kiblah is distinguished by ornamentations upon the piers above
the columns and by patterns upon the upper arches. The chapels
on the southern side are richly and tastefully decorated, the more
recent aedicula, known as the Villa Viciosa, which stands in the mid
dle of the hall, being especially elaborate. A magic charm is given
to the endless vista of columns and double arches by the ingenious
construction of the ceiling, by the intersecting lines of the arches,
which seem like a translation into curves of the straight lines of the
basilica roof framing, by the magnificent mosaics upon gold ground
(fesifisa), and by the rich decorations of arabesques and written
characters. Nevertheless, it is impossible to overlook the organic
faults of the structure, such as the unnecessary duplication of the
arches, the restlessness of the many openings and cross lines, the
disproportion of the height of the columns to the arcades which
were piled above them, and the lack of a central and dominating
nave. The effect of the late Gothic cathedral choir which has been
added to the structure is not pleasing, and it is perhaps fortunate
that it cannot be seen from the entrance, it being impossible to see
through the forest of columns in a diagonal direction.
The first architectural style of the Moors, the main characteris
tics of which were a combination of Corinthian columns with horse
shoe arches, and with a comparatively restricted ornamentation, ap
pears in several other Spanish towns as well as in Cordova. One
of the more important instances is the small mosque or synagogue
at Toledo, now known as the Church of Cristo de la Luz. It is a
square structure, surmounted by nine cupolas, which are supported
by four columns, connected with each other and with the outer walls
by horseshoe arches. The elaborate chapels in the Mosque of Cor-

1 82 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
dova exhibit a further development of the Moorish style, resulting
from the introduction of Byzantine decorations in mosaics and mar
ble revetments. The magnificent palace of Az Zahra, near Cordova,
built by the splendor-loving Abderrahman III., A. D. 912 to 961, is
an example of this second and more ornate style ; unfortunately, it
was almost entirely destroyed in 1008 by an inroad of the Moors of
Morocco. The account of the four thousand three hundred columns
of this edifice, which were said to have been brought not only from
the quarries of Spain and of Northern Africa, but even from Rome
and the Byzantine empire, may be an exaggeration ; still, the de
scriptions of the edifice leave no doubt that it must have resembled
the Villa Viciosa of the Mosque of Cordova, and consequently have
displayed the influence of Byzantine decorations.
The Moors of Morocco, of the dynasty of the Almoravides, under
Yussuf ben Teshfin, whom the Spanish Arabs had summoned to
their aid against the Christians in the year 1086, soon turned their
arms against their confederates. This second invasion from Africa
furthered a change of Moslem culture in Spain, which appears to
have been begun in Granada a century previous by the founder of
the dynasty of Sahandja, Zavi, a chief of Barbary. The art of By
zantium was entirely subordinated to that of Africa and of Egypt.
The civilization of the Phoenicians, which two thousand years before
had preceded the influence of Rome in Spain, had been introduced
by the way of Carthage. In like manner this last invasion of the
Moors advanced from Morocco in support of the Mohammedans of
Cordova, who without their advent might never have recovered their
independence from Byzantine traditions. The culture of Roman
antiquity was thus preceded, and in its turn displaced, by invaders
from the coast of Africa. The low and rather heavy proportions of
the earlier architecture of Cordova were exchanged for the more
graceful forms of the Orient ; the round horseshoe was replaced by
the pointed arch ; and that style particularly designated as the Moor
ish, which reached its culmination in the Alhambra, was introduced
into Spain. Unfortunately, the Mosque of Seville, founded A. D.
1 172, which was one of the grandest creations of all Mohammedan
art, has been preserved to us only in small part. Still, the distin
guishing traits of this new style are clearly apparent in the gigantic

ARCHITECTURE.

I83

minaret, built in 1 195, which now serves as
the belfry of the cathedral, being known
as the Giralda, from the figure of the
vane surmounting the renaissance super
structure (Fig. 97). The windows and
arcades in relief, as well as the decoration
of the surfaces, display that delicate elab
oration which may aptly be compared to
lace or filigree-work, and which is charac
teristic of all the monuments of Moorish
architecture subsequent to this period.
The horseshoe form has given way to the
pointed and, at times, keel-shaped arch,
the small columns are slighter, and show
the first attempts to develop an original
capital. All the details point to a new
influence, derived from Morocco, and it is
to be remarked that towers of this de
scription are elsewhere met with only on
the coast of Africa opposite Spain.
The Alcazar, or Palace of Seville (Figs.
85 and 98), built for the greater part
about the same time as the Mosque and
the Giralda, was one of the most impor
tant creations of the Moors. Little now
remains, however, of the original struct
ure dating to the twelfth century. The
building was altered and extended, by
Moorish architects and in the Moorish
style, even after the conquest of Seville
by the Christians^ A. D. 1353 to 1364.
These additions naturally display a sec
ondary style which was largely depend
ent upon that of the Alhambra. Other
parts of the building, erected in the six
teenth century by order of the Emperor
Charles V., chief among which is the

i'-: ,;

%Bmfln.
Fig. 97.— The Giralda of 1
thedral of Seville.

1 84

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

Patio de las Doncellas, are distinguished by the introduction of re
naissance columns and details from the works of the fourteenth
century, such as the Salon de Embajadores. The occupation of
the building as a palace until the present day has led to so many
restorations that it is now impossible to attain a clear understanding

Fig. 98. — Arcade of the Alcazar in Seville.

of its original arrangement. The same is the case with the so-called
Casa de Pilatos in Seville.
Granada did not become important in artistic respects until Cor
dova and Seville had been recovered by the Christians. When the
city attained to an independent position under Ibn-ul Ahmar, about
the year 1240, it became the centre of Moorish science and art, as

ARCHITECTURE. 1 85
well as the seat of a court famed alike for intellectual culture and
knightly prowess. The natural surroundings of the city seemed to
favor this romantic character. The landscape is strikingly pictur
esque and beautiful : the luxuriant Vega and the valleys of the
Xenil and the Darro forming a wonderful contrast to the snow-cov
ered peaks which border the horizon.
The lower classes as well as the cavaliers among the Moors de
lighted in a careful construction and elaborate embellishment of
their dwellings. Moved by a like impulse, the kings of Granada
built a most magnificent and attractive palace within the fortifica
tions of the Alhambra, — a citadel so called because of the " red " color
of its walls. The greater part of the structure dating from the four
teenth century, erected by Mohammed III. and Mohammed V., is
still standing. The harem, the buildings for the dependents, and
the large enclosure with the chief portals leading to the Court of
the Myrtles and the Court of the Lions, have made way for an un
interesting renaissance structure built by Charles V. It may be
assumed, however, that the main front of this enclosure was built,
after the manner of the Alcazar in Seville (Fig. 85), with a monu
mental gateway above the entrance.
In no other work of the Moslems has their peculiar architectural
style attained to an expression at once so independent and so or
ganic as in this comparatively recent creation ; nowhere has it de
veloped a nobler and more graceful beauty. Arabian art, after a
long subordination to Occidental and Byzantine culture, returned
in the Alhambra to its true and native character. The tent of the
sheik was translated into a grand and permanent monument, which
retained even the lightness and grace of the slender poles and the
richness in color and design of the tapestried hangings. The magic
charm of Arabian fancy was not lessened by this transformation, the
permanence of the construction of masonry rather, adding the repose
of the oasis. Marble, wood, glazed tiles, and colored stucco repeat
the patterns of those textile works which had been familiar to the
Moslems from the earliest times. These had lost nothing of their
beauty in the wanderings along the Sahara ; on the contrary, they
had been carried to a still higher degree of perfection in the great
African waste, and were revived upon the banks of the Guadalquivir

1 86

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

in remembrance of the desert home, and the long caravan journeys
thence, with all the poetic imagery of nomadic life. As blossoms
appear upon the outermost branches of a tree, so the highest devel
opment of Arabian culture was reached in the most .remote country
to which it had extended.
Instead of the heavy imitations of Corinthian or Byzantine col
umns which had been customary in the earlier Moorish style, there
appear in the Alhambra slender shafts, similar to those reproduc
tions of Egyptian columnar motives which the Israelites had em
ployed for the poles of their tabernacle of movable tents in the
Arabian desert. The bases are composed of the usual classic forms,

Fig. 99. — Capitals from the Alhambra.

often with the addition of high mouldings encircled by small roun
dels, evidently imitated from the original socket of turned metal
which served as the support of the wooden upright. The shafts are
but slightly diminished, never channelled, but at times ornamented
with patterns of lines. Their upper end displays turned amulets
and incisions, which somewhat resemble the cords of the Egyptian
hypotrachelion, binding together the bundle of floral shafts, but
should rather be considered as reminiscences of the fastenings of
the original tent poles. The capitals (Fig. 99) consist of a tall neck
ing ornament with a row of leaves, or with a pattern of woven rib
bons, upon which rests, in the place of an echinus, a cube decorated
in relief with the conventionalized foliage of textile design, or, in

ARCHITECTURE. 1 87
exceptional cases, with diminutive stalactite projections. It is ter
minated by a bold abacus of hollow curved profile, above which is
placed the impost block. A strong trunnel projected from this lat
ter member and was dowelled into a horizontal beam of wood which
served as an epistyle, but was sculptured like a frieze. The frame
work thus formed was of the simplest and slightest possible kind,
only the semblance of an arcade remaining. The arches are of no
constructive significance whatever, being formed merely of stucco
facings supported by the horizontal beam, having in the interco-
lumniation a hollow space between the outer and inner surfaces. In
some instances they are even perforated with fretwork decorations,
so that it is possible to look quite through the wall, as through the
tracery of a Gothic gablet.
The slender columns, the wooden framework by which they are
connected, and the revetment of stucco with which this latter is
covered, are all of so perishable a nature that it is a matter of sur
prise that such a structure should have lasted for more than five
centuries, even under the most favorable conditions. Indeed it may
be observed, from certain inequalities of the decorative panels, that
the columns in several instances shifted from their position even
during the progress of the building. It was evidently not the in
tention of the architects to insure to the royal palace a stability
equal to that of the massive fortifications of the Alhambra, which
are formed of stone and brick masonry cast in cement. They de
sired rather to attain the light and festive character of a temporary
pavilion, and hence avoided all true arches and vaults, and even
massive walls, whenever this was possible. Vertical and horizontal
memberments were formed merely by borders of slight projection,
while the archivolts were cut out, so as to resemble the fringes of
curtains, — entirely losing the character of a solid construction of
vousoirs. Still, the conventionalized treatment of the surfaces
in a slight relief of stucco is so wonderfully beautiful that these
technical defects are readily overlooked. The most varied pat
terns, derived from works of embroidery and weaving, for which
the Moors were celebrated until the end of the Middle Ages, are
combined with a taste and an ingenuity never since equalled (Figs.
100 and 101).

188

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

This decorative system forms the greatest possible contrast to
that of the Occident, which was developed upon antique forms.
Nevertheless the later art of the Spanish Moslems retained many
details which had been introduced in the works of intarsia and mo
saics, executed by Byzantine artists for the Moorish court. The
similarity of the arabesques to Celtic ornaments is more apparent
than real, the straight and curved lined figures of the former being
as directly derived from weaving and embroidery as were the inter-

ll^Si

mm

Fig. ioo. — Part of the Court of the Myrtles in the Alhambra.

twined patterns of the latter from braided work. The plant-forms
of Moorish decorations are rather a kaleidoscopic arrangement of
conventionalized leaves than a systematic imitation of natural mod
els. They resemble in many ways the elaborate floral ornaments of
India. This similarity, which is quite as recognizable in the monu
ments of Egypt as in those of Spain, is undoubtedly referable to a
most ancient intercourse between the inhabitants of both sides of
the Persian Gulf. The relations between India and Persia were inti-

ARCHITECTURE.

189

mate, and there is good reason to suppose that the primitive art of
Arabia was influenced by that of India.
The ceilings of the Alhambra are not of greater constructive
significance than are the supporting members. The structural char
acter is everywhere contradicted or masked. The columns appear
as weak poles, the walls as tapestries, the arches as fringed curtains,
and in like manner the architectural system of roof and ceiling does

Fig. 101. — The Court of the Lions in the Alhambra.

not express their true functions. The epistyle beams, it is true,
support the horizontal ceiling-timbers and the inclined rafters, but
both are hidden upon the exterior by a revetment of boards which
stands in no organic connection whatever with the true construc
tion. The ceilings are panelled in slight relief, and covered, without
reference tp the arrangement of the beams, with an intricate net
work of delicate mouldings, such as appears also upon the surfaces
of the walls and doors. Even the cupolas are without construct-

190

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

ive importance. Their stalactites are either affixed directly to the
framework of the pyramidal roofing, as in the Hall of the Two Sis
ters and of the Abencerages, or the stone is hidden by a multitude
of panellings and projections, as in the Hall of the Ambassadors.
The system of small pendentive arches which appeared so clearly
in the architecture of India, and served as the basis of the stalac
tites, is almost entirely lost in a maze of hanging forms, so planned
as to afford striking effects of light and color rather than to display
the character of the constructive framework.
The general effect of the Alhambra may in some respects be
compared to that of the dwellings of Pompeii. In both cases the
endeavor was to lighten all the architectural members as much as
possible ; in both the forms were treated in a playful and whim
sical manner. In Pompeii the decorations of the walls are fan
ciful and diverting, their constructive impossibility expanding the
narrow walls of the dwelling, and transporting the occupant to a
fascinating dream-world. In Granada the light structure and the
luxuriant decorations were even more calculated to make the in
habitants forget the prison-like walls of the citadel, and carry the
imagination to the splendid tent of a Bedouin chief in some charm
ing oasis, — the ideal of Arabic poetry. The Alhambra was created
for the knightly courtesy of the Moors, for the magnificence of
Oriental silks, the luxury of jewels and arms, for the enjoyment of
the dance and song accompanied by lutes, and for the voluptuous
delights of love in the groves of cypresses, myrtles, and oranges, in
the courts, the baths, and the chambers. The edifice was an archi
tectural lyric : a harmonious embodiment of Arabian idyls. Its
halls, often entirely without windows, were not calculated to be
seen by the glare of day, — less favorable even to the courts than
the silvery light of the moon, — but rather by the dim illumina
tion of colored lamps, which enhanced, as if by magic, the fantastic
elaboration of the walls and stalactite vaults. But as the mur
muring of fountains, the odor of flowers, and the songs of night
ingales did not prevent the viper from entering the gardens of this
terrestrial paradise, so also the caresses of love and the poetry of
this enchanted life could not exclude calumny and intrigue, or hin
der the silent work of the damaskeened dagger. In the courts of

ARCHITECTURE. 191
the Alhambra, perhaps more than elsewhere, love and enjoyment
cast their almost inevitable shadows of hate and crime. The Hall
of the Abencerages still preserves the memory of that celebrated
family which fell within its walls as victims to the hatred of Abul
Hassan. Almost opposite to the Alhambra, upon another height of the
hills which surround Granada, are the remains of the pleasure pal
ace of Jennas Al Arif (Garden of the Builder), now known as the
Generalife. The arrangement of plan is here much the same. As
the structure was not enclosed by fortifications, the gardens and
pleasure-grounds were more extended, their clear brooks and pure
air, hedges of roses and beds of perfumed flowers, being celebrated
by Moorish writers. The present condition of the Generalife is not
to be compared with that of the Alhambra. Various remains still
preserved in the city of Granada are of the same architectural char
acter, the forms of the Alhambra being as predominant in this part
of Southern Spain as the older style of the Mosque of Cordova is
in the country between that city and Toledo.
A style similar to that which had developed in Andalusia, after
the erection of the Mosque of Seville, under the dynasties of the
Almoravides and Almohades, and especially of the Nassrides of
Granada, naturally appeared on the coasts of the Mediterranean
opposite to Spain. In Africa, however, the decorations of the walls
are much simpler, being frequently limited to a revetment of col
ored tiles. We are informed by mediaeval writers that Andalusian
architects were employed in Morocco and Tunis. This, even were
it true to a greater extent than we are obliged to assume, does not
alter the fact that the brilliant creations of the Moors of Granada
were entirely due to African genius. For while the elements of
the architecture of Seville and Granada can be traced along the
southern shores of the Mediterranean to Cairo, and perhaps even
beyond, to the deserts of Arabia, they are so totally distinct from
the older works of the Mohammedans in Spain that it is impos
sible to assume them to have been developed from the style of
Abderrahman. The peculiar forms of the Alhambra could only
have originated in the neighborhood of the desert, in such sur
roundings as those provided by the northern coast of Africa.

192

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

Sicily was early brought under the sway of the Moslems by
invasions from Kairvan, the oldest centre of Mohammedanism in
Africa. The island was conquered between the years 802 and 878,
and, by the wisdom and energy of the princes resident in Palermo,
became, during the following century, the seat of a culture such as
had previously existed only during the ages of Hellenic coloniza
tion. This flourishing period was not of long duration, for dissen
sions among the conquerors led to the interference of the Byzan
tines of Apulia and of their adventurous Norman confederates,
the latter soon expelling both the Byzantines and the Arabs.

Fig. 102. — The Kuba near Palermo.

Roger, brother of King Robert Guiscard of Naples, became master
of the entire island in the year 1090. The Norman rulers did not
consider it in their interest to overthrow the Arabian civilization,
which was, on the contrary, protected both by them and by their
successors of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Their architectural works
can thus be regarded in some degree as a substitute for those of the
Mohammedan epoch which have been destroyed.
The palaces of Favara, Zisa, and Kuba, near Palermo, were all
built towards the end of the twelfth century : the Zisa, or Al Azisa
(i.e., the Magnificent), before 1166, by William I.; the Kuba (i.e.,
Cupola), in 1182, by King William II. (Fig. 102). These structures

ARCHITECTURE. 193
are evidently not restorations of earlier Arabian edifices. They dif
fer decidedly, both in plan and construction, from the works of the
Moors in Spain and Africa, displaying Northern reminiscences which
must have been introduced by the Norman rulers, notwithstand
ing the employment of Mohammedan architects and masons. In
general appearance these palaces resemble the compact masses of
the older baronial castles of England. They contain a central hall
terminated by a cupola or cross-vault, and surrounded by smaller
chambers, which are arranged in several stories. The windows and
arcades in relief are almost invariably of pointed arched form, exam
ples of the horseshoe shape being rare. The niches of the interior,
on the other hand, are terminated by stalactite projections, while
the marble incrustations and the revetments of glazed tiles are of
the Moorish style. The Arabic language even appears in the in
scriptions upon the friezes.
The traditions of early Christian art were naturally preserved in
the religious edifices of the Norman epoch, but not without the in
troduction of Arabian influences. The Capella Palatina at Palermo,
for instance, the nave of which is basilical, with Corinthian columns,
while the choir, with its colored ornaments, is distinctly Byzantine,
imitates the Moorish style both in the high arches and in the sta
lactite decorations of the horizontal ceiling. In this building are
united, in striking contrast, the styles of the four periods of Sicilian
history subsequent to classical times : the architectural forms of the
later Romans, the Byzantines, the Saracens, and the Normans ap
pearing side by side, without any attempt at combination.
Persia and Turkey also deserve mention among the countries in
which Mohammedan art flourished. It is not possible to say in
what connection the architecture of Persia stood to that of Bagdad
and to the most primitive style of the Arabs, for the monuments
of the first seven centuries of Mohammedan dominion west of the
Tigris have disappeared almost without a vestige. The remains
referable to the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, such as the
Mosque of Tabris, are as closely related to the architecture of India
and of Byzantium as to that of Arabia. In the edifices erected by
the dynasty of the Sofids, and especially by that magnificent patron
of the arts, Abbas the Great, A. D. 1585 to 1627, the founder of
13

I94 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
Ispahan, the Occidental influences are not so apparent. The airy
halls of Maidan Shahi (Place of the King), of Ispahan, display a com
bination of ancient Persian elements with the forms of Ghazni.
The mosques, palaces, bazaars, caravansaries, and medressehs, or
high-schools, were formed by extended arcades of keel-shaped arches,
supported upon piers, often in two stories, a grand portal placed in
a niche occupying the middle of the facade. Tall minarets of cir
cular plan stood upon either side of the mosque, the main hall of
which was covered with a dome of an outline similar to the turnip-
shaped cupolas of Russia, but of a more graceful curve. The upper
story was commonly of timbered construction, and the columns,
even when supporting horizontal ceilings of considerable span, were
formed of wood. Friezes of Arabic characters took the place of a
regular entablature, the ornamentation of the walls, composed of
floral motives, being much more realistic in treatment than that of
Cairo or Granada, and resembling the decorations of India both in
form and in color. Glazed tiles were not often employed, and the
arabesques were not sculptured in relief, a simple design of bright
colors being painted directly upon the flat surface of the plaster.
Even the largest buildings were seldom of a monumental character,
while the private dwellings were not calculated to serve more than
one generation.
The architecture of the Turks was entirely under the influence
of that of the Byzantines. Even the Seljukians had returned to
the hemispherical dome, and had copied their columns and decora
tions from Byzantine and especially from Armenian models, as is
seen in the edifices of Konieh (Iconium), Kaisarieh (Caesarea), Erze-
roum, etc. The pointed arch was introduced as a novelty, while
reminiscences of older styles are also met with, such as the imita
tion of the facades of Phrygian tombs in the Medresseh of Iconium.
The Turkish palaces at Broussa and Nicaea, dating to the four
teenth and fifteenth centuries, show that the forms of the Eastern
empire were the more closely imitated the more the Ottoman Turks
advanced towards Constantinople. After the fall of the capital, in
the year 1453, the successors of Osman not only employed the chief
church of that city for Mohammedan rites, but directly copied the
Byzantine models in their earlier buildings, which were often de-

ARCHITECTURE. 1 95
signed by Byzantine architects. It thus resulted that, notwithstand
ing the introduction of the pointed arch and some alterations and
improvements of the concentric plan, the architecture of the Turks
presents few constructive or artistic peculiarities. The Church of
St. Sophia was frequently copied, notably in the grand Mosque of
Soliman IL, and the Church of the Apostles and that of the Sts.
Sergius and Bacchus were also imitated. Byzantine materials were
directly employed for the interior decorations, these being either
procured from various buildings, as in the Mosque of Sultan Bajazet
(A. D. 1498), or provided by the demolition of a Christian church,
as in the mosques of Soliman II. and Selim IL, built in the six
teenth century. Thus the architecture of the Turks returned to
that dependence upon the art of the Eastern Empire with which
the Arabians had begun in Syria.
In view of the fact that the main advances of Arabian architect
ure were not made in the all-important branches of construction,
but rather in decorative adjuncts closely related to sculpture and
painting, it is surprising that these latter arts were themselves not
more cultivated by the Moslems. This neglect would have been
quite incompatible with the delight in forms and colors which the
Arabs have displayed, if they had not systematically avoided the
representation of living beings, the true themes of the imitative arts.
This aversion existed among the Jews as well as among the Moham
medans. The fanciful nature of the Semitic races is opposed to the
accurate imitation of living organisms from the natural models, while
the precepts of religion have followed the popular instinct in pro
nouncing a ban against. that which was condemned by natural feel
ings. If Christianity had never extended beyond the land in which
it originated there would probably have been no Christian as there
was no Jewish art of painting.
The doctrines of Mohammed interdicted graven images even
more severely than did those of Moses. Wine-drinking, gambling,
the making of images, and the casting of lots are pronounced by
the fifth sura of the Koran to be abominable, and the traditional
Sunna even goes so far as to assert that the prophet chiefly directed
his mission against three classes of men : the proud, the idolators,
and the painters, declaring eternal damnation to be the part of those

196 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
who imitated the forms of living beings. Carved and painted repre:
sentations of men and animals are thus considered by the Mos
lems as highly objectionable, and are consequently rare. In the few
cases where they are found, even though side by side with masterly
works of other branches of art, they are extremely rude.
The Mohammedans of India, Persia, Sicily, and Spain were more
tolerant, this being doubtless as much due to their position in re
gard to strict orthodoxy as to the influence of the art previously
existing in the lands occupied by them. The Jews were not wholly
without sculpture, and it naturally resulted from the close connec
tion between the religions of the Arabs and the Israelites that those
graven images which Jehovah had overlooked were not regarded as
offensive by the followers of the prophet. It is thus not surprising
that figures similar to cherubim appear on the carvings of ceiling-
beams and consoles, on vases and small mirrors of metal; or that
the fountain basins supported upon the backs of animals, such as
are known from descriptions to have existed in several Moorish
palaces of Spain besides the Alhambra, should exhibit reminiscences
of the Molten Sea of Solomon's Temple. It is certainly not acci
dental that the animals of the Fountain of the Lions in Granada
resemble, in conventional treatment, the lions of the well-known
Phoenician monument of Amrith,* while being entirely different
from all similar figures of Romanic art. On the other hand, the
Byzantine origin of other fountains of this kind, — such, for instance,
as that of Az Zahra, with the figure of a golden swan, — is directly
attested. Whatever went beyond this was taboo,- and was quite as offen
sive to the orthodox Mussulman as the wine-bibbing to which the
Spanish Moors were much addicted. It appears to have been less
hard for the Moslems to renounce the former than the latter sin,
judging by the scarcity of their sculptures. The collections have
preserved but few carvings, and the accounts of works of sculpture
given by Arabic writers do not indicate the existence of any activity
in this branch of art. The descriptions of real statues are scanty;
we have little information concerning such doll-like figures of paint-
* " History of Ancient Art," by Dr. Franz von Reber, p. 136.

SCULPTURE. 197
ed wood as the portraits of Khomarujah, his wives, and the singers
of his court, which stood in a magnificent hall of his palace at Cairo,
or of that portrait statue of the beautiful wife of Abderrahman II. ,
which was placed in the Palace of Az Zahra near Cordova. We
have no detailed descriptions of the female statues in Al Motamed's
Palace of Seradjib at Silves, while the knight of bronze upon the
gable of the Palace of King Badis in Granada appears to have been
an architectural ornament, after the manner of an acroterion, rather
than an independent work of sculpture. The representations of ani
mals always have a more or less decorative or heraldic character,
even when not serving practical uses, for instance, as gargoyles or
the supports of fountains, — not being mainly remarkable for their

Fig. 103. — Marble Relief from Granada.
material value, like the golden lion with eyes of jewels in the Palace
of the Water-wheel near Cordova, — or not being mere curiosities
which, from the manner of their execution, are beneath our present
consideration. This last was evidently the character of the twelve
knights which, at the end of every hour, came out from as many
niches of the clock sent as a gift from Haroun al Raschid to Charle
magne, as also of the " singing " birds of gold and silver in the tree
of precious metal which stood in the audience hall of the caliph
Moktadir Billah.
Other representations of the figures of men and animals were so
entirely of a decorative character that the patterns with which they
were combined were of more important dimensions, as well as more
successful in artistic respects. In the relief from Granada, shown

198

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

in Fig. 103, the symmetrical arrangement of the forms is very no
ticeable, and the same is the case with the few remaining carvings
pf wood, in which single human figures are introduced into ara
besques in combination with musical instruments, vessels, and hunt
ing accoutrements.
The conventional treatment of animal forms in the textile works
of the Moslems, which were so highly prized throughout Europe,
was of decisive influence in the determination of the heraldic de
vices of the Middle Ages. The illustrations of manuscripts were
often of a more naturalistic style (compare Fig. 104), but true mon-

Fig. 104.— Miniature in a Manuscript of Ibn Zafer, of Sicily, Library of the Escurial.
umental paintings were almost altogether unknown. The artists in
mosaic who had been invited from Constantinople occasionally ex
ceeded the limits of merely decorative representations, but their
works were entirely Byzantine, as were also the imitations of them
by Arabian hands, which were, however, rare, the fesifisa mosaics of
the Arabs usually being limited to floral patterns. When Moham
medan painters attained to an individual celebrity this was com
monly due to their illuminations, as is evident from the accounts of
the artists Kassir and Ibn Aziz, who, in the eleventh century, were
employed by the bibliophile Bazuri, vizier of the court of the caliph
Mostansir. The mural paintings which they are said to have exe-

SCULPTURE.

199

cuted in competition, representing the figure of Kassir going into
the wall, and that of Ibn Aziz coming out from it, should rather be
considered as ingenious displays of technical bravura than as exam
ples of a true monumental art. To admit this is not to question
the rivalry of the two artists, related by Makrizi, although the epi
sode may have been borrowed from the well-known anecdote of
Zeuxis and Parrhasios. The tales concerning the miraculous " Jo
seph in the Well " of the painter Al Kitami, in the Dar ul Noman
at Cairo, belong to the same category ; while the painted garden
wall of a house at Bagdad described in the "Arabian Nights," if not
altogether fabulous, may be considered as a reminiscence of the pic-

Fig. 105. — Painting from the Hall of Judgment in the Alhambra.

torial art of Mesopotamia, the influence of which upon Moham
medan painting was, without doubt, quite as important as was that
of India. Similar relations were maintained with the Occident. The walls
of the early Christian churches occupied by the Moors were covered
with paintings, and manuscripts illuminated by Western artists must
frequently have fallen into the hands of the Saracens. Ibn Khaldun,
one of the most intelligent and trustworthy of Arabic writers, asserts
that the Mohammedans of Andalusia had adopted the custom of
decorating their houses and palaces with paintings " in consequence

20O

MOHAMMEDAN ART.

of their intimate intercourse with the Christians." We have ac
counts of pictorial representations on walls in the Palace of Al
Motamed in Seville, and on ceilings of a castle of Al Mansour in
Bagia ; while in the Alhambra there are still three well-preserved
paintings on leather, which were affixed to the ceilings of the three
niches in the so-called Hall of Judgment. One of these latter, with
the figures of ten kings of Granada, is decidedly of an Oriental char
acter, and mention is made by Moorish writers of works of portrait
ure of this kind. The subjects, the composition, and the details of
the two other paintings leave no doubt that they are products of
Occidental art, and are referable to the Gothic period (Figs. 105

Fig. 106. — Painting from the Hall of Judgment in the Alhambra.

and 106). The hunts, chivalric encounters, and episodes of knight
ly love, even the architecture represented in them, are so foreign to
Arabic conceptions that they must be ascribed to Christian painters
or renegades. The methods of textile art, which were so important in deter
mining the characteristics of Arabian architecture, tended also to
limit the provinces of sculpture and painting. Subjects which were
not adapted to representations in weaving and embroidery were but
rarely modelled or drawn. The intricate repetitions of tapestry pat
terns were almost exclusively employed as models, serving for the
decorations of walls in arabesques of relief or color, as well as in

PAINTING. 20 1
woven hangings. There was thus no field for independent crea
tions in the imitative arts. While the Moslems delighted and ex
celled in poetical accounts of human charms and deeds, and in the
musical expression of the feelings, they remained indifferent to pic
torial and plastic representations of these subjects, — the permanence
of which did not agree with the intellectual mobility of these chil
dren of the desert.

Fig. 107. — Part of the so-called Palace of Theodoric in Ravenna.

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH UNTIL
THE CLOSE OF THE CAROLINGIAN EPOCH.
A S the Celts and the Germans received Christianity from the
¦*-*- Romans, it is not surprising that the earliest Christian works
of art should be as little distinguishable in the North as in Italy
itself, from the pagan and classic models which preceded them.
This was particularly the case in those districts of Gaul and Ger
many which had been for centuries under the sway of the Romans,
so that the primitive indigenous art had long been entirely sup
planted by the civilization of Rome. The great extent and uni
formity of the Roman Empire was highly favorable to the expan
sion of the Christian faith, and to the introduction of the regular
architectural forms which had been determined as most fitting for
the Church. The conversion of the Celto -Germanic provinces of
Rome thus resulted in a repetition of the ecclesiastical buildings
of the capital itself, the art of the ancients affording not only mod
els but materials for the new edifices, which were frequently con
structed of the fragments of Roman works.
The frequent introduction of such older architectural members

ARCHITECTURE.

203

renders it difficult to assign a date to the more primitive buildings
of the North erected for Christian worship. This eclectic practice
would interfere with a systematic historical consideration, even if
many more memorials had been preserved. An approximate chron
ological determination is possible, inasmuch as the decadence of art
beginning with the third century had affected the entire Roman
Empire, alike from the Rhine to Africa, and from Spain to Greece ;
but the customary plundering of earlier
buildings and the indiscriminate copy
ing and restoration does not allow us
to draw conclusions as to the exact age
of any of the structures. It is, for in
stance, impossible to tell whether the
large columns of granite in the Cathe
dral of Treves (Fig. 108), three of which
are built into the piers of the later res
toration, are a part of the first construc
tion, assumed to be as early as A. D.
330, or were introduced in the rebuild
ing of this church by Bishop Nicetius,
between 534 and 565. The same is the
case with the rough Corinthian capitals
surmounting the pilasters which corre
spond to these shafts.
The eastern Germanic races, on the
other hand, had not had the training of
Roman culture during preceding centu
ries, but were civilized and Christianized
at the same time, either through their
own migrations, or through the labors
of missionaries sent from Rome. These tribes did not build cities,
but lived in granges, dispersed throughout the country, thus having
no important public buildings or houses of worship. They could
but accept the civilization of the Romans without reserve. Still
it is not strange that their subsequent works should display the
barbarous debasements which resulted from want of practice in the
arts, as well as from the introduction of certain native reminis-

Fig. 108. — Restored Plan and Sec
tion of the Cathedral of Treves.

204 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
cences into the classic style. In districts remote from the great
centres of contemporary culture the adoption of the antique civ
ilization could not be thorough and lasting. Indeed it was scarcely
possible to introduce an understanding of classic architecture and
art through the missionaries, even if these agents had done their
utmost to further such ends. Thus primitive and indigenous tim
bered constructions, such as block houses, continued to be erected
in those tracts of Germany which had not been colonized by the
Romans, especially in the north-eastern districts.
Even in those countries which had been occupied by the east
ern German races, the few vestiges of artistic works, dating to
the period of their domination, which have been preserved to the
present day, exhibit barbarous traits. This was the case with the
architectural creations of the Ostrogoths,* who during the short
period of their occupation of Italy, from the beginning until the
middle of the sixth century, and especially under the energetic
government of Theodoric the Great, erected more important monu
ments than did the later Roman emperors themselves. These
works, it is true, were chiefly raised by the hands of their Roman
subjects: it is known that Theodoric himself employed Cassiodorus
of Scylaceum as councillor and private secretary, and the Romans,
Aloisius and Daniel, as architect and sculptor of the court. Thus
the restorations made by the Ostrogoths in Rome are not to be dis
tinguished from the last works of the Caesars ; while the fortifica
tion walls of Verona and the substructure of Theodoric's palace at
Terracina exhibit no architectural innovations.
In some instances the Northern builders did not resist the
temptation to put their own hands to the work, traces of their
individuality being plainly recognizable in those two monuments
of the Ostrogoths which have remained in the most perfect state
of preservation. The first of these, the structure now forming the
facade of the cloister of the Franciscans at Ravenna (Fig. 107), is
not known with absolute certainty to have been a part of the

* G. Cordero di S. Quintino, Dell' italiana architettura durante la dominazione Longo-
barda. Brescia, 1829. — F. Osten, Die Bauwerke in der Lombardei vom 7. bis zum 14.
Jahrhundert. Darmstadt, 1846-1854.

IS cAn.

ARCHITECTURE. 205
Palace of Theodoric ; but the helpless imitation of such Roman
structures as the portal of Diocletian at Spalatro, and probably
also the palace of the last emperors of the Western Empire at
Ravenna, lead us to consider it rather as a first attempt of the
Goths than as a previous Roman or a subsequent Byzantine work.
The entire lack of understanding of the forms of classic architect
ure, — appearing, for instance, in the curious imposts of the entrance-
portal, in the consoles supporting the sill upon which stand the
small columns of the upper story, and in the outlandish capital
from a column of the Tribune (Fig. 109), — is so striking that we are
obliged to consider this facade to be the
work of the barbarians.
The second memorial of the Ostro
goths, the mausoleum of Theodoric, now
S. Maria della Rotonda, is known with
greater certainty to have been built dur
ing the reign of Theodoric, and in artistic
respects more clearly displays the charac
teristics of the Northern invaders (Fig.
1 10). The so-called Palace of Theodoric Fig I0g._Capital from the so-
closely resembles the palace of a Roman called Palace of Theodoric.
emperor: in like manner the mausoleum
of Theodoric is an imitation of the tombs of Augustus and Ha
drian, — that of the former serving as a model for the lower, that
of the latter for the upper story. The details of its execution ex
hibit many forms foreign to Roman art, blended with those of
the debased style of the sixth century. The dimensions of the
monument are not great, it measuring only 13 m. in diameter and
somewhat over 14 m. in height, but its position, and the size of
some of its stones, give it an imposing character. The decagonal
substructure forms ten niches of rectagonal plan, one of which pro
vides the entrance to the cross-shaped funeral chamber. The round
arches of these niches show a joggling of the voussoirs rare in Ro
man architecture, this refinement appearing also in the horizontal
discharging lintel above the door of the superstructure. The ten-
sided upper story is but 10.5 m. in diameter. The step thus result
ing formed a concentric passage, ornamented with a colonnade of

*

•

206

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

double shafts, which has now disappeared. Traces of the curved
juncture of its ceiling with the walls are still visible, these indicating
that it was not a regular vault, but a combination of ceiling and
lean-to roof, formed by blocks extending from one support to the
other. Above the encircling projection upon which this roofing
rested, the walls are continued in round plan to a bold cornice.
The mouldings, of singularly barbarous profile, support a band simi
lar to a frieze, the forms of which appear to be an imitation of

'^'Virt _e<"

Fig. no. — Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna.

boards perforated by fret sawing, and are even more foreign to the
Roman style than are the debased egg-and-dart cymas in the re
cesses of the upper story. Upon this main cornice rests a mono
lithic dome, of a low shape, unknown to Roman art, and provided
with knob-like handles. The stone, brought from the quarries of
Istria, measures not less than io m. in diameter and I m. in thick
ness. The transportation of this gigantic block across sea and land
was a very considerable undertaking, — as it has been termed by
Schnaase, a combination of Roman intelligence with Gothic force

ARCHITECTURE.

207

similar to that which Theodoric endeavored to attain in his Italian
empire. Byzantine civilization, which had long been gaining ground in
Ravenna, and was fully established through the occupation of Italy
by Justinian, would, without doubt, have been further extended had
not the power of the Western Empire been again driven back by
another Germanic race, the Lombards. The rule of the Ostrogoths,
especially during the reign of Theodoric, had not led to a dimi
nution of the artistic indus
try of Italy ; this was not
the case with the hordes of
Alboin, which were far more
rude than the Goths, and
consequently adapted them
selves more slowly and more
imperfectly to the existing
civilization of Italy. The
Romans were by this time
so reduced by their con
tinual struggles with the
Barbarians and the By
zantines, that they could
not exercise so great an
influence upon the Lom
bards as they had upon
the Ostrogoths. Still, me
morials of Lombardic ar
chitecture are not altogeth
er lacking. The palaces of
Queen Theodelinde, that of King Bertari at Pavia, and that of King
Luitprand at Olona, even attained a certain magnificence, which may
be ascribed to the Byzantine decorations of these edifices. The Pa
lazzo delle Torri in Turin was probably erected before the occupation
of the country by the Lombards, while the age of S. Frediano and
S. Michele in Lucca, and of S. Salvadore in Brescia is at least uncer
tain. The Baptistery of the Church of St. John at Cividale is in
greater part well preserved. It was erected by the Patriarch Calix-

Fig. 111.-

-Baptistery of the Patriarch Calixtus in
S. Giovanni, Cividale.

208 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
tus of Aquileja, A. D. 716 to 762, who had transferred his seat to
Cividale from Cormons, whither it had been removed after the de
struction of Aquileja by the Huns. The octagonal structure which
now remains (Fig. 111), consisting of archivolts and columns of early
Christian character, is but the interior of the original monument ; it
was placed within the church after the earthquake of 1448.
After the age of Justinian the civilization of Italy continued to
decline, until it became inferior to that of Gaul and Western Ger
many. In the south of Gaul the Visigoths of the empire of Tolosa
long preserved the artistic traditions of Rome, while in the north
traces of an independent culture began to show themselves under
the Frankish Merovingians. The palaces built by this dynasty,
when Roman edifices were not available for occupation, were little
superior to the granges of the primitive Germanic chiefs, being con
structed chiefly of wood, or, in rare instances, of rubble masonry
cast in mortar "gallicano more," — very different from the hewn
stones of the '* opus romanum." On the other hand, the Merovingian
churches early attained a' certain degree of perfection, and had an
important bearing upon the future development of ecclesiastical ar
chitecture.* The designs were influenced by the style of Milan, and
indirectly by that of Ravenna and Constantinople, this being due
to the position of Milan in religious matters and to the political
ascendency of the two latter cities. The Church of the Virgin at
Ebrodunum (Embrun), built as early as A. D. 392 by Bishop Ar-
temius, and the Church of SS. Gervasius and Protasius in Tours,
built by Bishop Eustochius between the years 443 and 460, both
obtained their stock of relics from Milan. It is hence probable that
the cruciform plan of these edifices was imitated from that of the
Church of the Apostles in Milan (S. Nazaro al Corpo, or Grande),
in the same way as this, in its turn, had been derived from the Con
stantine Church of the Apostles in Byzantium. The plan of the
church at Clermont, built by the bishop Namatius between 446 and
462, is particularly mentioned as having been shaped like a cross,
and this was probably also the case with the Church of the Apostles,
* H. Graf, Die Entstehung der kreuzfOrmigen Basilica. (Opus francigenum.) Stutt
gart, 1878.

ARCHITECTURE. 209
or, as it was called in later times, St. Genoveva, in Paris, which
Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, erected after A. D.
496 as his mortuary chapel. But it is certain that the transepts
of these churches were only covered by horizontal ceilings, as had
been originally the case with the Church of the Apostles in Con
stantinople, built before the age of Justinian, and also with the
Church of the Apostles (S. Nazaro) at Milan, built by St. Ambro-
sius towards the close of the fourth century. Vaults like those of
S. Nazaro e Celso in Ravenna rarely appear during this period, and
were employed only in small dimensions.
Basilicas of the normal arrangement, without transepts, also ap
peared in France during the earliest ages. The Church of St. Mar
tin at Tours, founded by Bishop Perpetuus in 472, was of this sim
pler type, and we should doubtless consider as regular basilicas all
those churches which were built by the successors of St. Benedict,
after St. Maur, following the call of Innocent, bishop of Le Mans,
had come to Gaul in the year 543, and founded Glannafolium (Glan-
feuil) in the district of Anjou. This explains the resemblance of
the four churches of that place, among which is the tower -like
structure of St. Michael, to the prototype of Monte Casino. Chil-
debert, the son of Clovis, had his residence in Paris and did not
receive the emissaries of St. Benedict with favor. In the important
basilica of St. Vincent (St. Germain-des-Pres) in Paris, built between
543 and 558 as the second mortuary chapel of the Merovingians,
he returned to the cruciform plan, as did also Clotaire, the fourth
son of Clovis, in the Church of St. Medardus at Soissons, built be
tween 560 and 570 as the third mausoleum of his dynasty. This
latter edifice did not equal the architectural importance and mag
nificence of St. Germain-des-Pres, whose marble columns, gilded
ceiling-panels, and copper roof were celebrated by the poets of the
Merovingian and Carolingian ages. The extension of the western
transept and the enlargement to three aisles, which gave to St. Ger
main-des-Pres the character of a basilica, are probably to be ascribed
to Chilperic, the nephew of Childebert, A. D. 577. This was, in all
probability, the first appearance of that combination which was re
peated in the plan of St. Gall, and was destined to serve as the fun
damental type of mediaeval church architecture.
14

2IO THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
It appears that the monks of the observance of St. Anthony and
St. Basil, who at first were numerous in France, and possessed the
cloister connected with St. Germain, were more inclined to adopt the
traditions of the Byzantines than were the followers of St. Benedict.
The order of Monte Casino gradually became more important ; it is
worthy of note that the first abbot of St. Medard at Soissons, a cer
tain Daniel, was a pupil of St. Maur. The successors of the Irish
missionary Columbanus, who had come to France in 575, and, with
the assistance of King Childebert II. , had founded Luxovium
(Luxeuil), Fontanae, and Anagratum in Burgundy, could not long
remain independent of the Benedictines. The observances of St.
Benedict and St. Columbanus were first combined in Luxeuil itself
and the new rules were soon adopted by the other cloisters. The
cruciform plan peculiar to the Franks was not, however, given up.
It appeared in the Convent of the Cross near Meaux, founded in
628 by Bishop Faro, as well as in almost all the more important
cloisters built about the middle of the seventh century. Among
these may be mentioned St. Denis near Paris, and Centula (St.
Riquier) near Amiens, both of which owe their existence to Dago-
bert I. ; Fontanellum (Vandrille) near Rouen, founded in 648 by
St. Wandregisel with the assistance of Clovis II. and his wife, Ba-
thildis, and containing not less than six churches; Gemeticum (Ju-
mieges) near Rouen, built in 655 by Bathildis through the agency
of Filibert, a monk of Luxeuil, the main church of which is par
ticularly stated to have been a cruciform basilica ; and finally Corbie,
built in 657 by the same Bathildis, and containing three churches
and as many oratories, — the direct influence of which upon the
architecture of Germany will be referred to in another chapter.
There was an architectural activity not less remarkable in the
countries upon the left bank of the Rhine, especially in and around
the towns of Treves, Cologne, Mayence, Speyer, and Strasburg. As
early as the sixth century Treves, with its dependencies under the
bishops Nicetius and Magnaricus, was remarkable for its ecclesiasti
cal buildings. Besides the before- mentioned cathedral, particular
importance is to be attached to the Castle of Nicetius, which prob
ably occupied the site of the later Bischofstein. It is praised by
the bishop Venantius Fortunatus of Poitiers, who described it, to-

ARCHITECTURE. 211
wards the close of the sixth century,, as a spacious and magnificent
stronghold, encircled by a rampart with thirty towers, and provided
with a three-storied watch-tower as well as with various chapels,
etc. Similar accounts have been handed down to us concerning
cloisters and churches built, during the seventh century, in Tholey,
Mettlach, Echternach, Oeren, and Pfalzel, — all in the diocese of
Treves. In Mayence, in the sixth century, the bishop Sidonius
played as important a part as did his contemporary Nicetius in
Treves, his architectural activity having been devoted not only to
the erection of ecclesiastical edifices but to the fortifications of the
Neustadt, which were not completed until the beginning of the
eighth century. This new town had arisen near the ruins of the
original Roman settlement of Magontiacum, which had been de
stroyed in the year 406. In Cologne, which remained one of the
chief towns of Austrasia until the deposition of the Merovingians,
the western polygon of St. Gereon is referable to the sixth century,
while the Church of St. Clement, outside the walls of the city, is
assumed to have been built towards the close of the seventh. In
the diocese of Speyer, the Church of St. Germain, outside the town,
and the Cloister of Weissenburg on the Lutra were both built dur
ing the seventh century. To the same period belong St. Thomas
in Strasburg, founded by Scottish missionaries, and the neighboring
cloisters of Haslach in the Vosges, of Muenster near Colmar, Schut-
tern near Offenburg, St. Sigismund near Rufach, and Mauresmuen-
ster near Saverne.
In the southern and eastern provinces of Germany Christianity
was generally introduced or propagated by missionaries from Ire
land. This was. the case with Bregenz, where St. Columbanus, who
had been driven out of Burgundy, restored, in the beginning of the
seventh century, the extremely ancient chapel of St. Aurelia ; with
St. Gall, where a pupil of Columbanus, St. Gall, who died in 640,
erected the wooden cloister cells in the wilderness ; with Saeckin-
gen, which at about the same time was chosen by the Irish monk
Fridolin as his abode ; and with Fuessen, where preached. Magnoald,
a pupil of Gall. Farther eastward in Southern Germany some few
Christian missionaries had erected their wooden hermitages at, an
earlier period. Chief among them was St. Severinus, the founder

212 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
of Kuenzen, who died in 481. No cloisters of great extent were
built before the seventh century, when Rudpert of Worms received
from the Agilolfing Duke of Bavaria, Theodo II., the permission to
settle upon the ruins of Juvavia (Salzburg), where he built the
Church of St. Peter, as well as the nunnery upon the Nonnberg.
St. Emmeramnus and other Irish monks labored in Ratisbon.
In all those places where settlements of the Romans had not ex
isted the cloisters were almost exclusively constructed of beams of
oak and thatched with straw ; this manner of building (opus scoticum)
remained in general use even until the first half of the eighth cen
tury, at which time houses of masonry existed only at St. Gall,
Fulda, and Lorsch. The convents continued to increase in number
and importance, the most noteworthy among them being St. Gall.
The Abbot Otmar, A. D. 720 to 760, replaced the wooden cell of
St. Gall by a " palatium," and built the great Basilica of St. Paul
with stone walls and with a crypt under the choir. This crypt must
have been the earliest example of its kind, unless we may assume,
with Viollet-le-Duc, that the chambers in the basement of the semi
nary at Orleans are to be ascribed to the sixth century. It is cer
tain that the buildings in Lorsch on the Waschnitz, founded in the
year 763 by Count Cancor, were of stone, this material having been
employed for the basilica from the first, while the wooden dwellings
of the monks were replaced by masonry at the end of the eighth
century. And it is to be presumed that a construction of masonry
was adopted for the churches of Mayence, at least for those within
the town, which were built during the latter half of the eighth cen
tury ; chief among these were the Church of St. Martin, which after
wards became the cathedral, and the Church of St. Lambert. The
same was probably the case with the churches of St. Martin and
of St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne, the former founded by Pipin
Heristal, the latter probably by his wife Plectrudis ; and also with
the convent churches founded by Pipin II. , A. D. 762, in Pruem and
Kesslingen. The cathedral and the churches of St. Benedict and St. Stephen.
in Freising, erected by the bishop Corbinian, who had been conse
crated in Rome about 724, were originally of wood, and were not re
built in masonry until the end of the eighth century. It may hence

ARCHITECTURE. 213
be supposed that the greater number of the cloisters in Bavaria and
Upper Austria were likewise timbered constructions ; among these
are Benedictbeuren, Wessobrunn, Staffelsee, Kochelsee, Scharnitz,
Schlehdorf, Scheftlarn, Tegernsee, Schliersee, Ilmmuenster, Alto-
muenster, Rott, Metten, and Weltenburg, and the cloisters of Herren
and Frauen Chiemsee, said to have been built by Thassilo, and be
longing to the diocese of Salzburg ; furthermore the dependencies
of the bishopric of Lorch, which was removed to Passau after the in
vasion of the Avars in 738, — namely, Niedernburg, Niederaltaich, Os-
terhofen, Pfaffenmuenster, Monsee, Kremsmuenster, and St. Florian ;
those of this list now belonging to Austria were particularly favored
by their founder Thassilo. To this category belong also most of
the cloisters in the countries of the Upper Rhine, dependent upon
St. Gall or the Bishopric of Strasburg: Reichenau, on an island
in the Lake of Constance, Luetzelau, similarly situated in the Lake
of Zurich, Marchthal, Kempten, Hohenburg, Niedermuenster, Ebers-
heimmuenster, Maasmuenster, Honau, Ettenheimmuenster, Surburg,
Schwarzach, Neuweiler, Leberau, St. Hippolyte, and Murbach.
The buildings which were erected in Hesse, in connection with
the mission of the Anglo-Saxon Winifrid (St. Boniface), were, with
out question, of wood. Among them may be mentioned the cells
of the monks upon the Amanaburg, built in 722, the cloister and
church of St. Peter upon the heights of the Buraburg, about ten
years later, and the ecclesiastical houses of Christenberg, Ohrdruf,
Altenberg, Herbsleben, Uhrleben, Langensalza, Trettenburg, Greus-
sen, Monra, and Creuzberg. It is recorded that the Chapel of St.
Peter near Fritzlar was constructed of the wood of Wotan's Oak,
which was felled in 724. The Cloister of Fulda was the first to be
built, in part at least, of masonry, the Church of St. Saviour con
nected with it having been entirely of stone, but this construction
was as late as A. D. 755, the year of the martyrdom of St. Boniface.
The pre-eminence of Fulda was due to the important character of
the town, which had four thousand inhabitants even at the time of
the first abbot Sturmius, and was the chief centre of primitive Chris
tianity in Middle Germany. It is possible that the mortuary chapel
upon the Petersberg, consisting of three aisles and a transverse por
tico, all covered with barrel-vaults, was built during the eighth cen-

214 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
tury. The most important "dependency of Fulda was the bishopric
of Wurzburg, where, upon the Schlossberg, there may still be seen
the ruins of an ancient Church of the Virgin, which was, without
doubt, built during the eighth century, — at the time when the Irish
monk Kilian was propagating Christianity in Thuringia and Fran-
conia. Ki.tzingen and Tauberbischofsheim were probably founded
by Burghard, the first bishop of Wurzburg, whose diocese had been
greatly extended by Karlmann. Eichstaedt flourished under its first
bishop Willibald, the nephew and pupil of Winifrid, and in the
eighth century there arose in its neighborhood the establishments
of Heidenheim, Hasenried, Wilzburg, and Solenhofen, the last of
which was named after the English missionary Sola. Erfurt, al
though chosen by St. Boniface as the seat of a bishop, did not be
come important until a century after its foundation ; while the
Cloister of Buraburg, at first of some eminence, was soon incorpo
rated into the more favorably situated Fritzlar.
It is not strange that almost no remains of buildings antedating
the Carolingian age should have been preserved to the present day,
for the masonry, which was of rubble cast in thick mortar, was in
many cases not more enduring than wood-work. Walls of this kind
were invariably destroyed when new structures were erected upon
their site during the Romanic epoch. Both methods of building
were exceedingly rough, — the wood-work being a simple block con
struction, the masonry entirely plain, while the roofing was of irreg
ular shingles weighted with stones, or of straw thatch. Even in
those provinces of Western Germany, Northern France, Spain, and
England, which had been occupied by the Romans, the traditions of
antique art- had been almost entirely forgotten. When ancient ar
chitectural ornaments or hewn stones were employed, they were
arranged in a fashion even more barbarous than that observable in
the later basilicas of Rome, the only attempt at design being a
rhythmical variation of the courses. The most noteworthy examples
in France are the Baptistery of Poitiers (Fig. 1 1 2), which probably
dates to this period, the ancient Basilica of Beauvais, known as the
Basse-Oeuvre, and the two churches of Savennieres and Gennes in the
Departments of the Maine and the Loire. The interior adornments,;
fine marbles, metals, and carpets were at times of some importance •

ARCHITECTURE..

215

but the carvings were chiefly antique remains, aniassed without order
or artistic significance, while the works of other materials, however
great their intrinsic value, are rather to be classed as furnishings than
as organic parts of the structure. The methods of Roman art had
been entirely lost in England, where, after the conversion of the
country, commenced A. D. 597 under Pope Gregory the Great, the
first churches were built of wood, as in Germany. The stone edi
fices which St. Paulinus erected in the beginning of the seventh cen
tury at Lincoln and York were exceptional ; and the appearance of
such structures was limited
to towns previously occupied
by the Romans, York, for in
stance, having been a place
of considerable importance in
the time of Septimius Seve-
rus. Towards the end of the
seventh century masons were
brought to England from
France and even from Rome,
and accounts have been pre
served to us of buildings
erected by them of hewn
stones (" opus romanum "),
but there is never mention
of architects or of an artistic
design. Neither the scholas
ticism which in the eighth
century began to be cultivated by the cloisters of England, nor the
religious fervor which had long existed in Ireland, had been accom
panied by any noteworthy architectural activity.
In Germany princes, bishops, abbots, and missionaries labored
together to erect the necessary ecclesiastical buildings, but it does
not appear, from the few accounts which have been handed down
to us, that the same attention was devoted to the domestic archi
tecture of the country. The ruins of Roman castles which were
available were occupied by the nobles, who repaired their walls of
hewn stone with a wretched masonry of rubble and mortar. This

w^

Fig. 112. — The Baptistery of Poitiers.

2l6 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
was the case in Hohenburg near Strasburg, in Egisheim near Col-
mar, and probably also in the bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau.
When castles were built entirely anew they were seldom planned
as fortifications, — the rulers, like their vassals, living in open granges.
Princely or episcopal castles upon elevations, as at Wurzburg and
Freising, had become exceptional after the age of Bishop Nicetius
of Treves, at least in those towns which had not originally been
built by the Romans.
This unfavorable condition of architecture was in accordance
with the troublous times of the last Merovingian kings. A great
advance was at once made upon the accession of the Carolingian
dynasty to the Frankish throne, especially after Charlemagne, A. D.
768 to 814, had elevated his empire to the first power in Christen
dom. Not less remarkable for his furtherance of learning than for
his successes in politics and warfare, Charlemagne had early brought
scholars to his court even from countries beyond the wide extent
of his realm. His campaigns in Italy had made him familiar with
the greatest works of imperial Roman, as well as of early Christian
and Byzantine art. It was not strange that, like Constantine before
him, he should have conceived the idea of creating a new Rome in
the centre of his empire, so as to make the capital which he had
chosen for himself and his successors the worthy seat of a new line
of emperors. The entire loss of the artistic traditions of classical times ren
dered the accomplishment of this design far more difficult than
it would have been three centuries previous. Intelligent architects,
many of whom had acquired their training in Italy, were not lack
ing, but the execution was necessarily confided to hands entirely
unskilled. It is difficult to say what value should be attached to
the experience gained by the Franks during the construction of the
extensive cloister of Fontanellum (Vandrille) near Rouen, by the
abbot Gervold after A. D. 787, or of the buildings erected at Fulda
by the abbot Sturmius. Certain it is that Charlemagne was not
able to find a sufficient number of workmen in his own provinces,
as we are informed that he brought artisans from all the countries
" this side of the sea," — that is to say, from all parts of southern
Europe with the exception of the Byzantine and the Moorish em-

ARCHITECTURE. 217
pires. Hewn stones were brought from the town of Verdun, which
had been demolished by Charlemagne; and so entire was the in
ability of the Franks to design the interior decorations, that they
not only collected the few Roman vestiges remaining at Treves,
but even brought mosaics, revetments of marble, and columns from
Ravenna and Rome. Unfortunately, the poetical description given
by Angilbert of the architectural activity which began in 796 at
Aix-la-Chapelle is hyperbolical and untrustworthy ; still it is cer
tain that the monuments of Charlemagne comprised all the public
buildings of the city. Among these were the forum, a town-hall,
baths, and a theatre (probably an amphitheatre), halls for other
civic purposes and the fortifications of the town being included
as a matter of course. The chief importance was assigned to
the palace, and to the church which stood in connection with it.
This last has been preserved in its most important parts, and the
period of its construction is known with certainty to have been the
years between 796 and 804. The Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle is thus
by far the most important monument of the North antedating the
Romanic period.
The architecture of Ravenna was more directly imitated in
Aix-la-Chapelle than was that of Rome, this choice having un
doubtedly been made by the emperor himself, to whom the entire
conception was due. We have no positive information concern
ing the designers to whom was confided the technical execution
of these edifices, — the first monuments of independent artistic
interest erected in Europe after an inactivity of more than three
centuries. Tradition names in this connection Ansegius (Ansegi-
sus), afterwards Abbot of Lobies and of Fontanellum, and, as his
successor, Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, who was edu
cated in Fulda. Ansegius is once mentioned as exactor operum
regalium; and Eginhard speaks in his letters of having studied the
writings of Vitruvius, conferred with the Abbot Batgar of Fulda, —
himself a builder of some experience, — concerning the works of the
Roman architect, and received from his friends the sobriquet of
Bezaleel, after the builder of the Biblical tabernacle. It appears
more probable that the superintendence of the minster was con
fided to an otherwise unknown " Master Odo," whose name was

218 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
given by an inscription in the church which remained until the
tenth century. It is not known whether this architect was respon
sible for the design.
The plan (Fig. 113) can in no wise be considered as either orig
inal or artistic. It followed in the main the arrangement of San
Vitale, while influenced perhaps in some degree by the old Cathe
dral of Brescia.* The changes introduced were either rendered
necessary by the new requirements, or resulted from the endeavor
to obtain a greater simplicity, and were by no means advantageous
from an aesthetic point of view. It is plain that the chief desire
of the builders of the minster was to equal the models, at least in
technical respects ; and in view of their want of experience, and
the great difficulties presented by the construction of the cupola,
the performance is certainly most creditable. Probably with the
intention of separating the lower story of the church, which was
accessible to the public, from the galleries reserved for the imperial
court, the dome and octagon, greatly resembling the corresponding
parts of S. Vitale, were elevated upon a simple arcade of piers. This
comparatively low substructure is connected with the sixteen-sided
outer wall by a complicated system of vaulting, cross-vaults being
introduced between the eight sides of the central structure and the
corresponding sides of the enclosure, while the eight triangles re
maining were covered with tripartite vaults, as in the Cathedral of
Brescia. This was an effective construction of considerable diffi
culty for that period, and the vaulting of the upper story was even
more ingenious and significant. The eight main arches were not
enlarged by an equal number of apses, as in S. Vitale, probably
from a desire to decrease the practical difficulties by a simplifica
tion of the plan, and to avoid an interference with the space pro
vided by the gallery. In Ravenna the side thrust of the cupola
had been ingeniously counteracted by the eight conches terminat
ing the apses of the upper story; to produce a similar effect in
the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle the galleries were covered by eight
barrel-vaults, inclined against the walls which supported the central
dome, while in the remaining triangles there resulted a complicated
* Quite recently proved to be of later date. (Art. D. Scavi, Sept., 1885.)

ARCHITECTURE.

219

kind of rampant conical vaults. The principle here involved was
that of the flying buttress, the further development of which, by the
architects of the Gothic style, was destined to become of so great
importance. The aesthetic treatment of the interior by no means

Fig. 113. — Plan and Section of the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle (original arrangement).

kept step with the constructive advance of this arrangement, the
ceiling not being of a pleasing form, while the two stories of col
umns introduced into the main arches were delusive. As the space
remaining was not sufficient for the introduction of the smaller ar-

220 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
cades above the upper columns, these supports were so placed that
their capitals abutted directly upon the intrados of the main arch,
in a manner entirely contrary to the principles of columnar con
struction. The eight walls of the octagon were carried up so high
that the windows were placed in the drum and not, as in S. Vitale,
in the curve of the dome. As there was no transition between
the octagon and the impost of the dome, which was continued as
an octagonal vault, all pendentives were avoided.
The architectural style of the minster, like its plan, evinces prac
tical intelligence rather than artistic taste. The masonry, though
solid, was rough, and executed wholly without reference to its ap
pearance ; the columns, cornices, and other members were few, and
exceedingly simple. There was no attempt to equalize the columns,
which were brought from various places and were of very different
dimensions ; as long as they were of valuable material, no attention
was paid to the design of the bases and capitals, which were partly
Corinthian and partly composite. The cornices, executed at the
time of the building, were exceedingly rude. The bronze work of
the balustrades and doors was of a somewhat higher character, and
will be described subsequently, in connection with the paintings
and mosaics which formed the interior decorations. It is not cer
tain whether the tomb of the emperor was intended to occupy the
centre of the octagon. The apse was replaced in the fourteenth
century by a disproportionately tall Gothic choir ; while the tower
upon the eastern side, at least in its upper parts, has been entirely
changed in appearance. Indeed, all the exterior, with the exception
of the buttresses terminated by capitals, between the windows of
the drum, has suffered so much from additions and reconstructions
dating to the most various periods that it is now impossible to
judge of its original effect. Eight of the columns from the interior,
which were carried away by the French and not returned, have been
replaced by new ones, and many other parts of the structure have
been recently restored.
The Imperial Palace of Aix-la-Chapelle has disappeared without
a trace. It was probably an aggregate of separate buildings grouped
around one or more courts. An anonymous writer of the time, a
monk of St. Gall, relates that the quarters of the imperial suite, the

ARCHITECTURE. 221
lower stories of which were open arcades, were so disposed upon all
sides of the dwelling of the emperor that the monarch could observe
the movements of his retinue from the upper windows. But scanty
vestiges remain of the other palaces built by Charlemagne at Ingel-
heim, Nymwegen, Frankfort, Worms, and Tribur. That of Ingelheim
seems to have been the most extensive and magnificent of these edi
fices, although little value can be attached to the accounts of its
hundred columns and thousand doors given by a Carolingian poet-
laureate. The few remains of these columns now preserved in the
museum and the cathedral of Mayence, in the court of the Castle
of Heidelberg, and in Ingelheim itself, show that there was as little
attempt to attain to a national independence in artistic respects
in the Palace of Ingelheim as in the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle, —
thus offering another proof that the Carolingian architecture had no
other aim than to revive the Roman style. The imperial villa at
Nymwegen was, in greater part, burned by the Normans as early as
A.D. 880 ; nevertheless, it remained habitable and was restored by
Frederick Barbarossa. The polygonal chapel of the palace, the only
part of the edifice saved from demolition after the bombardment by
the French in 1794, was built during the time of Barbarossa, but
probably retained the plan and imitated the details of the original
Carolingian structure, as is evident from the form of its capitals and
bases, the bulging shafts of the columns, and especially from the
general appearance of the whole being that of a simplified repro
duction of the Imperial Minster on a small scale.
In view of the sensation made by the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle
at the time of its construction, it is not strange that its plan should
have been imitated more or less exactly, not only during the lifetime
of its founder, as at Nymwegen, but also in later years. According
to ancient descriptions, the Court Chapel which was built by Louis
the Pious at Diedenhofen (Thionville or Theodonis Villa), was a re
duced copy of the minster, and the same was probably the case with
the Church of St. Walburgis in Groeningen. The design was repeated
in the choir of the nuns in the Abbey Church of Essen, which was
founded in 874 and rebuilt after the fire of 947. Only the central
division of the apse now remains in its original form (Fig. 1 14). The
stories which are indicated by the columns standing in the arches

222

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

are not fictitious, as at Aix-la-Chapelle, the building being provided
with a double gallery. It is worthy of note that the polygon does
not reach the height of the main arch, and is hence surmounted by
a conch, which intersects with the extrados of the subsidiary arches,
replacing the spandrels.
The circular structure of
the Church of St. John at
Liege, built by Bishop
Notker in 981, exhibits
similar reminiscences, not
withstanding its recon
struction in the rococo
style of the eighteenth
century. The choir of
the nuns in the western
tower of the Romanic
Church of St. Mary of the
Capitol in Cologne, which
was dedicated in 1050, dis
plays the same influence,
one of its arches, now
hidden by the organ, hav
ing columns arranged like
those of the Minster of
Aix - la - Chapelle. The
closest resemblance to the
plan of the minster is
the polygonal church of
Ottmarsheim, near Muehl-
hausen, in Elsass, which
dates from the same peri
od as the last -mentioned
church of Cologne (Figs. 115 and 116).
On the other hand, the Church of St. Germigny-les-Pres in
the Department of Loiret, which is mentioned in the tenth cen
tury as an imitation of the Carolingian court church, differs from
it in many respects, and by its cruciform plan rather resembles

Fig. 114. — Restored View of the Choir of the Nuns
in the Abbey Church of Essen.

ARCHITECTURE.

223

the ecclesiastical edifices of Byzantium. This building, erected by
Bishop Theodulph of Orleans during the lifetime of Charlemagne,
has a double interest, be
ing the prototype pf St.
Front in Perigueux, and
of other buildings of
France which are of this
peculiar disposition, and
displaying in the apses
of the transepts an ar
rangement of plan sim
ilar to that which ap
pears fully developed in
the Church of the Apos
tles and in that of St.
Mary of the Capitol in
Cologne. The many churches
and cloisters which were
built during the epoch of
Charlemagne were gener
ally imitated from Italian
and more especially Ro
man models. This was
the case with the two
most important French
convents of that time —
Centula (St. Riquier) in
Picardy, and Fontanel
lum (Vandrille) in Nor
mandy, both enlarged and
reconstructed by friends
of the emperor: the for
mer by Angilbert, the lat
ter by Ansegius. The
convent churches, which
were numerous

Fig. 115. — View of the Interior of the Church of
Ottmarsheim.

-Plan of the Church of Ottmarsheim.

Fig. 116.-
Vandrille, for instance, possessing not less than

224 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
eight — were usually large basilicas. In Germany, Fulda and St.
Gall corresponded in importance to the before-mentioned cloisters
in France ; they are of superior interest, because known to us through
especially explicit and trustworthy descriptions.
The Convent of Fulda, under the Abbot Sturmius, a pupil of St.
Boniface, was 'the most important establishment of its kind in Ger
many, even at the time of the accession of Charlemagne. Baugulf,
the successor of Sturmius, was obliged because of the increasing
population of Fulda to enlarge the Church of the Saviour by an
extension upon the eastern side and by a transept; while Ratgar,
who was created abbot in 803, and who had previously been em
ployed as an architect, added a western apse, devoting so much
attention to these constructions that the wearied monks revolted
against being continually employed as masons. We have no cer
tain knowledge as to when and where the important innovation of
the double choir, retained in the larger churches throughout the
entire Romanic epoch, was introduced, but we may assume the
work of Ratgar to have been the first step in this direction. . It is
difficult to decide whether the western apse was originally intended
as the tomb of the founder of the church, — like that of St. Boniface
in Fulda, and that of the Basilica of St. Reparatus at Orleansville,
in Africa, which was added as the mortuary chapel of a bishop, —
or whether this duplication was designed to provide two main altars,
consecrated in honor of two patrons. Perhaps the fact that the
cloisters adjoined one of the long sides of the basilica led to the
treatment of the other as the chief facade. Many Romanic churches
had their main portal in this position, in which case it was natural
to develop the plan of the two ends entirely alike. The greatly in
creased number of the clergy in the cloisters and the churches of
the bishoprics rendered it necessary, moreover, to duplicate the cen
tres of the religious ceremonies by providing two altars. An impor
tant alteration of the general arrangement was made by elevating
the choir, and constructing beneath it a crypt, containing an altar.
This disposition first appeared in St. Gall, but was adopted as early
as 819 at Fulda, in both ends of the basilica, the tomb of St. Boni
face, which was much frequented by pilgrims, corresponding to the
altar and reliquary of the eastern crypt.

ARCHITECTURE.

225

The example presented by the baptisteries and mortuary ro
tundas which had been adjoined to the larger basilicas of Italy led
to the addition of domed edifices to the more important cloisters.
Such a structure appears in the primitive plan of Fontanellum. A
vaulted hall of a similar kind was built in 820 in the Convent of
Fulda (Fig. 117), under Eigil, the fourth abbot of this establishment,
probably having been founded by Rabanus Maurus, a great patron
of the arts, who died in 856 as Archbishop of Mayence. It was orig
inally intended as the tomb of the abbots, and was without doubt
built in imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem,
WBM w

Fig. 117. — Plan of the Chapel of St. Michael in Fulda.
«. Ground-plan. b. Crypt.
and of such concentric structures as the Church of St. Luke, re
cently discovered in the neighborhood of Ephesos, perhaps also be
ing influenced in some degree by the Constantine funeral monuments
and baptisteries of Rome. At all events, the building has no resem
blance to the Byzantine cupolas of Ravenna. The cylindrical wall
of the central space, upon which rested the dome, is supported by
eight columns, with capitals of the Corinthian and composite orders
(Fig. 1 18 a and c), connected by archivolts. Beneath this superstruct
ure was a crypt of equal diameter, in the middle of which a thick
column, roughly imitating the Ionic forms (Fig. 118 b), supported
the encircling barrel-vault ; similar" vaults covered the surrounding
15

226

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

passage. Notwithstanding later additions and reconstructions, the
plan and details clearly exhibit the influences of the early Christian
art of Italy.
Even more important than the Convent of Fulda was that of
St. Gall, the buildings of which have, indeed, experienced so many
alterations that no understanding of its original arrangement can
now be obtained from them, but which nevertheless, through the dis
covery of the original plan, has become the best-known cloister of the
Carolingian epoch. This design appears not to have been entirely
carried into execution, perhaps because of difficulties presented by

\

Iffifff
JaMMI

%

^^m

Fig. 11S. — Details of Columns from the Chapel of St. Michael in Fulda.

the conformation of the ground, yet it is nevertheless of the most
signal importance to architectural history. St. Gall had somewhat
declined with the increasing prosperity of Fulda, but, through the
patronage of Louis the Pious, its abbot, Gozbert, A.D. 816 to 832,
was enabled to undertake an extensive reconstruction, for which the
plan in question was drawn by an anonymous architect, who very
possibly had stood in some connection with the establishment of
Fulda. The large drawing upon two sheets. of parchment (Fig. 119)
displays, in the characteristic draughtsmanship of the Carolingian
epoch, all the complicated arrangement of a cloister of that period.
The main approach leads between a variety of farm buildings to the

ARCHITECTURE.

227

western front of a large basilica. This is provided with two choirs,
like that of Fulda, and with two towers, disposed symmetrically at

Fig. 119. — The Carolingian Cloister Plan of St. Gall.

A. Principal Entrance.

b\

Chapter-house.

L. Cemetery.

B. Principal Church.

cl.

Con v ersatorium .

M. Garden.

a. Altar of St. Paul. [lus.

d*-.

Dwelling of the Monks.

a5. House of the Gardener.

b. Altar of St. Mary and St. Gal-

el.

Refectory.

b5. Vegetable Garden.

c. Entrance to the Crypt.

f1-

Lavatory.

IV. Poultry-yard.

d. Choir for the Singers.

tr1-

Latrines.

ofl. House of the Keeper.

e. Pulpit.

h\

Kitchen.

b9. Hennery.

f. Altar of the Cross.

P.

Cellar and Storehouse.

cfl. Goosery.

g. Altar of St. John.

D.

House for Mendicants and

0. Barn.

k. Baptismal Font.

Pilgrims, with Kitchen and

P. Dwelling of the Artisans.

i. Western Choir.

Brewery.

Q. Brewery.

k. Altar of St. Peter.

E.

House forGuests.with Kitchen,

R. Bakery.

/. Western Paradisus.

Cellar, Brewery, and Bakery.

^S". Stamping-mill.

m. Almonry.

F.

School-house.

T. Grinding-mill.

71. Vestibule for the Brethren.

G.

Dwelling of the Abbot, with

U. Oast.

a. Vestibule for the School Chil

Kitchen, Cellar, and Bakery.
V. Barley-mow.
dren.
H.
Double Chapel.
W. Cooperage and Turners' Work
p. Tower of St. Gabriel.
a*.
Chapel for the Novices.
shop.
q. Tower of St. Michael.
P.
Chapel for the Sick.
X. Stables.
r. Doorkeeper's Lodge.
7-
Infirmary.
a7. Stalls for Horses.
s. Prefect of the School.
a3.
Kitchen and Bath.
b7. Stalls for Oxen.
t Waiting-room for Guests.
5s.
Dwelling of the Physician.
c7 . Cow-house.
u. Library and Writing-room.
c*.
Garden for Medicinal Herbs.
d7. Studdery.
v. Eastern Paradisus.
d*
House for Cupping and Pur
e7. Pen for Goats.
w. Sacristy and Vestry, [ments.
gation.
f7. .Pigsty.
x. Tabernacle for the Sacra-
K
School for the Novices.
g7. Slieepfold.
C. Convent.
a4.
Kitchen and Bath for the
V. Dwelling of the Servants.
11. Cloister.
Novices.
Z. Cart-house and Warehouse.
228 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
either side of the entrance, and but slightly connected with the
church itself. The towers are among the earliest structures of their
kind known, inasmuch as the date of the oldest campaniles of Ra
venna is by no means certain, while the towers mentioned in A.D.
575 and 734 as existing at Laon and Fontanellum appear to have
been nothing more than small belfries. The employment of bells
cast of bronze, in place of the former bells of sheet iron, had first
become common in Italy, and was introduced by Charlemagne into
Aix-la-Chapelle and Fontanellum. This naturally led to a fur
ther development of the towers, both in number and dimensions,
their chief purpose, however, long remaining that of barbacans, as
especially noted on the plan of St. Gall. The altars of St. Peter
and of St. Paul, placed in the opposite apses, and the crypt of St.
Gallus, underneath the eastern choir, make it clear that this dupli
cation resulted from the combination of two older churches and
the retention of both their patrons. In this connection it is to be
remarked that the wide passages around the two apses were not
reckoned as part of the sanctuary. The northern side of the
church adjoined the dwelling of the monks, as yet not divided
into cells; farther to the west was the house for mendicants and
pilgrims. Upon the north was the dwelling of the abbot and the
hospitium, upon the east the double chapel for the use of the sick
and the novices. On the left of this was the infirmary and its de
pendencies, on the right the school for the novices and the ceme
tery. This main complex was bordered on the south and west by
the extensive enclosures and buildings of the farm : vegetable gar
den, poultry yard, barn, workshops, bakery, brewery, mills, oast,
stables, dwelling of the servants, warehouse, etc.
Unfortunately, the plan leaves us in the dark concerning many
technical points of the greatest interest. The more important
buildings may be supposed to have been of stone, while the sta
bles, barn, etc., were of wood. With the exception of the crypt
and the apses, a vaulted construction does not appear to have
been adopted. The timbered roofs were covered with shingles, or
with a thatch of reed or straw. The dormitory was heated by a
hypocaust, while stoves are shown by the plan to have stood in
the corners of the living-rooms, the smoke probably not being car-

ARCHITECTURE. 229
ried off through the roof by means of chimneys, but through aper
tures in the walls covered by hoods. When the hearth was placed
in the middle of the room, the smoke, without doubt, escaped
through an opening in the roof directly above it, this being pro
tected by a second and smaller roof, supported upon four posts,
after the manner of the Italian cavsedium. We have no adequate
knowledge in regard to the arrangement of windows, although a
kind of triforium appears in the dwelling of the abbot, the school
of the novices, and especially in the main passage of the cloisters.
The part of the building last named forms a transition between
the peristyle courts of the classic styles and the arcades of small
columns common in the Romanic epoch.
We have less information concerning a third convent of the Car-
.olingian epoch, that of Lorsch, formerly Lauresham, near Worms,
on the right bank of the Rhine ; but some idea of its importance
can be gained from the fact that Louis the German and Louis III.
are said to have been buried in the " variegated " church, built by
the latter between 876 and 882 at that place, — since this evidently
cannot have been the chief basilica of the cloister. An interesting
portal, apparently belonging to this building, dating, at all events,
to the close of the ninth century, has remained in an exceptionally
fine state of preservation (Fig. 120). This hall, but little over 10 m.
long and 7 m. deep, was transformed at a later period into a chapel.
The three arcades of its lower story, resting upon piers and orna
mented with engaged columns, and the ten pilasters of the upper
story supporting gables in relief, offer a striking resemblance to the
antique portals of Verona, Spalatro, Treves, etc. The classic de
signs are imitated with great technical ability and thoroughness,
the helplessness noticeable in the details of the Minster of Aix-la-
Chapelle being here entirely overcome. On the other hand, the
builders had not attained to a full understanding of the correct
proportions and forms of the architectural members. The engaged
columns are too high for the arcades, and their composite capitals
are excessively attenuated (Fig. 121), while the pilasters of the up
per story are too short and their capitals too low. The checkered
pattern of the wall surfaces is coarse and of bad effect, and the
zigzag of small gables is a barbarous substitute for the arcades in

230

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

relief of the age of Diocletian. Notwithstanding all this, the portal
facade of Lorsch is to be esteemed as the last great work of classic
art. Little or nothing has remained of the other creations of the
Carolingian epoch. There are but few vestiges of the Church of
Michelstadt in the Odenwald, consecrated to the Virgin in 821,
and founded by Eginhard, whom Louis the Pious had endowed in
814 with the estates of the crown near Michelstadt, — although it
may be assumed that the ruin of the Basilica of Steinach, near the

Fig. 120. — Portal of the Cloister of Lorsch.
before-mentioned town, is identical with it. Later reconstructions
have left little of the original building, the crypt and the side
apses, as well as the portals, being of the Romanic style.* The
case is similar with the Church of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus at
Seligenstadt, built by Eginhard in the year 828. The old Cathedral
of Cologne, begun in the year in which Charlemagne died, and fin
ished in 873, has entirely disappeared ; its plan, with two choirs

* G. Schaefer, Zeitschrift f. b. Kunst, ix., 129, etc.

ARCHITECTURE.

231

and with two round wooden towers before the western apse, must
have resembled that of St. Gall, and leads us to suppose that it
was influenced by the traditions of Fulda. Among the other con
structions of the Carolingian epoch may be mentioned the Minster
of St. Mary in Strasburg, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul
at Worms, the Basilica of St. Dionysius outside the same town, the
rebuilding of Reichenau, and of the Church of St. Afra in Augs
burg which had been destroyed by the Avars, and the chief min
ster of Ratisbon, founded in 831 by Emma, the wife of Louis the
German. The episcopates of Saxony at this pe
riod offer no architectural monuments which can
be at all compared with the buildings of Charle
magne. The houses and churches of Muenster
(Miningarneford), Osnabrueck, Paderborn, Mers-
berg (Eresburg), Minden, Bremen, Werden, Hil
desheim, Halberstadt, and Hamburg appear to
have been almost entirely of wood. The Saxon
cloisters at Herford, Lammspringe, Gandersheim,
etc., were all founded after the death of Charle
magne, and long remained inferior to the Fran-
conian, Hessian, and Alemannic establishments.
Corvey, on the Weser, was of more importance,
having been founded as a branch of the French
Corbie under Louis the Pious, and built in 822
©n its present site. But only the western part, a
hypostyle hall between two towers of square plan,
remains of the original construction. The short
and thick shafts of its four central columns are surmounted by capi
tals which reproduce the Corinthian forms so exactly that they can
not be attributed to the Romanic epoch. They are provided with
classic imposts which, although much debased, are evidently copies
of the mouldings of a Roman entablature, — distinctly displaying the
astragals, dentils, and modillions of the Corinthian style (Fig. 122).
The cornices of the piers in the hall above, and the small Corinthian
columns in the apertures of the third story, are readily distinguisha
ble from the Romanic forms of the later superstructure of the tow
er, which was probably added in 1075 by the abbot Saracho.

Fig. 121. — Pilaster
Capital from the
Portal of Lorsch.

232

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

1

L

Jkikikfi_ifclfcf-_J_

After the fall of the Carolingian dynasty circumstances became
decidedly unfavorable for architecture. The stone bridge over the
Rhine near Mayence, which had been built in considerable part by
Charlemagne, was neglected ; and for more than a thousand years
after his death there was no serious attempt to carry out his plan
of connecting the Main and the Danube with a canal. New clois
ters were but rarely founded, and many of the older establishments
were suspended. The only requirements of the time were strong
walls, to protect the dwellings during the civil dissensions brought
about by the constantly changing authorities, and to fortify the
cities against the invasions of the Germanic
lands by the barbarous Normans from the
North, and by the Slavonic and Hungarian
races from the East. Princes and nobles
were more and more inclined to build their
strongholds upon steep heights, while the
lower classes, who had been at first so widely
distributed throughout the country, became
more and more accustomed to unite their
forces in walled towns. The building of
fine churches, cloisters, and palaces was not
possible in these times of general distress.
Art was even more neglected than it had
been under the last Merovingians, and for a
period longer than that before the accession
of Charlemagne, for the establishment of the
German monarchy did not lead at once to a
revival of monumental architecture. The tenth century was draw
ing to its close when a new and more significant artistic style
appeared in Saxony and upon the banks of the Rhine.

Fig, 122. — Capital and Im
post from the Western
Wing of the Cloister
Church of Corvey.

The Germanic races had no sculpture of their own at the time
when they were first brought into contact with the Romans. The
hideous puppet -like idols which appeared here and there" do not
deserve to be classed among works of art any more than do the
ornamental carvings of the wooden beams with which the ancient
Germans built their dwellings. When these Northern invaders en-

SCULPTURE. 233
tered Italy or other Roman provinces, they consequently employed
native artists to execute for them the few works of sculpture which
they desired.
This is known to have been the case with Theodoric, King of
the Ostrogoths, between 493 and 526, — the only ruler of the north
ern barbarians before Charlemagne who did much to further art.
His court sculptor Daniel was an Italian, and Cassiodorus does not
lead us to believe the other artisans employed by the king, among
whom are especially mentioned sculptors of marble and founders of
bronze, to have been foreigners. It certainly cannot be assumed
that the portrait statues of Theodoric, which were added to the
host of works of this kind in Rome, were executed by any but
Roman sculptors, or that they differed in artistic character from
the statues of Theodosius, Honorius, Valentinian III., etc., other
wise than was to be expected from the continual decline of art from
decade to decade. The equestrian statue of Theodoric upon the
Bridge of Augustus at Ravenna,* carried off by Charlemagne, and
probably re-erected upon the square before the Palace of Aix-la-
Chapelle, must have resembled that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome,
notwithstanding the shield, and spear with which it was provided.
This similarity was particularly remarkable in the so-called Regisole
of Pavia, unfortunately destroyed by the French in 1796, which
many authorities have identified with the equestrian statue of Ra
venna. It is plain that the custom of erecting portrait statues of
princes was continued among the Ostrogoths in later times from
the statement made by Procopius that Theodatus, the successor
of Theodoric's daughter Amalasuntha, had the presumption to place
statues of himself upon the left of those of the emperor Justinian.
A similar state of things appears to have obtained among the
Lombards, although in general this barbarous people cared less for
art. It is possible that the before -mentioned equestrian statue,
the so-called Regisole in Pavia, the capital of the Lombards, was
the portrait of one of the rulers of this dynasty; for although a

* C. P. Bock, Die Reiterstatue des Ostgothenkonigs Theoderich. Jahrb. des Vereins
von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinhinde. 1844.— W. Schmidt, Ueber das Reiterstandbild
des Konig_ Theoderich. Zahn's Jahrb. f. Kunstwissenschaft. 1873,

234

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

woodcut of this figure made in 1505 shows it to have resembled
the statue of Marcus Aurelius, connoisseurs at the time of Winck-
elmann were undecided whether to consider the work as a produc
tion of the age of the Antonines, or as a " lavoro mediocre de1 bassi
tempi." If we may assume the Regisole to have been executed
after the sixth century, the divergent opinions concerning it would
prove the sculpture of the period in question to have presented
that combination of technical and stylistic debasement with the
imitation of Roman works of the best epoch which is characteris
tic of the previous centuries of artistic decadence. Otherwise there
are no vestiges of monumental sculpture among the Lombards.
Reliefs of stone,. the

age of which is as
sured, like that now
preserved in the Ca
thedral of Monza,
dating to the time
of Queen Theode-
linde, or those on
the four sides of the
Altar of St. Martin
at Cividale in Friu-
li,* which was found
ed by the duke Pern-
mo about A.D. 730
(Fig. 123), are extremely rude and provincial; while others, like the
figures in high stucco relief in the chapel of the Nunnery at Civ
idale, are direct imitations of Byzantine paintings similar in style
to the figure of St. Agnes in the Church of S. Agnese in Rome.
It is also plain that the carvings of ivory, much in vogue at the
time, followed the traditions of Italy, and especially of Rome, while
the works of precious metals were more influenced by the artistic
methods of Byzantium. In the former the decadence is more
evident, in great measure because of the difficulty presented by

Fig. 123. — Relief from the Front Side of the Altar of Duke
Pemmo in the Church of St. Martin in Cividale.

* R. Eitelberger, Cividale in Friaul und seine Monumente. Jahrb. der k. k. Central-
commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale. II. Wien, 1857.

SCULPTURE.

235

the representation of the human figures which continued to be
introduced into the designs of ivory carvings, while the jewelry
was almost entirely restricted to geometrical ornaments and to
incrustations of precious stones. In the so-called Pax, in the ar
chive of the Chapter-house at Cividale (Fig. 124), which was made
in the eighth century for the duke Ursus of Ceneda, the silver
border is of less interest than the relief. In other specimens of
goldsmiths' work the tasteful and simple designs and the great
delicacy of execution com
mand our admiration, espe
cially those which are proved
by Latin inscriptions not to
have been imported from By
zantium, and not to have been
executed by Byzantine immi
grants. Among these may
be mentioned the magnificent
cover of a copy of the Gospels
in the Cathedral of Monza,
which, according to an in
scription, was the gift of
Queen Theodelinde. The
gold filigree- like borders of
its enamel display simple lin
ear ornaments, without rem
iniscences of the antique pat
terns, while the chief effect
is obtained by a studding of precious stones, pearls, and antique
cameos. More significant than these works, which rather deserve to be
considered as the last efforts of the expiring art of antiquity, are
the memorials of the Northern races of this epoch. Three great
currents are here recognizable, from the confluence of which the
characteristics of northern art resulted, local and national peculiar
ities being determined by the relative importance of these ele
ments. One of these can be traced to the most remote ages, —
namely, to the commercial voyages of the Phoenicians, who brought

Fig. 124. — So-called Pax of the Duke Ursus in
Cividale.

236 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
wares of beaten metal to all the coasts of Northern Europe in ex
change for tin and amber. The empaistic style of these works was
succeeded by the artistic methods of Rome, which entirely obliter
ated the traces of the Phoenician imports in all the provinces of the
Empire, but which were less dominant in the north-eastern lands of
Europe, notwithstanding the fact that Roman works were carried
by traders to the most distant regions. Between the two there
sprang up a most important indigenous style, based upon the de
signs of braided work, which was neither exclusively Celtic nor
Germanic, but common to all the lands of the North.
This plaited work was of the same importance to the races
of Northern Europe as weaving and embroidery to the Asiatics,
from which the textile ornaments of Mesopotamian, Lycian, and
Arabian architecture had been derived. The braiding of hair, bas
kets, satchels, mattings, and the like, was chief among the employ
ments of the women of the North. Braided rushes, swamp-grass
es, and osier, the hair of women and horses, or strips of the skin
of animals, took the place of the embroideries of Arabian deserts.
Thus it is not strange that imitations of the designs of these works
should have decided the most characteristic patterns of the North,
appearing at first in the carvings of wooden architectural members,
in the decorations of utensils of metal, when it became possible
to manufacture these articles instead of importing them from the
Phoenicians and Romans, and finally in the stone sculptures, of
monumental art.
In view of the perishable nature of the materials of which
these braided and woven works were originally formed, it is not
surprising that the only vestiges of them now remaining should be
the products of a comparatively recent age ; nevertheless there are
in Ireland some few specimens of this manufacture, intended as
the cases of valuable books or liturgical vessels, dating from the
earliest time of the Middle Ages, the ingenious work of which in
dicates a long previous practice. We have no examples of those
" representations of worms," i. e., borders embroidered with inter
twined patterns, the application of which to ecclesiastical vest
ments St. Boniface censured as heathenish. Even wooden carv
ings of this style have become rare, with exception of the shoe-

SCULPTURE.

237

J3L

shaped tablets found in the Black Forest in connection with the
so-called Todtenbseume, or coffins cut longitudinally from the
trunks of trees, and hollowed out for the bodies. Vermiculated
ornaments are mentioned as having been employed upon the tim
bers of houses, and it is evident that drinking -vessels carved or
turned of wood, and inlaid with gold and jewels, were regarded as
princely gifts.
The most important remains of the Northern HI
art of this epoch are the objects of metal. The (Hi
most ancient of these display but few traces of
the imitation of braided work, being decorated
by simple figures and linear patterns. This is the
case with the arms and ornaments found at Tour-
nay, in the grave of the Merovingian king Chil-
deric, who died in the year 481. Particularly
noticeable among them is the sword, with an
enamel of red flux in the cells formed by soldered
threads of gold, the design of which is of extreme
simplicity (Fig. 125). The double-handled chalice
with its oblong stand of gold, which was found at
Gourdon near Chalons, and probably was a votive
offering from Sigismund, king of Burgundy, who
died in A. D. 524, is of a similar style, but of supe
rior design. The treasure discovered at Fuente
de Guerrazar, near Toledo, is far more important.
The fine crown (Fig. 126) belonging to it is un
questionably that of Reccesvinthus (Recesuinto),
king of the Visigoths A. D. 649 to 672, the letters
forming his name being suspended by chains around the rim. The
manner of mounting the pearls and jewels, the wheel-shaped orna
ments, etc., closely resemble the before-mentioned cover of the Gos
pels which belonged to Theodelinde, queen of the Lombards, and it
is to be assumed that this crown was executed in Italy under the in
fluence of Byzantium, or at least by an artist who had been trained
in that school. In the book of laws of the Visigoths mention is
made of " transmarine " merchants who dealt in works of gold and
silver, rich garments, and other adornments, and Gregory of Tours

Fig. 125. — Sword of
King Childeric, now
in the Louvre.

238

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

relates that in the time of the Merovingians foreign traders sold
similar articles in Paris. It is evident, however, that the demand
of the French for such minor works of art was not entirely sup
plied by imports from abroad, for St. Eligius, who came to Paris
from Limoges at the beginning of the seventh century, was highly
esteemed at the Merovingian court for his works in precious metal.
In the entire lack of examples we
are not able to tell whether these
products were of the Byzantine and
Italian styles, or whether native de
signs were employed. Metal works
decorated with braided patterns do
not appear before the seventh cen
tury, and seem to have originated in
the northern countries, which were
little influenced by the Romans.
In the course of the eighth cen
tury this industry assumed most im
portant dimensions. The fibulas, or
brooches (Fig. 127), which among the
ancients took the place of buttons
and of hooks and eyes, became more
and more elaborate, all their surfaces
showing endless variations of the
same intertwined ornaments of braids,
loops, knots, etc. The peculiar char
acter of the slit and interwoven leath
er straps, which served as a model for
these designs, is retained throughout,
being evident even when animal forms
are adopted for the ends. The heads
of serpents lent themselves most nat
urally to this employment, but the figures of other animals, in
monstrous contortions, were also introduced. In general the na
tional art of the early Germans avoided the representation of the
human form ; this is evident in the so-called Regenbogenschuessel-
chen, bracteate coins of gold and silver which were stamped with

Hrfffll
iiiiil

Fig. 126. — Crown of Reccesvinthus,
King of the Visigoths, now in the
Musee Cluny, in Paris.

SCULPTURE.

239

the figures of animals. In the provinces occupied by the Romans
the debased forms of the Byzantine mintage continued to be im
itated. In the few cases where human figures were introduced recourse
was had to the Byzantine prototypes. This is evident in the cele
brated chalice (Fig. 128) of gilded copper in Kremsmuenster, which
was given by the last Agilolfing duke of Bavaria, Thassilo, to the
cloister founded by him in that place A.D. 772. Moreover, the
clumsy shape of the chalice is entirely different from antique ves
sels of this kind, rather resembling the turned and carved cups of
wood which have been men
tioned above as peculiar to the
North. The decorations which
surround the few breast-pieces
and cover the entire remaining
surface display, on the other
hand, the fantastic intertwined
forms of the North, without a
trace of the classical patterns.
Charlemagne himself de
sired less to further the de
velopment of a national art
than to rehabilitate the Ro
man traditions. He removed
the statue of Theodoric from
Ravenna to Aix-la-Chapelle,
not only because of his admi
ration for the great ruler of the Ostrogoths, but because of his in
terest in transforming, his northern capital to a new Rome by the
help of the masterpieces of Italian art. He could not raise monu
mental sculpture to its former importance, but he erected founderies
and workshops for the manufacture of architectural ornaments.
The Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle still preserves the four bronze doors
which were cast during his reign, as well as the balustrades of the
gallery ; both of these were direct imitations of antique models,
from which they are to be distinguished only by the inexperienced
workmanship and inferior design of their decorative details.

Fig. 127. — Brooch of German workmanship dat
ing to the eighth century ; found at Wittis-
lingen. Now in the National Museum of
Munich.

240

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

Gold and silver smiths must also have been employed at Aix-la-
Chapelle as well as bronze founders, for Charlemagne, following
the taste of his time, took great delight in works of precious met
als and jewelry. Most of these were imported from Italy and
from Byzantium ; still, a considerable industry in these branches
was carried on in Aix-la-Chapelle itself, under the direction of
Eginhard and Ansegius, the friends of the emperor. The same was
the case in the larger cloisters, St. Denis having been celebrated
for its works of gold. The imperial mint deserves to be mentioned
in this connection, although the
Carolingian coins were certainly
not of great artistic value, dis
playing only rough legends and
rude symbols.
It cannot be denied that the
Carolingian works of precious
metal were decidedly inferior to
the Byzantine models. They were
far from attaining to the artistic
eminence of one of the contem
porary works of Italy, the mag
nificent revetment of the altar of
S. Ambrogio in Milan, dedicated
in 827 by the archbishop Angil-
bert, and executed by Master
Wolvinius, whose name leads us
to think him a German. The
workmanship of its gilded sheets
of silver rivals the best contemporary products of Byzantium, while
the figures, in correctness and beauty of form, and in facial ex
pression, far surpass all other works of the kind which have been
preserved from this period.
Ivory carvings in relief continued greatly in vogue, yet but
few of them can be accurately dated. Among these the two re
liefs executed by the versatile monk Tutilo of St. Gall, who died
in 915, are particularly adapted to convey a distinct conception of
the tendencies of Carolingian art (Fig. 129). Antique reminiscences

Fig. 128. — The Chalice of Thassilo in
Kremsmuenster.

SCULPTURE.

24I

are evident in the allegorical figures of Sol, Luna, Oceanus, and
Tellus ; the Evangelists resemble ancient philosophers, while the
Christ and the cherubim distinctly display the influences of By
zantium. Nevertheless, the composition is original in many re
spects, and the action of the figures is lifelike, often even exagger
ated, as in the case of St. Mark, who is represented as cutting a
calamus. The diptych of Tutilo, however, must have surpassed
the other works of this
epoch, as did his fame as
an artist that of all his con
temporaries. The mosaics of Raven
na executed during the
domination of the Ostro
goths, such as those in the
Baptistery of the Arians
(S. Maria in Cosmedin), and
in S. Apollinare nuovo, the
court church of Theodoric,
are only to be distinguished
from the works of the Ital
ians preceding and follow
ing that epoch by the
steady decline of the ar
tistic style. The portraits
of Theodoric in mosaic,
known to have existed at Ravenna, Pavia, and Naples, can have pre
sented no peculiar characteristics, and must in many respects have
resembled the images of Justinian (compare Fig. 50). The superior
ity of the mosaics of Rome in the seventh century over those of
Byzantium must have been of influence upon the Lombardic art,
and have been apparent in its chief works: the painted decorations of
the palace of Theodelinde at Monza, with representations of the war
like deeds of the Lombards, — the mosaics of the Basilica of Olona,
A.D. 712 to 743, — those dating to the seventh or eighth century
in Gravedona, on the Lake of Como, — and the paintings with
16

Fig. 129.— Relief of Ivory, the work of the monk
Tutilo of. St. Gall.

242 THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.
which Duke Anthimus adorned a church in Naples. Nothing has
remained of all these. Their loss to the history of art is compara
tively small, inasmuch as the paintings and mosaics of both the
Ostrogoths and the Lombards may be assumed, to have been exe
cuted by Italians or by Byzantines.
Monumental paintings appeared among the Visigoths and the
Franks as early as did the building of churches. Gregory of Tours
mentions them as common in the fifth and sixth centuries, and
gives an account of mosaics in Cologne which conferred upon a
church of that city the name " ad sanctos aureos." In the second
half of the seventh century painters were brought to England from
Italy, which fact points to the introduction of ecclesiastical paint
ings among the Anglo-Saxons at this time, as well as to the
lack of trained artists in Gaul. The only memorials of this art
referable to the Merovingian epoch are a few manuscripts of the
Franks and Visigoths, in which the designs are restricted to the
initials. Their simple outlines show the first employment of the
forms of fishes or birds as parts of letters, these primitive illumi
nations hence being designated as ornithoidic or ichthyomorphous.
The increasing ability of the scribes added to these the figures
of climbing quadrupeds, generally of a monstrous character, such
as dragons and the like, frequently combined with an interwoven
strap-work. The first attempts are little more than a florid writ
ing, colors only being used sparingly to enhance the effect of the
penmanship. In contrast to these beginnings of figure-painting, the illumina
tors of the Irish cloisters* endeavored to introduce into their calli
graphic decorations the designs of the ancient Celtic braided work.
Ireland appears to have been Christianized as early as the middle
of the sixth century, and, favored by the position of the island, the
development of its civilization was exceptionally undisturbed. Its
ornamental painting far surpassed that of all the other countries of
the North in careful and intelligent treatment of outline and colors.
The Irish missionaries in England, France and Switzerland, South-

* J. O. Westwood, Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish Manuscripts. London, 1868.

PAINTING.

243

¦mtm

western Germany, and even in Lombardy, carried the illuminated
manuscripts throughout a large part of Europe. Almost as many
have been preserved in the cloisters of the Continent as on the isl
and itself, these being more frequently referable to wandering Irish
illuminators, and to the cultivation of the artistic traditions which
they introduced by the brethren of the foreign cloisters, than to
the exportation of Irish prod
ucts. In such works whole $!______
pages of the most laborious and
intricate interwoven patterns of
strap-work and animal forms are
added to the braided designs of
the initials (Fig. 130). The dec
orations are rendered attractive
by their ingenious composition,
exact drawing, and rich color
ing, but the representations of
human figures which occur in
these illuminations are frightful
attempts to adapt its forms to
the braidings and twistings of
the calligraphic designs. The
natural shapes and proportions
are entirely neglected, while the
garments and extremities are
contorted in the most fantastic
manner, so as to reduce the
whole figure to an ornamental
problem (Fig. 131). Fortunate
ly the Germanic races of Eng
land and of the Continent which had been converted by the Irish
missionaries did not entirely adopt these barbarous artistic meth
ods, — possible only among a people wholly uninfluenced by classic
culture. This is proved by the Book of St. Cuthbert, now in the
British Museum, which was written between 687 and 698 in the
cloister of the English island Lindisfarne: while its ornaments are
entirely Celtic, the human figures, though rude, show a striving

:L^_i_,  _ _ »-'''¦&»

Fig. 130. — Miniature from the Gospel of Du-
row, seventh century. Trinity College,
Dublin.

244

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

after realism which contrasts strongly with the methods of the
Irish illuminators.
In painting, as in all .other branches of art, the accession of
Charlemagne resulted in an increased activity, which was in this
case of exceptionally long duration. Although the Emperor de
sired rather to renew antique traditions than to lay the founda
tion of a national and independent art, yet in painting he opened
the way for new elements, — capable even of a greater development
than it was possible for them
to attain in the troublous
times of the ninth and tenth
centuries. The religious and
monumental works of this pe
riod must have been least af
fected by this peculiarly Ger
manic movement. The large
mosaic which ornamented the
dome of the Minster of Aix-
la-Chapelle until the begin
ning of the last century was
probably either imported alto
gether, or was executed by
Italian mosaic -workers who
had immigrated to the north
ern capital. Consequently it
must have exhibited a Byzan
tine style similar to that of
the mosaic in the niche of the
choir of S. Ambrogio in Milan,
which dates to the year 832. The religious wall-paintings of the
churches and cloisters built by Charlemagne without doubt exhib
ited the same features. The cloisters of Fontanellum, Fulda, and
Reichenau are known to have cultivated painting, and even the
names of several of their artists have been preserved, as for in
stance, Madalulfus in Fontanellum, and Brun in Fulda. The his
torical scenes in the palaces of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle
and Ingelheim may have been somewhat more original, although

Fig. 131. — St. Matthew the Evangelist, from a
miniature dating to the eighth or ninth cen
tury. St. Gall.

PAINTING. 245
the idea , of such mural decorations may have been taken from
those in the Palace of Theodelinde, Queen of the Lombards, at
Monza. The Spanish wars of Charlemagne were represented at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and as the types of the Moorish enemies had not
occurred in Italian art, this must naturally have exercised the in
ventive faculties of the designer. Novel subjects were similarly
provided in Ingelheim by the deeds of Charles Martell, Pipin, and
Charlemagne, which concluded the historical series of episodes from
the lives of Cyrus, Ninus, Phalaris, Romulus, Hannibal, Alexander,
Constantine, and Theodosius.
As none of these monumental works have been preserved, we
are obliged to base our judgment of Carolingian painting upon the
miniatures alone.* These memorials are well adapted to convey a
favorable impression of the artistic activity of the period. The sim
ple initials in outline of the previous Frankish manuscripts, and the
braided work of the Celtic illuminations, were in them supplement
ed by more important and elaborate lettering and by real pictures.
The intertwined patterns of the North were combined with floral
decorations which had been entirely lacking in the Irish illumina
tions, — the fundamental forms of the acanthus leaf being scarcely
recognizable, and the conventionalization approaching in character
to that of the foliage of the Romanic epoch. The colors were no
longer limited to isolated spots, introduced to heighten the effect of
the pen drawing, but were extended over the whole surface, the
leaves of parchment themselves being at times dipped into a purple
dye, or washed with it so as to leave only a narrow edge. The pig
ments most commonly used were thick body-colors, with medium
local tones, the lights and shades being drawn in line, in strong
contrast to the background. Gold was lavishly employed, as was
at first silver, neither of which had appeared in the Irish illumina
tions. The harmonious general effect of the Byzantine miniatures
was, however, seldom attained. The treatment of the human fig-
* J. O. Westwood, Palaeographia sacra Pictoria. London, 1843. — H. N. Humphreys
and Owen Jones, The Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. London, 1849. — H. Shaw,
The Art of Illuminating as practised during the Middle Ages. London, 1870, 2d ed. —
R. Rahn, Das Psalterium Aureum von St. Gallen. St. Gallen, 1878.— Cte* Bastard, Pein
tures et Omements des Manuscrits. Paris, s. a.

246

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

ures was midway between the antique traditions and an intelligent
observation of nature, thus being superior to the Byzantine works
in life and force, while inferior to them in correctness and neatness
of execution, and especially in facility and general effect.
This stage of perfection was not reached until the latter half of
the reign of Charlemagne. The Sacramentarium from the Abbey
of Gellone near Toulouse, now in the National Library of Paris,
dating to the end of the eighth century, displays
ichthyomorphous initials and a simple drawing
which is little in advance of the early Frankish
types. An attempt to overcome the difficulties
presented by the first innovations is evident in
the copy of the Gospels executed in 781 by
Godescalc for Charlemagne and his wife Hilde-
gard, and given to the Abbey St. Sernin in Tou
louse. This work, written in letters of gold upon
a purple parchment, is now preserved in the Na
tional Library of Paris (Fig. 132). The artistic
conception is here superior to the technical abil
ity, the desire to give expression to individual
observations and ideas being evident throughout.
An advance is noticeable in the Codex Aureus
of the City Library of Treves, in that of Abbeville
in Paris, and in the copy of the Evangelists from
St. Medard in Soissons, in the same collection.
Of a still higher character are two codices which
were probably written in Tours : the Vulgata in
Bamberg and the Bible of Alcuin in Zurich. The
former, begun under Alcuin, the friend of the Em
peror, who died in 804 as abbot of St. Martin in
Tours, exhibits a marked development, which may be referred to the
influence of the magnificent buildings of Aix-la-Chapelle. The calli
graphic designs of the initials and borders of both are a systematic
and tasteful combination of Celtic braided work with antique foliage
similar to that employed in later times in the decorations of the
Romanic style. In view of such works, it is not surprising that the
secretaries of the Emperor were chosen from among the illuminators

Fig. 132. — Initial IN,
from the Evangelia-
rium of Godescalc.
National Library of
Paris.

PAINTING. 247
of this cloister, and that the writing -school founded in Tours by
Alcuin became of decisive influence throughout a wide circle. Local
peculiarities, however, were observable in various cloisters, St. Denis,
for instance, chiefly cultivating the Irish style, while in Metz the
primitive Frankish methods continued to be practised and improved.
The care taken by Charlemagne for the further development of
painting at his court and in the chief cloisters of his realm resulted
in so lasting an improvement that the miniatures of his successors
were superior even to those of his own time. This is evident from
the codices of the emperors Lothaire and Charles the Bald. In
these works the human figures are still inferior to the calligraphic
ornaments, but the independence of composition which had ap
peared during the reign of Charlemagne is so increased as to make
up for the many defects of draughtsmanship. The proportions are
certainly not beautiful, being short and thick, weak in the arms and
legs, the head too large, the forehead retreating, the eyes staring,
the nose shapeless, the body apparently without a bony struct
ure, the belly protruding, and the folds of the draperies too small.
No attention is paid to the principles of composition or to the laws
of perspective ; there is no understanding of the landscape back
ground. But notwithstanding all the exaggeration and contortions
of the movements, all the sprawling and disjointed positions, a fresh
originality of conception is everywhere apparent, which supersedes
the effete traditions, and is always attractive because of its sponta
neity of sentiment and direct observation of nature. The success
of these efforts heightened the self-confidence of the artists, and
extensive and varied compositions appeared in place of the few
typical figures to which the illuminations had previously been re
stricted. This is especially evident in the magnificent codices of
Charles the Bald : the Evangeliarium and Psalterium in Paris ; the
Codex Aureus brought by King Arnulph in 891 to St. Emmeram-
nus, in Ratisbon, from St. Denis, now in the library of Munich ; the
Bible of St. Calixtus or St. Paul in Rome, which may, however, be
as late as the time of Charles the Fat, and the Psalterium Aureum
in St. Gall, which may also be more recent. The representations of
ceremonial figures or evangelists, as might be expected, follow the
traditional types in many ways, but the new illustrations, although

248

THE CHRISTIAN ART OF THE NORTH.

still deficient in grace and correctness, are much more full of life
and expression. A striking example of this is the picture of David
with the choir of singers and musicians which is introduced into
nearly all the Psalters of that period, — chief among which is that
of Charles the Bald in Paris, and the Psalterium Aureum in St.
Gall. The bending of the bodies in the ecstatic dance, the float
ing draperies, and the lyric rapture of David are expressed with
great success, notwithstanding the many defects of drawing and
coloring. Not less remarkable is a miniature in the Codex of St.

Fig. 133. — David feigning Madness. Miniature from the Codex Aureus of Charles
the Bald in St. Gall.

Gall, representing the feigned madness of David when recognized
at the court of Achish, king of Gath. It is difficult to imagine a
more striking illustration of the words of the king to his servants:
" Lo, ye see the man is mad ! wherefore, then, have you brought
him to me?" (Fig. 133).
After the middle of the ninth century the fame of the school of
illuminators of St. Gall exceeded that of Tours, and until late in
the tenth century the imperial secretaries were educated in the for
mer cloister, and the manuscripts which were given as testimonies of

PAINTING. 249
honor by the Carolingian rulers were executed in that place. The
miniatures of St. Gall differ from those of the French cloisters,
which were executed in body-colors by the employment of trans
parent pigments for the flesh tints and draperies, so as not entirely
to hide the parchment ground. This style was cultivated during
the ninth and tenth centuries in almost all the cloisters of Ger
many: at Worms, Hornbach, Strasburg, Beromuenster, Einsiedln,
etc., St. Gall thus appearing as the centre of an important school
of illumination quite distinct from that of France.
The names of some artists of this period have been handed
down to us. In the Evangeliarium of Lothaire in Aix-la-Chapelle
a monk Otto is mentioned as the scribe. In the Codex Aureus of
Charles the Bald, now in Munich, the illuminations are stated to
have been executed by the brethren Beringar and Liuthard ; in
the Prayer-book of the same Emperor, now in Paris, occurs the
name of Liuthard alone, and in the Bible of St. Calixtus, in Rome,
that of Ingobert. Wolfcoz and Folchard, the abbot Salomo, A.D.
890 to 920, Sintram, Notker Balbulus, and Tutilo were celebrated
among the illuminators of St. Gall; some of their works even con
tain self-complacent eulogies.
The miniature-painting of the Carolingian epoch, which reached
its highest development under Charles the Bald, retained its posi
tion longer than did the architecture and sculpture of that period.
But after the middle of the tenth century it also was affected by
the general decline. The compositions became poor and superfi
cial, the execution careless, and wanting in understanding. Ger
manic culture again relapsed into barbarism : fortunately but for a
short period, for a more brilliant and lasting development, that of
the Romanic style, was soon to be commenced.

Fig. 134. — The Abbey Church of Laach.

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY.

THE disassociation of the German element from the French
had been begun during the Carolingian epoch by the treaty of
Verdun, A.D. 843, but the entire separation, destined to be of the
most decisive importance upon the subsequent development of Eu
ropean civilization, was not carried into effect until, after the ex
tinction of the dynasty of Charlemagne in Germany, a native ruler
was elected. The tenth century was a glorious age for Germany.
In striking contrast to the fierce dissensions which arose in the
Carolingian family through the insatiate ambition of its members,
Otto, the noble duke of Saxony, to whom the new crown had first
been offered, refused to accept the great responsibility for which
he considered himself incapacitated by his age, exerting his influ
ence for the election of the Duke of Franconia, who, after an un
certain reign of seven years as Conrad I., bequeathed the succession

GERMANY. 25 1
to his enemy, Henry the Fowler, of the Saxon house, in the noble
conviction that only the most powerful of the German princes could
assert and maintain so great a supremacy. The first two kings of
the united realm, Henry I. and Otto I., raised Germany to the most
prominent position in Europe, and their imperial successors, Otto
II. and III. and Henry II. , worthily carried on the great work, at
least in regard to the furtherance of civilization.
The power of France and Italy declined during this period.
Neither the last of the French Carolingians, nor Hugh Capet and
the first rulers of his line, could successfully compete with the Ger
man kings of the Saxon house, who not only added Lorraine to
their empire, and established a protectorate over Burgundy, but ex
ercised a decisive political influence in the French court itself. In
Italy the empire was renewed in an entirely different form from
that which it had assumed under Charlemagne, the princes being
reduced to mere vassals of the supreme German empire. Even
the Pope formed no exception in this respect, as his election was
made dependent upon the consent of the Emperor. England sank
from the high position which it had attained under Alfred the
Great and Canute, and the relations of Scandinavia with Germany
were merely receptive. The only advance of civilization in Spain
at this period was made in the Moorish provinces, while the suc
cess of the Christians, who were arrayed against the unbelievers,
was at first uncertain. In the east of Europe the Byzantine em
pire dragged on its long decrepitude, severed from all connection
with the culture of the Occident by the Asiatic hordes which had
forced their way between Byzantium and Germany. The most im
portant of these invaders, the Hungarians, took no part in the civ
ilization of this epoch, receiving the influence of Germany reluc
tantly, as did also the Bohemians, the Poles, and the Wends. The
Byzantine traditions were thus limited in Europe to the provinces
of ancient Greece, to some parts of Italy, and to the slowly devel
oping Russian monarchy. The attempt to associate the civiliza
tion of Byzantium with that of the Occident, — made by the Em
peror Otto I. through the marriage of his son and successor Otto
II. with a Byzantine princess, — was without material and lasting
results.

252 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
It appeared at first as if this superiority of Germany and the
German emperors might be compatible with the hierarchical ideas
which had been developed even before the age of Pope Gregory
VII. No great weight is to be attached, it is true, to the
phrases at that time often repeated, comparing the temporal pow
er of the Emperor to the body, and the spiritual control of the
Church to the soul, or the former to the moon and the latter to
the sun ; still, it was regarded as possible to create a kingdom of
God upon this earth by the subordination of the rulers of Christen
dom to the Emperor, who, together with them, was to bow before
the final judgment of the priestly hierarchy as pronounced by the
Pope. This harmonious end might possibly have been attained
had the Church been sufficiently wise to understand its limitations.
The willingness of the laymen to' humbly submit themselves to the
ecclesiastical power was quite natural in view of the pious belief
universal at this period, and of the monopoly which the priesthood
then held of all learning and art, however superficial these may
have been. Knighthood, especially, had received a character so pe
culiarly Christian that the rites of the Church not only shed a halo
around the service of arms, but exacted the first duties of chivalry
for religious ends. This was particularly the case during the Cru
sades, in which, however, the German princes at first took little
part. When they were induced to join their forces to this great
movement, the Church did not gain the advantages from Germany
which it had expected, for the conflict between the imperial and
the papal power had at that time already commenced. The Em
peror Henry II. the Holy, a great patron of the Church and found
er of the bishopric of Bamberg, had taken a decided stand against
the interference of the Pope ; and Henry III. the Salian, notwith
standing his religious asceticism, knew well how to distinguish be
tween a humble piety and that servile subjugation to the Papacy
which brought to his successor the catastrophe of Canossa.
Portentous as was the struggle between the Church and State
in regard to the political development of the European powers, its
influence was but little felt in science and art. Princes and prin
cesses occasionally appeared as patrons of letters and art ; but these
branches did not, until the time of the later Hohenstaufens, meet

GERMANY. 253
with that furtherance at the imperial court which had distinguished
the capital of Charlemagne. Nor was the case otherwise with the
see of Rome, the popes not taking an active interest in these mat
ters until the period of the Renaissance. Scholasticism and the
formative arts were indeed dependent upon the protection of the
Church, but this was less that of the bishoprics and cathedral
schools than that of the quiet chambers of the cloisters, — these
establishments taking no part in the great political conflicts of
the time.
The literary and artistic productions of the cloisters were of
very unequal merit. The former were certainly much inferior to
the latter: we can attach but little value to the monkish treat
ment of the seven " free arts," the trivium, i.e., grammar, dialectics,
and rhetoric, and the quadrivium, i.e., arithmetic, geometry, music,
and astronomy. This shadow of the science of the last period
of Roman decadence, this uncritical repetition of dead forms, was,
it is true, of less value than the attempts to comprehend and to
explain the Christian doctrines which served as the basis of the
scholastic philosophy. But even the merits of this exegesis were
almost entirely restricted to a logical argument and the consequent
training of intellectual precision, while subjective freedom, in the
emancipation from the belief in authority, and a true understanding
of nature, was not attained in the slightest degree. The artistic
results were of greater importance, notably in monumental archi
tecture, — the branch chiefly cultivated throughout the Middle
Ages.* The chief artistic activity of the Carolingian epoch had been
developed in the districts west of the Rhine, the greater part of
Germany having the character of a colony which had yet to re-

* H. Otte, Geschichte der romanischen Baukunst in Deutschland. Leipzig, 1874. —
The same, Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst, Archseologie des Mittelalters, 5th edition.
Leipzig, 1884. — L. Puttrich, Denkmale der deutschen Baukunst des Mittelalters in Sach-
sen, Leipzig, 1835-1852. — C. W. Hase and others, Die mittelalterlichen Baudenkmaler
Niedersachsens. Hannover, 1856-1882. — H. von Dehn-Rotfelser and L. Hoffmann, Mit
telalterliche Baudenkmaler in Kurhessen. Cassel, 1866. — F. Bock, Rheinlands Baudenk-
male des Mittelalters. K6ln and Neuss (without date). — E. Forster, Denkmaler deut-
scher Baukunst. Leipzig (without date).

254 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
ceive a higher civilization. It has been seen in the preceding chap
ter how few of the monuments of Carolingian art existed in this
great tract, — the country to the east of the outposts of Fulda,
Corvey, and St. Gall remaining entirely without traces of artistic
activity. Less favored than France, this part of Germany lacked
the suggestive example of antique remains, and works of art were
only met with in those places which had been founded by foreign
ers, or had developed under the influence of foreign traditions.
This was the case with Fulda and St. Gall, the settlements of
British and Irish missionaries, and with Corvey, a branch of the
French cloister of Corbie.
In the Romanic period this state of affairs was entirely changed.
The brilliant rise of Germany under the Ottos was not without its
monumental expression. The development was not felt in the
same measure throughout the whole empire, a great part of the
lowlands of the north and the whole of the south of Germany re
taining, until late in the eleventh century, the primitive timbered
constructions ; but in Saxony; towards the close of the tenth cen
tury, there appeared a most successful architectural activity. This
was especially the case on the slopes of the Hartz Mountains, — a
district which had previously been without important buildings.
This .had been the home of the House of Saxony, the members of
which were there educated, and there delighted to dwell ; there
the dowagers retired to spend their remaining days in a cloistered
seclusion, and there almost all the Saxon monarchs found their last
resting-place. The Hartz thus offered the greatest possible oppor
tunities for the development of monumental architecture.
The style of the buildings of the Carolingians was based as
much upon that of Byzantium and Ravenna as upon that of Rome.
In the German architecture of the tenth century, however, the for
mer influence wholly disappears, the churches, almost without ex
ception, being of the basilical type. The Roman elements were not
marred, as in the preceding epoch, by a barbarous misunderstanding
and a lack of technical ability, but were improved, both in design
and execution, by well devised and judicious innovations. In this
case the alterations of plan and details did not result from obtuse-
ness of appreciation and a want of practical experience, but rather

GERMANY.

255

from a desire to find a means of artistic expression better adapted
to the emancipated taste of the age than an unqualified imitation
of the antique could be. And this change was not made in isolated
instances alone, but radically and systematically. The works of the
period consequently do not convey the impression of a laborious
attempt to regenerate the classic style, but seem to be endowed
with a new life. Instead of the senility and decrepitude of early
Christian and even of Carolingian architecture, — instead of the stif
fened and mannered forms of Byzantine art, — we recognize in the
Romanic structures the rapid and powerful advance of a youthful
style. This fresh activity was, it is true, almost entirely limited
to ecclesiastical constructions, but we must remember that in the
unrivalled architecture of Greece, at least during the archaic period,

Fig. 135. — Plan of a Normal Romanic Basilica, that of Hecklingen.
the temples were by far more important than the civic or domestic
buildings. The independence of the architectural conceptions is evident
in the transformation of plan, to which even the canonized basilical
arrangement was submitted. The Germans had begun in the Caro
lingian period to construct, underneath the eastern chancel, a crypt,
which was employed for the tombs of patrons, bishops, abbots, and
even of royal founders, being provided with altars for the funeral
masses. These subterranean churches, planned, of course, with ref
erence to a vaulted construction, were not only extended beyond
the choir to the space underneath the transept, but were increased
in altitude, so that at least half of their height was above ground,
thus requiring the pavement of the corresponding parts of the

256 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
church to be elevated, and made accessible by several steps. The
result was a difference in level entirely foreign to the early Chris
tian basilica, the presbytery being more effectively separated from
the body of the church than it had formerly been by the balus
trades and gratings.
In the basilica, as, for instance, in S. Clemente in Rome, the en
closure of the chancel had often been extended far into the main
aisle, in order to gain the necessary space for the performance of
the ceremonial. But during the Merovingian period, at least in
France, this was effected in a more satisfactory manner by a com
bination of the cruciform with the basilical plan (compare page
209). This combination continued to be developed by a succession
of highly important improvements. The first of these consisted
in placing lateral apses upon the eastern wall, as subsidiary choirs

M:r.Wr-.m:---m-zm.::-M=:m::'-^y.

Fig. 136. — Plan of the Romanic Basilica of Paulinzelle.
in the continuation of the axes of the side aisles, so that these
were terminated in the same manner as was the nave by the main
apse (Fig. 135). This met the requirement of the multiplied cere
monial centres in a much more satisfactory way than did the intro
duction of altars before the columns of the central aisle, after the
manner of the Carolingian plan of St. Gall. These lateral apses
were readily enlarged to separate chapels by extending the side
aisles, as well as the nave, beyond the transept, — this step result
ing in a great improvement of the exterior by the increased num
ber of the semicircular projections upon the eastern wall of the
transept (Fig. 136).
The extension of the side aisles beyond the transept soon led
to the continuation of the subsidiary choir entirely around the
main apse, the columns of the nave forming the boundary of the

GERMANY. 257
original chancel, while the outer wall of the surrounding passage
was provided with smaller semicircular niches for altars (Fig. 137).
This passage appears, at least in principle, in the Church of St.
Wipertus at Quedlinburg, and in the plan of St. Gall. In the lat
ter, however, it is still separated from the main apse by a wall in
stead of by columns. It is possible that the innovation was adopt
ed in the Carolingian structure of St. Mary of the Capitol in Co
logne, the fine presbytery of which (Fig. 170), repeating in the
transepts the forms of the choir, may be based in arrangement
upon the original plan of Plectrudis. There is consequently no
sufficient reason to assume that Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim,
who was present at the canonization of St. Godehard by the Coun-

Fig. 137- — Plan of the Church of St. Godehard, Hildesheim.
cil of Rheims in A.D. 1131, introduced from France the improve
ment of plan evident in the Church of St. Godehard at Hildesheim,
which was consecrated by him two years later, — nor is it proved
that the bishop, during his journey, visited Burgundy or Auvergne,
the districts in which this form first appears. At all events, the
plan of the choir of St. Godehard remained an exception, while
the symmetrical disposition of the apses in St. Mary of the Capitol
was frequently imitated in the neighborhood of Cologne.
No less important were the alterations of the western front.
In place of the paradisus portico, or narthex, of the basilica, which
at this time had almost entirely disappeared, there was frequently
introduced a repetition of the eastern main apse, with or without
the intervention of a second transept. This innovation has already
17

258

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

been met with in the plan of St. Gall. The western part of the
church often took the shape of a vestibule of the same width as
the nave, but of greater height, with portals below, and opened
above to the interior so as to form a gallery which in later times
was employed as the organ loft. When this was not itself carried
up as a belfry it was flanked by two towers, the plan and position
of which varied greatly in different instances. At first they were
generally round, like those indicated upon the plan of St. Gall.
In that design they did not immediately adjoin the body of the
church, but it is known from documenta
ry evidence that such a connection ex
isted in the cloister of Reichenau as early
as A.D. 991. It was difficult to effect an
organic conjunction between the round
plan of such towers and the rectangular
forms of the other parts of the building.
In the cathedrals of Mayence and Treves
(Fig. 156) the round towers are but slight
ly connected with the exterior walls of
the western transept ; while in the Church
of St. Michael at Hildesheim (Fig. 153)
the circular plan of the towers adjoining
both sides of the two transepts is trans
formed in the lower part into a polygon.
The Collegiate Church at Gernrode, on
the contrary, has towers of this kind sit
uated in the angles formed by the front
walls of the aisles and the sides of a vestibule of the same width
as the nave. The imperfections of such arrangements naturally
caused the preference to be given to towers of square plan, which
rendered it possible to effect an organic connection between them
and the basilica, and led to the series of experiments culminating
in the mighty structures rising above the intersection of the tran
sept and the body of the church.
Among the architectural members of the interior changed dur
ing the eleventh century, the most noteworthy is the column (Fig.
138). The base retained the regular Attic mouldings, which have

Fig. 138.

—Typical Romanic
Column,

GERMANY.

259

continued almost unaltered in all ages, but the independence of
the Romanic treatment is recognizable in the steeper outline, and
especially in a peculiar addition which appears shortly before the
beginning of the twelfth century, through which the square plinth
and the lower tore of the base were brought into a more organic
connection. In like manner as the inventor of the Roman Co
rinthian capital effected the transition between the circular termi
nation of the calix with the square abacus by means of four spirally
curled projections, the Romanic architect added four knobs, shaped
like pods, or leaves, to the lower tore of the base, so that a con
nection was effected between the round plan and profile of this
member and the rectangular corners of the plinth, which was ad
vantageous both in aesthetic and practical respects. The shafts of

Fig. 139. — Capitals from Huyseburg.

the columns were somewhat shorter and more diminished than had
been customary in the classic epoch. The entasis was entirely given
up, and upper and lower apophyges were not attempted, their exe
cution presenting too great difficulties for the stone-cutters of the
Romanic epoch. Fluting was very rare, being replaced in those
cases where an especial richness of effect was desired, as in the por
tals, crypts, etc., by a decoration of the shaft with linear, floral, or
animal patterns.
The most remarkable innovation was the Romanic capital, which
appears to have been first brought into general use in Saxony, at a
time when in the Rhenish countries the traditional forms of the
Corinthian capital were still retained. It is unquestionably true

260

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

that the formation of the Romanic cube capital answers the re
quirements of a projecting transition from the circular plan of the
shaft to the square plan of the abacus, not only in a more pleasing
manner than did the trapeze-shaped capital of the Byzantine style,
but more naturally than did many of the later capitals of antiquity.
The convex lower part corresponds to the curve of the Doric echi
nus, and gives a more vigorous and organic character to the medi
ating member than did the weak concave of the Corinthian calix.
The remaining sides of the cube take the place of the abacus,
which in the Doric capital was separated from the echinus, while
the mouldings above, increasing the projection, emphasize the ter
minating plinth. On the whole, it may be said that in the Ro-

Fig. 140. — Capitals from Hamersleben and Alpirsbach.
manic column the Corinthian model was assimilated in character to
the Doric, in the same way as in the Tuscan order the Doric style
had approached the Ionic.
This normal form of the capital served as the basis for the most
varied modifications. There were many stages in the development
of the shape from a cube, as well as in the combination of several
chapiters to a single capital, which latter appears as the forerunner of
the terminations above the bundles of shafts common in the Gothic
style. The sculptured decorations of the four upright surfaces, or
of the entire capital, resulted in a great variety of forms even in
one and the same building. There was no attempt to observe the
strict uniformity of type maintained in the antique styles, the deco
rations being entirely independent, and determined only by the in-

GERMANY.

26l

dividual imagination of the designer, — a continual change being, in
fact, the most imperative principle. In a great number of cases
more or less distinct reminiscences of the original Corinthian leaves
and spirals are evident, though such close imitations as the capitals
of St. Willibrord at Echternach, or such misshapen attempts as
those of the chapel of St. Bartholomew at Paderborn, are rare. The
varied treatment of the type is generally both original and in good
taste (Fig. 139). Instead of the floral forms there often appear imi
tations of the ancient Northern interwoven patterns, at times in
simple linear braiding, but more frequently with the introduction
of the figures of human beings and monstrous animals (Fig. 140).
Both of these latter varieties have occasionally a fantastic and con-

Fig. 141. — Capitals from the Abbey Church of Brauweiler.
fused character, the fantastic subjects being not only beyond all
explanation, but represented in a manner entirely contrary to the
fundamental principles of the architectural member to which they
are applied (Fig. 141). In some instances, especially in profane
buildings, these decorations attain to a richness and grace of effect
which would be inexplicable without the influence of Oriental de
signs. The best works are met with in those districts where the
elements of both the classical and the Northern systems of orna
mentation were combined and blended, this being indeed the fun
damental character of the Romanic style in its perfection. The
normal type of the capital is altered in the most various ways to
suit the requirements of its decoration. The transition between
the shaft and the cube is sometimes not convex but concave, this

262

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

latter form being better adapted to the application of foliage simi
lar to that of the Corinthian order. In rare cases the same member
is employed for the base as well as for the capital, the cube being
reversed for the support, as in the Nonnberg, near Salzburg, and
the crypt of the Cathedral at Brandenburg, or a member similar in

Fig. 142. — System of Fig. 143. — System of the Col-
the Cloister Church legiate Church of Gern-
of Paulinzelle. rode.

Fig. 144. — System of the Col
legiate Church of St. Mi
chael, Hildesheim.

character to a base, serving for the capital, as in Poetnitz, near Des
sau. Although the poverty of ideas is unpleasantly felt, a certain
constructive logic cannot be denied to this duplication.
In the crypts columns are almost exclusively employed for the
supports ; in the superstructure, on the other hand, piers were fre-

GERMANY.

263

quently introduced (Fig. 142). Even in the earliest Saxon works
the supports which divide the nave from the side isles frequently
exhibit an effective alternation of square piers with round shafts.
And in the construction of the early Christian basilica many at
tempts had been made to relieve the columns from a portion of

nit

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J— i-4-4— i— f»iv.

.il i.

Fig. 145, — System of the Church of Fig. 146. — System of Fig. 147. — System
Druebeck. the Church of Our of the Church of
Lady at Halberstadt. Thalbuergel.
the weight imposed upon them by means of isolated piers, dis
charging arches, etc. These precautions became the more necessary
in the architecture of the Romanic period, as the thickness, and
consequently the weight, of the clerestory walls had been. increased
in a greater proportion than had the strength of the shafts. Instead

264 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
of allowing this makeshift to be felt as a concession to the con
structive requirements, it was elevated to a rhythmical system, most
satisfactory from an artistic point of view. Whether one (Fig. 143)
or two columns (Fig. 144) were placed between the piers, a regular
alternation of stronger and weaker members, symmetrically disposed
upon either side of the nave, conveyed the effect of the trochaic or
dactylic rhythm of a verse. This impression was heightened when
the grouping was repeated by the gallery openings (Fig. 143), or, as
was more frequently the case, by arches in relief, which were ex
tended above the columns from pier to pier, so that three (Fig. 145)
or more supports were brought into intimate connection.
The value of the pier in the construction of the clerestory wall
having thus become apparent, it naturally resulted that the round
supports were more and more replaced by those of square plan.
The bare and inartistic character of the pier (Fig. 146), when con
trasted with the more graceful and ornamental column, was over
come in a manner similar to that by which the Romans masked
their arcades, with engaged columns and entablatures in relief.
Something was gained by the chamfering, especially when it was
combined with flutings and elaborate chamfer-stops. This was fol
lowed by the addition of small engaged columns, three-quarters
round, to the corners thus cut away, — the first step towards the
resolution of the pier into a bundle of shafts. At first little more
was attempted than a merely decorative combination of columns
with the pier, although engaged shafts were occasionally added to
the narrow sides of the support, and continued as mouldings around
the soffit of the arch (Fig. 147). The most important introduction
of such engaged columns, — on the sides of the piers towards the
nave and the aisle, — was not made until the horizontal ceiling of
wood had been exchanged for a vault of masonry, concerning which
we shall .speak hereafter.
The ranges of columns, with or without alternating piers, were
always connected by arches, at first in perfectly plain arcades, like
those of the early Christian basilicas. As before mentioned, it was
only in rare cases (Fig. 143) that an attempt was made to relieve the
weaker columns by discharging arches which extended from pier to
pier, surmounting two smaller arcades. The inner sides of the

GERMANY.

265

clerestory walls were frequently provided with mouldings of slight
projection, which arose vertically from the middle of each support
to a horizontal cornice (Figs. 142 and 147). When piers were em
ployed the sharp angles of the arches were chamfered or beaded,
like the corners of the supports beneath them.
The walls of the first Romanic churches, like those of the early

Fig. 148. — Interior of the Collegiate Church of Gernrode.
Christian basilicas, were generally perfectly plain, the only member
ment being the clerestory windows. It was only in rare cases that
the galleries, like the upper stories of the Byzantine basilicas, were
introduced above the side aisles, and these were always low, and im
mediately beneath the lean-to roofs (Figs. 143 and 148). The win
dows were small, and remained of the same shape and proportions
as those of the early Christian basilica, being generally arranged in

266

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

\

the axes of the arcades. The shape of their jambs, soffits, and sills
was, however, altered in a most advantageous manner. The rectan
gular section of the window openings of the classic styles was found
to be attended with practical difficulties so great in the rainy coun
tries of the North, that the outer sill was cut away in a steep angle,
to assure the water running off, and the adoption of this cham
fering upon all sides, both within and without, soon followed, as it
became evident that an equal amount of light was thus to be ob
tained notwithstanding the greater thickness of the walls and the
reduction of the glazed aperture (Fig. 149). Both the transept and
the extension of the choir beyond it were provided with windows
like those of the nave. Smaller round arched windows appeared
upon the walls of the side aisles
and of the apses, the latter of
which had previously been with
out any openings for the admis
sion of light. The ceiling was
horizontal, like that of the basil
icas, but open timbered roofs were
usually avoided, the tie-beams be
ing panelled and decorated with
simple colors. During the earliest
period vaults appeared only in the
crypts and apses, — in tbe former
most commonly as cross-vaults, in the latter always as conches, —
their rude and massive masonry restricting all spans to the small
est possible dimensions.
The exterior of the first churches of the Romanic period is dis
tinguished from that of the basilical models by three characteristic
traits : the cornice-arches, the portals, and the towers. The first of
these entirely replaced, at least in Germany, the barbarous zigzag
terminations of walls formed by inclined bricks. It was founded
upon the so-called corbel-table, which had developed from the an
tique modillion cornice. In like manner as the horizontal entab
lature, which originally connected the columns, had been replaced
by arcades, the consoles were here made to support a system of
small arches, — the adoption of semicircular archivolts in the place

Fig. 149. — Section of Early Christian and
Romanic Windows.

GERMANY. 267
of horizontal beams, which had been carried out in the interior
being thus expressed in the decorations of the outer cornices.
This exterior repetition of the inner system of arcades became
more pronounced when, in later times, the most prominent parts
were provided with a gallery of diminutive columns instead of the
cornice-arches ; but even in the simpler forms the diminished and
repeated arcades, though not projected upon consoles, are readily
recognizable and of excellent effect. This was especially the case
when this horizontal termination was combined with the vertical
projections which were employed to strengthen the angles of the
building, as well as to indicate upon the walls of the exterior the'
position of the columns, or piers, within. These pilaster-strips had
appeared in a single instance in Ravenna (Fig. 19), but the connec
tion of the uprights adopted in S. Apollinare in Classe was de
cidedly inferior to the graceful play of the Romanic arches, which
combined a pleasing cornice with the vertical memberment. The
mouldings surmounting the corbel-table, sometimes only a plinth,
though generally a rounded scotia and tore, had but slight projec
tion, and were at first but little decorated.
In the earliest period of the Romanic style the inclined sides
of the windows were perfectly plain. It was only upon the apses
that the apertures were surrounded by pilasters or engaged col
umns, surmounted by arches in relief, these being repeated upon
the outer walls of the crypt, in order to designate the important
site of the altar niche upon the exterior by a more elaborate dec
oration. It was in this connection that the dwarf galleries first
appeared in place of the arched cornice. Particular attention was
devoted to the development of the portals, the correct principle, —
that the entrance as well as the apse should give artistic expres
sion to the character of the interior, — governing their arrangement,
they holding, as it were, the same relation to the entire structure
as does an overture to the musical creation which it precedes. Al
though the portal corresponded in size to the dimensions of the
entire monument, it was so designed that the swinging doors were
not so large as to interfere with their practical usefulness, thus
avoiding the disadvantages which had made themselves felt in the
doors of the temples of the ancients. This was effected by the

268

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

adoption of an inclined section for the jambs and soffits, as in the
windows, the necessary dimensions and the requisite surfaces for
decorative treatment being provided by making the entire splay
upon the outside, and in some instances even extending the portal
beyond the front surface of the wall. The portals thus became
three or four times as large as the real door, which remained, even
in the largest churches, of so moderate dimensions that it could
be easily opened and shut (Figs. 150 and 151). The interior con
struction of the building was set forth in the artistic treatment of
the sides of the portal and of the semicircular tympanon when
this was introduced : the former giving, as it were, a perspective

L A--' „ l — i_,>, J!. „_'

*-—«——?*'¦" ^^figB^S"" ^^fefea- "•>.-—• -. -j*-**

-~V ^>_^^^A3^____r^^^.v '\' -

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Fig. 150. — Portal of Altenzelle.
Fig. 151. — Portal of Thalbuergel.
view of the piers and columns of the nave, and the latter indicat
ing the divine character of the building by a sculptured or painted
representation of the altar niche with its sacred figures. The por
tals of the Gothic period occasionally surpassed those of the Ro
manic style in elaboration and imposing dimensions, but never in
organic composition or thoughtfulness of design.
The portals were generally more richly decorated than any other
parts of the building. Not only the capitals but even the shafts of
the columns were covered with carved decorations, which, by the
floral character and the spiral arrangement of their patterns, resem
ble the festive ornaments of entwined wreaths and garlands. The
GERMANY.

269

arches of round and angular section were also ornamented, but
more commonly with geometrical designs. It was here that the
patterns peculiar to the Romanic style first appeared, namely, the
billet-mouldings, checkers, chevrons, scales, diamonds, etc. (Fig. 152).
Carvings of figures were at first restricted to the tympanon, but
were extended in later times to the members of the splay, and
even to the adjoining wall surfaces. Among the Romanic edifices
with horizontal ceilings, the most elaborate sculptures are those of
the Church of St. James in Ratisbon, which is, however, of com
paratively late date.
The towers of the Romanic style may be divided into two
classes. As has been explained in the consideration of the early
arrangement of plan, those flanking the ends of the transepts were

Fig. 152. — Romanic Decorations.
at first of round or polygonal section (Fig. 153). After the adoption
of the square plan the larger structures were usually provided with
four towers, placed in the angles formed by the transepts or by the
vestibule with the body of the church. In the treatment of their
wall surfaces with pilaster-strips and corbel-tables they resembled
the side aisles and clerestory, thus forming a connection between
the memberment of the sides of the building and that of the front
of the choir. The stories of the towers were decreased in height as
they ascended, the louver windows being formed by two or three
arched apertures, separated by small columns. This gave the agree
able effect of a more elaborate and light construction of the upper
parts, the progressive diminution of the stories making the pile
appear higher than it in reality was. The pyramidal roofs of the
towers were generally of a steeper angle than those of the other

270 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
parts of the building, although the inclination of the gables had
been increased throughout by the exigencies of the northern cli
mate. The towers of the second class were erected above the in
tersection of the main aisle and the transept. The square plan
naturally led here to the adoption of a rectangular or polygonal
superstructure, which by its extent if not by its height became
even more prominent than the flanking towers. In the larger
churches, with two transepts, the square towers were repeated
above both intersections, increasing the effect of duplication which
had been first determined by the introduction of an apse upon the
western side.

Fig- r53- — Church of St. Michael at Hildesheim.
The early Romanic architecture of Germany did not develop in
regular sequence or simultaneously in all the provinces according
to the principles here set forth. The period of advance was very
different in different parts of the country, while the mode of de
velopment varied according to local circumstances, and especially
to the influence of the classic traditions. Here the progress was
rapid, there slow ; in some districts it was organic and thorough,
while in others it was retarded by conservative and eclectic ten
dencies. The pre-eminence of Saxony has already been referred to.
Nevertheless, the constructions of the first Saxon king, Henry the
Fowler, who died in 936, were of very slight artistic importance, and
chiefly restricted to the hasty building of rough walls, like those

GERMANY. 27 1
of Quedlinburg, Merseburg, Meissen, Goslar, Brunswick, Nordhau-
sen, etc. His palaces were for the greater part of wood; that of
Merseburg, it is true, is especially mentioned as a two-storied struct
ure of stone, but it probably consisted only of an extremely coarse
masonry of unhewn stones. This supposition is not contradicted
by the mention of mural paintings executed in 933 in the " upper
hall." The nature of the original construction of Dankwarderode
or Brunswic, founded by Dankward and Bruno, the uncles of Henry,
is not at all evident from the later remains recently discovered
upon their site. The cloisters and churches of the vperiod were
likewise rude and mean ; the most important among them seems
to have been the establishment of St. Servatius at Quedlinburg,
the seat of the dowager queen Mathilde. The few remains which
date to this epoch, such as the crypt of the former church of St.
Wipertus, display extreme roughness and want of practice in the
imitation of the classical forms, as well as in the arrangement of
plan and the execution of the construction. The columns have
partly calix, partly trapeze -shaped capitals, while the central pier
has retained some semblance of Ionic forms. These members, as
well as the barbarous horizontal cornices which support the barrel
vaults above them, show no trace of the beginnings of a new
architectural style, but rather the last stage of debasement of an
tique details. The same is the case with the architectural mem
bers which have been preserved in the western crypt of the Palace
Church at Quedlinburg.
The earliest memorial of the development of the Romanic style
in Saxony is without doubt the Collegiate Church ofGernrode; but
it is not possible to say what parts of this edifice belong to the
original construction of the Margrave Gero, dating to the year 958.
We hold, in opposition to the opinion of Quast and Schnaase, that
the most important part, the central aisle (Fig. 148) and the gal
leries, cannot be ascribed to that period, to which only the eastern
apse and the round towers are referable with certainty. The north
ern tower has a system of pilasters connected by gables, after the
manner of the Carolingian portal of Lorsch (Fig. 120). The southern
tower has arched forms, though not the arched corbel-table, which
does not appear in this building. In greater part the Church

272 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
of Gernrode belongs to a group of Saxon edifices of a similar
style, dating to the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; among these
the churches of Westergroeningen, Goslar, Frose, Merseburg, Huyse-
burg, Ilsenburg, Heiningen, and Amelunxborn display a regular
alternation of piers and columns in the nave. The distinctive
ly Romanic features do not seem to have been determined be
fore the age of the last Ottos, towards the close of the tenth cen
tury. The group of Romanic buildings in the vicinity of Hildesheim
date to the beginning of the eleventh century. In like manner as
the civilization of Saxony was fostered by the royal family, that of
the district of Hildesheim was dependent upon the bishops. Bern-
ward, A. D. 993 to 1022, and his successor Godehard, A. D. 1022 to
1039, elevated their diocese to a pre-eminence similar to that of
Fulda in the ninth and tenth centuries. The first of an important
series of architectural monuments was the cloister complex of St.
Michael, which was built between 1001 and 1033." The structure,
as it remains at present, is certainly founded upon the original ba
silical plan, and at least the main walls antedate the fire of A.D.
1 162. We see here a duplication of choirs similar to that of the
plan of St. Gall. The treatment of the exterior is primitive and
bald ; two rectangular towers rise above the intersection of the
transepts and the nave, and at the ends of the transepts there are
four taller towers, of polygonal plan below and round above, with
undeveloped and insufficient louver windows (Fig. 153). The ar
cades of the interior, supporting the clerestory wall, display an
alternation of columns and piers, so disposed that two round shafts
stand between the square piers (Fig. 144). The Church of St. Gode
hard at Hildesheim, consecrated in the year 1033, has the same
system of two columns to each pier, with a more elaborate devel
opment of the choir (Fig. 137). The same is the case with the Ca
thedral of Hildesheim, founded in 1061, where, however, this feature
is less readily recognizable because of a later reconstruction ; as also
with the churches of Bursfelde, Wunsdorf, Gandersheim, and Klus,
referable to the beginning of the twelfth century, and influenced
by the example of Hildesheim. It may consequently be assumed
that this dactylic rhythm of the arcade supports was peculiar to

GERMANY.

273

the diocese of Hildesheim, in the same way as the trochaic alter
nation of columns and piers was to the Hartz.
Otherwise, throughout Saxony, the constructions were generally
of piers alone. The churches of Walbeck, Marienthal, Vessera, and
the Cathedral of Bremen (Fig. 154), all dating to the eleventh cen
tury, as well as the Convent Church of Ammensleben and the Church
of Our Lady at Halberstadt, built at the beginning of the twelfth
century, have clerestory walls supported upon simple arcades of
piers, the bases of which are sometimes Attic, while the impost
cornices are of exceedingly primitive forms. The somewhat more
elaborate capitals of the piers at Koenigslutter are exceptional.
This extreme rudeness and bareness of design was entirely over-

Jiil- li

d

Fig. 154. — Plan of the Cathedral of Bremen.

come in the twelfth century. In the Church of Our Lady in Mag
deburg, which was even previous to this age, the piers were cham
fered, and the same peculiarity, in some instances with the intro
duction of small engaged columns at the corners, appears in the
churches of Fredelsloh near Eimbeck, Petersberg near Erfurt, Ma-
rienberg near Helmstaedt, and Wechselburg and Thalbuergel near
Jena. The last of these (Fig. 147) was by far the most highly de
veloped and successful. In addition to the four columns engaged
to the corners and not projecting beyond the line of the common
impost, two further shafts were adjoined to the narrow sides of
each pier, these being continued around the soffit of the arch as
large mouldings, in the same way as were the shafts of the corners.
This system satisfied alike the _esthetic and the practical require-
18

274

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

ments, and prepared the way for the introduction of a vaulted
ceiling above the nave.
The Romanic basilicas with arcades supported upon columns
alone were rare in Saxony, and of course restricted to the churches
with horizontal ceilings. Three of these are known — the Collegiate
Church upon the Moritzberg near Hildesheim, the Convent Church
of Paulinzelle (Fig. 142), and that of Hamersleben, founded respect
ively in 1060, 1 105, and 1108. The two latter buildings are very
similar; their pleasing proportions and beautiful decorative details
seem to point to foreign influence, particularly to that pf Franconia.
The high degree of independence recognizable in Saxony was
not to be expected in the Rhenish countries. The influence of
the traditions and examples of classic and Carolingian architecture

F'g- r55- — flan of the Convent Church of Limbiirg on the Hardt.

continued to be felt, although the barbarous taste of the times had
led to so great a decadence of monumental building that timber
was employed even for the most important edifices, as, for instance,
the Church of St. Stephen at Mayence, built about the year 990.
The enormous Convent Church of Limburg on the Hardt (Fig. 155),
erected by the emperor, Conrad IL, between 1024 and 1039, and the
Church of St. George, now that of St. James, at Cologne, consecrated
in 1067, both exhibit Romanic details. Nevertheless, in the recon
struction of St. Justinus in Hoechst on the Main, A.D. 1090, rough1
Corinthian capitals were introduced, which probably were vestiges
of the older edifice. It is also not certain whether the rude imita
tions of ancient forms which appear in the pilaster capitals of the
upper story of the west towers of St. Castor in Bonn are referable

GERMANY. 275
to the Carolingian epoch or to the eleventh century. The former
origin may with much probability be assumed for the Corinthian
columns of the Church of St. Willibrord at Echternach, which was
consecrated for the second time in 103 1. This building is the only
early Rhenish example of that alternation of columns and piers
which was so common in Saxony ; it is, moreover, provided with
discharging arches above every two arcades, similar to those of
Huyseburg and Druebeck.
The Roman influences are also recognizable in those construc
tions in which the arcades are supported upon piers, — to which
category belong all the other Rhenish church buildings referable
to this early epoch. As might be expected, the classic forms are
to be traced only in the more important edifices, the greater num
ber of the horizontally ceiled Rhenish basilicas being extremely
rude, and entirely devoid of ornamentation. Among these may
be mentioned the churches of Lorsch, Kaiserswerth, Hirzenach,
Johannisberg, Rommersdorf, Altenahr, Altenkirchen, Loevenich, of
St. Matthew near Treves, and of St. Ursula and St. Cecilia in Co
logne, all of which were built before 11 30. Decidedly the most im
portant Rhenish works of this earliest period were the cathedrals
of Mayence and Treves, some parts of which, remaining to the
present day, may without doubt be referred to the age of the hori
zontally ^ceiled Romanic basilicas. The two cylindrical towers of
the eastern facade of the Cathedral of Mayence, which were built
between 1000 and 1036, display in their five lower stories pilasters
imitating classic forms, and corresponding cornices without corbel-
tables, while the southern portal has rude Corinthian columns. The
decorated parts of the apse are somewhat later, as are also the
upper parts of the towers, that above the intersection of the nave
having been entirely built during the Gothic period. The western
facade of the Cathedral of Treves (Fig. 156), the reconstruction of
which was completed in 1047, has classic pilasters with distinct
reminiscences of the details of the Porta Nigra. Although these
two cathedrals, even at that period, far surpassed the Saxon church
es in extent and magnificence, the countries bordering the Rhine
were nevertheless inferior to Saxony in the artistic importance and
independence of their architectural works. The pre-eminence of the

276

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

Rhenish provinces dates from the first introduction of the vaulted
ceilings, which will be considered hereafter.
Westphalia has preserved some memorials of this period which
display great originality and ingenuity of design, notwithstanding
their extremely plain and prosaic character. The arcades of these
basilicas were supported only upon piers, the columns of the Church

Fig. 156. — Western Facade of the Cathedral of Treves, as it appeared in the Eleventh
Century.
of Neuenheerse being quite exceptional. The cathedrals of Pader-
born and Minden, dating to the eleventh century, have perfectly
plain piers, and the churches of Freckenhorst and Cappenberg,
built during the twelfth century, are equally bald and inartistic.
The characteristic ornaments of the Romanic style, such as the
corbel-tables and the decorated portals, are but seldom employed
upon the exterior, while the place of the picturesque groups of

GERMANY.

277

towers is taken by one gigantic pile in the middle of the facade,
which, occupying the entire width of the nave, appears even more
bare and inartistic because of the entire lack of memberment by
pilaster-strips and string-courses. This defect, which was in accord
ance with the blunt and unimaginative nature of the population,
is particularly felt in the larger buildings, such as the Cathedral of
Paderborn (Fig. 157) and the Church of St. Patroclus at Soest.
The ecclesiastical edifices of Westphalia, like those of the Rhenish
countries, did not attain to a higher importance until the general in
troduction of vaulted ceilings, which
were early adopted in both these
provinces. The other parts of Germany, dur
ing this epoch, remained far behind
Saxony and the Rhenish countries
in artistic respects. Hesse was chief
ly influenced by Saxony, as is proved
by the enormous columned Basilica
of Hersfeld, begun in 1038 (Fig. 158),
and by the basilicas of Breitenau
near Cassel, and of Ilbenstadt, in
both of which the clerestory walls
are supported upon piers. In Fran-
conia, on the other hand, the eccle
siastical buildings, in so far as they
are to be judged from their present
condition, display Rhenish influences.
This was the case in Bamberg with
the Church of St. James, completed in 1073 ; with the Cathedral,
originally built, between 108 1 and nil, as a horizontally ceiled
basilica, with columns engaged to the corners of the piers ; and with
the Basilica of St. Michael ; also in Wurzburg with the Cathedral,
which was built at two different periods, between 1042 and 10.50,
and between 1133 and 1189. Engaged columns were attached to
the narrow sides of the piers of this last building, which retained
its ceiling of wood until a comparatively late date.
The circumstances of Southern Germany rendered it impossible

Fig.

157. — Western Front of the Cathe
dral of Paderborn.

278

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

for the architecture of this country to keep step with that of Saxony.
The advantages derived from the ancient Roman civilization by the
provinces bordering the Danube had been entirely lost through
the migrations of Germanic races during the fourth century, and
the inroads of the Hungarians in the tenth. In the second half
of the eleventh century the churches of the diocese of Passau, un
der Bishop Altmann, were. entirely of wood, and with the exception
of Ratisbon and the shores of the Lake of Constance, which were
influenced by St, Gall, there were few important works of the early
Romanic period in this part of Germany. The most noteworthy
among these are in Ratisbon itself. The Upper Minster and the
Church of St. Emmeramnus, both of which were originally exten-

Fig. 158.— Plan of the Convent Church of Hersfeld.

sive but perfectly plain basilicas, with piers in the interior, were
built during the first half of the eleventh century. The period of
the erection of the Church of St. Stephen, the so-called Old Cathe
dral, is so questionable; and its style so exceptional, that it is not
to be classed with any of these edifices ; and the Baptistery of the
Cathedral cloister, a small concentric structure with apses upon
three sides, can hardly be assumed to belong to the earliest period
of the Romanic style. The same is the case with the Church of
St. James, begun by Scottish missionaries as late as n 50; it must
nevertheless be included in this list as one of the best preserved
columned Romanic basilicas with a timbered ceiling. The most
noteworthy part of the building is the portal of the southern side,
profusely decorated with sculptures, and the entrance of the north-

GERMANY.

279

ern cloister, ornamented with Germanic and Celtic chevrons. The
artistic activity of the south-eastern districts of Germany was in the
main dependent upon that of Ratisbon. In Freising, only the crypt
of the Cathedral, remarkable for its fantastically decorated piers,
dates to this period. Ecclesiastical edifices with columns were rare
between the Lech and Salzach rivers ; only the Parish Church of
Reithenhall has columns alternating with the piers, while a dupli
cation of the round shafts between the square supports is exhibited
by the Romanic basilica of St. Peter in Salzburg, which, although
dating to the twelfth century, was originally constructed with a
horizontal ceiling of wood. In this town is the cloister of the con
vent Nonnberg, referable to the eleventh century, and certainly the
oldest known structure of the kind in Germany. A dactylic alter-

Fig. 159.— Plan of the Cathedral of Gurk.
nation of polumns and piers, like that in the Church of St. Peter
in Salzburg, appears, farther to the east, in the Convent Church
of Sekkau in Upper Styria. The Basilica of Gurk (Fig. 1 59), and
that of St. Paul in the Valley of the Lavant, both originally pro
vided with timbered ceilings, have piers in the interior. The last
three churches are not older than the twelfth century. The only
memorial of the earliest Romanic period in Bohemia is the Church
of St. George in Prague, built in the eleventh century, and remark
able for its heavy and awkward forms.
The Romanic reconstruction of the Cathedral of Augsburg,
which occupied the site of a basilica antedating the Carolingian
epoch, was carried out between 991 and 1077, and exhibits a hori
zontal ceiling and piers. The influence of this city in the south
western provinces of Germany was less important than that of St.

280 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
Gall. In Southern Suabia, and especially in the neighborhood of
the Lake of Constance, there are many remains of structures refer
able to this period, in which the Carolingian and classic artistic tra
ditions were still retained. The capitals of the Church of Oberzell,
upon the island of Reichenau, which may have been built as early
as the tenth century, show both the traditional and the Romanic
forms ; the same is the case with the bulging shafts and the octag
onal capitals of the Cathedral of Constance, begun about the midr
die of the eleventh century. On the other hand, the contempora
neous Minster of All Saints at Schaffhausen, and also the Church
of St. Aurelius at Hirschau, display a decided preponderance of
the Romanic details. Of the basilicas with clerestory walls sup-
ported upon piers, one at least, that of Mittelzell, built in 1048, re
sembles the Carolingian plan of St. Gall in a duplication of the
transepts and apses. The churches of Wurtemberg and Baden be
longing to this category show a peculiar preference for a straight
termination of the choir, which form appears in Hirschau, Klein-
komberg, Denkendorf, and Maulbronn. In the Church of Steinbach
the altar niche is semicircular upon the inside, but is enclosed upon
the exterior by rectangular walls, In Suabia the decorative mem
bers are frequently ornamented with figures sculptured in relief, as
at Brenz, Faurndau, Denkendorf, and Ellwangen, while the prefer
ence for timbered architecture and nogging, which is still charac
teristic of this region, is evident even in the churches.
The great variety and the whimsical character of the architect
ural forms employed by the Alemannic races is even more evident
in Alsace than in Baden and Wurtemberg. Influenced from all
sides by the most divergent traditions, this country did not devel
op any pronounced architectural type, its monuments exhibiting a
series of experiments with different motives.. The Church of St.
George at Hagenau is a columned basilica ; that of Surbourg dis
plays an alternation of columns and piers ; while that of Alspach
has piers, to the corners of, which columns are engaged. The facade
of the Church of Rosheim, which does not, it is true, belong en
tirely to the construction of 1049, exhibits direct classical reminis
cences in the formation of the gable and acroteria. The influences
of the Rhenish countries predominate in Lorraine as well as in

GERMANY. 28 1
Alsace. Few memorials of the Romanic style have been preserved
in the former country. The duplication of the transept and choir
in the Cathedral of Verdun may perhaps be referable to this pe
riod, as may also the churches of Blenod and Champ-le-Duc, with
alternating piers and columns divided into groups by discharging
arches, as in the Church of St. Willibrord at Echternach. The Low
Countries at this time belonged to Germany, and are to be consid
ered with it ; but in Holland all buildings were of wood, and Bel
gium was of subordinate importance. Basilicas with columns alone
are not met with at all, while constructions with alternating piers
and columns, like the Church of Tournay and that of St. Vincent
in Soignies, with its double-storied side aisles, are rare. Those ba
silicas in which the clerestory wall was supported only upon piers
were perfectly plain and without artistic interest.
The arrangement of the horizontally ceiled Romanic basilicas
which has been described was almost exclusively employed through
out the eleventh century, and continued for many decades there
after. At the beginning of the twelfth century an innovation was
made which entirely altered the character of the interior, giving it
a far greater independence and stylistic perfection. This was the
adoption of vaulting in the place of the former ceilings of wood.
The theory and practice of vaulting had been continued through
out Germany without interruption since the period of the Roman
occupation. There were many classic remains still standing in the
country, notably in the Rhenish provinces, which assisted the tech
nical traditions, the ruins giving an insight into the methods of
construction from all sides. In the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle the
three most important systems of vaulting employed by the Romans
— cupola, barrel- and cross-vaults — were reproduced with remarka
ble ability, and the apses and crypts (Fig. 160) of the basilicas did
not allow the practice to become forgotten. There was lacking,
nevertheless, that degree of boldness and experience requisite for
the adoption, in the principal parts of the ecclesiastical buildings,
of such extended vaulted constructions as had been commonly em
ployed during the imperial epoch of Rome for thermae and even
for forensic basilicas.

282

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

The beginnings of the Romanic style have been traced in Sax
ony, but the higher development of its forms, in connection with
vaulted constructions, is almost entirely due to the Rhenish coun
tries. The new system seems to have first appeared in the impor
tant Church of St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne, the vaulted
passages aro'und the three apses of which were probably built at
the time of the reconstruction of this edifice towards the middle of
the eleventh century. As the passages in question were themselves
nothing else than continuations of the side aisles of the body of the
church, it was natural that the vaulting should soon be transferred
to these more extensive and important parts of the edifice. In
other churches of Cologne of a similar arrangement, such as the

Fig. 160. — Crypt of St. Gereon in Cologne.

Church of the Apostles and that of Great St. Martin, the vaulting
of the side aisles appears to have even preceded that of the termi
nation of the choir, the ceiling of masonry having without doubt
been adopted from a desire to protect the lower parts against
danger from the frequent conflagrations of neighboring dwellings,
as well as to provide a firmer abutment for the higher clerestory
walls. In the Church of St. Ursula at Cologne there was added to
this consideration the necessity of providing a solid foundation for
the pavement of the upper story of the side aisles.
The Church of St. Mary of the Capitol had been provided at
the time in question with the grand cupola above the intersection
of the transept and nave, — in pursuance of the constructive princi-

GERMANY. 283
pie adopted in the three great conches, or in imitation of the Min
ster of Aix-la-Chapelle or the Church of St. Sophia at Constantino
ple, the design of which may have become known in Germany at
this period. It is also possible that this arrangement had been
adopted in the earlier church upon this site. Otherwise the vault
ings of the eleventh century did not exceed very moderate dimen
sions. The clumsy execution did not permit a reduction of the
thickness of the masonry, and this extreme massiveness rendered
the construction doubly difficult by requiring abutments so heavy
that they seemed to preclude all more extensive undertakings of the
kind. The last step, however, was finally made, and the nave was
covered with a vault of stone. This was at first due less to the de
sire for a harmonious structural development, much as this may have
been appreciated, than to the necessity of preserving the churches
from frequent destructions by fire, to which they were exposed by
their position in the midst of the wooden houses of the towns.
The most simple form of the stone ceiling, the barrel-vault, was
not at first employed in Germany. The development of the cross-
vaults in the side aisles, determined by the arcades of the clere
story wall, led the way to a similar division of the vaulting of the
nave. The distance from pier to pier was approximately equal to
the width of the side aisles, thus providing the desirable arrange
ment of square compartments. Moreover, the cross-vaults of the side
aisles did not require a great elevation of the lean-to roofs, as the
transverse arches were placed directly upon the impost of the piers,
whereas a barrel-vault could not, without a complicated system of
lunettes, spring from any point below the soffit of the main arches,
and would thus have increased the height of the bare wall between
the arcades and the clerestory windows. While the cross-vaults of
the side aisles had been regulated according to the piers, so that a
compartment corresponded to each arch, the double width of the
nave, on the other hand, was divided into square fields by the em
ployment of the second, fourth, and sixth pier, and so on, for the
support of the vault, those of odd number not being directly
brought into requisition for this purpose. The piers upon which
the vaulting rested were strengthened by the addition of pilasters,
or engaged columns, upon the inner side, from the capitals of which

284 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
sprang not only the transverse . ribs above the nave, but also the
longitudinal arches in relief upon the clerestory wall. The cross-
vault was built upon the square frame thus provided.
This system of vaulting was of decisive importance for all suc
ceeding ages, in aesthetic as well as in constructive respects. The
rhythmical grouping of alternate members, which had been begun
in the horizontally ceiled buildings of Saxony, was thus brought, by
logical steps, to its full perfection. It was no longer restricted to
the lower parts of the building, but included two windows, as well
as two arcades, between the pilaster strips and arches in relief. The
walls, which had previously been perfectly plain, and . entirely de
pendent upon the effect of colored decorations, received an organic
memberment, most ingeniously devised in constructive respects.
The piers were not transformed in plan merely for decorative pur
poses, their mouldings henceforth became of structural significance,
and, as supports of the vault, were carried above the horizontal
cornice to a level with the window arches, — maintaining the unity
of the nave, especially in regard to vertical dimensions. The hori
zontal cornice, however, was still retained to indicate upon the
inner side of the clerestory walls the height of the side aisles. In
conformity with the transcendental tendencies of the Middle Ages,
the vertical lines were predominant and strongly marked, in the
same manner as the well-balanced horizontality of the architecture
of Greek antiquity corresponded to the more mundane and normal
ideals of classic culture. This tendency was so strongly felt that
vertical memberments were introduced even in positions for which
they were less adapted. The secondary piers, which did not direct
ly support the vault, were provided, like their neighbors, with pilas
ters, or engaged columns, so rising above them as to form the im
post for two semicircular arches in relief above the clerestory win
dows. The functions of these uprights were decorative rather than
constructive, and their systematic introduction proves that the op
portunity for vertical divisions was sought even beyond the limits
of structural significance.
This enrichment of the interior was not without its effects upon
the outside of the building. The semicircular projection of the
apse was generally provided with a memberment of engaged col-

GERMANY. 285
umns and arches in relief, which, appearing as a framework for the
windows of the crypt as well as those of the principal choir, were
almost always arranged in two stories. To this was added the gal
lery of diminutive columns as a main frieze and cornice, this being
frequently extended to the adjoining parts of the building, so as
even to ascend the gables of the transepts and of the eastern front.
These so-called dwarf galleries were common only in the Rhenish
countries and in Northern Italy ; they appear to have originated in
Lombardy, and are not known to have been introduced in the
North before the erection of the double church of Schwarzrhein-
dorf, near Bonn, built in 1151. The pilaster-strips of the side walls
were increased in importance, as abutments of the transverse arches
of the vaults, and were consequently multiplied and strengthened.
The sides and soffits of the windows were commonly decorated
with engaged shafts and mouldings, while the portals were far more
elaborated than they had been in the horizontally ceiled Romanic
basilicas. The towers attained to a greater individuality and a more
ingeniously devised decorative treatment, the improvement being
particularly evident in the heavy piles rising above the intersection
of the transept and nave. These superstructures were henceforth
generally of an octagonal plan, much lightened in effect by frequent
perforations and by a charming termination of dwarf galleries, this
being the case even when the side walls were carried up in gables
so as to give the surfaces of the roof a diamond shape, and cause
them to intersect in the main axes of the plan.
It is not definitely known in which church the vaulted con
struction was first introduced, but it is certain that the important
Rhenish cathedrals of Mayence, Speyer, and Worms, and the Abbey
Church at Laach were among the earliest structures of the kind, and
it is not improbable that the priority among these is to be ascribed
to Mayence. It was originally built between 978 and 1009, and,
having been destroyed by fire on the day of its consecration, was
once more completed as a horizontally ceiled basilica in 1036. In
108 1 it was again burned down, and, after this second catastrophe,
seems to have been re-erected with the adoption of a vaulted con
struction throughout. Its ceilings of masonry did not entirely pro
tect it from other conflagrations in 1137 and 1 191, but the piers

286

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

and walls remained intact, although the vaults at present existing
were executed after the last-named date. The architectural charac
ter of the edifice is primitive and rude, but certainly substantial and
dignified (Fig. 163). The Cathedral of Speyer, which is but little
more recent, is of a much finer design, and certainly deserves to be
considered as the most important monument of the Romanic style,
at least in Germany, from its grand dimensions as well as from its
ingenious and effective construction and details (Figs. 161 and 162).
At the death of the founder of the building, the Emperor Con
rad II. , A.D. 1039, only the crypt had been completed, and the con
secration which is known to have taken place in 1061 probably had
reference only to the choir, as the structure was not finished until

Fig. 161. — Plan of the Cathedral of Speyer.
the twelfth century. The plan, however, by which the piers were
intended to serve as supports of the main vault is certainly refera
ble to the eleventh century, and in view of the slight difference in
age between this building and the Cathedral of Mayence (Fig. 163), it
is reasonable to ascribe the far greater perfection of the former to the
artistic ability of its architect, rather than to any appreciable ad
vance in the development of the style. The impost cornices of the
piers, carried around upon all sides, the pilasters, continued to the
spring of the main vault, the columns of semicircular plan engaged
to these strips and providing the impost for the transverse arches,
the arcades in relief above the clerestory windows, the third small
window at the top of each compartment, etc., though exhibiting the
primitive and uncertain design of an innovation, are unquestionable
evidences of originality and entire emancipation from the classic

GERMANY. 287
traditions (Fig. 164). The same proud independence is recognizable
upon the exterior. The fine dwarf- gallery was, however, rebuilt
after the fire of 1 159, while the western front is modern.

Fig. 162. — View of the Cathedral of Speyer.
The combination of the system of Mayence with that of Speyer,
which appears in the Cathedral of Worms (Fig. 165) was not en
tirely successful. The latter structure is supposed to have been
consecrated in 11 18, by which time the design of the models had

288

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

been determined in the most important features. It is beyond
doubt, however, that the reconstruction of 1183 introduced many
modifications which naturally must have been based upon the ar-

* i ?

Jfmtr.

Fig. 163. — System of the Cathe
dral of Mayence.

1 »_„

• ¦ 1 \ / < • \
Fig. 164.— System of the Cathedral
of Speyer.

rangement of the before -mentioned prototypes. In contrast to
these three cathedrals the Convent Church of Laach (Fig. 134),
built between 1093 and 1 156, displays the first attempt to employ

GERMANY.

289

all the piers to support the vaulting of the nave, in the same man
ner as they did that of the side aisles. This resulted in the piers
being placed at greater distances, and treated alike with pilasters

*?*•*¦?

-I'Vn

4—1  f t t ?*»¦

Fig. 165. — System of the Cathe
dral of Worms.

Fig. 166. — System of the Convent
Church of Laach.

and engaged columns, which were continued to the impost of the
vault (Fig. 166).
Compared with these vaulted edifices, those of the Lower Rhine,

290

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

grouped around Cologne, were decidedly inferior, especially in re
gard to the structural arrangement of the compartment systems.
The Church of St. Mauritius, finished shortly before 1144, has an
exceedingly low nave and simple piers, with pilaster- strips ad-

-t— I  1  *  t  f**

»*-I  !  ' — ? — f — Mr.

Fig. 167. — System of the Church of St.
Mauritius in Cologne.

Fig. 168. — System of the Convent
. Church of Knechtsteden.

joined to the supports of chief structural importance, while in
the side aisles a rhythmical alternation is attained by columns en
gaged upon the intervening piers and the wall opposite to them
(Fig. 167). In those cases where primitive basilicas with piers in
the nave were subsequently vaulted, the treatment was even more

GERMANY. 291
simple. At times' the square piers were transformed as much as
possible, the supports of the vault being provided upon all 'four
sides with engaged columns, so as to appear like a bundle of shafts,
while plain cylindrical columns were employed for the intervening
members which had been relieved from the weight of the greater
part of the superstructure ; an instance of this is the Church of the
Premonstrants at Knechtsteden near Dormagen (Fig. 168). The
same alternation of piers and columns, with a simpler treatment of
the supports of the vault, which were only provided with pilasters,
is exhibited by the Church of the Augustines at Klosterrath, near
Aix-la-Chapelle, begun in the. same year as the preceding.
The most remarkable peculiarity of the Romanic churches in
Cologne and its neighborhood is that formation of the choir and
transept which had appeared in the Church of St. Mary of the
Capitol (Figs. 169 and 170), perhaps even as early as the Carolin
gian period. The mortuary chapel at Schwarzrheindorf near Bonn,
and especially Great St. Martin and the Church of the Apostles in
Cologne, exhibit further developments of this attempt to combine
the concentric arrangement with the basilical plan through such
alteration of the transepts as to give them the character of grand
apses. The introduction of this system was probably less due to
the influence of the domed structures of Byzantium than to a de
sire to meet the thrust of the vault above the intersection of the
transept and the body of the church by the abutment of three
conches upon the sides not supported by the vault of the nave :
the hemispherical vaults of the apses acting as flying buttresses in
the same way as did the inclined barrel -vaults of the gallery of
the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle. Archbishop Arnold, the founder
of the double church at Schwarzrheindorf, had, shortly before the
erection of the structure in 1 151, visited Constantinople, and may
consequently have brought back with him the traditions of Byzan
tine architecture. The Church of Great St. Martin (Figs. \yi and
172) is but little more recent, its choir and transept having been
consecrated in 1172, while the completion of the nave was delayed
until the thirteenth century. The design of the Church of the
Apostles antedates the conflagration of 1199, although the Vaulting
was not carried out until 1219. This building is the most success-

292

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

ful as well as the most recent of the group to which it belongs, its
greatest charm being the harmonious relation of its outward ap-

Fig. 169. — View of the Interior of the Church of St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne.

Fig. 170. — Plan of the Church of St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne.
pearance to the interior construction. In it the dome above the
intersection of the transept and nave is not only emphasized upon
the exterior as a cupola, — a decided improvement upon the heavy

GERMANY.

293

superstructures of Schwarzrheindorf and Great St. Martin, — but
the flanking towers attain a higher development, being cylindrical

F"ig. 171. — View of the Interior of Great St. Martin in Cologne.

I  '  '  '  '  '  1

Fig. 172. — Plan of Great St. Martin in Cologne.
below and octagonal above, while excellently placed in the angles
between the three conches.

294 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
Vaulted constructions early appear on the right bank of the
Rhine in Westphalia,* but their execution is clumsy and . inar
tistic, especially in those cases , where vaults were introduced into
basilicas which had been originally covered with horizontal wooden
ceilings. Even those buildings, designed with reference to the
employment of vaults, retain a character of massive simplicity, the
piers being provided with pilasters which support the heavy ribs
of the vault. In some of the churches the influence of the before-
mentioned Rhenish buildings of Knechtsteden and Klosterrath is
apparent, especially in respect to the alternation of columns as in
tervening supports, this being the case in the Church of St. Kilian
at Luegde near Pyrmont, in that of St. Peter at Soest, etc.
In the Saxon provinces, even after systems of vaulting were en
grafted upon the basilical plan, the corresponding development of
the supports was long delayed. In the reconstructions dating to
this age attention was devoted to the elaboration of the capitals
and cornices rather than of the shafts. An instance of this is the
Church of St. Michael at Hildesheim, rebuilt between 1162 and 11 86,
after having been destroyed by fire. In the convent churches of
Gandersheim and Wunsdqrf, on the other hand, which were restored
at about this time, the piers, alternating with two columns, were
strengthened by pilasters. In entirely new constructions, such as
the City Church of Freiberg in the Erzgebirge, the plan of the piers
was of course calculated for the support of vaults. In this edifice,
and especially in its famed Golden Portal, the decorative elabora
tion is more important than the constructive advance. The piers
of cruciform plan in the Cathedral of Brunswick, built between 1172
and 1 194, were evidently designed with especial reference to their
functions as the supports of vaults. This edifice served as the
model for a number of churches in Brunswick and its vicinity.
The Saxon colonists of the North German Lowlands f appear to
have been more influenced by the architecture of Westphalia than
by that of Saxony. In this district no memorials antedating the
twelfth century have been preserved. The Romanic style, which
* W. Luebke, Die mittelalterliche Kunst in Westphalen. Leipzig, 1853.
f F. Adler, Mittelalterliche Backsteinbauwerke des preussischen Staates. Berlin, 1859.

GERMANY. 295
had been developed in reference to a masonry of stone, was here
greatly altered in character by the general employment of bricks, —
the great plain of the north furnishing no other building material.
The few edifices which were in part built of stone obtained from
erratic bowlders, such as the Church of St. Godehard in Branden
burg, and the Cathedral of Havelberg, dating to the last half of
the twelfth century, are much more rude and formless than the
contemporary churches of Saxony and the Rhenish countries, this
being in some measure attributable to the intractable nature of
the material. The structures of brick did not attain to an artistic
development before the erection of the Basilica of Jerichow, A.D.
1 144 to 1 160. The capitals of the buildings belonging to this class
are formed of plane surfaces like those of Byzantium, with triangles
which, instead of being rounded like the lower part of the normal
Romanic capital, have their points down
ward. But, while the column was simpli
fied, the corbel -table became more elabo
rate, its intersecting arches being of ex
ceedingly rich and varied effect (Fig. 173).
The vaulted system was not fully estab- lg' I73— or e " a e rom
the Convent Church at Jeri-
hshed until the end of the twelfth cen- chow
tury. The Cathedral of Lubeck, founded
in 1 171, is the oldest example of this manner of construction, but
only a small part of the edifice now remains in its original form. To
the same age are referable the important churches of Arendsee and
Diesdorf in the Altmark, the piers of which are also provided with
pilasters and engaged columns {Fig. 174).
In Hesse, Franconia, Bavaria, and the Austrian territories the
introduction of vaulting exercised no important influence upon the
formation of the plan and the exterior until the period of transition
to the Gothic style. A somewhat greater architectural activity was
developed in Suabia and Alemannia, in which countries, much af
fected by the artistic traditions of the Lower Rhine, the peculiar
mobility and imaginativeness of the inhabitants favored the elabo
ration of ornamental details, and especially the employment of ani
mal forms in this connection. On the left bank of the Upper Rhine
vaulting was early practised and systematized. In Alsace various

296

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

forms of the vault were combined with the methods of building
which obtained in the Middle Rhenish districts. In Murbach, for
instance, the Convent Church of Laach is imitated, and if the Church
of St. Fides in Schlettstadt was really finished in its present form in
the year 1094, as some authorities have been induced to believe by
documentary evidence, it certainly displays an exceptionally, early
employment of the pointed arch. The case is, however, probably
the same with this building as with the Church of Rosheim, the
pointed arcades of which are not contemporary with the original
structure consecrated in 1049. The facade of the latter building,

Fig. 174. — Longitudinal Section showing the Southern Side of the Convent Church
at Diesdorf.

with its classic gable and acroteria, is without doubt referable to the
Italian influences felt during the later period of the Hohenstaufens.
The Rhenish traditions were maintained during the twelfth
century in the Franche Comte as well as in Lorraine and the
Netherlands, the former district being remarkable for the contrast
which its buildings, notably the Cathedral of Besancon, present to
the style of Southern France. In the Netherlands, on the other
hand, no attempt was made until the beginning of the thirteenth
century to take advantage of the Rhenish system of vaulting the
nave and side aisles, notwithstanding the fact that domes similar to
those of the Carolingian epoch were built as late as the twelfth

GERMANY. 297
century, as, for instance, in the Church of St. Macarius near St.
Bavo in Ghent.
The successful exertions which were made in ecclesiastical archi
tecture from the earliest ages of the Romanic epoch were not at
first extended to domestic buildings. The only dwellings of inter
est to the history of art, even in the later development of this style,
were the convents and the castles of the nobles.
There are many accounts of the construction or restoration of
cloisters after the establishment of the German empire, but it is
probable that even those founded by King Henry I., who died
in 936, and by his pious wife, Mathilde, who outlived him for
thirty-two years, — such as the College of St. Servatius and that
of St. Wipertus in Quedlinburg, the Monastery of Poelde and the
nunneries of Nordhausen and Enger, — were not more important
in artistic respects than were the Carolingian convents of Her-
ford, Boedecken, Hirsau, the upper Minster of Ratisbon, Hersfeld,
Lammspringe, Bersen, Freckenhorst, Herzebroch, Neuenheerse, and
Wunsdorf ; and it is to be assumed that they were far less important
than those of Gandersheim and Essen, and especially those of Fulda,
Corvey, and St. Gall. The. cloisters, founded by less powerful and
wealthy patrons, must have been decidedly inferior. Among these
may be mentioned the Nunnery of Ringelheim, founded in 932 by
Count Immod, a brother of Queen Mathilde, that of Fischbeck, on
the Weser, established in 934 by Frau Hilleberg, and the Monastery
of Groeningen, built between 936 and 940 by Count Siegfried of
Hardgau. The expenditure for convent buildings was not great during the
reign of the Ottos, although much attention was paid, about the
year 1000, to the erection of imposing convent churches. We have
no reason to attribute an independent architectural importance to
the cloister of St. Maurice of Magdeburg, or the Great Minster of
St. Felix and St. Regula in Zurich, both of which were built by
Otto II. The most noteworthy of the establishments founded by
his sons were the Monastery of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, built by
Bruno, who died in 965, and that of Tegernsee, founded in 979 by
Otto II. , and governed between 982 and 1001 by the energetic Ab-

298 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
bot Gozbert. The other convents dating to this period were less
important. Among them may be mentioned Schildesche, A. D. 939,
St. Peter at Mayence, A. D. 944, Walbeck, between 941 and 996,
Hillersleben, A. D. 958, Gernrode and Hilwartshausen, A. D. 960,
Hadmersleben, A.D. 961, Eltenberg, A.D. 963, Kalkberg, before
965, Gerbstaedt and Oehningen, A.D. 965, Hesslingen, A.D. 969,
Gladbach, A.D. 974, Memleben and Nienburg, A.D. 975, Alsleben,
A.D. 979, Hecklingen, A. D. 980, Petershausen in Constance, A.D.
983, and Seltz, A. D. 996.
None of the establishments founded in the eleventh century
were equal in extent to the Convent of Fulda or to that of St. Gall,
the centralization of the monastic orders being no longer the same
as that which had led to the before -mentioned structures, or to
Monte Casino in Italy and Cluny in France. Although not one
cloister has been preserved to give us a distinct idea of the arrange
ment and appearance of the convents of this period, yet certain
fragmentary remains seem to indicate that the type which had
been determined in the Carolingian epoch by the plan of St. Gall
was but little altered. A square cloistered court usually adjoined
the church upon the south, serving in the later period as a burial-
place for the brethren. Of the three sides of the building surround
ing the court, that upon the east contained in the lower story the
chapter-house, and above, the dormitory; that upon the south, op
posite to the church, the refectory and the offices appertaining,
thereto ; while that upon the west was employed below as a store
house, and above as a hospitium. The spaces which, in St. Gall,
had been separated and dispersed were thus crowded together. To
compensate for this, the court attained a much higher architectural
development, being surrounded by cloister arcades which, as part
of the lower story, were opened towards the court, like the peristyle
of the antique dwelling, thus providing a protected passage and an
agreeable place of resort for the inhabitants. The advantages offered
by aq arcade caused the windows opening to the court, which had
appeared upon the plan of St. Gall, to be in later times gradually ex
tended to real cloisters. In the older parts of the court of the Nonn
berg at Salzburg (Fig. 175), which probably date from the end of the
eleventh century, the openings still retain a window-like character,

GERMANY.

299

although the engaged columns of the walls between the apertures
indicate the progressing development of the arcades. This peculiar
ity appears in the southern arcade of the Cloister of St. Peter in
Salzburg, which, although somewhat more recent, displays the same
resemblance of the bases of the columns to the capitals. The walls
were soon cut away, with the exception of a low parapet, above
which they were replaced by ranges of columns connected by arches.
At first piers alternated with round shafts, as, for instance, in the
cloister of the Collegiate Church at Berchtesgaden, built between
1 109 and 1 1 22, the piers of which are roughly decorated in relief,

Fig. 175. — Detail of the. Cloister of the Nonnberg at Salzburg.
while the columns are coupled, in order to make up the thickness
of the wall. Most of the cloisters of the period may be assumed to
have resembled this structure, the round arched or Gothic cross-
vaults at present seen having been added at a later time. The
cloister of St. Zeno, near Reichenhall, is the best preserved speci
men of an arcade supported only by columns ; the capitals of its
coupled shafts are remarkable for their sculptured decorations of
figures, chosen mainly from animal fables. The older parts of the
cloister of the Frauen Minster in Zurich also date from the middle
of the twelfth century,, while the remarkably fine arcades of the
Great Minster (Fig. 176) of that place were built about the year

30o

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

1200. The arcades are divided, by discharging arches above the
piers, into groups, each of which contains two columns, the mem
berment of the supports and of the ribs of the vaults being varied
and of good effect. When the weight of the superstructure rested
upon the piers, as in the instance last mentioned, it was possible to
employ small single columns, which were brought into connection
with the wall above them by means of projecting imposts. Other
cloisters of the Romanic period, like that of St. James in Ratisbon,
or that of the Church of St. Saviour at Milstadt, display the forms
of the transitional style of the thirteenth century, — or, as in the case

Fig. 176.— Cloister of the Great Minster of Zurich.
of Maulbronn, have received such extensive additions that they are
rather to be classed with the structures of the Gothic period.
A peculiar feature of the cloisters is the fountain of the court,
usually projecting from the side of the refectory. The appearance
of this structure depended upon the nature of the water supply; as
it was covered, it naturally received the form of a pavilion, treated
in the same manner as the surrounding cloister arcades, and pro
vided with stone seats. In some collegiate churches, and especially
in the adjuncts of cathedrals, the place of the fountain was taken
by a small chapel, a noteworthy instance of which is the Romanic

GERMANY. 301
dome, with apses upon three sides, standing in connection with the
more recent cloister of the Cathedral of Ratisbon.
The halls of the convents long remained bare and without archi
tectural interest, their horizontal ceilings being at first supported
by beams of wood. It was not until the end of the eleventh and
the beginning of the twelfth century that the introduction of vault
ing led to a monumental treatment of the piers and columns. In
the eastern wing of the Cloister of Bebenhausen in Wurtemberg
there are three halls, two of which contain four columns ; the six
shafts, introduced into the third, support a pointed vault of the
Gothic period. The fine halls of the Abbey of Maulbronn,* the
best preserved of the mediaeval cloister enclosures, are only in part
referable to the Romanic epoch : the chief hall, with the central
range of seven coupled columns and cross vaults without ribs, hav
ing been built in 1201, while a vaulting in the magnificent refectory,
supported by three principal columns and four smaller intervening
shafts, betrays, by the introduction of pointed forms, the influence
of the transitional style.
In the eleventh century the castles of the feudal nobles gradu
ally became of independent architectural importance. These struct
ures commonly stood in the midst of a small area, fortified by high
walls, the site of which was so chosen as to profit as much as possi
ble by the natural protection afforded by steep cliffs or by water.
Their portals, being designed with especial reference to great de
fensive strength, exhibited from the first a certain monumental
character. Otherwise there was, at least during the eleventh cen
tury, only one building within the enclosure which deserves to be
considered in this connection, namely, the barbacan (Fig. 177), a
tower serving at once as a lookout and as a last refuge for the de
fenders. Its 'enormously thick walls, more frequently of round than
of square plan, left but small chambers in the interior. These were
lighted by narrow apertures, and could only be entered through a
door (a) situated at some height above the ground and reached by
ladders. The lowest story (b) contained the high and narrow dun
geon, access to which was provided by an orifice (c) in the apex of
* E. Paulus, Die Cistercienserabtei Maulbronn. 2d edition. Stuttgart, 1882.

¦<

302 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
its vault. The three or four upper chambers, increasing in size from
story to story as the walls diminished in thickness, were also only
to be reached by ladders. The summit was terminated by a battle-
mented platform (e). The development of the barbacan to a habit
able castle, like the donjons of France and the keep-towers of Eng
land, was rare in Germany, — that of Rauschenberg, near Marburg,
being exceptional.
During the eleventh century the parts of the castle used for hab
itation were entirely of wood, and even at the beginning of the
twelfth, masonry was but rarely employed for the halls and dwell
ing-rooms. This is the, case with the
Niederburg, near Ruedesheim, the bar
rel and cross vaults of the interior
being probably referable to the first
construction, while the rude stone
work of the exterior, altogether with
out memberment or decoration, was
executed at the beginning of the
twelfth century (Fig. 178). We have
no reason to attribute any especial
architectural interest to those castles
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
concerning which we have document
ary information, or of which remains
have been preserved ; among them
may be mentioned Hammerstein near
Fornich on the Rhine, Boeckelheim
near Kreuznach, Kiburg near 'Zurich, Habsburg in the Aargau, and
Persenberg near Grein, on the Danube. The masonry of the last of
these castles was so inadequate in constructive respects that, in the
year 1045, it fell in consequence of the floor of the hall giving way
under the weight of the assembled guests. In the lowlands of
Flanders the fortifications commonly consisted of palisades and
ramparts of earth, but in mountainous districts the strongholds
were not unfrequently excavated from the native rock itself, as is
the case with Fleckenstein, near Weissenburg in the Vosges.
The dwellings and palaces of the citadels did not attain a monu-

n

^

Fig. 177. — Barbacan of Sonnenberg,
near Wiesbaden.

GERMANY.

3°3

mental and artistic character until the middle of the twelfth cen
tury. The general arrangement of these was the same as before,
the ground-floor containing magazines, while the upper stories were
occupied by halls with or without smaller chambers at the ends.
Greater care was, however, taken with the construction of the in
terior, while the outer walls were ornamented with the forms which
had been developed in the ecclesiastical buildings, — with rhyth
mical groups of windows or of columned arcades, corbel-tables, pilas
ter-strips, arches in relief, exposed stone staircases supported upon
vaults, etc. The Palace of Dankwarderode (Fig. 179) in Brunswick,
concerning the arrangement of which in the time of Henry the
Lion, A.D. 11 50 to 11 70,
recent investigations* have
thrown much light, v/as of
extreme simplicity. Its
position was strengthened
by the vicinity of the river
Ocker. The ground-floor,
lighted by small windows,
was divided longitudinally
by a range of piers con
nected with arcades, while
the entire upper story, with
the exception of a corridor
and the so-called caminata,
was occupied by one large hall. The living-rooms were separated
from the palace and grouped around the free-standing, two-storied
chapel. A similar arrangement is evident in the remains of the
castles belonging to the Rhenish countries and the adjoining dis
tricts, such as St. Ulrich, Giersberg, Rappoltstein, Hohenegisheim,
Ortenburg, Plixburg, and Landsberg in Alsace ; Trifels and Kaes-
tenburg in the Rhenish Palatinate, Minzeberg in the Wetterau near
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Seligenstadt on the Main, Salzburg in the
Saalgau north of Wurzburg, Reichenstein in the Taunus, Buedingen
and Roppershausen in Hesse, Steinfurt in Westphalia, Cobern on

Fig. 178.-

-Northern Side of the Niederburg at
Ruedesheim.

* L. Winter, Die Burg Dankwarderode zu Braunschweig. Braunschweig, 1883.

304

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

the Moselle, Vianden in Luxemburg. In Eastern Germany, on the
other hand, there are no distinctively Romanic remains of castles,
and the same is the case with the south, where only Schloss Tirol,
near Meran, is to be mentioned.
The imperial palaces of the Hohenstaufens were of very consid
erable dimensions, chief among them being the castle of Eger and
that of Goslar. The first of these, which came into the possession
of Frederick Barbarossa as the dowry of his first wife Adelheid, and
was provided by the Emperor himself with a fine double chapel, still
displays the simple forms of the first half of the twelfth century.
The halls occupy the entire width of the building, being without
central supports and without a corridor. They are indicated upon

Fig- 179- — Restored Section and View of the Eastern Facade of the Palace of Dankwarde
rode in Brunswick.
the exterior by groups of arched windows, while smaller aper
tures give light to the adjoining chamber. The Imperial Palace at
Goslar, originally founded by Henry III., and consequently the old
est of all those which have remained to the present day, is superior
to the Castle of Eger both in dimensions and in artistic importance.
The enormous hall which occupies the entire upper story is 55 m.
long and 16 m. wide ; it is opened to the court in arcades, the piers
of which, connected by arches, combine three smaller arcades sup
ported upon columns, to a single system. This magnificent hall,
which has never been without the protection of a roof, has unfort
unately suffered so much from restorations that its original appear
ance is no longer evident.
A greater interest is hence attached to the Imperial Palace of

GERMANY.

3°5

Wimpfen am Berge, and especially to that of Gelnhausen, although
both of these are of considerably smaller dimensions. Little more
thas remained of the former than the five arched windows, some of
the columns of which consist of four shafts twisted to a knot in the
middle, while the capitals display a great variety of forms. Geln
hausen (Fig. 180), finished in 11 70, exhibits, on the other hand, an
extremely tasteful memberment of the two-storied arcades by pilas
ter-strips, which are connected at the top by cornice arches. The
three stories are provided, on the side towards the court, with a
corridor similar to a cloister, and between the hall and the barbacan
there is a two-aisled portico, the vault of which is supported in the
middle by two columns. A chapel surmounts this latter structure.
The finest of all the Romanic palaces is, however, the W'artburg.

Fig, j8o. — Restored Section and View of the Imperial Palace of Gelnhausen.
This building is rendered important by its exceptional state of
preservation and the skilful and conservative manner in which it has
been restored, as well as attractive by the picturesqueness of its site
and the associations connected with it. It was founded in the elev
enth century by the Landgrave Ludwig der Springer of Thuringia,
and, with the exception of the fortification walls and the two towers
built in 1067, was constructed entirely of wood. Tradition assigns
the rebuilding of the whole in masonry to the Landgrave Ludwig
III., A. D. 1 1 30 to 1 1 50, and the addition of the upper story to the
Landgrave Hermann I., about A. D. 1 190. It is certain that a con
siderable part of the edifice dates to the beginning of the fourteenth
century (Fig. 181).
As usual, the facade towards the court is most richly treated,
20

306

ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.

the three stories of round arched windows diminishing in size as they
ascend. The ground-floor, 39.5 m. long and 15.5 m. broad, contains
at either end two square chambers, each of which is covered by four,
cross-vaults, the transverse arches being supported in the middle of
the space by a column. That upon the north served as a kitchen
for the central dining-hall, while that upon the south was occupied
by the women. The principal story was of corresponding arrange
ment, the chamber of the landgrave being on the northern side of
the festival hall, while upon the south was the room of the singers
and the chapel. The upper story, occupied in its entire length by
a hall, was rendered especially imposing by the corridor on the side
towards the court being provided, both within and without, with

Fig. 181. — Western Facade of the Palace of the Wartburg.
round arched windows. Hooded chimneys, with apertures through
the walls for the escape of the smoke, niched windows, small con
necting staircases, and other conveniences, give an exceptionally
clear and favorable idea of the palace constructions of the Middle
Ages, although many of these features are of later date than the
period now in consideration.
An important feature in the arrangement of these castles was
the two-storied chapel, which was commonly situated, together with
the smaller chambers, in one of the ends of the structure. Note
worthy examples have remained in good preservation in Eger,
Freiburg on the Unstrut, Nuremberg, and Landsberg hear Halle
(Fig. 182). The sacred ceremonies were performed before the mem-

GERMANY.

307

bers of the family in the upper story, while the ground -floor, of
simpler design and of heavier and lower proportions, was intended
for the menials, who could hear the voice of the priest through an
aperture in the vaulting. The chapels were at times isolated, as in
Dankwarderode, or connected with the portal, as in Gelnhausen ;
they were generally of rectangular plan, with four or more columns
in the interior, but a concentric arrangement appears in some in
stances, as at Krukenburg, Vianden, and Cobern. The other struct
ures of the citadel were of an inferior character, and were usually
built against the fortification walls.

Fig. 182. — Section of the Double Chapel of Landsberg.
The domestic architecture of the middle classes was, before the
thirteenth century, entirely restricted to constructions of wood or
nogging. The few houses of stone referable to the twelfth century
were built by patrician families, who, in some instances, even gave
their town dwellings an aristocratic and fortress-like character by
the addition of towers, as is evident in a number of houses in Rat
isbon, and notably in a mansion in the Trinitarier Strasse in M'etz,
the windows in the lower story of which, however, date to the
Gothic period. The dwellings of the common citizens were still
built with open arcades on the ground-floor. Their primitive sup
ports of wood were gradually replaced by short and thick columns

308 ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE.
of stone, connected by segmental arches, the passage being occa
sionally covered with cross-vaults. The upper part of these build
ings continued to be constructed of nogging, as the custom of pro
jecting the stories by corbels remained in favor.
The civic buildings of this period were not important, even
the town -halls and wooden market -halls being insignificant. As
the first consideration in the laying-out of the fortified cities was
to restrict the area as much as possible, the streets and places were
extremely narrow, and suffered all the disadvantages in monu
mental respects which result from a cramped plan. Stone bridges
were rare. That over the Danube at Ratisbon, a remarkably fine
work, 321 m. long, built between 1 1 35 and 1 146, was without a par
allel at the time of its erection. There now remains but one of the
three towers which originally stood at either end and on the middle
of the structure. The bridge over the Rhine at Basle, built in 1226,
appears not to have been continued in masonry beyond the six
arches now preserved. Works of this kind were remarkable for
the irregularity of their plan and the fortuitous character of the
levels and the main lines of the memberment. The attention of
the builders was so exclusively devoted to the stability and prac
tical convenience of their constructions that but little heed was
given to the higher qualities of design.

Fig. 183. — Interior of S. Ambrogio in Milan.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

ITALY.
r*HE political uncertainty and dissolution of the age of the later
-*- Carolingians, felt throughout the Occident, was nowhere of
more disastrous effect than in Italy.* The efforts made for centu
ries by the Lombards to unite the provinces of Upper and Lower
Italy into one realm were of no avail, and even the power of Charle
magne was not able to bring about this end. Venice had become
still more independent after its fortification in the year 810, while
the political isolation of Rome was increased. The Lombardic

* H. Gaily Knight, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from the Time of Constan
tine to the Fifteenth Century. London, 1842. — F. Osten, Die Bauwerke der Lombardei
vom 7.-14. Jahrhundert. Darmstadt. — A. Ricci, Storia dell Architettura in Italia del secolo
IV. al XVIII. Modena, 1857 sq.— Ch. E. Norton, Historical Studies of Church Building
in the Middle Ages. New York, 1880.— C. Boito, Architettura del Medio Evo in Italia.
Milano, 1880. — O. Mothes, Die Baukunst des Mittelalters in Italien von der ersten Ent
wickelung bis zu ihrer hochsten Bliithe. Jena, 1882-1884.

310 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
dukes of Ivrea, Spoleto, and Benevento were but little inclined to
accept their position as vassals of the Carolingian emperors, and
Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily still remained Byzantine. The three
last-named territories suffered much from the invasions of the
Arabs, who, after many unsuccessful attempts, took Palermo in
831, and not only occupied the whole of Sicily, but continued their
advance into Lower Italy.
It is well known what misfortunes were experienced in Italy by
the last four emperors of the Saxon house. As soon as they turned
their backs upon that country usurpers sprang up upon every side.
In Lower Italy there even appeared a third race of foreign conquer
ors, the Normans, who at first, A.D. 1003, appeared in small bands
of pilgrims, but soon after, A.D. 1022, under the sons of Tancred of
Hauteville, made bold claims, not only occupying the county of
Apulia, with Melfi as their chief town, but defending this district
against the monarchs both of the German and of the Eastern em
pires, and even against the Pope. Robert Guiscard, who in 1056
had become Duke of Apulia and Calabria, saw the Arabs driven
from Sicily by his brother Roger, while he himself carried his vic
torious arms against the Byzantines into Thessalonica, and even
drove the emperor Henry IV. from Rome. After the entire sub
jugation of Sicily, A.D. 1090, the extensive power of the Normans
in Lower Italy might well be compared to the contemporary do
minion of their countrymen in England, A.D. 1066 to 1154, found
ed by William the Conqueror.
The greater part of Italy was thus in the possession of two Ger
manic races. The northern districts were still Lombardic, at least
in artistic respects, and developed a style which was in the main a
rejuvenation of the Oriental and early Christian traditions ; while
the culture of the South under the Normans was combined of By
zantine, Arabian, and Northern elements. The intervening Roman
and Tuscan provinces long continued to practise the artistic meth
ods of the early Christians, without originality and without advance,
until Tuscany, affected by Lombardic influences, awakened to a
more important architectural activity. Byzantine traditions, on the
other hand, were revived in Venice, which had succeeded to the
inheritance of Ravenna. These four styles often appear side by

ITALY. 311
side, in comparative purity, as well as blended in various degrees, —
it being impossible to define their limits exactly, notwithstanding
the admirable investigations of Boito and Mothes. Moreover, the
monuments have been so frequently transformed in the course of
subsequent centuries, that the part attributable to the different
epochs is not always to be determined with certainty.
No memorials have been preserved of the earlier period of the
Lombardic occupation more ancient than the churches referable to
the age of the archbishop Ambrosius, A.D. 374 to 397. The cruci
form plan which had become predominant in Milan was favored by
Ambrosius. It appears to have been adopted in the older construc
tion of S. Abondio in Como, of which some remains, dating to the
end of the fourth century, have recently been discovered. With
this arrangement was early combined the elevation of the choir by
the introduction of a crypt. It appears that the Magistri Comacini,*
who took their name from the quarries in the neighborhood of the
Lake of Como, and were employed as early as the reign of Queen
Theodelinde, A.D. 590 to 615, did not owe their great fame to any
higher artistic qualities than their training as practical stone-cutters.
The constructions of Milan referable to Theodosius and Ambrosius,
which combined the style of the Occident with that of Byzantium
and Ravenna, were for centuries of decisive influence upon the archi
tectural development of the countiy. It is certain that the other
Lombardic towns of this period present no material innovations,
and neither Pavia, Como, Brescia, the cities of the Emilia as far
as Bologna, nor the two southern Lombardic capitals, Spoleto and
Benevento, display in their architecture any advance beyond the
style of the ancient ecclesiastical centre of Northern Italy.
A statistical account of the ecclesiastical buildings of Italy ante
dating the eighth century enumerates about a hundred basilicas
and fifty concentric edifices. In later ages this proportion was
changed in favor of the basilical system. After the eighth century,
however, the introduction of transepts, of crypts and raised choirs,

* Baudi di Vesme and C. Promis (Edicta Regum Longobardorum de Structoribus,
Turin, 1847) publish and comment upon the remarkable by-laws of this society, and the
privileges conferred upon it, about the year 644, by King Rotharic.

312

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

of galleries, and of domes above the intersection of the transept
and nave, became more common, — all these features resulting from
a combination of Byzantine elements with the early Christian ba
silical arrangement. To this may be added the attempts to de
velop new varieties of the Corinthian capital, as well as the pref
erence for surmounted arches without archivolt mouldings. The
supports were gradually changed from the ranges of columns univer
sal in the basilicas, to piers or to an alternation of round and square
shafts. The apertures, on
the other hand, were but
rarely splayed. Window-
glass came into common use
after the fifth century, the
rough bull's-eyes being of
ten of various colors, but
limited to the small holes
of the perforated marble
slab which formed the
frame. During this period
lead -glazing was gradually
adopted, the colored panes
being arranged in mosaic
like patterns. The ceiling
was generally not panelled,
the open timbered roof of
the basilica being retained;
nevertheless, the way was
prepared for the vaulting
of the nave by the introduction of transverse arches, and by the
vaulting of the side aisles, this forming the floors of the galleries.
The exterior had no other decoration than the patterns formed
by colored bricks, while the cornices were restricted to projecting
courses and diagonal bonds of.the same material (Fig. 184). The
lintels of the portals were commonly protected by a discharging
arch. The earliest campaniles known date to the sixth century,
but such towers did not come into favor during subsequent ages,
and were seldom erected in connection with the churches.

'ilW^u*
Fig. 184. — Detail of the Cloister in the Convent of
Gerusalemme, Bologna. Tenth Century.

ITALY. 313
As has been shown in a former chapter, there are but few archi
tectural memorials referable in their present state to the time of the
Lombardic. kings. In like manner the buildings erected in Lom
bardy during the Carolingian epoch have almost all been entirely
transformed by subsequent reconstructions. A notable exception
is the Church of S. Ambrogio' in Milan (Fig. 183), which has retained
in its apse and dome the original forms of the eighth century; while
among its interior adornments there are still preserved the pulpit
of Pemmo, dating to 784, above the sarcophagus of Stilicho, the
golden altar of A.D. 822, the tabernacle above it of 835, and nota
bly the mosaic of the apse, executed between 832 and 880. The
dome and the termination of the choir present some similarity to
S. Lorenzo ; but the low proportions of the apse, resulting from
the introduction of the crypt, lead to the supposition that it may
have belonged to a still more primitive structure. The nave un
questionably formed part of a horizontally ceiled basilica, and re
ceived its present form by a later reconstruction, probably dating
to the twelfth century. The portico and the atrium, the latter of
which was first constructed between 863 and 881, now display in
the capitals of their piers and engaged columns features referable to
the beginning of the eleventh century; their vaults, corbel-tables,
etc., are possibly a hundred years later. The details of the nave,
portico, and atrium are closely related to those of the nave of S.
Micchele in Pavia, built between 1024 and H55,and to the remains
of the Church of S. Celso in Milan, referable to about the same
period. The concentric churches, having been originally vaulted, have
preserved more of their primitive construction than have the ba
silicas. The chief parts of the Old Cathedral of Brescia and of S.
Stefano (San Sepolcro) in Bologna antedate the Carolingian epoch ;
the capitals and corbel-tables of S. Pietro in Asti and S. Tomaso
in Almenno near Bergamo (Fig. 185), on the other hand, may be
taken as a proof of an extensive restoration of these edifices, if
not of their later origin. With exception of the round building of
Brescia, the arches of which are supported upon clumsy piers, all
these structures resemble S. Costanza near Rome, or S. Maria Ro-
tonda at Nocera, their domes being placed upon a circle of columns,

3H

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

while the surrounding passage is covered with barrel or cross vaults.
Galleries, opened to the central space by arches, appear in S. Ste
fano and S. Tomaso. In like manner as the Cathedral of Brescia
influenced the plan of the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle, buildings sim
ilar to that of Almenno served as models for the round churches of
Burgundy, Normandy, and England. The Old Cathedral of Arezzo,
built towards the end of the ninth century and torn down five hun
dred years later, was an octagonal structure similar to S. Vitale in

Fig. 185. — Section of S. Tomaso at Almenno.
Ravenna. On the other hand, the great Baptistery of Florence, the
first construction of which is without doubt referable to the Lom
bards, followed the antique circular system with arches in the sur
rounding walls, — exemplified in the Baptistery of S. Lorenzo in
Milan, perhaps dating to the fourth century, and in that of the
Cathedral of Novara, which is a century later. The Baptistery of
Parma, built in 1 196, was imitated from that of Florence, with
greater magnificence than artistic success.
The peculiarly Romanic forms — the cube capital, dwarf gallery,

ITALY.

315

and arched corbel-table — do not seem to have been employed in
Italy before the end of the tenth century. It is the opinion of the
writer that the reconstruction »of S. Abondio in Como (Fig. 186)
took place at the time when this church came into the possession
of the Benedictine monks, A.D. 1013 ; if this be true, it is not sur
prising that cube capitals should appear in the nave of this five-
aisled basilica. Still, this form did not become common, the tradi
tional Corinthian and Byzantine varieties continuing in general use.

II
iHffi

Sl

Fig. 186. — Plan and System of S. Abondio in Como.

While the influence of Germany is evident in the cube capital, the
Lombardic origin of the dwarf gallery is almost beyond doubt.
Thjs elaborate cornice termination seems to have been developed
from the arcades in relief of the outer walls, in imitation of the gal
leries of small columns which had appeared at Spalatro even in the
time of Diocletian, and had been adopted in the buildings of the
Ostrogoths in Ravenna. But although these dwarf galleries may
have been added to the facades as early as the Carolingian epoch,
they do not seem to have been generally employed for the cornices

316 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
of the apses and towers above the intersection of nave and tran
sept before the eleventh century. It would be a mistake to suppose
that a horizontal entablature preceded the. arcades connecting these
diminutive shafts ; for although the gallery of trabeate construction
of S. Maria in Arezzo, which was completed in the year 999, is one
of the earliest dated examples of this feature, the similar dwarf col
onnade' upon the apse of S. Frediano in Lucca is known to be as
recent as 1260.
On the other hand, it is uncertain whether the characteristic
innovation of the arched corbel-table, which was soon extended
throughout Western Europe as the substitute for the cornices of
bricks formed by projecting zigzag courses, first appeared in Upper
Italy or in Germany. Even though the age of the walls be known
with certainty, it is always difficult to assign a definite date to the
cornice, a member which is affected by every alteration of the roof
and ceiling. The position and character of the ornament of inter
secting arches which appears upon the tabernacle of S. Ambrogio
in Milan by no means proves the existence of the arched corbel-
table in the ninth century.
The most important of these questions of priority, — that re
lating to the appearance of vaulted basilicas, — cannot be answered
with certainty. As the greater number of the stone ceilings were
at first added to already existing buildings, the beginning was
probably made in those which had been provided with trans
verse arches to relieve in some measure the supports of the clere
story wall from the weight of the roof. S. Zeno in Verona, —
the reconstruction of which was begun in 961, soon after discon
tinued, taken up again in the eleventh century, and completed to
wards the beginning of the twelfth, — shows that, even in impor
tant buildings of the latter period, transverse arches, supporting an
open timbered roof and resting upon piens placed between the col
umns of the nave, were considered adequate for a monumental con
struction. The interior of this three-aisled basilica is for the most
part referable to the eleventh century ; in contrast to the Lom
bardic style, it displays none of the German influences naturally to
have been expected in the city which Charlemagne had chosen to
be the capital of Italy, — especially as the exterior of S. Zeno itself

ITALY. 317
and that of other Veronese buildings, such as S. Pietro in Castello,
distinctly exhibit the German elements. Another work surely at
tributable to the Lombards presents a distinct advance in these re
spects, namely, the Cathedral of Novara, in which four piers of cru
ciform plan were added to the ranges of columns during a later
construction, probably about the year 1020, — these not only sup
porting two transverse arches above the nave, but a ceiling of stone
formed by three cross-vaults. In the primitive basilica the alterna
tion of piers with the columns, the transverse arches, and the com
partments thus resulting, had all prepared the way for the adoption
of cross-vaults. The barrel-vaults of the nave and the semibarrel-
vaults of the side aisles, — which were common in Southern France,
and had been introduced in some instances in Southern Italy, such
as S. Maria in Altamura and S. Maria Immaculata in Trani, — were
not employed in the churches of Northern Italy.
SS. Pietro e Paolo in Bologna (Fig. 187) seems to have been
originally designed with reference to the introduction of cross-
vaulting. Although not susceptible of definite proof, it is proba
ble that the regular alternation of the supports, together with the
vaulting, dates to the year 1014, and consequently that the priority
in this most important constructive advance is to be ascribed to
Italy. The employment of fragments of older buildings, the clum
sy memberment of the supports, and the manner of increasing the
strength of the wall by rectangular pilasters rising above the en
gaged columns to the spring of the vault, all give a most primitive
character to this church. Compared with the tentative and uncer
tain system of SS. Pietro e Paolo, the nave of S. Micchele in Pavia
(Fig. 188), slowly built after 1024, exhibits a far higher degree of
experience and ability. It was designed with a regular alternation
of piers of different strength, and evidently with the intention of
introducing a vaulted system similar to that of the former church,
but during the construction this plan was so changed that every
support was employed as the impost for a separate compartment, in
the nave as well as in the side aisles. The same system appears in
the Cathedral of Parma (Fig. 189), the original structure of which
was destroyed by fire in 1058, while the new edifice was so severely
injured by an earthquake in 1 1 17, eleven years after its consecration,

3i8

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

that a restoration became necessary, which lasted for more than half
a century. These alterations, however, do not seem to have greatly
affected the style of the building. The three- aisled body of the
church, as is evident from the formation of the piers, was originally
designed with reference to five vaults in the plan of each compart
ment. Nevertheless, the uneven number of the arcades, determined
by the retention of the transept and other parts of the original
structure, ultimately led to the adoption of simple cross-vaults in
the compartments above each arch, the alternation of the piers thus

Fig. 187.— Plan and System of SS. Pietro e Paolo.

becoming of no constructive significance. The Cathedral of Mo
dena, the rebuilding of which was begun in 1099, was calculated in
plan for five vaults in each double compartment. During the
progress of the building the design was so altered as to introduce
in the nave a cross -vault above each arcade, and the wall -arches
and the console for the impost of the transverse rib were built in
accordance with this system. The vaulting was, however, ultimate
ly carried out as originally conceived, — with a simple cross-vault, the
static significance of-the alternation of the piers and columns thus

ITALY.

319

being maintained. An unwillingness to increase the height of the
nave rendered it necessary to begin the spring of the main vaults
upon a lower level than the impost of the previously completed
wall-arches of the sixfold system which had been given up, while
the transverse ribs became of a pointed shape (Fig. 190). Similar to
the Cathedral of Modena is that of Ferrara, consecrated in 1 1 35,
— an enormous building with a great wealth pf sculptured orna
mentation, but by no means pleasing in arrangement and propor
tions, the effect of the interior, moreover, being entirely altered by

Fig. 188. — Plan and System of S. Micchele in Pavia.
modern restorations. Among the chief works of Lombardic archi
tecture must further be mentioned the Cathedral of Cremona, built
between 11 07 and 1190, of the original form of which little is now
evident; and also the Cathedral of Piacenza, begun in 1122, an im
posing construction with cylindrical supports and a three -aisled
transept. The influence of these structures is evident not only in
the Cathedral of Trent, rebuilt after 1124, and in that of Zara, con
secrated in 1285, but even in the churches of Normandy, which will
be described in the subsequent chapter.

320

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

The characteristics of all the Lombardic cathedrals are a basil
ical facade without towers, effective and elegantly carved portals,
and dwarf galleries, which are frequently duplicated and take the
place of the corbel -tables on the gables. With exception of the
facade of S. Zeno in Verona, which displays German influences, a
systematic memberment of the walls was not adopted, so that they
did not attain to the vigorous vertical effect of the German ca
thedrals. Nor can the Lombardic churches be compared with the

'^f fW '

0 1 I 3 k 5

Fig. 189. — Plan and System of the Cathedral of Parma.
Northern edifices in respect to unity of design, their front walls gen
erally not being organically connected with the sides, and conse
quently giving the impression of a screen placed before the interior.
Venice was the only city of Northern Italy which did not adopt
the architectural forms developed in Lombardy. As the most im
portant emporium of the Adriatic and the successor of Ravenna,
the town at all times and in every way directed its chief attention
towards the East. The political power of Byzantium, which had
retained its hold longer in Venice than in any other part of Italy,

ITALY.

321

furthered these tendencies." Even after the election of the first
doge, A. D. 697, when this supremacy had become merely nominal,
the artistic traditions of Ravenna and Byzantium hot only contin
ued to be cultivated, but were renewed by the direct influence of
Constantinople. We are informed that the second construction of
S. Zaccaria, in the year 827, was made at the expense of the em
peror Leo, and even under the direct supervision of an architect
sent from Byzantium. It is a striking evidence of the preponder-

1 — 1 — 1 1 1 1 1
0 I ! 3 _ 5 lilt.
Fig. 190. — Plan and System of the Cathedral of Modena.
ance of the artistic methods of the East that the principal church
of Venice, S. Marco,* should be in the Byzantine manner, and even
deserves to be considered as one of the most important monuments
of that style. The first two constructions, referable to the years
between 830 and 864, and between 976 and 1008, were, it is true,
basilical. It cannot be determined in how far the Lombardic struct
ures of the neighboring Friuli and of Milan were of influence upon

* G. c L. Kreutz, La Basilica di S. Marco in Venezia. 1S43 sq.
21

322 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
these edifices, which may have owed quite as many of their peculiar
characteristics to the models naturally presented by Ravenna. The
addition of the transepts and the introduction of domes in the place
of horizontal wooden ceilings are probably referable to the recon
struction made between 1052 and 1071. The effects of these alter
ations upon the general arrangement are to be seen in the plan
(Fig. 191), which is taken from Boito's work.
It may be assumed that S. Marco was of decisive influence upon
the architecture of Venice during the Romanic epoch, although but

Fig. 191, — Plan pf the Church of St. Mark in Venice.
few remains have been preserved of the contemporary churches of
S. Leonardo, S. Catterina, S. Aponale, S. Secondo, and S. Croce iii
Luprio. The cathedrals of Grado, Torcello, and Murano, all of
which were rebuilt and extended during the tenth and eleventh
centuries, are of basilical arrangement, and exhibit the influences
of Ravenna. On the other hand, the cruciform and concentric plan
of S. Fosca in Torcello appears, from the date of its erection, rather
as a prototype than as a copy of S. Marco.
In striking contrast to the Byzantine traditions of Venice, Cen
tral Italy long retained the classic architectural methods in com-

ITALY. 323
parative purity. The city of Rome, especially, clung to the early
Christian types with great persistency, and the construction and
restoration of the basilicas referable to the Romanic epoch so close
ly followed the ancient patterns that antique materials continued to
be directly employed in these edifices. The influence of Lombardy,
from Spoleto, and of Tuscany, from the valley of the Arno, extended
almost to the gates of Rome, while that of the Holy City itself was
at this time limited to the Papal States. The low standard of Rome
in artistic respects is evident from the celebrity attached to the
House of Crescentius, built about the year 1000, — a work which in
Milan would have scarcely been considered worthy of mention.
On the other hand, there was in Rome a peculiar school of dec
oration, of considerable local importance although of foreign origin.
This appears to have been developed from the impulse given by
the school of art founded in Monte Casino, A.D. 1066, by the abbot
Desiderius, who summoned to his convent the most skilful artists
of Amalfi and of Lombardy. The objects there produced were
chiefly funeral monuments, tabernacles, Easter candlesticks, bish
ops' thrones, pulpits, chancel screens, balustrades, etc. ; but works
of a more architectural character were also executed, such as rood-
lofts, portals, and cloisters. Antique forms were predominant in
the ornamentations, combined with Lombardic and Romanic ele
ments and with Byzantine intarsia and mosaic work : architraves,
friezes, archivolts, pilasters, arid even the shafts of columns being
covered with delicate and effective patterns. A Roman artist by
the name of Guido, who flourished in Corneto about the year 1121,
founded a school which seems to have continued for three genera
tions. A second family of artists was that of the marmorarius
Paulus, whose sons executed after 1147 the tabernacle of S. Lo
renzo fuori le Mura, and in the year 11 50 that of S. Croce, which
latter no longer exists. Nicolaus, a grandson of Paulus, was em
ployed between 1160 and 1170 upon the Easter candlestick of
S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and in 11 80 upon the lectorium of S. Bar-
tolommeo in Rome, now remaining in a fragmentary condition. The
fame of these families was exceeded by that of a third, namely, of
Laurentius; who, together with his son Jacobus, executed the Ambo
of Araceli in Rome about 1170, as wejl as the portals of the Cathe-

324

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

dral of Civita Castellana and of S. Maria at Falleri. Cosmas, the
grandson of Laurentius, was employed about the year 12 ia upon
the portal of Civita Castellana (Fig. 192), and became so celebrated
as a designer that the manner of decoration above described was
afterwards known as Cosmatic. The climax of this style was reach
ed in the charming cloisters of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and of the
Lateran, the design of which may be in part referred to the archi
tect Vassalittus (Bassalectus). Gothic forms begin to appear in
the beautiful choir stalls of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura.
The architecture of Tuscany
was of a far more important char
acter than that of conservative
Rome. The style of both was-
founded upon the classic tradi
tions, but the former, lying be
tween Spoleto and the cities of
the Po, had been much affected
by Lombardic influences, and not
possessing so great a number of
antique monuments as still re
mained in Rome, was naturally
thrown more entirely upon its
own resources. This independence
of design is evident in the few re
mains of S. Paolo, S. Pietro, S. Ma
ria, and S. Andrea in Pistoja, which
have been preserved from the
eighth and ninth centuries. It is known that S. Pietro was built
by a Lombardic architect named Winichis, and Lombardic influ
ences are distinctly evident in S. Pier Cigoli, S. Giusto (Fig. 193),
and S. Anastasia in Lucca, the substructure of these churches, in
cluding the portals, being, without doubt, referable to their original
construction about the year 750. Traces of the primitive forms
are also evident in S. Paolo a Ripa in Pisa, founded under the
auspices of Charlemagne, and as the same characteristics are met
with in S. Casciano and S. Pietro a Grado in Pisa, it may be as
sumed that the pilasters of the exterior, connected by arches in

Fig. 192. — Portal of the Cathedral of Civ
ita Castellana.

ITALY. 325
relief, formed part of the first decoration of these edifices, which
must consequently have differed, at least externally, from the tra
ditional basilical arrangement. The same system was repeated in
the tenth century, as is evident from S. Giulia and S. Micchele in
Borgo at Lucca. Although the architecture of Arezzo and Siena
seems to have been developed in a manner similar to that of Pisa,
Pistoja, and Lucca, there is no question but that the most impor
tant place among these cities was taken by the powerful Pisa*
This artistic pre-eminence is to be assigned to Pisa after the
erection, in the beginning of the eleventh
century, of the imposing Cathedral with
its dependencies. The original plan of
this building, which was begun in 1005
or 1006, was of great extent, Pisa having
become the most important and wealthy
city of the country through her successes
in Southern Italy, Corsica, Elba, etc. But
it was only after the plundering of Paler
mo, A.D. 1063, that the means were pro
vided for the extraordinarily rich inte
rior, the magnificence of which had at
that time no parallel among the ecclesi
astical edifices of Italy. Even these re
sources were exhausted before the com
pletion of the building. The work was
suspended in 1095, and could only be re
sumed by means of pecuniary aid given
to the undertaking by the Byzantine em
peror. After the consecration of the Cathedral, in 1103, the interior
decorations were carried on until the thirteenth century. Imposing
as was the enormous space of the body of the church, with its four
two-storied side aisles and its four hundred and fifty columns, the
construction nevertheless offers but few important innovations.
The cruciform plan (Fig. 194) had been frequently adopted in Milan
after the early Christian epoch, and even the development of the

Fig. 193.-

Portal of S. Giusto in
Lucca.

M. G. Rohault de Fleury, Les Monuments de Pise. Paris, 1866.

326

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

transepts into three -aisled basilicas had appeared in the Con
stantine Church of the Apostles in Byzantium. The' columns
were for the greater part taken from antique buildings, and the
alternation of supports in the galleries had been common among
the Lombards. The cross-vaults which were introduced into the
side aisles were universal at that period in all two-stpried structures,
as were also the wooden ceilings of the other parts. There is no
trace of the vertical tendencies of the Northern style, horizontal
memberments being as predominant as in the early Christian basili
cas. The most remarkable of the innovations were of doubtful ad
vantage. The continuation of the two-storied aisles across the tran-

Fig. 194. — Plan of the Cathedral of Pisa.
sept separated the latter from the body of the church, depriving it
of all unity ; moreover, the dome of oval plan, above the oblong in
tersection of the transept and naVe, was not of good effect, either
within or without, and is to be regarded as an addition not contem
plated in the original design. Notwithstanding these drawbacks,
the charm of the harmonious proportions is undeniable, the dimen
sions of the details increasing the apparent size of the whole, while
the arcades in relief and dwarf galleries of the exterior repeat in or
ganic elaboration the forms of the interior (Figs. 195 and 196).
The rotunda of the Baptistery was begun at a somewhat later
period, A. D. n 53. The central structure, supported upon columns,

ITALY.

32;

was of the form which had remained customary throughout Italy
after the early Christian period, but it was not of so good propor
tions as the before - mentioned Lombardic buildings, the height of
the dome leading to a too great attenuation. The weak circle of
Corinthian columns with the stilted arches form a somewhat haz
ardous support for the high gallery of piers, while the conical dome
was of so displeasing a form that a cupola shell was adopted at a
later period to improve at least the outline, and at the same time
to counteract the excessive thrust.
So insecure a construction as that of the domes of the Bap
tistery and of the Cathedral was nowhere more out of place than
at Pisa. Venice, Ferrara, and Bologna, and other cities of Northern

Fig. 195. — Longitudinal Section of the Cathedral of Pisa.

Italy, had experienced great difficulty with unstable foundations, a
great number of their buildings settling irregularly. These disad
vantages were particularly felt in Pisa, Where the swampy soil, ex
posed to volcanic disturbances, occasioned most serious displace
ments, requiring many adjustments and anchorings to be made
during the course of the construction. After the warnings re
ceived during the erection of the Cathedral and Baptistery, in which
almost all the lines have deviated from the vertical and horizon
tal, it was necessary for the architect of the Campanile, begun in
1174, to be particularly careful in this respect. But neither pil
ings, deep foundations, nor the exceptional thickness of the cylin
drical walls of the tower could avoid the disturbances resulting

328

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

from the movement of the earth," and in each of the lower stories it
was necessary to equalize the horizontal cornices by additions to
the height of the southern side, amounting to 3 cm. in the second,
4 cm. in the third, and 7 cm. in the fourth story. At this stage
the work upon the building was suspended, A.D. 1186, but the
pause of fifty years did not put a stop to the troublesome sinking,
for during the erection of the fifth gallery a further settlement of
1 1 cm. was observed. The inclination of the structure continued
to increase, not only during the progress of the work, which was
taken up again in 1350, but even after the completion of the tower,
and it has resulted, notwithstanding the repeated adjustments, that
the upper point of the axis overhangs the centre of the plan by

Fig. 196.— View of the Southern Side of the Cathedral of Pisa.
about 4.5 m. The exterior treatment of the cylindrical tower closely
resembles that of the fa9ade and apse of the Cathedral, and that of
the Baptistery before the introduction of Gothic forms in its decora
tion. Above the engaged columns and arches in relief of the lower
story rise six galleries of columns, surmounted by an eighth story
of somewhat smaller diameter in which the engaged columns are
repeated. The conical roof, which seems to have been contem
plated in the original design, has never been added. The height
of the building, now about 55 m., and its many stories, led to
an elaborate treatment of the exterior, which is remarkable for
the great delicacy of the details peculiar to Pisan architecture.
.The Campanile stands entirely isolated, and it is some cohsola-

ITALY.

329

tion for its infirmity that the inclination is not towards the Cathe
dral., !y
The architectural style, which attained its highest development
in Pisa, was so closely imitated throughout Tuscany that but slight
differences can be observed at this period between the models be
fore described and the buildings of Siena, Lucca, Pistoja, and even
of Florence. The parts of the Cathedral of S. Martino at Lucca,
which are referable to the original construction between 1050 and
1070, most closely resemble the Cathedral of Pisa. Florence had
early developed an architectural activity with a certain degree of in
dependence, but the Church of S. Miniato al Monte, probably built
in its present form as early as 1013, exhibits upon the exterior
the direct influence of Pisa, while the interior still retains the early
Christian forms. The lower portions of the Baptistery of Florence,
displaying a certain similarity to the Pantheon, were probably built
during the sixth and seventh centuries, under the superintendence
of Lombardic designers. The greater part of the construction at
present remaining, in which the artistic traditions of Rome were
combined with those of Ravenna, dates to the years between 1120
and 1 1 50, while the features of the exterior, referable to the Middle
Ages, are treated in a manner similar to that of S. Miniato. The
revetment of the walls of brick with slabs of different colored mar
bles is characteristic of the Florentine buildings of this epoch, the
alternation of colors giving an effect like that obtained in Pisa by
the ashlar courses of different material.
An important part in the artistic development of this age was
taken by Toscanella, which is to be considered in connection with
Tuscany, it not having been added to the Papal States until the
pontificate of Boniface VIII., in the year 1295. S. Pietro, founded
in 628, owes its present form in great measure to a reconstruction
made between the years 1039 and 1090. Its similarity to the almost
contemporaneous S. Miniato is very striking, although the Lombar
dic elements, probably introduced from Spoleto, are more noticea
ble than in Florence. The introduction of many artistic methods
of Southern Italy is explicable from the circumstance that Spo
leto had been united to Benevento in 967. The reconstruction of 1
S. Pietro was soon followed by that of S. Maria Novella, like thei

330 *-{ _. ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
former a three-aisled and horizontally ceiled basilica, the design of
which, clearly displaying the influence of the North, was still farther
removed from the traditions of Pisa and Rome.
Southern Italy and Sicily were affected during the Middle Ages
by very different civilizations, the combination of which gave to the
architecture of these countries a most peculiar stamp. The Occi
dental art of the early Christians was here maintained- but a short
time. The provinces of Magna Graecia remained longest tributary
to the Eastern Empire, and had thus adopted a Byzantine style
similar to that of Ravenna, receiving nevertheless from the neigh
boring Benevento certain Lombardic influences. It is questionable
whether the style of the Arabs at first made itself much felt, as the
occupation of the land by the Mohammedans put an entire stop to
the architectural activity of the Christians. These elements seem,
curiously enough, to have only become apparent after the expulsion
of the Saracens by the Normans, the Norman invaders having been
readily receptive of the artistic culture of their predecessors. In
Apulia the architectural forms continued to be developed upon the
Byzantine basis, the closely related Lombardic and Norman ele
ments being easily reconciled ; but in Sicily this combination was
modified by Moorish traditions, the result being a style of peculiar
and most important character.
Roger Guiscard, who had conquered Sicily in 1061, must have
been well acquainted with the buildings of his home in the North
of France, and have retained a preference for their style. He at
once appointed a Norman, Robert of Evroult, as the chief ecclesias
tical authority of the island, and seems to have desired to make the
new castles and churches similar in appearance to those of his na
tive land. But as we are informed that he brought together archi
tects and masons " from all quarters," it is evident that the methods
of design and construction previously known in Sicily and Southern
Italy still continued to be employed. Thus a direct introduction of
the Norman style was not well possible, and was even less to be con
templated when, after the capitulation of Palermo, A. D. 1072, Roger
transformed a number of mosques into churches. The well-known
inclinations of his son and successor, Roger II. , who favored the
Saracens to such a degree that he was himself excommunicated by

ITALY. 331
the pope, were not without effect upon the architecture of this age.
The ruins of the palaces Menani and Favara, upon the west and
south-east of Palermo, both begun in 11 20, distinctly display the
influence of Moorish models.
The earliest ecclesiastical edifices of Sicily retained the Byzantine
dome and arrangement of the presbytery, together with a basilical
body of the church, ranges of columns, and horizontal ceiling. This
was the more natural as the Moors had previously adopted the most
important of these features, even employing the fragments of an
cient buildings in the same manner as had the early Christians. The
pointed shape appears from the first in the arches of arcades, trans
verse ribs, window-heads, etc., making it plain that this form was
not derived from Normandy, but was maintained by the Northern
conquerors in accordance with the principles of Moorish design. If
indeed it can be proved that pointed arches existed in France be
fore the middle of the eleventh century, they were entirely excep
tional, and in the main restricted to barrel-vaults. They are cer
tainly not to be found in the chief buildings of Caen in Normandy,
at least in those parts of these structures which are referable to
about the year 1066. Where the style peculiar to the Normans is
met with in Sicily, as in the portals ornamented with checkers,
chevrons, and braided patterns, the round arch is alone employed.
The style, or rather the combination of styles, above described
seems to have been determined in its main features at the time of
the erection of the Cathedral of Cefalii, A.D. 1131 to 1148. The
Capella Palatina, begun in 1132, shows that Arabian influences were
predominant in Palermo. Little has remained of the older Cathe
dral of that city, which, like the Capella Palatina, was built by
Roger II. The best preserved representative of the Sicilian archi
tecture of this age is the Church of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti,
founded in 11 32, a domed structure of Byzantine and Arabian char
acter, with but few Occidental features (Fig. 197). S. Maria Dell'
Ammiraglio (La Martorana) was entirely Byzantine, only display
ing Moorish and Norman elements in the decorations of the ex
terior. The Moorish tendencies were even more favored by William \.,
the builder of the Zisa, and especially by William II., during whose

332

ARCHITECTURE OF" THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

reign was erected the imposing Cathedral of Palermo, A.D. 1170 to
1 185, the original appearance of which, at least in the interior, has
unfortunately been entirely changed by the restoration of 1652,
and by that carried on from 1781 until 1801. The Cathedral of
Monreale (Figs. 198 and 199), built between 1 173 and 11 82, com
pensates in great measure for this loss. Instead of having been
irreparably injured, like the Cathedral of Palermo, this jewel of
Sicilian architecture has recovered its original splendor by the skil
ful restoration made between 1816
and 1859. The forms employed
by the various races who had oc
cupied Lower Italy and Sicily af
ter the early Christian period were
here combined to a harmonious
system which may directly be
termed the Sicilian style, this
name certainly being more appli
cable than the common appella
tion of Norman. The basilical
plan in its Lombardic transforma
tion, the Byzantine treatment of
the walls, especially those of the
choir, the Moorish pointed and
surmounted arches intersecting
upon the exterior of the choir,
and, finally, the Norman towers
and general proportions, are in
deed to be distinguished, but in
stead of making the effect of an
unrelated aggregate, as in the Capella Palatina, they are blended
to a whole of perfect unity. With an extreme wealth of orna
mentation is combined the most careful and loving execution of
the details, which are designed with great facility and elegance.
The Cloister of Monreale, especially, is one of the most charm
ing creations of mediaeval architecture. A preponderance of Nor
man elements is nowhere evident, and it is entirely misleading to
bring this style into connection with that of Normandy and of

Fig. 197. — Plan and Section of S. Giovanni
degli Eremiti in Palermo.

ITALY. 333
England. On the other hand, it is not possible to trace any direct
influence of these methods of construction and decoration upon the
Gothic, although so consequential an employment of the pointed
arch is indeed remarkable at this early period. The Cathedral of
Monreale is the best possible illustration of the flourishing condition
of Sicily during the reign of William II. , who renewed the golden

ii;i *»u , «ai»m . * tt tu nmwtii;;: a___j__

Fig. 198.— Cathedral of Monreale.
System of Interior of the Nave.

Fig. 199. — Cathedral of Monreale. System
of the Exterior of the Choir.

age which the island had enjoyed in the tenth century under Abul
Hakem. The Palace of the Kuba, finished about the year 1182, in
which the Moorish elements are even more pronounced, is by no
means so well preserved. This glorious age was followed by a rapid
decline. The contentions after the death of William II. so entire
ly destroyed the prosperity of Sicily that even the beneficent rule
of the emperor Frederick II. could not lead to its recovery. The

334

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

architectural activity of the last Hohenstaufens, moreover, belongs
to another phase of artistic development.
In Southern Italy the Normans adopted in equal measure the
methods of Byzantine architecture and the Lombardic transforma
tion of the early Christian types. In the eleventh century isolated
instances of vaulting are met with, these, without doubt, being ref
erable to the influence of Southern France. In S. Maria Immaculata
at Trani the nave is covered by three Byzantine domes, and the side
aisles by bisected barrel-vaults ; in S. Maria Assunta at Altamura,
while the galleries are treated like the aisles of the before - men-

Fig. 200.— S. Maria del Gradillo in Ravello.

tioned church, the nave is barrel-vaulted. It may perhaps be as
sumed that the pointed barrel-vaults of the side aisles of the Cathe
dral of Siponto were introduced in place of bisected barrel -vaults.
After the end of the eleventh century Norman and Saracenic ele
ments become more common, but still do not predominate, the
architecture of Southern Italy not attaining to the individuality
and important character of that of Sicily. S. Maria del Gradillo in
Ravello (Fig. 200) displays the combination of Byzantine, Lom
bardic, and Sicilian forms, which is also to be observed in Amalfi,
Salerno, Gaeta, etc. A pointed-arched system appears both in the
arcades and in the transverse ribs of the barrel-vaults of the Church

FRANCE. 335
of the Benedictines, S. Nicolo e Cataldo, at Lecce, as early as 1180.
Stilted and pointed arches were adopted in the parts of the Duomo
Vecchio at Naples, referable to the beginning of the thirteenth cen
tury, and in the Cathedral of Rapolla, begun in 1209. The Gothic
style was first adopted under the rulers of the house of Anjou, but
the influence of the Sicilian style, and of the various elements of
which it was constituted, long continued to be felt.
FRANCE.
The unity of plan and architectural forms observable throughout
Germany, notwithstanding great provincial differences, was as little
to be found at this period in France as in Italy. The native Celts
and Gauls remained predominant only in the west of France, and
so many and so different foreign elements were introduced into the
other districts that no regular and settled architectural type could
there be developed. A marked difference was evident between the
art of the southern and that of the northern coasts. In the Pro
vence the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans had taken
firm root and flourished for nearly a thousand years, being but little
disturbed by the Visigoths. In Normandy, on the other hand, the
native races were continually driven towards the west by invasions
from the east and north, and Germanic traditions were combined
with those of the Celts, which had been but slightly tinged by the
culture of distant Rome. The provinces of the interior, situated
between these two extremes, took an intermediate position in artis
tic respects, those of the east being influenced by the development
peculiar to the Rhenish countries, while, on the other hand, those
of the south-west profited little by their neighborhood to Spain.
The greatest architectural activity was displayed, at the begin
ning of the period now in consideration, in Southern France.*
Even in the more remote Rhenish countries the presence of Roman
remains had led to a retention of the classic forms and constructive
methods, and these traditions were much more felt in the countries
of the Rhone — the Provence, Dauphine, and Languedoc — where
there are still preserved a greater number of Roman ruins than in
* H. Revoil, Architecture Romane du Midi de la France. 3 vols. Paris, 1873.

336 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
any part of Italy itself, with the exception of Rome and Pompeii.
Thus the rise of ecclesiastical architecture, which was felt through
out Christendom at the beginning of the eleventh century, made
itself evident in Southern France rather by an increased number of
constructions than by the adoption of new methods of design. Con
centric edifices, as well as the peculiar barrel-vaulted churches with
out side aisles, had been common before this epoch, apparently
having been developed, even in the early Christian epoch, from a
combination of the basilical plan with the constructive methods
pursued in imitation of the Roman ruins of the Provence. The in
terior of the fine temple of Nimes might have directly served as a
model for the barrel-vaulted churches customary in this district at
the beginning of the Romanic epoch. Some of the Roman build
ings display a similar memberment of the vault by heavy transverse
ribs supported upon pilasters,- and are provided upon the exterior
with buttresses.
It is not possible to determine the exact chronological order in
which the remains of the buildings referable to this period are to be
placed. On the whole, it may be assumed that smaller dimensions,
simpler proportions and memberment, and a comparatively exact
imitation of classic details are indications of greater age, while the
introduction of peculiarly Romanic features in place of Corinthian
forms is characteristic of the later buildings. It is to be remarked
that the appearance of pointed instead of round barrel-vaults can
not be taken as a proof of the age to which these structures are to
be ascribed. The earlier type is best represented by the Chapel of
St. Thomas at Molleges (Bouches du Rhdne), which, although cer
tainly one of the most ancient of these memorials, has already slight
ly-pointed barrel- vaults (Fig. 201). The building is of extreme solid
ity and simplicity. The side walls of the single aisle are ornamented
with arcades in relief, the vault is provided with transverse arches
supported upon pilasters, from which they are separated by a plain
impost moulding continued as a cornice. The semicircular apse
immediately adjoins the body of the church, which is lighted by
three windows. The comparatively low gable and inclined roof are
formed by a kind of cement, cast in a solid mass upon the vault. A
discharging arch is turned above the lintel, and the corners of the

FRANCE.

337

building are strengthened by four buttresses ; otherwise there are
no architectural members upon the exterior.
The same arrangement of plan and construction appears in the
majority of cases, the local development influencing only subordi
nate features. Churches of larger dimensions were rarely of the
extreme simplicity of the before-mentioned chapel, — St. Quenin
at Vaison being exceptional,— and there are still fewer instances of
the entire omission of the pilasters and transverse arches, — as in
the church of Grandmont (He-
rault) and that of Six -Fours
(Var), both of which are ex
tremely bald and ugly. Fre
quently a greater elaboration
was attained by increasing the
number of the pilasters, as
in the Chapel of St. Gabriel
near Tarascon (Fig. 202 a), the
Church of Saintes-Maries (Bou-
ches du Rhone), and the Abbey
Church of Montmajour near
Aries. By the duplication of
these rectangular members a
greater play of light and shade
was gained; this was height
ened in effect in those rare
cases where engaged columns
took the place of the pilaster,
or were connected with it. In
stances of this are the Church of St. Peter in Reddes (Herault),
where coupled columns support richly-moulded transverse arches,
and that of St. Martin at Londres, in which the classic traditions
are less evident, its trapeze-shaped capitals and its pilaster strips
and corbel-tables pointing to the influence of the East, especially
that of Northern Italy (Fig. 202 c). The imitation of foreign mod
els occasionally led to the introduction of cross-vaults, correspond
ing to the pilasters, in place of the single barrel-vaults, as in the
Church of Le Thor (Vaucluse). 22

Fig. 201. — Plan and Section of the Chapel of
St. Thomas at Molleges.

338

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

The most elaborate treatment was devoted to the apse. The
ornamentation upon the exterior is usually formed by Corinthian
pilasters with horizontal entablatures ; that upon the interior by
engaged columns and blind arches, the conch being divided by ra
dial ribs. The origin of this system is without doubt older than
the period now under consideration, it having been introduced into

=K"~

¦till

_.  u.  I.

a. St. Gabriel near Tarascon. b . St. Pierre-de-Reddes. .. St. Martin-de-Londres.
Fig. 202. — System of the Side Walls of the Interior.

the apse of the Church of St. John, at Moustier (Aries), which is
probably referable to the Carolingian epoch (Fig. 203). The details
of this building are so classic that it might be ascribed to early
Christian ages were it not for the insufficient entablature of the
exterior pilasters. The interior of the apse of St. Quenin in Vaison
and that of Saintes Maries (Bouches du Rhone) are of somewhat

FRANCE.

339

taller proportions ; in other churches, such as that of St. Ruf near
Avignon, and that of Cavaillon (Vaucluse), the arcades of the apse
are provided with window-like apertures. Still others display more
peculiarly Romanic forms: a kind of corbel-table being employed in
the Church of St. Peter at Maguelonne (Herault), while the details
of the church at Le Thor are characteristic of a later period. The
architectural members are usually imitated from Corinthian forms,
these appearing not only in the columns and pilasters, but in the
cornices composed of egg and dart mouldings, of modillions, and of
Lesbian cymas carved with foliage.
The same retention of classic traditions characterizes the portal,

Fig. 203. — Exterior View and Section of the Apse of St. Jean-de-Moustier.

upon which was concentrated all the decoration of the facade. An
imitation of the Roman aedicula long continued in vogue, the en
tablature above the engaged columns being abbreviated and the
pitch of the gable greatly increased. Round arches were intro
duced above the gable or beneath the entablature, as, for instance,
in the Church of St. Gabriel near Tarascoii, in Notre-Dame-des-
Doms at Avignon, and the Church of Le Thor; occasionally the
engaged columns are themselves connected by arches. These un
certain attempts of the earliest period gradually resulted in the
development of the magnificent types of the twelfth century, such
as the portal of the Church of St. Gilles (Gard), begun in 11 16, or

34Q

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

that of St. Trophime in Aries (Fig. 204), which is perhaps refera
ble to the year 11 54. But even here the proportions and forms
of the Corinthian colurnns were retained in some degree, and the
classic horizontality of the entablature was emphasized in the im
post of the arch. In like manner the decorative carvings, both
of the figures and of the ornaments, were still influenced by
Roman traditions.

Fig. 204. — Portal of St. Trophime at Aries.

Although in the first period of the Romanic style the basilical
plan had been more and more supplanted by that of the one-aisled
and barrel-vaulted churches, it was never entirely relinquished. In
many cases the requirements of an extended space rendered the re
tention of a three-aisled plan necessary. Such structures seem to
have been vaulted from the first, the advantages of this construe-

FRANCE.

341

tion having become too plain to allow the introduction of horizon
tal ceilings of wood. The barrel - vaults of the side aisles led to
various attempts to meet the exigencies of the construction, the
ultimate success of which resulted in the greatest development of
the style.
The first step was to cover the low side aisles with comparative
ly small barrel-vaults, the slightly inclined lean-to roof leaving suffi
cient space for the introduction of the clerestory windows above

a. St. Guillem-du-Desert (He'rault). b. St. Honorat, upon the Island of Lerins.
Fig. 205. — Sections of Three-aisled Barrel-vaulted Churches.

them. This appears in the Church of Guillem-du-Desert (Herault),
which, however, seems to belong to a comparatively recent period,
if we may judge by the absence of classic details, and the preva
lence of specifically Romanic features in the portal, capitals, diago
nal dentils, arched corbel-tables, etc., — the dwarf gallery of the main
apse even pointing to the influences of Northern Italy (Fig. 205 a).
A more particularly national character is evident in the remains of
St. Honorat upon the Island of Lerins (Var). Unfortunately it is
not possible to determine whether both divisions of the church, the

342

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

one with round arches, the other with pointed vaults, are to be
ascribed to the eleventh century. In this structure the basilical
clerestory is given up, the three aisles being covered by one roof.
In the round-arched part of the building (Fig. 205 b) the narrow side
aisles are covered with full barrel-vaults, while in the pointed-arched
division bisected barrel-vaults appear in this position (Fig. 206 a).
It is not known at what time this important deviation from the tra
ditional arrangement of the vaults was first made, but there appears

«. St. Honbrat, upon the Island of Lerins.

b. Convent Church of Vaison.

Fig. 206. — Sections of Three-aisled Barrel-vaulted Churches.

to have existed between the varieties exhibited by the western
and eastern portions of St. Honorat a third system, exemplified in
the Abbey Church of Silvacanne (Bouches du Rhone), in which the
side aisles were also covered with pointed barrel-vaults, but in such
a manner that the inner arc was considerably shorter than that
rising from the exterior wall. The tentative methods of this last
phase of development are even more strikingly displayed in the
Convent Church of Vaison (Vaucluse), where the two-third barrel-
vaults of the side aisles are of an irregularly curved outline, and are

FRANCE. 343
placed at such a height that the clerestory windows are cut directly
through the vault above the nave (Fig. 206 b).
The lack of architectural memberment in these buildings con
trasts most unfavorably with the regularity of the vaulted structures
of Germany. Their heavy and gloomy character is not sufficiently
accounted for by the climate of Southern France, although the
bright light and heat of the south made the coolness of spaces en
closed by massive walls and vaults, and lighted by few and small
windows, appear desirable. These considerations would not, how
ever, have interfered with a more organic disposition of the plan
than was customary, — the effect of both the interior and exterior be
ing but rarely successful. A kind of transept was commonly adopt
ed, even in the one-aisled plan, by the addition of two side chapels
next to the main apse, but this was not brought into harmonious
relation either with the side aisles or with the choir. The artistic
inadequacy of such an arrangement is evident in the plan of St.
Guillem-du-Desert (Herault), in which the designer seems to have
hesitated between a transept and lateral chapels, and was unable to
effect an organic combination of the choir with the body of the
church (Fig. 207). The transept is more clearly defined in the
Abbey Church of Thoronet (Var), and in that of Silvacanne (Bouches
du Rhone), in the eastern wall of which two altar niches are intro
duced, these, however, not appearing upon the exterior. In the lat
ter church the semicircle of the main apse is replaced by a straight-
lined termination of the choir. A more organic arrangement of the
presbytery is attained in Vaison (Fig. 208) by giving up the transept
altogether, and by terminating the side aisles with lateral apses ; and
in the Church of Gilles (Gard), which is similar in style to the build
ings of Auvergne and Burgundy, by continuing the aisles around
the main apse in the shape of a surrounding passage with a number
of radial chapels. The disproportion of the too narrow and too high
side aisles remained, and in those cases where bisected barrel-vaults
were introduced, this was rendered even worse by the shapeless-
ness of the ceilings. Still, it is not to be denied that the principles
of important innovations are recognizable in these structures : the
bisected barrel-vaults alternately leading to the development of the
flying buttresses of the Gothic style, and of the pointed barrel-vault

344

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

above the nave, which had perhaps derived its form from the one
sided ceilings of the aisles, offering some similarity to the multifold
groined and pointed vaults of the later period.
In several cases a close approach had been made to a regular
system of buttresses. Even in the construction of the apse the
principle was employed : a conch, inclined against the impost of
a dome, counteracting the thrust in precisely the same manner as
does a flying buttress. The cupolas of many French churches were
thus surrounded by the vaulted ceilings of the apses, the dome not

Fig. 207.— Plan of St. Guillem-du-
Desert.

Fig. 208.— Plan of the Convent Church
of Vaison.

only adjoining the main apse, as in Notre -Dame- des -Doms in
Avignon, and the Church of Cavaillon (Vaucluse), but appearing
above a concentric plan similar to that customary in Byzantium.
A number of churches resembling the Chapel of Montmajour near
Aries display a central dome above a square plan, with apses upon
three or four sides. At times this construction was combined with
the arrangement of the nave above described, as for instance in the
Chapel of the Holy Trinity upon the island of Lerins, or in St. Mar
tin at Londres.
This was an attempt to solve by a new method the constructive

FRANCE. 345
difficulties which had been met in the octagon of the Minster of
Aix-la-Chapelle by inclining the imposts of the barrel-vaults which
upon a lower level surround the dome : the principle of the buttress
being there distinctly pronounced, although the difficulties of the
thrust were not overcome in an organic manner. A greater resem
blance to the later system of flying buttresses is observable in the
concentric Church of Rieux-Merinville (Aude), the fourteen -sided
surrounding passage of which is covered by bisected cloister-vaults,
leaning against the seven -sided central dome. Nevertheless, this
building is but of secondary importance in the history of the devel
opment of the flying buttress, as its construction cannot with cer
tainty be referred to the eleventh century. Indeed, the evidences of
a regular evolution in this respect are not precisely to be deter
mined, and it is even possible that the bisected barrel-vaults of the
side aisles may have resulted from constructive considerations not
at all relating to the support of the dome.
. . The towers of the churches of Southern France were but of
subordinate importance. The bells were placed in a single campa
nile, which stood either on the western front of the nave, as at
Notre-Dame in Avignon, or above the dome before the apse, as in
St. Trophime in Aries, or even, when small dimensions rendered this
possible, upon the barrel -vault of the nave, as at Silvacanne and
Beaucaire. The tower is added to one side of the church in Notre-
Dame dAubune near Carpentras, and rises above one of the apses
in Notre-Dame at Vaison. It is generally of square plan and di
vided in stories; at times, however, the rectangular substructure is
transformed into a cylinder at the height of the gable of the facade,
as is the case with the finest of all the Romanic towers of Southern
France, that of St. Theodorit in Uzes (Gard), in which six stories,
richly decorated with engaged columns, rise above the square basis.
The design of the campanile in the cemetery of Puisalicon evidently
owes its peculiarities to foreign influences, either Italian or German,
as do also the pilaster strips and the arched corbel -table of the
tower of St. Trophime at Aries, the upper story of which, with its
classic details, is referable to the eighteenth century. Octagonal
forms appear occasionally upon the towers built above the domes,
_ as in the Church of Bourg-Saint-Andeol (Ardeche), and in Notre-

346 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
Dame-des-Alicamps near Aries, which remarkable edifice, with its
sixteen open arcades ornamented with engaged columns, is sur
mounted by a dome.
Many of the cloisters adjoined to the churches of the South of
France attained a higher degree of development in this period.
There are numerous examples of cloisters supported upon piers,
as at St. Michel in Fricolet ; or upon small coupled columns which
together equal the thickness of the wall, as in St. Sauveur in Aix ;
or an alternation of columns and piers. In the Cloister of St. Tro
phime in Aries the piers are ornamented upon the side towards the
court with fluted pilasters, and are not connected by discharging
arches, as was usual in most cases, the groups consisting of two

Fig. 209.— Cloister of the Convent of Vaison.
apertures, as at Thoronet and Grandmont, or three, as at Vaison
(Fig. 209), at St. Paul in Remy, and Senanque, or of four, as at
Montmajour. Apart from the reminiscences of the classic archi
tecture formerly prevalent in Southern France, it is evident from
the details that the artistic relations were more intimate with Lom
bardy and Liguria than with Germany, this naturally resulting from
the geographical position of the countries of the Lower Rh6ne. It
is thus impossible to determine whether certain forms were first
employed in the Provence or in Northern Italy.

The architectural features hitherto described were not restricted
to the provinces of the Rhdne, but were employed without notewor
thy deviations, although less exclusively, throughout the districts bor-

FRANCE.

347

dering the coast, as far as the Pyrenees. A greater independence is
observable in Auvergne. Bishop Namatius, A. D. 446 to 462, had
founded at Clermont-Ferrand (Arverni) a large church with a cruci
form termination, which was extolled by Gregory of Tours. Upon
the foundations of this edifice Bishop Sigonius erected another
church in the second half of the ninth century; but of these earlier
structures there are no considerable remains, for the Church of
Notre-Dame-du-Port cannot, in its present form, be ascribed to a
date more remote than the middle of the eleventh century. It is

Fig. 210. — Section and System of Notre-Dame-du-Port in Clermont.

of a basilical plan, the clerestory wall supported upon piers, the
nave terminated by a continuous barrel-vault, and the side aisles by
a bisected form, which counteracts the thrust of the main vault.
The aisles have two stories, the lower being covered with cross-
vaults, while the upper, lighted by small windows in the side walls
of the huilding, is opened to the nave as a gallery, with three aper
tures above each arcade (Figs: 210 and 211).
The building was decidedly in advance of the Provencal models,
the independence being particularly evident in the cruciform plan,

348 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
which had not appeared in the districts of the Rhone during the
earlier period, there having previously been no continuation of the
nave beyond the transept. The ingenious methods by which the
constructive difficulties were met had no parallel among all the
churches of Southern France. The dome above the intersection of
the transept and nave was supported, as was the ceiling of the nave,
by bisected barrel-vaults, these being of the same width as those of
the side aisles, but constructed upon a much higher level, so as to
abut against the impost of the dome. The ends of the transept
were covered with barrel-vaults, the axis of which was naturally at
right angles to that of the body of the church. The pyramidal com
position thus attained culminated in the dome, in the same manner

Fig. 211. — Plan of Notre-Dame in Clermont.
as did the vaults of the galleries in the great arch above the nave.
This arrangement was eminently organic and successful : the outer
and lower parts supporting the higher ones within.
The nave and transept were insufficiently membered by cornices
and imposts ; the barrel-vaults were without ribs, and the windows
were small ; all this gave to the interior a bald and gloomy charac
ter, similar to that of the churches of Southern France. On the
other hand, the choir became more varied and elegant by the con
tinuation of the side aisles as a passage around the apse, the conch
of which was supported upon columns. The design of pilasters
and arcades in relief, on the exterior of the apses of Southern
France, was thus reproduced in a semicircle of real columns, open

FRANCE. 349
between the apse and the surrounding passage. Four smaller niches
were added to the curve of the exterior wall, their radial axes point
ing to the main altar in the central apse. This was of excellent
effect, upon the exterior as well as in the interior, the eye being led
from the four outer niches to the somewhat higher passage, from
this to the main apse, and finally to the dome. It is not known
whether these improvements were here employed for the first time,
but it is certain that for centuries they were of decisive influence
upon ecclesiastical architecture.
This important constructive advance was combined with an al
most purely classic decoration of great richness, at least upon the
exterior, consisting chiefly of Corinthian columns and engaged shafts,
of horizontal entablatures, console cornices, etc. The revetments of
the walls with mosaics and slabs of colored marble were similar to
those of the early Christian, or of the Carolingian epoch. The cube-
capital and arched corbel-table, which had been employed even in
Southern France, were here entirely lacking, and the Romanic for
mation of the portal was not attempted. This classic influence ex
tended even to a slight inclination of the roof -surfaces, which was
much less adapted to this rough and mountainous province than it
had been to the Provence. Everything leads to the supposition
that many of the peculiarities of the style of Auvergne were refer
able to the architecture of this district during an earlier period,—
very possibly to the church built by the bishop Sigonius in the
ninth century.
It is evident from the frequent occurrence of a similar plan in
the mountain districts of the Puy de Dome, Mont d'Or, Cezot, Can-
¦tal, and the surrounding country, that the Church of Clermont was
not an isolated instance, but should be considered as typical of the
architectural style of Auvergne. At Issoire and Orcival the design
is almost identical ; simplifications of the form appear at Volvic,
Bourg-Lastie, and St. Nectaire. At Conques, south of the Aubrac
Mountains which form the boundary of Auvergne, a further devel
opment is met with : the galleries being carried around the entire
church, including the transept. The most southern example of the
style is the Church of St. Sernin at Toulouse, also built during the
eleventh century, — a five-aisled structure with five niches adjoined

350 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
to the passage surrounding the choir and with, four chapels in the
transept. The most northern is the Church of St. Etienne at Ne-
vers, referable, probably, to the middle of the eleventh century, and
even ascribed by Viollet-le-Duc to an earlier age than the Church
of Clermont. In Burgundy there are no indications of a definitely pronounced
type, such as that which can be traced in the Provence and the ad
joining countries from the first beginnings of its development. The
Burgundian buildings of this epoch give evidence of uncertain at
tempts to combine the most various architectural motives. The
influence of Southern France, the classic traditions derived from
ancient ruins, the innovations of Normandy, and perhaps, also, the
introduction of the architectural forms of Germany, were so equally
represented as to make it impossible to recognize any peculiarly
Burgundian style.
In the southern parts of Burgundy the Provencal style, derived
from Lyons, prevailed ; in the western districts of Bourbonnais and
Nivernais the plan of Auvergne was imitated : in both the ceilings
of the churches were usually barrel-vaults. As before said, it is pos
sible that St. Etienne in Nevers was built even before the Church
of Clermont. The apse is so commonly surrounded by a passage
with radial chapels, that some authorities have even been led to
assume this important feature to have originated in Burgundy.
The number of Roman ruins existing in the country was too great
for the classic designs to be entirely relinquished, the forms of
the ancient edifices appearing particularly in buildings erected in
their immediate vicinity during the Middle Ages. Thus the gal
lery of the Cathedral of Autun, begun in 1 132, repeats the charac
teristic features of the antique Porte D'Arroux. The decorative
details of the classic monuments were, however, more generally re
placed by a rude and independent ornamentation than had been the
case in Southern France, the fantastic carvings of the capitals and
arches resembling the Romanic forms of Northern lands. Novel
constructive methods were occasionally introduced in the architect
ure of Burgundy, as, for instance, in the Church of St. Philibert at
Tournus, probably built between 1007 and 1019, where heavy cylin-

FRANCE. 351
drical shafts without capitals support not only the arcades but sur
mounted transverse arches, upon which rest barrel-vaults with their
axes at right angles to the body of the church.
Important structures early appear in the north of Burgundy.
Dijon was the centre of a notable architectural activity at the
beginning of the eleventh century. The Church of St. Benigne,
founded at this period by the abbot William, is renowned as hav
ing been the most wonderful edifice in Gaul and beautiful beyond
compare. A rotunda of columns which adjoined the choir was
preserved as late as the beginning of the present century. This
concentric addition, and the cruciform plan of the basilica, with
two-storied side aisles, point to the influence of Lombardy, and this
assumption is strengthened by the mention of the fact that the
necessary columns were brought from Italy. The abbot William,
a son of Robert of Volpiano, near Ivrea, had himself come to Dijon
from Italy, together with St. Majolus, the Abbot of Cluny.
In the second half of the eleventh century Cluny became the
most important among all the monasteries of Occidental Christen
dom. It was inhabited by no less than three thousand monks. In
contrast to the larger Carolingian convents, which comprised several
churches and chapels, it concentrated its architectural energy upon
one enormous church, which, having been begun in 1089, required
all the efforts of the community for forty years. The French Revo
lution has swept away this celebrated work, but from the plans
and descriptions still preserved it is evident that the five -aisled
body of the church was provided with two transepts, and ter
minated by a semicircular apse, the conch of which was supported
upon columns, and by a surrounding passage with five radial chap
els (Fig. 212). Eight more apses were added upon the eastern sides
of the two transepts, the smaller of which, adjoining the choir, was
terminated at both ends by semicircular chapels. The nave and the
outer divisions of the transepts were barrel-vaulted, while the two
inner side aisles were covered below with cross-vaults as in Cler
mont, and above, probably, with bisected barrel -vaults. A three-
aisled portico added 44 m. to the length of the church, making a
total of 167 m. Above the roofs of different height rose seven
towers, — one over the intersection of the nave and main transept,

352 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
two before the portico, as many before the front wall of the body
of the church, and two smaller towers on the corners of the main
transept. The celebrity of the Church of Cluny was in great measure due
to the pre-eminence of the monastery ; a smaller structure in Bur
gundy is of far greater importance to the history of architecture.
This was the Abbey Church of Vezelay near Avallon, built in the
first years of the twelfth century. In it the barrel-vaults were re
placed by cross-vaults, and these were constructed upon an entirely
new principle, at a time when the antique form of the cross-vault
was still exclusively employed in Germany. In the architecture of
the Romans the intersecting vaults were invariably semi-cylindrical,

10 *. 3D *°
Fig. 212. — Plan of the Abbey Church of Cluny.
and consequently could only be erected above a square plan, and
with crowns of equal height. The diagonal groins thus became of
an elliptical outline, not being determined in the design, but result
ing from the intersection of the two barrel-vaults, and consequently
from the character of their curves. The architect of Vezelay, how
ever, treated the groin not as a result but as a constructive starting-
point, turning exactly semicircular arches in the diagonals and
continuing them in the four surfaces of the vault (Fig. 213). The
restriction of cross-vaults to square compartments was thus over
come, and the first step was made towards the Gothic system of rib
bed vaulting. A further development appears but few decades later
in the portico of Vezelay, begun in 1132, pointed arcades and trans-

SWITZERLAND.

353

verse arches being introduced in the place of. round forms, while the
vaults were constructed according to the principles already set forth.
It is a mistake to consider this introduction of the pointed instead
of the round arch as an innovation, the form having long been em
ployed in the pointed barrel-vaults of Southern France. Neither
pointed arcades nor pointed transverse arches were of great con
structive importance after the introduction of the new system of
cross-vaulting. The vault of pointed
outline, on the other hand, had the ad
vantage of decreasing the thrust in
some measure, and was hence early
employed in Burgundy, as at Autun,
Beaune, Sanlieu, etc.
The civilization of Western Switzer
land* was closely related to that of Bur
gundy. After the year 888 this country
had even formed the chief part of the
kingdom of Upper Burgundy, which in
the beginning of the tenth century ex
tended to the borders of the Provence.
These relations were not interrupted
when, early in the eleventh century,
Western Switzerland was detached' from
Burgundy and united to Germany by
the emperor Henry II. In ecclesias
tical respects Switzerland was entirely
dependent upon France, the Bishopric
of Lausanne belonging to the Archiepiscopal See of Lyon, later of
Besancon. Romainmotier, in the Canton of Vaud, after 919 in the posses
sion of Cluny, exhibits in its church the influence both of the
Provence and of Burgundy, with the rudest possible details. The
enormous columns, entirely without ornamentation, and the three-
aisled, two-storied portico resemble the Church of St. Philibert in

Fig. 213. — System of Vezelay.

* R. Rahn, Geschichte der bildenden Kunste in der Schweiz. Zurich, 1876.
23

354 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
Tournus. This similarity is probably explicable by the contempo
raneous erection of the two buildings, it being almost certain that
the older parts of Romainmotier were constructed by the abbot
Odilo of Cluny, A. D. 994 to 1049. The Church of Payerne (Peter-
lingen), near Avanches, after 962 also a dependency of Cluny, dis
plays, on the other hand, a barrel-vault and transverse arches sup
ported above the nave upon piers, which are provided in the main
axis of the plan with engaged columns, serving as the impost of the
arcades. Above the side aisles, which are covered with cross-vaults,
clerestory windows are cut through the barrel-vault of the nave.
In determining the degree of resemblance between the style of
these buildings and that of Cluny, we must not compare them with
the Abbey Church of the latter town, destroyed during the revolu
tion (Fig. 212), this not having been erected until after the death of
the abbot Odilo, but rather with St. Benigne in Dijon, the work of
the abbot William, to which the older portions of Cluny were, with
out doubt, closely related. In fact, the architectural details of the
recently exposed crypt of St. Benigne are strikingly similar to those
of Romainmotier. The architecture of Domdidier, Bevaix, Rueggisberg, St. Sulpice,
and other places of Western Switzerland, was dependent upon that
of Romainmotier and Payerne, — and consequently upon that of
Dijon and Cluny. The remains referable to the earlier period of
the Romanic style are extremely rude and inartistic. The most
remarkable example of the influence of the French style in Switzer
land is the Church of St. John in Grandson (Fig. 214). Its basilical
plan, with ten columns separating the aisles from the nave, does not
appear to have been derived from the Provence, but rather from the
German and Alemannic structures of the Lower Rhine and St. Gall.
The barrel-vaults and the bisected forms are clearly Provencal, and
the formation of the choir, in so far as later reconstructions allow
this to be perceived, shows no similarity to that of Burgundy.
Although probably not built before the twelfth century, this re
markable structure proves that, notwithstanding the previous polit
ical connection of this country with Burgundy, and its hierarchical
subordination to the Burgundian archbishopric and chief convent,
the influence of Southern France, derived from Vienne and Lyon,

FRANCE.

355

was of decisive effect. The features attributable to the German in
fluences display none of the perfection of the Rhenish details,
and, similarly, the buildings of Switzerland erected in imitation of
the French styles show no trace of the constructive ingenuity of
the Burgundian churches, nor of the fine perception of form which
characterizes Provencal architecture.

The architecture of Western France, from the Pyrenees to the
Loire, was also influenced by that of the countries bordering the

Fig. 214. — Section showing the Interior of the Church of St. John in Grandson.
Mediterranean. Barrel-vaults, with or without transverse ribs, piers
ornamented with Corinthian engaged columns, and a simple plan of
the apse, were customary. As had been the case in the southern
and south - eastern districts, the pointed barrel - vaults were early
adopted in place of those of round form, this change being effected
about the beginning of the twelfth century, as is evident from the
remains of the Convent of Moissac on the Tarn, near Montauban.
The ornamentation was also developed from classic forms, but, in
contrast to the South, grotesque figures and the masks of animals
and human beings were frequently introduced.

356 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
North of the Garonne, in a limited tract in the neighborhood of
Perigueux, we meet with a development entirely exceptional in the
architectural history of France during this period, namely that of
the domical system of construction. This does not appear to have
resulted from any discontent with the barrel-vaulted compartments
which were so universal in Southern France, and which in the East
ern provinces, especially in Vezelay, had led to the development of
peculiar forms of cross-vaulting. We have rather to deal with the
introduction of a foreign model, the influence of which was restrict
ed to a small district. The Abbey Church of St. Front in Perigueux
(Fig. 215), built in the beginning of the twelfth century, was so di
rectly copied from S. Marco in Venice that even the differences in
their dimensions are explicable by the inequality of the French
and Italian linear measures. The cruciform plan, with the transept
of the same length as the nave, is divided into five equal com
partments covered with hemispherical domes. The massive cor
ner piers of the main intersection are perforated by arched pas
sages, somewhat narrower than those of the Venetian model ; they
support broad transverse arches which, in contrast to those of
S. Marco, are of a low pointed form. Even these alterations are
sufficient to give an entirely different character to the edifice,
and the dissimilarity was increased by the omission of the cupola
Windows, the consequent multiplication and enlargement of those
of the side walls, and especially by the want of the fine columns
and decorations of carvings and mosaics to which the effect of
the Venetian church is so greatly due. The enormous pile of Peri
gueux thus shared the gloomy and heavy character of the buildings
of Southern France, being entirely without the luxuriant magnifi
cence of the Byzantine decorations. On the other hand, an impos
ing tower was placed above the western entrance, rising in many
stories of engaged columns, and presenting an imposing contrast to
the low outlines of the cupolas.
This domical style was introduced in the Cathedral of Cahors,
the Church of St. Emilion in Bordeaux, and the Cloister of Fon-
tevrault in Anjou : these places marking the farthest extent of the
domical style towards the south, the west, and the north. In none of
these churches, however, do the cupolas appear in connection with

FRANCE.

35;

a cruciform plan,— being usually placed in a row above a simple
nave without side aisles. The bald and heavy piers were connect
ed with pointed transverse arches, as in the Church of St. Front.
The choir is in most cases covered with barrel-vaults and conches,
and the apse surrounded by radial chapels. In the Convent Church

Fig. 215. — Plan, Longitudinal Section, and View of St. Front in Perigueux.

of Fontevrault a concentric passage with columns was adopted, in
imitation of the structures of Burgundy and Auvergne.
The greater elaboration of the last-named church seems to have
been due to the influence of the Cathedral of Angouleme, in which
engaged columns were added to the piers, and the arcades and cor-

358 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
n.ices were richly ornamented. The magnificent facade of this edi;
fice leads us to class it with the churches of Poitou, in which a most
successful artistic treatment of the outer walls, and especially the
front, was combined with an undeveloped and insignificant plan.
Chief among these is Notre-Dame la Grande in Poitiers, the facade
of which is divided into several stories by arcades in relief, — the rich
decorations of the Romanic portal thus being extended to the wall
surface. The figural sculptures will be described in a subsequent
chapter. The luxurious ornamentation is as far removed from the
classic details of Southern France as from the linear decorations of
the Normans. The intertwined foliage and the distorted figures
of animals rather appear as the last development of the fantastic
Celtic patterns, which so greatly tended to an overloaded and rest
less composition. The architectural lines are still predominant in
the facade of Notre-Dame in Poitiers, the images of Christ, the
Apostles, and other saints being placed in parallel niches. In the
fagade of Angouleme (Fig. 216), on the other hand, the member
ment merely serves as a fantastic and inorganic framework for a
representation of the Last Judgment, the scene of which is divided
into entirely disconnected groups. The whimsical and extrava
gant character which the art of the North had derived from Celtic
sources is particularly evident in representations of animals. The
decorative sculptures of the Church of Ruffec are a striking in
stance of this fantastic style. Facades of similar magnificence
appear in Ste. Radegonde at Poitiers, at Civray, Lusignan, and
elsewhere. The cupolas which were common north of the Garonne were
developed in the valley of the Loire to a peculiar form. In Fon-
tevrault the dome was not supported upon pendentives, separated
from it by a cornice, according to the Byzantine method, but rested
on the transverse arches intersecting with the hemispherical vault
without an intervening cornice. It is difficult to say what influence
may have been exercised upon this development by Lombardic
models, and by the concentric edifices which had long been com
mon in this region. In some cases the cupola was divided by
ribs, which were placed not only in the diagonal but in the axes of
the plan, the dome thus approaching in appearance to a Gothic

FRANCE. 359
.vault with stellar groins. This method was probably derived from
the similar transformation of the cross-vaults begun in the twelfth
century. It led to the treatment of the surfaces between the ribs
as separate compartments, like those between the diagonals of the

Fig. 216. — Facade of the Cathedral of Angouleme.

cross-vaults at Vezelay. These systems did not, however, attain to
a higher degree of perfection, for the Gothic style, which in the
mean time had made its appearance, absorbed the attention and the
constructive ingenuity of the builders.

360 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
While, in the South of France, classical traditions had contin
ued with but few changes, although with certain local variations,
in the East influences of the Rhenish countries had made them
selves felt, and in the West Celtic reminiscences had given a pe
culiar stamp to the architectural style, the North of France was
chiefly affected by Northern Germanic elements. Even in the Me
rovingian epoch the classic methods of building had fallen so en
tirely into disuse that the models for the chief convents built under
the Carolingians had to be brought from abroad. The last traces
of Roman architecture were swept away by the Normans, who, after
many incursions, at last established themselves so firmly in Northern
France that their leader, Rollb, in the year 912, received, together
with the hand of the daughter of Charles the Simple, the fief of
Normandy.* The Normans did not at first exercise an important influence
upon the civilization of France. Like the Goths, to whom they
were related, they were an adventurous and warlike race, contin
ually engaged with freebooting expeditions, and consequently with
out a settled art of their own. They introduced once more into
France the energetic spirit of the North, at a time when the Ger
manic peculiarities had been in great measure lost through the in
tercourse with Romanic races and the adoption of the Christian
faith. They sounded a high and vigorous note, which was well in
accord with the battle-cry and the rattle of arms, but which seemed
to be too shrill and unharmonious for the cloistered refinement of
French civilization. It required a century of Christian culture for
these invaders to arrive at even that degree of perfection in the arts
to which North-western Europe had attained under Charlemagne.
They brought with them the patterns of straight lines which they
had employed in the earliest ages in the ornamentation of their huts
and vessels, as well as methods of metal-working used in the manu
facture of their arms and utensils ; but it required a considerable
time for them to advance beyond their native timbered construc-

* J. Britton and A. Pugin, Specimens of the Architecture of Normandy. New edition.
London, 1874. — V. Ruprich Robert, L' Architecture Normande aux XI. et XII. Siecles en
Normandie et en Angleterre. Paris, 1884. (Incomplete.)

FRANCE.

361

tions, so as to introduce these elements into monumental architect
ure, — notwithstanding the fact that the development of their deco
rative style was more rapid than had been the case with the inor
ganic braided work of the Celts.
The great endeavors of the first rulers of the new duchy to make
their province equal with the other fiefs of the Carolingian emperors,
and their enthusiastic and self-sacrificing submission to the Church,
did not immediately result in an advance of art. The early buildings
of the Normans, mostly of wood, were for a century far inferior to
the vaulted constructions of the South, and even to the convents
which had been erected by the previous inhabitants of Normandy.
When, at last, some attempt was made to further monumental ar-

a Etretat. * Ecrainville.
Fig. 217. — Norman Capitals.

c Pont-Audemer.

chitecture it was necessary to call designers from the South. One
of these was the before-mentioned William, abbot of St. Benigne in
Dijon, a Lombard, who was invited to Normandy by the duke Rich
ard II. in 1010, and, during the twenty years following, there erected
nearly forty convents and churches. The Carolingian traditions of
the country were thus, without doubt, influenced by those of Bur
gundy and Lombardy, but too little has remained to enable us to
judge with certainty of the extent and the success of this combina
tion. The Church of Lery near Pont de I'Arche displays a basilical
range of columns of even heavier proportions than those of the
Abbey Church of Tournus in Burgundy, erected by the same
William, while the nave is covered by a barrel-vault without trans
verse ribs, like those of Southern France.

362

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Basilicas with horizontal ceilings seem at first to have been uni
versal, the columns, piers, and the ornamental patterns differing,
however, from those of the basilicas built in imitation of classic
models, and from those of the buildings of Saxony and the Rhen
ish countries. The columns, equal in diameter to the thick walls,
are short and heavy; thus the projection of the capital was not
of importance, while the bases were insignificant or altogether lack
ing. These characteristics appear in the horizontally ceiled basili
cas of Ecrainville (Fig. 218) and Etretat, both in the Department of

p — ¦ — 1 1  1  1
a 1 a 3 i rn-
Fig. 218. — System of the Church
of Ecrainville.

t—1 — 1  1  1  1  1  1
0 1 i J * 5 It
Fig. 219. — System of St. Germain at
Pont-Audemer.

Seine-Inferieure. The forms of the low capitals (Fig. 217) are either
rude imitations of Corinthian models, roughly decorated with fig
ures, or ribbed, — those of the first class resembling, in their helpless
misunderstanding of the antique patterns, the cornices of the Mau
soleum of Theodoric at Ravenna, those of the second being abso
lutely barbarous. The arches are commonly decorated with chev
rons, which continued the favorite pattern of the Norman architects.
When the columns were replaced by piers these latter were often
strengthened in the main axis by engaged shafts, as in the Church
of St. Germain at Pont-Audemer, in the Department of Eure

FRANCE. 363
(Fig. 219). A similar construction of piers was employed in the Ab
bey Church at Berney, the nave of which was originally covered
with a horizontal ceiling, while the side aisles were vaulted in imita
tion of the buildings of Western France.
These churches resemble, in the simplicity of their arrangement
and the bareness of their walls, the buildings of the earliest period
of the Romanic style throughout Europe. The Church of Briquebec
(Manche), however, although also covered with a horizontal ceiling,
exhibits a more elaborate memberment of the piers by engaged
columns, those adjoining the side of the supports towards the nave
being continued to the top of the clerestory wall. An alternation of
piers and columns combining two arcades to form a system appears
in the Abbey Church of Jumieges, in the Department of Seine-In-
ferieure, consecrated in 1067 (Fig. 220). It cannot be definitely
proved that these developments resulted from the influence of
Lombardy, first introduced by the abbot William of Dijon ; still
this is made probable by the fact that the forms of the capitals,
the galleries, and engaged shafts continued to the ceiling without
function as supports of a vault, seem rather to have been derived
from Northern Italian than from Rhenish models. German ele
ments, indeed, seldom appear, while those of the South of France, —
such as the arcades in relief upon the exterior of the apse, — were
frequently adopted. Arched corbel - tables were rare, that of the
extremely primitive Church of Than near Caen being exceptional ;
the main cornice was generally composed of sculptured consoles
and terminated by a simple horizontal moulding. With this excep
tion the exterior walls had in the earliest period no other member
ment than simple pilaster strips. The fagades alone were more
richly treated. The portals were similar to those of Germany, the
decorations being either formed of geometrical patterns or of rows
of rudely sculptured human heads. The upper part of the front
wall was occasionally ornamented with arcades and chevron mould
ings, or with blind galleries, corresponding to the triforium of the
interior. The towers, which were placed above the intersection of
the nave and transept, or at one side of the body of the church,
were similar in treatment to the fagades.
The lowlands of Normandy,' especially the Departments of Eure

364

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

and Seine -Inferieure, not being provided with stone suitable for
vaulted constructions, long retained the horizontal ceilings of wood.
But even where there was no lack of the requisite materials, the nave
was occasionally covered with a horizontal ceiling, and, moreover, at
a comparatively late period, as, for instance, in the Abbey Church of
Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche), the side aisles of which have pointed
vaults (Fig. 221). In the most important district of Normandy, the
Department of Calvados, — including Caen, the Norman metropolis, —

0 111*1

Fig. 220.— System of the Abbey Fig. 221.— System of the Fig. 222.— System of the
Church of Jumieges. Abbey Church of Mont- Church of St. Georges
Saint-Michel. at Boscherville.
vaulted constructions were successfully employed before the end
of the eleventh century, an independent treatment of the cross-
vault early appearing. This differed as greatly from the simple Ro
man form customary in Germany as from the Burgundian vaults
of Vezelay. It is not certainly known whether the vaults of St.
Georges in Boscherville (Fig. 222) are referable to the original con
struction of Radolf, the chancellor of William the Conqueror, or
are as late as the twelfth century. Nor is it to be determined
whether the Church of St. Nicolas in Caen, which exhibits a similar

FRANCE.

365

system, was erected before or after the Church of Boscherville.
More accurate information is at hand concerning the two chief
buildings of Normandy dating to this period: the Church of the
Holy Trinity (Abbaye aux Dames) and that of St. Etienne (Abbaye
aux Hommes) in Caen. Both these churches were founded, in the
year of the conquest of England, by Duke William and his wife
Matilda, in expiation of their marriage of a forbidden degree of re
lationship. Ste. Trinite (Fig. 223), the smaller of the two, was prob-

Fig. 223.— System of Ste. Trinite in Caen. Fig. 224.— System of St. Etienne in Caen.
ably the first completed. It displays above the main arches an
arcade in relief, and, higher than this, the triforium, so connected
with the clerestory windows that the grouping of two arches in a
single compartment, which had not been contemplated in the plan
of the piers, was rendered possible. The vault itself is divided into
six panels by a transverse arch springing from the intermediate pier,
its summit rising to the intersection of the diagonal ribs.
This peculiar construction is still further developed in St.
Etienne (Fig. 224), an imposing building, the nave of which is

366 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
65 m. long. From the alternation of the piers it is evident that
the combination of two arcades into a single compartment was de
termined upon in the original design. Through the introduction
of a gallery, the arcades of which are almost as tall as those of the
lower story, the clerestory windows were crowded to so great a
height that the architect was unable to begin his main vaults, as in
Ste. Trinite, on a level with the capitals of the triforium. The im
post of the transverse arches was consequently placed directly above
the galleries, this arrangement having the advantage of permitting
the upper vaults of the side aisles to serve as buttresses. The clere
story windows were thus much cramped, and this drawback could
not be entirely overcome by the employment of the transverse ribs
rising from the intermediate piers, as an integral part of the vaulted
construction, although the summit of the wall arches thus attained
a much greater height. The disadvantageous position of the win
dows was but of slight account compared with the bold and im
portant innovation in the system of vaulting. Unfortunately it is
not possible to determine how long after the foundation of the
church the stone ceilings were executed. On the whole, the Nor
man buildings of this class compare favorably with the vaulted con
structions of Burgundy and the Rhenish countries, by both of which
they must have been influenced in some measure ; still, they did
not equal the technical exactness of the former, or the rhythmical
arrangement of the latter works.
The before-mentioned buildings of Caen represent the greatest
advance of the Romanic style in Normandy. In the twelfth cen
tury the constructive framework was hidden beneath a luxuriant
decoration, which was the more objectionable as its patterns con
sisted solely of straight-lined geometrical forms, and gave but little
scope to the imagination of the designer. This is the case with the
Romanic portions of the Cathedrals of Bayeux and Evreux, St. Ju-
lien near Rouen, the Church of Savigny, etc. It is plain that the
centre of the artistic, activity of the Normans was no longer in
Normandy itself but in their English kingdom, — their former home
becoming a mere province, dependent in many respects upon Eng
land. The Norman architecture of succeeding ages is hence to be
reserved for consideration in connection with that of Great Britain.

FRANCE. 367
In striking contrast to the successful artistic efforts of this last
race to be incorporated into the French nation, architecture remained
almost entirely undeveloped in the He de France and Champagne, —
provinces which in earlier ages had taken the most prominent part
in the history of Gaul. Even Paris, a place of great importance
under the Merovingians (compare page 209), has few memorials of
independent interest referable to the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Neither the reconstruction of St. Germain-des-Pres, before the year
1014, nor that of Ste. Genevieve, after 1068, displayed any advance
beyond the style customary in the Merovingian and Carolingian pe
riods. The obliteration of almost all the works of this epoch by
subsequent Gothic constructions makes it difficult to gauge the
artistic advance, but the entire silence of contemporary writers does
not lead to the assumption of any notable performance. The few
churches of Champagne which have been preserved are of modest
dimensions and exhibit the influence of the South. A pointed bar
rel-vault appears in St. Savinien near Sens ; the passage surrounding
the apse with radial chapels, customary in Burgundy and Auvergne,
is adopted in the plan of the Church of Vignory near Andelot.
The transverse barrel -vaults of the side aisles of St. Remy near
Rheims, A.D. 1036 to 1049, Pomt to the traditions of Burgundy and
especially of Tournus, while the remainder of this enormous basilica
with two-storied side aisles shows reminiscences of the Carolingian
age.* German influences were felt as far as Chalons-sur-Marne, as
is proved by the Church of St. John in that place.
It is indeed strange, in view of the great artistic activity in the
more remote provinces of France, that the works of architecture in
its centre remained so unimportant until the middle of the twelfth
century. The absence of this development in the intervening tract
made it possible for the styles of the North and the South to di
verge even more than can be accounted for by their geographical
and climatic conditions. As Schnaase has remarked, the antique
traditions appeared during this epoch more exclusively in the art of
the Provence than in that of Italy itself, while, the ornamentations
of the Normans were even more entirely composed of Northern
* Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire de 1' Architecture Francaise, IX., p. 240.

368 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
elements than those of Germany. In the German Empire the cen
tralization of culture was much more marked than in France, and
the architecture of the former country was hence of a more uniform
character.
SPAIN.
t_
The Christian architecture of the Iberian peninsula* could be
affected in its development by no other European influences than
those of South-western France. The difficulties which the Pyrenees
presented to the communication by land were in great measure
overcome by the passes, especially those at either end of this range;
but the marine intercourse with the more remote coasts of France
and Italy was disturbed during this period, — in the Mediterranean
by the Saracens, and in the Bay of Biscay by the Normans.
Spain, like Southern France, long retained the traditions of a civ
ilization antedating the Christian epoch. Especially in the South,
which had been a province of Carthage, some reminiscences of the
Phoenician style were retained throughout the Roman domination,
and were not entirely obliterated even by the occupation of the
Visigoths, A.D. 417 to 717. The few fragments of stone sculpture
remaining from this period resemble the Byzantine ornaments of
Syria in a certain sharpness peculiar to all imitations of empaistic
works. The similarity of the early Christian buildings of Spain to
those of Southern France is rather due to the influence of the same
Roman elements than to any introduction of these traditions from
France, notwithstanding the fact that in the neighborhood of the
Pyrenees a like development naturally resulted from the political
union of some districts north of the range with Spain. After the
conquest by the Moors the civilization of Spain was sharply divided
into two branches. The one produced the Mohammedan style of
the South, divisible into two chief periods, and described above as
that of Cordova and that of Seville and Granada, corresponding
approximately to the Romanic and Gothic epochs. The other ap
peared in the Christian lands of the North and in those provinces

* G. E. Street, Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain. London, 1865. — Monu-
"mentos Arquitectonicos de EspaBa. Publicados de RI. Orden y per disposicion del Minis-
terio de Fomento. Madrid, 1859-1884. Unvollendet.

SPAIN.

369

which had been recovered from the Moors, and shared the general
development of the Romanic style in the rest of Europe. Differing
in this respect from the Normans in Sicily, the Spanish Christians
adopted but few features from their more artistic Moslem ene
mies, while the Arabs remained entirely unaffected by this phase
of Christian art.
The political state of Northern Spain at this time was not such
as to further an independent and systematic architectural activity
like that of France or Germany. The devastation and impoverish
ment of the comparatively barren region which had remained to

Fig. 225. — Plan and System of*S. Adrian in Tuiion.

the Christians precluded all those more extensive constructions by
which alone a monumental style can be developed. The most
pressing necessities were met as best might be, without construct
ive innovations or artistic endeavors of any kind. The few build
ings, or parts of buildings, of which the date is accurately known,
—such as the crypt of S. Cruz in Cangas in Asturias, A. D. 739,
the Church of Santiannes de Pravia, A. D. 776, and the crypt of
the Camara Santa at Oviedo, A.D. 842,— are extremely rude, and
mostly have small barrel -vaults or horizontal ceilings supported
upon piers, all of the greatest possible simplicity. Similar features
24

370

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

are displayed in the Church of S. Adrian in Tuflon in Asturias
(Fig. 225), the age of
which is less certain
ly known. The plan
was generally a sim
ple rectangle, without
apses, the three aisles
of the early Christian
basilica being at times
exchanged for the cru
ciform arrangement of
Byzantine edifices.
If the identification
of certain remains in
Asturias, Galicia, and
Leon by Spanish ar
chaeologists may be
trusted, it would ap
pear that some at
tempts to develop
a more independent
style, especially in
the decorative details,
were made under the
energetic kings Rami-
ro I., A.D. 843 to 850,
and Alfonso III., A.D,
866 to 910. Among
the memorials of these
rulers may be men
tioned the Church of
S. Miguel of Linio in
Asturias, of Byzantine
cruciform plan, with
barrel -vaults, the col
umns of which are
provided with bases of barbarous design, and display no trace of

Fig. 226. — Plan and Interior of S. Cristina in Lena.

SPAIN.

371

the Corinthian forms; also the Errriita de S. Cristina of Lena in
Asturias (Fig. 226), the appearance of which has, however, been
much altered by the introduction of a timbered ceiling in place of
the original barrel-vault. A somewhat higher development is no
ticeable in S. Pedro at Nave in Leon, where the barrel-vaults are of
unequal height, and are placed in the direction of the transept —

Fig. 227. — Facade and Longitudinal Section of S. Maria of Naranco.
the capitals of the columns, partly projecting, partly treated as im
posts, being without Corinthian reminiscences.
The most important architectural monument of the kingdom of
Asturias during the ninth and tenth centuries is S. Maria of Na
ranco, which Spanish antiquaries have designated as the palace of
King Ramiro I. (Figs. 227 and 228). The character of its decora
tions, indeed, seems to indicate that this building was erected at

372

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

about the same time as S. Cristina of Lena, and it must be acknowl
edged that the general plan is rather that of a palace than of a
church. But notwithstanding these indications, it is impossible to
determine with absolute certainty either the purpose of this remark
able edifice or the date of its erection. However different the dec
orative treatment of the structure, the plan is certainly similar to
that of many German palaces of the Romanic period. The grand
hall, with subsidiary chambers at either end, is built above a low
barrel-vaulted ground-floor, access to it being provided by a monu
mental staircase upon one of the longer sides. The walls of the
interior are richly decorated with arcades in relief, the coupled col
umns of which have spirally fluted shafts, and capitals imitated from

Fig. 228. — Plan of S. Maria of Naranco.

Corinthian and Byzantine forms. The connection between the ar
cades and the ribs of the barrel-vault is effected by peculiar vaulting
shafts which rise from circular shields. The details of these sup
ports, and of the capitals beneath them, are strikingly similar to
those of the before-mentioned Church of S. Cristina of Lena : this
repetition making it evident that these were generally recognized
architectural forms, and not due to a caprice of the designer. The
same is the case with the rounded terminations of the moulding of
the archivolt, as this feature is also observable in the friezes and
buttresses of the exterior, giving to these latter, which were not
built in bond with the masonry of the wall, the appearance of being
fluted. While the treatment of the interior is somewhat similar to

SPAIN.

373

the system of St. Pierre de Reddes (Fig. 202 ._•), the more indepen
dent design of the exterior differs entirely from the French mod
els. Nevertheless, these memorials are not sufficient to warrant the
assumption of an architectural style peculiar to Northern Spain
during the Romanic period.
The influence of the Moors established in the South was not
without its effect upon the architecture of the Christian provinces,
as is evident from the columnar basilicas of S. Juan at Baflos in
Old Castile, and S. Miguel of Escalada in Leon, the Corinthian cap-

t — i — i — i — i — i  1 *-* -. — i 
0 12 3 15 »m- 0 1
Fig. 229. — Plan and System of S. Miguel of Escalada.

itals of which support arches of horse-shoe shape (Fig. 229). The
same form appears in the double windows of the Basilica of S. Sal
vador in Valdedios in Asturias, the capitals of the intermediate
columns of which are Byzantine in style. In none of these exam
ples is there an apsidal projection of the choir, the altars being
placed in rectangular chapels, frequently of two stories, or in round
niches appearing only upon the interior, as in S. Miguel of Escalada
(Fig. 229). The Church of Corpus Christi at Segovia is a direct and
almost servile copy of a Moorish model, the so-called Old Syna
gogue (S. Maria Blanca) of Toledo.

374 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
The churches of Spain with an apsidal formation of the choir
seem to belong to a later age. In the remarkable Church of S. Pe
dro y S. Pablo at Barcelona the ornamentations of the facade, the
dome above the intersection of transept and nave, the portal, and
probably also the cruciform plan with one main apse and two semi
circular chapels at either end of the transept, cannot be referred to
the original construction of the tenth century. The case is similar
with S. Lorenzo in Segovia, which, though without a cupola, closely
resembles the preceding church, and with S. Daniel in Gerona, where
the transept is provided with apses ; both of these buildings display
the influences of Southern France. The domed Church of S. Pedro
at Camprodon in Catalonia, of cruciform plan, is more independent
in character, the eastern wall of the transept having four rectan
gular chapels instead of the terminal apses. Otherwise a group of
three apses, corresponding to the nave and side aisles, like the rec
tangular chapels of the before-mentioned choirs, was customary in
Spain. The poorer province of Asturias formed an exception in
this respect, its churches, which were generally without side aisles,
having but a single apse. Instances of this formation are the Paro
chial Church of Ujo, S. Juan of Priorio, and S. Maria of Villamayor.
Most of the churches with domes and apses are as heavy in their
proportions as the earlier structures of Southern France, the influ
ence of which upon the ecclesiastical architecture of Spain, notice
able from the first in the barrel -vaults, became more and more
important. The Provengal system of decoration of the apses and
of the rectangular choir is especially recognizable in the blind ar
cades of the interior and the tall engaged columns and modillion
cornices of the exterior. They did not, however, attain that classic
beauty of detail which had been preserved in Southern France.
Three -aisled churches with three apses were built throughout
Spain during the first half of the twelfth century. The same sys
tem is observable from the southern slopes of the Pyrenees, — as in
S. Pedro at Gerona and S. Pedro at Huesca, — to Galicia, as in San
tiago and S. Maria at La Corufia, — the type being perhaps best
represented at Segovia, while the most varied and elaborate exam
ples appear at Avila. In contrast to the usual memberment of the
piers with engaged columns, S. Millan at Segovia (Fig. 230), displays

SPAIN.

375

a regular alternation of columns and piers, while the side walls are
flanked by cloister- like passages, which frequently occur in Spain,
though usually on one side of the building only. S. Andres y S. Se-
gundo, alone of the numerous churches of Avila which belong to
this class, is entirely without traces of the Gothic style, both S. Pe
dro and S. Vicente having pointed cross-vaults, which prove them
to have been completed at a later date. Other examples worthy of
remark are the Collegiate Church of Toro (Leon), with its magnifi
cent sixteen -sided tower above the intersection of transept and

Fig. 230. — Plan and System of S. Millan at Segovia.
nave, richly decorated with windows and blind arcades, and with
four smaller towers; and S. Isidoro in the town of Leon (Fig. 231),
the clerestory windows of which are so close to the summits of the
main arches that it is plain they were originally intended as the
apertures of a triforium.
While the cross-vaults above the side aisles of the last-mentioned
church display the influences of Auvergne and Toulouse, the most
prominent monument of the Romanic style in Spain is an absolute
copy of a French edifice. This is the celebrated resort of pilgrims,
the Church of Santiago of Compostella in Galicia (Fig. 232), erected

37°

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

during the century preceding 1188, which is so like the Church of
St. Sernin in Toulouse, built between 1060 and 1096, that the direct
transference of the French design is evident beyond a doubt. This
is not contradicted by the fact that the body of the church in San
tiago is one compartment shorter than in St. Sernin, and the transept
as much longer, or that the five aisles of the French building have
here been reduced to three. Without this influence the dimensions
of the transept, which had no parallel in Spain, would be inexplica-

ionv

Fig. 231. — Plan and System of S. Isidoro in Leon.

.ble, as would also the arrangement of the choir with the surrounding
passage and radial chapels. To this may be added the regularity of
the proportions and details of the structure, the height of the nave
equal to the width of the three aisles, the gallery with an arcade of
columns, and the introduction of engaged shafts upon all sides of
the piers, those towards the nave being continued to the impost '
of the vault as supporters of the transverse ribs. The barrel-vaults
of the lower story of the side aisles and the bisected forms above
also point to the constructive methods of Auvergne and Toulouse.

SPAIN.

377

Later restorations have much disfigured this imposing structure of
granite, the radial chapels and the apses of the side aisles having in
greater part been destroyed.
It is natural that so important a work, on so celebrated a site,
should have exercised a great influence upon the neighboring coun
try. The arrangement of the Cathedral of Lugo is unquestionably
derived from Santiago, although its arcades, gallery, and barrel-
vaults are of a pointed form. The advance of France in the devel-

Fig. 232.— Plan and System of Santiago of Compostella.
opment of the Gothic style was soon followed by Spain, and after
the appearance of the characteristic features in the cross-vaults of
S. Vicente and S. Pedro in Avila the so-called transitional style be
came more and more prevalent. Examples of this period are the
old Cathedral of Salamanca, A.D. 11 20 to 1178, and the Cathedrals
of Tarragona, begun in 11 31,. of Tudela, completed in 1188, and of
Lerida, begun in 1203. These churches, which resemble the build
ings of France only in the main features, were all three-aisled, the

378 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
clerestory walls being supported upon piers, and the short choir
terminated by three parallel apses. A more direct introduction
of later French forms is evident in the Abbey Church of Veruela,
probably built between 1146 and 1171, the style of Burgundy hav
ing evidently been imported by the French Cistercians. These imi
tations did not, however, become typical, the architecture of Spain
not attaining to an importance comparable to that of France until
the appearance of the fully developed Gothic style, and its adop
tion in the magnificent Cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, A.D. 1221
and 1227.
GREAT BRITAIN.
The geographical position of the Iberian peninsula is alone suf
ficient to account for the architectural relations of Spain with South
ern France, but the artistic dependence of Great Britain* upon
Normandy must be explained by the political history of the island
as well as by its vicinity to this part of the continent. England was
even more subjected to the influence of Normandy in architectural
than in social and political respects ; for while in the former the
earlier methods of building were entirely supplanted by the style of
Northern France, in the latter the Anglo-Saxon elements decidedly
preponderated, even under the Norman rule.
It is beyond question that, before the decisive battle of Hastings,
the architectural works of England were inferior to those of North
ern France. Until the end of the tenth century Normandy had
taken a full share in the advance of classical Carolingian civilization
through its important convents. Burgundian influences had soon
after made themselves felt, and had led to the development of that
peculiar style which renders the architecture of the North of France
fully equal in artistic interest to that of the South. The classic and
early Christian traditions of England, on the other hand, had been
entirely swept away by the invasions of the Danes in the ninth cen
tury, this throwing the country, in artistic respects, upon its own
resources, which were not sufficiently important to resist the influ
ence of the brilliant style introduced from beyond the Channel.

* J. Britton, The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain. London, 1835. — Idem,
The Ancient Architecture of England. London, 1845.

GREAT BRITAIN,

379

The English remains dating to the Anglo-Saxon and Danish
periods are few in number and of uncertain date. It appears that
almost all the churches founded by the Saxon kings and by Canute
the Great were of wood, and that even at the beginning of the
eleventh century many of them were built of palisades, that is
to say, of upright timbers and boards instead of horizontal block-
beams, and were thatched with reeds. Stone structures were not
entirely lacking, but only those were of importance which had been
designed in the Norman style, such as Westminster, the founder of
which, Edward the Confessor, had
been educated in France. Almost
all the buildings were of nogging,
or of stones roughly cut and so
disposed as to imitate the forms
of the timbered framework of this
manner of construction, long blocks
of stone being embedded in an ex
tremely rude masonry of rubble
and flint facings, not only horizon
tally and as uprights, but in some
cases obliquely, while triangles take
the place of arches above window-
openings and blind arcades. This
is the case in the Church of the
Castle of Dover, the Church of Brix-
worth (Northampton), and especially
in some towers like that of Earls
Barton in Northampton (Fig. 233),
St. Peter at Barton-upon-Humber, and Barneck (Lincolnshire). In
all these works the imitation of the wooden beams is unmistakable,
and in like manner the adoption of designs of timbered constructions
are evident in the galleries and groups of windows, the small columns
of which resemble balusters, being without any of the traditional
forms of bases and capitals, while the encircling fillets and the
bulging forms give them a marked resemblance to the products of
the turning- lathe (Fig. 234). The annulets appear as an imitation
of hoops of metal around wooden supports, and it is worthy of note

2_a«*._;

Fig. 233. — Tower of Earls Barton.

38o

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

in this connection that the capitals, bases, and arches of the Abbey
Church of Waltham, built between 1062 and 1066, are said to have
been reveted with sheets of gilded copper. This empaistic work,
which would have been impossible without a core of wood, or at
least a wooden model, may be compared to the sheet-armor of that
period, and was in accord with the martial character of the people.
The memberment of the walls in the interior of the larger churches
must have been similar to the exterior of the towers of Earls Barton
or St. Peter in Barton-upon-Humber.
After the conquest of England by the Normans, the French oc
cupied not only the highest political offices but the most influential
positions of the Church. They thus had the opportunity of further-

li~A^€^Afe

-y^zrssr

Fig. 234. — Columns of Earls Barton.

ing the erection of ecclesiastical buildings and of introducing the
constructive methods of Normandy. The same Lanfrancus who
had built the finest edifice of Northern France, St. Etienne at Caen,
became archbishop of Canterbury, and after the destruction of this
town by fire, A. D. 1070, erected there a copy of St. Etienne. His
nephew, Paulus, was not so well enabled to follow the designs of
his native country in the building of the Cathedral of St. Albans,
finished in 11 16, as the materials which had been provided by his
Saxon predecessors obliged him to retain in great measure the
methods of construction previously customary. Gundulphus of
Caen, who superintended the re-erection of the Cathedral of Roch
ester, had been the military engineer of William the Conqueror, and

GREAT BRITAIN.

381

appears to have transferred the style of his fortifications even to
ecclesiastical edifices— these characteristics being observable in the
Chapel of St. John in the Tower of London (Fig. 235). Its simple
plan, without a transept, the passage surrounding the choir without
radial chapels, the plain and massive columns, and the walls and
barrel -vault entirely without architectural memberment, are very
different from the forms common in Normandy during this period.
Otherwise the more important buildings of England, erected

F'g- 235- — Interior of the Chapel of St. John in the Tower of London.
during the twelfth century, closely follow the style of Normandy.
The effect was generally more heavy and gloomy, because of the
massiveness of the masonry, resulting from the employment of a
casting of cement and stone chips between ashlar facings. When
columns were introduced instead of piers they were exceedingly
thick and short, being built up of small stones, and appearing the
more clumsy because of the comparatively low and .insignificant
capitals and bases. The capitals were commonly ribbed like those
of Normandy, and in some instances display a grouping which was

382 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
evidently derived from the imposts of piers, and was entirely with
out organic connection with the shaft. The galleries and clerestory
windows were generally similar in form to those of Normandy, but
the engaged shafts of the Romanic epoch were not at this time em
ployed in England as the supports for vaults like those of Caen,—
the main ceiling being a horizontal timbered construction, while the
lean-to roofs of the side aisles were open to the rafters. On the
other hand, the walls were often richly
carved, and the shafts of the columns were
covered with linear ornaments, especially in
a spiral arrangement. The archivolts were
divided into many mouldings, and orna
mented, at least on the side towards the
nave, with chevrons, and at times with
billets, battlement friezes, checkers, dia
monds, scales, and similar Romanic pat
terns,— made attractive by their ingenious
diversity (Fig. 236).
This profuse and carefully executed
decoration was the more required, as the
arrangement of plan and the constructive
forms by no means equalled those of the
Rhenish countries or of Burgundy. At first
the continental choir with an apse was em
ployed, but a return was soon made to the
long -accustomed rectangular termination,
which in Germany and France had only
been retained by the dull and inartistic
Cistercians. On the other hand, the pres
bytery beyond the transept was so extended that it almost equalled
the nave in length, the transept being placed in the middle of the
church. The perspective effect of the interior was thus decidedly
improved. Notwithstanding the lack of a surrounding passage and
radial chapels in the choir, the necessary sites for the altars were
provided by an extension of the eastern side of the transept by as
many chapels as there were compartments, or by adding a second
transept at the end of the choir, as, for instance, in the Cathedral

0 1 1 3 4 fK.
Fig. 236. — System of the Nave
of Steyning Church.

GREAT BRITAIN.

383

of Durham, where space is thus provided for six subordinate altars
(Fig- 237)-
A more remarkable deviation from the style of Normandy is
noticeable on the exterior. By their massiveness, low proportions,
and bald horizontality the English churches were even more re
moved in character from those of the Rhenish countries than were
the buildings of Northern France. The three stories of windows

Fl'g- 237.— Plan of the Cathe
dral of Durham.

Fig. 238. — System of the Exterior
of the Cathedral of Durham.

made necessary by the galleries seldom equalled in height the two
divisions of the Romanic cathedrals of Mayence and its neighbor
hood. The ground -floor was not elevated above the level of the
earth, and the portals consequently became low and insignificant.
The buttresses did not have the ornamental character of a frame
work, like the pilaster strips of the German Romanic edifices, as
they were rarely continued to the top of the wall and were conse
quently not connected with the main cornice. The forms of -the

384 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
Romanic corbel -table were seldom employed. The walls were di
vided by numerous horizontal string courses, which were of a most
stiff and inartistic effect when the divisions of the walls between
them were not relieved by blind arcades (Fig. 238). When arches
in relief were employed they often surpassed those of Normandy in
delicate elaboration, being supported upon groups of engaged shafts
instead of upon simple pilasters. They were occasionally varied
with good effect by intersecting arches extending from the first to
the third and from the second to the fourth support. The roofs
above the horizontal ceilings were but slightly inclined, and were
often entirely hidden from view by the introduction of battlements
above the main cornice.
These battlements, together with the emphasized division of the
exterior into stories, gave the English churches rather the appear
ance of fortresses than of places of worship. In like manner the
towers resembled the primitive Anglo-Saxon barbacans or keep-
towers. These structures were seldom erected in pairs, as in the
imposing edifices of Germany. They were placed above the inter
section of the transept and nave, — before the western front, or, in
some cases, upon one side of the body of the church, and were often
of enormous dimensions, divided by cornices into cubical stories.
Some relief was afforded by a lavish decoration of blind arcades, but
the resemblance of these structures to fortifications was increased
by the terminating cornice of battlements, often rendered of even
more defiant aspect by the small bartizans and turrets added at
its corners. These towers, but slightly diminished, emphasize the
heavy and angular character of the Norman buildings of England,
while conveying the impression of a massive indestructibility not
even equalled by the edifices of the Byzantines.
The Norman style had reached its perfection before it was in
troduced into England, and did not experience any true develop
ment upon the island. This want of growth, and the fact that
there were no monuments of this style erected after the first cen
tury of the Norman occupation, renders it impossible to treat of
the Romanic architecture of England in a purely historic manner.
Two chief classes of buildings are indeed to be distinguished, but
the'se were not consecutive in point of time, appearing from the
first almost side by side.

GREAT BRITAIN. 385
A considerable number of ecclesiastical edifices show the at
tempts to effect a compromise between the Anglo-Saxon and the
Norman styles. Traces of the classic and early Christian disposition
of the plan and of Anglo-Saxon methods of decoration appear, to
gether with the Norman forms. To this class belongs the before-
mentioned Cathedral of St. Albans. A certain retention of the
columnar basilical plan is noticeable in St. John in the Tower of
London, in the Church of Steyning (Sussex), and even in the Ca
thedral of Gloucester, — all of which were erected before the year
1 100, — during the first decades following the Norman conquest.
The comparatively high capitals in the chapel of the Tower still
preserve a faint resemblance to Corinthian forms, which otherwise
had almost entirely disappeared. It may be assumed that these
structures are referable in some measure to the school of Bishop
Gundulphus of Rochester, the builder of the Tower chapel.
The second group comprises a number of churches resembling
the Cathedral of Canterbury, built by Lanfrancus, and consequently
related to St. Etienne in Caen, which had been closely imitated in
this first English cathedral of the Norman style. The Cathedral of
Canterbury itself was almost entirely altered a century later by a
Gothic reconstruction, but the transept of the Cathedral of Win
chester, dating to the original building, A. D. 1079 to I093> and the
ruins upon the island of Lindisfarne near Berwick, A. D. 1090, are of
a system similar to that of St. Etienne, notwithstanding the alterna
tion of piers and columns. The French model was also followed by
the most important English buildings of the twelfth century: the
Cathedrals of Durham (Fig. 237), A.D. 1108 to 1128; Rochester,
from about 1090 to 11 30; Ely, A.D. 1 1 33 ; Chichester, A.D. 11 14 to
about 1 140; Peterborough (Fig. 239), A.D. 11 17 to 1 145 ; and the
Abbey Church of Waltham (Fig. 240). These structures, though
delicately and lavishly decorated with details of extremely careful
and intelligent stone-cutting, exhibit but little independence of de
sign in the portions referable to this period. Although the piers
were occasionally more elaborately membered, this did not lead to
a constructive advance ; the cornices and decorations did not influ
ence the heavy and clumsy forms of the masonry, and there was
altogether no progressive improvement. It is especially remarka-
25

386

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

ble that the ceilings of stone to which the framework naturally
pointed were but seldom introduced, either because vaults of large
span were beyond the constructive ability of the builders, or be
cause the horizontal ceilings of wood were retained in conservative
England from a preference for this more accustomed feature.
In view of this want of development in constructive respects it
is not surprising that the more difficult arrangements of plan, such,
for instance, as the apsidal termination of the choir, were avoided.

Fig. 239. — System of the Cathedral of
Peterborough.

Fig. 240. — System of the Abbey Church of
Walfham.

Concentric churches became even rarer than before, St. Sepulchre
at Cambridge (Fig. 241) being the only edifice of the kind referable
to the Romanic period. Even here the memberment of the archi
volts has no organic connection with the short and thick columns,
while the want of harmony of the interior is increased by the dis
proportionately high dome.
As no convents dating to the Romanic period have been pre-

GREAT BRITAIN.

3^7

served in England, the dwellings are to be judged only from the
enormous keep -towers. Since they were not intended merely for
occupation during a siege, but provided the living-rooms of the
master and accommodation for a number of servants, these towers
were more spacious than the barbacans of German castles. The
excessively thick walls were membered upon the exterior with pilas
ter strips. The hall above the dungeon or well was occupied by the
menials, while that on a higher level was reserved for the master,

Fig. 241. — Section of St. Sepulchre at Cambridge.

deep niches providing the requisite chambers, two stories of which
in some instances corresponded to the height of the central hall.
These lateral rooms were connected by passages and staircases.
Their small windows gave light and air to the main hall, the cen
tral space being extended by the richly ornamented intervening
arches. Like the cathedrals of England, most of the rectangular
keep-towers were imitated from Norman models, such as the well-
preserved donjons of Chambois, Lillebonne, and Courcy. A greater

388 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
number of these structures, however, have remained in England
than in France. Noteworthy examples are the Tower of London,
the Castle of Rochester, also dating to the time of Gundulphus, and
the Castles of Guildford (Surrey), Gainsborough (Yorkshire), and
Hedingham (Essex).
Scotland* was slow in following the example of England. The
few buildings of this thinly populated and comparatively poor coun
try, antedating the age of King David I., A.D. 1124 to 1165, were
even less important than those of the Anglo-Saxons. It naturally
resulted from the mountainous and well -wooded character of the
land that timbered constructions were universal ; buildings of wood
were commonly designated by English chroniclers of the period as
"more Scotorum." The few churches of stone were of small size
and wholly without artistic importance. In the twelfth century,
however, so many Norman edifices had been erected in England
that their effect could not but be felt in Scotland, notwithstanding
the enmity of the two races. This was the more natural as the
Scots stood in more intimate and amicable relations to the French
than did the English, and consequently received the same influence
at first hand. The Norman style of Scotland thus differs but little
from that of England, and having been introduced at a compara
tively late period, had no opportunity for further development.
The Church of Kirkwall, upon Pomona, one of the Orkney Islands,
was begun in 1136 and completed with Gothic forms, while the Ab
bey Churches of Jedburgh and Kelso belong entirely to the transi
tional period.
Ireland f was somewhat more independent in artistic respects
than Scotland, having been Christianized at an earlier age. Pre
served by its insular position from foreign influences, its art, as early
as the eighth century, was of a peculiar character. The Celtic style
was, it is true, merely decorative, the patterns being derived from
* R. W. Billings and W. Burn, Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland.
London and Edinburgh, 1845-1852.
f G. Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman
Invasion. Dublin, 1845.

GREAT BRITAIN. 389
the primitive forms of the North, and developed to a high degree
of technical perfection. As we have seen, these designs were not
only extended throughout a great part of the Continent by the illu
minated manuscripts introduced through the Irish missionaries, but
appeared in the braided and intertwined decorations which were
common during the Romanic period, and supplanted to a great ex
tent the classic foliage and the straight-lined figures of other styles.
In architectural design and construction, however, the island was so
far behind the civilization of the Carolingians and Byzantines that
during the Romanic epoch it not only was wholly without influence
upon the more advanced countries, but was itself destitute of the
qualities requisite to accept the superior methods of building prac
tised upon the Continent.
Side by side with the chapels of wood, built " Scotico more " in
Ireland between the eighth and twelfth centuries, structures of stone
occasionally appeared. These were, however, of so primitive a plan
and of so rude a masonry, resembling that of the Cyclopean walls
of classic lands, that they would naturally be referred to a prehis
toric age were not the date of their erection frequently assured by
documentary evidence. Rectangular, horizontally ceiled chapels are
often combined with somewhat smaller square choirs, the ceilings
of the latter being occasionally shaped like pointed barrel -vaults.
These structures were, however, built without vousoirs, in horizon
tal courses, the projection beginning from the ground. There was
no trace whatever of the true principles of vaulted construction ;
even the doors and windows were either square -headed, or termi
nated by large stones so inclined as to form a gable, or by a mono
lithic lintel cut to a curve. Both the constructive and the decora
tive forms of these buildings were exceedingly rude.
To this class belong the chapels of Gallerus, Lough Corrib, Ra-
tass, Glenalough, Kilmaduagh, Dairbhile, and Fore. As little artis
tic importance can be attached to the towers of this period, which
in their cylindrical plan and greatly diminished elevation contrast
strongly with the square and massive towers of England. The
masonry of these piles is decidedly superior to that of the body of
the churches, with which they were not immediately connected, but
in artistic respects they were of quite as little interest.

39O ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
These structures of stone do not seem to have been carved with
decorative details before the eleventh century. At all events, no
monumental ornamentation is known which does not more or less
distinctly betray the influence of the Norman style. The portal of
the round tower of Timahoe, with its peculiar* bases and capitals of
intertwined patterns and rude sculptures of human heads, displays,
by the introduction of chevrons upon the mouldings of the arch, the
transition between the forms of the indigenous carvings of wood
and the ornamentations of Northern France. The untrained imita
tion of Norman designs in the portal of the Tower of Kildare is an
evidence of a further advance in this direction. In the later build
ings of Clonmacnoise, Killaloe, Freshford, etc., the Norman elements
became more and more important, and in the Chapel of Cormac
at Cashel, consecrated in 1134, they were exclusively employed.
Braided and intertwined ornaments, nevertheless, occasionally make
their appearance in later times, as, for instance, in the Cathedral of
Tuam, built between 1128 and 11 50, the capitals of which present a
combination of distorted masks and strap -work. Among the few
peculiarities of the Romanic buildings in Ireland may be mentioned
a straight termination with a one -aisled plan, and the two-storied
choir, which was arranged in a manner similar to that observable
on the northern coast of Spain.
SCANDINAVIA.
The islands and peninsulas upon the north of the Baltic were
inferior in artistic interest even to Great Britain. Although this
was the native land of the Normans, who had occupied Northern
France and conquered England, it exhibits no trace of the begin
nings of Norman art.* On the contrary, an influence far more im
portant than that derived from Scandinavia was introduced into this
country from Normandy and England. The greater part of its civ
ilization was, however, of German origin.
* J. C. C. Dahl, Denkmaler einer sehr ausgebildeten Holzbaukunst der friihesten Jahr-
hunderte in den inneren Landschaften Norwegens. Dresden, 1837. — A. v. Minutoli, Der
Dom zu Drontheim und die mittelalterliche christliche Baukunst der skandinavischen Nor-
mannen. Berlin, 1853. — Nicolausen, Mindesmerker of middelalderens Kunst in Norwe-
gen. Christiania, 1855.— P. Lehfeldt, Die Holzbaukunst. Berlin, 1880.

SCANDINAVIA. 39 1
The Danes and Norwegians, — the two nations most closely allied
in ethnographical and historical respects, — were Christianized at
about the same time, the former under King Harold Bluetooth,
A.D. 936 to 986, the latter under Olaf I., Trygvason, A.D. 995 to
1000. Before this period both Denmark and Norway were alto
gether without architectural monuments, in the true sense of the
word. Palisades served as fortifications instead of walls, and even
the palaces of the kings were roughly built of squared logs, the
interstices between which were stuffed with moss, the whole struct-.
ure being coated with tar. Colored mats formed the chief adorn
ments of the interior. It may nevertheless be assumed that certain
details, such as the jambs and panels of doors, gables and gargoyles,
and especially the furniture, were ornamented with painted carv
ings and with sheets of metal, as is stated to have been the case
with the ships of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of the Danes, A. D. 986
to 10 1 3. These decorations, like those of the later wooden build
ings, doubtless consisted of monstrous and distorted images, and
of fantastic intertwined patterns.
The earliest churches were constructed of wood. This was the
case with all those founded by King Harold Bluetooth, among
which the Church of the Holy Trinity at Roeskild seems to have
been the most important. Even the churches erected by Canute
the Great, A. D. 1013 to 1035, in Denmark and England, were of
this material. In Norway timbered constructions have continued
to be employed for the most important edifices, and more than fifty
ancient churches built of wood are still standing. These were erect
ed at very different periods ; the age of only one can be certainly de
termined, the Church of Tind or Atro in Upper Telemarken, which,
according to its Runic inscriptions, dates to the years between 11 80
and 1 190. The style of its ornamentation, however, proves that this
church is by no means the oldest among those known. Judging from
the primitive and unconventionalized character of the wood carv
ings, the Church of Urnes (Fig. 242) and that of Borgund (Fig. 243),
both in the province of Sorge, are older than that of Tind, while
that of Hitterdal in Lower Telemarken may perhaps be ascribed to
the same age.
These structures are mostly small, and closely resemble each

392

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

other in architectural treatment. The rectangular body of the
church is divided by columns of wood, which are carried around
the four sides and support a simple framework of timbers. The
aisles thus formed at the sides and ends are roofed on a lower level
than is the nave ; the choir, at times terminated by an apse, is of
corresponding height. In many cases the entire building is sur-

P"rn

A

t-»-J — I — i — i — s  j%

SI

Fig. 242. — Plan and View of the Church of Urnes.

rounded by a low and narrow corridor like a cloister (Lof), the lean-
to roof of which is supported upon ranges of diminutive columns.
This passage is interrupted on the front and sides by projecting
portals. The walls of the church, formed of upright boards and
beams, are thus hidden from view and protected from the influences
of the weather. The arrangement of the roofs is pyramidal, the
lean-to roof of the aisles and choir rising above that of the sur-

SCANDINAVIA.

393

rounding passage, while the steep saddle - roof of the nave is sur
mounted by a small ridge turret, serving as a belfry. The narrow
wall-surfaces between these roofs are covered, like them, with shin-

_^-^=^!5^_:^^_afi^?^2ia_v

• •

•

•

i _

i

i

MIJ
I •
T
i
Fig. 243. — Plan and View of the Church of Borgund.
gles. The interior is less attractive. The windows are few and
small of size, and the tall beams which serve as supports are with
out memberment and organic connection ; the roof timberings and
ceiling panels are not decorated, carvings in relief, like those of
394 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
the portals, being restricted in the interior to the cubical capitals.
In the churches of Urnes and Borgund the boarded ceilings, which
are similar in form to barrel-vaults, or, to speak more correctly, to
the plankings of a ship, are decorated in color but not carved ; the
same is the case with the horizontal ceiling of boards in the church
at Hitterdal. The carvings are of interwoven patterns, resembling those of Ire
land, but the imitation of the braided work is here less direct. The
straps differ in thickness, the larger parts often taking the forms of
fantastic animals ; they are not arranged according to any conven
tional system, but solely with reference to the panels which they
are required to fill. This character appears in the carvings of the
Church of Urnes. In the course of time the designs become more
methodical, of a lower relief, and less original ; the ends take the
form of leaves, thus resembling the Romanic foliage of Germany.
The later stage of development is exemplified by the before-men
tioned Church of Tind. Conventionalized designs of this kind con
tinued to be employed with but few alterations in the carvings of
Scandinavia, and can still be traced in the wooden utensils of that
country. The oldest works of masonry in the Danish countries are the
Cathedral of Roeskild in Zealand, built by King Canute IV. be
tween 1080 and 1086, and that begun by the same king in the town
of Lund, which now belongs to Sweden. Both have been much al
tered by subsequent reconstructions, that of the original Cathedral
of Lund having taken place towards the end of the twelfth cent
ury, while the rebuilding of Roeskild was two hundred years later.
Both distinctly display the characteristics of German models. The
former seems to have been designed with reference to the introduc
tion of vaulted ceilings ; the Romanic influences are evident in the
alternation of light square supports and piers with engaged columns,
in the form of the capitals, in the grouped windows, and, upon the
exterior, in the arched corbel -table and the dwarf gallery of the
apse. The latter is imitated from the Cathedral of Ratzeburg, be
ing thus indirectly influenced by the Cathedral of Brunswick. Ger
man models seem to have been followed in the other Romanic
edifices of Denmark, as at Ribe, Viborg, and Aarhuus ; the alter-

SCANDINAVIA.

395

nate system of Hildesheim, with two columns between the piers, is
introduced in the Church of Westervick.
Even in buildings of different arrangement no foreign influences
are perceptible except those of Germany. The cruciform Byzan
tine plan of the Church of Callundborg in Zealand, built towards
the end of the twelfth century, can hardly be connected with the
service of the Danish body-guard of mercenaries in Constantino
ple, as is proved by the many towers of the building : one of rect
angular plan surmounting the intersection of transept and nave,
and four eight -sided towers above the polygonal e*nd walls of the
transepts. The simple forms of the capital, and other peculiarities
of the brick construction, rather resemble the architectural details
of the North German Low
lands. The same is the case
with the round churches of
Denmark, the small edifice
of Thorsaeger, and that
upon the island of Born-
holm, which is like the
crypt of St. Michael of Ful
da in the introduction of a
central pier as the support
of the vaults. To this class
belong also, the round build
ings of Greenland, two of
which have been preserved in Igalikko and Kakortok. Perhaps
we may add to this list the circular structure known as the Old
Stone Mill near Newport, Rhode Island (Fig. 244), which is said
to be the most important monument of an occupation of America
antedating the age of Columbus. It is far from certain that this
building was connected with the mission of Bishop Eric to Vine-
land in the year 1121. The drum is supported upon eight columns
connected by arches, and may have been surrounded by a concen
tric passage, of the outer wall of which, .however, there are no re
mains. There is no evidence of its style, as it is wholly without
ornamental details. Even the bases and capitals are of a simple
rectangular profile.

Fig. 244. — Old Stone Mill, Newport, Rhode Island.

396 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
The older stone buildings of Norway date to the reign of Harold
Hardrada, A.D. 1047 to 1066, and that of Olaf the Peaceful, A.D.
1066 to 1093. The most ancient churches which have been pre
served, whether of one-aisled or basilical plan, resemble the struct
ures of Normandy rather than those of Germany. This was the
case with the basilicas of Aker near Christiania, of Granevolden in
Hadeland, and of Stavanger, the ribbed capitals and chevrons of
which are similar in design to those of Norman and English portals.
In view of the extended commerce of Norway, it is not strange
that constructive methods should occasionally have been derived
from even more remote countries. Thus the barrel-vaults and bi
sected forms of the church at Ringsaker in Hedemarken would be
entirely inexplicable without the assumption of French influences.
As, with the exception of buildings of wood, Norway affords but
scanty materials for our consideration during this epoch, it is not
strange that the monuments of Sweden should be of even less im
portance, this country not having been Christianized until after the
middle of the twelfth century, and consequently possessing no
churches of an earlier date. The later one-aisled structures or ba
silicas, with the clerestory walls supported upon piers, such as those
of Sigtuna on the lake of Maelar, and Alfuaster in East Gothland,
are too rude and wanting in ornamentation to be treated as works
of art. The first important edifice of Sweden, the Church of Warn-
heim, was built towards the end of the twelfth century by Cister
cian immigrants, and is consequently without interest in this con
nection. It may be assumed, however, that as this structure displays
the forms of the German Romanic style, Sweden was in general
more influenced by the artistic culture of Germany than by that
of Normandy. The commerce of the country had been chiefly
directed towards the coasts of the Baltic Ocean, and it is natural
that the elements of civilization should have been introduced from
this direction. Thus Sweden was brought into closer relations with
Denmark than was Norway, notwithstanding the political union of
the two latter countries.

Up

Fig. 245. — Fragment of a Mosaic Pavement in the Crypt of St. Gereon in Cologne.

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

THROUGHOUT the Middle Ages architecture was of greater
importance than the other arts, and this was especially the
case during the Romanic epoch. New constructive ideas, new dec
orative forms, and all the elements of a new architectural style, of
great variety and capability of development, had sprung from the
combination of the early Christian and Byzantine methods of build
ing. Paintings and sculptures, on the other hand, remained of
subordinate importance. They were seldom employed otherwise
than as adjuncts to the works of architecture, and did not attain
to an independent position until a later period. While the art of
building in almost all Christian countries was, more than any other
phase of intellectual activity, distinctly representative of national
peculiarities, painting and sculpture remained in the trammels of
a monotonous international tradition.
Methods of building and decorative details were occasionally
transferred from one country to another, — Lombardic features ap
pearing in France and on the banks of the Rhine ; those of Southern
France in Spain, those of Normandy in England. But the truly

398 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
national styles, such as those of Saxony, the Rhenish countries,
Lombardy, Sicily, the Provence, Burgundy, and Normandy, were
nevertheless more readily distinguishable in the works of architect
ure than in those of sculpture and painting, the latter being more
universally distributed than the buildings, and less dependent upon
the conditions of climate and materials, of provincial ideas and of
local traditions. The exchange of sculptures and paintings between
one country and another has at all periods been readily effected.
Thus Irish methods of illumination were transferred to the Lake of
Constance, and the Byzantine manner of painting was introduced at
Monte Casino and at the court of Saxony through the importation
of manuscripts and enamels, and through the travels of the artists
themselves. There was hence an even greater continuity of the ancient ar
tistic methods in these branches than in architecture. The art of
the Byzantines and that of the early Christians, as revived during
the Carolingian epoch, were exclusively employed long after the
tenth century. Neither the artists of the courts nor those of the
cloisters attempted to introduce new forms. In like manner as the
manuscripts were copied, the illustrations contained in them were
exactly imitated. The masterpieces of Byzantine and Carolingian
illuminators remained the standards of taste, and it was rarely that
the painters of later generations endeavored, where models were
lacking, to study from nature itself. In these few cases the ener
getic attempt to convey a meaning makes up for the extreme awk
wardness of the new features : the violent action, almost amounting
to a disjointed caricature, leaving no doubt as to the intention of
the artist. Correctness of form was rare, beauty almost unknown.
The chief attention was devoted to the conventional treatment of
the pigments, or of the stone, wood, ivory, or metal from which the
work was carved. It is characteristic of the artistic conceptions of
this period that, in contrast to the painters' book of Mount Athos,
which chiefly deals with the composition and the subjects repre
sented, the Northern writings upon art relate solely to technical
methods. This is the case with the fragment of the Anonymous
Bernensis of the ninth century, edited by H. Hagen, and especially
with Theophilus, Schedula Diversarum Artium, edited by A. Ilg,

GERMANY. 399
the oldest manuscript of which, now in Wolfenbuettel, is referable
to the twelfth century.
Throughout the Romanic period Germany led the way in paint
ing as well as in architecture. The missionaries of St. Gall, Fulda,
and Corvey carried forward the work begun under the Carolingians,
and in like manner the pioneers of the civilization of the Middle
Ages, the brethren of the rapidly increasing convents, developed
an activity of considerable extent and success. The power and
also the pleasure of original artistic creation was increased by the
assurance of furthering pious ends. The experience of Charle
magne had already proved the artistic, and especially the pictorial
ornamentation of places of worship to be one of the most important
means of promoting Occidental civilization.
As early as the ninth century wall-paintings were very com
monly introduced into the churches, often in extended series of pict
ures, such as those described in detail by Alcuin, Bernowin, Ermol-
dus, Nigellus, Walafried Strabo, and other contemporary writers.
After the time of Charlemagne the slow and difficult art of mosaic
inlaying was but little practised, such pavements as those of Hildes
heim and Cologne being exceptional. Little is known concerning
the mosaic pavement of Bernward, which was destroyed in later
times, but it may perhaps be assumed that the rough cement floor
of dark color in the Cathedral of Hildesheim, dating to 1122, was
similar to it in conventional treatment. The remnants of pavement
in the crypt of St. Gereon in Cologne (Fig. 245) are decidedly infe
rior to the ornamental work executed in various parts of Italy at
this period. Mural paintings were more extensively employed, but
were of extreme simplicity, consisting chiefly of drawings in outline,
the local tones of which were applied upon the dry wall with but
little attempt at modelling.
As these mural paintings seem never to have been restored, and
are generally of such hasty and superficial execution that the origi
nal designers cannot have been long employed upon them, it is not
to be assumed that every cloister had its own staff of painters for
this kind of work, as had been the case in the execution of minia
tures. It is probable that these methods were cultivated only in a
small number of convents, the artists who had been trained in these

400 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
establishments being called as journeymen to other places. Schools
of painting of this kind seem to have existed in Saxony and in
some of the Rhenish provinces. The only one, however, of which
we have definite historical information is that upon the Island of
Reichenau, in the Lake of Constance (Augia Dives), where, in the
ninth and tenth centuries, several stone churches and convents had
been erected in place of the wooden church and hermitage founded
in the eighth century by St. Pirminius. Even St. Gall, which, after
the ninth century, was celebrated for its school of illuminators, em
ployed artists from Reichenau to execute the mural decorations in
the house of the abbot. From this it may be argued that St. Gall
itself was not provided with painters skilled in this branch of art.
Two of the artists of Reichenau, as will later appear, were, towards
the end of the tenth century, engaged upon the magnificent Codex
of Treves ; it is probable also that members of this fraternity were
at about this time employed upon the decorations of the Church
of Petershausen near Constance. St. George in Oberzell, upon the
Island of Reichenau itself, was rebuilt and enlarged between 984
and 990, and the paintings upon its interior walls* probably date
to this period. These are the oldest monumental paintings of this
age which have been preserved in Germany.
It is evident from the total lack of architectural memberment in
the walls that the entire nave was built with reference to mural
decoration. The spandrels of the arcades are decorated with me
dallion portraits of abbots and prophets, originally six upon each
side. Above these is a broad frieze with representations of the
Miracles of Christ : upon the southern wall the Awakening of Laz
arus (Fig. 246), of the Daughter of Jairus, and of the Son of the
Widow of Nain, the Healing of the Woman with the issue of blood,
and the Cleansing of the Leper; upon the northern, the Casting out
of the Unclean spirit, the Stilling of the Tempest, the Healing of the
Man with the dropsy, and of the Man born blind. The narrow ver
tical bands of ornament which separate the pictures exhibit a com-

* F. X. Kraus, Die Wandgemalde in der S. Georgskirche zu Oberzell auf der Reiche
nau. Freiburg, 1884. — A. Springer, Die deutsche Kunst im 10. Jahrhundert. West-
deutsche Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst. III. Trier, 1884.

GERMANY.

401

bination of the Carolingian and Romanic styles, while the horizon
tal borders of frets drawn in perspective have a striking resemblance
to the patterns which occur in antique pavements,* in Etruscan
wall paintings,*)* and in the Christian friezes of France and Italy,
such as those of the Baptistery of Poitiers, St. Sernin in Toulouse,
St. Victor at Fontvielle near Aries, and S. Maria la Libera at For'o-
claudio. The spaces between the windows are occupied by single
figures of the apostles. There is no proof that these paintings
were executed al fresco. The colors are bright and well chosen,
being quite free from the brown and olive tints of the Byzan-

Fig. 246. — The Awakening of Lazarus. Wall Painting at Oberzell.

tines ; neither do the forms or the composition betray the influence
of Byzantium. There are no traces of ceremonial rigidity and con
ventionalism, the action being full of life, and the draperies natural.
Early Christian and particularly Carolingian reminiscences may be
recognized, but the awkward laboriousness of those works has been
in great measure overcome. A certain technical skill is evident,
together with a facile and careless execution.

* Such, for instance, as that shown in Zahn, Pompeii, III. 16.
f Compare Mon. d. Inst. d. C. A., VI.
26

402

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

The representation of the Last Judgment (Fig. 247) is but little
more recent. Its similarity to the mosaics of the early Christian
basilicas is probably due to the subject, as well as to the smaller
number of figures. Unfortunately, the effect of the whole is im
paired by its bad state of preservation, especially by the flesh tints
having become black through a decomposition of the red lead.
The mural paintings in Oberzell are the more important as they
are the only ones worthy of mention, remaining in Germany from
the period to which they belong. We have especially to regret

Fig. 247. — The Last Judgment. Wall Painting at Oberzell.
the loss of the battle-piece which was executed by order of King
Henry I., in the upper hall of his palace at Merseburg, in com
memoration of the battle against the Hungarians near Riet on the
Unstrut, in the year 933. It may, however, be assumed that this
work was similar in character to the historical wall painting of
Charlemagne in the imperial palace at Ingelheim, even as these had
followed the style of the decorations in Queen Theodelinde's palace
at Monza. The half -figures of saints in the ground -floor of the
tower of Nonnberg in Salzburg, dating to the eleventh century, are
more Byzantine in conception and form than those of Reichenau;

GERMANY. 403
this is probably due not only to the nature of the subject, but also
to the intimate relations of Salzburg with Venetian culture.
Better examples than those of the mural painting of the tenth
and eleventh centuries at Oberzell, are afforded for the twelfth by
the decorations of the Lower Church of Schwarzrheindorf, near
Bonn, and by the painting of the ceiling of the chapter-house in
the Abbey of Brauweiler near Cologne.* Both of these may per
haps be referred to a school of Cologne artists. Even in regard to
the subject, the series of pictures in Schwarzrheindorf, dating to
about the year 11 50, is of great importance. The representation
of Christ in the act of teaching, surrounded by two groups of

Fig. 248. — Painting of the Apse of the Lower Church of Schwarzrheindorf.
apostles, in the conch of the chief apse (Fig. 248), are of a devout
and even ecstatic effect, heightened as it is by scenes of the vis
ion of Ezekiel, which ornament the compartments of the vaults of
the choir, and of the intersection of transept and nave. To this
were added, in the three apses of the transept and western end,
representations of the life of Christ : the driving out of the sell
ers and buyers from the Temple, the Transfiguration, and the Cru
cifixion, with Pilate washing his hands. In technical respects, and
especially in the employment of a blue ground, these paintings
* E. aus'm Weerth, Wandmalereien des Mittelalters in den Rheinlanden. Leipzig.
Without date.

404 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
are similar to those of Oberzell. In composition, however, as well
as in grouping and in artistic feeling, they are far superior. The
drapery, notwithstanding some conventionalism, is more tastefully
disposed, and clearly displays the study of.the early Christian works
of the West. The twenty-four paintings upon the vaults of the hall
of the chapter-house in Brauweiler, illustrating scenes from the Old
and New Testaments and the lives of the saints, exhibit greater
freedom, but less power of expression, while a certain weakness in
the composition betrays a want of feeling for style. The paintings
in the apse of the choir in the Minster of St. Patroclus at Soest,
dating to 1166, contain only single figures: in the conch, Christ in
a glory, with the symbols of the Evangelists and six saints, on the
wall of the apse, four figures of kings. Similar in character are the
decorations in the choir of St. Kilian at Luegde, near Pyrmont.
The paintings in the western transept of the Cathedral at Muenster,
representing the people of Friesland bringing votive offerings to
their patron St. Paul, show a finer composition, but less understand
ing of form.
The extensive mural paintings in the choir and transept of the
Cathedral of Brunswick are the most important examples of this
art referable to the beginning of the thirteenth century, as well as
the most complete series of mediaeval wall decorations. The upper
part of the building, it is true, belongs to the transitional period,
and the paintings also show something of the grace and attenuation
of Gothic forms. Still, it is to be observed that this method of
covering the entire wall with paintings was practised in Germany
only during the Romanic epoch, and the scenes themselves betray
no traces of Gothic architectural details. This is also the case with
the pictures in the Choir of the Nuns in the Cathedral of Gurk in
Carinthia, which, if we may judge from the portraits of the found
ers under the throne of the Virgin, can hardly have been painted
before the middle of the thirteenth century.
It may be assumed that mural paintings were prevalent, espe
cially in the choir, not only during the period when the walls were
without architectural memberment, but also in later buildings of
simpler plan. Traces of painting have been found not alone in
the larger churches, as in the Upper Minster at Ratisbon, and at

GERMANY.

405

Lambach in Austria, but even in the smallest village churches
of Germany. They are particularly frequent in the buildings of
Westphalia, as at' Methler, Ohle, Werdohl, Plettenberg, Huesten,
Heggen, Froendenberg, Opherdicke, Castrop, Ahlen, and Senden-
burg, but they occur also in other places, as, for instance, at Per-
schen and Keferloh in Bavaria.
Even fewer of the paintings upon the panels of the horizontal
wooden ceilings in the basilicas have been preserved. As the ma
terial of these ceilings was less durable than that of the walls it was
necessary to renew them more frequently, and in later times they

Fig. 249. — Adam and Eve. Painting upon the Ceiling of St. Michael in Hildesheim.

were generally replaced by vaulted constructions. The most impor
tant and best preserved work of the kind, the ceiling of St. Michael
in Hildesheim, is of comparatively recent date, having been painted
in 1 186. The pictures upon it represent the genealogy of Christ,
and are so disposed that the central panels are filled by the principal
groups: Adam and Eve under the Tree of Knowledge (Fig. 249),
Jesse sleeping and the four kings of his line, and Christ with the
Virgin. In the smaller spaces upon each side are representations
of the Evangelists, of the Rivers of Paradise, etc., while the whole
is surrounded by medallions containing breast -pieces of the Holy

406 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
companionship. It cannot be denied that these paintings, in com
position and drawing, are decidedly superior to the conventional
works of Byzantine art, and at times display a truth to nature, and
even a beauty of form, equally removed from the mummy-like dry
ness and stiffness of the style of the Eastern empire and from the
rude clumsiness of the Carolingian methods. The greatest advance
is perceptible in the ornamental parts of the composition, the char
acteristics of which are referable rather to the miniature paintings
of this age than to any architectural precedents, and, contrary to
the somewhat crude attempts at Oberzell, are of more tasteful Ro
manic designs ; the conventionalized vines and foliage helping over
many of the difficulties, such as those presented to the artist by
trees and landscape backgrounds. A like artistic importance could
hardly have been expected in the paintings upon the ceiling in the
Church at Zillis in Graubuenden, of about the same period, in view
of their subordinate character and the remoteness of the place in
which they were executed. The one hundred and fifty-three repre
sentations, upon small panels, are rude and awkward, both in the
figures and in the ornamental details.
Paintings upon detached panels,* intended for any other pur
pose than decorations to be seen at a distance, were rare in Ger
many before the thirteenth century. The earliest of those known
were executed for antependiums, or panels before altar - tables ;
these furnishings, however, were more frequently of stone or met
al, or of linen or woollen stuffs, either embroidered or woven.
The antependium painted upon wood, in the Convent of St. Wal-
purgis at Soest, now in the Provincial Museum at Muenster, may
perhaps be referred to the latter part of the twelfth century.
The conventional type of the figures upon " gold ground betrays
the influence of beaten metal -work. The embarrassment which
always attends first experiments with any new and unaccustomed
technical process is plainly perceptible, still, the heads and the
hands are by no means wanting in beauty of form (Fig. 250).
The painted antependium at Luene, near Lueneburg, is of a simi
lar style. * H. v. Zuydewyk, Die alteste Tafelmalerei Westphalens. Minister, 1882.

GERMANY.

407

. Of higher artistic character is the older of the two altar-pieces
from the Wiesenkirche at Soest, now in the Berlin Museum (No.
I2i6tf). This work was not executed before the thirteenth century,
and is the earliest remaining example of the painted altars which in
later times became of such importance. It is a triptych, the side
wings being immovable, is painted on parchment mounted upon oak
boards, and has a gold background. The middle panel represents
the crucifixion : on the left, Christ before Caiaphas, on the right, the
two Marys at the Sepulchre. Traits are here met with similar to
those which appear a century and a half later in the more developed
panel painting of Cologne
and Flanders. The rude
ness peculiar to the illus
trations of similar sub
jects in the manuscripts,
from the Carolingian pe
riod to the Codex Eg
berti, has been in great
measure overcome. In
stead of the meagre com
position which is charac
teristic of monumental
paintings even as recent
as those of Schwarzrhein
dorf and Brauweiler, this
work exhibits decidedly
more feeling for perspective and a finer effect of grouping. But the
technical execution is still too faulty, the knowledge of form and
action too uncertain, the feeling for nature too undeveloped, to war
rant the assertion that the characteristic limitations of the previous
period had been overcome. The other triptych of the same church
(Fig. 251), also in the Berlin Museum (No. I2i6£), is of a later date
and of less importance. In the centre is the Trinity, upon the right
wing the Virgin, upon the left St. John, all with gold backgrounds.
The slender forms and the angular superabundant folds of the flut
tering draperies indicate the approach of a new era, the conceptions
of which differ vastly from those of the severe and Unpretentious

am
Fig. 250. — The Virgin. Antependium of St. Walpur-
gis in Soest, now in the Museum in Muenster.

408 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
designer of the antependium and of the before - mentioned altar-
piece. The glass painting of the Romanic epoch deserves attention,
rather as a forerunner of the future greatness of this art than be
cause of any intrinsic merit. Colored decorations of this kind ap
pear to be as old as the employment of glass for windows. The
first mention of the representation of figures in stained glass is that
of the Church of St. Remy at Rheims, into the windows of which
Bishop Adalbero, a German, and formerly canon of Metz, introduced,
between 968 and 989, various legendary scenes* In Germany we

Fig. 251. ^Altar-piece from the Wiesenkirche in Soest, now in the Museum of Berlin.
find the first notice of this art in a letter of Gozbert, Abbot of Te
gernsee, A.D. 983 to 1001, to Count Arnold, patron of the convent;
but the expression " many colored panes " leaves us in doubt as to
whether these decorations were of figures or merely geometrical
patterns. The colored window draperies, embroidered or woven,
which seem to have been common before the time of glazing, were
of great influence in the introduction of glass painting. This influ
ence may have been supplemented by that of the previous works in
* Pertz, Monumenta, V., page 613.

GERMANY.

409

mosaic and enamel, the characteristics of the former appearing in
the putting together of small pieces of stained glass, and of the lat
ter in the handling of the colors. The technical treatment long
continued very simple, the outlines being formed by the leadings,
and the details, without regard to local color,
being indicated by the blackish-brown lines of a
flux of oxide of copper, known as black solder.
The oldest remaining examples are the five
windows with figures of the prophets in the
Cathedral of Augsburg, which were probably ex
ecuted soon after the middle of the eleventh cen
tury (Fig. 252). They are of an exceedingly rude
style, unmistakably influenced by the designs of
Byzantine tapestry. The glass paintings in the
Chapel of St. Sebastian, of Christ, of St. Peter
and St. Paul, at Neuweiler in Alsace, are similar
in character but somewhat later. The specimens
of this art in the Old Minster at Strasburg, and
the figures of princes in the chapter -hall of the
Cistercian Convent of Heiligenkreuz, though a
century later, and certainly of finer and more
tasteful execution, still show no change in style.
A notable advance, however, appears in Co
logne and its vicinity, doubtless in connection
with the improvement made in mural painting,
this progress being, perhaps, somewhat due to
the influence of France. The glass paintings in
the niches of the choir in St. Patroclus at Soest
are unfortunately in so bad a state of preserva
tion that no satisfactory judgment can be passed
upon them. The magnificent windows of St.
Cunibert in Cologne, of the Church of Legden in
Westphalia, and of St. Maternianus at Buecken in Hanover (Fig.
253), all date from the transitional period, — the middle of the thir
teenth century. In composition and technical treatment they are
related equally to that school which executed the windows in the
Church of St. Denis, built by the abbot Suger, and to the mural

Fig. 252. — Window of
Stained Glass in the
Cathedral of Augs
burg.

410

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

painting in the Church of St. Michael at Hildesheim. Painting in
general followed but slowly the advances made in architecture, and
that upon glass was especially antiquated in style. Like the win
dows of stained glass in the first Gothic building of Suger, the paint
ings of the transitional epoch in Germany seldom exhibit pointed
forms in the architectural details.
The art of weaving and embroidering figures was, at least in
Germany, less frequently practised for wall tapestries than for litur-

Fig. 253. — Glass Painting from the Middle Window of the Choir of the
Church of St. Maternianus, Buecken.

gic garments. The earliest and best of such works were Byzantine
or Oriental, and were mostly imported from Palermo. The antepen-
diums, choir tapestries or dorsels, and the hangings of the altar were,
however, often executed by native monks and nuns, or even by
profane hands. Among the few German works of this kind which
have been preserved, the most important are the dorsels from Qued
linburg, with representations of the nuptials of Philologia and Mer
cury, according to the allegory of Marcianus Capella, and dating to
the end of the twelfth century (Fig. 254). They may have been

GERMANY. 4! r
worked for some unconsecrated hall, such as the Caminatas, which
were common in the palaces built of wood as well as those of stone.
The chief information in regard to Romanic painting in Ger
many is to be obtained from the illuminated manuscripts.* These
were quite as universal as mural decorations, and, owing to the nat
ure of their materials, far more of them have been preserved. The
art of miniature painting was practised exclusively by the monks, as,
indeed, all the culture of the Romanic epoch in Germany was main
tained by the clergy. When persons of distinction, either priestly

Fig. 254. — Woven Dorsel from Quedlinburg.
or secular, appear in the inscriptions, they are generally to be con
sidered as patrons rather than as artists, and the word " fecit " in
the signature is in such cases to be understood as " fieri fecit."
Even the artistic activity of Bernward of Hildesheim, after he be
came bishop, was more that of a maecenas and director than that
of a practical designer.
The Ottos had continued the protection of the arts formerly
* A. Springer, Die Psalterillustrationen im fruheren Mittelalter, mit besonderer RUck-
sicht auf den Utrechtspsalter. Abh. d. phil. hist. A. d. k. sachs. Ges. d. Wiss. Leipzig,
1880, VIII.— E. X. Kraus, Die Miniaturen des Codex Egberti in der Stadtbibliothek zu
Trier. Freiburg, 1884.

412 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
afforded by the Carolingians, and their works of architecture, mural
painting, and illuminated manuscripts are of much the same charac
ter as those of their predecessors. The connection of the imperial
court of Germany with Rome was as favorable to classic studies at
this epoch as it had been in that of Charlemagne, but these branches
were not pursued with thoroughness and understanding until the
time of the later Hohenstaufens. Still, the more remote courts and
convents were raised above the state of barbarism into which they
had fallen under the Carolingians. Byzantine culture was fostered
by the marriage of Otto II. with Theophano, a princess of the East
ern empire, and by the betrothal of his aunt, the duchess Hedwig
of Suabia, to the Byzantine prince Constantine ; as also by the fact
that an uncle of Otto, Bruno of Cologne," held a high office in the
imperial government. All these influences, however, were but im
perfectly understood, and with the growth of national independence
and the awakening consciousness of individual modes of expression
they could be only partially and superficially received. As a rule,
native workmen were engaged ; the employment of foreigners — .
such, for instance, as John the Italian by Otto III., for the decora
tion of the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle — was exceptional.
In general it may be said that the illuminations, though inferior
in artistic respects, display a greater independence than do the mon
umental paintings. The illustration of books offered new subjects
for which there was no precedent, and also employment for self-
taught artists with little regular training, or, indeed, dilettanti who
followed their own instincts and conceptions. And this independ
ence was expressed with more life and truthfulness in small, un
pretentious works than in the elaborate codices for ecclesiastical
and secular princes, in which it freed itself but slowly from tech
nical constraint and the conventionalities of composition.
A partial retention of the Carolingian methods is evident in
some of the most magnificent examples of the tenth century. The
most important among the thirty or more codices of this period in
the middle and lower Rhenish countries is that of Egbert in the
Town Library of Treves.* This work, having been executed for
* K. Lamprecht, Bonner Jahrbuch. Heft LXXIV.

GERMANY. 413
Archbishop Egbert of Treves, between 977 and 993, by two illumi
nators of Reichenau, Keraldus and Heribertus, suggests a compari
son with the almost contemporaneous mural paintings of Reichenau.
Contrasted with the trained skill of the latter works this manuscript
betrays weakness, and an embarrassed hesitancy between conflicting
principles of design. The dedicatory pages and pictures of the
Evangelists show a closer connection with the old Byzantine style
than do the single figures in the before-mentioned mural paintings ;
and there is far more of the Byzantine stiffness in the portrait of
the archbishop than appears in the portraits of Charles the Bald in
the Carolingian manuscripts, while the ornamentations of the bor
der are a whimsical combination of Carolingian patterns. On the
other hand, the representations from the gospels, with inferior skill
in the drawing and composition, and less knowledge of form than
the mural paintings, are yet more direct and dramatic, leaving no
doubt as to the nature of the subject. For instance, the gestures
of the Shepherds listening to the message of the Angel are very ex
pressive ; the scene of Christ among the Doctors in the Temple is
exceedingly characteristic, as are also the illustrations of the Mira
cle at Cana, the Cleansing of the Leper, the affrighted Call to the
sleeping Jesus in the Tempest, the Woman taken in Adultery, the
Healing of the Blind (Fig. 255), the Washing of the Feet, the De
nial of Peter, and the Descent from the Cross, etc. ; an insufficient
knowledge of form, however, made it impossible for the artist to
master such compositions as the Murder of the Innocents.
A closer resemblance to the artistic methods of the Carolingian
epoch is evident in the Gospel dating to the age of Otto II. , now
in the National Library of Paris (No. 8851), with the portraits of the
first three Saxon kings and the Evangelists ; in the Psalter of Civi
dale, dedicated in A.D. 981 to the archbishop Egbert of Treves by
Ruodprecht, and removed to Cividale by the patriarch Bertold, the
uncle of St. Elizabeth ; and in the copy of the gospels, executed be
tween 980 and 1018 for Bishop Henry of Wurzburg, and now in the
University Library of that place (M. Perg. Theol., No. 661). In the
Gospel now in Gotha, illuminated by order of Theophano during
her regency for Otto III., A. D. 983 to 991, and removed by the lat
ter to Echternach, the influence of Byzantium, which appears to-

4H

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

gether with many naive and life-like traits, is readily accounted for
by the nationality of the queen (Fig. 256). The same considera
tions explain the introduction of Greek elements into the manu
scripts of Otto III. and Henry IL, at a time when they were almost
entirely lacking in the works of the monks of Reichenau (compare
the dedicatory illustration in the Gospel in the Library of Munich,
Cim. 58).
The character of the art at the court of the last Saxon emperor
is best represented by the school of illumination in Ratisbon, the
works of which, especially those now in Munich and Bamberg, prove

Fig. 255. — The Healing of the Blind. Miniature of the Codex Egberti, Treves.
it to have been the most important of that period in Germany.*
Ratisbon, the favorite residence of Henry II. , — already in possession
of the Codex Aureus of Charles the Bald, one of the finest examples
of Carolingian miniature painting, — was further enriched by receiving
the books of Otto III. This led to the combination of Carolingian
traditions with the Byzantine methods, evident in the manuscripts
of Otto III. The study of these models enabled the artists, after

* B. Riehl, Zur Bayrischen Kunstgeschichte. I. — Die altesten Denkmale der Malerei.
Stuttgart, 1885.

GERMANY.

415

having acquired the necessary training, to undertake tasks of inde
pendent importance. This is the character not only of the works
given by Henry II. to Bamberg, but of those executed for the im
perial court of that age. The missal of Henry IL, now in the
Library of Munich (Cim. 60), — referable with certainty, from the des
ignation of that ruler as " king," to the years between 1002 and
1014— shows throughout, and especially in the initials, Carolingian
motives, often in direct imitation of the before-mentioned models.
But the strictness of the Byzantine method appears in place of
the lax forms of the Carolingians, sharp precision instead of un

it eeo$\f

Fig. 256. — The Healing of Cripples and Lepers. From the Codex of Echternach in
Gotha.
certain drawing, and clear tones in place of dark and muddy colors.
The second dedicatory picture, for instance, is an almost exact
copy of that in the Codex Aureus of Charles the Bald, although
in technical execution it is decidedly Byzantine. A high degree
of artistic ability is also noticeable in independent compositions, as
in the first dedicatory picture, which represents the king standing,
receiving from Christ the crown, and from two angels the sword
and the staff of the cross, while his arms are supported by St.
Ulrich and St. Emmeramnus, the patron saints of Augsburg and
Ratisbon (Fig. 257). Similar in character are the copies of the
gospels in Munich (Cim. 57), and in Bamberg (A. 11, 46), and the

416 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
Codex of the Apocalypse, also in that city (A. n, 42), all referable
to Henry II. In the missal from Niedermuenster, now in Munich
(Cim. 54), executed by order of the abbess Uota, under Henry II.,
Byzantine influences prevail, making themselves evident in a close

F'g- 257.— Dedicatory Illustration of the Missal of Henry II. Library of Munich.
imitation' of the manuscripts of Otto III. They appear also in the
Greek inscriptions, in the preference for geometrical arrangement,
and especially in the conventional composition. Even here, how
ever, traces of the style of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeramnus
are plainly recognizable.

GERMANY. 417
Ratisbon, where the art of illumination flourished in the elev
enth and twelfth centuries, had in this branch an influence upon the
neighboring bishoprics and convents, similar to that exercised in
monumental painting by the before-mentioned schools of the Rhen
ish countries over their surroundings. As a matter of course, this
influence was chiefly felt in Bamberg, the artistic importance of
which place at this time is usually overrated, in so far, at least, as
the introduction and imitation of models from Ratisbon are ignored.
Certain it is that the so-called Gospel of St. Ulrich, now in Munich
(Cim. 3), is not referable to St. Ulrich of Augsburg, A.D. 933 to 975,
but to the illuminator Ulrich of Bamberg, who was in the employ
of Bishop Gerhard of Wurzburg about the year 1125. Hence this
work bears some relation to the painting in vogue at the court of
Henry II. at Ratisbon. Abbot Ellinger of Tegernsee, afterwards of
Niederaltaich, A.D. 1017 to 1056, — the favorite of Emperor Henry
II. and his wife Cunigunda, — must have been trained in the school
of Ratisbon, as is proved by the style of his works. The fine Evan
geliarium, now in Munich (Cim. 31), can with certainty be ascribed
to him, as can with much probability that of Niederaltaich (Munich,
Cim. 163). The first-named Gospel and the Codex of Weihenste-
phan, now in Munich (Cod. Pict. 33), which latter is rather in the
Carolingian manner, served as models for a series of copies, more or
less direct, and very unequal in excellence. Among these the man
uscript from Freising, now in Munich (Cod. Pict. 29), and an imita
tion of it from Reitenbuch (Cod. Pict. 57), are works of skilful hands :
some, on the contrary, such as Cod. Pict. 28 and 33, are rude, and
others, like Cod. Pict. 23 and 82, are absolutely barbarous, — their
defects resulting from a too close dependence upon Carolingian
models. Compared with the productions of the school of Ratisbon, those
of the Rhenish countries and of Saxony are of less importance. An
exception is, however, to be made in favor of one special branch,
namely, the architectural details of the framework and the back
ground. Specimens of this class of work are to be found in the
Gospel of St. Gereon at Cologne, now in Stuttgart (Cod. 21), and in
the three codices of Bernward among the treasures of the Cathedral
of Hildesheim. It is not surprising that a preference for such deco-
27

41 8 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
rations should have appeared in those regions where the architectu
ral growth of the Romanic style had originated. As in Southern
Germany, a broad handling in gouache pigments was here prevalent,
the most important of these pictures being upon a gold ground or
richly decorated with gold. The purple ground of the Carolingians
gradually disappeared, and no instances of it are known later than
the Codex Aureus of Henry III., originally in Speyer, now in the
Escurial. Although they no longer bear the resemblance to dimin
utive mosaics, still many traits remain to remind us of their Byzan
tine origin. The relationship of the miniatures upon gold ground
to the Byzantine enamels which served as models in the times of
Otto II. and Otto III. is perceptible even at this period.
The case remained much the same even after the time of the
Saxon emperors. Court painting under the Franconian dynasty
had declined, not only in regard to the number of works produced,
but in artistic excellence, as is proved by the Gospel of Henry IV.,
executed in Ratisbon, now in the Cathedral of Cracow. But a cer
tain archaistic character was retained, notwithstanding the progress
made in the art of illumination under the Hohenstaufens. More
over, the centre of activity changed, the Rhenish countries and
Saxony becoming more prominent. The Gospel of Bruchsal, now
in the Library of Carlsruhe, is, without doubt, of Rhenish origin ; its
conventionalized figures are finely colored, and drawn with correct
ness, as well as with some feeling for beauty of form, corresponding
to the advance made at that period in the other arts. Similar to
this work is the Evangeliarium written by the monk Heriman of
Helmershausen-on-the-Diemel, for Henry the Lion, now in the pos
session of the Duke of Cumberland, which in drawing and coloring
is creditable both to the training and the taste of the artist, and is
perhaps the most beautiful illuminated manuscript of the Romanic
epoch. Also of Saxon origin are the Gospel from the Cathedral at
Brunswick, now in the Museum of that city, the Psalter of the land
grave Herman of Thuringia, who died A. D. 1216, which is now in
the possession of the King of Wurtemberg, and the Psalter of the
same landgrave in the archives of the chapter -house in Cividale in
Friuli. These works do, indeed, show a great improvement upon
the awkward contortions and rigidity of the illuminations of the

GERMANY. 419
eleventh century. Occasionally a certain grace of form and depth
of expression suggest the transition to a new style and to the at
tenuated elegance of the Gothic period.
Court painting, however, never entirely overcame its retrospect
ive and even archaistic character, while the simple works intended
for the libraries of cloisters exhibit from the first a more independ
ent method of illumination, interesting as the foretoken of a future
development into wood-cut illustrations, — even as this style of
painting had itself succeeded to older artistic traditions. Instances
in point are those rude pen -drawings which are either slightly or
not at all colored, and form a striking contrast to the works of the
court painters. The oldest examples are the coarse outlines, spar
ingly tinted with India -ink, illustrating the Wessobrunn Prayer,
dating to 815, now in the Library of Munich, and the miniatures of
the versified Gospel of Otfried, in the Imperial Library of Vienna,
written between 865 and 889. This manner of illustration seems to
have been practised chiefly in Southern Germany, the centre of ac
tivity being St. Gall, at which place the school of design, as we
have already seen, was of great importance in connection with the
Irish and Carolingian illumination. The retention of the traditional
and classic style, as it appears in the Antiphonarium of the tenth
centuiy in St. Gall (No. 390), was exceptional ; the pen-drawings in
black and red of this work have the appearance of old woodcuts
(Fig. 258). Such simple designs require little technical training, and
are, consequently, but in small degree dependent upon older artistic
traditions. This emancipation is apparent in the hastily colored
drawings of a Psalter of the tenth century in Stuttgart, in which the
liveliness of action somewhat compensates for the ugliness of form
and the want of skill in composition. Such traits obtained especial
ly in those cases where no older type could be referred to for the
subjects represented, as is shown by two codices executed in St. Gall
about the year 1000, that of Lucanus (No. 863) and that of Pruden-
tius (No. 135). The two pen-drawings of the former, only partially
colored in yellow and red, show an arm of the sea with sirens and
fishes, and the death of Pompey near Pelusium. The landscape
backgrounds have the aspect of topographical plans, in which the
figures are disposed at hap-hazard, in direct opposition to all the

420

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

principles of artistic grouping. The same lack of composition is
evident in the illustrations of the Psychomachia of Prudentius,
which are very incorrectly drawn in black, touched occasionally
with red lines and a sepia wash. The Psalter of Notker Labeo
(St. Gall, No. 21) belongs to this category because of its figure
subjects executed with the same scanty means, and only here and
there displaying greater originality1 and energy of character. The
initials, drawn in black and red, render it, in calligraphic respects at

Fig. 258. — The Last Supper. Pen-drawing from the Antiphonarium of St. Gall.

least, the most interesting among the many Swiss codices dating to
the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The general revival of art, commencing under the Hohenstau
fens, about the middle of the twelfth century, manifested itself also
in this branch. The advance was best exemplified in the illus
trated manuscript of Herrad von Landsperg, Abbess of Hohenburg
in Alsace, which was burned during the bombardment of Strasburg
in 1870. This compendium, completed after 1175, and intended for
instruction in nunneries, contained a variety of religious, profane,

GERMANY.

421

allegorical, historical, and even genre representations. These, to
gether with considerable feeling for beauty of form, sometimes ex
hibited great freedom and originality of design, which, notwith
standing the incorrectness of drawing and want of skill in coloring,
were of great promise (Fig. 259). In view of the progress evident
in these works it could not fail to be recognized in which direction
the greatest success was to be attained ; hence it resulted, at least

JtigblA

Fig. 259. — Miniature from the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad von Landsperg.

in the illuminations of Southern Germany, that outline drawing
gained the ascendency. Such illustrations were naturally of very
unequal merit. For example, the pen -drawings in black and red
from Zwiefalten, on the Suabian Alp, now in the Library of Stutt
gart, whether slightly colored (Cod. 56-58) or untinted (Cod. 415),
are full of life, although plainly the work of untrained hands. Still
more spirited are the drawings in the " Liet von der Maget," by

422

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Werinher of Tegernsee (Fig. 260), and in the " Eneidt " of Heinrich
von Veldecgk, both of which are in the Library of Berlin. The ac
tion is especially forcible in the representations of profane subjects,
and although the gestures, drawn directly from nature, are some
times exaggerated and contorted, they are not the less striking in
effect or the less comprehensible. That the execution was also lia
ble to become hasty and careless is made evident by the numerous
manuscripts of the productive monk Conrad of Scheyern, in Upper
Bavaria, which are now in the library of Munich. He worked, how-

Fig. 260. — The Mothers of Bethlehem. From Werinher's " Liet von der Maget."

ever, in the first half of the thirteenth century, and consequently at
the close of the period under consideration, by which time better
specimens of art were circulated from convent to convent. It may
have been in view of these that he added a few words in conclusion,
excusing his carelessness by saying that he* had been "overburdened
with work and underpaid." In a similar manner another illumina
tor of this period, Hildebertus, in a codex now in the metropolitan
chapter-house at Prague, expresses his discontent by an illustration
at the end of the book, in which he represents himself as annoyed
by a mouse which is stealing his food. The curse which he invokes

ITALY. 423
upon the animal is not without humor, and is an early instance of
the drolleries which came so much in vogue in the Gothic epoch.
The conditions of painting in Italy were decidedly different
from those in Germany. In the latter country a delight in pic
torial representation continued to make itself felt subsequently to
the Carolingian age ; while its results were not always equal to the
architectural creations, it at least endeavored to keep pace with
the advances in that branch. In Italy, on the other hand, and espe
cially in the former dominions of the Lombards, while architecture
was not far behind that of Germany, painting was at a stand-still
during the Carolingian epoch.* In view of the works in S. Nereo
ed Achilleo, S. Cecilia, S. Maria della Navicella, and S. Prassede, it j
is impossible to speak of an artistic decline in the productions of the
ninth century, especially when these are compared with the mosaics
of S. Agnese, which had immediately preceded them. On the other
hand, notwithstanding the patronage and many orders of Paschalis I.,
no progress is observable. The relation of the art of the ninth cen
tury to that of the sixth is most strikingly shown by comparing the
mosaics in the spandrels and apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano with the
almost exact copies which were made nearly three hundred years
later, between 817 and 824, in S. Prassede. As the subject is almost
entirely the same, the decline in the understanding of form and in
the technical execution, the increased rigidity and the greater coarse
ness in drawing and in coloring is plainly apparent. The few pro
ductions of the tenth century are in technical respects still more
deformed and barbarous. Some works dating to the middle of the
eleventh century are slightly superior, such as the legends of saints
in the crypt of S. Clemente, or the paintings of S. Elia of Nepi, exe
cuted, according to an inscription, by the brothers John and Ste
phen, together with Nicolaus Joannis, — but these are exceptional.
The artists of this age appear, more than ever before, to have lost
confidence in their own powers, and to have sought assistance by
* G. B. de Rossi, Musaici cristiani e saggi dei pavimenti delle Chiese di Roma anteriori
al sec. XV. Roma, 1872-1882.— D. Salazaro, Studi sui Monumenti della Italia Meridio-
nale dal IV. al XIII. secolo. Napoli, 1871-1880.— The Same, L'Arte Romana al Medio
Evo. Napoli, 1881-18S4.

424 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
returning to the Byzantine models, which, after the time of Justin
ian, and especially through the intercourse of Ravenna with the
East, had exercised a decided influence. This return required no
break with the old traditions, and in geographical respects the
means of connection were still at hand. While in Southern Italy
the' supremacy of the Eastern empire had continued up to the be
ginning of the period in question, the chief Italian ports, particu
larly Venice, had furthered the relations with Byzantium and its
Asiatic and African dependencies.
When the abbot Desiderius was about to decorate his convent
of Monte Casino, which had been rebuilt between 1066 and 1071,
the magnitude of the undertaking, unusual at that time, must have
clearly shown him the inefficiency of native workmen, especially
those of Central Italy. His pupil Leo states distinctly, in the
chronicle of the convent, that it was found necessary to call artists
from abroad, as Italian art " had been lost for more than five hun
dred years," that is to say, since the decoration of SS. Cosma e Da
miano. Whatever was movable in Constantinople was purchased
and carried away, workers in mosaic were invited, and a school of
art was instituted in Monte Casino by the patron abbot under the
superintendence of Greek artisans. Hence it is not surprising that
the remains of mural paintings in the Church of S. Angelo in For-
mis near Capua, founded by Desiderius, and in the Church of the
Virgin at Foro Claudio near Sessa, dating at about the same period,
are Byzantine in composition and form, as well as in technical re
spects. These peculiarities are even more observable in the mosaics
which have been preserved from this epoch, namely, in the Virgin,
St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, in the Cathedral
of Capua, and the half- figure of St. Matthew in the Cathedral of
Salerno. As the Maecenas of Monte Casino occupied for a time the pon
tifical chair as Victor III., it was natural that the revival of art,
which first appeared in the convent of the Benedictines, should also
extend to Rome. The three large mosaics of the basilicas S. Cle
mente, S. Maria in Trastevere, and S. Maria Nuova, which may
be considered as late blossoms of the decaying art of Rome, show
fewer Byzantine characteristics than do the works of Southern Ita-

ITALY.

425

ly ; still, this is readily explained by the existence in Rome of ear
lier Occidental models. The mosaics in St. Peter, St. Paul, S. Maria
Maggiore, and SS. Cosma e Damiano must necessarily have been of
good influence upon the debased Byzantine style of this late period.
The same classic influences appear not only in the inlaid pavements,
but also in the cosmatic and painted wall decorations, such, for in
stance, as those in the Capella del Martirologio in S. Paolo fuori le
Mura and in S. Silvestro at Rome, which display, together with
great rudeness of execution and a retention of the typical Byzantine

Fig. 261.— Temptation of St. Anthony. Wall Painting in S. Sepolcro, Barletta.

forms, certain reminiscences of the early Christian paintings of the
Catacombs. This late appearance of ancient forms is occasionally
due to a direct imitation of antiques ; thus, in a Temptation of St.
Anthony in S. Sepolcro at Barletta, dating to the twelfth century,
a centaur is represented which, both in conception and in animal de
tails, would be inexplicable without the assumption that the design
of classic reliefs had here been followed (Fig. 261).
The mosaics of the twelfth century in Sicily were more simple,
harmonious, and artistic, as well as superior in technical respects.
After the age of Justinian Byzantine types continued to be em-

426 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
ployed without interruption not only during the continuance of the
Eastern empire, but even after the Normans had wrested the su
premacy from the Arabs. The two latter races essentially changed
the architecture of the island, giving it an eclectic and fantastic
character, but they could exert no influence over the art of paint
ing, in which the Arabians did not advance beyond mere decora
tion, and the Normans had brought little with them. It was the
easier to retain the old style, as the mosaic ornaments of Constan
tinople had chiefly been developed in connection with those . ar
chitectural features which still remained Byzantine. The mosaic
decorations of the Capella Palatina in Palermo,* built by King
Roger II. between 1130 and 11 54, as well as those in the Cathe
dral of Monreale,f referable to William IL, A.D. 1166 to 1189, are
of magnificent effect, and remarkable for their elegance of style and
the depth and richness of color. With the variegated marble in
crustations of the lower walls they form a more harmonious com
bination than was attained in the basilicas of Rome. Similar in
character are the mosaics in the Martorana in Palermo, dating to
1 143 (Fig. 262), and in the Cathedral of Cefalii, completed in 1 148,
all of which, in their strict ecclesiastical style, their Byzantine con
ventionality, and technical treatment, and especially in their gen
eral effect, contrast favorably with the works of the same period in
Rome. Yet there are few traces of those innovations, resulting
from subjective or objective individuality, and from a desire to
find a mode of expression in accordance with the spirit of the time,
which are seldom wanting in the before-mentioned works of Rome,
or in even the rudest artistic efforts of the North.
That the art dependent upon Byzantium was capable of rejuve
nation, at least to a certain degree, appears in the works of Venice,
and still more in those of Florence. In the building of S. Marco
Venice has given expression in the most monumental manner to
the relations of its culture with that of Constantinople. The deco
ration, like the construction, is by no means of one character, for
* M. Amari, S. Cavallari, C. Meli e J. Carucci, La Capella di S. Pietro nella Reggia
di Palermo, dip. da A. Terzi. Palermo, 1872 sq.
f D. B. Gravina, II Duomo di Monreale ill. e riportato in tavole cromolitografiche. Pa
lermo, 1859.

ITALY.

427

in this church the Byzantine style was retained far into the period
of the Renaissance. But, aside from this, it is plainly evident that
the artistic methods of the Eastern empire never did become as en
tirely naturalized in Venice as in Sicily, but were merely borrowed
for temporary requirements, thus rendering more easy the introduc
tion of compromises resulting from local peculiarities. This state
of things, it is true, was not at first favorable to the development

iiiliiyiliisi^^

Fig. 262.!— Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. Mosaic in the Capella Palatina, Palermo.

of an artistic style. The oldest works of S. Marco, those in the
cathedrals of Murano and Torcello, and the mosaic of S. Cipriano
upon the Island of Murano, dating to 1109, now in the Friedens-
kirche, near Potsdam, are by no means equal to those of Palermo.
The first dawn of independence in Italian art manifested itself
even more decidedly in Tuscany than in Rome or in Venice. The
earliest memorial of this progress is the mosaic executed in the tri-

428 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
buna of the Baptistery in Florence by the Franciscan monk Jacobus,
A.D. 1225. However pleasing because of its novelty of composi
tion and greater freedom in the draperies, this work still betrays the
influences of Ravenna, and a direct dependency upon the produc
tions of the age of Justinian. These characteristics may be traced
for a hundred years and more, being evident in the works of Andrea
Tafi and Gaddo Gaddi, in the same Baptistery, which are to be re
ferred to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Even Giovanni
Cimabue, in his mosaic in the apse of the Cathedral at Pisa, A. D.
1 30 1 and 1362, deviates so little from the earlier traditions that, at
least in this branch of art, he is to be considered rather as the last
of the Byzantines than as a pioneer of a new style.
It is probable that textile industry, at that time highly devel
oped, exercised itself in the manufacture of wall tapestries as well
as of magnificent vestments. At all events, two distinct classes of
work were produced in Palermo : rich stuffs embroidered with fig
ures in the Byzantine manner, and Arabian fabrics, woven or em
broidered, with ornamental patterns such as those typical animal
forms from which heraldic devices were subsequently developed.
To the former variety, intended chiefly for liturgical purposes, be
long the coronation robes of Henry II. , in the Cathedral of Bam
berg, executed in the year 1014; and the casula of St. Stephen, in
Stuhlweissenburg, dating to 1132; to the latter the coronation
mantle of 1132 and the alba of 1181, in the Treasury at Vienna.
These Arabian stuffs were widely dispersed throughout the North,
being highly prized as coverings for cushions, pillows, and chairs,
for dorsels, the caparisons of horses, etc.
In Italy painting upon panels was at that time almost entirely
restricted to single figures, which were sometimes accompanied by
smaller representations, composed in separate compartments and
treated like miniatures. It is evident from the dilettanteism and
weakness of everything of the kind that has been preserved, that
such work was for the most part left to men of inferior training,
the skilled artists being engaged upon more monumental tasks.
This, however, does not exclude the prevalence of Byzantine tradi
tions in panel painting. The most common subject was the cruci
fixion, the pictures of which, though of painful monotony, rival one

ITALY. 429
another in the expression of an ascetic ecstasy of suffering (Fig. 263).
Such a caricature of the pathetic does still surpass the soulless rigid
ity of the Byzantine models, and has in it some elements hopeful
for the future. But this expression of sentiment cannot compen
sate for the lack of all feeling for beauty. This is even the case
with the works of Giunta Pisano, — celebrated in his time, between
1202 and 1255, — who, like all his contemporaries, continued, in tech
nical respects not less than in the types of design, to be depen-

Fig. 263.— Crucifix in the Chapter-house of the Cathedral of Pistoja.
dent upon Byzantine models. Giovanni Cimabue was the first to
aspire to higher ideals. Working towards the close of the thirteenth
century, he succeeded in giving to his Byzantine Madonnas some
expression of life and soul. The improvements which he introduced
affected panel painting rather than mosaic. But however cramped
by the limitations of the old traditions, and although in many re
spects a hesitating representative of the transitional period, Cimabue
shows, in details and accessary figures, many characteristics of the
Gothic epoch, in connection with which his work is to be considered.

43O PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
The comparative inactivity of miniature painting is to be as
cribed to the subordinate part taken in the culture of the time by
the Italian clergy. During this entire period there were but few-
native productions which could be at all compared with those of
Germany. The coarse pen -drawings of the Easter hymns, which,
written upon scrolls, have received their name from the first word
of the text, " exultet," are of the same uncertain forms and stiff and
mechanical execution as are the illustrations to Donizo's laudatory
poem on the Margravine Matilda, dating to 1115, now in the Libra
ry of the Vatican (No. 4922). In these works the Byzantine influ
ence is scarcely perceptible, the chief characteristics being a helpless
and careless dilettanteism. In the district of Milan Carolingian
methods were long preserved, and led to successful results similar
to those attained in Germany. These peculiarities appear in a fine
Psalter of the eleventh century, now in the Library of Munich (Cod.
Lat. 343), which is rendered particularly remarkable by the beauti
fully designed figures of its initials. Still, on the whole, the Italian
miniatures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the panel
paintings of Giunta Pisano, gave but little promise of the great rise
in the art of painting which was witnessed in Italy during the Quat
trocento. The Romanic art of France did not attain to the eminence
of the Gothic, which, during subsequent ages, rendered that nation
the most important in Europe. In some degree this was due to
the curtailment of the former period by the early development of
the transitional style. Noteworthy examples, it is true, are not
wanting in all the branches of art which fall under our present con
sideration. But their scarcity is such that little activity can be in
ferred ; their unequal merit proves the non-existence of any style
characteristic of the country and the time, and their general rude
ness and helplessness show the want of training. Even in the
South, where architectural decoration, closely following antique
models, had retained a considerable degree of excellence, the tra
ditions of painting were lost, and it was only towards the close of
the period that anything of importance was produced in this branch.
After the works of Germigny-des-Pres mosaics with figures were

FRANCE.

431

not employed as wall decorations. Although a high artistic charac
ter is not expected in mosaic pavements, even the* most modest re
quirements could not be satisfied by such a work as that preserved
in the apse of the Church of Cruas (Ardeche), the interest of which
is heightened by its unquestionable date, A. D. 1048 (Fig. 264). It
might be thought that the hardness and ungainliness of the two
figures of the prophets, Elijah and Enoch, could not be surpassed,
were it not that the unnaturalness of the trees upon either side of
the symbol of the cross is even more astonishing. The remains of
other mosaics, as, for instance, those from the site of the Church

Fig. 264. — Mosaic Pavement in Cruas, Southern France.

De la Major at Marseilles, which has been demolished, from near the
Cathedral of Valence, and from St. Trophime at Aries, are of greater
artistic value, but probably of earlier date. That mosaics with fig
ures were also customary in the north of France was proved by the
pavement of St. Remy, in Rheims, of 1090, which has now disap
peared. Together with biblical scenes, it contained representations
of other subjects, such as the earth and sea, the seasons, months,
the zodiac, and the arts, all of which showed classical reminiscences.
Scarcely any of the mural paintings of France date to the elev
enth century, and but few are as old as the twelfth. The earliest

432'

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

appear to be those of the Chapel of Liget (Indre et Loire), or the
figures in the Baptistery of St. John at Poitiers, both, very Byzantine
in character.. In the meander ornaments, drawn in perspective, of
the latter church there may be traced a dependence upon classic
mosaic models (see page 401). More extensive remains have been
preserved in the Church of St. Savin (Departement Vienne) in Poi
tou, where all the walls and
vaults, including those of the
crypt, were originally covered
with paintings. The treat
ment of these works is very
simple, being little more than
an outline filled in with local
colors, and entirely without
modelling; but the compo
sition and the forms already
display an entire emancipa
tion from Byzantine conven
tionality. The action is easy
and expressive, and the forms
are not without a certain
charm, approaching the slen
der proportions of the Goth
ic. These characteristics are
still more apparent in some
remains of mural paintings in
the Chapter-house of St. Tro
phime in Aries (Fig. 265),
which are to be ascribed to
the ,end of the twelfth or
the beginning of the thirteenth century. These show great beauty
of design and expression, and some attempt at modelling in the
draperies, approaching, more closely, in technical respects, our stand
ards in the art of painting than could the earlier works executed
in simple outlines and flat tints.
The glass painting of the period, even when compared with
these better productions, must be pronounced superior. As has al-

Fig. 265. — Wall Painting from the Chapter-house
of St. Trophime in Aries.

FRANCE. 433
ready been said, the painting of figures upon glass seems to have
been first practised in Rheims, and Theophilus, — a German monk
who probably wrote in the twelfth century, — asserted the French at
that time to be the cleverest masters in this art. Still, the before-
mentioned windows in the Cathedral of Augsburg are fully fifty
years older than the most ancient specimen of French painting
upon glass known. This is a fragment representing the Ascension,
which, taken from the Romanic Cathedral of Le Mans, built towards
the close of the eleventh century, has been placed among the Gothic
windows of the Chapel of the Virgin in the same town. In contrast
to the Byzantine stiffness of the single figures in Augsburg, the group
of the apostles at Le Mans displays a forcible though somewhat ex
aggerated action, which, combined with the successful blending of
colors to a decorative effect similar to that attained in the tapestries
of the period, compensates for the untrained design, the incorrect
ness of the forms, and the awkward positions of the limbs. A fur
ther stage of development is exemplified by the four windows of the
Cathedral of Angers, dating to the years between 1125 and 1 149,
which contain, in medallions upon a blue ground, representations
of the legends of the saints. These were the earliest of a number
of similar paintings upon glass, among which may be mentioned
those of the western front of the Cathedral of Chartres, and those
of the choir of the Abbey Church of St. Denis. This combination
of medallions with a background of tapestry patterns was prev
alent in France until the end of the twelfth century, appearing in
St. Pere at Chartres and Ste. Trinite at Vendome. It extended also
to Germany, where it was adopted in the Collegiate Church of
Buecken. The tapestry hangings of the lower parts of the walls formed
an important feature in mural decoration, especially after ornamen
tations of revetments and mosaics had gone out of fashion, simple
painting proving unsatisfactory because of its want of durability, and
because the short distance, from which the work was seen, rendered
every defect visible. Though it is to be assumed that these hang
ings were chiefly in request for secular buildings, the comfort of
which was greatly increased by the dorsals, similar considerations
favored their adoption for the chancels of cathedrals and collegiate
28

434 PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
churches. The tapestries were either woven or embroidered ; those
of the first class, when not imported, were copies of Byzantine or
Moorish models, and generally of ornamental patterns ; those of
the latter, containing figures, were of greater freedom and original
ity of design, but extremely naive and rude. Embroidery was par
ticularly in vogue in the northern provinces of France, perhaps
being influenced by England. The most important work of the
kind, the Tapestry of Bayeux, now in the museum of that town,
was executed soon after 1066. It is a linen cloth, sixty-three me
tres long and about half a metre broad, embroidered with colored
threads, and represents the Conquest of England by William of
Normandy. This simple chronicle in figures can hardly be called a
work of art, the helplessness of the drawing being only equalled by
the weakness of the composition. French tapestry weaving, which
was actively pursued in the countries between the Garonne and the
Loire, was superior in artistic respects ; its patterns, however, being
of the Sicilian style, were chiefly ornamental. As early as A.D. 985
Saumur was renowned for its tapestry weaving, and in 1025 and the
following years the Count of Poitou exported the fabrics of his
country to Italy.
Conditions were not favorable at this time for miniature paint
ing in France. The art was almost entirely limited to pen-drawing
of the rudest description, scantily touched with dull colors. The
initials, which often occupied an entire page, and were executed
chiefly after the Irish manner, in braided patterns, became predomi
nant by being employed as the framework for representations of
biblical scenes, which filled the inner fields of the round letters, or
were placed like medallions in the upright ones. It is not definitely
known whether France was dependent in this respect upon the dis
trict of Milan, which, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, had
exercised great influence upon Gaul. Certain it is that the initials
in the before-mentioned Psalter of Milan differ from those now under
consideration, in that the figures of the former themselves consti
tute the letters, while in the latter they are merely added to them.
When more extended compositions appear, they are much harder
and ruder than those of German manuscripts. This is the case
with the Regula of St. Benedict, written at St. Gilles, near Nimes,

FRANCE.

435

in 1 129, now in the British Museum (Additional MS. 16,979).
(Fig. 266.)
About the middle of the twelfth century an essential change
took place in French illumination in regard to beauty of color, the
decorative effect being heightened and the way prepared for the im
provement in miniature painting which obtained during the Gothic
period. This was, no doubt, in great measure attributable to the
influence of the paintings upon glass, which had been widely ex
tended ; for the brighter the effect attained by the gorgeous hues

8.8*_N_DICTV$

oi/iuruf

Fig. 266. — St. Benedict giving the Rules of his Order to the Brothers. Miniature from
a Codex of Southern France, now in the British Museum.

of painted windows, the more were the artists in other branches in
duced to give up the dull olive tones of the Byzantines, as well as
the glaring and unmodulated combinations of color prevalent early
in the Middle Ages, and to strive for greater brilliancy, even though
approaching no nearer to nature. This dependence upon stained
glass is apparent, as early as the close of the eleventh century, in
a Bible in the Abbey of St. Martial at Limoges ; its large initials,
each covering an entire page, are filled with representations which
admits of no doubt as to their being copied from glass paintings.
Indications of realistic tendencies appear, but as yet rather in the

436

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

representations of animals than of human figures. The development
of these characteristics, however, belongs to the following epoch.

Spain, in painting as in architecture, was dependent upon the
art of France. The Roman and Visigothic culture had been the
same upon both sides of the Pyrenees, and the geographical position,
with the intercourse by land and water resulting therefrom, led to a
certain similarity in these respects even after the bonds of political
union had been severed. But the conquest of the better portion of
the peninsula by the Mohammedans, and the hardships endured by

Touycona

peTTJ

Fig. 267. — Miniature from the Codex Vigilanus in the Escurial.
the remaining provinces, did not permit the culture of Christian
Spain to keep pace with that of Southern France ; it was thus re
duced to a subordinate position, the works of art being dependent
upon those of the valley of the Garonne, and especially of Toulouse.
The paintings of this period, of an inferior character in France, were
naturally upon a still lower level in Spain. Indeed, in the Christian
provinces there are no noteworthy remains, at least of monumental
painting, which are to be ascribed to the time in question. The
manuscripts, also, seem to have seldom advanced beyond simple or
namental initials of Irish character, as is seen, for example, in a Mar-
tyrologium dating to 919, now in the British Museum (Additional

ENGLAND. 437
MS. 15,600). When figures are attempted, as in the Codex Vigila-
nus, completed in 976, and containing lists of the Spanish councils
and the Cronicon Albeldense, they are rude and naive, entirely with
out facial expression, and provided in a childlike manner with many
explanatory legends. This manuscript, from the Cloister of Albelda,
is now preserved in the library of the Escurial (D. 1, 2, Membr. F.).
(Fig. 267). The same simple treatment, with even more numerous
pictures, appears in the Commentary to the Apocalypse, dating to
the year 1109 and now in the British Museum (Additional MS.
11,695). England, before the Norman conquest, had no monumental
painting of note, this being in great measure due to its architec
ture being limited to constructions of wood. On the other hand,
the production of tapestries was encouraged by the employment of
perishable building materials, the elaborate plaited and braided mat
tings of Celtic art not continuing in use after the beginning of the
Carolingian epoch. The mat was superseded by a woven tapestry,
generally embroidered with figures. The manufacture of such fabrics
assumed an importance so great that the Opus A ngiicanum, through
out the Middle Ages, competed with the Opus Grcecum of Sicily,
although in technical and artistic respects it was certainly inferior.
Having freed itself from the Irish style of intertwined strap-
work, the art of illumination became the more extensive and success
ful.* It appears that this advance took place during the reign of
Alfred the Great, A.D. 871 to 901, a ruler whose position in regard
to the civilization of the island was similar to that of Charlemagne
in the continental empire. After his time works were produced in
England which were scarcely inferior to those of Carolingian Ger
many. Noteworthy examples are the Codex of King Edgar, dating
to 966, now in the British Museum (Cott. MS. Vesp. A. 8) (Fig. 268) ;
and especially the beautiful Benedictional of the Bishop Aetelwold
of Winchester, A. D. 963 to 984, now in the library of the Duke of

* J. O. Westwood, Fac-similes of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish Manuscripts. London, 1868.— E. A. Bond and E. M. Thompson, The Paleograph-
ical Society. Fac-similes of Manuscripts and Inscriptions. III. London, 1873-18S3.

438

PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Devonshire at Chatsworth. It is to be assumed that St. Dunstan
took an important part in this development, as he was himself an
illuminator, and continued the literary activity of Alfred the Great.
In the dark times of the Danish invasion, however, the art of
England declined the more rapidly as it was wholly without an
architectural foundation. The illustrations of the eleventh cen
tury were limited to simple
pen drawings, some of which
were not without a certain
originality and facility, as,
for instance, those of the
Officium S. Crucis et Trini-
tatis, dating to the years be
tween 1012 and 1020, now
in the British Museum (Cott.
MS. Tit. D. 27), and those of
the Psychomachia of Aur.
Prudentius, executed during
the first half of the eleventh
century, in the same collec
tion (Cott. MS. Cleop. C. 8).
In these works the influence
of the school of illumination
of Winchester is still per
ceptible ; of decidedly infe
rior character, however, are
others of the kind, such as
the Latin Psalter with Eng
lish notes, probably refera
ble to the time of Edward
the Confessor, A. D. 1041 to 1066, now in the British Museum (Cott.
MS. Tib. C. 6). After the Norman conquest there was no such
steady improvement in the painting as in the architecture of Eng
land. The illuminations of the French were by no means equal
to those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is evident from the Latin and
Norman Psalter in the British Museum (Cott. MS. Nero C. 6), that
even the illustrated manuscripts of the school of Winchester were

Fig. 268. — King Edgar between the Virgin and St.
Peter. Miniature from the Codex of Edgar, in
the British Museum.

SCANDINAVIA. 439
at this time inferior to those which it had produced a century be
fore, — this being, without doubt, due to the devotion of all energies
to architectural constructions.
Scandinavia* and the other countries of the North stood, in ar
tistic respects, upon a far lower level than England. As buildings
of wood continued to be erected during the entire Romanic epoch,
monumental painting was so neglected that for many centuries it
was unable to follow the advance made in other parts of Europe.
The excessively long and lean figures, with their brown flesh-tints
and cold, bright green, blue, and red draperies and backgrounds,
such as were introduced at a comparatively recent period into the
Church of Bjeresjo in Sweden, are rendered the more hideous and
corpse-like by their closed eyes. Compared with that of Central
Europe, the production of illuminated manuscripts was inconsidera
ble in these countries, and their carvings distinctly show how im
portant a feature of Northern ornamentation was the preference
for monstrous forms.
* N. M. Mandelgren, Monuments Scandinaviques du moyen-age, avec les'peintures et
autres ornements qui le decorent. Copenhague-Paris, 1855-1862.

Fig. 269. — Sculptured Portal of Vezelay in Burgundy.

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

DURING the Early Christian, Byzantine, and Carolingian pe
riods sculpture occupied but an inferior position among the
arts, and even in the first ages of the Romanic epoch but few and
unimportant tasks were assigned to this branch. Religion and ar
chitecture, which provided most of the subjects 'and opportunities
for the development of monumental art, had decidedly favored
painting, in which the former found its more adequate expression,
and the latter a decoration easily applied to its as yet imperfect
constructions. Monumental sculpture did not attain to a higher
standard until the close of the period now under consideration.
A somewhat better position fell to the lot of the minor branches.

GERMANY. 44 1
which, comparable to the illumination of manuscripts, found em
ployment in the decoration of utensils, especially those in ecclesi
astical use. The technical methods of Byzantium, preserved by the
goldsmiths, led to a more direct and lasting retention of the earlier
traditions than was the case in painting, although the ornamental
forms of the Romanic style were early adopted.
In the consideration of Romanic sculpture it is only with some
reserve that the first place can be assigned to Germany. There
being here no traditions in this art, and, especially in monumental
sculpture, no direct help to be obtained from the imitation of im
ported models, technical facility was more difficult to acquire than
it had been in painting, in which branch experiments more readily
lead to comparatively good results. In the former provinces of
Rome some statues and reliefs were still preserved, and it is known
that even in the time of Charlemagne an equestrian statue. of bronze
was removed to Aix-la-Chapelle ; it may, however, with reason be
assumed that in the greater part of Germany no such remains ex
isted at this period.
The way had been but little prepared for sculpture in stone by
the ordinary stone- cutting required for building, the architectural
decorations of earlier ages being restricted to the simplest forms,
chiefly of geometrical design. The cube capital and the linear pat
terns of Northern art show the influence of this limitation. Even
in the Rhenish provinces, notwithstanding the antique models there
preserved, little more was attempted than rude ornaments of foliage
in the classic style. For tombstones the commonest symbols were
employed, such as the cross, the crozier, net-work, and the like ;
baptismal fonts were, at best, decorated with simple masks. In Ger
many the sculpture of figures was rare during the eleventh century.
Human images appear only in reliefs, badly drawn and still more
badly modelled, and in design evidently imitated from miniature
paintings. These characteristics are to be observed in the modest re
liefs of the frieze upon the facade of the Collegiate Church of Andlau
in Alsace. The lack of artistic ability is even more apparent in the
few figures in the full round, such as the David and Nathan upon
the portal of the Collegiate Church of the Alte Kapelle in Ratisbon,
now disfigured by a rococo restoration. The best results were at-

442

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

tained when the artists had received their training in the carving of
ivory reliefs, or in the manufacture of beaten metal work. The influ
ence of the former is evident in the two reliefs of stone in the Minster,
of Basle, the comparative excellence of which, if indeed they are to
be ascribed to the eleventh century, can thus alone be accounted
for. That representing the martyrdom of St. Vincent (Fig. 270) ap
pears to be a direct imitation of such reliefs, carved upon diptychs,
as were to be found at that period in the treasuries of all large
churches, while the six figures of apostles, under arcades of the other
panel, may be. compared to those upon the gold antependium of
Henry IL, once preserved in the Minster of Basle.

Fig. 270. — Relief in the Minster of Basle.

Where there was no such training, the greatest rudeness is ob
servable, even during the twelfth century, — being the more manifest
the more the artist endeavored to make up for the incorrectness of
the forms by an exaggeration of the action. This is the case with
the relief of one of the so-called Extersteine near Horn, in the prin
cipality of Lippe-Detmold, probably executed about 1 1 15, repre
senting the Descent from the Cross, above a scene, now much
defaced, of Adam and Eve in Paradise. Notwithstanding a certain
expression of sentiment in the gestures, the helplessness of the ac
tion in the figures of Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and Christ
is absolutely deplorable. No study whatever of nature is apparent,

GERMANY. 443
and only slight classic reminiscences are to be observed in the dra
peries, to which the monotony of the folds give something of an
archaistic character.
The backwardness of Cologne, and indeed of all the towns of
the Middle Rhine, in the sculpture of figures, when compared with
the great architectural culture of the twelfth century, can only be
accounted for by the absorption of all creative power in the erection
of the gigantic edifices of these districts, and the furtherance of the
constructive progress which was thereby made. The neighboring
province of Westphalia, though decidedly inferior in architectural
respects, produced in sculpture some significant results, such as the
tympanons of the portals at Erwitte, Soest, and Balve, and the bap
tismal fonts of Freckenhorst, Aplerbeck, and Beckum, all of which,
though of little interest in their subjects, still possess certain merits
of execution., The thirteen statues in the southern portal of the
Cathedral of Muenster, and especially those of the southern portal
of the Cathedral of Paderborn, are superior, — already approaching,
however, to the characteristics of the Gothic style.
In Upper Germany, also, the attempt was made to compensate
for the defects of the architecture by sculptured decorations, chiefly
applied to the capitals and portals. The most elaborately orna
mented capitals are found in Suabia and Alemannia, these being
often of extremely rude execution, like those of the Minster of
Zurich. The supports themselves were frequently decorated with
patterns of tasteful design, and occasionally carved upon all sides in
high-relief. Examples of this treatment are a number of columns
in the cloister of the Collegiate Church of Berchtesgaden, and es
pecially an octagonal pier in the crypt of the Cathedral of Freising,
the importance of which lies in the intricate and fanciful design
rather than in the mediocre execution (Fig. 271). The same remark
applies to the many figures of the most important sculptured portal
of Southern Germany, that of the Church of St. James at Ratisbon*
executed towards the close of the twelfth century.
Among all the countries of Germany, the greatest importance is
at this period to be assigned to Saxony, which compensated for its
comparative deficiency in architectural respects by the excellence
of its monumental sculpture. The Saxon artists in this branch had

444

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

gradually overcome the clumsiness which was still universal in other
parts of Germany, and was observable until the middle of the twelfth
century even in the districts of the Hartz, for instance at Goslar,
Merseburg, and Gernrode. The influence is still to be traced which
was exercised upon sculpture in stone by the bronze statuary of
Bernward of Hildesheim and his successors. Yet the stone reliefs

Fig. 271. — Carved Support from the Crypt of the Cathedral of Freising.

at Hildesheim itself, and at Halberstadt, Hamersleben, Hecklingen,
and Koenigslutter, with all the traditional types and Byzantine
limitations, especially apparent in the draperies, betray a better
understanding of form, even approaching to the classic style. Ro
manic sculpture, however, attained its greatest eminence in Eastern
Saxony. The works there preserved almost equal in artistic excel-

GERMANY.

445

lence those of the Pisani. The pulpit of Wechselburg (Fig. 272),
notwithstanding its striking resemblance to the similar creations of
Niccolo Pisano, can by no means be considered as an imitation,
since it must have been executed soon after, if not at the time of,
the completion of that church in 1184. It may be, however, that,
as in the beginning of this period, during the reign of Henry II.,

Fig. 272. — The Pulpit of Wechselburg.

the classic'impulse was strongly felt in the North, as would naturally
result from the considerable intercourse between Germany and Italy
through the expeditions of the emperors to Rome. This was es
pecially the case in the time of the Hohenstaufens, who brought
the classic style into fashion in the same manner as the Ottos had
fostered Byzantinism at their court. The Italian character of the
architectural framework of the pulpit is no less surprising than are

446 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
the classic forms of the sculptures in high -relief upon the three
panels of the parapet. These represent, upon the front, Christ, with
the symbols of the Evangelists, the Virgin, and St. John ; upon one
side, the miracle of the Brazen Serpent, and, upon the other, the sac
rifices of Cain, Abel, and Abraham.
While the connection of these sculptures with those of Saxony
before mentioned is still evident, it is scarcely to be traced in the
altar-piece of the same church at Wechselburg, a work of somewhat
later date and of a style even more perfect. This altar-piece, the lower
parts of which are of the same red sandstone as the pulpit, contains
in the niches four representations in relief of figures from the Old
Testament, very similar in character to the sculptures of the portal of
the Cathedral of Freiberg. Its execution cannot be ascribed to a pe
riod later than the first half of the thirteenth century. This is plain
from the date of the completion of the edifice, as well as from the
fact that the same artistic character is recognizable in the funeral
monument of Count Dedo and his wife Mechthilde, in the choir of
this church, which must have been erected soon after the death of
the Count in 1190. Fr°m this it appears that the Golden Portal of
the Cathedral of Freiberg in the Erzgebirge was also built before-
the middle of the thirteenth century. In the eight figures of the
side walls, almost of life size, the awkwardness of the position and
action so noticeable in the pulpit of Wechselburg is entirely over
come ; the proportions are harmonious, the heads and hands, with
all their ecclesiastical solemnity, are of a perfect beauty and signifi
cance, and the draperies are almost faultless. In dignified elegance
these sculptures are fully equal to those of Niccolo Pisano, being
only surpassed by the best works of the French Gothic. The same
may be said of the relief in the tympanon of the portal, with the
representation of the Virgin enthroned, adored on one side by the
Magi, on the other by the angel and the donor. In composition
this is decidedly superior to the crowded designs of Niccolo Pisano.
The figures placed upon brackets between the mouldings of the
arch, as was customary in the. portals of the Gothic style, are less
successful, those in a sitting posture particularly being cramped by
the limited space.
Not only the last-named figures but all those of the portal indi-

GERMANY. 447
cate an influence which renders this celebrated work a kind of an
achronism. There can be but little doubt that the artist of the
Golden Portal was acquainted with similar sculptures of the French
Gothic dating to the end of the twelfth century, and received from
them his chief inspiration. This work consequently holds a place
between the two styles. While still Romanic in its architectural
details, it distinctly shows in its sculpture a dependence upon Gothic
models. As Gothic methods of design were almost unknown in
Germany at a time when they were approaching their perfection in
France, this work is to be considered as a solitary forerunner of that
style. The sculpture of Eastern Saxony seems to have exerted its
influence over a wide district. In Silesia, — instance the Church of
the Magdalen in Breslau, — and far into the Austrian countries, in
clusive of Moravia and Hungary, unmistakable evidences of this
can be traced ; and decorations in relief, such as those in the east
ern choir of the Cathedral of Bamberg, could scarcely have been
executed without the help of Saxony. It is true that in Bamberg
the cathedral treasures of the time of Henry II. provided many
models for imitation in sculpture, the artistic activity, at least in
ivory carvings, having been as important at the close of the Ro
manic epoch as at its commencement.
Germany was less productive in wood carvings during this pe
riod. The altars were generally of stone, the utensils for them of
metal. Among the interior fittings of churches and palaces what
ever could not be executed in these materials was made of wood,
entirely without ornament. Even in the doors of the magnificent
Romanic portals, and wherever a rich framework of stone rendered
it desirable to give artistic importance , to the wood, the antique,
Byzantine, and Carolingian traditions were not abandoned, the dec
orations being limited to a metal revetment of the wooden panels.
Thus there is but one example referable to the Romanic epoch of a
wooden door carved in figures, namely that in the left transept of
St. Mary of the Capitol. Wooden carvings of figures in round pan
els, as well as in high - reliefs, may have been somewhat more fre
quent, though not as common as they became during the Gothic
period.

448

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Among the oldest and most important wood carvings of this class
are the three figures in high-relief of the portico of St. Emmeramnus
in Ratisbon (Fig. 273), representing Christ, St. Dionysius, and St.
Emmeramnus. At the feet of Christ is an inscription of the donor,
Reginward, abbot from 1049 to 1064, according to which this work
must have been executed about the middle of the eleventh century.
In these carvings, which without doubt
were originally colored, the attitude and
treatment are still rigid and awkward,
and the characteristics of Byzantine
metal and ivory work are plainly recog
nizable. The farther north, the more
noticeable is the influence of those
braided patterns which played so prom
inent a part in the wood carving of
Scandinavia, while in the representation
of figures no progress is to be observed
in this branch during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. The truly admirable
crucifix with the figures of the Virgin
and St. John which surmounts the high
altar in Wechselburg is, therefore, the
more remarkable. What has already
been said of the stone sculptures in
Freiberg is true of this wonderful pro
duction, which also betrays a depend
ence upon the early works of the French
Gothic; and yet, withal, it is an anom
aly: so fine a feeling for beauty, such
understanding of form, in short, feat
ures of such excellence are, for the en
tire thirteenth century in Germany,
enigmatical. The work is probably dependent upon the sculptures
at Freiberg, but so far surpasses these that it is doubtful whether it
can be ascribed to an earlier date than the end of the century in
question. With exception of the last-named Saxon examples, sculpture in

Fig. 273. — Carving of Wood from
St. Emmeramnus, Ratisbon.

GERMANY. 449
stone and wood during the Romanic epoch was inferior to that in
metals. Casting in metal must have been handed down from the
time of Charlemagne. The fact that the Bishop of Verden, about
the year 990, gave six bronze columns to the Convent of Corvey
does not, indeed, prove this assumption, as these columns might
have come to Verden from the foundery of Charlemagne at Aix-la-
Chapelle. Still, it is known with certainty that, a few years later,
Abbot Deuthemar ordered six more columns, corresponding to the
first, to be executed by the bronze founder Gottfried of Corvey,
and that, in 1004, Abbot Hosad of Corvey had a monument cast in
honor of a learned monk Widukind of that convent. Existing re
mains prove that bronze casting was practised, during the following
decades, in Mayence, Hildesheim, and Augsburg.
Archbishop Willigis of Mayence, in the gates of the Cathedral
cast in 1007 by Master Beringer, had still followed the Carolingian
traditions. The decorations were restricted to the mouldings, the
panels themselves being entirely without figures in relief, which
were first introduced in the door of the Cathedral of Hildesheim,
dating to the year 1015. As, in Italy, the Byzantine execution of
bronze doors was chiefly in niello, it is not surprising that the cele
brated work of Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim shows no remi
niscences of earlier monumental sculptures. The greater, therefore,
is the artistic importance of this independent production, which is
indeed a worthy representative of the progress made by Saxon art
in the beginning of the eleventh century. It consists of sixteen
Biblical scenes : upon the left door those of the Old Testament,
from the creation of Eve to the murder of Abel; upon the right,
those from the New Testament, from the Annunciation to the Res
urrection (Fig. 274). In conception and composition these are less
influenced by the work in precious metals and ivory than by monu
mental and miniature painting, which by this time had freed itself
almost entirely from Byzantine traditions. It thus resulted that
these reliefs, in composition, as well as in the execution of the de
tails, show a decided want of style. A certain hesitation and inex
perience is evident in the unequal heights of the relief, the legs
being flat, the upper portions of the bodies high, the heads, and in
part also the arms, in the full round and detached from the back-
29

450

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

ground, while the accessaries of architecture and foliage are pitiably
bungling. Nevertheless, the energy and direct truthfulness of ac
tion, the expressive gestures, and the comparative correctness of
form, even in the more difficult positions, command an interest and
a respect due only to original creations, — never to a merely tradi
tional work, however superior in technical respects.
Such originality is not found in the Column of Bernward, which
is said to have been placed in the Church of St. Michael in Hildes
heim in 1022, and now stands, mutilated, in the Domplatz of that
town. This may or may not have been dependent upon the brazen

Fig. 274. — Adoration of the Magi. Relief upon the Bronze Gates of Hildesheim.

columns of Corvey, but certainly owes' its spiral decoration of reliefs
to reminiscences of the Column of Trajan or that of Marcus Aure
lius. The influence of these models is unmistakable, not only in the
arrangement of the spiral reliefs of Biblical subjects, but also in the
conventional treatment of the figures, which, in their dull and heavy
imitation of the classic style, differ greatly from those upon the door
of the Cathedral of Hildesheim.
The somewhat more recent bronze gates of the Cathedral of
Augsburg (Fig. 275) also do not attain to the pleasing effect of those
of Hildesheim, although their low-relief and more equal projection
of the figures from the background are in better accordance with the

GERMANY.

451

conventional requirements of this kind of work. The unpretentious
representations, mostly limited to single figures, are quite without
that bold energy which causes the artist to risk a technical error in
order to convey his idea to the beholder. They are consequently
lacking in effect, it being often difficult to recognize the subjects.
The reliefs are without systematic connection, the scenes being fre
quently repeated in a vex
atious manner,— the result •gfljr=^==^^|tegp
, , . , . , ^H -— -  t___JmJ| e
of their having been re- 
arranged, and possibly the
putting together of two
similar sets of panels dur
ing a reconstruction of the
building. Recent investi
gations, however, have suc
ceeded in offering an ac
ceptable explanation of
their meaning.* The sub
jects, taken from the Old
Testament, are the crea
tion of Eve and her pres
entation to Adam as his
wife, the Garden of Eden
with the tempting and
accursed Serpent, Moses
seizing his rod transformed
into a serpent, the miracle
wrought by Aaron upon
the rods of the Egyptians,
and Samson rending the
lion and slaying the Philistines. These were chosen, without doubt,
because of their typological relation to Christ, such parallels being
customary in the homilies of that age. The scenes from the New
Testament — the parables of the woman seeking the piece of sil
ver, the birds of heaven, and the vineyard— were conceived as alle-

Fig_ 275. — Part of one of the Bronze Doors of the
Cathedral of Augsburg.

* J. Merz, Die Bildwerke an der Erzthiire des Augsburger Domes. Stuttgart, 1885.

452

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

gories of the Church. Typological, also, are the figures Melchize-
dek, Moses, Aaron, David, Judas Maccabaeus and the Prophets,
while lions and centaurs appear as symbols of evil. The conven
tional style of these sculptures betrays many reminiscences of the
minor works of antiquity, especially
gems and coins.
To the same category with these
doors belongs the so-called Altar of
Crodo, formed of sheets of bronze,
which was removed from the portico
of the Cathedral of Goslar, now de
stroyed. The four male figures which
uphold this altar are sculptured in the
full round ; they are, however, of but
slight artistic value. The same may
be said of the statue of the Lampa-
dophorus in the Cathedral of Erfurt.
In hardness and helplessness these are
even surpassed by the figure of Arch
bishop Gisilerius, executed in high-re
lief, soon after 1004, in Magdeburg.
The gigantic crucifix of Bernward of
Hildesheim, in the Cathedral of Bruns
wick, is also exceedingly stiff; the con
ception of the Saviour as living, wear
ing a long tunic and without the crown
of thorns, is, however, remarkable in
iconographic respects. The next fol
lowing work of importance which can
be accurately dated is the funeral mon
ument of the Pretender Rudolph of
Suabia, who died in 1080 (Fig. 276).
It shows no progress commensurate
with the great advance made in architecture during this age. In
deed, more was achieved at that time by the school of Dinant,
which must be considered as belonging to France, notwithstand
ing the fact that it derived its origin from the Carolingian foun-

Fig. 276. — Tomb of the Pretender Ru
dolph of Suabia, in the Cathedral
of Merseburg.

GERMANY. 453
dery of Aix-la-Chapelle. The artistic excellence of the school of
Dinant was equalled in Germany only towards the close of the
twelfth century, at which time bronze casting was again cultivated
in the Saxon countries. The baptismal font in the Cathedral of
Osnabrueck, with its five representations in relief, can scarcely be
compared with that of Liege ; neither can the tombstone of the
archbishop to Frederick Barbarossa, in the Cathedral of Magdeburg,
nor the brazen lion on the Cathedral Square of Brunswick, dating
to 1 166, though all these works are of tolerable perfection in tech
nical respects. At all events, the magnificent font in the Cathedral
of Hildesheim, referable to the first half of the thirteenth century,
far surpasses all preceding works in beauty of form and execution.
The allegorical figures of the four rivers of Paradise which, kneel
ing with their urns, support the basin, are superior to all previous
productions in the full round ; but the advance is even more appar
ent in the reliefs upon the basin itself, which represent the passage
of the Red Sea, Joshua crossing the Jordan, the Baptism of Christ,
and the donor, Canon Wilbernus, adoring the Virgin. The reliefs
upon the cover are not inferior; they show the blossoming rod of
Aaron, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Magdalen anointing the
feet of the Saviour, and the Works of Mercy.
The admiration excited in England by the metal works (Opus
Teutonicum) of Germany in the eleventh century can hardly have
decreased during the twelfth, although the exportation to the West
was somewhat limited by the competition of the school of Dinant.
Moreover, the fame and the productions of the Saxon founderies
were extended to the farthest East, as is proved by the door of the
Cathedral of Gnesen, with its eighteen representations from the life
of St. Adalbert ; and also the door of the Church of St. Sophia in
Novgorod, which was probably cast towards the middle of the twelfth
century by Master Riquinus in Magdeburg, under the superintend
ence of the archbishop Wichmann of that place. The progress and
greater technical ability evident in these doors, when compared with
those of Hildesheim, is as unmistakable as is their artistic inferior
ity to the reliefs of the before-mentioned font of Hildesheim.
In the altars themselves goldsmiths' work was in some cases
substituted for castings in bronze. The high altar of the Abbey

454 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
Church of Petershausen, near Constance, dating to the year 983,
must have been more remarkable for its rich material than for its
artistic and technical excellence. The mensa was closed in front
by a golden' antependium richly set with jewels, and behind by a
silver panel with a gilded relief of the Virgin ; the wooden columns
of the ciborium placed above the altar, and the arches connecting
them, as well as the coffered ceiling, were reveted, partly with beat
en silver and partly with gilded sheets of copper, the whole being
intended to imitate the gaudy magnificence of the Ark of the Cov
enant. Such riches in the altar offered a temptation which could
not be resisted in the financial difficulties experienced by the clois
ter during the twelfth century. In like manner the altar, reveted
with gold and set with precious stones, which was founded by
Henry II. in the Cathedral of Merseburg, was seized as booty by a
band of plundering soldiers in the year 1547. The gigantic crucifix,
which is said to have been executed by Archbishop Willigis about
the year 1000, and was at times erected before the altar, has like
wise disappeared. The beams of this were entirely covered with
sheets of gold, and the hollow figure of the Saviour, over life-size
and filled with relics, was of beaten gold : the whole contained six
hundred pounds of pure gold, and its material value was increased
by precious stones, among which were carbuncles of the size of
doves' eggs, forming the eyes. That these works were not entirely
without artistic importance is proved by the golden antependiums
of this period which have been preserved. The finest among these
is that of the Minster of Basle, now in the Musee Cluny (Fig. 277).
It is divided into five arcades with columns ; all the surfaces and
mouldings are richly ornamented with vines, while the niches con
tain the figures of Christ, with the donors Henry II. and Kunigunde
at his feet, the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, and St.
Benedict, all of beaten metal-work. Of the antependium of the
Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle, perhaps referable to the time of the
Ottos, only seventeen single panels of beaten gold still remain, these
being now attached to a shrine of the treasury of that church. The
gold antependium in the Abbey Church of Komburg in Wurtem
berg, especially remarkable for its enamels, is of considerably later
date. When the ecclesiastical resources did not suffice, and no as-

GERMANY.

455

sistance was obtained from imperial donations, the antependiums
were made of copper beaten and gilded. Examples of this kind of
work is that from Queren in Angeln, referable to about I IOO, now
preserved in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg, and that from
•tfie Church of St. Ursula, now in the Chapel of the Town Hall in
Cologne. Mention is also to be made of the gilded copper revet
ment of the parapet of the ambo in the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle,
which is richly adorned with enamels, precious stones, and ivory
carvings (Fig. 278).

Fig. 277. — Antependium of Gold from the Minster of Basle, now in the Musee Cluny.

Though in all these monumental works the native character ap
pears in the greater freedom of the types, Byzantine tradition is
unmistakable in the composition, the forms, and technical treat
ment, and this is in nothing more evident than in the utensils of
metal. These smaller works held a position in regard to monu
mental sculptures similar to that of miniature paintings to wall dec
orations. The imported objects were of direct influence upon metal
utensils, as had been the case for centuries with goldsmiths' work,
and this influence was fostered anew by the court of the empress

456

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Theophanu (compare page 412.) This would be sufficiently shown
by the technical execution, even were it not for the inscriptions in
Greek letters. The preference for filigree ornaments, for rows of
pearls and precious stones, and decorations in enamel and niello is
decidedly Byzantine. This character is more perceptible in orna
mentations than in figures, though these latter show more traces of
this style when represented
in enamel and niello than in
relief. It can, however, by no
means be assumed that even
enamels were limited to im
portations from Greece or to
the works of native-born
Greeks. This is true espe
cially of the so-called itnail
ckampleve', or enamel upon
deepened ground, which more
and more supplanted the old
er email cloisonne", or enamel
with inlaid metal lines, and
came to be the prevailing in
dustry of the North in this
branch. The former differs
from the latter in that the
panels for the pigments are
cut or beaten into the sheet
of gold or copper. It first
appears in Germany in the
crucifix of the abbess The
ophanu, between 1039 and
1054, in the Collegiate Church of Essen. In the hnail cloisonni,
on the other hand, the colored panels were separated by soldered
gold threads. This method was chiefly practised in the provinces
of Cologne, Treves, and Lorraine, and was afterwards introduced
into Limoges. In connection with a number of excellent produc
tions in this branch the names of German artists are mentioned,

Fig. 278. — Ambo in the Choir of the Minster of
Aix-la-Chapelle.

GERMANY.

457

among them Eilbert of Cologne, who executed the portable altar in
the private treasury of the House of Hanover ; Nicolaus of Verdun,
the designer of the antependium in Klosterneuburg, and of the reli
quary of Tournai ; and Henricus Custos of Siegburg, the artist of
the shrine of Anno in Siegburg near Bonn. Niello, an engraving of
lines upon a combination of metals on a flat surface, bearing some
relation to the email champleve", seems to have been first employed
in the portable altar of the treasury of the Cathedral of Paderborn,
probably consecrated by Bishop Henry II.
The chief opportunities for magnificent work in gold decorated
with enamel and jewels were offered by the reliquaries. These were
generally treated after the manner of the early Christian sarcophagi,

Fig. 279. — Shrine of Charlemagne in the Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle.
with reminiscences, more or less distinct, of the columnar arcades
and gables of the basilicas, — the surfaces of the sides and lids being
covered by tablets in relief, surrounded by ornamented frames in
the same way as were the doors and antependiums. The finest
works of the kind are the Shrine of the Magi in the Cathedral of
Cologne, dating to 1198, the Shrine of Charlemagne in the Minster
of Aix-la-Chapelle (Fig. 279), referable to the first half of the thir
teenth century, and the shrine above the former coronation altar in
the same church, which is similar to the last-mentioned example
but of somewhat later date. The first-mentioned reliquary imitates
the exterior of a three-aisled basilica in the elevation of the central
portion above the lower lean-to roofs of the sides, while the arcades

458 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
in relief on the sides and fronts appear as a reminiscence of the in
terior memberment. The two shrines of Aix-la-Chapelle are sim
pler, and present the forms of a one -aisled building, though in the
shrine of the coronation altar a transept is indicated. The sculpt
ures and ornaments, however, both in artistic and material value,
are scarcely inferior to those of the shrine of Cologne. These works
appear to be from the same school, and that this had its chief seat
in Cologne is made probable by the. existence of five similar works
in that city. Others are found at Siegburg, Osnabrueck, and Hil
desheim, — this latter place, after the age of Bernward, having held
a position in regard to metal work fully equal to that of the towns
of the Middle Rhine. The reliquaries differed occasionally from the
form of a shrine, according to the character of the objects which
they contained. An instance of this is the receptacle for the staff of
St. Peter in the treasury of the Cathedral of Limburg on the Lahn,
with an inscription of the donor, Archbishop Egbert of Treves, dat
ing to 980. Other casings are in the form of a bust, for skulls, or
in that of an arm, a foot, or even a finger, for the corresponding
parts of the skeleton. It resulted from the nature of these objects,
as well as from the peculiarity of the shape, that the decoration of
the shrines should be more frequently of jewels and enamel than
of figures. As has been seen, the miniatures executed for the secular and
ecclesiastical princes were in striking contrast to the modest works
in pen-drawing intended for the use of the monks, and in like man
ner the reliquaries for the country churches were very different from
the magnificent shrines of the cathedrals and rich abbeys. This was
true in regard to material as well as form. The rude copper work
of a reliquary in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg, dating to the
eleventh century, is of extreme clumsiness, and the ungainly figures
in the group of the crucifixion above the shrine barely suffice to in
dicate the nature of the scene. Still, even the poorest copper reli
quaries, notwithstanding the awkwardness of the figures, the lack of
trained skill, and the hastiness attendant upon badly paid work, gen
erally have some decoration in enamel.
Similar in character to the reliquaries, and in a certain sense
to be classed with them, are the portable altars. As these were

GERMANY.

459

granted only to princes, secular or ecclesiastical, many of them were
of the greatest richness and elaboration. Among them is to be men
tioned that in the Museum of Darmstadt, dating to the tenth cen
tury, that from the cathedral treasure of Henry II. in Bamberg, now
in the National Museum at Munich, two in Siegburg, and a fifth, dat
ing to the eleventh century, preserved in Paderborn. Of particular
beauty is the portable altar in the Collegiate Church of Melk (Fig.
280), executed between 1056 and 1075, the sides of which are orna
mented with ivory reliefs. Another altar, now in Frankfort-on-the-
Main, though surmounted by an ivory triptych, is also referable to
the eleventh century ; a similar adjunct appears in the shape of a
diptych on an altar of this kind, of enamelled copper, now in the
Archiepiscopal Museum of Cologne.

Fig. 280. — Portable Altar in the Collegiate Church of Melk.
Of greater importance are the numerous crucifixes of this period,
both those standing upon the altars and those intended to be removed
from place to place. In the costly enamelled gold crucifix with the
Latin inscription of Queen Gisela of Hungary, wife of Stephen the
Holy, which is now in the Reiche Kapelle in the royal palace in
Munich, the pronounced Byzantine character is to be explained by
the nationality of the donor ; but in general it resulted, from the
nature of the subject, that the Byzantine types were more closely
followed in these works. This is proved, among others, by the four
crucifixes from the tenth and eleventh centuries in the treasury of
the Collegiate Church at Essen, by the crucifix of Lothair in the
Minster of Aix-la-Chapelle, and by that in the Church of St. Mau
rice at Muenster, dating to the eleventh century. Examples of such

460

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

magnificence as these are rare, but all larger collections of antiquities
contain numerous crucifixes of gilded copper, brass, ivory, etc., the
artistic and material value of which are usually about equal.
Among the utensils for illumination the chandeliers were the
first to receive a more independent ornamentation. There still ex
ist in Germany four of those huge circles which were intended to
represent the surrounding walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem, with
towers and gates according to the description of the Apocalypse :
two of the eleventh century
in the Cathedral of Hildes
heim, and two of the twelfth
in Aix-la-Chapelle and in
Komburg. The greatest elab
oration in this branch was de
voted to the seven-armed can
delabra. The most magnifi
cent of these is that given to
the Collegiate Church of Es
sen by the abbess Mathilde,
who died A.D. 1003. The
forms of this, as well as of
those in the Cathedral of
Brunswick, St. Gangolf in
Bamberg, St. Bustorf of Pad
erborn, the Collegiate Church
of Klosterneuburg, and the
Cathedral of Prague, clearly
show their derivation from
the relief upon the Arch of
Titus in Rome. An improvement in the style of decoration is also
evident in the Easter candlesticks, and, finally, in those for the can
dles used at the altar. These latter were almost exclusively of
copper, ornamented chiefly at their base, either in gold and enamel
or by intertwined animal forms (Fig. 281).
The chalice and the paten, for the consecration and communion
of the wine and wafer were, almost without exception, of precious
metal, generally of gilded silver. The form of the chalice of Thas-

Fig. 281. — Altar Candlestick at Klosterau on
the Inn.

GERMANY.

461

silo, before described, was maintained until the end of the eleventh
century; after that time the cup became wider, the handle being
adopted only in exceptional cases. The decoration, which had be
fore been exclusively of enamel, was now executed in relief, while the
style of the ornamentation changed from the Byzantine to the Ro
manic. Less attention was devoted, during this period, to the am
pullar, or vessels for the sacrificial wine and water, than to the aqui-
minalia, which contained the water for the washing of the hands —
these usually representing animals, and being made either of copper
or brass (Fig. 282). A great number of aquiminalia, of the most va
rious forms, have been collected in the Germanic museum of Nurem-

Fig. 282. — Aquiminalia of Bronze.

berg. The censers were exceedingly simple, consisting merely of
bowls of iron suspended upon chains. A few basins of perforated
work, with rich covers in silver or gilded copper, have been preserved,
as, for instance, that in the Cathedral of Treves. The portable fonts
for the holy water were generally of copper ; small ivory cups, such
as those used at court during the reign of the Ottos, were exception
al. Church bells were not ornamented until the Gothic period.
The art of ivory carving declined during the Romanic epoch,
and during the eleventh and twelfth centuries was almost entirely
limited to the crosiers, the staves of abbots and abbesses, and the
elaborate bindings of manuscripts. There are, it is true, some cro
siers,— such as those in Treves, St. Wolfgang, and Salzburg,— in which

462 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
the spiral is executed in gilded and enamelled copper. The curve
of the staff of rock crystal at Goerz, dating to the thirteenth century,
is of silver, gilded. In general, however, the termination is of ivory,
and, in some instances, of walrus tooth. The covers of the magnifi
cent codices gave opportunity for the carving of figures in relief,
heightened in effect by borders of the richest goldsmiths' work.
As it is doubtful whether these bindings were executed at the same
time with the codices, and as the cameos, diptychs, and enamelled
panels may often have been taken from older collections, it is im
possible to give an accurate date for these works, which are re
markable for their gold filigree, enamels, and decorations of jewels.
Among the few which can be positively dated, the most promi
nent is the superb binding of the codex of Echternach, now in Gotha,
the contents of which have been already described. According to
the titles given to the donors, Otto III. and Theophanu, who are
represented upon the cover, this can only be referred to the time of
the regency of Theophanu, between 985 and 991, she being called
" Empress," and Otto " King." Notwithstanding the Latin text of
the inscribed names of St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Benedict, St. Boni
face, St. Willibrord, and St. Liudgar, of the rivers of Paradise, Phison,
Geon, Tigris, and Euphrates, and the symbols of the Evangelists,
the work in gold and enamel is so decidedly of Byzantine character,
and so skilful in execution, that the direct influence of the Eastern
Empire is unmistakable. In consideration of the limited period
during which this influence had been exercised, its results are cer
tainly surprising. The representation of the Crucifixion upon the
ivory carving which forms the central panel is of a more indepen
dent design ; yet, notwithstanding certain rude and stiff features of
the details, its careful workmanship displays an honest endeavor to
equal the figures of the border. Similar in style, and of about the
same date, are the rich covers of the Codex Aureus of Charles the
Bald from St. Emmeramnus, those of the codices of Henry II. in
Munich (Cim. 57, 58, and 60), and some other bindings in Bamberg,
Hildesheim, Essen (Fig. 283), Treves, and Darmstadt. None of these
specimens, however, fully equalled that of Gotha. In almost all
the contrast is very striking between the skilful workmanship, but
conventional design, of the elaborately ornamented bindings, and

GERMANY,

463

the coarse and untrained execution of the miniature paintings which
they contained — the illuminations being free from archaism and me
chanical imitation, and consequently having the important advan-

Fig. 283. — Cover of a Codex of the Abbess Theophanu, A.D. 1039 to 1054, in the
Treasury of the Collegiate Church of Essen.
tages of more marked individuality and more decidedly pronounced
national character.
Although the painting and the sculpture of Germany, during

464 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
the Romanic ages, were about equally important in artistic respects,'
it is yet to be remarked that the tendencies of these two arts, con
sidered from a historical stand-point, were decidedly different. The
painters, in striving for a striking presentation of the subjects cho
sen, fell into the most undisciplined dilettanteism and the great
est tastelessness ; while the sculptors, and especially the workers in
metal, still retained the traditional methods of their Byzantine mod
els, thereby securing at least a better training and a certain degree
of mechanical excellence. Hence, neither of the arts could attain
to a higher importance until brought into more intimate relations
with each other. When this was accomplished, the forms and meth
ods of painting were greatly improved, and that new life was given
to sculpture which led to the successful development of the follow
ing period.
The sculpture of the Romanic period in Italy* differed essen
tially from that in Germany. In the former country there was also
to be observed that dualism characteristic of German art in the time
of the first emperors, but the relation of the native methods to By
zantine traditions appears entirely reversed. In Italy, Byzantinism
continued in the ascendency, in the Romanic as in the Carolingian
epoch, and the native art, even during the latter ages, never quite
freed itself from rudeness and barbarism ; while in Germany it had,
from the beginning, been of great promise, and was only secondarily
affected by Oriental influences. Moreover, in Italy the two meth
ods were not united, as in Germany, to form a harmonious style,
and therefore could not attain to an independent development.
Byzantinism was prevalent, especially in metal work, until the end
of the twelfth century; but receiving no fresh impulse, it finally
became exhausted, and the crude native dilettanteism which char
acterized sculpture in stone towards the close of the period under
consideration, did not experience that salutary discipline and techni-
* H. W. Schulz, Denkmiiler der Kunst des Mittelalters in Unteritalien. Dresden, i860.
— H. Semper, Uebersicht der Geschichte der toskanischen Sculptur bisgegen Ende des
XIV. Jahrhunderts. Zurich, 1869. — The Same, Ueber die Herkunft von Nic. Pisano's
Styl. Zeitschr. f. b. K. 1871. — C. v. Fabriczy, Zur Kunstgeschichte der Hohenstaufenzeit.
Zeitschr. f. b. K. 1879.

ITALY. 465
cal training which the exact mechanical work of the Bosporus might
have given. Thus throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries, no
sculptures were produced in Italy which could be compared to the
works of Germany. The few remaining decades of the Romanic pe
riod could but suffice for preliminary essays, after it had been wisely
resolved to cast aside the Byzantine traditions, together with the in
dependent technical methods of native workmanship, and to seek
their models from among the classic sculptures of ancient Rome.
The rudeness and meagreness of Italian stone sculptures, at the
beginning of the Romanic epoch, should be judged rather by retro
spective conclusions derived from later works, than by the few
memorials of this age, which are but seldom dated. It appears,
indeed, that the marble of the country was, for several centuries,
not otherwise employed than for architectural constructions. Car
dinal Leo, of Ostia, pupil and historian of Abbot Desiderius of
Monte Casino, was doubtless correct when, about 1100, he made
the assertion that Italian art had been lost for five hundred years.
The efforts of this abbot for the furtherance of art appear either
not to have been directed towards sculpture in stone, or to have
produced no result in this branch, the works of which, even as late
as the twelfth century, were of extreme awkwardness and ugliness
of form. If, for example, the marble crucifix of the Museum of
Arezzo, or the statue of St. Michael in the Church of Groppoli, near
Pistoja, be compared with the Descent from the Cross of the Exter-
steine, — or the pulpit of Groppoli (Fig. 284), dated A.D. 1194, with
that of Wechselburg, referable to about the same period, — the su
periority of Germany is at once evident. The low standard of taste
is made more apparent by the boastful inscriptions, which show
that these Italian sculptures were by no means the works of obscure
artists, and consequently inferior to the average productions of their
age. Even in Tuscany the brothers Gruamons and Adeodatus were
considered by their contemporaries as sculptors of great excellence.
This may be seen by the vainglorious inscriptions upon the reliefs
of S. Giovanni Fuor Civitas and of S. Andrea in Pistoja (Fig. 285),
dating to 1165. The same remarks apply to the sculptures upon
the facades of the cathedrals of Modena and Ferrara, as well as of
S. Zeno in Verona, works of the masters Wilhelmus and Nicolaus,
30

466

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

who in their time were greatly renowned ; and also to the sculptures
of the Porta Romana at Milan, built between 1167 and 1171. In the
inscription of the latter the artist is compared to Daedalus, more fit
tingly, indeed, than could at that period have been understood.
Bonus Amicus, sculptor of the frieze of the Campo Santo at Pisa,
and that of the Church at Mensano, — Robertus, designer of the bap
tismal font of S. Frediano at Lucca, — and Biduinus, who executed

Fig. 284. — Pulpit in the Church of St. Michael, Groppoli.

the reliefs of S. Casciano, near Pisa, and those of S. Carita in Lucca,
were in no wise superior to the masters before mentioned. From
all these, and from various anonymous works, it may be gathered
that, in Tuscany and in Upper Italy, sculpture in stone was more
actively pursued, but, until towards the end of the twelfth century,
was at the same low stand-point in both provinces.
Some few attempts were made at this time -to elevate the stand
ards of monumental art. Benedictus Antelamus, otherwise known

ITALY.

467

as Antelami or De Antelamo, in the fragment of a pulpit in a side
chapel of the Cathedral at Parma representing the Crucifixion and
dated 1178, exhibits some understanding of composition; and in
later sculptures upon the portal of the Baptistery of Parma, dated
1 196, shows a variety of subject and a novelty of treatment which
is pleasing, despite the defective form. Neither the contempora
neous sculptures upon the lower part of the facade of the Cathedral
of Lucca and upon the portal of the Pieve of Arezzo, nor the reliefs,
considerably later, of the Pulpit of Guido da Como in S. Bartolom-
meo at Pistoja, equalled in importance those of Antelamus. Other
works, however, were rendered of far greater significance by an
unhesitating return to classic models. It is questionable whether

Fig. 285. — Sculptured Frieze of Gruamons and Adeodatus above the Portal of S. Andrea,
in Pistoja.
these tendencies appeared in any work earlier than the sculptures of
the baptismal font in the Baptistery of Verona, referable to the first
years of the thirteenth century, in which the draperies and gestures,
as well as certain other features, breathe the spirit of the new style.
These tendencies are more consequentially and thoroughly developed
in the choir screen of the Pieve of Ponte alio Spino near Siena, now
in the transept of the Cathedral at Siena (Fig. 286), which is the
work of an anonymous artist of about the same period, and unmis
takably shows the way to have been already open for a systematic
adoption of the classic methods of design.
A conscious effort to follow antique models, and thus to redeem
stone sculpture from the coarseness and rudeness which had charac
terized this art during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, is evident

468

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

not only in Tuscany and Upper Italy but also in the southern prov
inces. In these districts such works as the sculptures of the portal
of the Cathedral of Trani, and the reliefs of the pulpit of S. Maria
del Lago at Moscufo, had shown that no good results were to be
obtained in sculpture through the imitation of Byzantine paintings,
and also that the requisite ability was wanting to attain satisfactory
results by independent attempts. In Upper Italy and Tuscany the
commencement of studies from the antique seems to have pro
ceeded solely from the individual discernment of the artists them
selves, while in Campania it received
a strong impulse from the classic taste
of the Hohenstaufens. That this was
particularly the case during the reign
of Frederick II. is proved by exist
ing remains. Among these, mention
should be made of the so-called Au-
gustals, gold coins bearing the por
trait of the Emperor upon the obverse,
and the imperial eagle upon the re
verse, which were issued in Brindisi
and Messina, and by their beauty and
classic character so delighted the Em
peror that in the year 1221 he pre
sented the crown estate of Viaregio,
near Lucca, to the superintendent of
the mint, Pagano Balduino. The stat
ues and busts with which Frederick,
in 1240, ornamented the abutment of
the bridge over the Volturno, near Capua, bear the same close
relation to the antique ; of these the badly weathered torso of
the statue of the Emperor, the head of the allegorical figure of
Capua Imperialis, and the two busts, one designated as that of the
Chancellor Pietro delle Vigne (Fig. 287), the other as that of the
Chief-justice Taddeo da Sessa, are now preserved in the Museum
of Capua. With these busts may also be classed the female head
upon the pulpit of the Cathedral of Ravello, dating to A.D. 1272,
which has, without doubt erroneously, been considered as the por-

'i'^itsS!M^i^AiAAA~iAaXmimujSi:ji Fig. 286. — Relief from the Pieve of
Ponte alio Spino.

ITALY.

469

trait of the foundress Sigelgaita Rufolo (Fig. 288) ; and also the fe
male bust from Scala near Amalfi, now in the Museum of Berlin. In
all these works there was, together with a direct conformity to classic
models, a technical perfection so remarkable as almost to make them
appear as anachronisms, the more so as other productions of Lower
Italy dating to this period are different and decidedly inferior. It is
therefore scarcely possible to ascribe these sculptures to the Pere-
grinus who executed the Easter candlestick and the choir screen of
Sessa. The artist of the classic sculptures at Capua may with more

Fig. 287. — Bust known as that of Pietro
delle Vigne. Museum of Capua.

Fig. 288. — Bust known as that of Sigelgaita
Rufolo in the Cathedral of Ravello.

probability be identified with the designer of the Augustal coins ; or
at least one common school may be assumed for both ; this certainly
must have been earlier than the time of Niccolo Pisano, and may be
considered as presaging the new era inaugurated by him. The great
Pisan artist, however, worked in the second half of the thirteenth
century, and his productions, even more than the sculptures of the
portal at Freiberg .or the altar-piece at Wechselburg, belong to the
beginning of the Gothic rather than to the transitional period.
Sculpture in bronze was taken up earlier than that in marble,
although, — with exception of certain isolated barbaric attempts,

470 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
such as the doors in beaten metal of S. Zeno in Verona, — the de
mands in this branch had, during the eleventh century, been supplied
by importations from Byzantium. This is attested by a great num
ber of bronze doors, several of which must have existed in Amalfi
before the year 1062. Among the many works of this kind, dedi
cated by the wealthy patrician family of Pantaleon, are the doors of
the Convent Church of Monte Casino, A. D. 1066, of S. Paolo fuori
le Mura near Rome, A. D. 1076, of S. Angelo upon Mount Gargano,
A.D. 1076, and of S. Salvatore at Atrani, A.D. 1087. The Byzantine
origin of the doors of S. Paolo and S. Angelo is certified by inscrip
tions, and that of the others is rendered probable by the absolute
similarity of their style and execution. Furthermore, it is proved
by contemporary evidence that the door ordered by Abbot Deside
rius for St. Martin in Monte Casino was executed in Constantinople;
and this may, with good ground, be presumed to have been the case
also with that of the Cathedral of Salerno, dedicated by Robert
Guiscard. The more recent of the two doors of St. Mark in Venice
— that bearing the dedicatory inscription of Procurator Leo de Mo-
lino, A.D. 1 1 12 — seems to be a copy made in the Occident from a
Byzantine model. The execution is the same in all. The sheets of
metal which form the revetment of the wooden doors are enclosed
by a projecting frame-work of bronze, ornamented in low-relief. The
panels are decorated in niello : the figures being drawn in incised
lines, and the surfaces filled in with sheets and threads of silver, or
with a colored cement resembling enamel.
The difficulty and the delay experienced in abandoning the By
zantine traditions is evident in a number of bronze doors, dating to
the beginning of the twelfth century, which were, without doubt,
executed by Italian artists who had not as yet been able to free
themselves from a dependence upon imported models. Master Ro-
gerius of Amalfi, in the doors of the Mortuary Chapel of Boemund
of Antiochia in Canosa, A.D. mi, endeavored to add some sculpt
ured ornament to the frames, knockers, etc. ; as did also Oderisius
of Benevento in the two doors of the Cathedral of Troja, dating to
1 1 19 and 1 1 27. If the imposing door of the Cathedral of Beneven
to, with its seventy-two panels in relief, be not referable to the early
part of the twelfth century, fifty years must have passed before

ITALY.

471

Lower Italy and Sicily produced any works of native design en
tirely decorated in relief, such as the doors of the Cathedral of
Trani, of that of Ravello, and of the northern portal of the Cathe
dral of Monreale — all of which were executed by Barisanus of
Trani, about 1180. The dependency upon Byzantine models is but
little to be observed in these works, which rather resemble certain
German doors, particularly those of the Cathedral of Augsburg,
though the direct influence of Germany cannot be demonstrated.
An artistic impulse from Pisa may be assumed with greater proba
bility, inasmuch as the bronze
door in relief in the southern
transept of the cathedral of
that city (Fig. 289), which,
though exceedingly primi
tive, is not without some un
derstanding of composition,
may be as early as the begin
ning of the twelfth century.
Moreover we learn that a
Pisan artist, one Bonannus,
who had executed a door of
the Cathedral of Pisa, was, in
1 186, engaged upon the door
of the western portal of the
Cathedral of Monreale. The
employment of artists from
neighboring towns was nat
ural, especially in the frequented maritime cities of Italy ; still, it
is strange that the brothers Albertus (Hubertus) and Petrus, who
in the year 1203 executed the bronze gates of the Chapel of St.
John in the Baptistery of the Lateran, were natives of Lausanne,
— not, as Rumohr would have us believe, of Piacenza.
The imitations in wood of bronze doors in relief, dating to about
1200, such as the fine example of S. Sabina in Rome, that of Alba
Fucese, and that of the Cathedral of Spalatro, together with the va
rious wood carvings of the Abruzzi, especially those of Aquila, need
not here be described in detail. The same is the case with those

Fig. 289.-

-Part of a Bronze Door of the Cathedral
of Pisa.

472 SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.
ecclesiastical furnishings which are connected with the so-called
Cosmatic decorations, referred to in the chapter upon Romanic ar
chitecture. The preference for the system of revetment introduced
by Cosmas in great measure explains the neglect of work in bronze
and precious metals, Italy being decidedly inferior to Germany in
these latter branches. In rare cases, where metal-work was required
for the utensils of the altar, a rigid Byzantine character is notice
able, like that in the bronze doors of the time of the Pantaleoni.
And this was equally true, whether the productions were of Byzan
tine origin, like the celebrated superfrontale of the so-called Pala
d'Oro, A.D. 976, in the Church of St. Mark, Venice, or whether they
were imitations of models imported from Constantinople, such as
the antependium of beaten silver, dating to 1144, in the Cathedral
of Citta di Castello. It is worthy of note that Venice, in the elev
enth and twelfth centuries, carried on a manufacture of considerable
importance in goldsmiths' work, especially in enamel, rather for ex
portation to Germany and France than to supply any demand in
Italy itself. Still, many of its productions, particularly the magnifi
cent bindings, remained in the wealthy City of the Lagoons.
The preponderance of works of large dimensions in marble and
bronze shows that, in general, the activity of Italy was directed
towards the grand and monumental, in characteristic contrast to
that of Germany, where, during the Romanic epoch, sculpture was
chiefly employed for the decoration of minor utensils.
The variety of style which was so noticeable in the architecture
of the several provinces of France* does not obtain in the sculpt
ure of that country. The fundamental basis of the latter art in the
eleventh century, as well as the novel tendencies appearing in the
twelfth, were the same throughout the whole of France. But the
degree of ability, the relations of native artistic traditions to exter
nal influences, the time spent in development, the opportunities for
practice, and, consequently, the results obtained, are very diverse.
Furthermore, in sculpture, as in architecture, we find no place

* M. Viollet-le-Duc. Dictionnaire raisonne de l'Architecture Francaise du XIe au
XVI' Siecle. Sculpture. Vol. VIII. 1866.

FRANCE. 473
which can be regarded as the central point of development, for the
school of Cluny only became of importance towards the close of the
period in question, which was here of comparatively short duration.
During the eleventh century France had no sculpture worthy of
remark. The few works produced, when not absolutely barbarous,
seem to hesitate between a helpless adherence to the expiring tra
ditions of ancient Rome and an imitation of imported Byzantine
models. A rude manner of workmanship, entirely without train
ing, is chiefly found in the North ; Roman influences prevail in the
countries of the Rhone ; and the Byzantine element is most promi
nent in and about Toulouse.
It is only at the beginning of the twelfth century that a greater
number of schools are to be distinguished, and that a more vigorous
activity makes itself manifest, this being, however, almost entirely
limited to the stone sculptures required for the decoration of archi
tectural constructions. The Provence had the important advantage
of possessing, in its numerous Roman remains, an abundance of
models, not only architectural but sculptural. The facades and por
tals of the Church of Saint-Gilles (Gard), begun in 1116, and of the
Church of St. Trophime in Aries (Fig. 204), dating to the middle of
the twelfth century, are remarkable productions, of a classic charac
ter unparalleled at that time in Italy. But, notwithstanding the
harmonious relations of the architecture and sculpture, the admira
ble composition and excellent execution of both, a closer observation
of the details shows that the Provence did not go beyond a mechani
cal imitation of older works, — was, indeed, less independent than cer
tain of the other provinces. When no help was to be derived from
tradition, the Provencal productions were vapid and often coarse.
The lack of all national independence and artistic individuality is
particularly to be observed in the heads, which are even more desti
tute of character and expression than are those of the contemporary
works of Northern France.
The school of Toulouse, despite its inferior basis, had higher
aims. Of its original Byzantine characteristics it retained only the
technical training and manner of expression, combining with these
a great delicacy of execution, careful study of dramatic action, and
an effective rendering of gesture and drapery, to which the stiff

474

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

Byzantine art did not even aspire. This is evident in the histori
cal representations upon the capitals of the cloister at Moissac, built
about 1 100, and those of the cloister of St. Sernin at Toulouse,
dating to 1150 (Fig. 290). To these may be added the sculptures
of the portal of the Convent Church at Souillac, and of that of the
Abbey Church at Conques, as well as those of the Town Hall at
Saint-Antonin, and of the cloister of St. Bertrand at Comminge.
In the group of cities
north of Toulouse, from Ca-
hors to Limoges, sculpture
was founded upon the same
Byzantine basis, — fostered
by the commercial relations
with Venice, which in no
other part of France were
more active than in the dis
trict of Limoges. An at
tempt was here made to im
prove the Byzantine style,
but without the carefulness
in detail and the dramatic
tendency of the school of
Toulouse. A higher stand
ard of beauty was thus at
tained, as, for example, in
Fig. 290-The Daughter of Herodias demands the the tympanon of the Cath-
Head of John the Baptist. Reliefupon a Capital edral of Cahors, dating to
of St. Sernin, now in the Museum of Toulouse, the beginning of the twelfth
century, though with less
success in the natural vivacity of the action.
The substantial character of the work in the country of the Ga
ronne was not equalled in the neighboring provinces of Angoumois
and Poitou. On the other hand, the sculptured decorations were
greatly increased in extent. In the Cathedral of Angouleme (Fig.
216), and in Notre-Dame-la-Grande of Poitiers, the overloaded com
position of Byzantine missal -covers was transferred to the entire
front of the building, — breaking altogether loose from the classic

FRANCE. 475
limitations observed in the sculptured facades of the Provence. The
advantages assured by the antique principles of design were thus al
most entirely lost. The architectural framework was overgrown by a
luxuriant ornamentation, determined by a capricious fancy which en
deavored to attain a general richness of effect rather than any higher
artistic qualities. The same decorative character, regardless of mi
nor features, is noticeable in the churches of Ruffec and Civray.
North of the Loire the antique influence was no longer felt. In
the Celtic provinces of Brittany the few examples preserved from
this period exhibit an unrestrained caprice, in which may be traced
reminiscences of the relationship to the Irish race. In view of the
great political and architectural activity which had been devel
oped in Normandy during the latter half of the eleventh century,
it is surprising that so little original work of importance was here
produced. For, apart from certain insignificant sculptures which may
have strayed into this country from the Netherlands, only isolated
examples of the greatest rudeness are met with, such as the relief
of David upon the Church of St. Georges at Boscherville, which is
of comparatively late date. The He de France, which, in the Gothic
epoch, became the centre of development, was as unproductive as
the provinces Orl6anois, Berry, and Bourbonnois. The sculptures
of the tympanon of the Porte Saint-Ursin at Bourges, dating to the
twelfth century, and inscribed with the name of the artist, Girauldus,
are naive and unpretentious, and are especially interesting on ac
count of the secular subject represented (Fig. 291).
The best works of sculpture produced in France during the
Romanic period are found in the eastern provinces, especially in
Burgundy. The school of Toulouse had preserved somewhat of
the characteristics of the Visigoths. That of Burgundy, in like
manner, retained traces of the primitive national elements of this
country. From the earliest ages the inhabitants had been cele
brated for their carvings in wood, much as the Comacini had been
for their stone-cutting ; it was therefore natural that the Burgundian
characteristics should manifest themselves chiefly in wood carving,
in striking contrast to the stone sculpture of the South. But this
was not the only, or even the principal, cause of the superior devel
opment of sculpture in this province. For Cluny, which, towards the

476

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

close of the eleventh century, began to exercise considerable influ
ence in this branch, — to the vexation of that ascetic zealot, Bernhard
of Clairvaux, — employed also other artists than those of Burgundy.
Moreover, the models were sought not so much in the old wood
carvings, or in the classic remains preserved in Burgundy, as in the
small Byzantine works in miniature, enamel, and ivory sculpture.
The application of the technical training thus gained to sculpture in
stone was effected in a manner more independent, and upon a bet
ter principle, than it had been in Western France. The Byzantine
style, which, as it were, formed the elementary basis of the art of

IFECTOIM

Fig. 291. — Tympanon of the Porte Saint-Ursin at Bourges.

Cluny, did not preclude a close observation of nature ; but this was
directed less towards the rendering of feeling and expression, as in
the school of Toulouse, than to the individual representation of
heads, hands, and feet, the draperies remaining Byzantine.
In the sculptures of the portal of Vezelay near Avallon (Fig. 269),
completed soon after 11 20, and in the relief of the tympanon of the
portal of the Cathedral at Autun, executed by Master Gislebertus
after 1150, it cannot but be remarked that the heads have lost the
hieratic conventionalism which had characterized them in the de
based classic not less than in the Byzantine style. The mechanical
uniformity is superseded by the greatest diversity, this appearing

FRANCE. 477
not only in the determination of the types but even in a portrait
like individuality. At the present day, among the peasants of
Morvan, heads are met with similar to those represented in these
sculptures, and it cannot, therefore, be doubted that the assiduous
artists of Cluny took their models from their immediate surround
ings. This deliberate return to nature resulted in the emancipation
of art from the trammels of a thousand years, and the talent and
success of the Burgundians in elevating themselves above the bar
barism of the neighboring provinces was of the greatest promise for
the future. It is true, nature was still imitated with a certain one-
sidedness and limitation, the draperies especially retaining their tra
ditional forms, but this does not detract from the significance of the
advance. The way was hereby opened for the marvellous develop
ment which sculpture was to attain in the Gothic epoch after the
close of the twelfth century, — not only in France but in all the
countries of the North.
The extension of the monastic order of Cluny led to the exten
sion of this truly national art over a great part of France. Before
the middle of the twelfth century similar types of heads are met
with, not only in the western portal of the Cathedral of Chartres, —
in which the life and naturalness of the faces contrast strongly with
the mummy-like Byzantine bodies and draperies, — but also in Poitou
and in some works of the district of Toulouse. How typical these
are of race and lineage, in comparison with the Byzantine and later
classic heads, is shown by the portraits of the French king and
queen from Notre-Dame in Corbeil, now preserved in St. Denis
(Figs. 292 and 293).
The chief field for this new movement in France was found in
stone sculpture in connection with architecture. Metal -work was
but little in demand, and the same was the case with wood carving,
which, after the twelfth century, was neglected even by the Burgun
dians. It appears that the few requirements in monumental bronze
casting were at first supplied, as in Italy, by importations from
Constantinople, through the medium of Venice and Genoa ; but in
later times by the productions of the Belgian school of Dinant.
This school is known to us by the beautiful baptismal font in the
Church of St. Bartholomew at Liege, which was cast soon after

478

SCULPTURE OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH.

1 1 12, by Lambert Patras, of Dinant, at the order of Abbot Helenius
of Orval. In thoroughness of execution and correctness of form
this surpasses even the works of the foundery at Hildesheim. It is
not surprising that such castings should have been greatly admired
in Northern France, where little progress had been made in this
branch. Members of the guild were called to France, and Dinant
came to be looked upon as a high-school of bronze founding. This
is made evident, less by the remaining specimens of the work in

\\\\^«iiih \iin"; f// Fig. 293. — Head of a Queen,
said to be Clotilde.
Sculptures from the Portal of Notre-Dame in Corbeil, now in St. Denis.

Fig. 292. — Head of a King, said to
be Clovis.

Northern France than by the fact that bronze founders long con
tinued to be known as " Dinandiers."
The conditions of goldsmiths' work were much the same as
those of bronze casting, the former branch being chiefly affected by
the influences of the Rhenish countries and by those introduced
through Aquitania. It is difficult to determine whether the tradi
tions of work in the precious metals, which prevailed during the
Carolingian period, still continued in force, or whether an entirely
new impulse made itself felt at the time of the Crusades ; but this

FRANCE. 479
is of little moment in historical respects, inasmuch as this branch of
art did not attain to the same importance in France and Italy as in
Germany. An exception may be made in favor of Limoges, where
much enamelled work was produced, this industry being established
either through a direct connection with Venice, or through an imi
tation of the methods of Lorraine, which latter province, like the
Rhenish countries, early cultivated the Smail champlevL
Of the other countries of Europe little is to be said in regard to
this branch of art during the Romanic epoch. Christian Spain was
even more dependent upon France in its sculpture than in its archi
tecture, and exhibited none of those realistic tendencies which char
acterized it during the subsequent period. England, in sculpture,
could learn nothing from its Norman missionaries, and its produc
tions were limited to barbaric wood carvings, such as chests, chess-
figures, etc. In the rare cases where monumental sculptures were
attempted, as in capitals and cornices, rude forms of masks and
monsters appear side by side with primitive symbols. The works
of this class are either of the most rigid and lifeless Byzantinism, as,
for instance, the sculptures of the west portal of the Cathedral of
Rochester, or of incompetent dilettanteism, as the statue of Bishop
Herbert in the portal of the northern transept of the Cathedral of
Norwich, the sculptured decoration of the south portal of the Cathe
dral of Ely, and the crucifix of Romsey. The same may be said of
Scotland and Ireland, where wood carving had early been practised ;
and more especially also of Scandinavia. The monstrous carved orna
ments of intertwined patterns, peculiar to Northern art, have already
been referred to. The few productions worthy of remark, and ref
erable to this period, which are to be met with in Denmark, Nor
way, and Sweden, — such as the altar-piece with an antependium and
superfrontale in relief, from Lisbjerg in Jutland, now in the South
Kensington Museum of London, — must be assumed to have been
imported from the southern coast of the Baltic, or from some other
country visited by the ships of the seafaring inhabitants. Higher
culture had but reached its first stages in these northern lands, and
no important monumental sculpture was possible until architecture
had attained a higher development.

Fig. 294. — View of the Cathedral of Bourges.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE.

IT has been frequently observed that no definite line of demarca
tion can be drawn between the Romanic and Gothic styles. It is
true the development of the variousartistic features did not advance
with perfect regularity. Forms justly regarded as characteristic of
the Gothic style are recognizable in the painting and sculpture of the
Romanic period ; and, on the other hand, certain primitive traits
were retained, with but unimportant alterations, until the close of
the Middle Ages. The same is the case, at least in some districts
of France, with the plan and construction of architectural monu
ments. A historical continuity is thus undeniable.
But this might be said with quite as much truth of the changes
which led from the style of the Carolingian to that of the Romanic
epoch. The Gothic modes of construction were based upon the
Romanic, in the same way as these latter had been developed from
the Carolingian alterations of the classic basilical plan. In both
cases a consequential development affected previously existing meth
ods of artistic expression. But with the Gothic this growth was
something more than a new branch of the old tree. Even in the

FRANCE. 481
age of the Ottos the conceptions formerly prevalent had undergone
a great change, and in the succeeding period they were entirely revo
lutionized. New political and social relations so entirely altered the
character of Occidental civilization that its products were essentially
different. The results of the Crusades certainly did not correspond
to the sacrifices which they had required, but they, nevertheless,
like a thunder-storm,, cleared the heavy and sultry air which had
hung over Europe during the later Romanic period. Art was taken
by the laity from the hands of the clergy and the monkish commu
nities, and was freed from dogmatic traditions. In poetry, sculpture,
and painting, the study of nature was cultivated, and in architecture
a greater independence and individuality soon made itself felt.
Moreover, the chief seat of artistic activity was removed from
Germany. The Romanic architecture of the Rhenish countries had
been too elaborately and successfully developed, and was too inde
pendent of foreign influences to be easily supplanted by another
style. Its buildings had attained a systematic and organic perfec
tion, which answered the requirements of the country long after the
period in which the style had been determined, and was but little
affected by the artistic innovations of neighboring countries. Cir
cumstances were more favorable for the new forms in those regions
where but few of the branches of construction and of decoration
had been carried beyond the experimental stage, — where, indeed,
many successful and important advances had been made, but with
out the development of a complete and widely adopted architectural
system. Great changes were, however, not possible until the va
rious races had attained to a political unity, and through this to
more intimate relations in respect to artistic culture. The new
style could not be perfected until the advances of the different na
tions had been combined. This could best be achieved in a tract but
little influenced by maritime commerce, without earlier traditions so
strong as to have become prejudices, yet with a fresh and receptive
artistic activity, supported by an increasing political power.
These conditions were possessed by France.* Each province of
* M. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonne de r Architecture Francaise du XI" au XVI"
siecle. Paris, 1858-1868. — C. Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden Kttnste im Mittelalter.
Vols. III. and IV., 2d Edition; Dtisseldorf, 1872.
31

482 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
this country had attained to a peculiar but not entirely satisfactory
development during the Romanic epoch, and each had a certain
share in the formation of the Gothic style. Even in the eleventh
century pointed arches and pointed barrel-vaults had been common
in Southern France, while the employment of bisected vaults had
familiarized the builders with the principle of the flying buttress.
In Burgundy and Auvergne a higher development of the transept
had long been in process, and the splendid arrangement of the choir
with the surrounding passage and radial chapels had been introduced
in Romanic buildings. In Burgundy the barrel-vaults of Southern
France were employed side by side with cross-vaults, the latter con
structive form attaining a new importance by the exchange of the
Roman method of two intersecting barrel-vaults in favor of the exe
cution of the ceiling as panels between a complex of ribs, which
expedient rendered an equal span between the supports and an
equal height of the transverse arches no longer necessary. In Nor
mandy the sixfold vault was evolved from the cross-vault. The
forms of the details, also, had, in various parts of the country, as
sumed a character which was as different from that of the Romanic
style as from the antique reminiscences. All these innovations,
however, were isolated, — like local idioms, from no one of which
alone could a new language be formed. These modest alteratidns
or makeshifts did not, in themselves, amount to a new style. In
decision, a clumsy helplessness, a fortuitous arrangement, and even
whimsical and arbitrary freaks of design, were the characteristics of
the imperfectly organized Romanic style of France at the begin
ning of the twelfth century, — a period of so perfect an architectural
development in Germany. But all these traits may, in greater or
less degree, be considered as attempts to determine an entirely new
system, superior to that hitherto in universal employment, — to per
fect which, however, it was necessary to unite all forces in the great
est possible exertion.
The closest approach to this end was made in those provinces
where an extended architectural activity had been combined with
the favorable union of different artistic traditions, namely, in Bur
gundy and Normandy. In the former the success is mainly to be
ascribed to the well-regulated and aspiring zeal of the monks of

FRANCE. 483
Cluny, the extension of which order was accompanied by a note
worthy series of buildings. In the latter there ruled a young and
powerful dynasty, the adventurous energy of which would unques
tionably have enabled this race to surpass their neighbors upon the
south in monumental as well as in political competition, had not
their hereditary Norse love of the sea led them as conquerors in
other directions. The inhabitants of both countries combined, as we
have seen, the artistic elements of the neighboring French provinces
with Rhenish and also with Lombardic tendencies. The unsettled
style which thus resulted would not have been important but for
peculiar innovations which give to the later works a transitional
character. The ultimate and consequential development of these
advances could not, however, be made either by the Normans or by
the Burgundians. The former, notwithstanding their admirable
treatment of the wall-surfaces and vaults, still retained the round
arch. The latter, though adopting pointed forms not only in the
vaults, but, as at Autun (Fig. 295), in the arcades, still .did not free
themselves entirely from the restrictions of the barrel-vault. In the
Abbey Church of Vezelay, where the introduction of cross-vaults
had been attempted, the pointed arch was combined with this
method of vaulting (Fig. 296) some years before the important inno
vations made by Abbot Suger. But before the systems of Autun
and Vezelay had reached the perfection observable in the Cathedral
of Langres, Burgundy was surpassed in architectural respects by
other districts.
In the first decades of the twelfth century a greater architectural
activity began in the northern provinces of the interior of France,
which had taken so little part in the artistic development after the
Merovingian period. The different races of the South and North
had here been so intermixed that the inhabitants of this region
were the first to present the characteristic type of the French na
tionality. The dukes who had here first assumed the royal title
extended their sway throughout the entire country. The chivalry
of this part of France had won high renown during the Crusades.
Science and literature were nowhere more actively cultivated. More
over, the deficiency of architectural monuments during earlier ages
rendered circumstances particularly favorable for the erection of a

484

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

great number of buildings and the introduction of new forms. Thus
the city of Paris rapidly became the centre of Occidental civiliza
tion, and, although then far from having the population of two hun
dred thousand souls, which it possessed at the end of the thirteenth
century, it was even in this age one of the largest cities of Europe.
At the time when Suger became abbot of St. Denis, near Paris,
in the year 1121, the He de France was influenced in artistic re-

e t » s . "n

Fig. 295. — System of the Cathe
dral of Autun.

Fig. 296. — System of the Portico of the
Abbey Church of Vezelay.

spects equally by Burgundy and Normandy. The south of the
province was naturally more inclined to follow the artistic methods
of Burgundy, as in the Convent Church of Preuilly, while, in the
north, Norman models were imitated, as is evident in St. Pere
at Chartres. Paris itself took a middle course, exemplified in
St. Martin-des-Champs, and evidently endeavored to profit by all
the traditions within the reach of the advancing capital. Like
Charlemagne, the abbot Suger adopted methods of construction

FRANCE. 485
from all those countries with which he entertained relations, even
employing ancient Roman materials. He continued the building
of the old Abbey Church of St. Denis, completing its facade in 1140.
This structure had been designed under the influence of St. Etienne
at Caen, and was of the transitional style, the form of the pointed
arches of the lateral portals next to the round-arched main entrance
having been determined by the limited space, while the pointed
windows above were adopted from a preference for this shape.
The crypt beneath this church, built in 1140 and 1141, is still en
tirely Romanic. The construction of the choir followed without a
suspension of the work, between 1141 and 1144, and displays a sys
tematic introduction of the pointed arch for arcades, windows, and
vaults. Thus a development was here made in but little more than
a decade, for which elsewhere an entire century was requisite.
This advance did not long remain an isolated instance. A great
number of episcopal cities, from Chartres to the provinces of Cham
pagne and Picardy, rivalled the capital in bold and magnificent con
structions. At about the same time with the Abbey Church of St.
Denis there arose the enormous churches of Noyon, St. Germer,
Rheims, and Chalons-sur-Marne, while the cathedrals of Laon, Sens,
and Senlis were contemporaneous with the Cathedral of Paris, be
gun twenty years after St. Denis.
The Cathedral of Chartres, begun in 1145, shows in the facade, —
the only portion dating to the original construction, — a systematic
employment of the pointed arch, and a decided advance beyond the
facade of St. Denis, which had been completed five years previously.
Important innovations are also noticeable in the Cathedral of Noyon
(Picardy), rebuilt after the fire of 113 1. Notwithstanding its Ro
manic reminiscences it does not seem to have been begun before
St. Denis, for the abbot Suger's detailed account of his work makes
no mention of Noyon, and the relations of the bishop Balduin of
Noyon to Suger, as well as various peculiarities of the building it
self, favor the assumption that some of the designers employed by
Balduin had previously been engaged upon St. Denis. Moreover,
the transepts of Noyon show a decided improvement upon those of
the Cathedral of Tournay from which they were imitated, and the
latter structure cannot have been erected before 1 145, as the chap-

486 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ter of this cathedral, which had been connected with that of Noyon
after the destruction of Tournay, was not re-established in its former
seat until the before-mentioned year. On the other hand, some al
tars in the Cathedral of Noyon were consecrated as early as 1 153.
Contemporaneous with this building was the reconstruction of the
Abbey Church of St. Germer, on the borders of Normandy, which
was slowly carried on after 1136, and exhibits a combination of
pointed forms with Romanic elements. The direct influence of St.
Denis is evident in the pointed arched choir of St. Germain-des-Pres
at Paris, built after the middle of the twelfth century and conse
crated about 1 163.
A further advance is perceptible in the constructions of Cham
pagne, perhaps referable to the same architect, namely, the rebuild
ing of St. Remy in Rheims, and the new Church of Notre-Dame in
Chalons- sur -Marne,— the former begun in 1164 and completed in
1 181, the latter commenced soon after the fall of the original struct
ure in 1 1 57 and consecrated in 1183. To these may be added the
Cathedral of Sens, rebuilt after the fire of 1152, in which edifice an
altar was consecrated as early as 1164, while the architect .is known
to have left the site eleven years later ; also the Cathedral of Senlis,
begun at about the same time but not consecrated until 1191. To
this brilliant group of early Gothic churches belong, finally, the two
most magnificent edifices of the twelfth century, the Cathedrals of
Laon and Paris, — the one begun in 1160, and, at least in part, em
ployed for divine service in 1173, the other built after 1163, its
choir consecrated in 1 182. The resemblance of these two last-named
buildings is very striking, notwithstanding the rectilinear termina
tion of the plan, and the occasional introduction of round arches in
Laon. In all these churches, begun within the short space of thirty
years, the characteristics of the early Gothic are distinctly evident.
The most noticeable change is the great increase of dimensions,
which had kept pace with the increase of means and ability. The
Crusades had made sacrifices to the Church more general and more •
important. He who could not take the cross himself felt called
upon to make compensation either by money offerings or by gratu
itous services. Nobles and peasants joined together to drag from

FRANCE. 487
the quarries the blocks which were to serve for the building of St.
Denis, and during the construction of the facade of Chartres the
work was regarded as a direct act of devotion. When the funds
provided by the founders and the communities were not sufficient,
all classes made contributions, and, as had been the case at a for
mer period with the convents, the dioceses and towns made the
building of churches a matter of religious zeal as well as of proud
rivalry. The Gothic arrangement of plan was determined with main ref
erence to the interior, not only as in all Christian churches, but was
even more regardless of the outer appearance than was the case in
the best Romanic creations. Three characteristics are noticeable
from the first : the cruciform plan, the organic connection of the
choir with the body of the church, and the two towers of the fagade.
The chief attention was naturally devoted to the development
of the choir. This was brought into more intimate connection with
the nave and aisles by the reduction or entire omission of the eleva
tion of the crypt, and by the adoption of the same dimensions of
width and height as those decided upon for the body of the church.
With the exception of the straight-lined termination of the choir in
the Cathedral of Laon, the apsidal system of Burgundy and Au
vergne was universally adopted for the surrounding passage and ra
dial chapels. The semicircle of columns remained towards the high
altar, excepting in the Cathedral of Sens (Fig. 299), where the alter
nation of columns and piers was continued around the choir. In
the Church of Notre-Dame in Paris (Fig. 298) the surrounding pas
sage was doubled, in accordance with the five-aisled plan. The ra
dial chapels were brought into more organic connection than had
been the case in the churches of Burgundy and Auvergne, through
the division of the separate spaces by piers alone, as, for instance, in
St. Denis, Noyon, Chalons-sur-Marne, Rheims, and Senlis. In the
Cathedral of Paris the chapels were originally separated on account
of the double passage, as in the Cathedral of Bourges, a later im
itation, and occasionally they were omitted, with the exception of a
single apse in the main axis, as in Sens and Langres.
The transept in St. Denis, Rheims, and Noyon (Fig. 297) had
remained close to the end of the choir, improving but little upon

488

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

the design of the earlier models. The end walls were of the most
various arrangement, appearing as grand apses in Noyon, after the
manner of the before-mentioned Cathedral of Tournay, which had
been influenced by the plan common in Cologne. Subsequently
the transept was gradually moved towards the west, until it oc
cupied about the middle of the building. It remained one-aisled,
projecting little beyond the body of the church, and consequently
of but slight importance. The Cathedral of Laon is exceptional in
this respect, the transept not only being of the same plan as the

Fig. 297. — Cathedral of
Noyon.

Fig. 298. — Notre-Dame
of Paris.

Fig. 299. — Cathedral of
Sens.

three-aisled body of the church, but being provided with towers at
the corners and projecting chapels upon the eastern side. These
chapels, which had become necessary through the omission of the
radial apses from the end of the church, appear elsewhere only in
the Cathedral of Sens, which had originally but one chapel in the
choir, and was, in the transept, of a peculiar formation, with an un-
symmetrical side aisle upon the east.
In the formation of the nave some evidences of indecision are
recognizable ; these are to be ascribed to the tendency of the earlier

FRANCE. 489
Gothic architects to employ columns in place of the piers, which had
been customary during the Romanic epoch. When supports of
round plan had been introduced into Romanic buildings, they had
proved advantageous for the extension of the space but not for the
design of the elevations ; thus the alternations of columns and piers
had been gradually relinquished, even in the sixfold or cross-vaulted
compartments, where the less important functions of the interme
diate shafts seemed to demand a difference in the supports. The
Burgundian disposition of the choir, with its semicircle of columns,
was of decided influence upon the formation of the nave. As a treat
ment of the choir uniform with that of the nave was considered indis
pensable, and the curve around the altar seemed to preclude the in
troduction of piers, it naturally resulted that the body of the church,
as well as the choir, was provided with columns. This may in some
measure be considered as a return to the principles of the columned
basilicas of the Carolingian and Romanic epochs. Still, it cannot be
proved that this arrangement was generally adopted during the ear
liest ages of the Gothic style. The original plan of the nave is no
longer evident in St. Denis, because of changes made during later
reconstructions ; moreover, it may be doubted whether the design
of this church would be of importance in this connection, as the
abbot Suger had, in this part of the building, retained as much of
the original structure as possible. Nor are we better informed con
cerning the first design of the nave at Chartres, only the western
front of that cathedral being referable to this period. In Noyon
there is an alternation of grouped piers and columns, and a similar
arrangement appears in Sens, where coupled columns, equalling the
thickness of the wall, are placed between the richly membered piers.
The transformation of the supports of St. Remy to clustered col
umns is to be considered only as an elaborate variation of the earlier
pillars, and in Notre-Dame of Chalons-sur-Marne the angular piers
are strengthened by eight engaged shafts. An exclusive employ
ment of columns first appears in the Cathedral of Paris and that of
Laon. It is not surprising that the importance of these two edi
fices, and the evident advantages of cylindrical supports for the ex
tension of the plan, led to the general adoption of columns, and
their further memberment by boltels: a compromise being thus

490 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
effected between the pier with engaged shafts and the clustered
column. A peculiarity evident from the first in the Gothic plan is the ad
dition of two towers to the western facade, — an arrangement which
had appeared in certain cases in the ecclesiastical buildings of the
Romanic style, especially of Normandy. These towers formed an
imposing termination of the side aisles, flanking the portico before
the nave and the organ-loft, and rendering the western front fully
equal in importance to the lavishly decorated choir. The entrance
to the building was thus emphasized and made more dignified.
Features of the interior common to all the before -mentioned
buildings were the attic base, with the Romanic corner leaf, the
smooth and but slightly diminished shaft, and the capital, still imitat
ed from the Corinthian forms. This last is no longer carved with the
intertwined forms and figures peculiar to the fanciful ornamentations
of the Romanic style ; the foliage is treated in a more realistic man
ner, the ends of the leaves beginning to be curled and rolled up.
The pillars are always connected by pointed arches, those above
the narrower intercolumniations of the choir being either stilted, as
in Burgundy and Auvergne, or lancet-shaped. In general, the height
of the arch is less than its span. The archivolts of Noyon are of a
plain, rectangular profile ; elsewhere Romanic mouldings were adopt
ed. Upon the side towards the aisles, and the passage around the
choir, the capitals serve as imposts for transverse arches, with circu
lar mouldings and diagonal ribs, the vaults being, with but few ex
ceptions, groined and panelled. Towards the nave the capitals are
surmounted by engaged shafts, commonly consisting of three boltels,
which are continued to the spring of the main vault, dividing the
wall surfaces of the clerestory, and supporting upon their small cap
itals the transverse arches and ribs of the principal vault. This is
similar in treatment to the vaults of the side aisles. As, notwith
standing the example of Vezelay, the compartments remained of an
approximately square plan, the ceiling of the nave continued to be
based, according to the Romanic system, upon six supports, whether
these were of an alternate arrangement or not. The sixfold vault,.
like that of St. Etienne at Caen, was universally adopted, this hav
ing the advantages of employing the intermediate shafts as func-

FRANCE.

49 1

tional supports of the vault, of reducing the extent and the weight
of the vaulting panels, of diminishing the thrust, and, finally, of in
creasing the memberment of the wall and vault surfaces.
The Norman models, which had been of decisive influence in
the development of this system of vaulting, were also followed in
the horizontal division of the walls (Figs. 300 and 301). As in the
churches of. Normandy, an upper story of the side aisles was open

-l — f— -!_

JHlr,

Fig. 300.— System of the Cathe
dral of Noyon.

Fig. 301. — System of Notre-
Dame of Paris.

towards the nave as a gallery, two or three. small arches supported
upon columns and united by one relieving arch appearing in each
compartment. While either a gallery or a triforium was introduced
into the Romanic structures, the early Gothic buildings were com
monly provided with both : the triforium ornamenting that part of
the wall which corresponded to the lean-to roof, and providing a
narrow passage in the thickness of the wall. The wall arches were

492 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
opened by windows without mullions ; these, like the triforiums,
were at first round -arched, a systematic employment of pointed
forms appearing first in Notre-Dame at Paris. In this cathedral
round windows formerly took the place of the triforium ; these were
closed and masked in later times, as the horizontal memberment
was felt to be too much emphasized and the stories too crowded.
For similar reasons the introduction of galleries became less com
mon, the side aisles thus gaining in height and the pillars and arches
having more space for free development. This arrangement, which
had appeared even in the Norman style in the Church of Boscher
ville, was first employed among Gothic buildings in the Cathedral of
Sens, and did not become universal until after the erection of the
choir of Vezelay.
Significant as were the changes made in the interior during the
early Gothic period, those of the exterior, although resulting direct
ly from the construction of the enclosing walls, were even more im
portant. The masonry had so increased in height and slenderness,
and had been so perforated by windows and arcades, that its sta
bility was greatly diminished. The slight reduction of the thrust,
resulting from the adoption of pointed instead of round forms in
the arches and vaults, was more than equalled by the increase of
lateral pressure through the transformation of the antique cross-
vault into the system of groins and panels : the mass of the vault
being inclined like a cupola against the walls. Abutments were
provided at the two ends of the church by the conch of the apse
on the one hand, and by the massive masonry of the towers on the
other. For the support of the sides of the building there was, with
the isolated exception of the rampant barrel -vaults of the Minster
of Aix-la-Chapelle, but one method worthy of imitation, namely,
that cultivated in Southern France, in which the thrust of the bar
rel-vault above the nave was met by the bisected barrel-vaults of
the side aisles.
From this construction was derived the system of flying but
tresses, consequentially developed in the Gothic style. The bisect
ed form had provided the abutment for a continuous barrel-vault :
the weight and thrust, which had been interrupted and concentrated
upon certain points, was now met by a division of the counteracting

FRANCE. 493
mass into separate buttresses. By this division many of the disad
vantages of the former system were avoided. It was no longer
necessary to carry up the outer wall as an abutment to the spring
of the main vault, thus preventing the introduction of clerestory
windows, for the flying buttresses interfered but very slightly with
the admission of light into the nave through the apertures between
them. It was possible to increase the supporting power of the con
struction without disadvantage to the interior, which, in the Pro
vencal system, had been much disfigured by the disproportionately
high barrel-vaulted side aisles. The flying buttresses upon the ex
terior lent themselves more readily to a decorative treatment than
did the bisected barrel-vaults in the interior, especially as these sup
ports agreed well with the vertical tendencies of the entire design.
Moreover, the extrados of the buttress arches served as gutters for
carrying off the rain from the roof of the nave, the fall of which
upon the low lean-to roofs of the side aisles was felt to be a disad
vantage. By gargoyles projecting from the uprights the water was
thrown entirely beyond the walls of the building.
This system was not only adopted for the longer sides, but was
continued around the curve of the choir: the unity of design no
ticeable within the building thus being secured for the exterior.
(Compare Fig. 294.) Upon the sides the lower part of the buttresses
projected far beyond the outer walls ; in the choir they were em
ployed as the divisions of the terminal chapels, and were not visible
from without. The radial position of the abutments and flying but
tresses of the piers was not of so good effect, the perspective view
causing the intersecting lines to appear confused and disjointed, like
the irregular timbers of a staging. The semicircular form was at
first retained, not only for the choir but for the surrounding passage
and the radial chapels, despite the fact that the buttresses seemed
to call for the adoption of a polygonal plan.
The greatest uncertainty and insufficiency was exhibited by the
transept. Although it was evident that the system of flying but
tresses adopted for the body of the church should be employed here
also, especially in the case of transepts of more than one aisle, it
was not at first considered possible to overcome the difficulties pre
sented by the intersection of transept and nave. In some instances

494 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
the main piers of the intersection were increased in thickness, in
others heavy abutments were placed at the corners of the end wall ;
occasionally, as at Noyon, an apsidal projection was adopted for the
termination. The organic solution of the problem, the application
of abutments of cruciform plan, was not found until a later period.
The two towers of the main facade, derived from the Norman
edifices as before described, were almost invariably adopted, the
nave being continued to the front wall of these structures. A sys
tem of piers was introduced in place of the heavy walls of the
Romanic style. The Romanic pilaster strips of the corners were
exchanged for projecting buttresses, although no windows or other
openings through the walls had seemed to render this innovation
necessary ; this was the case even in the earliest period, when the
windows were still of round form, as in the older tower of the Abbey
Church of St. Germain at Auxerre (Fig. 302), dating to the first half
of the twelfth century. The oldest towers built entirely in the
Gothic style, such as that of the Church of the Holy Trinity at
Vendome (Fig. 303), also referable to the first half of the twelfth
century, the southern tower of the Cathedral of Chartres (Fig. 304),
and that of St. Romain at Rouen, have a further buttress in the
middle of the walls. An organic connection of the stories of these
towers with the horizontal divisions of the walls of the church was
effected by a stepped diminution of the buttress projections, by
string-courses upon all sides, and by groups of windows correspond
ing to the landings of the staircase within. In the belfry, which was
elevated above the roof of the nave, the square plan of the sub
structure was transformed into an octagon by the introduction of
four small turrets, whose pointed roofs were carried up above the
main cornice. The juncture of the steeple was occasionally masked
by four gables. In accordance with the Norman models the stone
spire was extremely tapering. Its upper parts were lavishly and
delicately ornamented, the window openings being multiplied and
increased in size, the turrets carried up as slender pinnacles, and the
cornice of the spire decorated, as at Senlis, with crockets in the form
of bunches of leaves similar to those of the early Gothic capitals.
By this arrangement the multiplication of members in the super
structure, required by the principles of design, was effected, while

FRANCE.

495

the construction was rendered lighter by the perforations of the
higher surfaces. The decoration of the spire was thus made to cor
respond to the elaboration of the portals, although it was not at first
customary to place the side entrances in the substructure of the
towers. The portals of the twelfth century had advanced but little
beyond those of the Romanic style, and are generally only to be

Fig. 302.— Tower of St. Ger
main at Auxerre.

Fig. 303. — Tower of the
Church of the Holy
Trinjty at Vendome.

Fig. 304. — Southern
Tower of the Cathe
dral of Chartres.

distinguished from those of the preceding period by their pointed
forms. Indeed, the entire treatment of the facade differed but lit
tle from that of the Romanic churches.
It naturally resulted, from the great dimensions of the towers,
that, in contrast to the Romanic, and in particular to the Rhenish
preference for many structures of the kind, the Gothic style had but

496 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
two, the tower above the intersection of transept and nave being
generally omitted. Even the two steeples of the front were but
seldom completed during this period. After the building of St.
Denis and the Cathedral of Chartres the method of construction was
so changed that the beginning was not made with the western end,
the chief facade, but with the choir. The facades and the towers
of most of the before -mentioned cathedrals and abbey churches
were thus delayed until the thirteenth century, and consequently
represent the second phase of Gothic development.
In the latter half -of the twelfth century the architectural activity
of the He de France and its neighborhood was of great extent and
success, and the religious enthusiasm which prevailed from the third
crusade until the close of the reign of Louis IX., A.D. 1190 to 1270,
even increased the number and importance of the monuments. The
experience gained during the first fifty years of the new style taught
most important practical lessons, and many of the traditional and
archaic features, as well as the uncertainties and imperfections of the
design, were overcome. Without reducing the forms to a conven
tional system, and without decreasing their great variety, the build
ers had nevertheless come to recognize certain principles of design :
the methods were no longer tentative, but of a regular perfection,
the static calculations were made with understanding, the taste and
artistic feeling improved and settled. Hence, as might have been
expected, the rise of the system was rapid, and soon led to its great
est eminence.
Chief among the works in which these improvements are evident
are the Cathedral of Soissons, built for the greater part during the
first years of the thirteenth century, the southern transept of which,
however, was begun soon after 1175 ; the Cathedral of Chartres, re
built after the conflagration of 1195 and almost entirely completed
in 1220; the choir of the Cathedral of Rheims, the completion of
which was delayed until the close of the century; the Cathedral of
Amiens, built between 1220 and 1288; and the Choir of Beauvais,
referable to the period between 1225 and 1269, but much modified
by the renovation made after the fall of some parts of the structure
in the year 1284. Besides these important edifices, which are to be
considered as representatives of the highest development of the

FRANCE.

497

Gothic style, we have to mention the Cathedral of Bourges (Fig. 294).
Its reconstruction was determined upon as early as 1172, and Notre-
Dame at Paris was chosen as the model for the five -aisled plan and
for the arrangement of the choir; the execution, however, was not
undertaken until the beginning of the thirteenth century. Another
example is the Cathedral of Troyes, the choir of which was built
between 1208 and 1223, while the transept was not completed until
1 3 14, and the nave is even as late as 1429. The choirs of the cathe
drals of Auxerre, Saint -Omer, and Le
Mans date to the beginning of the thir
teenth century. The nave of St. Denis
was constructed in its present form be
tween 123 1 and 1 28 1, and it was prob
ably about this time that the rebuilding
of the Cathedral of Tours, after its de
struction by fire in 1168, was brought to
a termination. The Abbey Church of
St. Julien, also in Tours, is referable to
the same period. The Cathedral of Cha-
lons-sur-Marne was built entirely anew
after the conflagration of 1230; and the
Gothic choir of the Cathedral of Cam-
bray was added to the Romanic nave be
tween 1230 and 125 1.
The designs of the before-mentioned
buildings were followed in smaller con
vent and collegiate churches, palace chap
els, and even common parish churches, Fig. 305.— Section of the Sainte
with some alterations naturally deter- Chapelle, Paris.
mined by local peculiarities and by the
requirements of a simpler service. The Convent Church of Ste.
Nicaise in Rheims, built after 1229, destroyed during the French
Revolution, but known from drawings, must have been among the
most perfect creations of the Gothic period. Of the highest im
portance is the Sainte Chapelle at Paris (Fig. 305), the gem of all
palace chapels, built between 1243 and 125 1. It is a one-aisled
structure with a lower story, — so harmonious in proportions, and
32

498 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
so tastefully designed in details, that it has naturally served as a
model for all similar edifices of the period, such as the Palace
Chapel of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Chapel of the Virgin of Saint-
Germain -des- Pres in Paris, and that of St. Germer in Picardy.
Still, it is not to be denied that certain evidences of debasement
appear as early as the second half of the thirteenth century, as, for
instance, in the Collegiate Church of St. Urbain in Troyes, erected
by the pope Urban IV., between 1261 and 1264, upon the site of the
house- in which his cradle had stood, next to the cobbler's shop of
his father.
Although, as is well known, architectural activity in France was
chiefly directed by the guilds of designers at Paris, Laon, Noyon,
Chartres, Rheims, and Amiens, it is not the less true that creative
genius in this art was much more personal and individual than at
any former period. While the names of but few builders, such as
Abbot Suger or Guillaume of Sens, appear in connection with the
earlier Gothic edifices, the architects of the fully developed style are
frequently mentioned. Among them are Ingebramus, who was en
gaged at the beginning of the thirteenth century upon the Cathedral
of Rouen and the Abbey of Bee ; Hugo li Bergier, who died in
1263, the highly gifted designer of Ste. Nicaise at Rheims ; Peter of
Montereau (f 1266), the architect of the beautiful Sainte Chapelle
and of the Chapel of the Virgin of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris ;
Eudes of Montreuil (f 1289), who built the Church of the Fran
ciscans in Paris, which was burned in the sixteenth century; and
Robert de Coucy, the architect of the Cathedral of Rheims, and
successor of Bergier in Ste. Nicaise of that town. The names of
three designers who were engaged upon the Cathedral of Amiens
before 13 12 have come down to us, — Robert de Lusarches, Thomas
de Cormont, and the son of the latter, Master Renaud. The great
est interest attaches to Villard de Honnecourt of Picardy, who was
employed upon the Choir of Cambray, begun in 1230, and has be
come well known through his sketch-book, now preserved in the
National Library of Paris.*

* J. B. Lassus et A. Darcel, Album de Villard de Honnecourt, architecte du XIII™
siecle. Paris, 1858.

FRANCE. 499
The employment of architects of renown, together with their
well-trained superintendents and workmen, facilitated the introduc
tion of the new style into the provinces. Normandy, from which
such important structural improvements had proceeded in the fore
going period, was surprisingly slow in accepting the new methods
of design. Indications of a transitional stage in the second half of
the twelfth century are there few and isolated. The Abbey Church
of Fecamp, the choir of which was completed between 1 1 70 and 1 1 8 1 ,
is almost entirely of the Norman-Romanic style, and displays Gothic
features only in the western portions of the nave, dating to the thir
teenth century. A similar retention of Romanic elements appears
in the Abbey Church of Eu, built between 11 86 and 1226, although
early Gothic details are comparatively more prominent in its choir.
The designs of St. Remy and Noyon are imitated in the choir of
the Abbey Church of St. Etienne at Caen, built at about this time.
Still, in this building there are many Norman reminiscences, perhaps
determined by the reaction from England, which country had, at an
earlier period, directly adopted the French-Gothic style in the Cathe
dral of Canterbury. The Cathedral of Rouen, begun in 1207, dis
plays in far greater measure the Gothic features of the neighboring
provinces, this being particularly the case in the choir, with its three
chapels of semicircular plan and its high mullioned windows. But
it was not until after the reappearance of the earlier method of con
struction in the cathedrals of Louviers and of Lisieux, — the former
of which was consecrated in 1226, while the latter was commenced in
the same year, — that the perfected Gothic style was introduced into
Normandy in the Cathedral of Coutances, begun in 1250. After the
political union of this province with France, a similarity of archi
tectural style was inevitable.
Although Burgundy had also developed many of those features
which were adopted by the Gothic architects, the advance made in
the He de France was not immediately followed in this district.
The systems of the older parts of Vezelay and Autun, chiefly con
sisting of pointed-arched barrel-vaults and round-arched cross-vaults,
continued to be employed, the pointed arch appearing but rarely
during the twelfth century. The first introduction of the fully de
veloped style was in the Choir of Vezelay, probably built between

500 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
1 198 and 1206, and in the churches of Montreal and Pont Aubert,
which show a certain dependency upon the architecture of the neigh
boring diocese of Auxerre. Notre-Dame of Dijon, begun about
1230, at a time when French-Gothic had already attained its high
est eminence, is of a pleasing transitional character, the result,
without doubt, of the employment of a Burgundian architect. The
general features of the plan, especially those of the beautiful por
tico, are peculiar to this province, and are still evident, notwith
standing the extensive modern restoration. The dependence of
Western Switzerland upon Burgundy, in this as in the preceding
epoch, is proved by the Cathedral of Lausanne, consecrated in 1275,
and by that of Geneva, of the same date.
In Southern France, where the fundamental elements of the
Gothic were more entirely lacking than in Normandy and Burgun
dy, the style was introduced rather than developed, — opportunities
favorable for this change presenting themselves after the persecu
tion of the Albigenses. The long -accustomed barrel - vaults and
piers of rectangular plan were, however, retained for some time.
In the district of the Rhone the Romanic style was prevalent
throughout the thirteenth century, notwithstanding the fact that
the Cathedral of Lyons, a town much influenced by Burgundy, had
adopted many Gothic forms early in this age. The transition was
more complete in the western part of the province, especially in
Languedoc, where, after the victories of the French, the new style
was introduced, as it were by force. The Abbey Church of St. Paul
and the Cathedral, both at Narbonne, — the latter of which, because of
its enormous dimensions, was not continued beyond the choir, — are
important monuments of this stage of development, as are also the
Cathedral of Beziers and the Abbey Church of St. Nazaire at Car
cassonne. Similar to the Cathedral of Narbonne is that of Clermont-
Ferrand, the earlier portion of which was built between 1248 and
1390, the first architect being Jean de Campis. In this building the
style of Northern France is recognizable, and it is even probable
that the architect himself was a native of the He de France. If the
style of this building be compared with the independent design of
Notre-Dame-du-Port of the same place, the entire change from the
artistic methods of the thirteenth century, and the fact that the

FRANCE.

501

country had in the mean time become a French province, are plainly
evident. Even before the provinces of the South had been subjugated by
the He de France, those of the West had come into the possession
of the English kings, through the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor.
It is not strange, therefore, that the Gothic, introduced during the
first half of the thirteenth century, should have been characterized
by Norman and English traits. Still, the Choir of St. Maurice in An
gers, which was added to the Romanic structure between 1225 and

Fig. 306. — Section of the Gothic part of the Cathedral of Poitiers.

1240, shows so few Gothic features that this independence, at a time
when the neighboring provinces had attained to so high a degree
of development in the new style, can only have resulted from a con
scious resistance to such innovations. In like manner the remark
able Cathedral of Poitiers, — the only church of this kind of great
dimensions in Northern France, and, moreover, entirely of the Ro
manic style in the eastern portions, which were begun in 11 62, — has
side aisles of nearly the same height as the nave, thus following the
example of certain Romanic edifices of the South, even in the Gothic

502

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

additions to the original structure (Fig. 306). It is true that, after
the middle of the thirteenth century, the influence of Central France
became more and more apparent in the West, — as, for instance, in
the Gothic parts of St. Andre in Bordeaux, and especially in the Ca
thedral of Limoges, begun in 1270; but at the same time many
national peculiarities are manifest, notably in those districts where
they had been determined by the lack of building-stone and the
consequent employment of brick. Thus, in Aquitania, one-aisled
churches continued to be built at a later
period than in the Provence, the West
ern countries having imitated in this
respect the domed structures of the
Romanic period. It became custom
ary to place the heavy buttress -piers
within the building instead of without,
thus forming a number of chapels upon
the sides. In the Cathedral of Alby
(Fig. 307) an imposing gallery was
built above these chapels, the summits
of its cross-vaults reaching nearly to
the height of the nave, so as to allow
^r~ Z^~^ t*le edifice to be covered by a single
t idfin-Ata roof' like that of lhe Church of Poi-
^^2 ^^^^ t*crs" ^ massiveness of masonry, fully
A*B*Ak equalling that of Alby, is noticeable
in several buildings in South-western
France, the towers of the cathedrals of
Narbonne and Beziers, as well as those
of a number of parochial and convent churches, having almost the
appearance of fortifications. The walls naturally became even
thicker in those cases where they were built of flint rubble instead
of brick. None of these countries exercised great influence upon the
growth of the style, and during the thirteenth century the northern
provinces of the interior alone were of importance in this respect.
We there find a logical development of the principles which had
been adopted in the early Gothic of the twelfth century. The plan

Fig. 307. — Plan of the Cathedral of
Alby.

FRANCE. 503
was improved by a harmonious adjustment, rather than by any real
transformation. The choir retained its radial chapels, the semicircle
of the termination being more and more frequently exchanged for a
polygon. In imitation of the plan of Notre-Dame of Paris, a dupli
cation of the side aisles and of the surrounding passage became more
common ; but it was only in rare instances, as at Chartres (Fig. 308)
and Le Mans, that the complicated arrangement was adopted to
which the radial enlargement of the supports of the choir naturally
led, it being generally found preferable to divide into five aisles only

Fig. 308— Plan of the Cathedral
of Chartres.

Fig. 309. — Plan of the
Cathedral of Rheims.

Fig. 310. — Plan of the Ca
thedral of Amiens.

that portion of the choir which was of rectilinear plan, and to intro
duce radial chapels in place of the outermost passage, thus increas
ing their depth, as at Rheims (Fig. 309) and Amiens (Fig. 310).
Notre-Dame of Paris also provided an excellent example of an ex
tension of the presbytery, which had come to be so desirable in the
cathedrals, the transept in this church having been placed almost in
the middle of the entire structure. This disposition now became
the rule, the enlargement of the choir permitting the transept to be
made accessible to the lay worshippers. When the choir of short

504 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
plan was retained, as in the Cathedral of Rheims, the transept was
enclosed with the choir, this being readily effected by making the
choir five-aisled and the nave three-aisled, so that the width of the
former was nearly equal to the length of the transept. The transept
itself was generally three-aisled, and treated in elevation like the
body of the church, the cruciform plan thus being emphasized,
while the entire edifice became of more harmonious proportions.
Rather than return to the insufficient one-aisled transept of slight
projection, like that of Notre-Dame, it was in exceptional cases
found preferable to omit the transept altogether, as, for instance,
in the Cathedral of Bourges, which in other respects is closely re
lated to that of Paris. In this arrangement an equal height of the
building from one end to the other naturally resulted, the monoto
nous sides thus having, at least upon the exterior, a certain resem
blance to those of the peripteral temples of Greece (Fig. 294).
Scarcely less important than those of the plan were the changes
which affected the elevation. The simple columns of the interior
were almost universally given up, but piers did not often take their
place, being only observable among the more prominent buildings,
as, for instance, in the cathedrals of Troyes and Rouen, and, alter
nating with round shafts, in the Cathedral of Chartres. In general,
heavy supports of this kind were employed only in those positions
where exceptional stability was required, as, for instance, at the inter
section of transept and nave and beneath the towers. The inorganic
method of the early Gothic style in placing the boltels above the
capitals of the pillars was superseded by an arrangement similar to
that of the Romanic supports, by which the engaged shafts were
continued down to the ground, the pier being thus surrounded by
three-quarter columns. These were increased in number from four
to eight, and, probably first in the Cathedral of Le Mans, to twelve,
being of different heights, according to their employment as vault
ing posts for the ceilings of the nave or of the side aisles, or as
mouldings upon the intrados of the arches. They concealed the
kernel of the support almost entirely, so that the execution of an
independent capital was no longer possible. In the nave of St.
Denis the bundle of small shafts was made the more prominent by
channelling the few surfaces of the kernel which still remained visi-

FRANCE.

505

ble, an effective alternation of roundels and scotias thus being ob
tained. It was necessary to alter the low proportions of the capitals
which had surmounted the engaged columns during the Romanic
epoch, in order to bring them into harmony with the excessively
elongated . shafts. The Corinthian calyx kernel was increased in
height and strength by the addition of an abacus of several mould
ings, adapted by its polygonal or circular plan to receive the ribs of
similar section. The character of the sculptured decoration was
entirely changed. Even in the earliest ages of the Gothic style a

Fig. 311.— Capital dating
to the beginning of the
Thirteenth Century.

Fig. 312. — Capital from the
Sainte Chapelle, Paris.

Fig. 313. — Capital from the
Triforium of the Cathedral
of Limoges.

transition from the conventional to a more realistic foliage was ap
parent. This led at first to the introduction of twisted and folded
knops, which, like the spring buds imitated, did not distinctly dis
play the individual characteristics of any kind of foliage. By the
year 1240, however, the traditional plant forms were entirely ex
changed for realistic representations of the leaves of trees, such as
the oak, maple, fig, and beech ; or of shrubs, as the laurel, rose, holly,
raspberry-bush, and grape-vine. The branches were placed more
loosely and unsymmetrically around the calyx, not appearing to
form part of the architectural member, but showing the ends of
their stems in such a manner as to seem merely fastened upon it.

506 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
So inorganic an arrangement naturally led to the rapid decline of
this style of decoration, through want of a correct conventional
treatment. Notwithstanding their elaboration, this development of
the supports gave them a character of great unity, increased by the
boltels which ran uninterrupted from the floor to the impost of the
vault. The sixfold vaults of the Romanic style, requiring, as they
did, an alternation of columns and piers, were given up in favor of
a more harmonious constructive system. The Gothic vaultings
made it possible to deviate from the square plan, the arrangement
of groins relieving it from the restrictions of the Roman cross-
vaults, while the pointed arch permitted the adoption of any desira
ble height of the crowns. In like manner the abutments and flying
buttresses stood ready to receive the lateral thrust, considerably in
creased upon the narrow sides of the compartments. Thus all the
members of this constructive system became equal in functional
importance. The rhythmical alternation of columns and piers was
lost, it is true, but this was more than made up by the perspective
effect attained by the duplication of the transverse arches, and by
the freedom from the disadvantages of supports of different sec
tions. The greatest improvement, however, was the more elaborate
and delicate memberment of transverse arches and ribs, in which
the mouldings of the supports were continued, their lines being re
peated with the desirable emphasis and lightness.
The walls of the nave were simplified and improved by the
omission of the galleries. The fourfold horizontal division, retained
from the Norman style by the early Gothic, had introduced an up
per story, which, while it was rarely used, cramped the development
of the body of the church, greatly curtailing the height of the side
aisles, and crowding the triforium and the clerestory windows. By
giving up the galleries the aisles assumed their due height, and
space remained above them in the nave for a more ample triforium
and for larger clerestory windows.
Conformably to the Gothic system of memberment, the windows
of the clerestory, which had previously been almost entirely without
ornament, were provided with traceries. At first, as in the Cathe
dral of Bourges (Fig. 314), a number of adjoining openings were con
nected by a single archivolt, in the tympanon of which was pierced

FRANCE.

5°7

a small rose-window. This was afterwards enlarged as much as the
space would permit, while the remaining corners of the wall were so
cut out that only a framework of tracery remained, and the vertical
supports between the windows were reduced to mullions. This ad
vance seems to have been first made in the Cathedral of Rheims.

Fig. 314. --System of the Cathedral of
Bourges.

Fig. 315. — System of
the Cathedral of
Amiens.

Fig. 316.— System of the
Nave of the Abbey
Church of St. Denis.

Finally the same system was duplicated in each group : four point
ed-arched windows, three rose-windows, the corresponding openings
in the corners being so combined in one compartment that no un
membered surface of the clerestory wall remained. This was the
case in the Cathedral of Amiens (Fig. 315) and the Abbey Church
of St. Denis (Fig. 316). The pointed arches of the windows were

508 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
decorated with cusps, as in the Sainte Chapelle. The design of
the traceries thus resulting could not be improved upon by the
super- elaboration of the geometrical lines in the later struct
ures. The success attained by this arrangement of the windows, by
their effective traceries, and especially by their magnificent stained
glass, led to a further development of the triforium. The principal
mullions of the windows were made to rise from the lower string
course of the triforium, the openings of which corresponded to those
of the clerestory. A certain organic connection between the two
upper horizontal divisions of the nave was thus effected, even in
those cases where the windows of the triforium were much cramped,
or closed entirely by panels, because of the outer lean-to roof of the
side aisles. In some cases the difficulties of this construction were
avoided by the adoption of a system of saddle-roofing, which may
perhaps be regarded as too great a concession to the effect attained
in the interior through the multiplication and extension of the aper
tures. It cannot be denied that the enlargement of the windows,
which appears to have been first attempted in the Abbey Church of
St. Denis, greatly increased the lightness of the construction and the
brilliancy of the illumination, while relieving the triforium from the
disadvantages inevitably attending the use of blind windows. Still,
notwithstanding the logical consequence of this step, the technical
difficulties presented by its execution were too great to allow of its
extension beyond the choir.
The emulation of the architects, favored by the unparalleled suc
cess of the style, led to a continual increase of the dimensions and
of the comparative heights. The naves of the two chief edifices of
Normandy, — St. Etienne and Trinite at Caen, — had been but 15 and
18 m. high, respectively. That of Notre-Dame at Chalons was 21m.;
of the Cathedral of Laon 25 ; that of Sens 27, — these not equalling in
height twice the width of their plans, — a proportion which the 32.5 m.
of the nave of the Cathedral of Chartres but slightly exceeded. The
nave of Notre-Dame of Paris, only 1 1 m. broad, reached a height of
32 m., nearly three times the former dimension ; and this proportion
was even surpassed by the 35 m. of the Cathedral of Rheims, the
39 m. of Amiens, and the 44 m. of Beauvais, — the last of which was

FRANCE. 509
rivalled in this respect by no other building of France : its early fall
having been a warning to subsequent designers.
As this exaggeration of the vertical dimensions was accompanied
by a resolution of the wall into isolated supports of daring attenua
tion, the builders were obliged to have recourse to every possible
constructive expedient in order to meet, from without, the side-
thrust of the vault. The serious character of this task is evident in
the important development of the abutments, which, in striking con
trast to the slightness and perforation of all the other masonry, had
been much increased in mass, while restricted in architectural mem
berment. The buttresses were at first but rarely decorated with
tracery in relief, with pointed gables, or with corner pinnacles, being
simply diminished by a number of inclined steps, which, like the
similarly inclined window-sills, were better adapted to the require
ments of the rainy North than were the horizontal surfaces of classic
cornices. A plain gable roofing commonly formed the termination
of the buttresses, this position being, in exceptional instances, occu
pied by graceful miniature towers, decorated with tracery in relief,
or so perforated as to provide a standing-place for a statue.
The same simplicity is at first observable in the flying buttresses,
although in these a certain graceful slenderness naturally resulted
from their constructive functions, as well as from considerations con
nected with the lighting of the interior of the edifice. At times the
gutter running upon the back of these abutments was supported by
tracery; or the inner end of the arch, adjoining the impost of the
vault, was placed upon a small column which rose from the outer
wall of the triforium. In three-aisled churches a single flying but
tress was generally thought to be sufficient, but a second was occa
sionally placed above it to uphold the timbered roof and to receive
the gutter (Fig. 317). In five-aisled edifices, where a second and
lighter flying buttress was required above the outer supports, four
arches, at least, were necessary (Fig. 294).
A somewhat more elaborate decoration was devoted to the choir,
the many chapels of which were of an especially imposing effect
upon the exterior. The greatest advance in this connection was the
adoption of a polygonal, instead of a semicircular plan, for the choir
itself, the surrounding passage, and the radial chapels. The end

5io

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

walls of the transept, which commonly were opened by grand por
tals, were also improved by the introduction of large upper windows,
frequently of a circular form, and by a more elaborate treatment of
the corner buttresses. In some cases, as for instance in the design
of the Cathedral of Rheims, these terminating walls were developed
into real facades, like that of the western front, the two chief abut
ments becoming towers. As
a central tower was also
placed above the intersection
of transept and nave, this
multiplication, if it had been
carried out, would have given
to the structure a certain sim
ilarity to the Romanic cathe
drals and abbey churches of
the Rhenish provinces. Fort
unately it was soon seen that
this arrangement was imprac
ticable : even the two towers
of the chief facade have been
but rarely completed, and a
group of seven, designed in
the Gothic system, would
have been wholly out of the
question. The chief attention was
devoted to a rich and impos
ing elaboration of the facade.
That of Notre-Dame in Paris
is typical of this phase of de
velopment, that of the Cathe
dral of Rheims perhaps even more successful (Fig. 318). Three
grand portals, the splayed sides of which project as far beyond
the thickness of the wall as do the buttresses of the towers, en
tirely occupy the lower part of the front. The pilaster corners
of the Romanic portals are here reduced to narrow strips, while
the place of the columns is taken by rows of statues, the canopies

Fig. 317. — System of Abutments of the Nave of
St. Denis.

FRANCE.

5H

above these corresponding to the former capitals. Figures are placed
around the soffit of the arch in deep scotias, which contrast strik
ingly with the round mouldings so prominent in the Romanic

Fig. 318. — Facade of the Cathedral of Rheims.
gate-way. Dozens of these statuettes, seated and upright, are dis
posed above and beside one another, separated only by bracket

512 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
projections which serve both as canopies and as supports. The
many figures, intended to represent the host of martyrs and saints,
render the composition unpleasantly crowded, and the forward in
clination of those near the summit of the arch gives a most inor
ganic character to the entire architectural framework. The small
figures of the tympanon sculpture are generally confused and unsat
isfactory in effect, although they are decidedly preferable to tracery
in relief, such as that above the doors of the Cathedral of Rheims.
The roofs of the portals are masked by gablets, which are decorated
with figures or tracery, besides being provided upon the edges with
crockets, and terminated by finials.
Above the portals there is either an imposing horizontal row of
tabernacles and statues extending across the entire facade, or the
windows follow without this intervention : in the towers narrow
slits, and in the nave a large rose -window, divided by tracery of
much better effect than the radial columns of the round windows of
the Romanic style. A second frieze of tabernacles surrounds the
upper part of the square tower ; above this rises the richly decorated
octagon of the belfry, the pinnacles and finials of which mask the
juncture of the spire. In the few cases where the entire tower was
completed, it is of a majestic as well as a rich and elegant effect.
The ornamentation, which at first had been comparatively limited,
as in Notre-Dame at Paris, was increased at Laon and Amiens, un
til, in the facades of the Cathedral and the Church of St. Nicaise at
Rheims, and in that of St. Urbain at Troyes, the ornamental details
became almost too predominant.
The highest development of French-Gothic was reached during
the reign of Louis IX., and may, on the whole, be said to have been
maintained throughout the entire thirteenth century. The subse
quent changes were by no means advantageous. The political cir
cumstances of the country cannot be held responsible for this
retrograde movement, for the miseries of the English war did not
begin until 1336, and the insurrections and pestilences of this pe
riod interfered but little with the architectural activity. Favorable
occasions and rich patrons still existed, though their furtherance
was rather directed towards the erection of secular buildings ; and
during the latter half of the century, art was greatly encouraged by

FRANCE. 513
Charles V., A.D. 1364 to 1380. The cause of the decline is rather
to be found in the inevitable reaction from the great efforts of the
thirteenth century: an artistic exhaustion succeeding the enthusi
astic activity of the previous age. Furthermore, the most impor
tant tasks had been already accomplished ; the great cathedrals
had been so far advanced that only the work of completion re
mained, — a work which is always less attractive and suggestive than
that of original creation. And, finally, the capricious tendencies
which had become more and more prominent towards the close of
the thirteenth century, — instance the Cathedral of Seez (Fig. 319), —
had impaired the serious conception and the pure taste of that
period, by the attempt to improve upon an architectural system,
already perfect in construction and design, by exaggerating the
characteristic features, and by overloading the architectural frame
work with an inorganic ornamentation.
In the completion of the earlier edifices many of the vaults of
the nave and most of the facades and towers were executed during
the fourteenth century. As to the former, a harmonious juncture
with the vaults of the choir was generally effected ; as to the latter,
however, the artistic excellence of the Cathedral of Rheims was
never again attained, notwithstanding the far greater expenditure and
elaboration. Noteworthy innovations resulted in those cases where
the work of the fourteenth century was as important as it was in the
cathedrals of Meaux, Senlis, Chalons-sur-Marne, Toul, Tours, Bayeux,
Evreux, and Coutances, in Northern France, and in those of Cler
mont-Ferrand, Limoges, Beziers, Narbonne, in St. Maximin near
Marseille, and St. Nazaire at Carcassonne, in the Southern districts.
By far the greater part of the Cathedral of Arras, which has been
almost entirely destroyed, of that of Troyes, and of the Church of
St. Benigne at Dijon, are referable to the fourteenth century. The
chapels of the Virgin frequently added to the larger churches, — as
to the Cathedral of Rouen, A.D. 1302 to 1360, and to the Collegiate
Church at Mantes, — by their size and importance gave occasion for
an extremely lavish and elegant treatment. Entirely new ecclesias
tical edifices were rare during this epoch, the most important being
the Abbey Church of St. Ouen in Rouen (Figs. 320 and 321), found
ed in 13 18, the choir of which was completed in 1339. Its nave was,
33

5*4

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

however, not begun before the fifteenth century, and work was not
commenced upon the facade until 15 15. To the earlier age belongs
abo the Church of the Celestines at Paris, completed in 1370, once
remarkable for its many monuments, but destroyed during the Revo
lution ; also the Convent Church of St. Bertin at Saint Omer, begun

B;J«.

1 _1 ' 1- » t fWt,
Fig. 319. — System of the Cathedral
of Seez.

I ). I t f»»

Fig. 320. — System of St. Ouen at
Rouen.

in 1330. In Southern France the Church of St. Michel-es-Liens at
Limoges, and the cathedrals of Mende, Bazas, and Rodez, are refer
able to the second half of the fourteenth century.
The vertical principles of design, already appearing in the slen
der proportions of all the supports, and in the memberment of the
piers corresponding to the ribs of the vault, had come to be recog-

FRANCE. 5 i 5
nized as the most important characteristic of the Gothic style, both
in general composition and in detail. The supports had hitherto
been treated as a bundle of boltels, the separation of which from
the vaulting ribs of pear-shaped section was marked and even em
phasized by the forms of their capitals. These boltels were now

Fig. 321. — Interior of St. Ouen at Rouen.

assimilated as much as possible to the ribs. Their common base
was given up, the support rising from a polygonal socle, as a loose
aggregate of independent roundels. The vaulting posts became
more and more slender and reed -like, while their capitals were
similarly diminished in size, and at last omitted altogether. The
transition from the supports to the ribs became uninterrupted, and

5 16 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
the section of the former was transferred to the latter. The pre
dominance of verticalism was thus carried to its extreme logical
development. The same tendencies made themselves evident in the treatment
of the windows, which were enlarged as much as possible. The
clerestory windows were now generally connected with the open
ings of the triforium, the memberment of which was the same, while
the rear wall, if possible, was opened to the light. Following the
principle adopted in the piers of the nave, the mouldings of the
jambs were made of the same profile as the tracery* from which
they were not separated by capitals. The tracery itself was no
longer limited to the regular forms previously employed. The place
of the rose -windows was taken by a complicated arrangement of
segmental lines, the endeavor of the designer being to produce the
greatest possible variety. A wavy form, resembling a tongue of
flame, — whence the term "flamboyant," — -was introduced shortly
before the end of the fourteenth century, and soon became pre
dominant. The changes which affected the memberment of the
windows were of the greatest importance to the general design, in
asmuch as these forms were extended over all the wall surfaces as
an ornamentation in relief.
This overloaded system of decoration was developed chiefly upon
the exterior, where the architectural framework was more and more
hidden by balustrades, gablets, pinnacles, etc., all of which assumed
the soft and flowing lines of the flamboyant tracery. The more the
designers endeavored to surpass previous works by the elaboration
of such an ornamentation, the less attention did they devote to se
rious constructive problems. This decadence kept pace with the
gradual degradation of mediaeval ideals.
Ecclesiastical architecture declined under these conditions, but
the light and graceful style of the later period was well adapted to
the development, or at least to the decoration, of secular buildings.
The fortress-like palaces did not permit the employment of the or
ganic system of the earlier Gothic construction in the towers of
round or of polygonal plan with turrets at the corners, in the lower
stories, the wooden ceilings, etc. During the later period, when the
ornamentation was rather an addition to the construction than a

FRANCE. 517
natural growth from it, every wall surface was treated like a screen,
and covered with an elaborate decoration.
The contrast was striking between the magnificent chapel of
Louis IX. and the palace itself, which once occupied the place of
the present Palais de Justice in Paris. The royal dwelling consisted
of a complex of apartments dating to various periods, and, with the
exception of the four-aisled hall built by Philip IV., seems to have
been of no monumental importance. After the middle of the four
teenth century the building no longer served as a residence. No
greater significance in artistic respects is to be ascribed to the cas
tles of the counts of Champagne at Troyes and Provins, to the castle
of the counts of Poitou in Poitiers, or to that of the dukes of Bur
gundy at Dijon. The same is the case with the residences of the
archbishops and bishops, in which the principal hall was generally of
two aisles, with a simple range of columns in the longitudinal axis.
Even the papal palace of Avignon, before the middle of the four
teenth century, was an insignificant structure.
It was not until the reign of Charles V. that the old citadel of the
Louvre was raised to the dignity and artistic importance of a palace
(Fig. 322), and that the example set by this work was followed in a
series of imposing seigneurial constructions. The fine staircase of
the Louvre, the work of Raimond du Temple, was greatly renowned
during the century and a half which preceded the entire reconstruc
tion of the building by Francis I. Still larger and more magnificent
was another creation of Charles V., the Hotel Solennel des Grands
Ebattements, — commonly known, from the adjoining church, as the
Hotel de St. Paul, — which was famed for the rich decorations of its
halls with sculptures, mural paintings, and stained glass, and for the
lavish furnishings of the chambers of the king and queen, consisting
of ornamented windows, chimney-pieces, panellings, etc. Unfortu
nately the early destruction which befell the buildings of Charles V.
was shared by most of the palaces of the French nobles, such as
Pierrefonds (Pierre-fonts) near Compiegne, Castle Creil upon an isl
and of the Oise, etc. Most of the extensive convent buildings of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were destroyed during the
French Revolution. Town -halls were rare in France during the
Middle Ages, even Paris possessing none before 1357, in which year

5 18 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
a dwelling-house was adapted for the purpose. The civic edifices of
the North were of somewhat more importance in artistic respects,
though by no means equalling those of the Netherlands and of the
German Hanseatic and imperial cities.
During the earlier part of the period private dwellings, with but
few exceptions, were built of nogging. After the introduction of
stone for their construction they generally imitated the forms of the

Fig. 322. — The Louvre of the Time of Charles V., according to the Restoration of
Viollet-le-Duc.
fortress -like palaces. The celebrated house of the citizen Jacques
Cceur at Bourges, a patrician dwelling of exceptional size, still re
maining in an almost perfect state of preservation, is referable to
the middle of the fifteenth century, and shows how readily the
declining Gothic style then lent itself to the decoration of such
buildings. The former want of unity in the artistic design, — re
sulting from capricious innovations on the one hand, and from ar
chaistic retention of primitive traditions on the other, — was only to

FRANCE. 519
be overcome by the neglect of the constructive principles, and the
employment of the characteristic forms of the style as a mere dec
oration. On the whole, it may be said that, both in architectural activity
and performance, France was inferior to the neighboring countries
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. While the French
suffered from a reaction after the phenomenal exertions of the .pre
vious ages, other nations, having had little part in the establishment
of the style, took up its extension with fresh vigor. Having, more
over, already provided the buildings which were most imperatively
required, the Gallic race followed the natural law of an earlier de
cline, leaving to others the task of further development.

iiiil tlliilll

Fig. 323. — View of the Cathedral of Gloucester.

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

IN contrast to France, which, during the development of the
Gothic style, had displayed an entirely independent creative
activity, the other nations of Europe, — with exception of those of
the Byzantine East, — remained dependent and receptive. Some of
the races of France itself had but slowly and reluctantly accepted
the new system which had been determined in the heart of the
country, and it is not surprising that foreigners were even less in
clined to an immediate and unconditional adoption. The extension
of the Gothic was rendered more difficult by the national character
which the Romanic style had assumed in the districts bordering
France, and by the great dissimilarity of the native civilizations.
Even when these hinderances were overcome and the new system
fully introduced, the original differences could not fail to impress
distinctive peculiarities upon the architecture of the different coun-

ENGLAND. 52 1
tries. These peculiarities, it is true, were not so great as those which
had obtained during the Romanic epoch, at least between the
Rhenish countries and the Provence ; but they were sufficiently
prominent to clearly distinguish the Gothic styles of England, Ger
many, and Italy from that of France.
ENGLAND.
England* having, for a century previous, been dependent in
artistic as well as in political respects upon one of the provinces of
France, was naturally the first to adopt the new style. The rela
tions to Normandy, so decisive in architectural respects during the
ages succeeding William the Conqueror, were, however, at this pe
riod somewhat less intimate. Normandy itself, immediately adjoin
ing the districts in which the Gothic had first made its appearance,
and afterwards altogether united with the He de France, adopted
the style more unconditionally than was possible beyond the Eng
lish Channel, where at this period the Norman and Anglo-Saxon
elements were being blended into a national unity.
During the twelfth century only slight and isolated traces of
the new architectural system appeared in England. The first pointed
arches, limited to the arcades connecting ranges of columns, were
those of the Cistercian churches of Kirkstall, Buildwas, Fountains,
Furnep, and Byland, referable to the second half of the twelfth cen
tury. It may hence be assumed that the elements of the Gothic
style had been introduced into England by those monks of Citeaux
who left their native country about the year 11 50. Still, it is to be
borne in mind that the isolated appearance of pointed forms is not
in itself sufficient indication of a Gothic design, since these are to
be recognized at Autun and Vezelay in Burgundy, long before the
actual establishment of the new style. Moreover, it is evident from
the appearance of pointed arches in the Church of the Benedictines
* J. Britton, Cathedral Antiquities of Great Britain. London, 1835. — The Same, Ar
chitectural Antiquities of Great Britain. London, 1835.— E. Sharpe, Architectural Paral
lels, or Views of the Principal Abbey Churches in England. London, without date.—
B. Winkles and Th. Moule, Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations of the Cathedral
Churches of England and Wales. London, without date.— Hall, The Baronial Halls of
England. London, 1858.

522

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

at Malmsbury, in that of the Augustines at Cartmel, and in the por
tico of the Cathedral of Ely, that the determining influences were
not exclusively derived from Burgundian Citeaux. This is corrobo
rated by the Church of the French Knights of St. John in London.
The older parts of this concentric structure, consecrated in 1185,
show further indications of the new style, notably in the ribbed
vaults and in the clustered columns.
The only English building of the twelfth century which is known
with certainty to have been designed by an architect of Northern
France, well acquainted with the chief features of the Gothic style,
did not display any advance beyond the transitional forms. The
reconstruction of the choir of the Cathedral of Canterbury, which
had been destroyed by fire in 11 74, was intrusted to William of
h

fcSY,7^ '

I * .*.. * .* *-

»;?:?.*; * f . A*. •i%*^ ' , 1

Fig. 324. — Plan of the Cathedral of Canterbury.

,:•¦*,*••

Sens, whose architectural skill had without doubt been brought
to the notice of the canons of Canterbury through Archbishop
Thomas a Becket, who had taken refuge in Sens shortly before his
assassination in 1170. The Choir of Canterbury (Fig. 324), built be
tween 1 175 and 1 185, shows distinct reminiscences of the Cathedral
of Sens (Fig. 299). The architect was obliged, however, by the ex
istence of two earlier towers, to deviate from his model by dimin
ishing the width of the chancel, — a considerable and by no means
advantageous change. From the details of the elevation it is plain
that the foreign designer did not long retain his functions of super
intendent, the work being carried on by native masons, who be
trayed in various ways their training in the earlier style.
Modest attempts to transform the Norman system were made,

ENGLAND. 523
early in the thirteenth century, in the choir of the Cathedral of
Winchester, begun in 1202, and in the nave of the Abbey Church of
St. Albans. In the choirs of the cathedrals of Lincoln and Worces
ter clustered columns, pointed arched arcades, and narrow pointed
windows, became more prominent, and in the eastern part of the
Cathedral of Salisbury, built between 1220 and 1258, the style
known as the early English Gothic appears fully developed. The
last - mentioned cathedral (Fig. 325), afterwards completed in the
same style, is the most important of the structures of this class ref
erable to the second half of the thirteenth century, among which
are the Minster of Beverley, the choir of the Collegiate Church of

_M .'^^H^i5i'L^.£^ :*~:'-4 « f- *§a

¦m~

Fig. 325. — Plan of the Cathedral of Salisbury.
Southwell, the facade of the Cathedral of Wells, the transepts of
the Cathedral of York, and portions of other buildings begun at an
earlier period. This phase of development had been brought about
through the influence of the French designer of the choir of Canter
bury. Westminster Abbey in London, the last of the buildings be
longing to this group, and the most magnificent edifice of England
dating to the second half of the thirteenth century, was also con
structed under French superintendence. Hence this church must
be omitted in defining the character of the early English style.
In the arrangement of the plan the native designers, perhaps
encouraged by the example of the before -mentioned Cistercian

524 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
churches, returned to the straight - lined termination of the choir,
which the later English architects and those called from abroad,
like Guillaume de Sens, had endeavored to conform to French
models. Furthermore, the proportion of the length was greatly
increased by making the chancel of the cruciform building quite
as long as its nave, while considerably restricting, the width of
both. The choir was never five-aisled as in France, and the. intro
duction of radial chapels was rendered impossible by ihe rectilin
ear termination. On the other hand, a second transept was added
to the chancel, and a rectangular Chapel of the Virgin to the end
wall. The entire length of the structure thus became excessive, the
Cathedral of Salisbury (Fig. 325), for instance, being over 140 m.
long, while the three-aisled body of the church is but 23 m. broad.
The transepts were generally two-aisled, a lateral passage only ap
pearing upon the eastern side ; this one-sided arrangement sufficed
to provide the spaces for altars, and was at least not visible to those
who entered the building from the western front.
The supports were occasionally composed of several members :
a somewhat heavier column surrounded by four slender monolithic
shafts, which were attached to it only by the bases and capitals.
In some cases these shafts were engaged to the kernel, in which
arrangement four three-quarter columns alternate with as many
shafts of smaller size situated between them. A plane fillet, cor
responding to the surface of the junction at the back, was added
also to the front of the three-quarter columns, which thus became
of a pear-shaped section, similar to that of the vaulting ribs. Occa
sionally the kernel was omitted altogether, and the support appears
merely as a combination of four columns. The bases are broad, and
the capitals, resembling the Corinthian in general design, are pro
vided with low and -projecting abaci of rounded profile. The calyx
is seldom ornamented ; in those cases where foliage is applied to it
the leaves are not treated in a realistic manner, like those of France,
but are stiffly conventionalized, the tips being generally curled.
The engaged columns were not continued as boltels to the impost
of the main vault, the pier consisting of a group of members of
equal height, connected only with the mouldings of the arches, the
scotias of which were at times decorated with star-shaped flowers.

ENGLAND. 525
It was thus impossible to attain that organic unity of the construct
ive framework which is so remarkable in the Romanic cathedrals of
the Rhenish countries, dating to the twelfth century, and in the
Gothic buildings of France and Germany.
The triforium consisted of a range of narrow arcades, at times
combined into groups by relieving arches (Figs. 326 and 327). It was
elaborately ornamented, and often presented characteristic features,

Fig. 326.— System of the Choir of the
Cathedral of Canterbuiy.

Fig. 327. — System of the Nave of
the Cathedral of Salisbury.

the trefoil arch being adopted, or the intersecting arches of the Nor
man style being resolved into two arcades on different planes. The
clerestory wall was generally opened by three pointed windows, that
in the middle being of greater height. Traceries first appear in
Westminster Abbey, where the French arrangement of the windows
was imitated. The tracery was almost exclusively restricted, even
at a later date, to the end walls of the choir and transepts and to

526 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
the western facade, in which latter fivefold pointed windows, occa
sionally in two stories, had previously existed. At the close of the
period, mullions were introduced in all the windows, generally of
forms entirely different from those of France. A decided prefer
ence was shown for intersecting arches, such as had been so prom
inent in the architecture of the Normans. Intricate traceries were
thus developed at an earlier period even than in France, and these
naturally led to an exchange of the columnar supports for a system
of upright mouldings similar in section to those with which they
were connected.
The ribs of the vault were supported upon consoles, or upon
short vaulting - posts : these latter not resting upon the piers, but
ending in the spandrels of the arches, or between the openings of
the triforium, and being themselves supported upon brackets. The
reticulate and stellar forms of vaulting, like the intricacies of window
tracery, were employed in England even before they became cus
tomary in France. The first innovation which seriously affected
the continental system of vaulting was the introduction of a rib in
the longitudinal axis. The horizontal crown thus resulting ren
dered the construction entirely unlike the cupola-like compartments
of the French arrangement, and caused the cross-vaults to resem
ble a barrel with lunettes. The subsequent multiplications of the
side-ribs in the chapter-houses of polygonal plan led to the forma
tion of the stellar-vault. This form, being more in harmony with
the decorative and fantastic tendencies of the English Gothic than
with the monumental and constructive character of that of France,
was more generally adopted in the former country than in the latter.
The lack of regular organism, and the want of perfect agreement
between the constructive framework and the main lines of the dec
oration, resulting from this arrangement, were not held of sufficient
weight to interfere with its adoption. The effect of the radial ribs
was heightened by the vault being much nearer the-eye than was
the case on the Continent. The nave was always low, the 24 m. of
the summit of the vault in the Cathedral of Salisbury being only
exceeded by the 27 m. of the Cathedral of York and by the 30 m.
of Westminster Abbey.
Striking as the differences thus are between the early Gothic

ENGLAND.

527

cathedrals of France and England in the interior, they are still more
apparent upon the exterior. The narrowness and lowness of the
aisles are especially noticeable in the latter country, this effect being
increased by the small and comparatively flat surfaces of the roof, — •'
often entirely hidden by battlements which give a fortress-like char
acter to the entire building. The buttresses were slight, seldom

Fig. 328. — Western Facade of the Cathedral of Salisbury.

nsing above the side aisles, and the flying buttresses, when em
ployed at all, were as simple as possible. Thus the horizontal mem
berment of the structure was greatly emphasized. The most strik
ing deviation from the French models is evident in the facades, —
instance that of the Cathedral of Salisbury (Fig. 328). The low and
insignificant portals appear to have been designed merely to meet
the practical requirements, without reference to the entire front.

528 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
They are not rendered of importance in the composition, even in
those cases when they are preceded by a portico — the so-called
Galilaea. The enormous wall which rises above them entirely hides
the roofs of the side aisles, and is even extended to the summit of
the nave, which only in exceptional cases is treated as a gable.
This facade is flanked by weak towers, which project beyond the
width of the entire church, but scarcely rise above the front wall.
The imposing effect of the facade towers of the Continent is thus
but rarely attained. On the other hand, the heavy fortress - like
tower erected above the intersection of transept and nave, of square
plan and terminated by a horizontal cornice, is the more empha
sized, being rendered of the greatest importance in the design by
the excessive length of the building. Upon it depends, in effective
concentration, the monumental dignity of the edifice, — this charac
ter being attained neither by the facade nor by the choir.
While the Gothic style in France required but fifty years for its
full development, the early English was retained, with but slight
alterations, for more than a century. England thus did not adopt
the perfected Gothic until early in the fourteenth century, a period
which in France marked the beginning of the debasement. Cir
cumstances had not been more favorable for architecture on the
north than on the south of the Channel. The war with the French,
although carried on entirely upon the Continent, had drained the
resources of the island, and was, moreover, of unfavorable issue to
England. On the other hand, the national unity was increased by
this war, which did much to assimilate the Norman and Anglo-
Saxon elements. The social amelioration thus brought about was
so great that, notwithstanding the losses which had been entailed
upon the country, sufficient energy and material means were still
forthcoming to sustain an architectural activity of considerable im
portance. The ornamentation was so lavish in the English Gothic,
between 1300 and 1380, that the style of this period fully deserves
the name Decorated which is commonly applied to it.
Most important among the works of this class is the Cathedral
of Exeter, begun early in the century and completed in 1370. Con
temporary with this is the greater part of the Cathedral of Lichfield
(Fig. 329), the construction of which was continued even into the

ENGLAND.

529

fifteenth century. The western half of York Minster is also of the
decorated style ; its eastern side was built a hundred years later, and
the transept is early English. The most elaborate ornamentation is
observable in the central portion of the Cathedral of Ely (Fig. 330),
built after 1322, otherwise of the Norman style ; and in the choir of
the Cathedral of Wells, referable to the second half of the four
teenth century. Many older structures were completed or restored

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Fig. 329. — System, of the Choir of
the Cathedral of Lichfield.

Fig. 330. — System of the Choir
of the Cathedral pf Ely.

during this period, which was productive of a great number of chap
els, chapter-houses, etc.
In the Decorated style the plan retained its excessive length,
the straight-lined termination of the choir, the one-sided transept,
the massive tower above the intersection of transept and nave, and
the screen-like facade wall,— in short, all the most prominent feat
ures which have been noticed in the early English. But the organ-
34

530 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ism received a new life, the harshness of the contrasts was mitigated,
the construction and the ornamentation being blended to a more
perfect harmony. An important improvement is noticeable in the
treatment of the windows, the greater elaboration of which had
been commenced in the preceding period. The simple grouping of
lancet-shaped windows was discontinued, and broad openings with
equilateral or even surbased arches, provided with mullions, took
their place. The geometrical lines of the tracery, derived from the
French, were soon given up in favor of intricate and varied, at times
even whimsical, forms. Gentle curves, with many cusps and trefoils,
were employed by preference, much attention being devoted to an
arrangement whereby the glazed apertures were approximately
equal in size. This resulted, especially in the large windows of the
end walls, in great unity of design and magnificence of general ef
fect. The engaged shafts of the jambs were soon exchanged for
mouldings of the same profile as the tracery. The Flowing style, of
which all these features are characteristic, seems to have been devel
oped at an earlier period than either the French Flamboyant or the
German Fischblase.
The successful effect of the tracery led to the employment of its
forms for triforiums and balustrades, as well as, in relief, for wall
surfaces, so that the entire ornamentation of the edifice became di
rectly dependent upon it. The pointed arches themselves were
occasionally made of curves of contrary flexure, and even the ribs
of the vault became similar to tracery. The more the entire struct
ure was overgrown with this decoration, perforated or in relief, the
more the constructive framework was simplified, until at last the
artistic importance and effect depended solely upon the ornamental
details. Such excess could naturally be of but short duration. The gen
tle curves of the Flowing style were little in harmony with the
English character, and the contrast which they presented to the
stiff forms of the Norman and early English was most painfully
felt in those cases where the work of the fourteenth century was
placed in juxtaposition to that of an earlier period, as, for instance,
in the Cathedral of Ely. The change from comparative perfection
to absolute debasement was so immediate that a reaction was inev-

ENGLAND. 53 1
itable. This reform was directed, however, less against the elabora
tion of the tracery than against the sensual elements of the design,
and, in particular, the weak degeneration of the forms.
This reaction became evident, towards the close of the four
teenth century, in the development of the so-called Perpendicular
style, in which the English Gothic returned to the rectilinear char
acter of the constructive members and ornaments. This system of
design corresponded well with the natural traits of the Britons, as
is plainly seen in the plans and elevations, not only of the early
English and Norman, but of the Anglo-Saxon buildings. Even as
early as 1360 boltels began to grow through the tangled mass of the
tracery, in the same way as the curved decorations had previously
been applied upon the straight-lined mouldings. Perpendicularism
did not, however, become the leading principle until the age of
Bishop William of Wykeham, who directly furthered the erection
of a large number of buildings. The restoration of the Cathedral
of Winchester (Fig. 331), undertaken under his supervision in 1393,
gives a fixed date for the commencement of the Perpendicular
style, which agreed so well with English ideas that it was em
ployed almost exclusively until the close of the Gothic period, late
in the sixteenth century, and has even become typical of the Eng
lish Gothic designs of the present age.
Still, the horizontal lines continued almost as important in the
composition as the vertical.. The effect of the triforium galleries
and the window-sills was emphasized by the introduction of hori
zontal bands connecting the slender mullions, so that the predomi
nance of the uprights was greatly diminished ; instance the choir
of th-e Cathedral of Gloucester (Figs. 323 and 332). In the win
dows, on the other hand, the jambs were not only continued verti
cally to the soffit of the main arches, but the perpendicular members
were increased by the introduction of super-mullions, rising from the
summits of the smaller arches of the lower tracery. To the frame
work thus resulting further cusps were added, so that the entire
window was formed by a combination of vertical trefoil arches.
The rectilinear tendencies of the design led to the adoption of a
new form of the arch, both for the window openings and for the
arcades : the arcs being stiffened to straight lines, with an angular

532

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

apex. Furthermore, the ribs of the vault, which had already. been
assimilated in character to the tracery, were treated as straight and
radial bars, connected, like the mullions, with trefoil cusps, and
usually made to intersect with the crown rib in an entirely inor
ganic fashion.
This system of design, however conformable to the British char
acter and taste, was certainly not favorable to the artistic effect

Fig: 331. — System of the Nave of
the Cathedral of Winchester.

Fig. 332.— System of the Choir of
the Cathedral of Gloucester.

of cathedral buildings. Its best results were produced in smaller
structures, such as the chapels of the Virgin, palace oratories, and
secular halls in colleges and castles. Even in the thirteenth cen
tury the chapter -houses had become of importance. Such polyg
onal chambers as those of Lichfield, Salisbury, York, Lincoln,
Westminster, and Wells are of a direct historical interest, inasmuch
as they led to the development of the stellar vault. In the Chap:

ENGLAND. 533
ter-house of York the vaulting ribs had been filled in with boards
instead of with masonry, and the construction of the ceiling in wood
became more and more general, even in important edifices ; witness
the octagon of the Cathedral of Ely and the nave of the Cathedral
of York. The extremely elaborate vaults of tbe decorated and per
pendicular styles, such as those of the Lady chapels of many cathe
drals and of the cloister of Gloucester, were of a pleasing effect. An
even greater importance is to be attached to the timbered construc
tions of Wykeham's chapter-houses and chapels at Winchester and
Oxford, and especially to the most rational roofs and ceilings of
Westminster, and of other halls of English palaces. Without de
manding an increased thickness of the walls, these roofs attained a
lightness and elegance denied to the best systems of vaulting, being,
moreover, capable of a fine decorative elaboration in carving and
color. Open timbered roofs of this kind have consequently contin
ued in use until the present day, and indeed the English Gothic,
because of the just relations of the horizontal to the vertical mem
berment, is particularly well adapted for imitation in the secular
architecture of modern times.
Ireland and Scotland were, in artistic respects, decidedly inferior
to England. The first country had neither important buildings nor
any architectural peculiarity ; the second was entirely dependent
upon the development of England. From the oldest Gothic build
ings of Scotland — the Cathedral of Elgin, founded in 1223, and that
of Glasgow, begun in 1240 — down to the Abbey Church of Melrose,
dating to the first half of the fifteenth century, there are but few
deviations from the English types. It is only to be remarked that
the Norman round arch was occasionally employed at a compara
tively late date, that the stiff perpendicular style was but rarely
adopted, and that, in the lavish decorations of the period of deca
dence, the relations of Scotland to France led to a predominance of
Flamboyant over Flowing details. Such fantastic creations as the
absolutely unsymmetrical Mortuary Chapel of Rosslyn, built be
tween 1446 and 1480, would have been impossible in England.

534 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
GERMANY.
The Gothic style was not introduced into Germany* as early,
or as completely, as into England. The reason of this is evident.
England had no architectural traditions of its own to which it could
cling, and after having received the Romanic style from beyond the
Channel, it was but natural that it should give itself up without re
serve to the influence of Northern France. Germany, on the other
hand, possessed an indigenous style of great perfection, and was
hence reluctant to relinquish its own artistic methods in favor of
those of another country. The earlier types were retained with
great tenacity. Even at the beginning of the thirteenth century
buildings of the Romanic style were erected not only in remote and
provincial districts, but even in the larger Rhenish towns. Instance
the reconstruction of the Church of St. Castor at Coblentz, conse
crated in 1208, and the transept of the Convent Church at Sayn,
built after 1202. The native traditions were but slowly and un
willingly abandoned.
In the most advanced provinces, however, the intelligence of the
builders had, during the Romanic period, been too fully awakened
to permit them to ignore the constructive and decorative advan
tages of the Gothic system. The noble works of the French could
not remain unknown ; it was generally admitted that the civiliza
tion of the neighboring country was superior, in social as well as
in political respects. The higher powers, both spiritual and tem
poral, saw plainly that it was necessary to model not only the ec
clesiastical and secular institutions, but also the art and poetry of
Germany, upon those of France.
* G. Moller, Denkmaler der deutschen Baukunst. Darmstadt, 1820. — G. G. Kallen-
bach, Chronologie der deutsch-mittelalterlichen Baukunst. Milnchen (1849). — C-. Unge-
witter, Lehrbuch der gothischen - Constructionen. Leipzig, 1859. H- Auflage, 1875. —
L. Puttrich, Denkmale der Baukunst des Mittelalters in Sachsen. Leipzig, 1836-1850. — >
C. W. Hase, F. Ewerbeck, O. Tenge u. A., Die mittelalterlichen Baudenkmaler Nieder-
sachsens. Hannover, 1856-1883. — L. Hoffmann u. H. v. Dehn-Rotfelser, Mittelalterliche
Baudenkmaler in Kurhessen. Cassel, 1856, etc. — W. Ltibke, Die mittelalterliche Kunst in
Westphalen. Leipzig, 1853. — F. Adler, Mittelalterliche Backstein-Bauwerke des preus-
sischen Staates. Berlin, 1862. — R. Redtenbacher, Leitfaden zum Studium der mittelalter
lichen Baukunst. Leipzig, 1881.

GERMANY. 535
Still, greatly as the Germans desired to improve their architect
ural system by the adoption of new details from abroad, their na
tional feeling was too strong for them to make such a striking
demonstration of the force of French influence as the immediate
and entire acceptance of the Gothic style would have been. No
other nation was so slow in introducing the methods of design de
termined in the He de France. Almost a century elapsed after the
building of the choir of St. Denis before the first truly Gothic
structure was erected in Germany. Various compromises, however,
began to be made towards the close of the twelfth century, so that
a transitional period of over fifty years is to be distinguished in
Germany, — wholly without a parallel in France or in England,
where the change was effected within a single decade. So elabo
rate, so varied, and, above all, so rational, are the features charac
teristic of this period that the customary designation, Transitional
Style, is fully justifiable, provided it be taken into consideration
that we have here to deal with a phase of the development of
German architecture alone, intervening between the Romanic and
Gothic, and not with any consistent and universal transition be
tween the two great styles.
The isolated introduction of Gothic elements is noticeable at
times in the constructive framework, at times in the decorative
treatment. The Golden Portal of Freiberg in the Erzgebirge, which
is probably to be ascribed to the close of the twelfth century, dis
plays, as well in its architectural as in its sculptural decoration,
an acquaintance with the portals of the early Gothic style of
France. Similarly, Gothic capitals, mouldings, vaulting ribs, etc.,
are employed, together with a constructive framework of the Ro
manic style. Innovations of greater importance were the adoption
of the Gothic system of buttresses, and of pointed forms for ar
cades and vaults, — although these did not at first adhere strictly
to the French models. Examples are the Church of St. Peter at
Goerlitz, built between 1 173 and 1 194, with slightly pointed arcades,
and the Cathedral of Brunswick, founded by Henry the Lion and
consecrated in 1 194. With the Romanic piers, walls, and windows
of the latter is combined a pointed vault, not constructed accord
ing to the principles of French Gothic, but as a barrel-vault without

536 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ribs and with lunettes. The case is similar with several churches
of Brunswick and its vicinity, the designs of which .were influenced
by that of the Cathedral. The peculiarities of all these buildings
seem due rather to Burgundian influences than to any direct imi
tation of the Gothic style of the He de France.
Circumstances were more favorable for the adoption of the
Gothic elements in the Rhenish countries than in Saxony. In the
former the preference for a polygonal termination of the choir had
early led. to the introduction of ribs in the vaults of.the apse, and,
in connection with this, to the employment of buttresses. The
Cathedral of Treves, with its polygonal choir strengthened by
abutments, dates from the years between 1152 and 1169, although
the vaults were not executed before the two decades preceding
1 2 12. Even before the close of the twelfth century the pointed
arch appeared in the nave of the same building, as well as in sev
eral city gates of Cologne, in the reconstruction of the Cathedral
of Mayence after the fire of 1191, and, combined with buttresses, in
the churches of the Cistercians erected after 1190; the Nunnery of
St. Thomas on the Kyll, and the Monastery of Heisterbach in the
Siebengebiege. To this class belong also a number of older build
ings in the transitional style, notably the Convent of the Cistercians
at Otterberg in the Palatinate, the churches of Gelnhausen and
Seligenstadt, and the Collegiate Church at Aschaffenburg, — all in
the diocese of Mayence. Mention has already been made of the
Church of St. Fides at Schlettstadt on the Upper Rhine, with its
pointed arcades, built as early as the twelfth century.
Gothic elements occur more frequently after the beginning of
the fourteenth century. They appear, in greater or less degree, in
the parish churches at Andernach, Boppard, Bacharach, and Sinzig;
more decidedly in the transept of the Minster of Bonn, and in the
Church of St. Quirinus at Neuss, begun in 1209. The latter build
ing, together with a prevalence of pointed arches in the arcades and
galleries, has round-arched vaults and peculiar fan-shaped windows.
A similar combination of round and pointed forms appears in the
nave of the Church of the Apostles, completed in 1219, in that of
the contemporary Church of Great St. Martin, and in the Church
of St. Cunibert, built between 1200 and 1247, — all at Cologne.

GERMANY.

537

Pointed windows are observable in ' the western part of the last-
named building. The greatest advance is displayed by an edifice
of the Upper Rhine — the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul at Neu-
weiler in Alsace — the nave of which might almost be termed early
Gothic. Thus a compromise was gradually effected by which the chief
difficulties in the Romanic construction were avoided, and, in con
formity with the taste of the period, the Gothic innovations were
adopted. This compromise is best exemplified in three buildings

Fig. 333- — Plan of the Cathe
dral of Bamberg.

Q t I 1 J» S a *Un,
Fig. 334- — System of the Cathe
dral of Bamberg.

of Middle Germany, dating from the first half of the thirteenth
century: the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Bamberg (Figs. 333
and 334), which, with exception of the later western part, was ready
for consecration in 1237; the nave of the Collegiate Church of
Fritzlar in Hesse (Fig. 335), commenced after the completion of
the choir in 1200, and the nave of the Cathedral at Naumburg
(% 336). The design both of the plan and the exterior of these
buildings shows a persistent adherence to the Romanic types. In
the interior, also, the combination of six piers to form one com
partment of the nave, according to the principle of the alternation

53»

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

of round and square supports, is derived from the Romanic edifices
of the Rhine, and the windows in the wall -arches of the vault,
whether single or in couples, are round-arched. The arcades and
vaults are pointed, and the proportions of height and width en
tirely altered. A certain hesitation is shown in the pointed, forms
of the arcades, and, in the Church of Fritzlar, in the relieving arches,
by which they are grouped in couples. Moreover, the vaults are
commonly without ribs. It is to be borne in mind that the ribbed
vaults of the Cathedral of Bamberg are at least as late as the sec-.

«!_

Fig. 335- — System of the Collegiate
Church of Fritzlar.

-*  h  1"

Fig. 336. — System of the Cathedral
of Naumburg.

ond half of the thirteenth century, and may have been constructed
at the same time with the western transept and the choir. In other
buildings of this age, such as the nave of the Church of St. Sebaldus
in Nuremberg, and the Minster of Basle, — exclusive of the Romanic
portions near the portal of St. Gallus, begun in 11 85, — the walls
are divided by triforium galleries, those of the latter church being
round-arched. Westphalia holds a middle place between the Lower Rhine and
Central Germany, on the one hand, and the North German Low-

GERMANY.

539

lands, on the other. The cathedrals of Osnabrueck (Fig. 337) and
Muenster (Fig. 338) are similar in some respects to the before-men
tioned ecclesiastical edifices of Central Germany, at the same time
clearly displaying the development of the individual peculiarities
which had characterized the productions of this province during
the Romanic epoch. The system of vaulting, which had here been
adopted at an earlier age than in Saxony and Southern Germany,
and especially the important innovation of equal aisles, necessarily
led to simplifications well in accord with the existing conditions

F'g- 337-— System of the Cathedral of
Osnabrueck.

Fig. 338.— System of the Cathedral of Muen
ster.

of culture in the North, and with the brick and terra -cotta, the
only available building materials. After the primitive basilical ar
rangement had been disturbed by the rectangular termination of
the choir, and especially by the increased height of the side aisles,
further alterations became necessary in the construction of the
ceiling, on account of the impossibility of adapting the round-
arched cross-vaults to the unequal spaces between the supports, —
unless, indeed, the side aisles were to become of the same width
as the nave. Only one attempt was made to cover the side aisles
with bisected cross-vaults, similar to the bisected barrel-vaults of

540

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

Southern France. A much better expedient was found in the
pointed arch, which was employed at a comparatively early period
in the vaults of the equal-aisled churches of Westphalia. It was
at first restricted to structures of smaller dimensions. These pre
sented less difficulty to the builders,, as yet inexperienced in the
execution of vaults of large span, and more readily permitted a
break with the traditions
than did the metropolitan
churches. Unfortunately,
in the most important of
the works of this class, the
Cathedral of Paderborn, it
cannot be surely ascer
tained which parts are ref
erable to the various pe
riods of construction be
tween 1068 and 1263.
The North German
Lowlands, having been
colonized partly by West
phalia and partly by Sax
ony and Brunswick, nat
urally received their archi
tecture from these coun
tries. The almost exclu
sive employment of brick
in the construction, result
ing from the lack of stone,
gave, however, a peculiar
character to the style.
The slow advance of colonization and civilization rendered it as
impossible during the transitional as during the Romanic period for
Westphalia to develop a monumental architecture of importance.
Among the chief buildings may be mentioned the Church of St.
Laurence at Salzwedel, now much ruined, the round-arched arcades
of which appear to be of earlier date than the pointed vaults. Little
information can be gained concerning the customary arrangement of

Fig. 339. — Plan of the Church of the Virgin on the
Harlungerberge near Brandenburg.

GERMANY. 54 1
the ecclesiastical edifices of Brandenburg during this epoch from the
Church of the Virgin, which stood upon the Harlungerberge near
Brandenburg (Fig. 339), demolished in 1722 and known only by
drawings. Its plan was exceptional, and was perhaps determined
by that of the primitive church erected upon this site in 1136 by
Pribislav, king of the Wends. In the provinces of the Baltic, the
parts of the Cathedral of Ratzeburg referable to this age display
the direct influence of the Cathedral of Brunswick, which had been
built shortly before, while the Cathedral of Cammin and the Con
vent Church of Colbatz share the archaic character of the archi
tecture of Brandenburg.
In all the last-mentioned churches, and in many other structures
of this part of Germany, the predominance of the Romanic style is
plainly evident, native traditions having been retained intentionally
and by preference. The few Gothic elements show no systematic
study of the French works, and appear only sporadically, — like for
eign growths introduced into the great mass of the native vegeta
tion through chance seeds scattered by the wind. Still, the country
was not entirely without early and direct importations from France.
These would most naturally have been received through the Cister
cians, whose influence, however, has in. historical respects been fre
quently overrated'. This order, which had originated in France, in
1098, as a branch of Burgundian Cluny, maintained the connection
with Citeaux and its four oldest colonies — La Ferte, Pontigny,
Clairvaux, and Morimond — and the French style might well have
been at once introduced into Germany by this brotherhood. Nev
ertheless, it is certain that the Gothic was not employed by them at
this time, as buildings antedating the development of this style
appear in their first German dependencies; namely, Campen near
Cologne, and Lutzell. in Alsace, founded in 1122, Altenberg in Berg,
A. D.i 133, Georgenberg in Thuringia, A.D. 1141, and probably
also Ebrach (Fig. 340) and Heilbronn in Franconia, Maulbronn in
Suabia, Waldsassen in the Upper Palatinate, and Heiligenkreuz in
Austria. It appears that the French Cistercians, who in all things
observed the utmost simplicity, and, especially after the construc
tion of Citeaux, favored rectangular choir terminations, surrounding
.them with small retired chapels for private devotion and castiga-

542

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

tion, did not take an active part in the Gothic movement, and con
sequently could not have been propagators of this style in Germany.
It is, however, impossible to deny that the architecture of Bur,
gundy was of direct influence. In the Cistercian Church of Then-
nenbach near Freiburg in Baden, founded in 1156, the side aisles
are covered with transverse barrel-vaults, very similar to those of
Tournus ; and in the Church of Bronnbach in Franconia, built be
tween j 15 1 and 1200, the chapels of the transept have barrel-vaults,
while there are bisected cross -vaults above the side aisles. Even
the pointed vault of the nave of the same church, being destitute
of transverse arches and ribs, closely resembles a pointed barrel-
vault with lunettes, and con
sequently betrays reminis
cences of the same province.
In the Church of Marien-
statt near Hachenburg, built
between 1243 and 1324, the
Gothic style was at last fully
adopted ; but this was not
due to the Cistercians, as by
that time the strong current
of influence had entered Ger
many from Northern France
through another channel.
The increasing celebrity of
the French cathedrals could
but excite in the Germans a desire to become better acquainted with
these magnificent works, and to study them on the spot in order
to imitate them directly, instead of merely introducing disconnected
details into constructions otherwise Romanic. This imitation was
at first limited to a small number of models, which are clearly rec
ognizable in the copies. The beginning was made by the architect
of the choir of the Cathedral of Magdeburg (Fig. 341), the plan of
which, with the surrounding passage and the radial chapels, hitherto
unknown in Germany, seems to have been suggested by that of the
Cathedral of Soissons. This type was probably adopted at the in
stance of the founder, Bishop Albert II. of Magdeburg, who had

Fig. 340.— Plan of the Choir of the Church of
the Cistercians at Ebrach, Franconia.

GERMANY.

543

become acquainted with the edifices of the He de France while pur
suing his studies in Paris. The choir of the Cathedral of Soissons,
consecrated in 1212 — the same year in which that of Magdeburg
was begun — may have been selected because its radial chapels, dif
fering in this respect from those of all other French cathedrals,
were not of semicircular but of polygonal plan, thus agreeing well
with the taste of the Germans. It is worthy of note that the ar
chitect of Magdeburg did not closely follow his model, inasmuch
as he retained piers in the termination of the choir, did not fully
develop the system of buttresses between the chapels, and did not
entirely emancipate himself from Romanic forms.

Fig. 341. — Plan of the Cathedral of Magdeburg.

It cannot be known in how far it was the intention of the artist
to imitate the Cathedral of Soissons in the nave, as this was not ex
ecuted until a later date. Similar features, however, appear in the
nave of St. George at Limburg on the Lahn, consecrated in 1235,
although the plan of this church, and especially the grouping of the
towers, are still entirely Romanic. Even as the Cathedral of Mag
deburg was influenced by that of Soissons, the Church of Limburg
unmistakably shows, in the formation of the compartments, a de
pendence upon the early Gothic Cathedral of Noyon (compare
Fig. 342 with Fig. 300).
A far more faithful imitation of a French model appears in the
Church of Our Lady at Treves, built between 1227 and 1243. This
building, the first purely Gothic church of Germany, is, both in
plan and elevation, directly dependent upon the Church of St. Yved

544

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

at Braisne near Soissons, built between 1180 and 1216. Some
changes were natufally made in the general arrangement. The
Church of Treves is a concentric structure, with a central vault
resting upon four piers, surrounded by a narrow passage, and by
polygonal chapels, five on each side (Fig. 343). This peculiar form
did not result from native traditions, but from a duplication of the
choir of St. Yved, to which the
architect of Treves was led in
consequence of his omission of
the nave. The ends of the
building were thus "rendered
almost entirely symmetrical.
With exception of the chapels,
which in St. Yved are semicir
cular, the similarity of plan is
far greater than that between
the choirs of Magdeburg and
Soissons. The copy is not so
close in the elevation (Fig. 344).
The German architect followed
native traditions in the intro
duction of Romanic portals, and
showed his wide acquaintance
with the cathedrals of France
by the adoption of details from
Rheims and Paris, which he com
bined with taste and understand
ing. The choice of a small
church in a provincial town as
a model, instead of one of the
chief monuments of the French
Gothic, is explicable by the fact
that the architect of Treves was called upon to erect a church
of subordinate importance, not a cathedral ; and furthermore, by
the consideration that the choir of St. Yved, exceptional, among
those of France, bore a certain resemblance to the terminations
previously in use among the Germans. If, as is not improbable,

Fig. 342. — System of the Church of St. George
at Limburg on the Lahn.

GERMANY.

545

the cloister of the Cathedral of Treves is a work of the same de
signer, it would appear that he did not always go so far in the
adoption of Gothic details.
Although the example of Treves was not without influence upon
the contemporary architecture of Germany,— as is proved by the

Fig- 343-— Plan of the Church of Our Lady at
Treves.

Fig. 344. — System of the Church
of Our Lady at Treves.

buildings of distant provinces, as well as by those in the immediate
vicinity, — it was still not possible to altogether abandon the Ro
manic traditions until the middle of the thirteenth century. The
absolute ascendency of the French Gothic style appeared in three
magnificent and eminently successful edifices : the cathedrals of
Strasburg, Freiburg in Baden, and Cologne. All these, in the parts
35

546

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

in question, were begun at the same time, shortly before the middle
of the thirteenth century. The progress of their construction, how
ever, was not equally rapid, the nave of Freiburg being completed
in 1270, that of Strasburg in 1275, while the choir of Cologne was
delayed until 1320.
In the two former churches the choir and transept had just
been finished in the transitional style when the construction of the
Gothic'nave was commenced. The fact that
the nave of the Strasburg Minster was de
signed earlier than that of Freiburg gives
weight to certain traces in this latter of de
pendence upon the former. At all events,
the two edifices are closely related in charac
ter, and it has been recognized that the direct
prototype of both is the nave of St. Denis,
begun in 1231. The piers, placed diagonally,
with sixteen boltels, are alike in both min
sters ; but the elevation is rendered more
simple at Freiburg (Fig. 345) by the omission
of the triforium gallery, which is of so good
effect in Strasburg. The body of the church
is of comparatively greater height in the for
mer than in the latter, where it was depend
ent upon that of the previously existing
transept. In Strasburg the nave, even after
the additions made to it by Erwin von Stein-
bach, is not more than twice as high as it is
wide, and in Freiburg the nave is far from
reaching a height equal to three times its
width, a proportion generally adopted in the
contemporary cathedrals of France. The
German churches thus contrast favorably
with the French models in possessing a certain breadth and spa
ciousness. The greatest difference between the minsters of Stras
burg and Freiburg is to be observed in the fagades. The fine effect
of that of the former is to be ascribed to Erwin von Steinbach,
A.D. 1277 to 1298. The fagade of the latter, with its one tower,

Fig. 345. — System of the
Minster of Freiburg.

GERMANY.

547

was completed at an earlier date, although not until the commence
ment of the fourteenth century (Fig. 346).
The reconstruction of the Romanic Cathedral of Cologne was
commenced in the choir, on the 14th of August, 1248. It was at
first only intended to add to the Romanic nave a new choir. This

Fig. 346. — View of the Minster of Freiburg.
celebrated work, one of the grandest creations of the Gothic style
in regard to harmony of execution as well as to dimensions, is also
an almost exact imitation of a French model, the choir of the Ca
thedral of Amiens. The name of the architect who drew the plan,
Gerhard von Riel, should nevertheless be rescued from oblivion and
ranked with that of Erwin von Steinbach, on account of the beauty

548 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
of the proportions, the trained skill of the technical and artistic
treatment, and the perfection of the exquisite details, — all deserving
of the greatest admiration. This was, indeed, accorded to the artist
during his lifetime and the following century. Even the successors
in the work, generally so apt to give expression to the real or im
aginary improvements of their time, closely followed the original
design. This applies not only to Master Arnold, who is mentioned
after A.D. 1296, but also to his son John, who, after 13 19, was in
trusted with the superintendence of the work. After the con
secration of the choir in 1322, when it was resolved to demolish
the Romanic nave and to rebuild it in the Gothic style, the design
of the new parts was made to harmonize perfectly with that of the
old, contrary to the usual method. It is not known whether the
design of Master John was entirely his own, or whether it was based
upon the earlier sketches of Master Gerhard ; at all events, the
unity of the construction is such as to make one forget that almost
a century had elapsed between the planning of the choir and of the
nave (Figs. 347 and 348). The same may be said of the imposing
fagade, the design of which, referable to 1350, was recovered by a
fortunate chance, and has been of great importance in the modern
completion of the towers.
The importance of this work has been undervalued in the asser
tion that it is a slavish copy of the Cathedral of Amiens, and in
denying to it all originality and individuality. Neither of these
objections is altogether correct. Although the plan of the Cathe
dral of Cologne, in its leading features, closely resembles that of the
before-mentioned model, and the entire design bears a relation to
the French Gothic, similar to that of the architecture of Rome to
that of Greece, the Rhenish edifice has the advantage of carrying
out the principles of the French style with a certain consequence
and harmony. Moreover, in general arrangement as in details, it is
not without innovations peculiarly German. These are more es
pecially to be observed upon the exterior. In no French cathedral
are the abutments so organically and richly developed, even to their
very pinnacles; in none are the flying buttresses' so rational and
tasteful. The just proportions of the decorative accessaries are ev
erywhere observed, these being equally free from baldness and from

GERMANY.

549

over-elaboration. Occasionally, it is true, the monotonous repeti
tion is disagreeably felt, giving a somewhat mechanical character to
the ornamentation ; still, it cannot be denied that the forms, whether
borrowed or independently developed, are particularly well adapted
to their functions. Our admiration of the building, therefore, should
not be limited to its dimensions. While it is surpassed by many

I

'H,\

A

o

Fig- 347-— Plan of the Cathedral of
Cologne.

Fig. 348. — System of the Choir of
the Cathedral of Cologne.

others in individuality and artistic novelty, it is inferior to none in
fidelity to the principles of the style, and in harmonious unity.
The systematic and somewhat empirical correctness of the work,
and the fame of the architects of Cologne, could not fail to develop
a school whose influence was of wide extent. It is to be traced in
the north as far as Utrecht — instance the cathedral of that town ; in

550

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

the west to the Cathedral of Metz ; and in the south to Oppen
heim, where it appears in the Church of St. Catherine (Fig. 350). In
the more southern districts it competed with the influences of Stras
burg and Freiburg. The school of Cologne sent its designers also
to the East, in spite of the want of receptiveness of Westphalia,
exemplified in the Cathedral of Minden, and of Saxony, in that of
Halberstadt (Fig. 349), the Rhenish love of magnificence being al
together foreign to the national taste of these countries. The influ
ence of the brilliant models of France and of the provinces of the

Fig. 349. — Section of the Cathedral of Halberstadt.

Rhine was by this time so widely felt that the new style was adopt
ed wherever wealthy colleges, bishoprics, and growing cities found
it necessary to erect or to reconstruct their churches. It is plain
that the Germans were fully aware of the source from which these
elements were derived ; this is proved by the " Chronicon Wimpi-
nense " of Burckard de Hallis, which not only ascribes the Collegiate
Church of St. Peter at Wimpfen im Thai, built between 1261 and
1278, to an architect "come from Paris," but explicitly declares it
to be " opus Francigenum." There can be no doubt that this desig-

GERMANY.

551

nation had, among the educated classes of that age, the same signi
fication as " Gothic style " has to-day. It is certainly a far more
appropriate name than the latter, which, as is well known, was
brought into use as a term of contempt by the Italian masters of
the Renaissance. The Emperor Charles IV, in founding the Cathe
dral of Prague, is known to have employed a French architect from

Fig- 350.— System of the Church of
St. Catherine at Oppenheim.

Fig. 351. — System of the Cathedral
of Ratisbon.

Avignon, Matthew of Arras, who directed the construction from
1344 to 1352, and so far completed it as to leave to his successor,
Peter of Gmuend, no choice in regard to style.^ In the Cathedral of
Ratisbon, begun in 1273 (Fig. 351), the employment of a French
man, or of an architect trained in France, cannot, indeed, be definite
ly proved ; still, the building, in its variety and grace, betrays the

552 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
direct influence of France as distinctly as it does that of the school of
Cologne. This most charming of all German cathedrals has, never
theless, much that is peculiarly national and individual ; the simple
termination of the choir, for instance, and of the similar chapels at
the ends of the side aisles, successfully avoids the cramped plan
which in the architecture of France had resulted from the surround-.
ing passage and radial chapels. .
As a rule, certain national peculiarities are manifest, even in
those cases where the French Gothic was closely followed. These
give to the German buildings a character of their own. The most
remarkable of these traits appear in the polygonal terminations of
the choir, which not only differ greatly from the French, but vary
one from the other. The pillars of the German Romanic were re
tained, in contrast to the columnar supports of the French, the
boltels being both disposed in plan and carried up to the impost of
the vault in a more organic manner. The common capital was thus
more naturally avoided, and the vertical principle, especially, more
consequentially carried out. The foliage of the small capitals and
cusps, consisting chiefly of oak -leaves, is more thoroughly conven
tionalized than in France. The tracery is rendered exceedingly
elaborate through the employment of triangles and quadrangles
with curved sides, these being better adapted to the pointed arch
than were the circular forms. The intersections and trefoils result
ed in a fine play of geometrical lines. This greater variety in the
tracery led to the early adoption of reticulate and stellar forms for
the ribs of the vault, these latter, in France, until a much later
period, having been restricted to the main lines.
Upon the exterior the design attained a harmonious unity of
the constructive and decorative features, and a more equal dis
tribution of the ornamental members. The buttresses, which in
France had been somewhat bare, assumed the importance of small
towers, their walls being covered with tracery in relief, and sur
mounted with pointed gables and slender pinnacles. Gablets above
the windows and entrances heightened the effect of the vertical
lines of the composition, and were, in themselves, ornamental. The
peculiarities of German design appeared chiefly in the treatment of
the fagade, the towers being of a size and magnificence rarely at-

GERMANY. 553
tained in France and England. The ranges of tabernacles of the
French models were avoided, as not being in harmony with the ver
tical tendencies of the German style ; and, for similar reasons, the
buttress piers, although greatly diminished, were not divided by
horizontal cornices. At first the lower parts were of comparative
simplicity; instance the tower of the Minster of Freiburg, one of
the earliest of the kind. But as early as the two towers of Stras
burg, designed by Erwin von Steinbach, an elaborate multiplica
tion of the upright supports was commenced ; and in the Cathedral
of Cologne this is continued to the very apex of the structure. In
the octagon, which in Freiburg is more organically connected with
its substructure, although still distinct from it, the openings are mul
tiplied and the memberment more elaborated. This was especially
the case with the four pinnacles at the corners, the gables and finials
of which rise above the horizontal juncture of the spire. In the
cathedrals of France the spire had often been omitted altogether,
without great detriment to the design ; in those of England, where
it was exceptional, it rose without intermediation from the sub
structure, and was thus even less successful than the horizontal flat
roof of the tower. In Germany, on the other hand, it formed the
direct and indispensable termination of the pile, which was pyram
idally diminished from its very base. The spire of the Church of
St. Stephen in Vienna, for instance, is but little more inclined than
are the walls which support it. To this it must be added that the
multiplication of the openings rendered it out of the question to
construct a spire of solid masonry, such as those customary in
France. Above the octagon all the supports were isolated and filled
in with mullions and tracery ; in like manner, the spire was treated
as a combination of eight slender and perforated gablets, — as a
framework of eight ribs of stone connected by staff-work and trac
ery, fringed with crockets, and terminated by an imposing finial.
It is plain that the treatment which had originated in the Gothic
windows, extending, as has been seen, to the walls as traceries in
relief, and to the ceilings as reticulate vaults, was applied even to
the spire, and, carried out with the strictest consequence, led to
an elaborate decorative perforation of the' pyramidal roof, although
this would seem most imperatively to require unbroken and im-.

554 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
penetrable surfaces: The Gothic architects of Germany, however,
did not conceive the spire as being the roof of the tower, which
had itself outgrown its original purpose as a belfry, but regarded it
rather as a lofty monument of pious pride. ¦ The actual roofing of
the tower was constructed within the perforated spire, its surfaces
having but a slight pitch, and being invisible from below. The
light stone tracery, in its ethereal rhythm, may be compared to a
hymn, rising grandly to the heavens, heedless of the earthly require
ments of protection and of the dangers from wind and weather, to
which the light structure was so exposed. It is still less surprising
in Germany than in France that these aspiring towers should have
been but rarely completed, even in those cases, as at Freiburg and
Ulm, where the designers contented themselves with the erection
of a single pile before the nave, contrary both to the traditions of
the Romanic style and to those of the Gothic of France. Of the
larger churches only the one tower of St. Stephen at Vienna and
that of Freiburg were erected during the first period of construction.
One of the towers of the Minster of Strasburg was, indeed, built at
the close of the Middle Ages, between 1404 and 1439, by the broth
ers Juncker of Prague, and by John Hueltz of Cologne, — but not in
accordance with the design of Erwin von Steinbach, the spirit of dis
organization and technical bravura having by that time made itself
felt. Others, as, for instance, those of Ratisbon, Cologne, and Ulm,
have been completed within recent years.
Notwithstanding the many peculiarities before described, all
these cathedrals and collegiate churches were much more depend
ent upon the French models than were the edifices of the same
class in England. On the other hand, we meet in Germany with a
number of monuments of far greater originality and more marked
national character, which have a just claim to be considered as typ
ical of the Gothic style of that country. These were the churches
with aisles of equal height. They had appeared in the eastern
provinces of the Lower Rhine even during the Romanic period,
and still more frequently during the transitional ages. The first
equal-aisled church of the Gothic style is, however, that of St. Elisa
beth at Marburg, built between 1235 and 1283 (Fig. 352). In it
may be traced the influence of the Church of Our Lady at Treves,

GERMANY.

555

and thus, indirectly, that of France ; still, in the vaults of equal
height, supported upon pillars of symmetrical plan, in the restric
tion of the windows to the walls of the side aisles, and in the ex
tremely simple system of buttresses, the structure introduced ele
ments but rarely employed on the west of the Rhine. That a tran
sept was not of harmonious effect in such an arrangement became

Fig. 352.— Section of the Church of St. Elisabeth at Marburg.
evident through this experiment ; but the Church of St. Elisabeth,
even in this respect, followed the models of Cologne, rather than
those of France, in the apsidal form of the end walls.
This system, developed in Marburg, was imitated, or at least
followed in its main features, far beyond the boundary of Hesse.
It found particular favor in those districts where brick was the

556 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
only building material, as it was seen that this method of con
struction produced a good effect, while requiring but little artistic
memberment and decoration. In the simplicity and the equality
of its parts it agreed better with the bourgeois character of the
Germans of that period than did the pompous and elegant struct
ure of the cathedrals of France, which was rather in accord with
the chivalrous and courtly tastes of the French, and was in great
measure the creation of ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Germans,
therefore, leaving the imitation of French models to the architects
of Episcopal cathedrals and court churches, followed their own na
tional system. This was especially the case in the flourishing free
cities and the industrial and commercial towns, the citizens of
which, long before the Reformation, had placed themselves in a
certain opposition to the ecclesiastical and secular princes. The
middle class was at that time of far greater importance in Germany
than it was either in France or in England, and was consequently
able to build larger and more numerous edifices than were even
the episcopal towns, where nearly all the requisite churches had
been erected during the Romanic and Transitional epochs. The
new buildings were, of course, more simple in character, chiefly
parish churches, to which the equal -aisled construction, without a
detached presbytery, was especially well adapted ; this arrange
ment has, however, been also employed, and with great success, for
cathedrals, instance St. Stephen at Vienna. Thus, the church with
aisles of equal height became the characteristic expression of the
increased importance of the people in the political and social rela
tions of Germany, in the same way as the cathedral was representa
tive of the culture of France and England, which was decidedly
courtly and aristocratic, the forms of worship being chiefly episcopal.
In the Church of St. Elisabeth at Marburg, as there was no
clerestory, the windows were disposed in the high side aisles, above
the lower apertures customary in the basilical arrangement. The
double row of windows thus resulting gave upon the exterior the
effect of the long -abandoned gallery (Fig. 353). The incongruity
of this soon became evident, and an attempt was made to avoid
the disadvantages by combining the two stories of windows into
one. The consequent height and narrowness of the openings was

GERMANY.

557

relieved by the introduction of a transom -like frieze of tracery,
which divided the window into two parts (Fig. 354). Subsequently
the very loftiness of these undivided windows was felt to be in har
mony with the tall and slender pillars of the equal-aisled church,
and to correspond with the general vertical tendencies of the de
sign. The horizontal division was therefore omitted, and the mul
lions continued without interruption along the whole length, to the

Fig' 353- — System of the Fig. 354. —System of the Wie- Fig. 355. — System of the
Church of St. Elisabeth senkirche at Soest. Church of St. George at
at Marburg. Noerdlingen.
tracery of the pointed arch (Fig. 355). The supports were simpli
fied, the bundle of shafts being transformed into an octagonal pier.
This change naturally led to the direct intersection of the ribs of
the reticulate vault with the surfaces of the piers, consoles and
vaulting posts being introduced only in exceptional cases.
It cannot be denied that these edifices have a certain prosaic
and commonplace character, but often also a quiet grandeur which
compares favorably with many a French cathedral. The well-light-

558 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ed central aisle is free from the cramped and sombre effect of the
high French nave, while the side aisles are rendered of more im
portance. The proportions of the structure have a harmony long
unattained in ecclesiastic architecture. Vaults of equal height
overspread the whole interior in regular undulations. The nave
is seldom interrupted by a transept ; the choir is consequently
less detached, the elevation of the crypt being at last given up.
The surrounding passage with radial chapels is generally retained.
Chapels are often placed along the side aisles by allowing the but
tresses to project into the interior, at times rising to the impost of
the vault, as in the Church of Our Lady in Munich, at times ter
minating at half height, as in the Church of St. Martin at Landshut.
These buildings are provided upon three sides with five portals,
these giving an opportunity for profuse decoration, in which brick
was as seldom employed as in the tracery and the ribs of the elab
orate stellar and reticulate vaults. This was the case even in those
parts of Southern Germany where there was no stone. While the
interior of the brick buildings is entirely dependent upon stucco re
vetment, the exterior has, in Upper Germany, but little ornamen
tation, the memberment consisting chiefly of pilaster strips with
pointed arched corbel-tables, both of which features were derived,
with certain alterations, from the Romanic style.
Brick architecture was of a greater elaboration in the North
German Lowlands, where the absolute lack of other material obliged
the builders to substitute, in the place of sculptured details of stone,
decorations of pressed terra-cotta, combined with varied courses of
colored and glazed bricks. Colored ornamentation of this kind at
tained its highest development in the province of Brandenburg.
The town of Brandenburg, which early became the most important
place of the province, has two equal-aisled parish churches — that of
St. Godehard, completed in 1346, and that of St. Catherine, built
between 1380 and 1401. The exterior of the latter is rendered of
good effect by alternate courses of dark green and red tiles, while
the ornamented gables, the rich tracery of the windows, the friezes,
and even the decorative statues, are of terra-cotta. The Church of
the Virgin at Prenzlau (Fig. 356), erected at about the same time as
St. Catherine, is, notably in the elaborate gable of its choir, a fine

GERMANY. 559
.example of the brick architecture of the Lowlands. The towers,
however, share the plainness and massiveness of most of the build
ings of this district, being undiminished, and having no octagonal
superstructure; the wall surfaces are membered only by pilaster
strips and narrow windows. Somewhat similar in construction are
the churches of St. Stephen at Tan-
germuende, St. John at Werben, and
the Virgin at Koenigsberg in the
Neumark, all of which are referable
to the second half of the fourteenth
century; furthermore, the Cathedral
and the Church of the Virgin at Sten-
dal, dating from the first half of the
fifteenth. The ecclesiastical edifices
of Mecklenburg and Pomerania are
more simple. This applies especially
to the province of Prussia itself, the
seat of the German Order of Knights,
whose institutions, of somewhat mar
tial character, rarely permitted a not
able artistic development in the
churches: instance the Cathedral of
Frauenburg, A.D. 1329 to 1388, and
the Church of the Virgin at Dantzic,
1343 to 1502. The bald and heavy
character and the low proportions of
these edifices are in striking contrast
to certain of the brick buildings of
South Germany, as, for example, the
Church of St. Martin at Landshut, in
which the vaults attain a' height of
thirty metres, while the piers are only
about one metre in diameter, being thus of extreme attenuation.
The Gothic architecture of France had long been declining when
that of Germany, — adopted late, but at last fully nationalized, — at
tained its greatest perfection. In the "fifteenth century, however,
the decadence began also in Germany. The preference for polygo-

lip ill

Fig. 356. — View of the Church of the
Virgin at Prenzlau, from the east.

560

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

nal plans led to whimsical artifices, which may be compared to
the barroque designs of the late Renaissance. The ornamentation,
especially the tracery, was no longer limited to geometrical lines,
which had been used in such pleasing and tasteful variety ; not only
were the straight-lined forms greatly exaggerated, but a new phase
of the style made its appearance,
_ Xl[_, the so-called Fischblase, or Vesica
L ¦.¦iliilSII te*f-*«^M Piscis, similar to the English Flow-
«SiS^ ahtf&iim ing and the French Flamboyant.
In some cases the decorative de
tails imitated intertwined branches
and other plant forms ; the points
of the finials, contrary to their
vertical character, were bent and
crossed in gentle curves ; the ribs
were detached from the panels of
the vaults, and transformed into
intricate ornaments. All these
features show a debasement corre
sponding to that of the rococo,—
the last stage of the declining Re
naissance. With all this fantastic
trifling there was still a conscious
ness that the principles of the old
er works ought not to be aban
doned. This is not only seen in
the technical excellence of the later
edifices, but is expressed as an aph
orism in the book of the episco
pal architect of Ratisbon, Matthew
Roritzer, " Von der Fialen Gerech-
tigkeit," printed at Eichstaedt in
i486. In this work great praise is
bestowed upon the two brothers Juncker of Prague, whose princi
ples were derived from the Suabian master of Gmuend, and thus in
directly from the founder of the school of architecture of Prague, Mas
ter Matthew of Arras, called to the Bohemian capital by Charles IV.

1 1

'A

m

' 1 Hi

¦ILE
Fig. 357. — Column of
the Herrenhaus at
Maulbronn.
Fig. 358. — Column
of the Cloister of
the Cathedral at
Eichstaedt,
GERMANY.

56l

The advance in secular architecture, monumental as well as
private, went hand in hand with that of the ecclesiastical. Until
the close of the twelfth century the German convents and princely
palaces had been of but little architectural significance ; nor were
the civic buildings in any wise distinguished. The houses of patri
cians were occasionally provided with towers, as in Ratisbon, but
the dwellings of the burghers were extremely unpretentious. This
state of things was entirely
altered in Germany with the
increased demand for the re
finements of life, not only at
the courts of princes, but
among the higher ecclesias
tical and secular authorities,
who favored the gratifica
tion of similar requirements
in the convents founded or
restored by them. In this
regard a fact of the most
far-reaching importance was
that the monopoly of artis
tic activity passed, in great
measure, from the monks to
the laymen, the attention,
especially in the growing
towns, being thus turned to
wards the erection of secu
lar edifices.
The convents were the first to outgrow the extreme simplicity
which had hitherto satisfied their modest wants. Stately cloisters,
with arcades similar to triforium galleries, were customary as early
as the transitional period, and the Romanic forms were preserved in
these structures even at a time when the Gothic style had become
prevalent in church building. This was the case in the fine cloisters
of the Austrian Cistercian convents Zwetl and Heiligenkreuz, in
that of the Cathedral of Treves, and in the courts of the Cathedral
of Erfurt, and St. Emmeramnus at Ratisbon ; the two latter, how-
36

Fig. 359. — South-eastern Corner of the Cloister of
the Cistercian Convent of Maulbronn.

562 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ever, were completed in the Gothic style. It is not definitely known
whether purely Gothic cloisters existed before that at Klosterneu-
burg in Austria, built between 1270 and 1292, but it is certain that
many of those standing in connection with cathedrals and convents
were constructed soon after that age (Fig. 359). In all of these,
windows with elaborate tracery took the place of the arcades, and
instead of the wooden ceilings hitherto customary, ribbed vaults
were introduced. These latter, in their perspective effect, are
among the most pleasing creations of that period. A similar ar
rangement of windows and ceilings was gradually adopted in the
chapter halls and refectories; excellent examples of these still exist
in Maulbronn.* The fortress-like character of the palaces did not at first favor a
higher artistic development, especially in regard to the exterior.
Transitional forms were long retained, as for instance in the Castle
of Reichenberg near Goarshausen, built in 1284. This is chiefly
due to the fact that parts of the previously existing buildings were
preserved in the reconstructions, and furthermore that the round
arch did not require so great a height of the stories, thus giving
it a practical advantage over the high Gothic vaults. The deco
rative details of the new style were therefore more frequently intro
duced than was its constructive system, they being employed in so
far as they could be adapted to the Romanic plan and framework.
The Gothic style was first followed, in its entirety, in the Castle of
the German Knights at Marienburg in Prussia, founded in 1280,
which, after becoming in 1309 the residence of the chief of the
Order, was greatly enlarged and embellished. It was completed in
1382. The building being at once convent and palace, its chief ar
chitectural importance centred in the cloistered court of the castle
and in the large halls of other parts of the edifice. Among the
latter the two-aisled refectory, with three tall polygonal piers sup
porting vaults with fan - shaped ribs, is one of the most attractive
creations of the secular architecture of Germany in the Gothic pe
riod. Similar mediaeval castles are that of Marienwerder ; that of
Heilsberg, built by the Bishop of Ermeland about 1350; that of
* E. Paulus, Die Cisterzienserabtei Maulbronn. Second Edition. Stuttgart, 1882..

GERMANY. 563
Karlstein in Bohemia, built by the Emperor Charles IV. between
1348 and 1357; and, finally, the Albrechtsburg at Meissen, dating
from the close of the period A.D. 1471 to 1483, and recently
restored. Greater opportunities for artistic elaboration of the exterior
were given by the town-halls — the most important among the civic
buildings. The fagade of the oldest of these, the so-called Grashaus
in Aix-la-Chapelle, built in the second half of the thirteenth century,
retains some features of the transitional style. Examples of purely
Gothic constructions in stone are the older parts of the town-hall of
Ratisbon, built between 1320 and 1330, noteworthy for their pictu
resqueness ; the town-halls of Muenster and Lemgo in Westphalia,
dating from the middle of the fourteenth century ; that of Bruns
wick, begun in 1393 ; and those of Basle, Ulm, Prague, and Breslau,
all referable-to the same age. The imposing tower of the town-hall
of Cologne was built in the fifteenth century, and the older parts of
that in Nuremberg, famed for the beauty and richness of its inner
court, are even as late as the close of the Gothic period. The town-
halls of the North German Lowlands, built of brick, often of va
rious colors, are particularly interesting. Mention may be made of
those of Brandenburg, Tangermuende, Koenigsberg in the Neumark,
Bremen, Lubeck, and Hanover.
Prominent among the civic buildings are also the halls for mer
cantile purposes, such, for instance, as the Guerzenich at Cologne,
and the Artushof at Dantzic ; the latter is mainly remarkable for its
interior, one room of which resembles the refectory at Marienburg.
A number of hospitals, with halls of like character, belong to this
period ; one of these is preserved in the Hospital of the Holy Ghost
at Lubeck; that in the establishment of the same name at Munich,
which long served as a meat-market, has lately been torn down to
make way for a new building. Reference must further be made to
the Gothic gate-ways, the oldest of which, those at Cologne, have
already been mentioned. They are sometimes elaborately deco
rated, as, for instance, the Spahlenthor at Basle ; or are ornamented
with colored tiles, as the city gates of Brandenburg, Stendal, and
Tangermuende, in the North German lowlands. Similar in archi
tectural treatment were the bridges, fortified by towers at the abut-

564 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ments or in the middle, — plain and massive constructions, with
pointed arches.
The private dwellings, finally, gave expression to the growing
prosperity of the citizens in the commercial towns. The ground-
floor was chiefly occupied by magazines, and was of plain and solid
construction, occasionally provided with open arcades, supported
upon piers or columns. The large store-rooms in the upper stories
required lofty and steep roofs, the gables of which gave opportu
nity for an independent and elaborate memberment. Otherwise
the decoration was mostly limited to the oriel -windows at half
height, these often being the only ornament, as in the Parsonage of
St. Sebaldus in Nuremberg. The Nassau House and the Play
house in Nuremberg, the so-called Stone House in Frankfort, and
several houses at Muenster and other towns of Westphalia, are
among the most interesting mediaeval dwellings of hewn stone.
The variegated brick fagades in the towns of the North German
lowlands are quite as picturesque, as are also the constructions of
nogging with projecting stories, common in the provinces of Saxo
ny, Hanover, and Brunswick. In the last-named buildings the
carvings of the beams and struts are of fine effect ; the sculptured
ornamentation is limited to these, but paintings are not infrequently
executed upon the stucco of the wall surfaces.
Although Germany had received the Gothic from France as a
fully -developed style, it did not employ it as an established and
unalterable system. The German architects at first attempted to
effect a compromise between the Gothic and the long-accustomed
Romanic, but, having once shaken off the old traditions, they added
new and original traits to the adopted style. In cathedrals the
French models were closely followed ; in other works, however, a
variety was attained rarely to be found even in that country. The
restless and speculative German mind has continually striven after
new solutions and modes of expression, its pronounced individual
ity seeking for peculiar features. No nation has known better how
to adapt itself to the purposes and requirements of the moment, to
conform its aspirations to the given means, and to make the best of
the materials available. Such a rational and even prudent treat
ment of the constructive problems in no wise interfered with the

ITALY. 565
expression of artistic ideas. This could hardly have been otherwise
with a people who have in all ages been famed among their neigh
bors for combining acumen and clearness of thought with depth of
sentiment.
ITALY.
We have no such exact historical information concerning the in
troduction of the Gothic into Italy* as in regard to its adoption in
England and Germany. By reason of the various and involved cir
cumstances which the new style encountered south of the Alps, it
was forced to contend with a complexity of traditions such as it
had not met with either upon English or German soil. Moreover,
an artistic activity of the greatest extent had begun, and many im
portant buildings were in process of erection. Only in exceptional
cases were these constructed throughout according to the original
plan, which was often so disturbed and altered by hesitation on the
side of the architects, and by protests from the communities, pa
trons, or commissioners, that, even when outward circumstances
occasioned no delay, the work sometimes came to a stand -still
through sheer inability to overcome these obstacles. The new
style was chiefly employed for the completion of buildings, the
original design of which had been entirely different. Moreover, the
most various elements, basilical, Byzantine, and Lombardic, were
promiscuously intermingled in the Italian constructions, and ren
dered the attainment of an organic unity and a perfected system
more difficult in this country than in any other. These difficulties
were further increased by the fact that new ideals, tending towards
the Renaissance, were already making themselves felt. Even be
fore the transition from the Romanic to the Gothic was completely
effected, that to the Renaissance began ; this justifies, in a certain
measure, the position of those who hold that, properly speaking,
there never was an Italian Gothic style.

* Compare the works quoted on page 309. Furthermore : R. Willis, Remarks on the
Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially of Italy. Cambridge, 1835. — F. Lose and
L. Gruner, The Terracotta Architecture of North Italy. London, 1867. — G. Rohault de
Fleury, La Toscane au Moyen-Age. Paris, 1873.

566

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

It is not easy to give dates for the first appearance of Gothic
features in Italy, and it is almost impossible to trace the manner
of their introduction. As has been already explained, the pointed
arch of Sicilian architecture is to be referred to Arabian rather than
to French influences. But it cannot be ascertained whence came
the pointed arcades and arches in relief which early appear in North
Italy, as, for instance, in the Church of S. Maria at Vezzolano in

Fig. 360. — Plan of S. Andrea at
Vercelli.

Fig. 361. — System of S. Andrea
at Vercelli.

Lombardy, built between 11 50 and 11 89. It may be assumed, but
cannot be definitely proved, that Burgundy, which, in the begin
ning of the eleventh century, had been affected by the architectural
methods of Upper Italy, — instance the works of Dijon, — now, in its
turn, influenced Italy through the mediation of Cluny. The influ
ence of the Cistercian convents, — themselves dependent upon Bur
gundy, — is more assured, it being evident in the plans and eleva
tions of the Church of S. Maria d'Arbona in the Abruzzi, built in

ITALY. 567
1208, and of the Church of the Cistercians irt Chiaravalle, in the Mi
lanese district, consecrated in 1221. Traces of it are also to be ob
served in the plans of the choirs of the ecclesiastical edifices erected
by the new orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans. The sys
tematic importation of the style, however, is as little proved by all
these features as by various documentary evidences bearing upon
the question. We learn, for instance, that Cardinal Jac. Guala Bi-
chieri called an English architect for the building of S. Andrea at
Vercelli, A.D. 1219 to 1224 (Figs. 360 and 361); but this does not
coincide with the fact that the edifice is entirely Italian and Ro
manic on the exterior, and that. its interior, although Gothic, shows
no characteristics peculiarly English. It is possible, also, that a
French architect, or one trained in France, may here or there have
been employed, though of this there is no historical 'proof anterior
to the rule of the dynasty of Anjou in Naples. At all events, it is
quite as incorrect to speak of a French importation as to ascribe to
Germany the entire introduction of the Gothic style into Italy,
upon the ground that S. Francesco at Assisi, the first purely Gothic
church of that country of which the date is accurately known, was
built by a German architect.
It must always remain an open question whether Jacobus de
Merania (Meran), whose plan was adopted in the competition for
the design of S. Francesco at Assisi (Figs. 362 and 363), was himself
trained in a Lombardic or in a Cisalpine school, in view of the fact
that, upon the whole, the Southern Tyrol exhibits quite as many
Lombardic as national or German traits. Although the transition
from the Romanic to the Gothic style cannot be historically traced
in Upper Italy, the monuments have nevertheless furnished mate
rial which, according to the researches of Mothes, are sufficient to
warrant the assumption of a somewhat autochthonous character for
the Italian Gothic. The pointed arch, long customary in Sicily,
naturally came to be employed in the construction of vaults. It
was especially well adapted to the requirements of Italy, where tim
ber was lacking, inasmuch as one of the great practical advantages
of pointed vaults lies in the possibility of their execution with light
er wooden centrings.
It was a matter of the utmost importance that the Franciscan

568

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

order, which received the Papal sanction in 121 5, introduced the
new style into one of its first churches, — even as the Cistercians had
previously adopted a particular method of building for their eccle
siastical edifices. Still, the employment of the Gothic was not
exclusively confined to the Minorites. The natural desire thus
outwardly to place itself in opposition to the older monasteries,
especially in regard to their traditional and archaistic institutions,
conceptions, and methods of building, was similarly felt by another

Fig. 362. — Plan pf S. Francesco at Assisi.

Fig. 363. — System of S. Francesco
at Assisi.

order, which arose about the same time. This was the society of
the Dominicans, also founded as a mendicant order, and sanctioned
in 1 2 16. We find them, from the first, pursuing in their churches
the same course as the Franciscans, and in a measure competing
with them. Thus two important Gothic churches of these orders
were erected at about the same date, before S. Francesco at Assisi
had been entirely completed, A.D. 1253 — namely, the Church of the
Minorites, S. Francesco at Bologna, and that of the Dominicans,

ITALY.

569

S. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice. The latter of these has been proved
by modern research not to be a copy of the Franciscan Church of
S. Maria Gloriosa ai Frari at the same place, begun in 1250, but to
have been founded much earlier. It appears that the Dominicans
accepted the innovation with greater readiness, and practised the
Gothic methods more exclusively, than did their rivals. While, in
one of the most prominent churches of the Franciscans, S. Antonio
in Padua, built between 1232 and 1307, a certain hesitation is evi-

Hh  1  1  1 — _-
6. 1 i i a

-IKlrJ

Fig. 364. — Plan of S. Anastasia
at Verona.

Fig. 365. — System of S. Anastasia
at Verona.
dent, — the cupolas in the main aisles being similar to those of
St. Mark, and a transitional character being retained in the round
arches, — the Dominicans consequentially followed the principles
which they had adopted. This is exemplified by the magnificent
Church of S. Maria Novella in Florence, founded in 1278; by the
Convent Church of S. Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome, begun in
1281 ; by several structures in the district of Venice; and by the
Church of S. Anastasia at Verona, begun in 1290, following the

570 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
precedent of S.' Giovanni e Paolo (Figs. 364 and 365) ; furthermore,
by S. Agostino in Padua, completed in 1303, and torn down in 1822;
and by S. Niccolo at Trevigi, A.D. 1310 to 1352. The architects
of all these works were brethren of the Dominican order; the names
of two have been handed down — Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro, the de
signers of S. Maria Novella and S. Maria Sopra Minerva. The one
architect among the Franciscans, on the other hand, Philip de Cam-
pello, pupil of Jacobus of Meran, who completed S. Francesco and
erected a' copy of it in S. Chiara at Assisi, entered the order at a
later date. At times, even, constructions qf the Minorites were car
ried out under the superintendence of Dominicans ; instance S. Ma
ria Gloriosa at Venice.
The architectural productions of the: mendicant orders were soon
surpassed by those of the laymen, who could not resist the influence
of the new style, nor fail to recognize its constructive advantages
and its suitability for ecclesiastical edifices. In cathedrals, especial
ly, the traditions were retained with great pertinacity, it being felt
necessary to conform, the later additions to the older parts of the
structures. Thus those portions of the Cathedral of Viterbo and of
that in Siena which date from the thirteenth century are Romanic
in plan, the details being of the transitional style. It was only after
the erection of the smaller Church of S. Trinita in Florence, built
about 1250 by Niccolo Pisano, that the Gothic style began to be
more extensively employed for cathedrals, appearing in that of
Arezzo, commenced in 1277. In this grand work, which shows
Northern influences in a far greater degree than do the before-men
tioned structures, the Gothic style was finally established, exhibit
ing that technical perfection which is to be attained only by lay
designers. . The Franciscans, therefore, in the erection of their enor
mous church, S. Croce, in Florence, employed Arnolfo de Cambio,
an> architect who had been trained in the school of Niccolo Pisano,
and had profited by the experience of this master as well as by that
of Giovanni Pisano, the latter of whom was the designer of the
Campo Santo at Pisa, A.D. 1278 to 1283, and of the fagade of the
Cathedral of Siena, begun in 1284. Arnolfo's extraordinary ability,
however, was chiefly ftianifested in the construction of the Cathe
dral of Florence (Figs. 366 and 367), which was undertaken at about

ITALY.

571

the same time as S. Croce. The supremacy of the Gothic style, at
least in Northern Italy, was determined by this Florentine edifice.
Through the before-mentioned monuments, all referable to the
thirteenth century, a peculiar treatment of the architectural forms of
the North had been developed in Italy. The style thus determined
is known as the Italian Gothic. It is to be remarked that the ar
rangement of plan remained almost wholly unaltered, continuing
basilical or Romanic. Gothic forms were combined with the dom-

.-rr-

".Ittti

Fig. 366.— Plan of the Cathedral of
Florence.

Fig. 367. — System of the Cathedral
of Florence.

ical system of the Byzantines, the cupolas not being restricted, as
in the Romanic style, to the intersection of transept and nave, —
Jnstance S. Antonio at Padua. In Italy there is scarcely a trace of
that resolution of all the wall surfaces into pillars, or of that exces
sive multiplication of the vertical members so characteristic of the
Gothic of the North. On the contrary, the supports of the nave
were diminished in number and placed farther apart, the open and
broad effect of the edifices of the Italian Gothic contrasting strik-

572 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
ingly with the high, cramped aisles of Northern churches. The
enormous interior of the Cathedralof Florence has the fewest pos
sible supports. The termination of the choir by surrounding pas
sage and radial chapels occurs but rarely. Another arrangement,
first introduced by the Cistercians, was frequently adopted, especial
ly in the convent churches of the new orders, the chapels being
disposed on either side of the choir, and along the eastern wall of
the transept. In S. Croce at Florence two of these chapels are
open towards the nave and are placed beside the choir, which is
considerably diminished in width.
In regard to the elevation, the walls of the nave are supported
either upon columns or upon polygonal or membered piers ; the
arches are of wide. span, and are so high that the side aisles became
nearly as high as the nave. Galleries and triforiums thus became
impossible, and in the nave there usually remained space sufficient
only for the introduction of small, round windows. Even in those
cases where the dimensions permitted the adoption of pointed win
dows, these do not so completely perforate the wall surfaces of the
clerestory as do those of the North, but are restricted to narrow
apertures, generally grouped in couples. They are of the same form
in the side aisles, where they are not unfrequently omitted alto
gether, in order to leave the greatest possible space for stately
altars and funeral monuments. The relative importance of these
furnishings, owing to the scant memberment of the walls, is such
that the entire appearance of the interior is dependent upon them,
the building itself often giving the impression of an unpretentious
shrine erected for their reception. Where the sculptured details of
these accessaries did not suffice for the decorative effect, mural
paintings were introduced. It is characteristic of this treatment
that, while in the North the painted decorations customary during
the early Christian and Romanic periods were rendered impossible
by the extensive architectural memberment of the Gothic, in Italy
the revival of wall-painting made its first appearance in the earliest
Gothic building, the Church of S. Francesco at Assisi, and developed
its great extent and magnificence in the subsequent monuments of
that style. Such an ornamentation could not entirely compensate
for the bareness of the structure, and especially for the insignifi-

ITALY.

573

cance of the windows ; still, this combining of architecture, sculpt
ure, and painting to form a harmonious unity, while maintaining the
independence of each, has its undeniable advantages.
The ceilings, also, are of the utmost simplicity. The vaults are
limited to the most necessary transverse ribs, excepting in those
cases where the basilical wooden ceiling is retained, — as in S. Croce
at Florence, in which a simple wooden gallery takes the place of the
triforium, — or a kind of barrel-vault formed of wooden panels, is
employed, as in S. Fermo at Verona. The more elaborate varieties,
the stellar, reticulate, and fan -shaped vaults, are quite unknown.
When diagonal ribs are introduced they stand in no organic con
nection with the supports, as in France and Germany. On the
other hand, the immense span of the vaults is astonishing, and is
rendered most impressive by the small number of supports. This
effect is not disturbed by the comparatively low proportions, the
height of the nave being, on an average, only one and a half times
its width, and thus contrasting with the French cathedrals, where
the relation is as three to one. The Italian Gothic, though certainly
not equal to the French, in organic unity of construction and detail,
surpasses that of all the Cisalpine countries in the spaciousness of
the interior. The length, width, and height are well proportioned,
neither of these dimensions being unduly predominant. In admir
ing the grand effect of the long perspectives and the aspiring height
of the French and German cathedrals, one is apt to forget that
these structures are too long, and especially too high, in proportion
to their width. In the English cathedrals height and width are
well balanced, but the length is out of all measure, although this is
somewhat relieved by the intervention of the rood-screen, invariably
introduced. That the buildings of the Italian Gothic are commonly
held to be too broad by the English, and too broad and too low by
the French and Germans, does not actually prove a want of harmony
in the dimensions ; the error of these judgments may be accounted
for by the fact that the eye of the observer is prejudiced through
being long accustomed to the proportions of native architecture.
.1: Less praise is to be bestowed upon the exterior. The introduc
tion of pilaster strips in place of abutments, and the consequent
omission of flying buttresses was indeed no disadvantage. The

574 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
thick walls did not require any further strengthening, and flying
buttresses were rendered unnecessary by the low elevation of the
nave and the slight side-thrust of the comparatively flat roof. But,
after these constructive features had once been given up, it was a
mistake to preserve their ornamental details by placing finials, point
ed gables, etc., above windows and cornices, without regard to their
real signification as terminations of vertical members. The windows
were surrounded by a delicate and graceful decoration, not alto
gether in harmony with the style, while the walls were reveted with
slabs of colored marble, arranged either in horizontal courses or in
patterns entirely foreign to the Gothic.
It is plain that the details were not considered as growing out of
the construction, and being inseparably connected with it, but were
treated as a mantle by which the naked body of the edifice was
decked. This is most evident in the fagades, which have the ap
pearance of independent screens, erected for show, before the end
wall, itself so bare of constructive memberment. The longitudinal
walls were indicated upon the exterior by piers crowned with finials.
But, in general, neither the height of the aisles nor the lines of their
roofing were regarded ; the ornamented fagade not only projected
above them, but ended in three pointed gables, in entire disaccord
with the lean-to roofs of the side aisles. In portals and windows a
combination of round and pointed forms was employed by prefer*
ence, both being ornamented with gablets and pinnacles, while the
remaining wall surfaces were literally covered with sculptured and
painted decorations. The tower was not immediately connected
with the fagade, as in the North, but preserved its traditional isola
tion ; it was as flat -roofed and as little diminished as in former
times. While in Germany and France the creative energy gener
ally relaxed during the erection of the towers, in Italy this was the
case during the completion of the fagades. Still, the fronts of the
cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto (Fig. 368) are fine examples, the
former being decorated with sculpture, the latter in color, chiefly
mosaics. Both of these are far superior to the fagades completed
at a later date, whether in the period of the early Renaissance, like
that of S. Maria Novella, designed by Alberti, or in more modern
times, like those of S. Croce and the Cathedral of Florence.

ITALY. 575
As sculptors and painters, such as Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano,
Giotto and Orcagna, also took a prominent part in the development
of architecture, it was not strange that the contrast between the
constructive and decorative features, noticeable in Italy even in the
Romanic epoch, was emphasized, while the ornamental details be-

Fig. 368.— Facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto.
came more and more independent works of sculpture and painting.
The interior of the churches seemed created for the reception of
imposing monuments, statuary, and paintings; and, in like manner,
the exterior was adorned with many works in relief and in color,
the architectural details being inorganic and not altogether in ac-

576 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
cordance with Gothic principles. A comparison between, on the
one hand, the exteriors of the Cathedral and the Campanile at Pisa,
and of the baptisteries at Pisa and Florence, — and, on the other,
the exteriors of the Cathedral and Campanile of Florence and the
fagades of Siena and Orvieto, — clearly shows the predominance of
the architectural features in the former examples, and of the painted
and sculptured decorations in the latter. This relation is every
where apparent, though not always to the extent observable in
the fagade of Siena, erected under the superintendence of a sculp
tor, Giovanni Pisano, or in the Campanile of Florence, designed by
a painter, Giotto.
It was not, however, owing to these tendencies alone that the
Gothic style failed to attain a consequential development in Italy.
It was, upon the whole, as perfect in the first constructions of the
Franciscans and Dominicans, and in the cathedrals of Arezzo and
Florence, as in the later edifices. The Italian builders could not
free themselves from their deeply - rooted native- conceptions, and
more especially from the Romanic traditions. Elements of this
earlier style were introduced into the arches, the vaults, and even
the details, whenever they were considered of good effect. The
fagade of the transept of the Cathedral of Cremona, begun in 1288,
is an arbitrary combination of Romanic and Gothic features, disposed
with regard to picturesque effect rather than a rational construction.
This treatment prevailed throughout the fourteenth century, appear
ing, for instance, in the choir of the Cathedral of Lucca (Fig. 369),
built between 1308 and 1320, and in the nave of the same church,
dating from the next following decades. The only building which
seems to have had a decisive influence is the Cathedral of Florence,
the work of Arnolfo di Cambio. Reminiscences of it appear in the
neighboring Chapel of Or San Michele, A.D. 1337 to 1360, which
is said to have been commenced by Taddeo Gaddi, and was com
pleted by Orcagna ; also in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, which
was designed in 1356 but not begun until 1376, this date proving
that nothing more than the plan of the latter building can be as
cribed to Orcagna.
The influence of Arnolfo's work is not seen alone in the produc
tions of Florentine masters, but can be traced in distant towns,

ITALY.

577

where there is no documentary proof of any connection with his
school. An instance of this is the Cathedral of Bologna, S. Petronio,
designed by Antonio di Vicenzo (Fig. 370). This building, which
was intended to be the largest church of the period, is scarcely more
than half completed. It was begun in 1390, and the vaults of the
nave are as late as 1580, the system of the Florentine cathedral
being thus continued, without essential improvement, until late in

-1 — 1 l l \ u:

Fig. 369. — System of the Cathedral
of Lucca.

i.i •**¦¦>'¦

Fig. 370. — System of the Cathedral of
Bologna.

the sixteenth century. The retention of Romanic arrangements and
details is at times more evident than it was during preceding ages.
S. Maria del Carmine at Pavia, founded in 1373, not only follows in
its plan the transitional style of the Cistercian constructions, but
even adopts the Romanic cube capital for the boltels. In compar
ing this church with that of S. Andrea at Vercelli, built more than
a century and a half before, it must be acknowledged that there is
more of the purely Gothic element in the earlier than in the later
37

578 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
structure. The Gothic style was not adapted to the architectural
conceptions of Italy. Having paid its tribute to the fashion of the
age, that country seemed to incline rather towards a retrograde
movement, — a return to previous methods, — -than towards any
further development of the French system.
A full and exclusive adoption of Gothic principles does not
appear, even in those cases when the influence of the North was
dominant, as in the Cathedral of Milan, begun in 1386. The found
er of this building, Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, favored the choice
of Northern models, his political principles also inclining towards
those of the North. Even for the design of the original plan he
employed a Cisalpine architect, whose name is unknown. After this
follow in rapid succession the names of Nic. Bonaventura of Paris,
Master Henry of Gmuend, as early as 1391, Ulrich of Fuesingen
(Fuessen), Jean Mignoth, a Frenchman, James Cova of Bruges, and
John Campomosi of Normandy, all of whom were intrusted with
the superintendence of the work. An entire century later, a Ger
man, John of Gratz, was called as architect, A.D. 1483. But these
foreign designers did not succeed in fully introducing the Northern
system, in opposition to the desires of the building committee. The
Italians would neither give up the breadth of space, nor permit a
greater elevation of the nave and the consequent elaboration of the
windows. This magnificent marble building must be regarded as a
not altogether successful Italian version of the Gothic cathedral
style of the North. Its exterior by no means compensates for the
lack of that organic development which is the chief attraction of
the Cisalpine edifices. It seems that this attempt at foreign im
portation was a disappointment even to- the princely founder, for in
the construction of the Certosa at Pavia, A. D. 1396, Galeazzo return
ed to the national methods. At the foot of the Alps there was still
less inclination to accept Northern Influences in the Gothic epoch
than there had been during the Romanic. This is exemplified in
Verona by the cathedral, and the churches of S. Anastasia and S.
Fermo ; and particularly in Como, where the Romanic basilica S.
Abondio was closely related to German edifices, while the Gothic
cathedrals, restored at the time of the construction of the Certosa,
exclusively followed native methods.

ITALY. 579
The importation from France was more important in, Lower
Italy, where the ruler was a French prince. It seems that even
here an attempt was made to combine Gothic elements with the
various older traditions resulting from the occupation of the coun
try by foreign invaders, the Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Such
crude amalgamation as appears in the Cloister of S. Domenico at
Salerno, and in that of the Convent of the Capuchins at Amalfi, or
the Palazzo Ruffolo at Ravello, was altogether unsatisfactory.
Charles I. of Anjou, A.D. 1268 to 1285, called his architects from
France, and his example was followed not only by the French bar
ons but by the native nobles. The French system was adopted for
the churches as well as the castles. This is unmistakably shown by
the Cathedral and the Church of S. Domenico at Naples, as well as
by several other churches of this city; also by S. Angelo on Mount
Gargano, and S. Caterina in Otranto. Records show the case to
have been the same with a number of buildings since destroyed.
Sicily was less affected by the French methods, the combination
which has before been described being continued even after the
Sicilian vespers, A. D. 1282. In the fourteenth century the political
relations of the island to Pisa and to Tuscany introduced into Pa
lermo some architectural influences from the banks of the Arno, but
the native energy of Sicily was by this time too much exhausted
for any artistic activity of importance.
While it must be admitted that the ecclesiastical edifices of
, Italy during the Gothic period often betray a certain irregularity
of design and want of logical consequence in point of style, it is, on
the other hand, no less true that this very freedom led to excellent
results in other buildings. The enclosure of the Campo Santo, at
Pisa, designed by Giovanni Pisano, is greatly superior to all French
and German structures of the kind ; and the secular buildings of
Italy meet the practical and aesthetic requirements, in regard to the
arrangement of plan, artistic composition, and decoration, far better
than do those north of the Alps. For such tasks the unhampered
Gothic of Italy was better adapted than was the style of the North
ern countries, which had been so exclusively developed in the con
struction of cathedrals. It is, moreover, to be borne in mind that
the municipal organization of the mediaeval Italians gave opportu-

580 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
nity for the erection of more numerous civic monuments than were
required by the French, or even by the burghers of the German free
cities. In the higher municipalities of Italy two governing bodies ex
isted side by side — the podesta and the council. Palatial edifices
were required for both ; those of the former having somewhat the
character of fortifications and dwellings, while in those of the latter
open and spacious halls predominated. The first class consequently
led to the development of magnificent interior courts ; the latter to
imposing fagades. Fine examples of both varieties are to be found
in the cities of Tuscany: Florence, Pistoja, Siena, Pisa, Orvieto,
Viterbo, Perugia; as well as those of Lombardy: Milan, Como,
Monza, Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, Piacenza, and others. They are
all of that massive and defiant, even domineering, character, peculiar
to the Italian towns of that age, especially to those of the districts
before mentioned. They have almost the appearance of fortifica
tions : in the arcades of the lower story, supported upon piers, in
the projecting battlements, resting upon heavy brackets, and in the
armor -like revetment of ashlar stones, often with rustic bosses.
Still, they have not the forbidding and secluded character of the
feudal castles of the North, and their light towers, often rising di
rectly from the main cornice, — instance the Palazzo Vecchio at
Florence, — are more attractive than are the clumsy barbacans of
France and Germany. The broad windows are frequently bordered
by elegant and graceful decorations, which improve the effect of the
entire structure, and give that pleasing impression always resulting
from the combination of delicacy and refinement with massive pow
er. The proud magnificence of these buildings is equalled by the
beauty of their proportions and by the simplicity of their arrange
ment, the practical requirements being entirely fulfilled without that
subordination of the general design to the irregularities of the site
which is often so unpleasantly felt in the secular edifices of the
North. From the Palazzo Publico at Piacenza, A.D. 1281, to the
two lower stories of the Palace of the Doges at Venice, referable to
the fourteenth century, many splendid structures of the kind still
form the pride of the municipalities of Northern Italy. Not less
interesting are the open colonnades, intended for assemblages of

ITALY. s8l
the populace, for tribunes, or for mercantile purposes, among which
the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence is typical. And a similar artistic
importance is attached to the halls of the guilds, and even to those
of benevolent societies, such as the Bigallo at Florence.
Scarcely less important are the dwellings of the nobles and
wealthy citizens. Siena, for instance, possesses a great number of
imposing palaces, not only
grouped around the chief
square of the city, near the
Town Hall, but in the thor
oughfares and even the nar
rowest streets (Fig. 371).
Examples are to be found
in the smallest towns. Pa
latial dwellings are, howev
er, most frequent in Venice,
where a character of great
individuality was developed
in the fagades, the scant
ground available for build
ing having led to a cramped
arrangement of the courts.
Moreover, the attractions of
the lagoons and canals in
duced the citizens to place
the chief rooms towards the
front, where the artistic dec
oration was thus naturally
concentrated. The great
depth of the buildings ren
dered large and numerous windows necessary, and led to the adop
tion of a peculiar system of tracery by which the apertures were
multiplied. A similar method of design has been noticed in the
cloisters and palaces of Southern Italy, but the great advance in the
north of that country is evinced by a comparison of the clumsiness
and rudeness of Campanian structures with the perfect proportions
and elegant refinement of Venetian fagades. The culture of North
ern Italy was of the greatest promise for the future.

Fig. 371. — Street View in Siena.

582 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
SPAIN.
The remaining countries of the Occident were less independent
in regard to the Gothic style. A certain degree of receptiveness
in this respect is everywhere observable, and a higher architectural
development takes the place of the former rudeness and helpless
ness; but the beginnings were always due to the influence of foreign
designers, and it was long before the native artisans had attained
sufficient training to carry on the work without such assistance.
France and Germany provided the masters, — the former for Spain
and the Western Netherlands, Germany for the countries bordering
it on the north and east.
Christian Spain, after the beginning of the thirteenth century,
no longer stood so entirely in an attitude of defence. The Christian
kings, who had hitherto but rarely been united, rose against their
Moorish enemies with one accord, defeating them in the battle of
Las Navas de Tolosa, A.D. 1212. The Moors were finally reduced
to the territory of Granada, under the glorious reign of Ferdinand
III. the Holy, between 1217 and 1252, who in 1230 united the king
doms of Leon and Castile, and conquered Cordova in 1236, Murcia
in 1 241, and Seville in .1248. The piety of this king, the gratitude
for great victories and the rich booty, combined in exciting and
furthering the desire to emulate France in the construction of cathe
drals. The development of the French Gothic, which under Fer
dinand's contemporary, St. Louis IX., had attained its greatest
height, naturally exerted an important influence in Spain, especially
as the Holy War had brought troops of French knights, with many
followers, from beyond the Pyrenees. The Spanish kings, by their
personal qualities as well as by their military successes, commanded
the respect of the entire Occident, and took equal rank with the
rulers of France and Germany, so that not only was the throne of
Castile graced by French and German princesses, but Spanish kings
were considered eligible to the imperial power of the Western
Empire. At the close of the twelfth century transitional forms had occa
sionally been employed side by side with the Romanic. The cathe
drals of Salamanca, Zamora, and Siguenza, the Church of S. Vicente

SPAIN.

583

and others of Avila (Fig. 372), and even the Cathedral of Lerida,
built between 1203 and 1278, belong to this class. It seems to have
been due to the personal influence of Ferdinand III. that through
the construction of the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo the Gothic
style became universally predominant in Spain, being, even in its first
appearance, as perfect as in the contemporary edifices of France.
The design of the two structures is referable to about the same pe
riod, the Cathedral of Burgos having been founded in 1221, that of
Toledo in 1227 ; but the latter was completed in a shorter time, and
hence has a unity of composition not possessed by that of Burgos,
even before the construction of its cupola in 1539. The imposing

Fig- 372.— Plan of S. Vicente at Avila.

five-aisled Cathedral of Toledo, in plan an imitation of Notre-Dame
of Paris, is 1 13 m. in length and 57 m. in breadth, while the height
of the nave is 45 m., the building thus covering an area far greater
than that of the largest French churches. The greater elevation of
the_ inner side aisles rendered the introduction of galleries in the
nave impossible, but, on the other hand, admitted of triforiums and
windows in these aisles as well as in the nave. This arrangement pro
vided an exceptional number of apertures for lighting the grand in
terior—the vaults of which are supported upon eighty-eight piers,—
and, though somewhat at the expense of the nave, produced a har
mony of the whole not attained by the Cathedral of Paris with its
gloomy side aisles. The unity of style is slightly disturbed by the

584

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

Moorish cusped arches of the triforiums, which the architect may
have introduced from a respect for the traditions of the ancient
town of the Moslems (Fig. 373). The irregularity of the ground and
the narrowness of the space impair, in some degree, the effect of
the exterior, at least upon a nearer view, so that in this regard the
much smaller Cathedral of Burgos is more imposing as well as more
pleasing. Its magnificent fagade, with two towers, is one of the

Fig- 373- — View of the Choir of the Cathedral of Toledo.

finest examples among the few works of the kind which have been
completed. Although, after the death of Alphonso the Wise, son of Ferdi
nand III., A.D. 1284, the prosperity of Spain somewhat declined,
the works begun during his reign and that of his father were contin
ued in the fourteenth century, and new constructions of importance
were undertaken even in the fifteenth. Foremost among the earlier

SPAIN. 585
group is the Cathedral of Leon, the plan of which resembles the
French models even more closely than do those of Burgos and To
ledo. A difference appears, however, in the disposition of the fa
gade, and throughout the building there is a certain lack of unity in
the design, the slender clustered supports and the elaborate win
dows of the nave dating from a comparatively late period. To the
same class belongs the fine Cathedral of Barcelona, begun in the
thirteenth century and completed in the course of the fourteenth,
with the exception of the still unfinished cupola. The Cathedral of
Valencia, founded in 1262, is referable to the same period. One
Juan Franck, who in the fourteenth century was intrusted with the
direction of the work, might be taken for a native of the Nether
lands, were it not that the traceries of the northern fagade and of
the cupola tower clearly betray German characteristics.
Among the new constructions begun during the fourteenth cen
tury, the choir of the Cathedral of Gerona, built between 13 12 and
1346, closely follows that of the Cathedral of Barcelona. The gen
eral effect, however, was here entirely altered by the arrangement
of the nave, which, equal in width to the choir, was rendered un
pleasantly bare by the combination of the three aisles into one, the
vault thus becoming of exceptionally great span. This may possi
bly have been suggested by the Cathedral of Alby, in which a single
aisle had resulted from the employment of the buttresses for barrel-
vaulted side chapels. At all events, it cannot be assumed that the
churches with equal aisles, frequent in Northern Spain, — instance
S.Maria at Tolosa, — were developed in imitation of the French
Cathedral of Poitiers, as their round supports and stellar vaults
exhibit the influence rather of Germany or of the Netherlands.
The Cathedral of Saragossa also has the system of equal aisles, com
bined with elaborate reticulate vaults, and a preference for both
these forms can be traced even as far as the Balearic Islands.
The largest Gothic cathedral of Spain, that of Seville, was built
in the fifteenth century. After the town had been taken by the
Moslems, its early Christian cathedral had been transformed into a
mosque and greatly enlarged. King Ferdinand, who reconquered
Seville and gave back the church to Christian worship, thought as
little of reconstructing the building as he had that of Cordova,

586 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
where, as late as 1523, the Gothic choir was so incongruously added
to the Moorish hall. In the year 1401, however, the Chapter of
Seville resolved to demolish the mosque, excepting only the Court
of the Oranges and the minaret, — the Giralda, — and to erect upon
the site a magnificent Gothic cathedral, which, like the Mosque of
Abderrahman at Cordova, should surpass all other structures of the
kind in extent and grandeur. This gigantic work, 198 m. long and
79 m. broad, exceeds the dimensions of the cathedrals of Toledo
and Cologne, but does not equal these edifices in artistic signifi
cance. , The size of the building caused its completion to be de
layed into the sixteenth century, and the termination of the choir,
as well as the details of the upper part of the structure, show the
forms of the Renaissance. Still, the interior is not without unity of
effect, the piers being of the same form in all the five aisles, and the
tracery rendered harmonious by the general adoption of the French
flamboyant style.
The dimensions of this grand work prevented that excess of or
namentation which is characteristic of the later Gothic of Spain, and
is especially noticeable in the smaller churches. Spain in this re
spect followed the neighboring provinces of France; in the magnifi
cent fagade of S. Pablo at Valladolid (Fig. 374), at least, the resem
blance to those of Poitiers and Angouleme (compare Fig. 216) is
unmistakable. No influence of the elaborate Italian fagades, such as
those of Siena and Orvieto, can be assumed in view of the inferior
and inorganic decorative system of Spain. The southern side of the
exterior of the Capilla Real at Granada, which alone has been pre
served, is remarkable for its regular arrangement of emblems and
coats of arms; a similar ornamentation appears also in the interior
of the votive Church of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, and in
the beautiful cloistered court connected with it.
A great number of Gothic palaces, convents, hospitals, and
dwelling-houses are still preserved in Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo,
Valencia, Barcelona, and other towns. Fine examples of decora
tion are the portal of the Convent of S. Gregorio at Valladolid, and
those of the hospitals Casa del Nuncio and S. Cruz at Toledo, etc.
Several high-altar pieces are similar in character to the before-men
tioned fagades ; their frames and panels show reminiscences of the

SPAIN.

587

Byzantine and Romanic metal-work, from the Pala d'Oro down to
the bronze gates of Germany. The architectural structure, how
ever, which is the chief feature of the corresponding German works
is here of subordinate importance. A number of Gothic funeral

Fjg. 374.— Fafade of S. Pablo in Valladolid.

monuments, particularly the royal sarcophagi in the Cartuja de
Miraflores near Burgos, are of great magnificence, being scarcely
inferior in elaboration to the tombs of the Burgundian dukes in
Dijon. It was not until late in the Gothic period that Portugal began

588 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
to emulate Spain in artistic activity. The fine Convent of Batalha,
commenced in 1390, does not, however, exhibit any great individu
ality, although the forms are more full and flowing, — a difference in
character corresponding to that between the Portuguese and Span
ish languages. In both countries the Moorish influence is noticea
ble in the frequent employment of the horseshoe and cusped arch
es, the arabesque traceries, etc. In general, the later Gothic of the
peninsula is characterized by a luxurious overgrowth, this being es
pecially manifest in the superabundant curled ornamentation of the
capitals, in the heavy crockets and finials, consoles and pinnacles.
THE NETHERLANDS.
The position of the Netherlands in regard to architecture, at
the beginning of the period in question, is best exemplified by the
Cathedral of Tournay, in which Norman, French, and German ele
ments appear side by side in the most incongruous manner, without
any attempt to combine them into one harmonious whole. At
first German, particularly Rhenish, influences predominated, as dur
ing the previous epoch ; but the Romanic system was gradually
given up, the artistic taste inclining more towards the French mod
els. This tendency was greatly furthered by the long connection
of the Chapter of Tournay with Noyon, and was extended beyond
the limits of the diocese through the importance of the cathedral of
the former town (Fig. 375). But in general the sympathies of the
Walloons were Gallic, and the German element disappeared more
and more, even from the district of the Meuse, where the culture
had originally been Rhenish.
Throughout the first quarter of the twelfth century the transi
tional style continued predominant. The supremacy of the French
Gothic first became manifest in the Netherlands in the choir of
Sainte Gudule at Brussels, begun in 1225 ; even the Choir of Tour
nay, begun in 1242, was subjected to the new influences, notwith
standing the marked contrast between the additions and the pre
viously existing parts of the structure. The other ecclesiastical
edifices of Belgium, those of Tongres, Ghent, Louvain, Diest, Ypres,
Bruges, and Dinant, all founded between 1240 and 1260, follow the

THE NETHERLANDS. 589
same tendencies, although often retaining transitional features. This
hesitation in point of style was not entirely overcome until the con
struction of the magnificent cathedrals of the fourteenth century:
S. Rombout at Mechlin, begun after 1341 ; the Cathedral of Ant
werp, begun in 1352, and, with exception of the tower, completed
in 1422; and that of Louvain, built between 1373 and 1433. The
Cathedral of Mons, belonging to this group, is as late as the fifteenth
century. Some national peculiarities are observable from the first, chief
among which is the greater breadth in comparison to the height.

Fig- 375- — Plan of the Cathedral of Tournay.
While the altitude of the nave is rarely more than twice its breadth,
five-aisled constructions are frequent. The Cathedral of Antwerp
(Fig. 376), even, has seven aisles, being the only example of the kind
in existence. A fine effect of perspective results from this arrange
ment, and compensates for the want of memberment in the columns.
Through an imitation of the early Gothic details of France, plain sup
ports, like those of Antwerp, continued in common use in the Neth
erlands. A further difference appears in Belgium in the termination
of the choir. The surrounding passage and radial chapels are sim
plified in a most rational manner: the vault of each chapel being
united with that of the corresponding part of the surrounding pas-

59°

THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

sage, — a great improvement upon the complicated French system.
This innovation, which may have been based upon the arrangement
of the choir at Soissons, is first noticeable in the choir of Tournay.
Beyond Holland and Belgium it was only adopted in the districts
of the Baltic, whither it had doubtless been introduced from the
Netherlands. The somewhat heavy character peculiar to the exte
rior of the Belgian cathedrals is particularly noticeable in the fa
gades. These rarely have two towers, those of the cathedrals of
Brussels and Antwerp being exceptional ; the aim was rather direct
ed towards an imposing height of the single tower placed either be-

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Fig- 376.— Plan of the Cathedral of Antwerp.
fore or above the western fagade. The proposed height of the tow
ers of the Cathedral of Mechlin and the Church of Wandru at Mons
was the greatest ever attempted, being respectively 170 m. and
180 m. One of the towers of the Cathedral of Antwerp was com
pleted at a subsequent period, but those of Mechlin and Mons have
not reached the height originally intended.
In conformity with the municipal character of the communities
of the Netherlands, similar in this respect to the towns of Upper
Italy, much attention was devoted to the erection of civic buildings.
The town-halls and the edifices for commercial purposes, both pro
vided with towers, became of great importance, especially in the

THE NETHERLANDS. 59 1
Western Netherlands. The Guildhall at Ypres, completed in 1304,
and that of Bruges are the oldest, but those of Louvain, Mechlin,
and Ghent are not much later. Town-halls were not built before
the second half of the fourteenth century : open squares, or the up
per stories of the commercial halls, having previously been used for
public assemblages. The town -hall of Bruges, built in 1377, was
the first edifice of the kind erected in the Netherlands. This was
followed, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, by the town-hall
of Brussels, which is far more spacious than the former, and is cele
brated for its imposing tower, at once belfry and lookout. The
height of this is 102 m. The charming and richly decorated town-
hall of Louvain, built between 1448 and 1463, exemplifies the pride
of the citizens in such monuments of municipal supremacy. Struct
ures of this kind were erected even as late as the sixteenth century;
instance the town-hall of Oudenaerde.
In artistic respects, Holland presented a greater contrast to Bel
gium at the beginning of the Gothic period than at its close.
Dutch architecture did not, at first, stand in so close connection
with that of France as with that of Westphalia, Saxony, and even
Cologne. This is shown, for example, by the Cathedral of Utrecht.
In the fourteenth century the influence of Germany decreased, ow
ing, in great measure, to the French tendencies of the dynasties of
Hainault, Bavaria, and Burgundy. But in the architecture of Hol
land there still remained a certain bourgeois simplicity, resulting
from the character of the people, as well as from the prevalence of
brick as a building material. The memberment of the exterior is
very scant, the tower being heavy and without ornament, or omitted
altogether, as in St. Bavon at Haarlem and St. Pancras at Leyden.
As to the interior, equally plain, the clerestory wall is supported
upon cylindrical columns, and has no triforium apertures, their place
being taken by mullions and arches in relief. The lines of the trac
ery are rude and heavy. Vaults of masonry were seldom attempted
even in brick, imitations in wood being substituted, often of elabo
rate stellar forms, as in the two last-mentioned churches. Wooden
ceilings of this kind permitted a wider span of the nave, and the re
duction, or even the entire omission, of the buttresses. A certain
spaciousness and grandeur is often attained in these edifices, the

592 THE EXTENSION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
effect comparing favorably with the means employed. But they are
always of a prosaic character, and their bareness has been increased
by the destructive work of the Iconoclasts, who removed the altars
and pictures, and destroyed the glass windows, — in some cases even
the traceries.
SCANDINAVIA AND THE COUNTRIES OF THE EAST.
The Gothic style of Norway differs entirely from that of the
other countries of Scandinavia, being influenced chiefly by England,
while Denmark and Sweden derived their architectural methods
from Germany. In the mountainous tracts of the Norwegian coast,
wooden constructions, such as those previously described, continued
to be erected, but in the larger towns stone edifices of greater im
portance came into vogue. Chief among these latter, in regard to
dimensions and artistic merit, is the Cathedral of Drontheim, but its
various parts are referable to widely different periods. It is hence
impossible to derive from it any clear conception of the develop
ment of the national architecture, or to distinguish which of the
features, occurring side by side with those of the English Gothic,
are essentially Norwegian, and which may be referable to the ca
price of the builder. It is only certain that, in the course of the
epoch, the importation from England gradually diminished, and
was replaced by that of Germany.
Sweden received the Gothic directly from France. A French
architect, Etienne de Bonneuil, was called in 1287 to superintend
the erection of the Cathedral of Upsala, and brought with him his
whole staff of workmen. These relations, however, could not be of
long duration, owing to the distance of France, and the difficulties
of communication between the countries through the gulfs of Fin
land and Bothnia. Architectural methods and technical training were
more easily introduced from the German provinces of the Baltic,
the influences of which are unmistakably evident in the Swedish
edifices of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Even Denmark,
though so much nearer to France, was, in artistic respects, almost
entirely dependent upon Germany, with whose culture it had been
intimately connected since the age of Charlemagne.
The case was similar with Poland, Hungary, and the neighbor-

SCANDINAVIA AND THE COUNTRIES OF THE EAST. 593
ing countries. The influences of the West found here the more
ready acceptance because of the pronounced antagonism to the
tendencies of their neighbors upon the East — Russia and the de
clining Byzantine empire. Great architectural activity could not
be expected of a people who, from the earliest times, had been at
home in the saddle or the wagon rather than in fixed abodes, and
to whom arms and the trappings of horses were more important than
domestic furnishings. Still, in Cracow, the capital of Poland, and
in Kaschau, the episcopal city of the Magyars, there are some note
worthy edifices, of a style evidently derived from Germany, those of
the former town following the architectural methods of Silesia and
Prussia, those of the latter being influenced by Bohemia and the
Eastern mark. Scarcely a trace of any national individuality can
be perceived in these vast districts, which were far more dependent
upon the civilization of Germany than was Western Europe upon
that of France.
Through the Crusades, France, aided by all the Christian powers
of the Occident, extended its culture beyond the limits of Europe.
French methods were established in the East perhaps even earlier
than in Germany and England. Soon after the first appearance of
the Gothic style in the He de France, French architects were em
ployed in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which, as is well known, was
overthrown before the end of the twelfth century. The same influ
ence and activity were displayed in St. Jean d' Acre, which remained
in possession of the Christians until 1291 ; in Cyprus, conquered in
1 191 ; and, finally, in Rhodes, occupied by the Knights of St. John
between 1309 and 1522, where the later style flourished as the early
French Gothic had done in Jerusalem. Few Christian monuments
of the period have been preserved in these places. That which
was not destroyed by the fanaticism of the Moslems, or by the fre
quently occurring earthquakes, was ruined by neglect.
38

Fig- 377- — Monuments in the Choir of the Princes, Church of St. Elisabeth, Marburg.

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

THE conditions and ideals which, towards the close of the Mid
dle Ages, superseded those of the Romanic epoch, found their
grandest exponent in architecture. Not, however, their most direct.
The static and abstract requirements of architectural design per
mitted only a symbolical expression of the most characteristic sen
timents of the time. They could give but a faint idea of the more
independent religious conceptions of the individual, — of the re
moval of higher culture from the cell of the monk to the forum of
every-day life, — of the more intimate sympathy of man with nature,
— and of all the other changes of far-reaching importance. It is,
indeed, possible to perceive in the architecture of the period that
an immense change had been wrought in social relations ; but the
nature of this change cannot thus be judged.
Sculpture and painting, dealing as they do with the representa
tion of human beings, or human conceptions of divinities, and of
human sentiments and actions, bear a more direct and intelligible
testimony. They show that the religious feeling, far from having

GOTHIC SCULPTURE. 595
been diminished, had exchanged its ascetic and monkish character
for more intimate and less conventional relations, — for a more confi
dent personal fervor. They show that austere dogmatism and dry
scholasticism had been supplanted by a faith far more mystic and
adaptable, — the doctrine of salvation being no longer conceived as
an epic, but cherished as a lyric sentiment. Hence the archaistic
traditions of culture gave way to sensitive and individual views of
life, the schematic forms of Byzantine art to more various modes
of expression. Repelling dignity became amiable grace ; soulless
and unapproachable abstractions were converted into intimate real
ities. The awakening poesy manifested itself in the arts, and not
less in religious than in secular representations. The greater refine
ment of chivalry, of courtly grace and manners, broke through the
narrow limitations of ecclesiastical ceremonialism, and made itself
evident in the forms and gestures portrayed in mundane subjects.
Both religious and profane art were freed from blind insusceptibility
to physical perfection, and were opened to every charm of beauty.
Youth took the place of age ; in contrast to previous usage the ideals
were feminine rather than masculine, and types of virgin loveliness
were more prominent than those of matronly dignity. The highest
eminence was assigned to the representation of the Virgin Mother,
who was conceived at once as the Queen of Heaven and as a prin
cess-bride. The emancipation of artistic activity from monastic limitations,
and the great pleasure in creation felt both by the artists and by the
general public, rapidly increased the technical ability, as well as the
occasions for its exercise. It cannot, however, be said that the sub
jects available for representation had been extended. The symboli
cal cycles of the Christian doctrine became of less importance, while
scenes chosen from the Old and New Testaments, from the Parables,
and their typological comparisons, were more rare than during the
Romanic epoch. Sculpture, especially, was, in many-figured reliefs,
limited to an exposition of the Passion and the Last Judgment,
and in single figures to the Virgin and certain saints. These latter
were not conceived in that remoteness from human interests which
had been their characteristic during previous periods, but as patrons
of suffering humanity, and as intercessors with the Divine Power,—

50,6 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
always ready with help and grace. These reflations are emphasized
throughout ; a loving sympathy speaks from every face.
Ecclesiastical art became more human. Christian charity and
devotion, as practised by the pure in heart, is evident in every feat
ure, while the artistic treatment, emancipating itself from the tradi
tional methods, approached more and more towards truthfulness to.
nature. This improvement was, however, slow. Realism did not
appear until the close of the period. The figures were ideal, — even
typical. The funeral monuments themselves, although generally
portraits of the deceased, long continued to be executed with but
little study of nature, and when this did appear it was in the acces
saries rather than in the principal figures. Even in those cases
where the sculptor had seen the person represented, the lineaments
were formed after a general model, which was employed also in the
portrait-statues of those who had died long before. As late as the
fourteenth century the attempt of an artist to study the features of
the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg for the design of a monument,
was derided as " alberner Schick." This class of sculptures, never
theless, constantly tended to realistic studies, which varied and gave
life to the ideal types.
FRANCE.
It is a matter of surprise that the brilliant beginning of Gothic
architecture in France* was not accompanied by a corresponding
advance in sculpture. The western portal and fagade of the Abbey
Church of St. Denis and of the Cathedral of Chartres are decorated
with statues referable to the years between 1140 and 11 50, but these
are but little superior to the Burgundian productions of the first
half of the twelfth century. It is plain that all artistic energies
were directed towards the development of architecture, sculpture
remaining in the hands of artists of the old school, who were per
haps called from Burgundy. If these artiste made any concession

* A. du Sommerard, Les Arts du Moyen-age, Paris, 1838-1846. — J. Gailhabaud, L' Archi
tecture du V. — XVII. siecle et les Arts, qui en dependent. Paris, 1858. — P. Lacroix, Les
Arts au Moyen-age et a l'epoque de la Renaissance. Paris, 1869. — Emeric David, His
toire de la sculpture Francaise. Paris, 1853.

FRANCE. 597
to the new style, it was only in favor of verticalism and exaggerated
attenuation, while the monotony of tbe heads, the rigid attitude of
the figures, the meagreness of the bodies, and the parallel folds of
the drapery exceed in stiffness even the works of the Byzantines.
These conditions continued essentially the same throughout the
twelfth century, that is to say, during the early
period of the French Gothic. Slight traces of
an awakening originality occasionally appear, as
in the portals of Senlis and Mantes, but the
want of action is still painfully felt. These de
fects seem first to have been in some measure
overcome in the sculptures of the fagades of
Laon and of Notre-Dame of Paris, which can
hardly have been executed before 1210. The
figures here, though somewhat constrained, are
no longer rigid ; they are not lifeless, but chaste,
self-contained, and severe. They compare with
the works preceding them as do the produc
tions of the schools of Attica and ^Egina, dur
ing the first decades of the Persian war, with
the older statues, such as the Apollos of Tenea
and Thera. A further advance is evident in the
sculptures of the fagade of the Cathedral of
Amiens, dating from about 1230 (Figs. 378 and
379). The constraint of the figures upon the
fagades before mentioned is here softened into
a certain shy modesty, rendered the more at
tractive by the excellent but unobtrusive tech
nical treatment. The solemn, upright bearing
of the figures is well adapted to the archi
tectural framework; the garments, unpreten
tiously draped but carefully executed, correspond to the simple
attitudes ; and the seriousness of the faces is in harmony with the
sober gestures. Entire freedom of action, accurate truth to nature,
and an artistic appreciation of sensuous beauty were, however, still
beyond the aspirations of the unassuming artist.
When, in the time of Louis IX., Gothic architecture reached its

Fig- 378. — Statue of
Christ, from the Ca
thedral of Amiens.

598 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
highest development, sculpture also attained to a similar degree of
perfection. The decorations upon the fagades of the transepts of
the cathedrals of Paris and Chartres, those of the Sainte Chapelle
at Paris, and especially those, of the portals of the cathedral at
Rheims, are among the noblest works of Christian sculpture, and,
until the. age of Sluter, the most perfect productions of this art
north of the Alps. Archaic naivete has developed into noble sim
plicity, which, sure of its aim, undertakes its task with surprising
confidence, able as well to render grandeur and dignity as grace and
beauty. The subject is always well conventionalized, varied but not
labored ; the conception simple and natural throughout ; the action
full of elegance and reserve, the bearing courtly, but never affected.
The artistic merit is not always equal in the details, as is not sur
prising when it is considered that hundreds of statues, and reliefs
with many figures, were required to be executed within a short
time by various hands. Still, want of talent and of technical ability
are seldom or never to be observed, this being a proud evidence of
the high standard maintained by the leading artists, and indeed by
the entire school.
The Cathedral of Rheims has been called the Parthenon of the
Middle Ages. This is, however, going too far; for though the edi
fice, both in its architecture and sculpture, may be considered as the
finest creation of the Middle Ages, still it is not of that absolute
perfection which characterizes the work of Iktinos and Pheidias.
The sculptures of the cathedral are by no means entirely free from
inequalities in composition, from errors in proportion, and from ex
aggeration of facial expression. The course of development was
moreover entirely different from that of Greece, in this case the se
verity of the preceding works not having led to the grandeur of the
productions of Pheidias, but to a grace and elegance of style rather
akin to that of Praxiteles. The masters of Rheims were more suc
cessful in rendering youthful and maidenly delicacy, tender and sym
pathetic dream-life, light limbs and flowing draperies, than the seri
ous dignity and the strongly marked character requisite for manly
figures, — which latter subjects are, in the Cathedral of Rheims, often
wanting in energy of form and expression. The parallel only holds
good when the relations in which mediaeval art stood to the antique

FRANCE. 599
are considered, and the great inferiority of the Middle Ages in the
delineation of forms, together with the naive and modest require
ments of the time, are fully taken into account, — these not admit
ting of a just comparison with the trained excellence of Hellenic.
art. The good conventionalization which characterized the sculpture
in the time of Louis IX. was scarcely maintained until the end of
the thirteenth century. It was inevitable that this graceful loveli
ness should degenerate into sentimentality, the sweet expression' of
the finely-cut features into a stereotyped and coquettish smile, the
delicacy of the hands and limbs into a weak effeminacy, the elegant
suppleness of motions and the easy folds of the draperies into af
fectation. During the latter part of the period the popular taste
tended to routine and striving after effect. By the end of the cen
tury a conscious elegance and affected grace had become prevalent.
Thus sculpture, which in 1200 was stiff and formal, and had attained
such great life and character by the middle of the century, degen
erated, at its close, into affectation. How marked the contrast is
most plainly shown by a comparison of two statues of the Virgin
upon the same edifice, one of which is referable to the beginning,
the other to the close of the thirteenth century (Figs. 379 and 380).
The decadence of French sculpture in the fourteenth century
went hand in hand with that of architecture. It was affected by
the same influences which in the art of building led to the weak
flamboyant style. In both branches of art these tendencies are ex
plicable by the transformation which had taken place in the life of
the higher classes of society : the austere chivalry had declined into
courtly elegance ; the earnest and even fanatical piety of the time
of the Crusades had been succeeded by the vain gallantries of the
Court of Love, and by the frivolities of the tournament. Between
the art of the thirteenth century and that of the fourteenth the
same contrast is observable as between the court of Louis IX., the
founder of the Sainte Chapelle, and that of Charles V, the builder
of the Hotel de Saint Paul. The technical execution of the latter
period is fully equal, or even superior, to that of the former ; the
forms are more universally correct and the figures more charming ;
but in place of freshness of conception and naive devotion, there

6oo

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

appears a shallow brilliancy and a seeking after effect ; instead of an
honest endeavor to master the material, a well-trained but mechan
ical facility. The artists no longer worked with a sincere enthusi
asm for the subject, but rather displayed their abilities for the sake
of their own renown. It is characteristic that while the name of no

Fig. 379. — Madonna from- the Cathedral
of Amiens, dating from the beginning
of the thirteenth century.

Fig. 380. — Madonna from the Cathedral
of Amiens, dating from the end of the
thirteenth century.

artist is attached to the older works, not even to the fine statues of
the Cathedral of Rheims, the artists of the skilfully executed reliefs
upon the southern choir screen of Notre-Dame in Paris, completed
in 1 35 1, have, by inscriptions, perpetuated their names, — Ravy and
Jehan le Bouteiller.
In general, religious sculptures were more frequently employed

FRANCE. for
for the decoration of the exterior, especially the fagades, than for the
interior of the churches. Within the building a branch of sculpture
almost secular in character was prevalent, namely, that of the fu
neral monuments. From the awakened desire for personal notoriety
it naturally resulted that these monuments were not, as formerly,
decorated with mere symbols and inscriptions, but with a portrait-
effigy of the deceased. When the monument formed the lid of a
tomb in the pavement, or of a sarcophagus, the likeness represented
the body lying in state, but when the stone was erect upon the wall
or upon a pillar, the figure was sometimes conceived as living and
standing. Although from the nature of this branch of art a more
realistic treatment was required, this tendency makes itself but
slightly evident during the twelfth century, the figures and draper
ies remaining conventional, and the heads without great individu
ality. This is best illustrated, among the works which can be accu
rately dated, by the two royal tombs in the Abbey of Fontevrault
(Anjou), representing the English kings Henry II. (d, 1189) and
Richard Cceur de Lion (d. 1199). The rigid position of the bodies,
the idealized, expressionless heads, and the stiff parallel folds of the
garments show scarcely a trace of the new style. The monument
of the widow of Henry II. , Eleanor of Guyenne (d. 1204), shows
some indications of a new artistic life, while the stone erected in
L'Espan near Mantes, for the widow of Richard, Berengaria (d. 12 19),
entirely follows the new manner.
Traces of the old conventionality are still to be observed in the
funeral monuments of the time of Louis IX., in St. Denis, and more
especially in those of the Merovingian and Carolingian kings, and of
the Capets, most of which structures were restored between 1263
and 1264. In these latter certain archaic traits resulted from the
subject, since it was wholly impossible to attempt any individual
likeness or historical characterization. It could not, however, have
been really necessary thus to avoid even the slightest variation in
the position, the draperies, and the details ; or to form the hands, —
the right holding the sceptre and the left the robe, — the long,
straight folds of the tunic, the simple cloak, the crown of fleurs-de-lis,
etc., all according to a fixed model. The effigies of the contempo
raries of Louis IX. also show little personal likeness, although the

602 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
portraits of the princes Philip and Louis, who died at an early age,
have at least the appearance of youth instead of following the usual
types, which made scarcely any distinction as to sex and age. In
other respects, as well, these two figures are not without artistic
merit. A true portrait likeness first appears in the monuments of
Philip III. (d. 1285), and of his wife, Isabella of Arragon (d. 1271),
works of a simple beauty and dignity, in which the archaic charac
ter is entirely overcome, but as yet the rigor of death is not soft
ened by that expression of peaceful repose observable in the works
of this kind after the beginning of the fourteenth century. This
expression may be noticed in several monuments of St. Denis, es
pecially in the portraits of Count Evreux (d. 13 19) and his wife,
Countess of Artois (d. 131 1). The elegance and touching delicacy
of the latter is truly fascinating. The union of realism and ideal
ism, which here appears in its fullest perfection, clearly shows, how
ever, that the artist assigned more importance to the artistic effect
than to individual likeness. Thus, upon the tombstone of the son
of Louis X., the Prince John, who died at the age of five days, the
infant is represented as a well -grown boy, — in which instance, at
least, there can be no question as to the want of likeness.
Sculptured decorations of figures are not restricted to the royal
sarcophagi in St. Denis, but are found upon tombs throughout
France. These works, though not often equalling those of the cap
ital, always bear witness to the excellence of French sculpture.
This excellence continued to characterize the sculpture of funeral
monuments until the middle of the fourteenth century. After this
time the decadence of the art is unmistakable, even in St. Denis.
The tomb of King John, who died in 1364, already shows that me
chanical monotony and want of expression which is peculiar even to
the better works of the following decades, and characterizes the last
stages of this artistic development. That even those who gave the
orders were aware of the debasement, is proved by the increased de
mand for artists from the Netherlands.
This employment of masters from the neighboring country was
not new, and, at least in metal work, can be traced back to the Ro
manic epoch. The activity of France in this latter branch seems to
have been limited to work in gold and silver, chiefly in Limoges and

THE NETHERLANDS. 603
its vicinity. It was here combined with enamel work, and, without
losing its Byzantine and Romanic characteristics, gained a wider
field than mere decoration of utensils, in which, during the Romanic
period, Western France had followed the example of Lorraine. Be
sides several altar-pieces belonging to the time in question, mention
must be made of the monument of Henry II. of England (d. 1189),
in Le Mans, a tablet with life-sized figures executed in email champ-
leve. Among the larger reliquaries, that of St. Taurinus at Evreux,
referable to the years between 1240 and 1265, first exhibits archi
tectural details of the Gothic style.
Bronze castings are rare; the two more important tombs of
bishops at Amiens, with the effigies of Eberhard of Fouilloy, and
Godfrey of Eu, the former of whom died in 1223, the latter in 1237,
are so absolutely alike that they cannot deserve the name of por
traits. It may be assumed that these and similar works were influ
enced by the before -mentioned foundery of Dinant, the "Dinan
diers " still having the monopoly of bronze casting in France.
THE NETHERLANDS.
In the Netherlands themselves, Dinant seems not to have main
tained its ancient renown. Still, the foundery existed at least until
towards the close of the fourteenth century, as is proved by a can
delabrum and a reading-desk at Tongres, inscribed with the name
Jan Joseb of Dinant, and the date 1372. Two brasses in the Cathe
dral of Bruges, with the dates 1387 and 1423-39, recording the
deaths of the persons there interred, show the figures wrapped in
shrouds, these being rendered with extraordinary taste and ability,
evidently resulting from a close study of nature. But some doubt
remains as to the place where these works originated, similar pro
ductions being known in England as " Cullen plates," — that is to
say, of Cologne.
When Flemish sculptors are mentioned as being employed at
the French court, they were generally not bronze founders from
Dinant, but sculptors in stone, probably belonging to the school of
Tournay. Two masters from Liege, Joan and Hennequin, in the
second half of the fourteenth century, worked upon the monuments
of King Charles V. in St. Denis and the Cathedral of Rouen. An-

604 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
dre Beauneveu, from Hainault, who was employed by John of
Berry, brother of Charles V., was famed both in France and Eng
land as the best painter and sculptor of his time. The stone sculpt
ures, referable to the years between 1340 and 1440, still existing at
Tournay, show this school to have been superior to all others of the
period, and to have fully equalled in excellence the- schools of painting
of the Van Eycks and of Van der Weyden in Flanders and Brabant.
It is probable, though not susceptible of absolute proof, that the
artistic activity which at the close of the fourteenth century ob
tained in Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, was connected with Tour
nay. At all events, when the Netherlands came into possession of
Burgundy, Philip the Bold and his son John the Fearless imitated
the custom of the last Duchess of Brabant and of the last Count of
Flanders in keeping artists, chiefly painters, in employment at their
court. The decoration of the Carthusian cloister of Dijon, which
Philip, in the year 1383, had founded as his last resting-place, re
quired trained sculptors as well as painters. Thus we find one Ja
cob de Baerze, from Dendermonde in Flanders, a carver of figures,
together with the painter Melchior Broederlam (Broedlain), engaged
in the execution of elaborate altar-pieces. These works, now in the
Museum of Dijon, hold a middle place between the art of Cologne
and that of France, this resulting naturally from the geographical
and commercial conditions of the Netherlands. Together with the
artists just mentioned, the French sculptors Jean de Menneville
and Thierrion Voussonne were employed upon the tombs of the
Chartreuse, while somewhat later a painter from Cologne, by the
name of Hermann, worked upon the altar-pieces. The Dutch
sculptor Claux Sluter de Orlandes, who since the year 1384 had
taken part in the decoration of the convent, became superintend
ent after the death of Menneville, and held this office for twenty-
one years. His superiority over all his predecessors gave him a
position similar to that of the Pisani in Tuscany. He trained his
nephew Claux de Werne (Verwe) to be his assistant and successor.
Others who were engaged in the work, judging by their names, —
Wuillequin Seront, Hennequin Prindale, Hennequin de Bruxelles,
etc., — must likewise have been his countrymen.
The character and excellence of the art of Sluter and his school

THE NETHERLANDS.

605

are fully recognizable in the works which have been preserved. Of
the Church of the Carthusians nothing remains but the portal, in
which the portrait-statues of the duke and his wife, remarkable for
their careful execution and the freshness of their realism, are proba
bly by Sluter's own hand. This is certainly the case with the exist
ing remains of the so-called Fountain of Moses (Fig. 38 1), a hexagonal
base, the chief ornaments of which are six figures of the prophets.

Fig. 381. — Statues of Prophets from the Fountain of Moses, in the Carthusian Convent of
Dijon.
The forcibleness of the representation, — for instance in the Moses,
which may worthily be compared with the celebrated creation of
Michel Angelo, — the life like character of the bald-headed Isaiah
and of Jeremiah, reading, are truly admirable, and show beyond all
question that the artist, who was probably trained in the school of
Tournay, was in sculpture what Hubert van Eyck and Rogier van
der. Weyden afterwards became in painting.
The chief work of Sluter is the monument of Philip the Bold,

6b6 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
which was begun- a few years later, in 1404, and is now in the Mu
seum of Dijon. The figure of the duke, which was probably exe
cuted after a sketch made while the body was lying in state, by
help of a death-mask and of a cast taken of the folded hands, is of
striking realism, this having originally been increased by an exten
sive polychromatic treatment. Of still greater beauty and artistic
significance is the procession of the mourners upon the four sides
of the sarcophagus, which latter is of black and white marble, and
in its architectural decorations imitates the forms of a Gothic clois
ter. The stiffness of the earlier Gothic portal statues has entirely
disappeared in these beautiful figures of alabaster. The garments
of the monks are quite free from the mechanical types, the motions
are rendered with truth and assurance, the gestures of pain and lam
entation are very expressive, although at times there is an exaggera
tion similar to that which appears in the productions of another art
ist of the school of Tournay, — the painter Rogier van der Weyden.
No wonder that such a work excited the greatest admiration.
Its influence is to be observed in Dijon half a century later, in the
monument of John the Fearless, notwithstanding the fact that, be
sides the Flemish artists Guillaume Anns and Jehan de Cornicke,
two Frenchmen, Jehan de Drogues and Antoine le Mourturier, were
engaged upon the work which, strange to say, was directed by a
Spaniard, Jehan de la Verta from Arragon. The last circumstance
shows plainly that the renown of Sluter's work at Dijon had ex
tended even beyond the Pyrenees, and that before the time of Isa
bella, and the connection of the Netherlands with the Spanish crown,
Spain had received from Flemish art those influences which in
sculpture, also, are not to be undervalued. This is proved by the
funeral monuments in the Carthusian Convent of Miraflores near
Burgos. The Burgundian capital, in the fifteenth century, like Pisa
in the fourteenth, and Nuremberg about 1500, was a centre of sculpt
ure, whence the influence of the Netherlands, starting from the foun
dery of Dinant in the Romanic epoch, made itself felt in the neigh
boring countries. This influence, it is true, was not so extensive as
that of painting, the ascendency of which, unquestioned through
out Western Europe, was attained about the same time in Ghent,
Bruges, and Tournay.

ENGLAND. 607
ENGLAND.
England,* in sculpture as well as in architecture, was almost
wholly dependent upon France. Indeed, the relations were even
more intimate in the former branch; for, while Gothic architecture
in England had been preceded by the Norman Romanic style, which,
not having originated upon British soil, had, in the course of time,
though developed local peculiarities, there was no older sculpture
of consequence in England to which the Gothic was obliged to ac
commodate itself. Two circumstances, however, gave somewhat of
a national stamp to the imported art.' Tbe first of these was the
greater importance attached to sculptured funeral monuments than
to religious images, which latter, — though at times eminently suc
cessful, as in the cathedrals of Wells and Lincoln, — were but rarely
brought into connection with the portal, where in France they had
found their highest development. The second reason was the com
bination of the French with other foreign influences, among which
those of the Netherlands and the Rhenish countries were fully
equalled in importance by those of Tuscany.
The predominance of funeral monuments naturally furthered re
alistic studies, which were altogether more adapted to the national
character than was the idealism of the French. A tendency to real
ism is noticeable in the earliest Gothic works of England, even
when these were executed by foreign artists. A good instance is the
tomb of King John (d. 1216) in the Cathedral of Worcester, which
has recently been brought to light. Not only the costume, but the
features of the face, are more true to nature and to the individual,
—more closely imitated from the dead body, — than is the case with
the tomb of Richard Cceur de Lion at Fontevrault. The monu
ment placed above the heart of this last-named king in the Cathe
dral of Rouen is strikingly similar to that of his brother, King
John, at Worcester, this making it probable that Norman artists
were employed in both cases.

* C. A. Stothard, Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. London, 1817.— J. Flaxman,
Lectures on Sculpture. London, 1829.— Ch. Boutell, Christian Monuments in England
and Wales. London, 1849.

6o8

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

While in the tombs of prelates the solemn repose and the sym
metrical position of the French figures was maintained, — instance
the effigy of Bishop Bridport (Fig. 382),— in those of knights there
was a liveliness of gesture which contrasted strongly with the quiet
ness of death, indicated by the pillow under the head. This is of

Fig. 382. — Monument of Bishop Brid
port (d. 1262), in the Cathedral of
Salisbury.

Fig. 383. — Monument of William Long-
spee (d. about 1250), in the Cathedral
of Salisbury.

course not so marked in the instances where the motion is restricted
to an energetic turn of the head, — as in the monument of William
Longspee (Fig. 383), — though even here the conception seems to
have been derived rather from an upright than from a recumbent
body. Not uncommonly the figure is represented as in the act of
drawing the sword, or with the legs crossed. This latter position

ENGLAND. v 609
is not necessarily significant of a Crusader, as is usually assumed in
England, the same peculiarity being also observable after the time
of the Crusades. The artist, however, had the right feeling in lim
iting the action to the figures represented in coat of mail, while the
rigid position of the others is in harmony with the inflexible char
acter of their armor of steel plates.
Italian and German influences early made themselves felt in
England, together with the French, especially in metal work. King
Henry III., who reigned between 1216 and 1272, called to his court
German goldsmiths and masters of the mint, as well as Italian paint
ers. And the employment of Italian sculptors, who in the thir
teenth century far surpassed the painters of that country, is proved
by existing remains. The finest among the royal monuments of the
thirteenth century in Westminster Abbey, that of Henry III. and
that of the wife of Edward I., Queen Eleanor, who died in 1290, are
unmistakably to be ascribed to Italians of the school of the Pisani.
Even the name of the artist, William Torell, may well have been
Italian. The influence of these works is to be traced in those immediate
ly succeeding them, although these latter betray characteristics re
sulting from the combination of various models, and were probably
executed by native designers. The possessions of the English kings
in Western France, and the predilection for colored decoration, ap
parent in the English stone sculptures, naturally led to the adoption
of the enamel work of Limoges in bronze monuments and in the
inlaid parts of stone sarcophagi. Even more in vogue were the
brasses, which, with or without engraving, were almost exclusively
imported from Germany. The designation of these as " Cullen
plates " suggests Cologne as the place whence they were chiefly ob
tained, while the similarity in style of the finest works of the kind
to those of the coasts of the Baltic, especially Dantzic, indicates
their derivation from the more Northern district. Engraved brasses
attached to tombs of stone soon, however, became so common that
the demand could no longer be wholly supplied by importations
from abroad.
The works of the fourteenth century are, in general, far inferior
to those of the time of Henry III. The native artists ceased to
39

610 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
depend upon models from the Continent, and their productions
became more and more mechanical and uninteresting. Even the
attempt to render the costume accurately was in some ways a dis
advantage, for the dress of the higher classes had by no means im
proved in picturesque respects. The heavy and showy armor of the
knights of the tournament, impeding the movements formerly per
mitted by the coat of mail, was as entirely without beauty or grace
as were the richly- decorated and stiffly - laced court robes, which
upon the monuments had superseded the soft folds of the ideal fem
inine dress. Moreover, the constant endeavor of the artists was to
give expression to conceptions entirely opposed to those which had
developed upon the Continent. While in other parts of Europe the
representations became more easy and full of action, the English,
whose tombs of knights had, in the thirteenth century, been superior
to those of other nations, intentionally returned to an extreme rigid
ity in their attempt to give the clearest possible expression of death.
These tendencies were in some respects suited to the subject, and
were not wholly the outcome of a dry and unimaginative realism ;
still, the ideal characterization of death as a sweet sleep, which was
the fundamental principle of the Continental conception, is far more
poetical and preferable in every respect. Especially in the tombs
of persons of lesser degree, where no signal effort was required of
the artist, the stiff inanity of the English figures contrasts strikingly
with the elegance and grace of design of the French, and with the
spiritual expression of the German works. In the more prominent
monuments, such as that of the Black Prince (d. 1376) in the Cathe
dral of Canterbury, these deficiencies are compensated by the excel
lence of the execution, especially in the details and accessaries, and
by the rich architectural treatment of the sarcophagi, the mural dec
orations, canopies, etc.
The ecclesiastical sculpture of the fourteenth century, which
from the first had been less productive than in France and Ger
many, suffered grievously at the hands of the Puritan Iconoclasts
of the seventeenth century. Still, enough remains to show that
this branch of art had followed a course of development quite dif
ferent from that observable in the funeral monuments. The ele
gance of treatment, which the English had derived from the Conti-

GERMANY. 6l I
nent in the thirteenth century, was increased during the fourteenth,
until the weak grace, corresponding to the flowing style in archi
tecture, led in sculpture to a reaction, well to be compared with the
perpendicular style. The sculptures of the fagades and the porti
cos of the cathedrals of Lichfield and Exeter are, at least in part,
skilful and harmonious in execution ; the series of kings, especially,
being of a dramatic effect, and having a certain historical signifi
cance. On the other hand, the effigies of this kind upon the fagade
of the Cathedral of Lincoln, dating from the close of the four
teenth century, strikingly illustrate the debasing influence of the
perpendicular style upon sculpture.
In the fifteenth century the decadence of English art was so
complete that, as in the beginning, it was necessary to engage for
eigners in all really important undertakings. Even in France and
Burgundy, where the Gothic style had originated, Flemish artists
were preferred, and it was only natural that England should first
apply for help to the neighboring Netherlands. The influences of
Northern France, of Germany, and of Italy also made themselves
felt. Notwithstanding the warlike character of the times, and the
constant internal dissensions, the peculiar disposition of the English
is already apparent : they generally considering works of art rather
as material possessions than as opportunities for independent cre
ation. Thus foreign countries more frequently exported their pro
ductions to England than affected it by their artistic traditions. To
this must be added that the love of art manifested itself in the col
lection of small objects, and not in monumental works, sculpture in
precious metals and jewels being preferred to that in stone. The
material value of these trinkets was even enhanced by the fact that
they were brought from afar. Thus, during all subsequent ages, the
artistic possessions of England were chiefly of foreign origin, and
native productions were altogether of secondary importance.
GERMANY.
At the close of the Romanic epoch, and even during the first
stages in the development of Gothic architecture, France produced
no sculptures equal in importance to those of Freiberg and Wech
selburg. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, Ger-

6l2 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
many in this branch by no means kept pace with the rapid advance
of France. The German productions of the transitional period were
inferior to the sculptures of the French cathedrals, and as late as
the second half of the thirteenth century, when compared with the
before-mentioned Saxon works, show this branch of art to have re
mained at a stand-still, if not to have declined.
Notwithstanding the tenacity with which Germany clung to the
Romanic style, a compromise was attempted in architecture by
which, one by one, the constructive and decorative improvements
of the French were introduced into the Romanic system. German
sculptors endeavored to give new vitality to their art in a similar
manner. The sculptures of the choir of St. George in Bamberg,
consisting of fourteen reliefs which represent apostles, prophets, an
gels, etc., have at least something more of animation than the Ro
manic works. The same may be said of the sculptured decorations
of the portals of the Church of Our Lady at Treves, of the Colle
giate Church at Wetzlar, and even of the eastern portal of the
Cathedral of Bamberg, also of those of the south portal of the Ca
thedral at Muenster, and of the western portal of the transept of
the Cathedral of Paderborn, which are referable with certainty to
the second half of the thirteenth century. In all these edifices of
the transitional style the sculptured decoration is rather in harmo
ny with the round -arched portals than with the Gothic features
appearing in the other parts of these buildings.
At this period, however, the Gothic character was, so to speak,
latent in sculpture, although an occasional attempt was made to
free this art from the Romanic limitations. Those intimate rela^
tions with nature, the lifting of the veil which, in the Gothic, was
attempted rather through feeling than, through the understanding,
that preponderance of ideal and spiritual conception over forcible^
ness of action which characterized Gothic art, and forms at once its
strength and its weakness, — of all this there was as yet scarcely a
trace. It was exceptional that any effort was made to temper eccle
siastical dignity with a touch of loveliness and grace ; and a striving
after truthfulness to nature in the nude figures, such as may be ob
served in the Adam and Eve of the portal at Bamberg, was still
more rare. Even in this instance the traditional inflexibility and

GERMANY. 613
the influence of the former classicism of Bamberg had not been en
tirely outgrown, the figure of Eve, especially, resembling in many
ways the archaic types of Greek art. Still, some attempt is here
apparent to shake off the mechanical character, and by close ob
servation to attain a higher beauty of form than that of the conven
tional artistic traditions.
It was certainly not fortuitous that Saxony, which in Freiberg
and Wechselburg had produced the first works of the transitional
style, should also have been foremost in the Gothic sculpture of
Germany. The earliest monuments of the latter class are the
twelve statues, dating from about 1270, which Bishop Dietrich of
Naumburg erected in the cathedral of that town in honor of the
former benefactors of the church. These figures in life-like concep
tion and expression far surpass those of Henry II. and Cunigunda,
on the eastern portal of Bamberg, and mark the beginning of an
entirely new phase of art, which has scarcely a trait in common
with the older Saxon works before mentioned. There is no trace
of the typical positions or of the traditional treatment of the gar
ments. Each figure and head shows that it was imitated from an
individual model, and the original and effective draperies are also
direct studies from nature. Still, there is no absolute realism in
these noble and ideal figures. Some defects are to be observed in
the proportions, and if all the parts of the body except the heads
and the hands had not been hidden by the drapery, the uncertainty
in the study of nature, and the fact that the artist looked at life
with sentiment rather than understanding, would have been more
clearly manifest. These imperfections, however, do not preclude
the impression that the traditional limitations still evident in the
figures of Freiberg and Bamberg have here been outgrown, and
that the chisel was guided by a new power of great promise. This
deserves the higher praise, as these works in no wise imitate the
courtly elegance of the French, but in conception and expression
are thoroughly national. Creations of such excellence naturally
resulted in the establishment of a school, the work of which is seen
in the somewhat later statues of the emperor Otto I. and his wife,
of St. John the Evangelist, and of St. Donatus in the choir of the
Cathedral at Meissen.

614

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

In contrast to the independence of these Saxon productions,
those of the Rhenish countries betray, in great measure, the influ
ence of France. The sculptures of the portal of the south transept
of the Strasburg Cathedral, dating from the middle of the thirteenth
century, were executed by a woman, by the name of Sabina. With
exception of the two symbolical figures of Church and Synagogue,
and the tympanon relief of the Death of the Virgin (Fig. 384), all
these works have disappeared ; among them the statue which bore
the inscription of the artist. Since the tradition that this Sabina

Fig. 384. — The Death of the Virgin. Tympanon Relief from the Cathedral of Strasburg.

was the daughter of Master Erwin von Steinbach has been proved
false, the interest in her creations has diminished, especially as those
which have been preserved, while very similar to the contemporary
works of France, are in artistic respects far inferior to the sculpt
ures of Rheims. The youthful types, the graceful slenderness of
the figures, the flowing draperies, the sentimental inclination of the
heads, with the sweetness of the faces, the somewhat affected pose
of one of the hips, which from this time appears so universally in
Gothic works, — all are here fully pronounced. The figures express

GERMANY. 615
but little thought, even the noble elegance of the French models
degenerating into affectation and coquetry.
Few traces of this debasement appear in the figures of the Min
ster of Freiburg, dating from about 1270 ; on the contrary, they are
rendered attractive by a variety of graceful traits and flowing lines.
In the sculptured decoration of the western fagade of the Strasburg
Cathedral, referable to the close of the thirteenth century, the ele
ments of decline are clearly perceptible when the attention is turned
from the imposing effect of the entire mass to a close observation
of the details. The colossal figures of the Apostles on the piers of
the choir of the Cathedral of Cologne, executed before the middle
of the fourteenth century, are of somewhat greater artistic merit,
being remarkable for the more vigorous character expressed in the
attitudes, and for the careful and exact drawing of the nude parts.
The fine draperies already betray the peculiarity of the German
Gothic, in seeking to produce an effect by a superabundance of long
and full garments, but as yet do not show those wrinkled puffs
which were afterwards so prominent. The French character, how
ever, is still evident, although pervaded with German sentiment.
The direct influence of France is manifest, also, in the sculptures of
the Collegiate Church at Wimpfen in Thai. (Compare page 550.)
The development of sculpture was essentially different in the
ecclesiastical edifices of Middle Franconia, and especially of Nurem
berg, which town, after the beginning of the fourteenth century,
became a centre of mediaeval art. The conceptions were here not
derived from the life of the courts and of the Cavaliers, but rather
from that of the burghers, which accorded better with the character
of the free city. A simple beauty was thus attained, without the
aristocratic traits so prominent in France and the cities of the Rhine.
This is exemplified in the rich portal sculptures of the Church of
St. Laurence, and even more clearly in the numerous statues of the
Church of Our Lady, built between 1355 and 1361 (Fig. 385). The
figures upon the fine portico of the latter are ascribed by tradition
to one Sebald Schonhofer, who is otherwise unknown. To the
same class belong also the sculptured decorations of the Schoener
Brunnen. Owing to the frequent restorations, however, little re
mains of the original work, executed between 1385 and 1396 by

6i6

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

Heinrich der Balier. These excellent productions had a significant
and far-reaching influence, which not only resulted in making Nu
remberg and the surrounding places famous for their sculptures,
but also prepared the way for the painting
of this school. That the bourgeois character
did not militate against coquettish elegance
and sentimental grace is shown by the Wise
and Foolish Virgins of the Bridal Door of St.
Sebaldus, referable to the close of the four
teenth century.
The exaggerated length of the bodies and
the weak curves of the positions and draperies
are quite as prominent in the "Nuremberg
sculptures as in those of the Rhenish coun
tries and of France ; hence it cannot be as
sumed that the attenuation was brought
about merely through an imitation of the
elegant forms of.the upper classes, or that
the bending postures, which contrasted so
strikingly with the straight-lined parallelism
of the preceding period, were the expression
of courtly ideals alone. The cause is to be
sought in the architectural surroundings rath
er than in living models. The slenderness of
the figures was, in great measure, dependent
upon the attenuated architectural framework ;
while the supple inclination of the bodies and
the folds of the draperies were, in like man
ner, the reflex of the curved lines of the
Gothic methods of construction. These char
acteristics may be considered as results of the
same process of development which, in archi
tecture, led to the flamboyant style. In both
arts the same weak tendencies are recogniza
ble, — the same degeneration of earnestness and dignity into frivol
ity and sentimental grace.
The carving of funeral monuments was an important branch of

Fig. 385. — Figure of a Proph
et, from the Church of Our
Lady, Nuremberg.

GERMANY. 617
stone sculpture, and, in Germany as in England, was of great individ
uality and independence. The monuments of Henry the Lion and
his wife in the Cathedral of Brunswick, of the Landgrave Conrad in
the Church of St. Elisabeth in Marburg, of
Count Ulrich of Wurtemberg and his wife in
the Collegiate Church of Stuttgart, all refer
able to the thirteenth century, are remarkable
works ; in artistic excellence, in quiet dignity
and ideal rather than realistic conception,
they fully equal the before-mentioned sculpt
ures of the Cathedral of Naumburg. The
treatment was, of course, entirely ideal in the
monuments which, like those of the Mero
vingians, Carolingians, and Capets in St. Den
is, were erected in honor of personages long
deceased. To this class belong the tombs of
Aurelia, daughter of Hugh Capet, of Queen
Uta, wife of the Carolingian Arnulph (Fig.
386), and of Duke Henry of Bavaria, in St.
Emmeramnus at Ratisbon. They are readily
distinguishable from Romanic works by the
youthfulness of their types, and the gentle
sentiment expressed in their faces.
In the fourteenth century a more decided
realism appears in this branch of art. Some
attempt at portraiture is unmistakable even
in the engraved (sgraffito) memorial tablets
(Fig- 387). Such delineations, however, be
long rather to the province of painting, and
were chiefly employed in connection with
works in metal. The life-like character is
still more strongly marked in the monuments
executed in high-relief, although it is not al
ways of good effect, especially in those cases where the figure, con
ceived as sleeping or dead, is represented in lively action instead of
with the hands folded, as customary. A contradiction of ideas nat
urally resulted in such instances, similar to that which has been

Fig. 386. — Funeral Monu
ment of Queen Uta, in the
Church of St. Emmeram
nus, Ratisbon.

6i8

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

noticed in the English images of knights, with the head resting
upon the death-pillow, while the legs are represented as in motion,
or the hand as drawing the sword. It was not less incongruous
when the reclining figure of a bishop was shown in the act of
crowning kings, — as is to-be observed upon the monument of the
Archbishop Siegfried von Epstein (d. 1249), with the two kings
Henry Raspe and William of
Holland, in the Cathedral of
Mayence, as well as upon the
more elaborate tomb of Arch
bishop Peter von Aspelt (d.
1320), with the three kings,
Henry VIL, Louis the Bavarian,
and John of Bohemia. More
over, the figures of the kings,
with simpering faces, half-grown,
and reaching only to the knees
of the bishops, have a most
childish and undignified appear
ance, while the gestures of the
ecclesiastics are unnatural and
wholly wanting in grace. Most
of the funeral monuments, how
ever, were free from such bom
bastic striving after effect. In
those of priestly dignitaries, es
pecially, the action was limited
to the bearing of the attributes,
the crozier, and the book (Fig.
388),- or to the act of blessing
with the uplifted right hand.
The long liturgical garments, with their many folds, and the insig
nia of the bishops, were better adapted to representation than was
the knightly armor of the time. From similar reasons the fem
inine figures were, as a rule, more successful. In these the noble,
Madonna-like maidenliness characteristic of the thirteenth century,
and particularly of the art of France, gave way, in the fourteenth, to

Fig. 387. — Engraved Brass from the Tomb of
the Priest Gerard von Lynden (d. 1366) at
Nossendorf, near Demmin,

flgilliife^

GERMANY. 619
a more matronly and bourgeois conception. The preference for a
superabundance of folds in the drapery, peculiar to the Germans,
made itself more and more felt.
In Germany, as in France, the
sculptures of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries were chiefly of
stone, taken from the same quarries
which supplied the blocks for the
architectural framework. The con
nection between architecture and
sculpture was so intimate that a
different material was but rarely
employed for the latter ; indeed,
the decorative details, both of fig
ures and of conventionalized pat
terns, were commonly executed by
the same guild of artists. In those
provinces where brick was almost
exclusively in use, the lack of stone
naturally led, in the few works of
sculpture, to the adoption of clay
as a substitute. Sculptures of this
material are most frequent in North
Germany. Of especial importance
among them are the statues of the
Golden Portal at Marienburg in
Prussia, representing the Wise and
the Foolish Virgins, — allegorical of
the Church and the Synagogue.
Attempts in clay, colored and
glazed, were more rare, and seem
to have been produced only in Sax
ony ; some few examples are to be
seen in the Museum of the Grosser
Garten in Dresden, and in the Ger
manic Museum at Nuremberg.
Until the close of the fourteenth century carvings in wood re-

Fig. 388. — Monument of the Archbishop
Conrad II. von Weinsperg (d. 1396), in
the Cathedral of Mayence.

620 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
mained as subordinate in artistic respects as they had been during
the Romanic epoch. Such works as the beautiful group of the
Crucifixion at Wechselburg, which dates to the beginning of the
transitional period, and, according to Bode, originally surmounted
the roodloft, were not produced in this branch during the two sub
sequent centuries. Carvings in wood lost their all-important stylist
ic peculiarity by being covered with a thick priming of chalk, ap
plied either directly upon the kernel, or upon strips of linen cloth
glued over the wood, after which the whole was painted, — this
treatment having been devised in order to make them resemble
stone sculptures as closely as possible. Works of this kind are to
be found in the Chapel of the Trausnitz, and upon the funeral mon
uments of Duke Louis of Kelheim (d. 1231), and his wife Ludmilla
of Bogen (d. 1240), in the Convent of Seligenthal at Landshut in
Bavaria ; also upon that of Duke Henry II. of Sayn, in the Convent
Church of Sayn, and upon that of Count Ludolf in the Collegiate
Church near Gandersheim. All of these, together with various cru
cifixes and Madonnas, are of the transitional style. Towards the
close of the fourteenth century sculptures in wood became more
frequent in the details of roodlofts and altars. Although the Ro
manic traditions had been given up in favor of Gothic forms, the
dependence upon stone models in conventional respects is still evi
dent, and there is manifest a desire to make the material resemble
stone as closely as possible.
In the metal-work of this age, as compared with that of the Ro
manic epoch, there was a marked decline. The casting in bronze of
small objects with simple ornamentation continued to be practised,
especially by the guild of the " Apengeter," who worked in brass
alloy, and by that of the " Grapengeter," or actual bronze founders.
The larger productions, such as candlesticks and baptismal fonts,
were decidedly inferior to the corresponding Romanic works, as is
proved by the baptismal font in the Cathedral of Wurzburg, exe
cuted in 1279 by Master Eckart, of Worms, and that in the Cathe
dral of Rostock, dating from 1290. In general, the Romanic types
were closely followed in this industry, the more as the architectural
style of the Gothic was not well adapted to such utensils. An ab
solute progress is to be observed only in the casting of bells, which

GERMANY. 62 1
were of greater size and more artistically decorated, the improve
ment being first manifest in the bell of the Church of St. Burchard
at Wurzburg, cast in 1249. It is said, however, that the bell " Can-
tabona," of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, cast in the eleventh cen
tury, and cracked in 1 590, weighed five tons, — a weight which was
not exceeded until the fifteenth century.
In figure subjects the casting of such doors as those of the Ro
manic cathedrals was entirely discontinued in the Gothic epoch.
Bronze funeral monuments in relief were rare in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, the finest being that of the Archbishop Conrad
von Hochstaden (d. 1261) in the Cathedral of Cologne, and that of
Bishop Henry Bockholt (d. 1341) in the Cathedral of Lubeck.
Only one statue is to be mentioned as belonging to this period, the
equestrian monument of St. George, under life size, in the court of
the Palace of Prague, cast in 1373 by Martin and George von Clus-
senbach. All these productions are destitute of the peculiar char
acteristics of metal -work, clearly betraying their dependence upon
stone sculpture. A greater conformity of the style to the material
appears in the numerous engraved brasses, which seem to have been
chiefly executed in Cologne and Lubeck. The oldest of the kind is
the memorial tablet of Bishop Yso (d. 1231) in the Church of St.
Andrews at Verden. Good examples have been preserved in Lu
beck and in other towns of the North German Lowlands, especially
Schwerin, Stralsund, and Thorn ; also in Breslau, Paderborn, and in
the vicinity of Cologne. Plates of metal inserted in stone, such as
those common in England, are more rare.
Work in the precious metals, notably throughout the provinces
of the Lower Rhine, long adhered to Romanic traditions. It was
not until towards the close of the fourteenth century that small ob
jects began to bear a peculiarly Gothic stamp, — the decorative fig
ures showing the slender and elegant proportions developed in stone
sculpture, and the ornamentation being derived from the details of
Gothic architecture. A tendency to employ architectural forms in
ecclesiastical utensils is especially evident in the monstrances, which
came into general use after the institution of the festival of Corpus
Christi in 13 16. The chalices, censers, clasps, croziers, etc., clearly
display this influence, as do also the ivory carvings, the significance

622 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
of which, however, had become much decreased by their exclusive
employment for secular purposes.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century German sculpture, not
withstanding the greater production and the consequent increase in
practice and ability, showed no decided improvement. On the one
hand there was a mechanical mannerism, and on the other a desire
to produce an effect through exaggeration and a certain theatrical
pathos. What in the fourteenth century had been an expression
of sentiment now became a grimace ; what had been animation and
grace degenerated into affectation. The spiritual tenderness and
delicacy of the Rhenish countries declined into effeminacy; the
bourgeois element of Franconia and Saxony into hardness and
coarseness. The increasing realism was in some ways a disadvan
tage, especially in those districts where the race was ill-favored, and
where, consequently, it was not of good effect so to represent indi
vidual peculiarities that, in striving after a striking characterization,
the figures were well-nigh caricatured, instead of being ennobled
and idealized.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries artistic activity
was almost entirely restricted to sculpture in stone, and the style
thus developed naturally continued to display its dependence upon
architecture ; in the fifteenth, on the other hand, wood-carving be
came predominant, and determined the tendencies and style of the
art of that age. Sculptured decoration was applied less to the por
tals than to, altars, choir-stools, and other furnishings of the interior.
For such purposes stone was unsuitable, not being susceptive of the
requisite lightness and delicacy, or of the polychromatic treatment
necessary to harmonize with the colored illumination. Works in
stone were also incapable of that intimate connection with the
paintings which the taste of the period demanded.
The change of material necessarily influenced the style, although,
for a time, the artistic ideals remained the same in works of wood as
in those of stone. This change is particularly evident in the archi
tectural parts of the altars and 6hoir- stools, which, though at first
imitating stone models, soon lost the technical peculiarities charac
teristic of those productions. Thus there was attained a slenderness
and transparency similar to fretwork, which could never have re-

GERMANY. 623
suited from the practice of stone -cutting, but which accorded well
with the principles of joinery ; the graceful effect produced was not
unlike that of the painted architecture of Pompeian wall decora
tions. With long experience in wood-work of this kind the figures
acquired those qualities always connected with carving and exten
sive painting and gilding. The first of these characteristics was an
increased sharpness of the lines, by which alone, under the altered
conditions of color, the desired effect could be produced. The sec
ond was the different treatment of the draperies, with wrinkles rath
er than with folds, — adapted as entirely to the fibrous material and
the use of the carver's knife as the long and straight folds were to
stone and the work of the statuary's chisel. The projecting puffs
were more favorable to a brilliant display of color, and especially of
gilding, than smooth surfaces and simple curves could ever have
been. The chief purpose of the paintings, connected with the sculpt
ures upon the altars, was to give a certain effect of perspective, the
stone sculptures having usually been treated in true relief. Thus, in
order to produce the impression of foreground, middle, and back
ground, the figures in front were made in the full round, those in
the centre in high-relief, while the background, inclusive of the land
scape, was executed in low -relief. The reaction of polychromatic
carvings upon painting was, on the whole, far greater than the influ
ence of painting upon sculpture. The Franconian school, especially,
owes to wood-carving its wrinkled folds and sharp lines ; these could
have been developed neither by mural painting, by that of minia
tures, nor, least of all, by painting upon glass. Although the artists
endeavored to give a harmonious unity to the painted and carved
portions of the altars, it was not by imitating the painted panels ;
on the contrary, these latter rather show the desire to attain an
effect similar to that of the polychromatic reliefs. The greatest im
portance was attached to the sculptured central part of the trip-
tychs, and even the more elaborate inner sides of the wings were
often executed in relief. Sculpture in stone itself was at last so de
cidedly influenced by that in wood that, towards the close of the
fourteenth century, not only reliefs but even statues of stone exhib
ited all the characteristics of wood-carving, seeming to be exact

624 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
copies of carved models, in the same way as, a hundred years before,
stone sculptures had been imitated in wood.
Although during the fifteenth century painters and wood-carvers
belonged to the same guild, and frequently occupied a common
workshop, it is not to be assumed that, as a rule, both arts were
practised by the same person. Judging from the style, it seems
probable that only a small part of the paintings of the altar of
Schwabach, which is known to have been executed in the school of
Wolgemut, were by the hand of that master himself. The archi
tectural, sculptural, and painted details of such altar-pieces were
commonly intrusted to different members of one school, while only
the name of the chief master has been preserved in the records.
The duties of this superintendent included the general direction
and responsibility, and sometimes the greater part of the execution.
This was the case with the altar of Tiefenbronn, near Calw, dating
from 143 1 ; with the chief altar of the same place, completed in 1469 ;
and with the high altar of the Church of St. James at Rothenburg
on the Tauber, A. D. 1466, — the paintings of which are ascribed re
spectively to Lucas Moser of Weil, Hans Schuechlin of Ulm, and
Friedrich Herlen of Noerdlingen. Although these three are alone
named as the masters, this certainly cannot be taken to prove that
all the sculptural and architectural details were executed by their
hands. Some few works not signed are of even greater excellence,
as, for instance, the carved and unpainted altar in the last-named
church, dating from 1478, and representing the Last Supper; the
altar of the Virgin in the Hospital Church at Rothenburg; the al
tar of the Virgin at Kreglingen, and others.
After the beginning of the fifteenth century Ulm seems to have
been the centre of the Suabian school of wood-carving. From it
proceeded one of the most distinguished masters of his period,
Joerg Syrlin the Elder, who, from an inscription on a singing-desk
now preserved in the Museum of Antiques of that town, is known
to have worked as early as 1458. His chief production, the choir
stall in the Minster of Ulm, executed between 1469 and 1474, is
one of the finest of the Middle Ages, both in respect to its archi
tectural and its sculptural carvings. It may even be said that its
classic sages, the sibyls, prophets, and pious women of the Old Tes-

GERMANY.

625

tament, the apostles and saints, represented for the greater part in
breast-pieces, have a delicacy of expression which, up to that period,
had never been attained in Christian art. Joerg Syrlin the younger
was inferior to his father, but numerous wood -carvings in and
near Ulm, — for instance, those of Blaubeuren, Urach, Herrenberg,
Gmuend, etc., — show that through him and
his companions the school of Ulm main
tained its importance until late in the six
teenth century. The influence of the Sua-
bian school of wood -carving extended to
the west as far as Colmar and Strasburg,
to the south, by way of Ravensburg
and Constance, to Chur, in the Grisons.
Through Augsburg a branch of it seems
to have been introduced into Bavaria, —
instance the Madonna of Blutenburg (Fig.
389), — perhaps also into the Austrian prov
inces. Judging by the altar of Gries near
Botzen, dating from 1471, and that of St.
Wolfgang in Upper Austria, executed in
1481, Michael Pacher, of Bruneck, seems to
have been influenced by the schools of Fran
conia and Upper Italy as well as by that
of Suabia. The works of the southern districts of
Suabia have flowing draperies ; those of the
northern, on the other hand, show traces of
the wrinkled and angular style prevalent
in Franconia. Nuremberg was even more
exclusively the centre of the Franconian
school than Ulm had been of that of Sua
bia. The carvings of Nuremberg cannot
be traced farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century, at
least no names of artists are preserved of a period earlier than this.
All the best masters seem to have belonged to the school of Wol
gemut, which, after 1434, exercised an almost exclusive influence
upon the artistic activity of Nuremberg. Wolgemut's monopoly
40

Fig. 389. — Madonna from Blu
tenburg, now in the Nation
al Museum of Munich.

626 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
in this branch may have affected the fortunes of Veit Stoss, the
most celebrated carver of figures in Nuremberg, who, giving up his
citizenship in 1477, removed to Cracow, in which place he is said to
have been born. The character of his art is entirely that of Nurem
berg. During his stay of almost twenty years in Cracow he ex
ecuted, among other works, the chief altar-piece of the Church of
Our Lady at that place, the Polish capital becoming through him
an outpost of Franconian art. In 1496 he returned to Nuremberg,
where he continued exceedingly productive up to a very advanced
age, meeting with much ill-will, not altogether undeserved. Most
of his works show that he could not entirely free himself from the
wrinkled puffs in the draperies, nor, in the male figures, from the
crude hardness characteristic of the school. Still, he far surpassed
all his contemporaries in expressing a certain delicacy of sentiment,
which was in strange contrast to the tendencies of Wolgemut, and
even to the character of the artist himself, who caused much trouble
to the magistrates of his town. His most important work in Nu
remberg, the Annunciation to the Virgin in the Church of St. Lau
rence, especially in the round central figures, far exceeds even the
best creations of Wolgemut. In outline, grouping, gesture, the
forms of the nude parts, and the soft and smooth flow of the dra
peries, this group has great beauty and charm, proving the artist
fully equal to Holbein the younger, Diirer, and Peter Vischer, so
that, strictly speaking, he can scarcely be considered to belong to
the Middle Ages. It is true that this carving, dedicated in 15 18, is
referable to the later years of his life, and is the first of his produc
tions which can be classed with the works of.the Renaissance.
The Germanic Museum, the churches of Our Lady, St. Lau
rence, St. John, St. ^Egidius, and St. James at Nuremberg, and
many places in the vicinity, contain a great number of works of the
Franconian school of carving, the influence of which extended,
moreover, far beyond its native districts. In Cracow the methods
of Veit Stoss continued to be practised, in the sixteenth century,
by his pupil, Joerg Huber; and at Schleswig, in the extreme north,
Franconian characteristics can be traced in the carved altar of the
cathedral, executed between 1515 and 1521 by H. Brueggemann.
This style was not so common in North Germany as in Saxony and

GERMANY. 627
Silesia, since it could not compete with that of the Dutch and
Flemish schools, of painting. In the Rhenish countries, also, there
was no such activity in wood-carving as in Franconia, probably in
consequence of the growing preference for painting, which produced
such eminent results in the districts of Cologne and the Nether
lands. The best carvings preserved in the towns of the Lower
Rhine, such as those in the Minster of Xanten and those in the
Collegiate Church at Calcar, are as late as the period of the Renais
sance. In Westphalia the carvings of the fifteenth century follow
the traditions of the ideal sculpture of the fourteenth. Throughout
the northern part of Germany there was no artist equal in impor
tance to Syrlin or Stoss, to whom even Brueggemann was vastly
, , inferior. It has already been remarked that in general the style of the
wood-carving of the fifteenth century exercised an influence upon
the stone sculpture of the period. This is less manifest in Suabia
and the districts dependent upon it, where a true feeling for style
always adapted the treatment to the nature of the material. The
Rhenish countries, where stone sculpture similar in character to
that of France still prevailed, had a considerable influence upon the
Suabian school, as had also the Netherlands. That of the latter
country seems not to have been limited to painting, for we find a
"Dutch sculptor, Nicolas Lerch, of Leyden, employed in Suabia.
Even so eminent a master as Syrlin clearly betrays the style of
wood-carving in his stone sculptures, as is shown by the Fisher's
Fountain at Ulm, dating from 1482. The same characteristics are
also recognizable in the treatment of the architectural details of tab
ernacles for the Host, such as that at Ulm ; in the pulpits of Tue-
bingen, Stuttgart, Strasburg, and in the baptismal fonts at Ulm,
Urach, and Reutlingen. On the other hand, there is scarcely a
trace of the methods of wood-carving in the magnificent monument
of Emperor Louis the Bavarian in the Church of Our Lady at Mu
nich (Fig. 390), executed at about the same time by Master Hans
der Steinmeissel, the draperies being rather in the style of the Neth
erlands. The same may be said of several stone sculptures of this
period at Ratisbon.
The influence of wood-carving upon stone sculpture is unmistak-

628

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

able in Franconia, especially in Nuremberg, the school of which, in
this latter branch, surpassed all others of Germany. The name of
Adam Kraft, a contemporary of Veit Stoss, and but a few years
younger, first appears, in 1490, upon the Schreyer Monument of the
Church of St. Sebaldus. Kraft's style clearly betrays the influence

Fig. 390. — Part of the Monument of Emperor Louis the Bavarian in the Church of
Our Lady, Munich.
of Stoss, and indeed that of wood-carving in general. In his mag
nificent tabernacles — the so-called sacrament houses — he so thor
oughly transferred to stone the forms of the Gothic carved altars
that, from a drawing, it would not be thought possible they could
be of any other material than wood. Even in the figures, those in
the full round as well as those in relief, the style of wood-carving

GERMANY. fog
is combined with the realism of painting. As the conceptions of
Stoss have something of a lyric character, so those of Kraft have a
dramatic element, which has caused him, not inaptly, to be called
the Rogier van der Weyden of sculpture.
Of this period there exist nearly as many Franconian sculptures
in stone as in wood, but to the majority of these, including many
of great excellence, no names of artists are attached. Among the
sculptors of the school of Nuremberg is to be mentioned Tilman
Riemenschneider, from Osterode in Anhalt, who, after 1494, settled
in Wurzburg. Although in his works there are traits slightly re
sembling Mantegna, he cannot, taken all in all, be ranked with
Adam Kraft. Like the latter, he retained the Gothic principles
of design late in the sixteenth century. The funeral monument of
Henry II. and the Empress Cunigunda in the Cathedral of Bam
berg, executed between 1499 and 15 13, distinctly shows, in the
architectural details and the sentimental attitudes of the two chief
figures, the character of the late Gothic with a pompous display
almost baroque.
The magnificent monument of Emperor Frederick III., in the
Collegiate Church of the Neustadt, Vienna, was executed by an
artist called from the Netherlands, the before- mentioned Nicolas
Lerch of Leyden, whose work was completed in 15 13 by Master
Michael Dichter, probably one of his pupils. The influence of the
Netherlands, apparent even in the monument of the Emperor
Louis the Bavarian in Munich, is here natural, but the overloaded
performance in question has by no means the artistic importance
of Sluter's celebrated work at Dijon. In general, the Austrian stone
sculpture of this period is influenced rather by the style of Suabia
than by that of Franconia.
While carving in wood and sculpture in stone were practised
with exceptional success in Franconia, casting in bronze, as an art,
was restricted to the one foundery of Vischer in Nuremberg. The
importance of the Saxon and North German establishments contin
ued to decrease during this century. Even those of Lubeck, whose
works had previously been exported, formed no exception, as is
proved by the rudeness of three baptismal fonts in that city — that
in the Church of St. ^Egidius, executed by Hinrik Gherwiges in

630

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

1454; that in the Cathedral, by Laurens Groven, in 1455 ; and that
in the Church of St. James, dating from 1466, the designer of which
is unknown. The bronze tabernacle in the Church of the Virgin at
Lubeck, cast in 1479 by Nicolas Rughesee and Nicolas Gruden, is
richly ornamented with architectural details, but the figures are
weak and careless in execution. The renown of the bronze foun
dery of Nuremberg soon surpassed that of all others, although the
font cast by Heramnn Vischer, in 1457, for the City Church of Wit
tenberg (Fig. 391), by no means indicates how great was to be the
future of his school. This
work, in the fantastical details
of its architecture, distinctly
exhibits the characteristics of
the carved altars of Nurem
berg, in the same way as do
the stone tabernacles of Kraft,
to which, however, as well as
to those of Stoss, the Witten
berg font is greatly inferior.
The same may be said of the
numerous bronze tombs of
Bamberg, the oldest of which
dates from 1414. For the
greater part these seem to
have been executed in the
foundery of Nuremberg. Nei
ther the plates' executed in
sgraffito, nor those in low-re
lief, such as the tombs of the bishops George I. (d. 1475) and
Henry III. (d. 1489), are of noteworthy artistic excellence. The
bronze founder appears to have been not unfrequently furnished
with a design, sometimes even with a model.
The renowned Peter Vischer, son of Hermann Vischer, was
called, as early as 1494, to the service of the electoral court at
Heidelberg. The style of his works at the time, though far supe
rior to that of his father, was still decidedly Gothic, as is seen in
the funeral monument of Bishop John in the Cathedral of Breslau,

Fig. 391.— Baptismal Font in the City Church
of Wittenberg, by Hermann Vischer.

GERMANY.

631

and in that of Archbishop Ernst in the Cathedral of Magdeburg
(Fig. 392). His fine feeling for conventional treatment preserved
him from the undue influence of stone sculpture or of wood -carv
ing, even in these earlier works, which in technical respects and in
dependence of design are masterpieces. The heads especially have
great character and individuality, and are in no wise inferior to the
best works of his contemporaries. Notwithstanding the fact that
these productions were far more elegant than the works of Kraft
and Wolgemut, and fully equal in artistic significance to those of
Stoss, they were still distinctly Gothic, not only in architectural
details but in ideal conception and modes of expression.

Fig. 392.— Tomb of Archbishop Ernst in the Cathedral of Magdeburg, by Peter Vischer.
Peter Vischer's celebrated shrine of St. Sebaldus, even more than
the Annunciation by Veit Stoss, may be considered as marking a
decided advance towards the Renaissance. The architectural frame
work of the monument is essentially Gothic, but the introduction of
certain Renaissance details has given to the whole a mixed charac
ter. The sculptures, however, are conceived entirely in the new-
style. The figures of the Apostles still have some Gothic reminis
cences, but these seem to have been derived rather from paintings
of the school of Cologne than from the works of Veit Stoss and

632 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
Adam Kraft. In the representations in relief of the life of St. Se-
baldus, mediaeval traditions are given up, and the master appears
altogether as an artist of the Renaissance. This change was in him
even more direct and immediate than in his great contemporary,
Albert Diirer. It exercised an influence upon his entire school,
the works of which were distributed throughout Germany, from
Aschaffenburg to Poland, and from Innsbruck to Berlin, — thus
greatly furthering the advance of the new style.
ITALY;
At the close of the Romanic epoch those works which were ex
ecuted by order of Emperor Frederick II. (compare page 469) took
a position in the art of Italy* corresponding to that of the sculpt
ures of Freiberg and Wechselburg in Germany. The conscious re
turn to the antique models, evident in them, is surprising at a time
when the sculpture of Italy had either sunk into barbarism, or had
become more or less dependent upon Byzantium. Notwithstanding
the fact that they were but isolated instances of this tendency, they
still could not fail to attract notice and incite imitation. Even
though the statues were not widely known, Frederick's gold coins
were current throughout Italy, and aided in directing the attention
of artists to the antique models hitherto so neglected.
It cannot be ascertained whether Niccolo Pisano, to whom the
revival of sculpture is chiefly due, received any impulse from these
works of Southern Italy. It is possible that the inclination to imi
tate the classic sculptures which were scattered throughout Italy
may have made itself felt at the same time in various parts of the
country, indications of this tendency appearing as early as 1200 in
several works of Verona and Siena (compare page 467). At all
events, it is quite certain that in Tuscany the systematic change of
style was effected by Niccolo Pisano. His appearance was contem
porary with the first employment of Gothic architecture in Italy.

* Ch. C. Perkins, Tuscan Sculptors, their lives, works, and times. London, 1864. 
The Same, Italian Sculptors, being a History of Sculpture in Northern, Southern, and
Eastern Italy. London, 1868. — H. Semper, Uebersicht der Geschichte toskanischer
Sculptur. Zurich, 1869, und Zeitschrift f. bild. Kunst. VI., 1871. — J. Burkhart. Der Cice
rone, part ii., vol. ii. Fifth edition. Edited by W. Bode. Leipzig, 1884.

ITALY. 633
But the introduction through him of classic elements, so foreign to
the Gothic of France and Germany, naturally gave a peculiar char
acter to the Gothic sculpture of Italy. If the tympanon relief of
the Cathedral of Lucca, dating from 1233, be indeed referable to
Niccolo, it shows that the master in his youth followed methods
not altogether different from those of the North. In the Descent
from the Cross, which is represented in this sculpture, there is no
lack of expression of sentiment or liveliness of action,— the chief
characteristics of Gothic art in general. In his greatest works, how
ever, these traits disappear, and are superseded by a close imitation
of antique models, the sculptor naturally being less Gothic as he
became more classic. It is probable that, as Vasari says, Niccolo
was inspired by the reliefs of the sarcophagi which the Pisans had
collected as trophies of their victories. It is worthy of note that,
when the antique models did not answer, the figures substituted
were in the Romanic rather than the Gothic style, the whole being
more similar to the sculptures of Freiberg than to the contempo
rary works of the French Gothic.
The classic style of Niccolo attained its full perfection in the
pulpit of the Baptistery of Pisa, referable to the year 1260, this be
ing the first of that series of magnificent works which were to make
the sculpture of Italy the finest of the world. The architecture of
this pulpit, — an ambo of hexagonal plan supported upon columns, —
is chiefly of the Gothic style. The lions upon which the shafts are
placed display, it is true, Romanic reminiscences ; but the forms of
the capitals and the trefoil cusps of the arches are distinctly Gothic.
The parapet, occupying five of the six sides, is formed by panels
sculptured in relief, representing the Nativity (Fig. 393), the Adora
tion of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Crucifixion,
and the Last Judgment. The figures are short and thick-set; the
composition crowded, like that of the reliefs of Roman sarcophagi ;
and there is but little action. The influence of antique models is
perceptible in various degrees, most directly in the queenly figure
of the Madonna of the Nativity, in the Joseph of the Presentation,
who closely resembles the antique type of the bearded Dionysos,
and in the horses of the Magi. , The draperies are almost purely
antique, so that it is even possible to identify one of the models

634 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
chosen by the artist, namely the so-called Sarcophagus of Phaedra
in the Campo Santo at Pisa. The attitudes and the proportions of
the figures are still awkward ; but classic conceptions and methods
are here already revived, and we perceive the first efforts of the
Renaissance. The work of Niccolo was, however, rather a rehabilitation than
a re-birth of the antique. It is not to be denied that the sculptures
of the Portal of Freiberg or those of many Gothic cathedrals of

Fig. 393' — Relief upon the Pulpit of Niccolo Pisano, in the Baptistery of Pisa.
France were of greater artistic importance, inasmuch as they were
decidedly more independent. Still, this is not the only reason why
the beginning of the Renaissance in sculpture may not be dated
from this work. The activity in this branch, initiated by the elder
Pisano, has as little real claim, in such a regard, as is to be accorded
to the work of the Saxon and French masters before referred to ;
moreover, the return to the antique, which is the chief characteris
tic of Niccolo, did not outlast his lifetime, and was followed by es-

ITALY. 635
sentially Gothic conceptions. The master must, therefore, rather
be considered as an early forerunner of the Renaissance.
The academic and classic training of Niccolo was of great ad
vantage in the technical development of his son, Giovanni Pisano,
whose talent was in many ways superior to that of his father. Gio
vanni, however, together with the greater number of his fellow-stu
dents, pursued an entirely different course, more comparable to that
of the Northern masters, and more Gothic. Through what means
he received this impulse does not appear, and little is gained by the
supposition that older pupils of his father, notably the great Ar-
nolfo di Cambio, had previously taken up Northern methods. When
Vasari speaks of the co-operation of German masters he must refer
to later works of the school of Giovanni, and to the sculptures of
the Cathedral of Orvieto ; in the records of the Cathedral of Siena,
also, the name of the German artist Ramus does not appear until
1281. If foreign influences are assumed they can only have been
derived from France and the Upper Rhine, although the French
style was in many ways surpassed by that of Giovanni.
< In the pulpit of octagonal plan in the Cathedral of Siena, exe
cuted under the direction of Niccolo between 1266 and 1268, the
new tendencies made their appearance, whether due to Arnolfo or
to Giovanni. Side by side with the classic elements of Niccolo
there is a dramatic action, and an expression of sentiment of which
there is scarcely a trace in the pulpit of the Baptistery at Pisa.
Giovanni's style is still more manifest in the fountain at Perugia,
referable to the years between 1277 and 1280, in which the aged
Niccolo, who had received the order, probably took but little part.
In the works executed after the death of Niccolo, under the super
intendence of Giovanni, there is no immediate influence of the an
tique, a naive realism appearing in its place. This is particularly
noticeable in the sculptures of the fagade of the Cathedral of Orvi
eto. Although these reliefs compare to the Gothic works of Rheims
and Amiens as do the sculptures of Niccolo to those of Freiberg
and Wechselburg, they are far less ecclesiastical and more realistic
in character than are those of the North. This applies especially
to the representations of Adam and Eve and the Last Judgment.
The more thorough study of nature, the greater elegance of form

636 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
and the finer feeling for beauty apparent in them, render any con
siderable influence from France or Germany improbable. These
works have also the lively and pathetic action, the flowing lines,
both of the nude parts and the draperies, and the gentle, almost
sentimental expression characteristic of Gothic art in general ; but
the classic training received by Giovanni and his fellow-students,
tending towards a close and objective observation of nature, had
protected them from the subjectivity of Northern art. Besides this

Fig. 394. — Relief upon the Pulpit of Giovanni Pisano in S. Andrea of Pistoja.

training, the better material provided by the Italian marble may
have contributed to a greater refinement and thoroughness of exe
cution. The relations of the art of Giovanni to that of Niccolo may be
best exemplified by comparing two representations of the same sub
ject (Figs. 393 and 394). The pulpit in S. Andrea at Pistoja, attest
ed by an inscription to be the work of Giovanni, was completed in

ITALY. 637
1 301. The composition of the Nativity is much the same as those
of the pulpits of the Baptistery of Pisa and the Cathedral of Siena.
But the Classic-Romanic character , of the representation in the Bap
tistery of Pisa, which had been somewhat modified in several of the
figures at Siena, has in Pistoja been
wholly exchanged for the graceful
and gentle forms of the Gothic. The
attitudes are life-like, the epic repose
of the older work being here given
up for an action almost dramatic, —
the rigid dignity and stately com
posure, for pathetic sentiment. A
similar composition is the Nativity
upon the pulpit of the Cathedral of
Pisa, completed in 131 1, now only
preserved in part.
The contrast to Northern Gothic
sculpture apparent in the reliefs is
even more marked in the statues.
The Madonnas of Giovanni have
little of the delicate grace and maid
enly iloveliness of the Virgins and
Saints in Rheims and Strasburg, and,
moreover, no typically ecclesiastical
character. The Madonna of the south
portal of the Cathedral of Florence is
a queenly personage, who could nev
er have developed into a Mater Do
lorosa; the Madonna della Cintola
in the Cathedral of Prato has almost
an expression of defiance in the ab
rupt turn of the head, in the attitude
of the body, as well as in the admi
rable drapery (Fig. 395). How readily this bold vigor could in sec
ular subjects be exaggerated into ugliness is shown by the allegor
ical figure representing the city of Pisa in the Campo Santo of that
place. In works of this kind the artist often sacrificed beauty to a

Fig- 395- — Madonna della Cintola, by
Giovanni Pisano, in the Cathedral of
Prato.

638 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
striving after truth to nature and characteristic individuality. This
may be observed in several funeral monuments. That of Pope Ben
edict (d. 1304) in S. Domenico at Perugia is of noble conception, but
that of Enrico Scrovegno (d. 1321) in S. Maria dell' Arena in Padua
is almost disagreeably realistic.
It is not surprising that the fellow-students and companions of
Giovanni should have followed his Gothic tendencies rather than
the classic methods of their master Niccolo. Even painters could
not resist this powerful impulse, as is shown by Giotto, who is to be
considered as a pupil of Giovanni Pisano rather than of Cimabue.
The style of Niccolo was most closely adhered to by Fra Guglielmo
d'Agnello, who assisted him in the execution of the Area of St.
Dominic in the Church of S. Domenico at Bologna. The co-opera
tion of this artist in the fagades of S. Micchele at Pisa and the Ca
thedral of Orvieto is certain, and the somewhat uncertain forms of
the pulpit of S. Giovanni fuor' Civitas at Pistoja renders it proba
ble that this was his own independent work. Arnolfo di Cambio,
who has before been mentioned as one of the most influential archi
tects of the Italian Gothic, is far more important, and may in many
ways be considered as a forerunner of Giovanni Pisano, who was his
junior by more than twenty years. In the work upon the pulpit of
Siena he had been the chief assistant of Niccolo, and received twice
as much wages as Giovanni. Although his tendencies were mainly
Gothic, his sculptures on the Bigallo of Florence have all the class
icism of Niccolo.
Arnolfo carried the Tuscan style to Rome, where he was en
gaged upon the tabernacle in the Church of S. Paolo fuori le Mura,
and where an artist in Cosmatic work, Giovanni, who may have as
sisted Arnolfo in this task, designed, towards the close of the thir
teenth century, several fine funeral monuments of bishops for the
churches of S. Maria sopra Minerva and S. Maria Maggiore. The
Pisan influence was extended to Naples by another follower of Nic
colo, Tino di Camaino of Siena, who found an excellent pupil and
assistant in the Neapolitan Gallardus. In Southern Italy the field
had already been prepared for the new style by the sculptures of
the time of Frederick IL, and in Naples, Ravello, Altamura, and
Gaeta works of this character are preserved which antedate the ad-

ITALY. 639
vent of Tino. Particular importance is to be attached to the pulpit
in the Cathedral of Ravello, dating from 1272; Niccolo di Barto-
lommeo of Foggia, by whom it was executed, seems to have been
connected with the school of Capua, rather than with that of Pisa.
The pupils of Niccolo Pisano preserved more or less of his classic
methods, but the case was otherwise with the followers of Giovanni.
Among these, mention need here only be made of Agostino and
Angelo of Siena, who were employed upon the sculptures of the
fagade of Orvieto, and whose independent work is the elaborate
funeral monument of the Bishop Guido Tarlati in the Cathedral of
Arezzo. Andrea Pisano, A. D. 1270 to 1350, deserves particular no
tice as another master of this important and influential family, of
which he represents the third generation. The character of his
style was determined by the reaction of the newly awakened art of
painting, and especially by the influence of the universal genius of
Giotto, upon the sculptural methods of Giovanni. Unfortunately
it cannot be ascertained in how far Giotto furnished the designs for
the sculptures of his Campanile, although the Creation of Adam and
the Birth of Eve are directly referred to him by the Vita Anonyma
of Ghiberti. Still, it may be assumed that the direct influence of
Giotto went beyond the providing of painted models ; several of the
representations, — for instance, the agricultural group (Fig. 396) upon
the Campanile at Florence, so spirited in composition and so slight
in execution, — cannot possibly be attributed to Andrea Pisano
alone. At all events, the impulse derived by painting from the
sculptures of Giovanni Pisano now reacted, in its turn, upon the
methods of Andrea, which were far more classic than the painting
of Giotto. The sons of Andrea, Nino and Tommaso Pisano, followed in the
footsteps of their father ; it is only to be observed that the highly-
gifted Nino, who has some traits in common with Fiesole, deserves
more attention than is generally accorded to him. Greater renown
was attained by Andrea Cione (Orcagna), a versatile artist, 'vMio
among the later and weaker representatives of the Pisan school of
sculpture holds a place similar to that which he attained as a painter
among the pupils of Giotto, and, as an architect, among the follow
ers of Arnolfo. The sculptures of his altar-piece in the Church of

640

GOTHIC SCULPTURE.

Orsanmicchele at Florence, dating from 1359, are remarkable for their
careful execution and somewhat severe style.
The influence of the school of Giovanni extended to Upper
Italy. In Milan the Tuscan elements had naturally to compete
with those of Germany and of the Comacini, and were most promi
nent in cases where the work was directed by artists from Pisa, —
for instance, Giovanni di Balduccio, who designed the monument
of Peter Martyr in a side chapel of S. Eustorgio at Milan, A. D.

Fig. 396.— Agriculture. Relief upon the Campanile of Florence.

I339- — or where types distinctly Pisan were introduced at least in
directly, as in the beautiful Area of St. Augustine in the Cathedral
of Pavia, which is said to have been executed in 1362 by Bonino
di Campiglione, a pupil of Balduccio. The monument of Can della
Scala (d. 1375), in Verona, is referable to the latter artist. Lanfrani,
another pupil of Giovanni Pisano, worked in Imola and Bologna, in
which latter town Andrea da Fiesole was employed early in the fif
teenth century. Venice was likewise affected by influences from

ITALY. 641
Tuscany, although those of Germany still predominate in the fine
figures of the rood loft in S. Marco. In Southern Italy traces re
main of the old classic school of Frederick II. ; these appear even
as late as the funeral monuments of the Anjou family in the Church
of S. Chiara at Naples, and are especially marked in the tomb of
King Charles, who was murdered in 1347. Together with the
French tendencies cultivated by the architects who had been called
to Naples by the Anjous, there are, in some details, indications of
a further development of the Tuscan style introduced by Tino of
Siena. Bronze casting appears to have been at first executed by work
men of merely technical training, who transferred to metal designs
which had been conceived by sculptors solely with reference to
works of stone. This seems to have been the case with the bronze
parts of the Fountain of Perugia, cast by Magister Rubeus. Andrea
Pisano, whose sculptures in marble have already been referred to,
was the first to give an independent importance to artistic bronze
casting by devoting due attention to its stylistic requirements. In
his excellent models for the doors of the southern portal of the
Baptistery in Florence, cast by the Venetian Leonardo di Avanzo,
he again adopted an ornamentation of figures in relief, and appro
priately modified the stone style which had hitherto prevailed. In
attempting this he was naturally led to the study of antique bronzes,
which may have been more numerous in Tuscany than classic sculpt
ures in marble, at that time rare, especially in Florence. The in
ventive genius of Giotto probably had great influence in this direc
tion, as is evident from the fact that many of the figures were
directly copied from his painted compositions. Classic reminis
cences are in these bronzes combined with the lively action and
expression, and the graceful lines, often sharply emphasized, pe
culiar to the Gothic style,— all these features being blended into a
harmony not elsewhere attained.
Work in precious metals was practised to a greater extent, and
had by this time entirely freed itself from the Byzantine traditions
which had been maintained for nearly a thousand years. The char
acteristic tendencies of the Pisan school are evident in the figures
of silver -gilt upon the altar of St. John in the Opera del Duomc
4i

642 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
at Florence, begun by Cione, father of Orcagna, and completed in
1477; and also in the elaborate altar-piece in the chapel of St. James
in the Cathedral of Pistoja, executed between 1287 and 1398 by An
drea di Jacopo d'Ognabene, Giglio Pisano, Piero Florentino, and
Lionardo di Ser Giovanni. It is plainly seen in both of these works
that the intrinsic value of the material diminished rather than in
creased the artistic importance.
In regard to sculpture, the Gothic period was less distinctly sep
arated from the Renaissance in Italy than in Germany. Elements
of the art of the Renaissance had existed from the time of the
Pisani, while, on the other hand, many a mediaeval trait was pre
served even as late as the Quatrocento. The names of artists are
generally attached to important works which have a greater or less
degree of original merit. Still, the common training, the national
school and style, are more manifest among the pupils and followers
of Andrea Pisano than in the Quatrocento of Florence, where the
individual genius of Ghiberti, Donatello, and Luca della Robbia
broke through all limitations, even as in ancient Greece the phenom
enal appearance of Alkamenes, Pythagoras of Rhegion, and Myron
had made an end of the hieratic and archaic local schools existing
before them. The individuality, the purely personal position of
the artist, was finally established by these three Florentine masters,
the Renaissance thus beginning in Italy earlier than elsewhere in
Europe. Spain is the only remaining country of Europe which had any
Gothic sculpture deserving of consideration. The Iberian penin
sula was in this branch, as in architecture, dependent upon France,
and especially upon the south-western provinces. The portal sculpt
ures of Spain at first differed from those of France only in greater
hastiness of execution and want of expression, but gradually a love
of empty display became manifest in them. In the extent of the
representations and in the number of figures the adopted style be
came more luxurious and elaborate on Spanish soil than in its na
tive France ; still, there was no increase in ideal significance or
artistic merit. The profusion of stone sculptures upon the fagades
(compare Fig. 374), and the dimensions of the carved altar-pieces

SPAIN.

643

(retablos), though leading to an extensive activity, greatly impaired
the thoroughness of execution. The Spanish designers had no un
derstanding of that organic connection which should be maintained
between architecture and sculpture, and the numerous embellish
ments introduced by them could not compensate for this want
of harmony. The redundant sculptured decoration was merely
an appendage to the architectural framework. It is plain that in
sculpture, as in architecture, the chief attention was devoted to

Fig- 397. -Funeral Monument of King Juan II. and his Wife in the Carthusian
Convent of Miraflores.
richness of effect,— depth of expression and faithfulness in details
being sacrificed without scruple. The Oriental delight in elabo
rate ornamentation is everywhere apparent— the whimsical and sur
prising being preferred to the constructive, the fanciful and irrel
evant to the consequential. A comparison between the funeral
monuments of the late epoch is interesting and instructive. The
solemnity and dignity of Sluter's ducal monuments at Dijon con
trast strikingly with the restless and fantastic character of the Span
ish productions, such as the sarcophagus of King Juan II. and h.s

644 GOTHIC SCULPTURE.
wife, executed in 1490 (Fig. 397), and that of the Infante, both in
Miraflores near Burgos. And yet the same influence of the Nether
lands which has been observed in France found its way also beyond
the Pyrenees. It was not, however, represented by so excellent an
artist as the master of Dijon, nor had, in the preceding age, the field
been prepared for its adoption by such eminent national works as
those of Rheims, Paris, Amiens, etc.
Judging from the wood-carvings preserved in the Museum of
Valladolid, it is to be assumed that the excessive naturalism which
characterizes the Spanish painting of the seventeenth century was
also a prominent feature in the art of the fifteenth. It was there
fore natural that the courtly and chivalric art of the French should
not be retained in this country, whose sculptures present so great a
contrast to those of the Netherlands and Germany. The character
of the Spanish productions is pathetic but somewhat exaggerated,
—rarely ennobled by any high conception or beauty of form. In
this latter respect these works resemble those of Germany rather
than those of France. The strong and uncontrolled passions of the
lower classes are freely expressed, the way being thus prepared for
the art of Ribera, which oould have arisen only on this traditional
foundation. The Gothic sculpture of the Scandinavian countries was entire
ly without independence. German influence was altogether dom
inant, proceeding chiefly from the northern Lowlands, particularly
the provinces of the Baltic. Poland and Hungary were in like man
ner dependent upon the German territories adjoining them. Cracow
forms in some measure an exception, having derived its artistic
methods from Nuremberg.

Fig. .398. — Cologne Triptych, dating from the close of the fourteenth century. Museum
of Cologne.

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
TT might have been supposed that the new conditions of culture
-*- which obtained in the ages of the Gothic would have found no
earlier and no more striking expression than in the art of painting.
The nature of this art is so impressionable as to render it sensitive
to every change of popular conception, every advance or decline of
national civilization. Strange to say, the painting of the Gothic
epoch is no such index. Architecture, the most stable art, was the
first to give expression to the new ideas ; painting, the most mo
bile, the last. Painting retained earlier traditions even longer than
sculpture, and continued to bear the stamp of the Romanic style
until late into the thirteenth century. This was even the case in
France, which, in regard to the development of the Gothic, was at
least five decades in advance of any other country.
Circumstances did not at first favor the rise of a national art of

646 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
painting. In this branch all efforts were devoted to the service of
the Church and of chivalry, both of which were international. The
same was, indeed, true of architecture ; but in it the innovations
were less dependent upon ecclesiastical ordinances than in painting,
because of the religious subjects to which the latter was restricted.
Moreover, constructive improvements were not so readily commu
nicated from country to country as were works of literature and
painting. Books and paintings, combined as they were in illuminat
ed manuscripts, were widely circulated from convent to convent,
through journeys of the brethren and through the gifts of princes.
The reproduction of these tended towards conservative archaism
rather than towards the adoption of new methods. The traditions
of the old convents were opposed to innovations, even in painting,
and the strict principles of the new orders, the Cistercians, Minor
ites, and Dominicans, were altogether unfavorable to luxury in this
direction. Through the secularization of the arts painting had in
great measure come into the hands of the laity, but its dependence
upon the libraries and schools of the convents was much longer con
tinued than was that of architecture and sculpture. This state of
things was not changed even by the introduction of illuminations
into secular books, although no traditional models existed for rep
resentations of the kind.
Through the development of Gothic architecture, painting was
almost entirely debarred from one of the chief fields of its employ
ment. The architectural memberment of the wall surfaces rendered
extensive mural paintings impossible, and the colored decoration
was more restricted to the ornaments than it had been in the Ro
manic epoch. This was the greater disadvantage, as in this branch*
of painting, more than in any other, an elevated and ideal aim was
of the utmost importance, and could alone lead to a true progress,
while in the art of illumination, which, like the writing of the man
uscripts, required rapid production, a certain dilettantism, retained
from the Romanic epoch, better sufficed.
Thus in France, the native country of the Gothic style, only one
branch of monumental painting remained, that upon glass ; and
even in this the Romanic tendencies were predominant for nearly
a century. The difficulty of execution here tended towards con-

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH. 647
servatism, much as had been the case in mosaic work, which admit
ted of little artistic freedom and individuality. Painting upon glass
demanded a high degree of technical training, but it was otherwise
with the embroidered dorsels and canopies which had taken the
place of mural decoration. These were much in vogue, and were
left almost entirely to the untrained hands of women.
In the early centuries of the Gothic period, painting upon panels
was in its first stages, and but rarely practised. The altar consisted
usually of a table with a reliquary standing upon it ; painted altar-
pieces in the form of triptychs, such as had occasionally appeared
in the Romanic epoch — instance those of Soest— were altogether
exceptional. The representations upon these latter were at first
limited to rows of saints upon gold ground, each standing under a
Gothic canopy, carved in relief. When compared to the Romanic
enamelled work in precious metals they show little progress. Paint
ings upon panels had developed no peculiar style, as the wood upon
which they were executed was prepared for their reception by a
thick priming of chalk, so that the methods adopted in this branch
were essentially the same as those of painted wall decorations.
Even before the introduction of the Italian fresco, the addition of
a glutinous matter to water-colors, the so-called tempera,.wa.s not
infrequent in mural painting.
Thus, painting upon glass was the only form of monumental art
fitted to take the place of the wall paintings of the Romanic style,
and it is not strange that it should have exerted great influence
upon all other works in color. Its effect is plainly seen, even in
illumination, which held the second place in the painting of the
Middle Ages. Until the time of Louis IX., A.D. 1226 to 1270 —
that is to say, 'during the first century of the Gothic style, — the art
of illumination had altogether retained the traditional methods, and
had developed no greater activity than during the preceding epoch.
The foundation of the Library of St. Louis appears to have given
the first great impulse to the subsequent development, the example
of the king being followed not only by his influential vassals, but by
other monarchs. In all the courts of Europe the lavish illustration
of books came into fashion. After this time professional writers and
illuminators, standing in no connection with the convents, begin to

648 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
appear in the tax-lisls. Dilettantism gradually developed into train
ed proficiency, and this, in its turn, into artistic attainment. The
outlines drawn with the pen became distinct and exact, and to the
constant endeavor clearly to present the chosen subject was now
added a certain sense of beauty in form and color. In the latter re
spect the aim was less directed towards truth to nature than towards
a brilliant decorative effect, a fine deep blue and gold being employed
even in the elaborate patterns of the background. This was. due to
the attractive influence of painting upon glass. The unbroken tints
are the same as those of the transparencies ; the heavy outlines re
semble the leading, and the limitation of shading to lines of the pen,
without alteration of the local tones, resulted from an imitation of
the effects produced upon the glass by the so-called black solder.
In the fourteenth century, and especially in the age of Charles
V., A.D. 1364 to 1380, all this was altered. After the erection of
the Sainte -Chapelle, under Louis IX., mural painting acquired a
higher importance, — further increased by the construction of pala
tial edifices. In the descriptions of the residences of Charles V.
and his successors, reference is often made to the fine effect pro
duced by mural paintings, combined with wainscots and tapestry
hangings. This threefold decoration was also adopted in the pal
aces of England and Germany. At this time, or but little earlier,
a great advance was made in the mural decoration of the churches
and convents of Italy, where this branch of painting soon became
superior to all other work in color. Glass painting had by that
time wholly lost its Romanic character, and had adapted itself to
the surrounding architecture, giving up the simple circular or seg
mental borders in favor of Gothic tabernacles with painted gablets
and finials. Miniature painting also attained great- individuality,
acquiring more and more a historical and genre character. This
was in great measure due to the prominence of secular books in the
libraries of the courts. Backgrounds, of patterns or gold, were su
perseded by interiors or landscapes ; and the first traces appear of
that realism which finally led to the art of the .Netherlands  es
pecially to the panel painting of Flanders and Brabant. Through
out the fourteenth century, painting upon glass and in miniature
remained the chief representatives of art in color north of the Alps

FRANCE. 649
the other branches, until their final emancipation, being altogether
dependent upon these.
The panel painting of the Northern countries, which became
so important in the fifteenth century, resulted from the combined
influence of these two branches. After that time France was no
longer the centre of development ; the greatest improvement in pan
el painting was effected in the Netherlands, and at the same time
efforts were made in various parts of Germany to keep pace with
this advance ; not always, however, with entire success. The artists
of Germany could neither rival, on the one hand, the panel paint
ings of the Netherlands, nor, on the other, the mural paintings of
Italy, which had begun to exert an influence upon other branches
of this art. By the middle of the fifteenth century the superiority
of the Netherlands and of Italy was fully declared, these countries
offering the greatest promise for the future.
FRANCE.*
The monumental sculpture of France soon adapted itself to the
requirements of Gothic architecture, especially in regard to stylistic
character. Wall painting, however, which, up to this time, had been
the chief branch of colored decoration, was by no means furthered
by this development. In consequence of the resolution of the wall
surfaces into piers, its former field of employment was greatly re
stricted, and, in the subordinate part which it was allowed to take,
remained conventional and indifferent. The few existing memori
als of early Gothic painting, such as those in the Cathedral of Tour
nus, are in the highest degree crude and immature. A certain ad
vance is evident in some fragments from the lower story of the
Sainte-Chapelle. But the remains preserved from the time of Louis
IX. are not sufficient to give an adequate idea of the mural paint
ing of that age. In like manner, the materials for a historical con-
* T. B. Emeric-David, Histoire de la Peinture au Moyen-age. Paris, 1842. — P. La
croix, Les Arts au Moyen-age et a l'epoque de la Renaissance. Paris, 1869. — J. Labarte,
Histoire des Arts industriels. Paris, 1864-1866. — F. de Lasteyrie, Histoire de la Peinture
sur verre d'apres ses monuments en France. Paris, 1853-1857. — H. Shaw, The Art of Il
luminating as practised during the Middle Ages. II. Ed. London, 1870. — A. Lecoy de la
Marche, Les manuscrits et la Miniature. Paris, s. a.

650

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

sideration of the pictorial art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centu
ries have been almost entirely swept away by the hand of time, by
destructive architectural renovations, and by the Iconoclasts, — both
those of the Reformation and of the Revolution.
Paintings upon glass, however, exist in great number. The
works of the time of Abbot Suger in the first Gothic cathedral,
that of St. Denis near Paris, are still entirely Romanic, as might
have been expected (Fig. 399). It is more surprising that the oldest
of the one hundred and forty-six of the Cathedral of Chartres and

Fig- 399-— Part of one of the Windows of St. Denis, Paris.

the one hundred and eighty-three of the five-aisled Cathedral of
Bourges, referable to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, should
show Romanic features in the arrangement of figures and ornamen
tation. This applies also, in greater or less degree, to those of the
cathedrals of Sens, Le Mans, Auxerre, Noyon, Soissons, Chalons,
Troyes, Rheims, and Amiens. Chartres seems to have been a cen
tre for glass painting. This branch of artistic activity was not, like
stone sculpture, connected with the schools of architecture, the ex
ecution of colored glass demanding a well-organized manufactory ;
moreover, the removal of the completed works to their place of

FRANCE. 65 1
destination could be effected without great difficulty. The glass
windows were generally the gifts of princes, wealthy citizens, or
guilds. This accounts for the lack of organic connection between
the representations, even in windows executed at about the same
time. Allusions to the donors and their patron saints, attributes,
devices, and even genre groups illustrating the industries of the
guilds, are frequent.
During the thirteenth century the windows were for the greater
part divided into panels, but in the fourteenth the framework took
the forms of Gothic tabernacles similar to those which had been
adopted in the sculptures of the facades. Such Gothic details, in
harmony with the luxurious architectural decoration of the edifices,
are seen in the windows of the cathedrals of Beauvais, Evreux, Nar
bonne, Carcassonne, etc. At the same time, the former, simpler'
method of dull local tones was given up, and the drawing was no
longer limited to black lines, without light and shade. Other tints
were employed besides the three primary colors, and the black sol
der was in some cases replaced by a yellow enamel. This latter was
of especially good effect in the so-called grisailles, windows painted
gray in gray. The figures, increased in size, gained also in modelling
and shading. Finally, a method was invented of coating the glass
with a film of color on one side only, so that high lights could be
introduced by thinning this superfice. This invention, which was
not made before. the fifteenth century, increased the artistic effect,
but led to a decline in regard to style. The figures became round
ed as in a relief, the backgrounds gained in perspective, and the
compositions were extended. All this, however, was not in con
formity with the flat and tapestry-like character which is alone ap
propriate to windows and pavements, and was thus opposed to the
stylistic requirements of glass painting.
Panel painting was but little practised in France before the fif
teenth century. There have been preserved from the fourteenth
some altar-pieces with figures of saints, painted or in relief, sur
rounded by a Gothic framework, and also several shrines with pan
els of similar treatment ; but in this direction France does not ap
pear to have attained to any higher artistic importance until the
influence of the Netherlands had made itself felt. During the four-

652 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
teenth century artists were called from Italy to Avignon, and froni
the Netherlands to Dijon, — rather from a lack of native workmen
than from any especial preference for the style of these countries.
The phenomenal advance of the Flemish and Italians in painting
rendered it natural that this state of dependence should continue
throughout the fifteenth century.
In miniature painting, on the other hand, France, during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, took the lead of all other Eu
ropean countries. The art of writing and illumination, which in the
period of the early Gothic still retained the traditional methods of
the convents, was first freed from monastic limitations during the
reign of Louis IX., who greatly furthered this activity by the found
ing of his library. The artistic taste of this king could not be satis
fied with the crude and weak dilettantism of the previous works,
and miniature painters found it necessary to make every effort in
order to equal the workmen in other branches of art. The tech
nical progress is evident in the systematic introduction of body col
ors, in place of the light tints formerly employed. The outlines are
clear and distinct, the pigments applied with care and precision,
and the brilliant colors produce an effect similar to that of painting
upon glass. There is no trace of chiaroscuro, of modelling, of per
spective, or landscape background ; still, the new style is clearly
expressed, the traditional forms and composition having given way
to new conceptions derived from a direct study of nature-. In the
Psalter of St. Louis, for instance (Bibl. Nat. Lat., 10,525), Abraham's
battle with the kings is represented by a combat of French knights
in coat of mail, and Potiphar's wife (Fig. 400) appears as a noble
French lady. These personages fit well into their Gothic framework.
The figures are no longer heavy and stiff, but of lively action ; not
aged and sullen, but young, supple, and natural in their attitudes.
There is, however, a certain lack of energy and individuality. Even
the dedicatory pictures show scarcely a trace of that portrait-like
resemblance which was so pronounced in the Carolingian manu
scripts. In the beginning of the fourteenth century the colors of the
manuscripts lost their brilliancy, but acquired a greater variety and
truth to nature. Some weak attempts were made to go beyond

FRANCE.

653

mere pen-drawing, and to attain a pictorial effect by modifying the
local tones in light and shade. An advance was also made in regard
to individuality, as may be seen by a comparison of the portrait
figure of Louis IX. (Fig. 401), referable to the beginning of the four
teenth century, with that of Charles V. (Fig. 402), dating from 1379.
The initials retained certain reminiscences of the Romanic treat
ment, but the decoration of foliage, combined with animals and
monsters, developed into
the lively border draw
ings known as drolleries.
The intertwined dragon
like forms, of no signifi
cance in the representa
tion, were replaced by al
lusions to fables of ani
mals, with corresponding
genre scenes. The orna
mentation became more
delicate, brier-vines being
chiefly chosen ; it was
gracefully executed in
gold and colors, and far
surpassed in taste and el
egance all previous works
of the kind. This com
bination of pictures, ini
tials, and borders was of
a decorative and harmo
nious effect, and fully jus
tifies the assertion that miniature painting attained its greatest emi
nence at this time, rather than in the age succeeding Van Eyck.
The library of King Charles V., A.D. 1364 to 1380, contained
no less than nine hundred volumes of illuminations. His brothers,
Jean, Due de Berri (d. 1416), and Philip the Bold, Duke of Bur
gundy (d. 1404), were also amateur collectors of illustrated manu
scripts. The demand thus created gave occupation to many artists,
and these naturally could not always be found in France. It even

Fig. 400.— Scenes from the Story of Joseph. Minia
ture from the Psalter of St. Louis.

654

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

seems that the best illuminators were foreigners. A Flemish paint
er, John of Bruges, was employed by Charles V., and in the service
of the Due de Berri were several artists from the Netherlands,
among them Paul of Limburg, Jacquemart Hedin, and the cele
brated Andrien Beauneveu from Hainault. This shows that even
before the time of Van Eyck the painting of the Netherlands had
exercised an influence upon the art of France similar to that ob
served in the province of sculpture at the court of Philip the Bold
at Dijon, — not to speak*
^ ky\d °"f t*ie R°manic bronze-
ZAVPE  \6^r\ work of the Dinandiers.
As was the case also in
sculpture, French illumina
tors, — such as Raoul d'Or-
leans, who was employed
by Charles V., and Jean
Nichasius, who worked for
the last Duchess of Bra
bant, — appear side by side
with Flemish artists; the
influence of the latter,
however, was undeniably
predominant. The Petites
Heures of the Due de Ber
ri, painted in great part
by Andrien Beauneveu,
between 1401 and 1403 ;
Jacquemart's Grandes
Heures of 1409, both in
the National Library of
Paris ; and the Heures, partly illustrated by Paul of Limburg, dat
ing from 1416, now in possession of the Due d'Aumale, are among
the finest codices existing. That they were highly prized even
during the lifetime of the artists is evident from the fact that
Jacquemart's Heures were valued at four thousand livres Tournois
in the inventory of the estate of the first possessor. Books of
almost equal importance also exist to which no names of artists

Fig. 401;— Miniature Portrait of King Louis IX.,
from a Document referable to about A. D. 1320.
National Archives, Paris.

FRANCE.

655

are attached, such as the Mariale in the Bibliotheque Mazarine at
Paris, and the Heures of 1407 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
The fully-developed realism of the art of the Netherlands of the
fifteenth century never appears in the French illuminations. The
ideal character, and the sentimentality typical of the later Gothic,
always remained in the religious representations, — a certain simi
larity thus resulting to the school of Cologne. After the time of
Charles greater attention was given to portraiture, although that

Fig. 402.— Miniature Portrait of King Charles V., from a Document dated A.D. 1379.
National Archives, Paris.
truth to nature in all its details which characterizes the work of
Jan Van Eyck could not be attained, the gou&che treatment not ad
mitting of the refinement peculiar to oil painting. Notwithstanding
all this, France retained some degree of independence, which can
be traced even in Burgundy at the court of Philip the Bold and
his successors, and in the Provence, at the court of King Rene of
Anjou, although the influence of the Netherlands was especially
marked in these two provinces. National peculiarities were most
prominent in those districts of France which had no direct inter-

656 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
course with the Netherlands. In the second half of the fifteenth
centuiy appears a French illuminator of great importance and emi
nent independence, Jean Fouquet of Tours.
Fouquet was not a painter of miniatures alone. The diptych
of Melun, the work of his hand, fully explains the admiration which
was excited, even in Italy, by the portrait of Pope Eugene IV, ref
erable to the year 1445. One panel of this diptych, — that contain
ing the portrait of Agnes Sorel as the Virgin, — is in the Museum of
Antwerp ; the other part, — with the treasurer of King Charles VIL,

Fig. 403.— St. Martin and the Beggar. Miniature by J. Fouquet. Collection of Feuillet
de Conches, Paris.

Etienne Chevalier, in the character of St. Stephen, — is in the pos
session of L. Brentano in Frankfort-on-the-Main. The chief ability
of Fouquet, however, was displayed in illumination. The French
translation of Boccaccio, dating from 1458, now in the Library of
Munich, and the fragmentary prayer-book of Etienne Chevalier in
the collection of L. Brentano show, in conception as well as in exe
cution, influences derived from the Netherlands and Italy ; but the
composition and the heads are entirely French, and this excellent
master deserves to be considered as a true representative of his na-

ENGLAND. 657
tion. The style of Fouquet forms a transition between the Gothic
and the Renaissance. Notwithstanding his endeavor to effect a
compromise, his works clearly show that, in the rivalry between
the Netherlands and Italy, the latter was to be successful.
ENGLAND*
The dependence of the Britons upon the artistic methods of
the Continent was the same in painting as in sculpture. Even in
the time of Henry II. , A.D. 1216 to 1272, painters were called
from Italy, Germany, and France, the productions of the English
themselves being of but secondary importance. It was probably
owing to Italian influence that mural painting attained a greater
importance in England than in France, the clergy emulating the
court in the decoration of chapels and halls. Unfortunately there
are but few memorials of this activity. In regard to the Painted
Chamber of Westminster, referable to the thirteenth century, our
information is derived solely from descriptions ; and of the exten
sive mural paintings, executed in the fourteenth century under
Edward III. in the Chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster, only in
exact drawings from the year 181 1 now remain. They suffice, how
ever, to exhibit the dependence of the originals, in stylistic respects,
upon France ; this becomes especially evident by a comparison
with French glass paintings. The resemblance to these latter is
particularly striking in the painted windows of the cathedrals of
Salisbury, Lincoln, York, etc.
The panel painting of England shows few original features, even
in the portraits, and displays the influence of Italy rather than that
of France, which is the more surprising as the French, after the
fourteenth century, had cultivated this branch with great success.
The diptych of King Richard II. in Wilton House, and the por
trait of the same king in Westminster Abbey, betray the hand of
a master trained in the school of Giotto or in that of Siena. It
cannot be ascertained whether the superfrontale of Westminster,
dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century, formerly placed

* H. Walpole, Anecdotes' of Painting in England, edited by R. N. Wornum. London,
1849. 42

658 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
above the high-altar but now in the southern transept, is an Eng
lish production or was imported from abroad. At all events, the
work, in style as well as in the arrangement of the figures of saints
standing in tabernacles, and the small scenes in the compartments,
cannot be distinguished from the French altar-pieces of the age
succeeding Louis IX.
The best results in England were attained in miniature paint
ing, as had been the case during the Anglo-Saxon period. The
early national tradition was here worth preserving, and retained its
hold even until the close of the thirteenth century, long after the
influence of France had changed the general character of this as of
all other branches of English painting. The gorgeous red and blue
colors derived from glass painting and customary in the miniatures
of the age of St. Louis, did not continue to be long employed in
England. Particular attention was devoted to elaborate borders,
these giving ample opportunity for British humor to indulge in
somewhat broad drolleries. On the whole, English works show
realistic tendencies and a taste for portrait -like characterization.
It is worthy of note, in this connection, that the English did not
readily accept the methods of their Dutch neighbors, either in illu
mination or in panel painting. Although artists from the Nether
lands were occasionally employed in England, their influence is
never apparent in the art of this country. This was undoubtedly
due in great measure to the unfavorable political conditions of the
island in the second half of the fifteenth century.
ITALY*
In no other country of Europe affected by the Gothic style was
the development of architecture so divergent from that of France
as in Italy; in none was the sculpture so individual. This inde-

* G. Rosini, Storia della pittura italiana, esposta coi monumenti. Pisa, 1839-1854. 
F. v. Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen. Berlin, 1827-1831. — E. Forster, Denkmaler der
italienischen Malerei, Geschichte der italienischen Kunst. Leipzig, 1870-1882.  Crowe
und Cavalcaselle, Geschichte der italienischen Malerei. Leipzig, 1869-1876.  C. Schnaase,
Geschichte der bildenden Kunst im Mittelalter. II. Ed. Vol. V. Diisseldorf, 1878. 
W. Lttbke, Geschichte der italienischen Malerei. Stuttgart; 1878.  J. Burckhardt Der
Cicerone. V. Ed. Vol. III. Leipzig, 1884.

ITALY. 659
pendence was still more marked in painting. Northern influences
can be traced in the architecture of Italy, and a certain similarity
may be detected between the sculptures of Rheims and Siena; but
there is not the slightest connection between the Tuscan painting
of the fourteenth century and that of France and Germany.
The country of the Apennines was, in painting, influenced by
artistic traditions of- much less promise than those of the North.
Neither in Germany nor in France had the painting of the Ro
manic epoch been so utterly outworn and debased as that of the
early Christians and Byzantines, or so crude as the independent at
tempts of Italy. In the Northern countries the conventional and
the original elements had already formed a combination of much
fecundity, the existing methods and types being transformed and
improved. In Italy, on the other hand, it was necessary to cast
aside altogether the decrepit and sterile art which had previously
obtained. The painting of the Gothic epoch in Italy differed also from
that of France and Germany, inasmuch as far less attention was
devoted to illumination and stained glass, the Italians chiefly fur
thering mural and panel painting, — branches which on the north of
the Alps were almost wholly neglected during the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.
Among the productions of Italy in this art, it is beyond ques
tion that the best were those which followed Byzantine traditions,
—derived either from the works of Ravenna, of the time of Justin
ian, or from the examples in Venice, Rome, and Lower Italy im
ported during later ages from the Eastern Empire. The mosaics
of the Cathedral of Spoleto, executed by Solsernus A.D. 1207, and
those of the Baptistery of Florence, referable to Andrea Tafi and
Fra Jacopo, completed in 1225, in their servile imitation of older
Byzantine models can claim no higher merit than that of technical
ability ; yet, notwithstanding this dependence, they are superior to
the productions of those contemporaries who endeavored to carry
out their own original designs. This is true even of the most es
teemed of these artists : Giunta Pisano, for instance, who worked
between 1210 and 1236, and is at his worst when he emancipates
himself from Byzantine models ; or Margaritone of Arezzo, A. D.

660 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
1236 to 13 13, whose helpless and uncouth dilettantism is apparent
in a large picture in the National Gallery of London.
The chief merit of Giovanni Cimabue of Florence and his con
temporary Guido (Graziani) of Siena consists in having given more
grace and gentleness of expression, and more action to their colos
sal madonnas, especially, also, to the surrounding angels, than had
previously been attempted.' In conception and execution they
were still hampered by Byzantine limitations. The Madonna of
Cimabue, in the Capella Ruccellai of S. Maria Novella at Florence
(Fig. 404), and those in the Academy of that city and the Louvre,
have about the same moderate degree of animation as that of Guido
in S. Domenico at Siena ; it is hence impossible to speak of a break
of the traditions through striking innovations in this regard, or of
any marked contrast between Florentine and Sienese art. The su
periority of Cimabue may be conjectured from his mural paintings
at Assisi ; these would doubtless serve to heighten the estimation in
which he is at present held, were it not that their bad state of pres
ervation obliges us to base our opinion chiefly upon the madonnas
before mentioned. At all events, the series in question exhibits
much life in gesture and expression, contrasting strongly with the
stiffness of the traditional types, and showing features fully worthy
of the master of Giotto.
If Cimabue was not quite equalled by his contemporary Guido
of Siena, he appears to have been surpassed by the Sienese Duccio
di Buoninsegna, who worked between 1282 and 1320. The chief
fame of this artist, as of Guido, was attained in panel painting, but
he deserves to be considered in this connection because of the mon
umental size of his most remarkable work, the altar-piece of the Ca
thedral of Siena, executed between 1308 and 131 1, and now exist
ing only in fragments. Although the Byzantine character is still
evident, the Madonna shows a great advance in regard to expres
sion, and this is even more marked in the angels and saints. The
representations of the Passion, formerly upon the back of the altar,
are of simple arrangement, ennobled by a spirituality quite new in
Italy, but which in later times became characteristic of the Sienese
and Umbrian schools.
The fame of Duccio was obscured by that of his Florentine con-

ITALY.

661

Fig. 404. — Madonna Rucellai, by Cimabue, in S. Maria Novella, Florence.

temporary, Giotto di Bondone, who was born in Del Colle, near
Vespignano, about the year 1266. He stood in a relation to the
sculptor Giovanni Pisano similar to that of Cimabue to Niccolo.

662 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
The two latter artists have certain archaic and Romanic tendencies
in common, while the two former resemble each other in their real
istic methods, more in harmony with Gothic ideals. In regard to
truth to nature, in form and expression, Giotto learned more from
Giovanni Pisano than from his master Cimabue, whose archaism and
Byzantinism he endeavored to overcome. The peculiar merit of
Giotto's art consists in the substitution of his own observation of
nature for outworn forms, of his individual ideas for traditional con
ceptions. Similar attempts had previously led only to a crude di
lettantism : the genius of Giotto was the first to master this difficult
task. In order to accomplish this he simplified his means as much
as possible, avoiding all complications, and endeavored only to rep
resent his subject faithfully and clearly. The positions, gestures,
and garments are simple and unaffected ; ornamental lines and effec
tive draperies were as foreign to his nature as were rich details or
elaborate architecture and landscapes. The heads are typical and
of no individual interest, being normal, but with little personality
or beauty. The gestures are moderate and natural, but not always
rendered with understanding of the structure of the body, the lack
of which is especially manifest in the inorganic hands and feet. On
the whole, the dramatic action is well balanced and forcibly ex
pressed. There are no purposeless and idle figures ; each takes a
direct part in the scene. The naive rendering agrees well with the
simple and artistic conception. There is always an impressive truth
of characterization, the imposing effect of which is heightened by
the scanty means employed.
Giotto seems to have followed Cimabue to Assisi about the year
1296, where, as the assistant of his former master, he executed the
paintings of the Chapel of S. Francesco, consisting, of twenty-eight
representations of the legend of that saint. It was of much im
portance for the development of Giotto's style, that, in this first
task upon which he was engaged, the novelty of the subjects ren
dered a strict adherence to traditional models impossible. It is not
known whether the resolution to give expression to his own original
conceptions, even in those representations which for centuries had
been conventionalized, dates from the time of his employment in
Rome, between 1298 and 1300. His works in that city,— especially

ITALY. 663
the much-restored mosaic of St. Peter walking upon the sea (the so-
called Navicella), in the portico of St. Peter, — are in so bad a state
of preservation that no certain conclusions can be drawn from them.
It may, however, be presumed that the nature of the technical exe
cution, and the previous training of his Roman assistants, greatly in
terfered with the display of his own originality. This was the more
natural in Rome, where numerous works had at that time been exe
cuted in the traditional method ; as, for instance, the series of mosa
ics of the life of the Virgin in the apse of S. Maria in Trastevere,
completed by Pietro Cavallini in 1291 ; those in the apses of S. Gio
vanni in Laterano and S. Maria Maggiore, referable to Jacopo Tor
rid, A.D. 1288 to 1292; and those in the portico of the last-named
church, by Filippo Rusuti. Giotto more systematically carried out
his peculiar conceptions and methods in the next painting upon
which he was engaged, between 1303 and 1306: his most extensive
and best preserved work, the decoration of the Chapel of S. Maria
degli Scrovegni at Padua, usually called dell' Arena, because of the
neighboring amphitheatre.
The edifice is itself bare and of no architectural importance, but
the walls are entirely covered with paintings, all of which are by
Giotto, excepting those in the choir, and the representations of the
Virtues and Vices, gray in gray, on the socle. There is no trace
of the subordination of painting to architecture, the building being
constructed with sole reference to mural decoration. The three
horizontal rows of pictures, one above another, are altogether op
posed to the vertical tendencies of the Gothic style. Even greater
freedom, however, was exhibited in regard to the mode of artistic
presentation. In the choice of subjects, and especially in their em
ployment for larger or smaller compositions, Giotto is here entirely
original. At times the dramatic, at times the epic element prevails,
and even genre features appear, — only the lyric character of Sienese
painting is lacking. There are no reminiscences whatever of the
courtliness and conventionality of French art. Giotto's expression
of sentiment is forcible, occasionally exaggerated, and shows demo
cratic power rather than aristocratic self-command and dignity. In
pathetic scenes, such as the Entombment, it rises into wild passion ;
the gestures are unrestrained, the lamentation clamorous. The ac-

664

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

tion is so concentrated that the foremost figures turn their backs
upon the beholders. Never is a figure introduced for the sake of
effect, never has an attitude been chosen because merely it was fa
vorable to the composition ; on the contrary, it often happens that
positions extremely disadvantageous in artistic respects are adopted
through a desire to attain a striking characterization of the subject.

Fig. 405.— The Awakening of Lazarus. Wall Painting by Giotto in S. Maria dell' Arena
at Padua.

There is no trace of portrait-like individuality. The type of face
represented by the artist is always the same, the narrow almond-
shaped eyes with the dark pupils are unnatural, and the other feat
ures but little studied, yet the countenance conveys the intended
expression. The modelling of the .body is often incorrect, but the
positions and gestures are rightly conceived, and, in the principal
figures at least, full of dignity and grandeur. The garments have

ITALY. 665
entirely lost the Byzantine superabundance of folds. When com
pared with the rich draperies of Northern Gothic art they have al
most a scant appearance ; still, the necessary lines are given with fine
taste and discrimination. The minor parts are well subordinated,
and the details, so prominent in Northern art, are here but second
ary. The landscape and vegetation are extremely simple, and the

r.J>9 a-

Fig. 406.— The Vow of Poverty. Painting by Giotto upon the Ceiling of S. Francesco
at Assisi.
architecture merely symbolical ; the animals are treated as accessa
ries, with no deep study of nature.
The later works of Giotto show greater maturity of style, cor
rectness of form, higher expression, and even beauty. This is evi
dent in the four allegorical paintings of the ceiling, at the inter
section of transept and nave in the lower story of S. Francesco at
Assisi, representing the apotheosis of the founder of the order,
and the three vows of Poverty (Fig. 406), Chastity, and Obedience.

666 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
The improvement is still more noticeable in the series of the lives
of St. Francis, St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, in
the chapels of the families of Bardi and Peruzzi in S. Croce at Flor
ence, which far surpass the similar representations at Assisi and
Padua. It is only to be regretted that they are not nearly so well
preserved as those last- mentioned.
Giotto opened to the painting of Italy its chief field; that of
mural decoration, executed al fresco, — in water-colors upon fresh
plaster, — this process having apparently been introduced by him.
Mosaic- work was almost entirely superseded by this method, and
even glass painting, the monumental art of the North, was consid
ered so far inferior that it was but rarely employed in Italy. Nor
did the other branches of painting become popular. While, in the
northern countries, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
miniature -like panel painting and the illumination of books were
preferred, in Italy the best artists devoted their activity to monu
mental fresco. Giotto was employed, with a large number of pupils
and assistants, in Assisi, Rome, Padua, Rimini, and Naples, to which
places he was called with much honor. He finally established his
school in Florence, then the centre of Italian culture, thus giving to
the painting of that city a pre-eminence which it maintained for
more than a hundred years.
At the death of Giotto, A.D. 1337, his school was firmly estab
lished. Among his pupils, Taddeo Gaddi (d. 1366) longest enjoyed
the training of the master, and, in the mural paintings of the Capella
Baroncelli in S. Croce in Florence, approaches most closely to the
works of Giotto in the same church, — being inferior to him only in
concentration and force of dramatic action. If, as Vasari says, the
decorations of the Chapter-hall of S. Maria Novella (the so-called
Spanish Chapel) are by the hand of Gaddi, he is not without a cer
tain individuality. These paintings are distinguished by a grandeur
and depth of feeling which are seldom found in the works of Giotto,
and rather resemble the products of Sienese art. It is not known
whether the interesting symbolical compositions, which compare
with the legendary representations of Giotto as do the principles of
the Dominicans with those of the Minorites, are wholly referable to
the artist, or were dictated by the scholastic theology of the breth-

ITALY. 667
ren. Bernardo di Daddo would rank with Taddeo, were it certain,
or even probable, that, — as Milanesi assumes from the Codex Gad-
diani in the Bibliotheca Magliabechiana, — he executed the large
frescos in the Campo Santo of Pisa, the Triumph of Death and
the Last Judgment, erroneously attributed by Vasari to Orcagna.
The first of these pictures especially, in direct observation of
nature and depth of thought, surpasses even the works of Giotto.
The expression of the heads cannot be accounted for without as
suming the Sienese influence of Simone di Martino. Among the
more distinguished followers of Giotto must be mentioned the artist
of the frescos in the Capella Strozzi, in the left transept of S. Maria
Novella in Florence, which show a considerable advance over Giotto
in the drawing of the human form ; this is not, however, so apparent
in the Last Judgment and the Hell as in the Paradise. The artist is
Andrea di Cione (Orcagna — d. 1368), whose activity in architecture
and sculpture has, like that of Giotto, been referred to.
Maso di Banco, who executed the frescos in the Capella S. Sil-
vestro of S. Croce in Florence, was under the direct training of
Giotto. But the influence of the great master is to be observed
also in the works of artists not connected with his school, and in
those of self-educated painters. This was the case with Buonamico
Cristofani (Buffalmaco), if, indeed, the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and
Ascension in the Campo Santo of Pisa are to be ascribed to him ;
probably, also, with Maestro Stefano, renowned as Scimia della
Natura (Ape of Nature), and his son Giotto di Stefano (Giottino),
although the lack of attested works does not warrant absolute cer
tainty in regard to the two latter artists. The influence of Giotto,
in the second generation of his Florentine school, is still strongly ap
parent in Agnolo Gaddi, Jacopo di Casentino, Giovanni da Milano,
pupils of Taddeo Gaddi ; in Francesco Traini da Pisa, the follower
of Orcagna, and in Andrea da Firenze, Antonio Veneziano, Fran
cesco da Volterra, Pietro Puccio da Orvieto, and others. Sienese
influence is noticeable in several of these, but that of the school of
Giotto is unmistakable in all. It continued unaltered far into the
fifteenth century, through the third and fourth generations, as is
shown by Spinello Aretino, Nicola di Pietro Cierino, Fra Lorenzo
da Firenze, and Gherardo Stamina.

668 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
An acquaintance with the works of Giotto and his school is to
be traced even in the style of artists who seem never to have visited
Florence. The paintings of the Incoronata at Naples, which in the
time of Vasari were held to be by the hand of Giotto himself, might
to-day be so considered, were it not rendered certain, both by the
subject and by the date of the erection of the chapel, that they
must have been executed after the year 1352. It is not now known
to whom they are to be ascribed, and it is possible that their artist
was a Florentine ; still, the attested works of the Neapolitan Ro
berto di Oderisio do not materially differ from them. The decora
tion of the Capella dell' Arena fully accounts, in point of style, for
the works of Guariento in Padua and Venice, and for those of
Altichiero da Zevio of Verona and Jacopo Avanzi, — who together
executed the beautiful pictures in the Capella S. Felice of S. Anto
nio at Padua (Fig. 407), — without our being obliged to assume that
these artists stood in any personal connection with Giotto. The
influence of the master naturally appears in Bologna, in the produc
tions of Vitale and Lippo di Dalmasio. Barnaba of Modena would
not have been called to Pisa and intrusted with the execution of
mural paintings if his art had not been deemed similar and equal to
that of the other painters of the Campo Santo. In panel painting
his methods were more archaistic, as were also those of Tommaso da
Mutina, who transferred the scene of his activity to Prague, while
Stamina worked chiefly in Spain.
No real progress is evident in the works of these artists. What
was gained in correctness, particularly in the modelling of the hands
and feet, was lost in ideal conception, the simple grandeur of the
composition being neglected in the elaboration of the details. As
a matter of course, a mechanical and mannered treatment, and forms
without deep significance, became prominent ; the more as the tech
nical ability, practice, and experience increased.
Only in one Italian town, Siena, did any noteworthy indepen
dence appear, this being developed by a master whose artistic prin
ciples differed radically from those of Giotto, but who in many re
spects fully equalled the Florentine master. Mention has already
been made of Duccio di Buoninsegna as emulating Cimabue. The
fame of Giotto was similarly rivalled by his younger contemporary,

ITALY. 669
Simone di Martino, A. D. 1284 to 1344, whose chief work, the large
mural painting in the Town -hall of Siena, representing the Virgin
and Saints, was completed in 1 315. The art of Simone has, on the
whole, more in common with Gothic principles than has that of
Giotto ; he cared less for dramatic realism and characterization than
for delicate expression combined with a high feeling for beauty,
such as is seldom found in the productions of the Florentine school.

Fig. 407. — The Martyrdom of St. George. Fresco in the Capella S. Felice of S. Antonio
at Padua.
The types of the Madonna, of the Angels and Saints (Fig. 408), as
seen in this picture, and the reverent and devotional attitude of
every figure, are to be found in the Gothic sculptures of France, but
not in the works of the school of Giotto. The Sienese conception
here evident is altogether opposed to the Florentine: the schools
standing in such relation as that of Cologne to that of Flanders
and Brabant. The same traits appear in the mural paintings of

' I

670

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

Avignon, in which town Simone passed the latter part of his life.
The artist, however, was by no means wanting in power, as is evi
dent from the equestrian portrait of General Guidoriccio Folignani,
executed by Simone, A. D. 1328, in the Town-hall of Siena, on the
wall opposite the Madonna before mentioned. His fame is founded
in great measure upon his portraits, chiefly those of women, which
show great power of characterization. In this branch he adopted
the practice of panel painting, as will be mentioned hereafter.
Simone's brother, Donato di Martino, and his brother-in-law,
Lippo Memmi, seem to have been his assistants and imitators, the
style of the master being recognizable in the Madonna of Lippo in

Fig. 408. — Part of the Fresco of Simone di Martino in the Town-hall of Siena.

the Town-hall of S. Gimignano. A more independent position was
attained by the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio di Lorenzo. The
former is known as a painter upon panels, while the latter deserves
to be regarded as one of the greatest masters of his time, on ac
count of his fresco in the Hall of the Nine in the Palazzo Publico
of Siena, executed between 1338 and 1340. This latter work, one
of the best productions of its kind of the Middle Ages, represents
good government with its beneficent results, and, in a somewhat
weaker companion-piece, tyranny and its consequences. In general
arrangement the pictures resemble the allegorical paintings of the
Spanish Chapel at Florence ; but the scholasticism of the composi
tion is more rigid and inartistic, the allegories being in this respect

ITALY. 671
Inferior to those of Giotto in the Church of S. Francesco at Assisi.
In beauty of form and expression, on the other hand, they far sur
pass all contemporary works of Florence, in some details even equal
ling the classic remains of Pompeii and of the oldest catacombs.
The other masters of Siena are more inferior to Simone and
Ambrogio than are the later Florentines to Giotto. Barna, Bartolo
di Fredi, Andrea Vanni, Taddeo di Bartolo di Mino, and others,
had an academic and mechanical routine which, with the senti
mental tendencies of the Sienese, often resulted in a vacant and
disagreeable expression almost amounting to a grimace. The Hall
of Paintings, at Siena, is thus unattractive and unsatisfactory. The
attention of the later Sienese artists was directed rather to panel
painting than to fresco, this corresponding not only to their individ
ual abilities, but to the general tendencies of their school, which,
while foreign to the epic and dramatic character of mural painting,
were better adapted to small devotional pictures.
During the fifteenth century both schools attained to an emi
nence worthy of their great beginnings. The higher artistic quali
ties of both, the dramatic action of the Florentines, and the lyric
sentiment of the Sienese were combined. This was effected by two
masters, Masolino and Fiesole, whose appearance marks the transi
tion from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Masolino da Panicale, born about 1383, followed chiefly the meth
ods of Giotto. It is not definitely known how and where he passed
the early part of his life, nor whether he was indeed a pupil of Star-
nina, as Vasari says. Between 1423 and 1425 he was in Florence;
after this he worked for two years in Hungary, whither he had fol
lowed the fortunate adventurer Filippo Scolari ; later he was em
ployed in Castiglione d'Olona, near Varese, in the district of Como,
where, in the Collegiate Church and in the Baptistery, he executed
a number of paintings, those of the latter building being dated 1435.
These are the only works which can be ascribed to him with cer
tainty. It is possible, however, that they were preceded by those
in the Chapel of St. Catherine in S. Clemente at Rome, and by the
frescos in the Capella Brancacci of the Church of the Carmelites at
Florence, which are undoubtedly referable to the beginning of the
third decade of the fifteenth century. His share in the latter paint-

672 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
ings is not to be distinguished, and his works in Castiglione and
S. Clemente, although of no slight merit, are based upon the style
of Giotto ; hence, it is not possible to place Masolino at the head
of the great advance of the Quatrocento.
Fiesole, his- contemporary, has better title to this distinction.
Guido di Pietro, born at Vicchio, near Mugello, in 1387, upon en
tering the Dominican convent in Fiesole, A. D. 1407, took the name
of Fra Giovanni, and wore the habit of the order until his death
at an advanced age. The last decades of his life were passed in
S. Marco at Florence, and in S. Maria Sopra Minerva at Rome. His
training was certainly Florentine, but his ecstatic piety led him to
an expression of sentiment similar to that of Simone and Ambrogio.
Truly mediaeval in his art, he felt, rather than understood, nature.
There are many imperfections in the forms, but in the devotional
rapture of his visions he envelops his figures in a celestial halo
which admits of no doubt as to the depth of his inspiration, and
compensates for many defects of drawing. He is at his best in the
representation of glorified saints, a subject in which this most eccle
siastical of all painters has never been surpassed. He is inferior
when he abandons the heavenly spheres of the blessed or the ec
stasies of the holy ones on earth, and becomes almost scurrilous in
representing malice and violence, feelings altogether remote from
the heart of Angelico, as he was named at his beatification. If the
compositions of Giotto may be termed dramas, those of Fiesole are
hymns. Both are deficient in objective realism, but each in his own
direction has great subjective power and truth.
The excellence of Fiesole was less dependent upon the spirit of
his age than upon that of his subject. His best production is the
large Crucifixion in the Chapter-hall of S. Marco, at Florence, which
convent he rendered a museum of his art, every painting by him in
the cells of his brethren being, in its way, of great effect and attrac
tion. It may even be said that the attempt to attain a higher de
gree of realism, to which he was induced by the progress of his later
contemporaries, was by no means advantageous. This is evident in
the general effect of the series of paintings, begun by him in 1 347, in
the Chapel of Nicolas V. in the Vatican. In the main, however, he
was but little open to outward influences, notwithstanding the fact

ITALY. 673
that, when his tomb in S. Maria Sopra Minerva at Rome was closed
in 1455, the new era in Italian painting had long since commenced.
The last mediaeval artist of Italy, he fully expressed the mystic
ecclesiasticism of the Middle Ages, as his younger contemporary,
Fra Filippo Lippi, did the somewhat frivolous worldliness of the
Renaissance. The panel painting of Italy had few distinctive characteristics.
It was practised but rarely by the eminent fresco painters, whose
works of this kind make it evident that their chief activity was
directed towards another branch. Panel painting long continued
archaistic, and something of the Byzantine tradition was preserved,
even by those artists who, in mural painting, had more or less eman
cipated themselves from it. Cimabue and Duccio di Buoninsegna
¦ were equally Byzantine in their Madonnas, while in the frescos at
Assisi the former shows a far greater freedom. Even Giotto was
unmistakably archaistic in the Madonna of d'Ogni Santi in Florence,
now in the Academy of that city. His small, almost miniature-like
pictures, however, such as the panels of the shrine in the sacristy of
S. Croce, — now separated, and preserved in the galleries of Berlin
and Munich, and in the Academy of Florence, — betray the charac
ter of the former models in enamel as little as the frescos retain
the style of the mosaics which preceded them. All the panel paint
ings of Giotto show his inferiority in this branch as compared to
fresco ; this is notably the case with the Madonna of the Church
degli Angeli near Bologna, now in the Brera of Milan, — the only
work which bears his signature. The firm hold of archaism upon
panel painting is evident even in the comparatively late Madonna
of Bernardo di Daddo in Orsanmicchele at Florence. This conven
tional character was not entirely overcome until the rise of the
school of Taddeo Gaddi, who himself, — witness his altar-pieces in
the Gallery of Berlin, A.D. 1334, and Siena, A.D. 1355, — more
closely followed the style of Giotto's frescos than does Bernardo di
Daddo. An exception is Orcagna's altar-piece in the Capella Strozzi
of S. Maria Novella, which is but little inferior to his frescos.
Circumstances were more favorable to panel painting- in Siena
than in Florence. As we have seen, Duccio's fame was based upon
a work of this kind, and Simone di Martino's large fresco in the
43

674

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

Town-hall of Siena, both in arrangement and treatment of details,
has all the characteristics of an altar-piece transferred to a wall.
That his chief activity was in panel painting is evident from records
and from the works preserved; instance the large altar-pieces of
Orvieto and Pisa, now in the Opera del Duomo and in the Semina
ry of Pisa, the Annunciation of the Cathedral of Siena, now in the
Uffizi of Florence, and his portraits, highly praised by his contem
poraries. His preference for gold in the backgrounds and patterned
garments, the greenish priming
of the flesh tints, and other
traits, show reminiscences of the
Byzantine methods, which were
retained also by Simone's broth
er-in-law and assistant, Lippo
Memmi. Even Pietro di Lo
renzo (Lorenzetti), who is known
only as a painter upon panels
from the works existing in Siena,
Florence, and Arezzo, and who
appears to have been the most
distinguished master of this
branch in the fourteenth cen
tury, could not entirely free
himself from these archaistic
tendencies ; the same character
is seen also in the works of
Taddeo di Bartolo, a later art
ist of this declining school, who
worked late in the fifteenth cen
tury.
Archaism is more noticeable in the provincial works, as, for ex
ample, in those of the two masters of Mutina, Barnaba and Tom-
maso (Fig. 409), not to speak of the paintings of the early schools
of Venice and Murano, where Byzantinism was conscious and inten
tional. In the fifteenth century panel painting became entirely free
from the old traditions, the works of Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, espe
cially, showing no trace of it. His harmonious natufe could accept

Fig. 409.-

-Madonna, by Tommaso da Mutina.
Belvedere, Vienna.

ITALY. 675
no technical dualism. The delicacy of his numerous easel-pieces,
and their coloring, clear and cheerful, though somewhat cool, and at
times too variegated, distinctly betray his preference for this branch
of painting, and even for miniature; still, in composition and chiar
oscuro, his style is derived from fresco. With him, as with most
Italians, mural paintings are not mere enlargements of panefr paint
ings ; on the contrary, these latter have rather the character of min
iature-like reductions of monumental works.
The art of illumination which was so predominant in France,
was, in Italy, of even less importance than panel painting. Cele
brated names and distinguished works are not altogether wanting,
and the centres of science, especially Bologna, which had attained
an international celebrity, naturally furthered the writing of manu
scripts. Dante praises two illuminators of Bologna, Oderigi da
Gubbio, who lived at the same time as Cimabue, and Franco, the
contemporary of Giotto ; while, towards the middle of the four
teenth century, we hear of the Camaldolese monk Silvestro in Flor
ence. But no works signed with these names are known, and the
codices of Nicola da Bologna, referable to the second half of the
fourteenth century, are of no great importance. In the productions
of this period the style of Giotto and that of Siena are generally
combined with influences from France, — the energetic decorative
coloring of the time of Louis IX. frequently appearing.
Italian illuminators were occasionally called to France, even to
the court of the Due de Berri ; this does not, however, imply their
artistic superiority or even equality, as it must have been chiefly
the result of the desire of the collectors for variety of treatment.
France had as little need of furtherance from Italy in illumination
as in glass painting. Until the middle of the fifteenth century the
very best Italian miniatures were inferior in delicacy and beauty to
those of France and the Netherlands, while there was little or no
painting upon glass in Italy. The Italians can only be considered
as missionaries of art in mural and, in some measure, in panel paint
ing, in which branches they occasionally displayed a brilliant activ
ity in foreign countries ; instance Simone di Martino in Avignon,
Gherardo Stamina in Spain, Tommaso da Mutina in Prague, and
Masolino da Panicale in Hungary.

676 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
GERMANY.*
What has been said of the development of German sculpture
during the Gothic period applies, in the main, to that of painting.
The influence of France was neither rapid nor decisive in its effect.
The Romanic style predominated in the works of the transitional
epoch, and but little change is to be observed before the middle of
the thirteenth century. In the Rhenish countries French concep
tions were in some measure introduced into sculpture and painting
through the erection of the grand cathedrals of Freiburg, Strasburg,
and Cologne; but the remainder of Germany continued indepen
dent. Still, the conventional Byzantinism, the hieratic stiffness of
monastic art, which during the Romanic epoch had not given way
before the occasional attempts at realism, were soon altogether
abandoned. They were not, however, replaced by that elegant
idealism which was the expression of the courtly and chivalric
French character, but by a realism based upon the family life of
the burghers. The painting of Germany, which in the Romanic
and transitional epochs had been entirely ecclesiastical, in the thir
teenth and fourteenth centuries received the stamp of the middle
classes, as the Gothic painting of France had that of the knights.
The conservatism of German painting manifested itself in the
long retention of the early Christian, Carolingian, and Romanic
methods of mural decoration, of which there was no trace in the
French Gothic. It is true, the grand cathedrals erected in the
new French style offered but little opportunity for wall painting ;
but this was provided by the more extensive wall surfaces of the
smaller churches and chapels, in which German architecture had
exhibited its full independence. Few examples remain from the
thirteenth century, most of the works having been lost by rebuild-
* E. Forster, Denkmale der deutschen Malerei. Leipzig, 1855-1869. — J.J. Merlo, Die
Meister der altkolnischen Malerschule. Koln, 1852. — L. A. Schreiber, Die hervorragend-
sten anonymen Meister und Werke der Kolner Malerschule von 1460 bis 1500. Bonn,
1880. — E. aus'm Weerth, Wandmalereien des Mittelalters in den Rheinlanden. Leipzig,
no date. — C. Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden Kilnste im Mittelalter. Second edition.
Vols. IV. and VI. — A. Woltmann und A. Woermann, Geschichte der- Malerei. Leipzig,
1879, 1880.

GERMANY.

677

ing, or by whitewashing the walls, or through wilful destruction and
the.effects of time. The series of kings in the choir of the Church
of Brauweiler on the Rhine, and the paintings of Rebdorf in Bava
ria, now transferred in thirteen panels to the National Museum of
Munich, suffice, nevertheless, to show the continuance of Romanic
methods. In the fourteenth century two widely different conceptions pre
vailed. In the Rhenish countries there was a style unmistakably

Fig. 410.— Wall Painting of the Church of the German Knights at Ramersdorf.
derived from French miniature and glass paintings. This is evident
in the decoration of the walls and ceiling of the Church of the
German Knights at Ramersdorf (Fig. 410), which, by the removal
of the church to the cemetery of Bonn, have unfortunately been
destroyed, and are only known through the excellent publication
of E. aus'm Weerth. It appears also in churches on the Upper
Rhine and Western Switzerland, at Gebweiler, Rosenweiler, and
Weissenburg in Alsace, in the crypt of the Minster of Basle, etc.
The graceful attitudes, the long and flowing draperies, the senti-

678 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
mental inclination of the heads, and the somewhat affected expres
sion, clearly betray the influence of France. This style pf painting
was most successfully practised in Cologne, where legendary repre
sentations from the lives of St. Peter and Pope Sylvester have been
preserved on the choir screen of the Cathedral, dating from the first
half of the fourteenth century. In the last half of the same century
the name of an artist appears, William of Cologne, who executed
mural paintings in St. Cunibert, in the New Hall, and in the Town-
hall. He is probably identical with the Master William mentioned
in the Chronicle of Limburg, of the year 1380, as the best portrait-
painter of Christendom, possibly also with the William of Herle
near Limburg, whose name occurs in the official records of Cologne
between 1358 and 1378. No specimens1 of his art can be positively
authenticated, but, judging from the general character of the paint
ings of this time, it may be assumed that he also followed, more or
less closely, the French methods.
In the German provinces more remote from the influence of
France the productions were essentially different. Among these
the extensive paintings in the Church of Oberwinterthur in Switz
erland are as important examples of the art of their time as are
those in Oberzell of that of the Romanic epoch. The series of
pictures which once covered the walls of the nave, illustrating the
youth of Christ and the legend of St. Arbogast, show few of the
limitations of the preceding period, but the greater freedom is not
accompanied by any corresponding progress in artistic respects.
The mural paintings in the Church of St. Afra at Schelklingen in
Wurtemberg, which have but lately been discovered, are still more
inferior (Fig. 41 1). The naive dilettantism of the contemporary
German miniatures is here seen free from all French refinements.
The compositions are rude and awkward, but vivid and original,
the sound observation of nature evident in them being far more
pleasing than the debased conventionalism of the former hieratic
style. The rigid dignity of the earlier works is entirely lost, but
this is outweighed by the straightforward and good-natured sim
plicity. That this rudeness was not merely intended to engage the atten
tion of the common people in country churches is proved by the

GERMANY. 679
contemporary representations of secular and poetical subjects, which
were as much in vogue in the castles of Germany as in those of
England. The most interesting of such scenes from the poets
would be those in the Castle of Runkelstein, near Botzen in the
Tyrol, were it not for their bad state of preservation. This series
is of the greatest variety, not only in the groups of classic, Jewish,
and Christian heroes and lovers, but in the romantic scenes from
Tristan, Garel, etc. Similar paintings are also to be seen in the
Ehinger Hof of Ulm.
In view of such works as these, it is not strange that the culti
vated Emperor Charles IV., — who had been educated at the French

Fig. 411.— The Adoration of the Magi. Wall Painting in the Choir of the Church of
St. Afra, Schelklingen, Wurtemberg.
court, and had married the sister of King Philip VI., Blanche of Val-
ois— could not be altogether satisfied with an art so unskilled. It
is characteristic of his cultured taste, and of the circumstances of
the time, that for the monumental paintings of his buildings, erected
by French architects, he called artists from Italy rather than from
France. The large mosaic of the portal of the southern transept of
the Cathedral at Prague, referable to the year 1371, seems to be of
Venetian workmanship. Tommaso da Mutina was doubtless also
intrusted with monumental tasks, although the only authenticated
works by his hand are panel paintings (Fig. 409). His influence is
recognizable in the Giottesque mural decorations of the Chapel of

68o

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

St. Catherine at Karlstein, and in those of the Cloister of Emaus.
Charles IV., however, seems himself to have ascertained that his
choice was not altogether satisfactory, as he turned his attention
from Italy to Strasburg, in which town there flourished, until late
into the fifteenth century, an eminently successful school of mural
painting. Thus Nicolaus, called Wurmser, of Strasburg, to whom
the paintings in the Church of the Virgin at Prague are, without
doubt, referable, entirely supplanted the influence of the Giottesque
Italian art in Bohemia.
After the end of the fourteenth century mural paintings became
more and more rare. The small number of the works of this kind

Fig. 412. — The Dance of Death. Scene from the Mural Paintings in
the Church of the Virgin, Berlin.
which have been preserved, and the entire lack of contemporary
description, render it impossible to judge of their artistic merit.
It appears that in extent and style they corresponded to the panel
paintings of the period, from which they can have differed only in
greater rudeness and hastiness of execution. In those districts
where brick architecture was universal the stuccoed surfaces of the
walls gave opportunity for more extensive representations in color,
and even, for cyclical scenes with many figures, such as the Dance
of Death in the Church of the Virgin at Berlin (Fig. 412).
As the demand for mural decoration decreased, that for stained

GERMANY. 68 1
glass increased. Until the close of the thirteenth century Romanic
features were retained in this branch of art, especially in the orna
mental portions. The combination of those elements with others
derived from the works of the early French Gothic, particularly
those of Chartres and Bourges, admits of no doubt concerning the
dependence of Germany upon French models. In the fourteenth
century, however, the Germans surpassed their neighbors even in
glass painting. The progress was first shown in the consequential
employment of Gothic architectural details ; a truly pictorial effect
of perspective and of light and shade was not attempted, regard
being paid rather to the flat and tapestry -like character befitting
painted windows. The new system was in marked contrast to that
previously obtaining, in which the windows had been divided into
circular, almond-shaped, and segmental compartments. It appears
in great perfection in the cathedrals of Strasburg, Freiburg, and
Cologne, and in numerous ecclesiastical edifices of the fourteenth
century (Fig. 413). The superiority of German productions does not
consist merely in the architectural memberment, but in the greatly
improved coloring. This resulted particularly from the extended
use of white and yellow, which had been too scantily employed by
the French, the superabundance of red, deep -blue, and purple in
their works being often offensive. On the other hand, the Germans
sometimes made the contrary mistake of favoring broken tones in
order to attain an effect of chiaroscuro, which in glass painting is
as inadmissible as a perspective treatment. The mosaic and tapes
try-like character is seen at its best when the composition is made
up of details so small that the beholder from a distance has only
the impression of harmoniously blended colors without distinguish
ing objects ; the ecclesiastical effect is as little impaired by this in
distinctness as it is by the failure to understand the words of a cho
ral. The finest productions of this kind are the windows in the choir
of the Cathedral of Ratisbon, a minute study of which might have
prevented many an error in the glass painting of the present cen
tury, — notably that of attempting the representation of subjects of
great extent.
Textile industry, especially embroidery, continued of subordi
nate importance. Tapestries intended for dorsels, coverings for

682

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

seats, canopies, etc., were made for the dwellings of nobles rather
than for the churches, and represented amorous subjects for the
chambers of the women, hunting scenes for the other rooms. Em
broidered garments were chiefly employed for liturgical purposes,
as priestly robes, etc. In all these, and in the embroidered altar
hangings and screens, the style remained, until the end of the four
teenth century, the same as in the Romanic period: a greater or

Fig- 4T3- — Glass Paintings from Kbnigsfelden, Switzerland.
less degree of dilettantism in treatment and subject being combined
with Arabian, or rather Sicilian, methods and forms. It is doubtful
whether the works of Germany in this branch ever equalled those
produced in the Netherlands after the Burgundian supremacy. The
dorsels were at times merely painted in tempera colors upon can
vas, while the hangings of the lower walls were imitated in mural
paintings.

GERMANY.

683

The panel painting of Germany did not attain to a more exten
sive employment, and to a higher artistic importance, until a com
paratively late period. Even after the superfrontalia had become
of greater prominence than the chalice shrines and the bases of
reliquaries, the ornaments of the altar were commonly sculptured,
painted altar-pieces being rare in the Romani'c epoch. The few
German panel paintings dating from the first half of the fourteenth
century are extremely archaic, the figures being lean and ascetic :
instance the earliest pictures of the school of Cologne, preserved in

Fig. 414. — Early Cologne Triptych. Museum of Cologne.
the Richartz-Wallraf Museum of that city (Fig. 414). Although in
the positions and draperies some concessions were made to the
ideals of the Gothic style, they followed in the main Byzantine and
Romanic types. Cyclical representations do not appear before the
middle of the fourteenth century, at which time the Emperor Charles
IV. established a school of panel painting in Prague. The employ
ment of Italian, French, and German artists side by side in the Bo
hemian capital naturally exercised great influence upon this branch ;
still, it cannot be asserted that the combination of elements so dis-

684

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

similar was altogether advantageous to the art of Prague. Charles
IV. did not succeed, like the Burgundian dukes, in attracting to his
court the best masters of the time ; and, moreover, Tommaso da
Mutina and Nicolas of Strasburg seem to have devoted but little
attention to panel painting. The chief representative of the school
of Prague is Master Dietrich, to whom are ascribed the pictures in
the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Karlstein, showing one hundred
and thirty-three half-figures of saints, in two and three rows, one
above another, upon backgrounds patterned in gold. Although the
forms are heavy and rude, the heads
and gestures are expressive and
characteristic. The entire lack of
courtly elegance renders any influ
ence of France improbable, the con
ception being more akin to that of
the art of Northern Germany.
A striking contrast to these
works is presented by those of Co
logne, referable to the second half
of the fourteenth century. The ad
vance in mural decoration, made in
the Rhenish provinces in the time
of Master William, was followed by
a corresponding progress in panel
painting. Even early and immature
works of this period (Fig. 415) differ
essentially from those of Dietrich
of Prague, which are characterized by rawboned and heavy forms.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century, however, the figures
became even more delicate, small, slender, and boneless, with narrow
hips. Strong and masculine features were prevalent in the style of
Bohemia ; feminine and nun-like in that of Cologne. It was doubt
less the type of the patrician maiden, in the town of St. Ursula and
her ten thousand virgins, which inspired the artists to paint heads
with fair hair and large foreheads, with modest, half-closed eyes, deli
cate noses, and pretty lips; while the young men of refined society
served as models for the almost puerile figures of such knightly

Fig. 415.— The Presentation in the Tem- •
pie. Panel Painting of Cologne, dat
ing from the middle of the Fourteenth
Century. Museum of Cologne.

E>

GERMANY. 685
saints as Gereon and Maurice. With all its lack of strength, its
exaggeration, and even mannerism, this type of Cologne is scarcely
less attractive than is that which similarly appears in the art of Siena.
The master of delicate sentiment to whom the altar of St. Clara in
the Cathedral of Cologne is to be ascribed may be compared to
Duccio; and there is an unmistakable resemblance between Simone
di Martino and the artist of St. Veronica, in the Pinakothek of Mu
nich, of the Madonna with the bean-blossom, in the Germanic Mu
seum of Nuremberg, and that of the Wallraf Museum of Cologne
(Fig. 398), who has been identified, upon insufficient grounds, with
the Master William of the Chronicle of Limburg. This likeness
does not extend to the coloring. The paintings of Cologne are in
nowise connected with mural decoration, but rather show a depend
ence upon stained glass in the selection and the transparency of the
colors; sometimes even in the arrangement of the composition, as
iii the Heisterbach Altar, in Munich.
A high degree of uniformity and affectation would inevitably
have resulted, had not the realistic and individual style of the Neth
erlands exercised an invigorating influence upon that of Cologne.
Traces of this influence are unmistakable in the famous altar-piece
in the Cathedral of Cologne, which was painted between 1430 and
1440 for the chapel of the Town -hall, and marks the highest per
fection attained by this school in the Middle Ages. This celebrated
triptych, representing the Adoration of the Magi, was admired by
Albert Diirer, and it is through an entry in his journal that the
name of the artist is known, — Master Stephen, probably Stephen
Lochner of Constance, who died in 145 1 as a magistrate of Cologne.
The master adhered to the traditions of the school in the ideal type
of the Madonna and in the gold background , but something of the
Flemish fineness of execution is evident in the male figures, in the
costumes and details, while, in technical respects, the new method.
and the coloring of the brothers Van Eyck is adopted without re
serve. The influence of the Netherlands is less prominent in such
works as the beautiful Madonna in the Rose Garden (Fig. 416), where
the Virgin is surrounded only by angels,— without the retinue of
saints, the treatment of whose figures required greater realism. In
works of this kind, where the subject is so entirely in harmony with

686

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

the character of the art of Cologne, the limitations of the school are
less manifest. They are, however, fully felt in a Last Judgment in
the same museum, which should be ascribed to an artist closely con
nected with Master Stephen. This picture contrasts most unfavor
ably with the compositions of Van Eyck.
It was only after the influence of the Netherlands had become

Fig. 416. — The Madonna in the Rose Garden. Panel Painting of Master Stephen in the
Museum of Cologne.

more prevalent that the artists of Cologne could successfully under
take the representation of legends while preserving in some measure
their ideal tendencies. The advance is first evident in the cyclical
scenes from the life of the Virgin, in the Pinakothek of Munich,
without doubt the best production of the so-called master of the

GERMANY. 687
Lyversberg Passion. The Rhenish countries at this time seem to
have been influenced by Dutch rather than Flemish art, the meth
ods of the Master of Lyversberg showing greater resemblance to
those of Dierick Bouts than to those of Van Eyck and Rogier. This
applies also to the other Rhenish and Westphalian masters, whose
names are not known, but who are designated by the subjects of
their chief pictures, or by the places where these were found. Among
them are the Master of Liesborn, whose chief work is in the Nation
al Gallery of London; the Master of the Holy Companionship, of St.
Severinus, of St. Bartholomew, and others. Their principal produc
tions are to be seen in Cologne and Munich. Although they all be
tray the training of Cologne, they so differ one from the other that
the artistic individuality of each admits of no doubt. Some of these
works maybe as late as the beginning of the sixteenth century, but,
until the beautiful productions of the master of the Death of the
Virgin, none can be attributed to the period of the Renaissance.
The school of Franconia, notably that of Nuremberg, occupies
the third place in the history of German panel painting. The chief
altar-piece of the Church of Our Lady of Nuremberg, now placed
above the left side altar, apparently dates from the time of the com
pletion of the building itself, that is to say, from the end of the
fourteenth century. It is a fine triptych with patterned gold ground,
and figures of saints in either wing, and displays the rude and vigor
ous style of the Bohemian school, founded by Charles IV., fully as
much as it does Rhenish methods. Indeed, all the paintings of
Southern Germany, referable to the first years of the fifteenth centu
ry, hold a middle place between the somewhat coarse characteriza
tion of the art of Prague and the sentimental idealism of that of
Cologne. Among the most important of them is the Imhof Altar in
the Church of St. Laurence at Nuremberg, the middle picture of
which is a Coronation of the Virgin. This work seems, from the
heraldic devices, to have been painted shortly before 1422. In it,
as in the triptych in the Church of Our Lady, there is but slight evi
dence of the influence of stained glass upon the coloring, so notice
able in Cologne ; the pigments are dark and of a brownish tone.
The forms, on the other hand, have gained in grace and beauty.
There are but few indications of those wrinkled and angular folds

688 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
of the garments which are so characteristic of the art of Nuremberg
after the fifteenth century ; the draperies, though flowing, have
something the appearance of sheet -metal, like those pf Cologne,
from which latter the works of Franconia differ chiefly in a cer
tain rudeness and harshness, and in a preference for rawboned and
almost vulgar figures. After the middle of the fifteenth century
the forms in the paintings of Nuremberg gradually became more
noble, as is evident, for instance, in the picture above the tomb of
Margaretha Imhof (d. 1449), in the Church of St. Laurence, which is
still closely related to the Imhof Altar. It is doubtful whether the
artist modelled his work upon the paintings of Cologne or those of
the Netherlands. It would be more natural to assume the influ
ence of the former than of the latter, as the journeymen of the
Painters' Guild, through their wanderings, were more frequently
brought into contact with the artists of the Rhenish countries than
with those of Flanders.
The name of only one artist of this period is known, Hans Pley-
denwurff (d. 1472). His renown early extended beyond the limits
of his native province ; in 1462 he received the order to paint an
altar-piece for the Church of St. Elisabeth at Breslau, which unfort
unately no longer exists. It appears impossible to ascribe to him
the picture above the tomb of Margaretha Imhof, but it is not im
probable that some of his works are among the numerous paintings
generally ascribed to Michael Wolgemut. This latter artist, A. D.
1434 to 1 5 19, is to be considered as the chief representative of the
school of Pleydenwurff, whose widow he married in 1473. He
worked together with his step -son William, and continued the
methods of his predecessor.
In the school of Pleydenwurff and Wolgemut was developed
the strong and marked style already referred to as resulting from
the influence of the wood-carvings of Franconia, and as being par
ticularly noticeable in the wrinkled and puffed draperies. The bony
and angular forms, the entire lack of feeling for beauty, the hard
lines of the heads, hands, and feet, which had prevailed in the art
of Nuremberg in the beginning of the fifteenth century, still con
tinued, but there was a decided advance in characterization, indi
viduality, expression, and, especially, in coloring. This style is so

GERMANY. , 689
pronounced, even in the earliest dated works of Wolgemut,— the
four panels of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Hof, A.D. 1465,
now in the Pinakothek of Munich (Fig. 417),— that it must have
been adopted by him from Pleydenwurff. Hans Traut, the third
great painter of Nuremberg in the second half of the fifteenth cen
tury, evidently had the
same training. The only
work which can with cer
tainty be attributed to
him is a drawing of St.
Sebastian, now in the col
lection of the University
of Erlangen. It must be
acknowledged that Wol
gemut, whose talent was
greater than that of his
contemporaries, in some
measure freed himself
from the mechanical art
of his time, as is evident
from the Peringsdoerffer
Altar in the Church of
the Augustines at Nu
remberg, now in the Ger
manic Museum of that
,city. In the ordinary
pictures of his school,
however, the work of his
hand is not always to be
distinguished from that
of the Pleydenwurffs, fa
ther and son, especially as he, like his predecessor, had a great num
ber of assistants, whose help was rendered necessary by the extent
of the altar-pieces, instance that of Zwickau : his name thus being of
ten nothing more than the stamp of the firm. This is the case with
the high-altar of the parish church of Schwabach, completed in 1508,
which is recorded as his, but shows very little of his own work.
44

Fig. 417. — The Crucifixion. Panel Painting by Wolge
mut, for the Church of the Holy Trinity at Hof.

69O PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
The common assumption, that Nuremberg was considerably
influenced by the Netherlands, appears unwarranted. Wolgemut,
it is true, was acquainted with the methods of oil-painting, and a
certain degree of intercourse, through journeymen, with the Rhen
ish countries must have led to the adoption of many Dutch in
novations. But this influence was not direct, and was of much
less importance than in Suabia. It is hence futile to inquire from
which particular school of the Netherlands it may have proceeded.
The panel painting of Suabia was not, like that of Nuremberg,
the monopoly of a single school. In the fourteenth century it was
but little practised, and in the fifteenth was almost entirely restrict
ed to the altar-pieces, which, in their combination of painting and
wood-carving, provided the principal employment for the artists of
that time. The name of Lucas Moser, of Stadt Weil in Wurtemberg,
is attached to the altar-piece of St. Magdalen in the Church of
Tiefenbronn near Pforzheim, which was executed at least as early
as 143 1. The series of representations from the lives of the Mag
dalen and Lazarus show no Flemish influence ; this applies also to
the Staufenberg Altar in the Museum of Colmar, which cannot be
earlier than 1450, and in awkwardness and want of artistic merit
differs little from the work of Moser. Certain influences of the
Lower Rhine are noticeable in the pictures which once formed the
altar-piece of the Church of St. Martin at Colmar, painted after 1462
by Caspar Isenmann of Colmar, — if indeed the seven panels with
scenes from the Passion, dated 1465, in the museum of that town,
are to be considered as belonging to this work.
The direct influence of the Lower Rhine and of Brabant first
appears in another master of Colmar, Martin Schongauer, who was
of an Augsburg family, and died in the prime of life at Colmar,
A. D. 1488. There is no better authority than Vasari for stating
that he was a pupil of Rogier, but it is certain that his style is re
lated to that of the school of Brabant. Of this, however, he was
far more independent than his contemporary, Friedrich Herlin of
Noerdlingen, as he exhibited also some characteristics of the school
of Cologne. These latter appear in the beautiful Madonna in the
Rose Garden, A. D. 1473, in the sacristy of S. Martin at Colmar,
which, with great probability, though not with absolute certainty,

GERMANY. 691
is ascribed to Schongauer. None of the panel paintings of Schon
gauer, however, are fully authenticated ; thus, he must be judged
chiefly by his signed engravings, which will subsequently be referred
to. It must suffice to observe, in this connection, that in careful
ness of design and execution, in correctness of drawing and of com
position, he surpassed all his contemporaries.
There were no close relations between the school of Ulm and
that of Colmar. In the year 1469, when Hans Schuechlin of Ulm
completed the paintings of the high -altar at Tiefenbronn, Schon
gauer was very young, perhaps still a journeyman ; if, therefore,
any connection be assumed, it must rather have existed between
Hans Schuechlin and Lucas Moser of Weil. The style of Schuech
lin, and that of his talented pupil, Bartholomew Zeitblom of Ulm,
who worked between 1484 and 15 17, differs more from that of the
Netherlands, being simpler and more essentially German than that
of the cosmopolitan Schongauer. The quiet and serious dignity of
the figures of Zeitblom, and especially of the feminine heads, their
expression of sincere piety and unapproachable matronly chastity,
render his works the noblest creations of contemporary German art.
These characteristics are seen in the altar-piece of Hausen, dating
from 1488, and in the altar of the Church of Heerberge, signed 1497,
both in the collection of antiquities at Stuttgart ; further, in two
female saints on the panels of a triptych in the Pinakothek of Mu
nich. The artist, however, was only able to represent attitudes of
repose : in dramatic scenes, such as those of St. Valentin at Augs
burg (Fig. 418), he is rigid and lifeless.
From its centre at Ulm, Suabian art extended to different direc
tions. One branch is found in Eastern Suabia, especially in Mem-
mingen, where we meet with Bernhard Strigel, a master of great
ability and productiveness, though occasionally somewhat mechan
ical. A number of his works have lately been identified by W. Bode
and R. Vischer. Towards the east the school of Ulm was extended
to Augsburg. The paintings executed in this town before the end
of the fifteenth century had been of but little merit : instance the
ceiling of the Guildhall of the Weavers, referable to Peter Kaltenhof,
now in the National Museum of Munich, and the representation of
Christ between the two Thieves, dating from 1477, now in the Gal-

692

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

lery of Augsburg. There was no master of great ability before
Hans Holbein the elder, whose earliest known work is the Weingar-
ten Altar, painted after 1493, fragments of which are preserved in

Fig. 418. — St. Valentin before the Emperor. Panel Painting, by B. Zeitblom in the
Gallery of Augsburg.
the Cathedral of Augsburg. From this, from the altar of Kaisheim,
dated 1502, in the Pinakothek of Munich, from the basilica pictures

GERMANY. 693
of 1499 and 1504 in Augsburg, and from various others in that town
and in Nuremberg and Schleissheim, we become acquainted with a
master as representative of the school of Augsburg as was the
somewhat older Wolgemut of that of Franconia. Holbein, though
possessing a higher sense of beauty and grace of form, and giving
to his heads a character of great individuality, amounting at times
even to a humorous caricature, did not so readily obtain recogni
tion and pecuniary success as Wolgemut, and struggled, with un
favorable circumstances, until his death, in 1524, notwithstanding
the frequent assistance rendered him by his brother Sigmund and
by his son. In one respect, however,, Holbein and Wolgemut were
alike, each having the good- fortune to be the first instructor of
one of the two greatest artists of the German renaissance : Wol
gemut of Albert Diirer, — Holbein of his son, Hans Holbein the
younger. Holding a middle place between the schools of Suabia and
Franconia, we find a master who imitated the .methods of the
Netherlands in a greater degree, and, as it appears, at an earlier
date than any of his German contemporaries. This was Friedrich
Herlin of Noerdlingen. It is not definitely known whether he is
to be identified with the painter Herlin, mentioned in the chron
icles of Ulm about the year 1450, but it is certain that his style
has but little in common with that of Schuechlin and Zeitblom.
Nor does he seem to have been at all dependent upon Schongauer,
as he was older, and consequently had received his training at an
earlier period. The high -altar of the Church of St. George at
Noerdlingen of 1462 may almost with absolute certainty be attrib
uted to him, while that of the Church of St. James at Rothenburg
on the Tauber, dated 1466, is signed with his name. In the year of
Schongauer's death, A. D. 1488, Herlin painted the triptych dedi
cated by himself, the centre picture being a Madonna. Many of
the types in this work are so closely imitated from those of Rogier
that a thorough acquaintance with them is not to be doubted.
Hence Herlin cannot, in originality, be compared to Schongauer,
Zeitblom, or Hans Holbein the elder, but in technical ability he
is inferior to none of his contemporaries.
The panel painting of Bavaria, in the fifteenth century, is more

694 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
closely related to that of Suabia than to that of Franconia. The
works of this school are chiefly preserved in the Gallery of Schleiss
heim and in the National Museum of Munich. In the hasty and
disorderly collection which followed the secularization of the con
vents in 1803, the derivation of but few of the pictures was record
ed, and those still remaining in the country churches have not yet
been examined with sufficient thoroughness. A correct estimate of
them is thus impossible. In regard to the works and ability of Ul
rich Fuetterer of Landshut, of Gabriel Maechselkircher and Hans
Olmdorf of Munich, there is as yet no reliable information. Judging,
however, from the general character of the Bavarian painting of that
time, no signal importance can be ascribed to these artists.
The productions of Austria are also similar to those of Suabia.
In the main, the style obtaining in the territories north of the Alps,
from Burgundy to Hungary, after the middle of the fifteenth cen
tury, shows a striking similarity,, differing both from that of Giotto
and that of the Lower Rhine and Flanders. In point of style and
in technical respects the influences of the Netherlands and of Italy
occasionally appeared ; but such instances were rare, and did not
materially alter the general character. Moreover, the extremes of
Northern and Southern Germany were differently affected by these
influences. The natural division formed by the Alps was of decisive
effect even in painting, and the artistic methods of Italy extended
beyond the districts where the language of that country was spoken.
The Tyrolese, on the southern slope of the Alps at least, were more
frequently trained in the schools of Upper Italy than in those of
Southern Germany ; when German methods appear, they are so in
termingled with the Italian that even the changes in style, from
Giotto to Mantegna, can be traced in the Tyrolese paintings. In
the North German Lowlands, on the other hand, there was no ac
tivity in panel painting before the beginning of the sixteenth cen
tury, the demand being chiefly supplied by importations from Fran
conia, Holland, and Westphalia.
It is plain that in independence, significance, and extent of ac
tivity the panel painting of Germany, during the Gothic epoch,
surpassed that of the rest of Europe, with the exception of the
Netherlands. In illumination, however, Germany was inferior to

GERMANY. 695
France. Rude pen drawings with slight coloring, — such as were
common during the Romanic period in the codices of the convents
rather than in those of the courts, — prevailed during the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. Excellent examples are presented by the
manuscript of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parceval, and by that of
Gottfried von Strasburg's Tristan, both in the Library of Munich.
After the fourteenth century attempts were made to imitate the
fine colors of the French gouache paintings, but the elegant render
ing, the tasteful arrangement, and decorative effect of the originals
were never attained. Gold and patterned backgrounds were given
up. The compositions were designed solely with reference to an
intelligible expression of the idea, and to the character and forci-
bleness of the action, — beauty of form being rare. Even in the
miniature painting of Prague, where the Emperor Charles IV. and
his wife, the French princess, may have furthered the adoption of
the methods of the Paris school of illumination, French influences
did not predominate. Some of the characteristics of Italian paint
ing are, however, to be observed (compare Fig. 419). It may have
been owing to these influences, both of France and Italy, that the
artistic activity of Bohemia at that time was increased, and that the
execution became more careful. A delight in novel subjects is also
noticeable ; in the drolleries of the age of Wenzel these were often
coarse and sensual.
The miniature painting of the Austrian court, although less pro
ductive, was not essentially different. Germany, on the whole, con
tinued inferior, good results being attained only in the Rhenish
countries, where the advance in the panel painting of Cologne nec
essarily had an effect upon the art of illumination. Berthold Furt-
meyer of Ratisbon (d. after 1501) was an important artist, uncon
nected with any school ; he is not, however, to be compared to
Fouquet. The influence of the Netherlands was less felt in Ger
many than in France. The slight attention devoted by the Germans
to miniature painting may have been in great measure due to the
progress made in printing, in the second half of the fifteenth centu
ry, through the Rhenish invention which lessened the demand for
written manuscripts.
The inferiority of Germany in this branch, however, was more

696 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
than outbalanced by the important advance early made in the arts
of reproduction, — the finest result of German illumination.* Some
time before Gutenberg gave to the world the art of typography,
which superseded the writing of manuscripts, the printing of pict
ures from wood-cuts had been developed from pen-drawing. The
beginning seems to have been made in the printing of stuffs by a

Fig. 419. — The Annunciation. Miniature from the Breviary of the Archbishop Ernst
of Prague. Bohemian Museum of that Town.
kind of stamp, first in the repetition of a small pattern, and later in
the representations of figures, as a substitute for embroidery in one
* T. O. Weigel und A. Zestermann, Die Anfange der Druckkunst in Schrift und Bild.
Leipzig, 1866. — F. Lippmann, Ueber die Anfange der Formschnei.dekunst und des Bild-
druckes. Repertorium flir Kunstwissenschaft I. Stuttgart, 1876. — R. Muther, Deutsche
Biicherillustration der Gothik und Fruhrenaissance. Miinchen, 1884.

GERMANY. 697
or more colors. The printed linen tapestry of Sitten, probably of
Italian workmanship, appears to be as early as the fourteenth cen
tury; impressions in black upon paper, however, are not attested
before the beginning of the fifteenth. These latter were chiefly pro
duced in Ulm, and were much in vogue throughout Germany dur
ing the sixteenth century. The effect was heightened by filling in
the rude outlines with local tones, this being often done with a
stencil. The pictures were mostly figures of saints, occasionally
with short texts cut upon the same block, from which latter the
artisans who did this kind of work were called Brefmaler, or letterers.
These pictures often formed extended series, printed partly upon
loose sheets, — such as the playing-cards which, in Germany, have
retained something of the primitive style down to the present day,
— or in books, as, for instance, " Der Heilsspiegel," " Die Kunst zu
Sterben," " The Apocalypse," " The Dance of Death," etc. From
these block books, with a gradually increasing text, the art of print
ing with movable types was developed. After this invention the
woodcut gained in importance and excellence, although retaining
its mediaeval character even beyond the Gothic epoch.
The progress in copper engraving was more rapid. This art is
closely connected with metal work, especially niello. Every en
graved plate, the hollows of which were filled in with color instead
of enamel, was capable of giving an impression. This was probably
often tried} simply as a proof, before a reproduction was thought
of, and before the plate, like the block of wood, came to be con
sidered only as a means. The oldest known date of a copper en
graving, 1446, is found upon a representation of the Scourging of
Christ, from a series of scenes from the Passion ; the next following
dates are 145 1, 1464, 1466. In connection with the last of these
occurs the first monogram, E. S. The style of these works is that
of the Ehenish countries and Suabia, in which latter district we meet
with the earliest known engraver, Martin Schongauer, the most im
portant of the fifteenth century. His influence was greater in en
graving than in painting, his methods in the former branch being
followed not only by his brother Ludwig and the artist B. S., but
by the most prominent engravers of Westphalia and the Nether
lands, Franz Bocholt and Israel von Meckenen. In the East, Schon-

698 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
gauer's style was adopted by Wenzel of Olmuetz. His engravings
were also used by many painters, and were carried as far as Italy,
where they were studied and copied even by the artists of the Re
naissance. Through Schongauer the art of copper engraving found
its first decided development, and even painting was influenced by
his prints.
Wood-cutting and engraving upon metal became of the same im
portance for art as printing for literature. The designs of the artist
were thus brought into the hands of private individuals, even as the
possession of books was extended beyond the libraries of courts and
convents. In the development of these methods of reproduction
the initiative is to be ascribed to the closing period of German me
diaeval art, and the importance of these is not diminished by the
poor results which could be attained during the last decades of the
Middle Ages.

THE NETHERLANDS.

A
Among the countries of the North, the first position in the paint
ing of the Middle Ages should be assigned to the Netherlands. Panel
painting was as pre-eminent in Flanders as was monumental paint
ing in Italy, in which latter branch the predecessors of Rubens were
inferior even to the artists of Germany. The cramped circumstances
of the political and social organization led to the development of a
fine and miniature -like painting upon panels. The mural decora
tions of the Netherlands at this period are scarcely worthy of men
tion. The representation of three living and three dead figures in
the Church of Zalt-Bommel (Guelders) is of but slight artistic im
portance, and is, moreover, without novelty, as the subject had fre
quently been treated in the wall paintings and miniatures of Eng
land, — not to speak of the infinitely superior Triumph of Death in
the Campo Santo at Pisa. Before the sixteenth century there were
in glass painting no indications of that independence and artistic
excellence which characterize the fine Renaissance windows of the
Cathedral of Ste. Gudule at Brussels. Better results were attained
in the textile arts by Burgundy and the Netherlands, but even these
did not become of higher significance until the fifteenth century.
The liturgical garments preserved in the Ambras collection of Vi-

THE NETHERLANDS. 699
enna are of the earlier period. These hand embroideries, however,
are of less interest than the stuffs woven in colored figures in imita
tion of the technical methods of the Orient. Such woven tapestries
were chiefly produced in Flanders, and Arras, — the centre of this in
dustry until the end of the fifteenth century, when it was surpassed
by Brussels, — gave to such hangings the widely known name Arazzi.
The finest tapestries of the kind, referable to the period in question,
are those formerly in possession of the ruling family of Burgundy,
now preserved in the Library of Berne and the Museum of Nancy.
Of somewhat later date are the Gobelin tapestries in the Palace of
Madrid representing the legend of the Virgin ; compared with the be
fore-mentioned, these exhibit the same artistic decadence as that evi
dent in the paintings of the Netherlands after the death of Memling.
The most important branch of art in the Netherlands, during the
fifteenth century, was panel painting. In determining its origin it
is first necessary to rectify the exaggerated estimate commonly held
in regard to the altar of the Carthusian Convent of Dijon, painted,
shortly before 1400, by Melchior Broederlam of Ypres, and now
preserved in the museum of Dijon. These paintings have been
unduly praised ; they are little better than the contemporary pro
ductions of the Rhenish countries, and are decidedly inferior to the
panel pictures ascribed to Master William. In artistic importance
they are not to be compared to the sculptures of Sluter in Dijon,
and scarcely equal the wood-carvings of James de Baerse upon the
same altar. Broederlam in nowise deserves to be called the fore
runner of Van Eyck and Rogier, although it may be assumed that
in panel painting he attained to the highest standard of the Neth
erlands in the fourteenth century. This branch of art seems to
have been but little favored at that period. Much may, indeed,
have been lost through the destruction of Iconoclasts and the neg
lect of later ages ; still, this does not sufficiently explain the great
scarcity of paintings referable to that time. When, in the year 1385,
the dukes of Burgundy came into possession of a part of these ter
ritories, they devoted their chief attention to illuminated manu
scripts, furthering panel painting only in so far as it was connected
with that of miniatures.
It is hence vain to search for any direct predecessors of the great

700 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
painters of the fifteenth century; we can only assume them to have
been influenced by such illuminators as those employed at the
French courts. The school of Tournay, which is only known from
its sculptures, may also have had an effect upon the development
of these painters ; the founder of the. school of Brabant, at least,
was trained at Tournay. Nothing further than the name of the
master of Rogier is known : Robert Campin, a contemporary of
Broederlam, and probably superior to the latter. Certain it is that
the improvements of the new school, in the employment of pig
ments, in drawing, in the direct study of nature, in linear and serial
perspective, were not effected before the fifteenth century.
The first to make this advance were the brothers Hubert and
Jan van Eyck, so called from their home, Maaseyck, near Maes-
tricht. Concerning the circumstances of their lives, it is only known
that Hubert, the older of the two, lived in Ghent about 1424, where
he died in 1426; while Jan, between 1422 and 1424, was in the
Hague, in the service of Duke John of Bavaria, the last German
ruler of Luxemburg, Brabant, and Holland. Jan was afterwards in
the employment of Philip the Good of Burgundy, living in Lille un
til 1428, when he was sent by his patron to Portugal, remaining in
that country until the close of the year 1429. Between 1430 and
1432 he was in Ghent, and finally in Bruges, where he died in 1440.
The older historians of the growth of painting have dwelt chiefly
on the innovation introduced by the brothers Van Eyck in substi
tuting the employment of oil for that of tempera. But important
as was the advantage obtained by the use of the new pigments, the
significance of this method depended rather upon the fact that it
presented the best means of obtaining the desired end. Oil colors
were not, strictly speaking, invented by the Van Eycks, having been
employed as early as the eleventh century, principally for house-
painting and for decorating armor and banners, the greater dura
bility of the medium having been fully recognized. A passage of
Cennino proves that the deep and velvety effect of oil colors was
also appreciated, and that they had previously been introduced into
panel painting. The pigments of mediaeval tempera also had this
merit, as their glutinous mediums, — gelatine, white of egg, the juice
of figs and grapes, etc.,— were capable of giving them a brilliancy

THE NETHERLANDS. 701
fully equal to that of oil colors, while the varnishes which had long
been in use secured an effect of such depth that it is difficult to say,
from the appearance of the colors alone, whether a picture is exe
cuted in tempera or in oil. The advantages of the latter process
consisted rather in the mode of application. For while the pigments
in tempera, as in gouache, dried so rapidly that their employment
was only possible in surfaces of one tint, or in shading with fine
lines, the slowly drying oil permitted a modelling by means of colors
of different depth, these blending readily with the pigments fresh
from the brush. In technical as well as in artistic respects a higher
degree of perfection was thus obtained than at any previous period
in the history of painting.
The innovators themselves profited by all the advantages which
the new methods afforded. In fineness and clearness the execution
reached a degree of perfection previously unknown even in minia
ture. The Van Eycks were not content with giving greater refine
ment to the typical style of their predecessors, but strove after a
direct imitation of nature. Their merit depended upon this, no less
than upon their improvements in technical respects. The genius of
the brothers is evident in their exact and logical representation of
effects of light and shade, as well as of linear and aerial perspective,
and is perceived in the nude parts, the garments, in all the accessa
ries, and even in the landscapes of the backgrounds. Although in
certain details this excellence had been attained by artists of earlier
ages, it may, upon the whole, be said that the work of the Van
Eycks led from the conventional hieratic and decorative treatment
to technical perfection, — from the mere coloring of an outline draw
ing to the true art of painting.
The oldest work of the two masters which is accurately dated is
among the most important paintings of all time. This is the altar-
piece of the Church of St. Bavo at Ghent, dedicated by Jost Vyd,
a citizen of that town. It consisted of twelve panels, eight of which
are painted upon both sides ; the large central piece, still in its orig
inal place, represents in the lower compartment the Worship of the
Lamb, and, above, God the Father between the Virgin and St. John
(Figs. 420 and 421). The four wings of the lower part, which show
upon their fronts the just judges, knights, hermits, and pilgrims

702

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

coming in troops to adore the Lamb, — together with two of the
upper wings, representing angels making music, — are among the
greatest treasures of the Gallery of Berlin. The outer upper pan
els, with the figures of Adam and Eve, are in the Museum of Brus-

Figs. 420 and 421. — The Virgin and St. John, from the Altar of the Brothers Van Eyck
in the Church of St. Bavo at Ghent.
sels. In St. Bavo at Ghent the missing panels have been replaced
by the corresponding parts of the excellent copy of the whole, made
by M. Coxcien at the order of Philip II.

THE NETHERLANDS. 703
Hubert could only devote the last two years of his life to this
work; he left it unfinished, and Jan, who wis engaged elsewhere,
did not complete it until 1432. The central group, which in ideal
grandeur and beauty differs vastly from the works of Jan, can with
reasonable certainty be attributed to Hubert; the angels singing
and playing, and the chief portion of the worship of the Lamb, may
also be referred to him. All the remainder is by Jan, including the
back sides of the wings, representing the donor with his wife Elsbeth
Burlut, the two St. Johns, painted gray in gray in imitation of stone
sculptures, and the Annunciation, prophets and sibyls in the upper
part. The works of Jan are decidedly more dry and less devotional,
but his realism, both in subject and execution, is of a high degree of
perfection. This applies particularly to the portraits of the donors
and to the nude figures of Adam and Eve, which latter, in their
truth to nature, were in after-times held to be objectionable, and
removed from the church. Hubert, the idealist, was undoubtedly the
greater master; Jan, the unmitigated realist, the better painter.
The ability of Jan is evident in his pictures of secular rather
than in those of religious subjects. Notwithstanding the technical
perfection, a certain prosaic character is unpleasantly felt in the
Madonna of Canon van der Paele in the Academy of Bruges (Fig.
422), a repetition of which is in the Museum of Antwerp; the case
is similar with the Madonna of Chancellor Rollin in the Louvre, and
with the Madonnas of Antwerp, Dresden, Berlin, Paris, and Bur
leigh House. The want of beauty in the faces and of grace in the
gestures, as well as the subordination of the ecclesiastical character
to a portrait-like and genre style, — even the masterly representation
of the accessaries as in a still-life, — give to these works the stamp of
cabinet pieces rather than of devotional pictures. Jan's Head of
Christ, referable to the year 1438, now in the Museum of Berlin, is
in sentiment vastly inferior to the types portrayed by Hubert in the
altar of Ghent. , The more perfect, on the other hand, are Jan's por
traits, particularly when somewhat genre -like in conception. The
finest of all the works of this kind, dating from the fifteenth century,
and one of the greatest masterpieces of all ages, is the portrait of
Giovanni Arnolfini of Lucca, and his wife Jeanne de Chenany, paint
ed in 1434, now in the National Gallery of London. The life-like

704

PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.

character of these unattractive personages, portrayed with a more
than photographic truth to nature, is not even the chief merit of
the work : finer still is the representation of the interior and all the
accessaries, which, in delicacy and clearness, has not been surpassed
before or since, and in fine effects of light and color was unequalled
until the time of Pieter de Hooghe.

Fig. 422. — Madonna of Canon van der Paele, by Jan van Eyck. Academy of Bruges..

It is not strange that in the fifteenth century opinion was unde
cided in regard to the relative greatness of the two brothers, and
that the preference was often given to Jan, who, owing to his longer
life, accomplished more, and was able to establish a school. Still,
among those supposed to have been his pupils, only one is well
known, Petrus Cristus of Bruges, who, like Jan van Eyck, usually
signed his pictures. His best works are his portraits ; these, how
ever, are not equal to those of Jan. Chief among them is that dated

THE NETHERLANDS. 705
1449, in the Oppenheim Collection at Cologne, representing a bridal
couple who are buying their wedding-rings of the goldsmith St. Eli
gius. This is a peculiar mixture of portraiture and of genre-like re
ligious art, which, from the elaboration of the accessaries,— as, for
instance, the jewellery exposed for sale,— has in great measure the
character of a still-life. If the artistic treatment of landscape back
grounds first appeared in the altar of Ghent, and that of interiors in
the portrait of Arnolfini by Jan van Eyck, the genre and still-life
painting of the Netherlands had its forerunner in this picture of
St. Eligius by Petrus Cristus.
No picture can be ascribed with certainty to Gerard van der
Meire of Ghent, although it is possible that some of his works may
be among those in the Gallery of Madrid generally attributed to the
Van Eycks. Another master of Ghent, Hugo van der Goes, is bet-
, ter known from the story of his life, — he having died insane, A. D.
1482, in the Rooden Clooster near Soignies, which he had entered
as a painter of great renown, — than by the single picture referable
with certainty to his hand : the Nativity, which Tommaso Portinari
dedicated in the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova at Florence, this work
being somewhat dry in composition and color. A third artist of
Ghent, Jost van Gent, was employed in Italy at the court of Duke
Federigo of Urbino, where he painted the Institution of the Last
Supper, now in the Academy of that town.
In the age of these last-named artists, however, the style of the
Van Eycks was not the only one in the Netherlands, and the art of
that country was not entirely dependent upon their models. The
Flemish school of Ghent and Bruges was rivalled by that of Bra
bant, which originated in Tournay, an old and celebrated centre of
art. In 1426, the year in which Hubert van Eyck died, Rogier van
der Weyden entered the school of Robert Campin, — a painter oth
erwise unknown, — and six years later he was received into the guild
as a master. Any direct connection with Hubert is therefore im
possible, and with Jan improbable, as Rogier went from Tournay to
Brussels, where, as early as 1436, he was honored by the title of
town painter. Rogier was without doubt acquainted with the
works of the Flemish school, and endeavored to equal them in fine
ness of execution and in the study of nature ; but the master, after
45

706 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
having acquired his training, did not easily adopt the methods of
others. This is evident even from the fact that his sojourn of two
years in Italy, 1449 and 1450, had not the slightest perceptible in
fluence upon his later works. The tendencies of his art are en
tirely different from those of the school of Flanders. He strove
after dramatic effect, and, when possible, avoided subjects of much
detail and but little action, such as those in which the ability of
the Flemish artists was chiefly displayed. He painted by prefer
ence scenes from the Passion rather than Madonnas and saints, and
paid great attention to pathos of expression and to the direct par
ticipation of all the figures in the scene represented. The digni
ty and beauty which characterized the works of Hubert van Eyck
and the quiet tone of those of Jan were equally foreign to his style.
His observation of nature was close, but somewhat unsympathetic ;
his coloring cool. Great as was the pains bestowed upon delicacy
and fineness of execution, this was wisely subordinated to the pres
entation of the idea. These qualities are evident in Rogier's chief
production, the Descent from the Cross, in the Escurial, a repetition
of which is in the Prado at Madrid. In this effective composition
is represented every stage of grief: compassion, the most poignant
suffering, swoon, and death. Similar in character are the pictures
of the Passion, in Vienna, Florence, and in the Capilla Real at
Granada; the Last Judgment, in the Hospital of Beaune ; and the
Seven Sacraments, in Madrid. What must have been the dramatic
power of the Trajan and Herkenbald series of paintings in the Town-
hall of Brussels may be judged in some measure by the Burgundian
tapestries in the Town Library of Berne. It is not strange that this
pathetic element in the art of Rogier obtained for him many pupils
and admirers, especially among the Germans.
Side by side with the styles of Flanders and Brabant, still a
third is to be recognized in the Netherlands, namely, that of Hol
land. Our information concerning its beginning is but slight, owing,
in great measure, to the more thorough destruction effected in the
north-west of the country by the Iconoclasts. We learn, however,
of the existence of a school at Haerlem : Van Mander praisin°-
among others the landscape backgrounds of Albert van Ouwater
and the works of Gerrit tot S. Jans. To the latter are probably to

THE NETHERLANDS. 707
be ascribed the Bewailing of the Christ, and the Miracles of St.
John in the Gallery of Vienna ; it is worthy of note that in the last
picture great importance is assigned to the landscape. To the
school of Holland belonged also Dierik Bouts (Dirk van Harlem),
who, about the middle of the fifteenth century, established himself
at Louvain, where he died in 1475. Still, this removal does not
preclude the assumption that his style had been as entirely devel
oped in Holland as that of Rogier in Tournay. Its characteristics
are the eminently picturesque treatment of the composition, the
somewhat awkward drawing of the figures, and, notably, the fine ef
fects of landscape. His chief work, the Corpus Christi Altar in St.
Peter at Louvain, — of which the centre piece, representing the Last
Supper, is still in that church, while two of the wings are in Munich
and two in Berlin, — shows the power of the master as a colorist,
and is among the finest specimens of the early art of the Nether
lands. Of especial excellence are the panels in Berlin. The same
qualities appear in the exquisite triptych in Munich, representing
the Adoration of the Magi in the central panel, and St. John the
Baptist and St. Christopher in the wings. St. John stands in a
sunny mountainous landscape, the perspective effect of which was
unequalled even throughout the sixteenth century, and is far supe
rior to the celebrated scenery of Memling's Seven Joys of the Vir
gin. In the picture of St. Christopher, as in the representation of
the Israelites gathering manna, of the Corpus Christi Altar, an effect
of sunset and twilight is attained, compared with which all similar
attempts of the period are insignificant. These works are the pre
cursors of the picturesque landscapes of the later Dutch school.
The close of this period was marked by the appearance of Hans
Memling. The native place of this artist is unknown, but, from the
spelling of his first name, even in official records, it is not improba
ble that he was a German. After 1478 he worked in Bruges, where
he died A.D. 1495, — not as a pauper in a hospital, as tradition has
it, but in affluent circumstances. His technical methods, similar to
those of Rogier, are combined with an elaboration of details resem
bling that of the school of Flanders, and with a trace of sentimental
idealism akin to that of Cologne. In two-artistic qualities he is supe
rior to all his contemporaries, namely, in the attractive gracefulness

708 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
and the beauty of form of his figures. These qualities contrast favorT
ably with the somewhat prosaic character of Jan van Eyck, with the
dryness and hardness of Rogier, and with the stiffness and awk
wardness of Dierik. Although the Madonnas of Memling have much
of the grace to be observed in those of Master Stephen of Cologne,
and of those of Simone of Siena, and although it is evident from
the architectural background of the Shrine of St. Ursula that Mem-
ling was well acquainted with Cologne, it is nevertheless certain that
he was in nowise dependent upon the artistic methods of that city.
There are few figures more attractive than that of St. Catherine
in the central picture of the altar of St. John in the Hospital of
Bruges ; few of greater loveliness and dignity than the Madonnas of
Memling. St. Ursula and her virgins in the shrine of the same hos
pital are types of chaste maidenliness, the angels scarcely inferior to
those of Fiesole. Memling combined an inexhaustible imagination
with perfect mastery in the arrangement of the most complicated
scenes, as is shown by the so-called Seven Joys of the Virgin in
Munich, and the smaller picture of the Seven Sorrows in Turin.
The development of the early painting of the Netherlands reached
its greatest perfection in Memling, in whom were combined the pecu
liar characteristics of the different schools. During the first quarter
of the sixteenth century the methods of Memling continued to be
practised with but little alteration. His style is evident in the works
of Gerard David of Oudewater, the most eminent master of the
group immediately preceding Massys and the Northern Renaissance.
As the panel painting of the Netherlands had been developed
from illumination, so also did it exercise upon this art a reflex ac
tion of much importance. It is not, indeed, susceptible of proof
that any one of the great artists devoted his attention to the illus
tration of books, although miniature painters not uncommonly exe
cuted work upon larger panels, or even wall surfaces, — instance the
celebrated Simon Marmion. The limitation of the miniatures to
body colors, and the nature of the parchment upon which they were
painted, did not permit the fine delicacy and the harmonious blend
ing of tones observable in the oil pictures of the Netherlands. Still,
excellent works of the kind are to be found in the libraries of Brus
sels, Paris, and Vienna, the miniatures being generally restricted to

FRANCE. 709
the title or dedicatory picture of the manuscript, but occasionally
occurring in great number, as, for instance, in the breviary in posses
sion of the Duke of Bedford, which contains not less than two thou
sand five hundred illustrations. The finest of these works is the
Breviarium Grimani in the Library of S. Marco at Venice, the min
iatures of which are ascribed, in the records of the year 1521, to
Lievin van Lathem and Gerard Horebout.
Reviewing the general situation, in conclusion, it is plain that
France, towards the close of the fifteenth century, was deprived of
the leading position which it had maintained for more than two
hundred years, even as Germany had lost its ascendency at the close
of the Romanic epoch. In architecture, the field of its greatest suc
cesses, France was surpassed by Germany ; in sculpture, by Italy ;
and even in illumination, a favored branch in the later times of
trivial luxury, by the Netherlands. England attained to a more
logical and independent development in Gothic than in Norman
architecture, the perpendicular style being a truly national mode of
artistic expression, as it was eminently practical, and corresponded
well with the peculiar tendencies of the Britons. The art of the
burghers! of Germany, — in striking contrast to that of the feudal
nobles of England, — created its chief monuments in the commercial
cities, this being the case not only with architecture, but with
sculpture and painting. The greater the interest, however, felt for
art among the bourgeois circles, the less was it possible to avoid its
becoming industrial in character, and not infrequently degenerating
into a mere manufacture. A contrary movement was occasionally
observable, artists of real talent and individuality appearing as rep
resentatives of the guilds ; still, such instances were rare before the
end of the fifteenth century.
The countries of the extreme south-west and north of the Conti
nent, — Spain and Scandinavia, — were interesting chiefly in archi
tectural respects. While the Spaniards endeavored to improve
upon the Gothic style of the French, through the erection of mon
uments of grand dimensions and elaborate ornamentation, the Scan
dinavians did little more than adopt the artistic methods of the
North-German Lowlands. The case was the same in Poland, which

710 PAINTING OF THE GOTHIC EPOCH.
was but rarely, and through Silesia, brought into communication with
the schools of Central and Southern Germany, — notably that of
Nuremberg. The culture of Hungary was almost entirely depend
ent upon that of the Eastern Mark.
The development of the higher principles of art, during the fif
teenth century, was furthered mainly by the Netherlands and Italy,
sculpture and painting in these countries not being considered
merely as ministers of luxury, — not being assigned merely to guilds
of artisans, — but treated with love and pride as -exponents of the na
tional character. The painting of the Netherlands, chiefly limited
to panels, arrived at a fine and somewhat miniature-like perfection.
On the other hand, the art of Italy, alike excellent in all branches,
attained in mural painting and in marble sculpture a grander and
more monumental character. The superiority of both these coun
tries was so great that all the other parts of Europe were more or
less subjected to their influence. The domain of the Netherlands, —
extending in Spain to Andalusia and Catalonia, in France to the
district of the Rhone, throughout Northern and Western Germany,
and even Scandinavia, — was of greater extent than that of Italy,
which was limited to Southern Spain, Southern France,. and the
Alpine regions. Nevertheless, it was plain, before the end of the
fifteenth century, which of the two national schools of art was to
become of the greater importance. For while in the Netherlands
there were but slight indications of a new growth, after the death
of Memling and the decline of the earlier traditions, in Italy the
Renaissance had been fully entered upon during the lifetime of the
last representatives of the artistic conceptions of the Middle Ages.
In Germany, even masters of the first rank, who had based their art
upon the mediaeval methods of local schools, were themselves not
able to avoid the introduction of Italian traits. The Netherlands
could still less resist these tendencies at a time when their independ
ent importance had been almost entirely lost. This last stronghold
of Northern mediaeval art having been taken by the Renaissance,
those countries which had previously been dependent upon Flan
ders and Brabant naturally came altogether under the influence of
Italy, which in the sixteenth century made itself felt throughout
the greater part of the Continent.

GLOSSARY.

Many of the technical terms introduced into this book have been de
fined by the translator in the Glossary appended to Dr. Franz von Reber's
" History of Ancient Art." New York, Harper & Brothers, 1882.
The words which here follow merely supplement that list, and, in great
er part, refer only to the arts of the Middle Ages;- Especial attention has
been devoted 'to their etymological derivation. In th.6 case of some words
which are often employed in a sense too widely extended to allow of their
being used without qualification in careful architectural 'descriptions, some
advance towards precision of definition has been attempted. It has not,
however, been thought necessary to deal with words in common usage — such
as basilica, battlement, column, etc. — nor with those designations of infre
quent occurrence which in the present volume have been explained in the
text, such as Cosmatic work, having its name from the decorative methods
of the sculptor Cosmos, the names of the many varieties of Indian monu
ments, the divisions of the Mohammedan mosque, and the like.

Abutment (Fr. abouttment, from abouter,
to touch at one end). That part of a wall,
pier, or other mass of masonry which serves
to support the thrust of an arch or vault.
Aisle (Old Fr.; from Lat. ala, wing). The
longitudinal division of the body or transept
of a church.
Am'bo (late Lat. ; from Gr. afi/3a>v, a raised
stage, a reading-desk). A pulpit in the choir,
from which the sacred writings are read.
Alllepen (liuill (Low Lat. ; from ante, be
fore, and pendere, to hang). A hanging or
screen with which the front of an altar is cov
ered. Apse (Gr. aiplg, the felloe of a wheel ; an
arch ; a vault. The form apis should be re
stricted to the astronomical term). A recess
of semicircular or polygonal plan, especially
at the end of the choir, aisles, or transept of a
church, commonly vaulted with a conch.
Architrave (from Gr. apxog, chief, and
Lat. trabs, beam). The lowest division of the
entablature, the epistyle.

ArchlTOlt (from Lat. arcus, arch, and vol-
ia, vault). A curved architrave, the concen
tric mouldings of which border the face of an
arch. Ashlar (derivation uncertain. F. Mueller
suggests- Lat. assula, a small board, chip, or
block, through Prov. asclar, to split. Other
wise : Lat. axilla, armpit, through Fr. aiselle,
coming into technical use as aiseler). A squared
building-stone, particularly when employed for
the revetment of a mass of coarser masonry.
. Bailey (Old Fr. bailie, barrier, palisade,
from Lat. ballium, corruption of vallum, ram
part, from vallus, stake). An open court
within a fortified castle ; particularly the
space between the enclosing walls and the
keep-tower. Barbacan (of uncertain Oriental origin.
Col. Yule suggests Arab. Pers. bab-khanah,
towered gate-way. Word introduced into
Western Europe after the Crusades). A
watch-tower. An advanced work before the

712

GLOSSARY.

entrance to a castle or other fortification,
particularly a double tower above a gate or
the abutment of a bridge.
Bar'rel-vault. A semi-cylindrical vault,
springing from two parallel walls ; so called
from its resemblance to the interior surface
of a barrel, split lengthwise.
Bartizan (apparently first used in its pres
ent form by Sir Walter Scott, corruption of
brattice, a parapet; Old Fr. bretesche, from
Germ. Brett, a board). A small overhanging
turret ; battlemented, and generally project
ing from an angle of the upper part of a
tower. '
Bas'tion (Fr. ; from batir, to build ; Ital.
bastione, from bastire), A rampart, bulwark,
or tower projecting from the face of a fortifi
cation ; particularly an earthwork of irregu
lar pentagonal plan, faced with masonry.
Bead. In architectural usage a small
moulding, the profile of which is an arc equal
to, or greater than, a semicircle.
Billet • moulding. A Romanic orna
ment, consisting of a moulding so cut as to
resemble a series of short, round sticks,
spaced at regular intervals.
Bisect'ed (barrel) vault. A vault with
but one impost, the crown of which abuts
against a wall. It has the form of one quar
ter of a cylinder, divided lengthwise.
Blind'story. A term applied to a closed
triforium, — in contradistinction to the open
and light clerestory.
Bol'tel. An upright round moulding ;
particularly a round shaft engaged to a clus
tered pillar. So called from its resemblance
to the shaft of an arrow.
Brass. In monumental usage, a plate of
brass, or other metallic alloy, inlaid in the
stone pavement or walls of a church, and
having engraved upon it an inscription, effi.-
gy, armorial bearing, or other device relating
to the person commemorated.
But'treSS (from Fr. bottler, to thrust). A
pier engaged to a wall for the purpose of in
creasing its strength ; chiefly employed as an
abutment. Cal)le Moulding1. A round moulding or
bead, cut in imitation of the twistings of a
rope.

Campanile' (Ital. ; from campana, a bell,
so called from Campania, a province of Italy,
where bells are said to have been first used
in churches). A bell-tower.
Can'tilever (derivation uncertain, perhaps
from Old Fr. cant, angle, and lever, to raise ;
Lat. canterii labrnm, lip of rafter, has also
been suggested). A console or bracket of
great projection, used to support eaves, bal
conies, etc. ; necessarily of wood or iron.
Cen'tring:. A framework of wood, em
ployed as a temporary support in the con
struction of vaults and arches.
Chainpleve enamel (from Fr. champ,
field, and lever, to raise, to remove). Enamel
upon an indented ground.
Chan'cel (Lat. canceilus, a lattice). Prop
erly speaking, the screen or railing which
separates the choir from the body of the
church ; in ordinary usage, the choir itself.
Chap'ter - house, or hall (from Lat. ca-
pitulum, dim. of caput, head). The building
or apartment in which the monks or canons
of a monastic establishment, or the dignita
ries of a church, meet for the transaction of
business. Cliev'roil (Fr. ; from chevre, Lat. capra, a
goat, applied to rafters and to the bars of this
decoration, from their resemblance to rearing
and butting goats). A zigzag moulding, pe
culiar to the Romanic style.
Chiaroscu'ro (Ital. ; from chiaro, light, and
osatro, dark). A term applied to effects of
light and shade in painting.
Choir (Gr. x°P°£> a dance in a ring, a cho
rus). In its literal sense, that part of the
church fitted up for the singers ; since the
Middle Ages, however, the word has come to
denote the enclosed space appropriated to the
use of all those engaged in the performance
of the ecclesiastical ceremonies : commonly
the extension of the nave upon the east of
the transept.
Cibo'rium (Lat. ; from Gr. tufiupwv, a cup
resembling in shape the seed-vessel of the
Egyptian bean). A receptacle for relics, or
for the pyx ; also the pyx itself. In archi
tectural usage, the canopy over a high-altar.
Cinquecento (Ital. ; from It. cinque, five,
and cento, hundred ; literally, five hundred,
but used for fifteen hundred). The sixteenth

GLOSSARY.

713

century, a word particularly employed with
reference to the civilization and style preva
lent in Italy at that time.
Cloisonn'e enamel (Fr. ; from cloisonner,
to partition). An enamel partitioned by
threads of metal' soldered upon the ground.
Cloister (from Lat. claustrum, an enclos
ure, from claudo, to shut). In architectural
usage, arcades arranged around three or four
sides of a quadrangular area, forming the in
ner court of a monastery or collegiate estab
lishment. Columba'rium (Lat. ; a pigeon-house). A
small recess in the wall of a catacomb or oth
er sepulchral chamber, intended to receive an
urn containing the ashes of the deceased. So
called from its resemblance to a pigeon-hole.
Compartment. In special architectural
significance, the space covered by one cross,
or composite vault, whether bordered at the
side by two or by a greater number of sup
ports. In a general sense, any surface bor
dered by architectural members.
Conch (from Gr. (coyx**. a marine shell).
The semidome of an apse.
Con'sole (Fr. ; from Lat. con, with, and
sublevo, to lift up). A bracket ; particularly
one having for its outline a curve of contrary
flexure. Cor'bel (Old Fr., Ital., and Low Lat. cor-
bella, from Lat. corbis, basket). A term pe
culiar to mediaeval architecture, denoting a
stone or end of timber, projecting from the
vertical face of a wall as a bracket.
Corbel-table. A projecting cornice or
parapet, supported upon a series of corbels.
Cramp. In architectural usage, an iron,
both ends of which are bent to a right angle;
used to fasten stones together.
Cre'nel (Old Fr. ; from Lat. crena, a notch).
An open space between two upright piers of
a battlement. Crock'et (from Fr. crochet, dim. of croc, a
hook). A projecting leaf, flower, 'or bunch
of foliage, used in Gothic architecture to dec
orate the inclined angles of spires, pinnacles,
gables, etc.
Cross-vault. A vault above a square
plan, formed by the intersection of two bar
rel-vaults. Crypt (Gr. KpvirTt), from Kpintrnt, to hide).

A subterranean vaulted story beneath a build
ing, particularly beneath a church.
Cnsp (from Lat. cuspis, „ point). A pro
jection formed by the intersection of two foils
or curves, particularly in Gothic tracery.
Damaskeen' (from Fr. damasqitiner). A
surface ornamentation of a metal, particular-'
ly iron, consisting of an incrustation of an
other metal, as gold or silver. So called from
the city of Damascus, where the art was chief
ly practised.
Diagonal rib. A rib crossing the com
partment of a vault from opposite angles.
Di'apei" (Fr. diapri, diaprer, to variegate, to
diversify with figures ; Ital. diaspro, jasper, a
stone much used in inlaying; Low Lat. dia-
sprits, a fine colored cloth). A surface deco
ration consisting of the repetition of any pat
tern in small compartments of the same shape,
usually square.
Diptych (Gr. SiiTTvxog, from dig, twice,
and irTvaao), to fold). Folding-tablets of two
leaves, — whether of ivory, overlaid on the in
ner side with wax as writing - tablets, or of
panels of painted wood, as altar-pieces.
Discharging arch. An arch turned in
the body of a wall, to relieve a lintel or any
part of the masonry below it from a part of
the superincumbent weight.
Dor'iner (from Lat. dormio, to sleep ; lit
erally, the window of a sleeping-room). A
window pierced through- a sloping roof, and
framed by a small independent structure
which rises vertically from the inclined sur
face. Dor'sel (from Lat. dorsum, back). A hang
ing of tapestry upon the walls of a hall or of
the choir of a church. So called from being
placed behind the seats or choir stalls.
Dow'el (Fr. douille ; late Lat. ductile, from
dnco, to lead). A pin of wood or iron, em
ployed to unite two adjacent blocks.
Drum. In architectural usage, the verti
cal walls, of circular plan, which support a
dome. The term is also applied to the sep
arate, cylindrical stones which form the shaft
of a column.
Embrasure (Fr. ; from braser, to slope
the edges of an opening). A narrow opening

714

GLOSSARY.

in the wall or parapet of a fortification, splay
ed for the purpose of facilitating the discharge
of a missile ; a crenel.
Engaged' column. A term applied to a
shaft, in plan an arc less than a full circle,
which adjoins the surface of a wall or pier.
Extra'dos (from Lat. extra, without, and
dorsum, back). The exterior or back of an
arch, the top of the voussoirs, as opposed to
the inner surface, which is known as the sof
fit or intrados.
Fan -vaulting. A kind of vaulting in
which a number of ribs, rising from one im
post point, have the same curve, and diverge
equally in every direction.
Fin'ial (from Lai. Jinio, to end). A knob
of foliage, or other ornament, employed as the
termination of a spire or pinnacle.
Flying buttress. A support having the
form of a rampant arch, and serving to trans
mit the thrust of a vault or dome to a buttress
or other abutment.
Foil (from Lat. folium, a leaf; hence, tre
foil, quatrifoil, cinquefoil, multifoil, etc.). The
small arcs or other curves in the tracery of
Gothic architecture.
Folia'tion CLat. foliatio, homfolium, leaf).
An arrangement of small arcs, or foils, sepa
rated by projecting points, or cusps, chiefly
employed among the ornaments of Gothic
tracery. For'meret (Fr. ;¦ from Lat. forma, form).
In the groining of Gothic vaults that rib
which, in its entire length, adjoins the wall.
Fret (Anglo-Saxon fraet, ornament, or Fr.
freter, to interlace). An ornament formed by
a series of intersecting straight lines, general
ly at right angles.
Front'al (Lat. fronlale, from from, the
brow). An antependium, which see.
Ga'blet. A small ornamental gable, form
ed over a portal, tabernacle, buttress, etc.
Goua'che (Fr. ; from Lat. vadum, shoal,
wash, through \t\\. gttazzo). A kind of paint
ing in body colors, the medium being water
and thick gum, with the occasional addition
of honey.
Groin (Icel. greitta, to branch or fork off;
Dan. green ; Swed. gren, a branch). In ar

chitectural usage, the angle formed by the in
tersection of vault surfaces.
Guilloche (said by Littre and others to
be from the name Guillot, or Guilloche, of a
workman who was the first to employ the pat
tern in modern times ; according to Worces
ter, Fr., from Gr. yvXov, a limb, and \6xoq,
ambush, for which he gives the incorrect and
misleading translation, " snare "). A classi
cal ornament consisting of two or more fillets
intertwined in a wavy line, so as to form a
continuous band, and leave between them a
series of small circles.
Hau'telisse (Fr. highwarp, from Lat. lici-
um, thread, warp). Tapestry wrought with
an upright warp.
Hip. In architectural usage, an external
angle formed by the intersection of two slop
ing roof-surfaces, the wall-plates of which run
in different directions.
Im'post (from Lat. impono, to lay upon).
That cornice, course of wall masonry, brack
et, or block upon which rest the lower stones
of an arch or vault.
ln'trados (from Lat. intra, within, and dor
sum, back ; many lexicographers refer the
word to the Spanish intrados, an entrance).
The under inner surface or soffit of an arch,
as opposed to extrados.
Lantern. In architectural usage, a small
structure with apertures for the admission of
light, surmounting a dome or vaulted com
partment. Lec'teril (Low Lat. lectrimtm, from lego,
to read). A' desk or stand upon which are
placed the large books read in the services
of the church.
Lintel (Old Fr. ; from Low Lat. lintellus,
limitellus, dim. of limes, boundary, perhaps
through confusion with limen, threshold). A
horizontal beam of timber or stone placed
above an opening in a wall, or an intercolum-
niation. Log'gia (Ital. ; from Low Lat. labia, a gal
lery, formed from Old High Germ, louba;
Germ. Laube, arbor). A covered space in a
building, one or more of the sides of which
are open to the air by colonnades or arcades.

GLOSSARY.

715

A term generally restricted to civic and es
pecially palatial architecture.
Lou'ver (Old Fr. I'ottvert, from ouvrir ;

were admitted ; generally separated from the
rest of the building by an arcade or screen.
Nave (Old Fr., Ital., and Span., literally

Lat. aperire, to open). A small lantern or ship ; Lat. navis ; in German, technical use
turret surmounting the roof of a hall or other : exactly rendered by Sc/tiff). The central di-

apartment, with openings for ventilation
Lou'ver-boards. A series of horizontal
slabs slanting outward, so as to admit air
but exclude rain, placed in the windows of
louvers, belfries, drying-lofts, etc.
Lunette' Fr. ; dim. of Lat. luna, moon).
A subsidiary vault intersecting with a main
vault or dome, and having its crown upon a
lower level. Such is, for instance, the vault
leading from a main compartment to a verti
cal window opening, or to a low wall-arch. So
called from the crescent shape of the groin.
Machicolation (Fr. mdchicoulis, from
mdche, melted matter, and cottier, to flow).
An opening at the top of a fortification wall
or tower, formed by projecting the parapet
upon corbels, and leaving openings in the
soffit of the cornice or arched table. Hetrce
the projecting cornice thus formed.
Merlon (Fr. merla ; Ital. merlo, from a
diminutive form of murus, wall). One of the
piers of masonry which form a battlement,
and have between them the open spaces or
crenels. Modil'lion (Fr. modillon, from Lat. modu
lus, dim. of modus, measure. So called from
their regular spacing). A small console em
ployed as a support beneath the corona of
classic Roman cornices.
Mullion (corrupted from early English
vtunnion ; Fr. moignon, stump, blunt end;

vision of the body of a church, extending,
upon the west of the choir, from the chancel
to the main entrance.
Niello (Ital. from late Latuigellum, black
enamel, from nigelltts, dim. of niger, black). A
method of ornamenting metallic surfaces by
engraving upon them lines which are subse
quently filled in with a black composition.
Nog'ging (related to Dan. knag, a peg of
wood ; Dutch, knog, a yard-arm). A construc
tion in which brick or light rubble masonry is
laid between the timbers of a wooden fram
ing. Oast (Anglo-Sax. as't, a kiln). A kiln for
drying hops.
O'l'iel (Old Fr. oriol, a porch, a gallery ;
Low Lat. oriolttm. Etymology doubtful, pos
sibly from Lat. aureolum, gilded, aurum, gold;
others suggest the Anglo-Sax. ofer-helan, to
cover over ; others derive it from Lat. aurum,
the ear ; others still suppose it to be derived
from oriens, the East). A window projecting
from an upper story, and supported, not upon
the ground, as a bay, but upon brackets.
Pendentive (Fr. pendentif, from Lat.pen-
deo, to hang). A triangular curved surface of
a domed ceiling, situated in the corner of a
building of straight- lined plan, between the
extrados and below the crowns of the main
arches. In Gothic architecture, that portion

Lat. mancus, stump of an arm or leg cut off. of a groined vault supported by one pillar or

Wedgwood remarks that the mullion took its
name from having been regarded as a stump
of the dividing shaft which breaks up into
the tracery of the upper part of the window.
The explanation and etymology are alike open
to question). A slender upright shaft, form
ing a division between the openings of Gothic
windows, screens, etc.
Narthex (Gr. vap9r)K, a casket, a shrine).
A vestibule or porch within the early Chris
tian church, in which catechisms were repeat
ed, and to which catechumens and penitents

impost, and bordered by longitudinal and
transverse ribs.
Fin'nacle (Fr. pinacle, Low Lat. pitiuacu-
lt:m, from pinna, feather). A slender subsid
iary spire rising above the adjacent parts of
the building.
Pres'bytery (Gr. trpitsfivTipiov, from ¦trptrs-
fivg, an old and reverend man. The word
priest is from the same root). That part of
the church occupied exclusively by those en
gaged in the performance of the religious
service, comprising the choir and in some
cases the adjacent portions of the building.

716

GLOSSARY.

Purlin (etymology uncertain, perhaps
from Fr. par, through, and ligne, line). A
horizontal timber resting upon the main raf
ters of a roof.
Quattrocento (Ital. ; from quattro, four,
and cento, hundred ; literally, four hundred,
but used for fourteen hundred). The fifteenth
century. Compare Cinquecento.
Quoin (Fr. coin, a wedge, a corner; from
Lat. cttneus, wedge). A term applied to any
external solid angle of a building, particular
ly to the projection formed by ashlar stones,
with faces raised from the surface of the wall,
which are employed at the corners to strength
en the masonry.
Ram pant (from Fr. ramper, to creep, to
climb ; from a middle High Germ, root, Bav.
rampfen, to spring, to snatch). May, in ar
chitectural usage, be applied to an arch or
vault whose impost and abutment are not on
the same level.
Believing arch. See Discharging arch.
Bere'dos (Fr. arriire-dos, from arriere,
behind, and dos, Lat. dorsum, back). In
Gothic architecture, a screen placed behind
the altar.
Retic'ulated vault (from Lat. reticuhtm,
dim. of rete, net). A Gothic vault, the com
plicated ribs of which resemble a geometrical
net-work. Rib. In architectural usage, a projecting
moulding following the line of any groin, or
the intersection of vaulted surfaces.
Kood (Anglo-Sax. rbd, beam, cross; Lat.
rudis, wand, from Sanscr. ridh, to grow). A
cross, crucifix, or figure of Christ; especially
a crucifix placed at the entrance to the choir
in mediaeval churches.
Rood'-beam,— rood-loft. A transverse
beam or gallery upon which the rood is
placed ; generally situated at the juncture of
the nave and choir above the chancel screen.
Rood' ¦ tower, rood - steeple. Terms
applied to the tower or steeple erected above
the intersection of transept and nave in a cru
ciform church.
Rose'-window. A circular window dir
vided into compartments by radial bars or
tracery.

Rub'ble (from rub). Coarse masonry con
structed of small unhewn stones set in thick
mortar. Sgrafflt'to (Ital. scratched). An ornament
produced by scratching lines through a thin
coating of plaster, or tinted wash, so as to
reveal the contrasting color of a prepared
ground. Span'drel (apparently unconnected with
span ; recent form of splaundrel, from Old
Fr. esplanader, to level ; Lat. explanare, from
ex and planus, plain, level). The space of ir
regular triangular shape between the extrados
of two arches and a horizontal cornice above
their crowns ; or between the extrados of an
arch, the horizontal cornice above its crown,
and a perpendicular line from its impost.
Splay (abbreviated from display). A bev
elled surface. This term should be restricted
to the jambs, lintels, and sills of windows or
doors which are slanted for the purpose of
enlarging the aperture, or increasing the light
passing through it.
Squinch (same root as sconce ; old Fr.
esconse, a screen, shelter, from Lat. abscondo,
to hide). An arch of stepped projection, em
ployed in the place of pendentives to support
the alternate sides of an octagon formed above
a square. Staff- work. See Billet-moulding.
Stalactite vault. A vaulted surface dec
orated by a series of overhanging projections,
presenting a fanciful resemblance to stalac
tites. Stellar vault (Lat. stellaris, from stella, a
star). A Gothic vault, the complicated ribs
of which resemble the geometrical forms of a
star. Stilted. In architectural usage, a term
applied to an arch or vault, the curve of
which does not begin from the impost, but is
elevated upon a vertical continuation of the
intrados and archivolt mouldings.
String' ¦ course. A narrow horizontal
plinth or band of projecting mouldings.
Supermulllons. The upright bars, or
mullions, above the commencement of the
foliation in the upper part of a Gothic win
dow or screen.
Sur'based. A term applied to an arch or

GLOSSARY.

717

vault of which the height of the curve above
the level of the impost is less than one-half
its span.
Surmounted. A term applied to an arch
or vault of which the height of the curve
above the level of the impost is greater than
one-half its span.
Thrust. In special architectural signifi
cation, the lateral pressure exercised by the
stones of an arch or vault.
Trac'ery (from Fr. tracer ; Low Lat. trac-
tiare; Lat. traho, to trace). The ornamental
open-work of curved and intersecting lines in
Gothic windows, screens, etc.
Tran'sept (from Lat. trans, across, and
septum, enclosure). The transverse portion
of a cruciform church forming the division
between the nave and the choir. Any part
of a church projecting at right angles from
the body, and equal, or nearly equal, to it in
height. Tre'cento (Ital. ; from tre, three, and cen
to, hundred ; literally, three hundred, but
used for thirteen hundred). The fourteenth
century. Compare Cinquecento.
Trifo'rium (Lat. ; from tres, three, and
foris, door, so called from the openings hav

ing at first been combined in groups of three).
A gallery or passage-way above the vaulting
of the side aisles of a church, opening towards
the main aisle through arcades or windows.
Hence, also, the blind arcades or tracery be
neath the clerestory windows, which occasion
ally took the place of these openings.
Triptych (Gr. Tpitrrvxoe, from rp/c,
thrice, and 7mWw, to fold). Folding-tablets
of three leaves, — whether of ivory, overlaid
on the inner side with wax, as writing-tablets,
or of panels of painted wood, as altar-pieces.
Vaulting-post, or shaft. A small en
gaged shaft which supports the ribs of a
vault ; generally a boltel resting upon a cor
bel or other projection.
Vous'soil" (Fr. ; from vousser, to arch ;
Lat. volvo, to roll, to vault). A stone shaped
like a truncated wedge, forming part of an
arch or vault. The central uppermost vous-
soir is termed a key-stone ; the lowest, ad
joining the impost, a springer.
Wall-arch. That portion of a vertical
wall, — of round or pointed -arch shape, —
which rises above the imposts of a cross-
vault, lunette, or Gothic compartment.

INDEX OF ARTISTS.

Adeodatus, 465.
Agostino, 639.
Alberti, 574.
Albertus, Master, of Lau
sanne, 471.
Alcuin, 246, 247.
Al Kitami, 199.
Aloisio, 70.
Aloisius, 204.
Altichiero da Zevio, 668
(Fig. 407).
Andrea da Firenze, 667.
Angelo, 639.
Angilbert, 223.
Anns, Guillaume, 606.
Ansegius, 217, 223, 240.
Antelamus, Benedictus, 466.
Anthemios of Tralles, 57.
Antonio Veneziano, 667.
Arnold, Master, 548.
Arnolfo di Cambio. See
Cambio.
Avanzi, Jacopo, 668 (Fig.
407).
Avanzo, Leonardo di, 641.
Baerze, Jacob de, 604.
Balduccio, Giovanni di, 640.
Balduino, Pagano, 468.
Barisanus of Trani, 471.
Barna, 671.
Barnaba of Modena, 668.
Bartolo, Taddeo di, 674.
Bartolommeo, Niccolo di,
639.
Bassalectus. See Vassalitlus.
Beauneveu, Andre, 604, 654.
Beringar, Monk, 249.
Beringer, Master, 449.
Biduinus, 466.
Bocholt, Franz, 697.
Bonannus, Master, 471.
Bonaventura, Niccolo, 578.
Bonino di Campiglione, 640.
Bonneuil, Etienne de, 592.
Bonus Amicus, 466.
Bouts, Dierik, 707.
Broederlam, Melchior, 604,
699.
Brueggemann, H., 626.

Brun, of Fulda, 244.
Buffalmaco, 667.
Camaino, Tino di, 638, 641.
Cambio, Arnolfo di, 570,576,
635, 638.
Campello, Philip de. See
Philip.
Campiglione, Bonino di. See
Bonino.
Campin, Robert, 700.
Campis, Jean de, 500.
Campomosi, John, 578.
Casentino, Jacopo di, 667.
Cavallini, Pietro, 663.
Cierino, Niccolo di Pietro,
667.
Cimabue, Giovanni, 428, 429,
660, 673 (Fig. 408).
Cione, Andrea. See Or
cagna.
Cione, the elder, 642.
Clussenbach, Georg von, 621.
Clussenbach, Martin von,
621.
Conrad of Scheyern, 422.
Cormont, Thomas de, 498.
Cornicke, Jehan de, 606.
Cosmas, of Rome, 324.
Coucy, Robert de, 498.
Cova, James, 578.
Cristofani, Buonamico. See
Buffalmaco.
Cristus, Petrus, 704, 705.
Daddo, Bernardo di, 667,
673-
Dalmasio, Lippo di, 668.
Daniel, 204, 233.
David, Gerard, 708.
Death of the Virgin, .Master
of, 687.
Dichter, Michael, 629.
Dietrich, Master, 684.
Dionysios of Fourna-Agra-
pha, 99.
Drogues, Jehan de, 606.
Duccio du Buoninsegna, 660,
°73-
Dunstan, St., 438.

Eckart, Master, 620.
Eginhard, 217, 240.
Eilbert of Cologne, 457.
Eligius, St., 238.
Ellinger, Abbot of Tegern
see, 417.
Eudes of Montreux, 498.
Eustathius, 102.
Eyck, Hubert van, 700-703
(Figs. 420, 421).
Eyck, Jan van, yoo-yo^(Figs.
420, 421, 422).
Fiesole, 672, 674.
Fioravanti, Ridolfo, 69.
Folchard, 249.
Fouquet, Jean, 656, 657 (Fig.
403)-
Franck, Juan, 585.
Franco, 675.
Fredi, Bartolo di, 671.
Fuessingen, Master Ulrich
of. See Ulrich.
Fuetterer, Ulrich, 694.
Furtmeyer, Berthold, 695.
Gaddi, Angelo, 667.
Gaddi, Gaddo, 428.
Gaddi, Taddeo, 576,666,673.
Gallardus, 638.
Gerrit Tot S. Jans, 706.
Gherwiges, Hinrik, 629.
Giottino, 667.
Giotto, 575, 576, 638, 639,
641, 661 (Figs. 396, 405,
406).
Giovanni, Cosmatic artist,
638.
Giovanni da Milano, 667.
Girauldus, 475.
Gislebertus, 476.
Gmuend, Master Henry of.
See Henry.
Godescalc, 246.
Goes, Hugo van der, 705.
Gottfried of Corvey, 449.
Gratz, John of. See John.
Graziani. See Guido.
Groven, Laurens, 630.
Gruamons, 465.

720

INDEX OF ARTISTS.

Gruden, Nicholas, 630.
Guariento, 668.
Gugliemo d'Agnello, 638.
Guido da Como, 467.
Guido of Corneto, 323.
Guido of Siena, 660.
Guillaume de Sens, 522, 524.
Gundulphus of Caen, 380,
385, 388.
Hans der Steinmeissel, 627.
Hedin, Jaquemart, 654.
Heinrich der Balier, 662.
Hennequin, 603.
Hennequin of Brussels, 604.
Henricus Custos, 457.
Henry of Gmuend, 578.
Heribertus, 413.
Heriman of Helmershausen,
418.
Herlin, Friedrich, 624, 693.
Hermann, Master of Cologne,
604.
Hildebertus, 422.
Holbein, Hans, the elder,
691.
Holy Companionship, Master
of the, 687.
Honnecourt, Villard de, 498.
Horebout, Gerard, 7og.
Huber, Joerg, 626.
Hueltz, John, 554.
Hugo li Bergier, 4g8.
Ibn Aziz, 198.
Ingebramus, 498.
Ingobert, 249.
Isenmann, Casper, 690.
Isidoros of Miletos, 57.
Israel von Meckenen, 697.
Jacobus, 428.
Jacobus de Merania, 567,570.
Jacobus of Rome, 323.
Jacopo, Fra, 659.
Jan Joseb, 603.
Jehan le Bouteiller, 600.
Joan, 603.
John, Master, 548.
John of Bruges, 654.
John of Gratz, 578.
Jost van Gent, 705.
Juncker, Brothers, 554, 560.
Kaltenhof, Peter, 691.
Kassir, 198.
Keraldus, 413.
Kitami. See Al Kitami.
Kraft, Adam, 628.
Kyrillos of Chios, 99.
Lanfrancus, 380, 385.

Lanfrani, 640.
Lathem, Lievin van, 7og.
Laurentius of Rome, 323.
Lerch, Nicholas, 627, 629.
Liesborn, Master of, 687.
Lippi, Filippo, 673.
Liuthard, Monk, 249.
Lochner, Stephen, 685 (Fig.
416).
Lorenzetti, Pietro di Loren
zo, 670, 674.
Lorenzo, Ambrogio di, 670.
Lorenzo da Firenze, 667.
Lusarches, Robert de, 498.
Lyversberg Passion, Master
of, 687.
Madalulfus of Fontanellum,
244.
Maechselkircher, Gabriel,
6g4.
Margaritone of Arezzo, 659.
Marmion, Simon, 708.
Martino, Donato di, 670.
Martino, Simone di, 66g,670,
673-675 (Fig. 408).
Maso di Banco, 667.
Masolino, 671, 675.
Matthew of Arras, 551, 560.
Meire, Gerard van der,
705-
Memling, Hans, 707, 708.
Memmi, Lippo, 670, 674.
Menneville, Jean de, 604.
Merania, Jacobus de. See
Jacobus.
Mignoth, Jean, 578.
Mino, Taddeo di Bartolo di,
671.
Montereau, Peter of, 498.
Moser, Lucas, 624, 690.
Mourturier, Antoine de, 600.
Mutina, Tommaso da. See
Tommaso.
Nichasius, Jean, 654!
Nicola da Bologna, 675.
Nicolas of Strasburg, 684.
Nicolaus, Joannis, 423.
Nicolaus, Master, 465.
Nicolaus of Rome, 323.
Nicolaus of Verdun, 457.
Notker Balbulus, 249.
Notker Labeo, 420.
Oderigi da Gubbio, 675.
Oderisio, Roberto di, 668.
Oderisius of Benevento, 470.
Odo, Master, 217.
Ognabene, Andrea di Jacopo,
642.
Olmdorf, Hans, 694.

Orcagna, 575, 576, 639, 667,
673.
Otto, Monk, 249.
Ouwater, Albert, 706.
Pacher, Michael, of Bruneck,
625.
Patras, Lambert, 478.
Paul of Limburg, 654.
Paulus, Marmorarius, 323.
Paulus, 380.
Peregrinus, 469.
Peter of Gmuend, 551.
Petrus, Master of Lausanne,
471-
Philip de Campello, 570.
Piero Florentino, 642.
Pisano, Andrea, 639, 641
(Fig. 396).
Pisano, Giglio, 642,
Pisano, Giovanni, 570, 575,
576, 579, 635-638 (Figs.
394, 395)-
Pisano, Giunta, 429, 430,
659.
Pisano, Niccolo, 46g, 570,
575, 632-635 (Fig. 393).
Pisano, Nino, 63g.
Pisano, Tommaso, 63g.
Pleydenwurff, Hans, 688.
Prindale, Hennequin, 604.
Puccio, Pietro, 667.
Rabula, from Zagba, 96.
Radolf, 364.
Raimond du Temple, 517.
Ramus, Master, 635.
Raoul d'Orleans, 654.
Ratgar, Abbot, 224.
Ravy, Master, 600.
Renaud, Master, 498.
Riel, Gerhard von, 547.
Riemenschneider, Tilmann,
629.
Riquinus, Master, 453.
Ristoro, Fra, 576.
Robertus, Master, 466.
Rogerius of Amalfi, 470.
Rogier van der Weyden. See
Weyden.
Roritzer, Matthew, 560.
Rubeus, Magister, 641.
Rubleff , Master Andreas, 117.
Rughesee, Nicholas, 630.
Rusuti, Filippo, 663.
Sabina, 614 (Fig. 384).
St. Bartholomew, Master of,
687.
St. Severinus, Master of, 687.
Salomo, Abbot, 249.
Schongauer, Ludwig, 697.

INDEX OF ARTISTS.

721

Schongauer, Martin, 690, 691,
697.
Schonhofer, Sebald, 615.
Schuechlin, Hans, 624, 691.
Scolari, Filippo, 671.
Ser Giovannia, Lionardo, 642.
Seront.Wuillequin, 604.
Silvestro, Fra, 675.
Simone di Martino. See
Martino.
Sintram, 249.
Sisto, Fra, 570.
Sluter de Orlandes, Claux,
604-606 (Fig. 381).
Solsernus, 659.
Spinello Aretino, 667.
Stamina, Gherardo, 667, 668,
671,675.
Stefano, Giotto di. See Gi
ottino.
Stefano, Maestro, 667.
Steinbach, Erwin von, 546,
553- [»«"•
Stephen, Master. See Loch-

Stoss.Veit, 626.
Striegel, Bernhard, 691.
Suger, Abbot, 485, 489.
Syrlin, Joerg, the elder, 624,
627.
Syrlin, Joerg, the younger,
625.
Tafi, Andrea, 428, 659.
Tommaso da Mutina, 668,
674, 675, 679, 684 (Fig.
409).
Torell, William, 609.
Torriti, Jacopo, 663.
Traini, Francesco, 667.
Traut, Hans, 689.
Tutilo, 240, 241, 249 (Fig.
129).
Ulrich of Fuessingen, 578.
Vanni, Andrea, 671.
Vassalittus, 324.
Verta, Jehan de la, 606.
46

Vicenzo, Antonio di, 577.
Vischer, Hermann, 630 (Fig.
3.i)-
Vischer, Peter, 630 (Fig. 392).
Vitale, 668.
Volterra, Francesco da, 667.
Vousonne,Thierrion, 604.
Wenzel of Olmuetz, 698.
Werne, Claux de, 604.
Weyden, Rogier van der,
705.
Wilhelmus, Master, 465.
William, Master of Cologne,
678.
Winichis, 324.
Wolfcoz, 249.
Wolgemut, Michael, 624, 625,
688-690 (Fig. 417).
Wolvinius, Master, 114, 240.
Wurmser, Nicolaus, 680.
Zeitblom, Bartholomew, 6gi
(Fig- 418).

INDEX OF PLACES.

Aarhuus :
Church, 394.
Abu, Mount :
Vimala Sah, 173.
Agra: Mohammedan buildings,
176.
Ahlen •
Church, paintings, 405.
Ahmedabad ;
Mosque, 173, 175.
Aix: Carved sarcophagi, 109.
St. Sauveur, 346.
Aix-la-Chapelle :
Evangeliarium of Lothair,
249.
Grashaus, 563.
Minster,2i 7-220 (Fig. 113).
— Ambo, 456 (Fig. 278).
— Antependium, 454.
— Bronze gates, 239.
— Chandelier, 460.
— Crucifix of Lothair,
459-
— Mosaic, 244.
— Shrine above corona
tion altar, 457.
— Shrine of Charle
magne, 457 (Fig. 279).
Palace, 217, 220, 221, 245.
— Paintings, 244.
Statue of Theodoric, 233.
Ajanta: Grottos, 136, 138, 139,
140, 142 (Figs. 77, 78,
a and c , and 79.?).
Ajmir :
Mosque, 17.3 (Fig. gl).
Aker :
Basilica, 3g6.
Alba Fucese :
Church, carved door, 471.
Albelda :
Codex, 437.
Alby: Cathedral, 502, 585 (Fig.
3°7)-
Alexandria: Catacombs, 13 (Fig. 8).
Church of St. Mark, 60.

Alfuaster :
Basilica, 3g6.
Alicamps. See Aries.
Allahabad :
Lat, 133. [176.
Mohammedan buildings,
Almenno :
S.Tommaso, 313, 314 (Fig,
185).
Alpirsbach :
Church, Romanic capitals
(Fig. 140).
Alsleben :
Convent, 2g8.
Alspach :
Church, 280.
Altamura :
S. Maria Assunta, 317, 334.
Altenahr :
Church, 275.
Altenberg :
Cistercian convent, 541.
Ecclesiastical buildings,
213.
Altenkirchen :
Church, 275.
Altenzelle :
Portal (Fig. 150).
Altomuenster :
Convent, 213.
Amalfi : [470.
Church, bronze doors, 115,
Convent of the Capuchins,
579-
Amanaburg :
Convent, 213.
Amelunxborn :
Church, 272.
Amiens :
Cathedral, 496, 498, 503,
507, 508, 512(^2^. 310,
315)-
— Glass paintings, 650.
— Sculptures, 597, sgg
(Figs. 378, 37g, 380).
— Tombs of bishops,
603.
Ammensleben :
Convent church, 273.
Amravati :
Tope, relief (Fig. 82).

Anagratum :
Convent, 210.
Ancona :
Carved sarcophagi, 109.
Andernach :
Parish church, 536.
Andlau :
Collegiate church, reliefs,
441.
Angers :
Cathedral, glass painting,
433-
St. Maurice, 501.
Angouleme :
Cathedral, 357 (Fig. 216).
— Facade sculptures,
474-
Ani :
Cathedral, 65 (Fig. 37).
Antioch :
Church, 42, 48.
Private basilica, 17.
Antwerp :
Cathedral, 589, 590 (Fig.
376).
Museum, diptych of Me
lun, 656.
Museum, Madonna by Jan
van Eyck, 703.
Aplerbeck :
Baptismal font, 443.
Aquila :
Wood carvings, 472.
Aquileja :
Baptistery, 42.
Arbona :
S. Maria, 566.
Arendsee :
Church, 295
Arezzo :
Cathedral, 314, 570, 576.
— Monument of Guido
Tarlati, 639.
Museum, marble Crucifix,
465.
Pieve, sculptures, 467.
S. Maria, 316.
Arles :
Carved sarcophagi, log.
Notre-Dame des Alicamps,
346.

724

INDEX OF PLACES.

Arles — continued.
St. Trophime, 340, 345
(Fig. 204).
— Chapter - house, wall
paintings, 432 (Fig. 265).
— Cloister, 346.
— Fagade sculptures, 473.
Arras :
Cathedral, 513.
Tapestries, 699.
Aschaffenburg :
Collegiate church, 536.
Assisi :
S. Chiara, 570.
S. Francesco, 567, 570, 572
(Figs. 362, 363).
— Mural paintings, 660,
662, 665 (Fig. 406).
Asti :
S. Pietro, 313.
Atrani :
S. Salvatore, bronze doors,
115,470.
Atro. See Tind.
Augsburg :
Cathedral, 279.
— • Bronze gates, 450-452
(Fig. 275).
— Glass paintings, 409
(Fig. 252).
— Weingartenaltar,692.
Gallery, Christ between
the two Thieves, 691.
— Zeitblom, St. Valen
tin, 6gi (^-.418).
— Holbein, the elder,
paintings, 6g3.
Autun .
Cathedral, 350, 353, 483
(Fig. 295).
— Tympanon sculptures,
476.
Auxerre :
Cathedral, 497.
— Glass paintings, 650.
St. Germain, 494 (Fig. 302).
Avignon :
Notre - Dame - des - Doms,
339- 344, 345-
Papal palace, 517.
St. Ruf, 339. .
Mural paintings, 670.
Avila :
S. Andrea y S. Segundo,
375-
S. Pedro, 375, 377.
S. Vicente, 375, 377, 583
(Fig. 372).
Az-zahra. See Cordova.
Bacharach :
Pariih church, 536.

Bagdad :
Palace, 171.
Bagh: Grotto, 140.
Bagia :
Castle, paintings, 199.
Balve: Church, portal sculptures,
443-
Bamberg :
Cathedral, 277, 537, 538
(Figs. 333, 334)-
— Choir of St. George,
sculptures, 612.
— Coronation robes of
Henry II. , 42S.
— Monument of Henry
IL, 629.
— Reliefs, 447.
— Sculptures of eastern
portal, 612, 613.
Cemetery, bronze tombs,
630.
Library, bindings, 462.
— Apocalypse of Henry
II., 416.
— Gospel of Henry II. ,
415.
— Vulgata, 246.
St. Gangolf, candelabrum,
460.
St. James, 277.
St. Michael, 277.
Banos :
S. Juan, 373.
Barabar :
Grotto of Lomasrishi, 135.
— of Sudama, 134 (Fig.
74)-
Barcelona: Cathedral, 585.
Dwellings, 586.
S. Pedro y S, Pablo, 374.
Barletta: S. Sepolcro, wall paintings,
425 (Fig. 261).
Statue of Theodosius, 102.
Barneck :
Church, 379.
Barton-upon-Humber -.
St. Peter, 379.
Basle :
Bridge, 308.
Minster, 538.
— Antependium, 442,
458 (Fig. 277).
— Paintings, 677.
— Reliefs, 442 (Fig. 270).
Spahlenthor, 563.
Town-hall, 563.
Batalha :
Convent, 588.

Bayeux :
Cathedral, 366, 513.
Museum, tapestry, 434-
Bazas: Cathedral, 514.
Beaucaire: Church, 345.
Beaune: Church, 353-
Hospital, painting by Ro
gier, 7p6.
Beauvais :
Basilica, 214.
Cathedral, 496, 508.
— Glass paintings, 651.
Bebenhausen: Cloister, 301.
Bec: Abbey, 498.
Beckum :
Church, baptismal font,
443. •
Bedsa :
Chaitya, 136, 139.
Stambhas, 136.
Behar :
Grotto of Sattapanni, 134.
Benedictbeuren :
Convent, 213.
Benevento :
Cathedral, doors, 470.
Berchtesgaden :
Collegiate church, 29g.
— Cloister, 443.
Bergamo :
Civic buildings, 580.
Berlin :
Church of the Virgin,
paintings, 680 (Fig.
412).
Library, diptych of Rufus
Probianus, no.
— Codices, gs, 422 (Fig.
260).
Museum, altar - piece by
Taddeo Gaddi, 673.
— altar-pieces from the
Wiesenkirche at Soest,
407 (Fig. 251).
— Altar of- St. Bavo by
brothers Van Eyck, 702.
— Corpus Christi altar
of Louvain, 707.
— Female bust from Sca
la, 46g.
— Head of Christ by Jan
Van Eyck, 703.
— Madonna by Jan van
Eyck, 703.
— Panels of Shrine by
Giotto, 673.
— Pyxis, 112.

Berne: Library, tapestries, 699,
706.
Berney: Abbey church, 363.
Bersen: Convent, 297.
Berwick: Church, 385.
Besancon :
Cathedral, 296.
Bethlehem :
Church of the Nativity, 22,
24, 33-
Mosque of Omar, 43.
Bettiah :
Triumphal columns, 134.
Bevaix :
Church, 354.
Beverley :
Minster, 523.
Beziers: Cathedral, 500, 502, 513.
Bhaja. See Bombay.
BHILSA' Topes, 130.
Bijapur: Grave of Mahmud, 175.
Mosque of Jumma, 175
(Figs. 93, 94).
Bi-Situn; Palace, capitals, 123.
Bjeresjo :
Church, paintings, 439.
Blaubeuren: Wood-carvings, 625.
Blenod :
Church, 281.
Boeckelheim. See Kreuz-
ftach.
Boedecken ¦
Convent, 297.
Bogolubor: Church of Our Lady, 67
(Fig 38).
Bologna: Convent of Gerusalemme
(Fig. 184).
S. Domenico, Area of St.
Domenic, 638.
S. Francesco, 568.
S. Petronio, 577 (Fig. 370).
SS. Pietro e Paolo, 317
(Fig. 187).
S. Stefano, 313, 314.
Bombay :
Grotto of Bhaja, 135, 139,
140 (Fig. 75).
Bonn: Cemetery church, 677.
Minster, 536.
St. Castor, 274,

INDEX OF PLACES.
Boppard: Parish church, 536.
Bordeaux :
St. Andre, 502.
St. ~f_milion, 356.
Borgund: Church, 391, 394 (Fig. 243).
Bornholm: Church, 3g5.
Boscherville: Church, 4g2.
St. George, 364 (Fig. 222).
— Relief of David, 475.
Bourg-Lastie: Church, 349.
Bourg-Saint-Andeol :
Church, 345.
Bourges: Cathedral, 487, 497, 504,
506 (Figs. 2g4, 314).
— Glass paintings, 650.
House of Jacques Cceur,
5i8.
Porte Saint-Ursin, tympa
non, 475 (Fig. 2gl).
Braisne :
Church of St. Yved, 544.
Brandenburg: Cathedral, 262.
Church of the Virgin, Har
lungerberge, 541 (Fig.
339)-
City gates, 563.
St. Catherine, 558.
St. Godehard, 295, 558.
Town-hall, 563.
Brauweiler: Abbey church (Fig. 141).
— paintings, 677.
Chapter-house, paintings,
4°3-
Bregenz :
Chapel of St. Aurelia, 211.
Breitenau: Basilica, 277.
Bremen: Cathedral, 273 (Fig. 154).
Ecclesiastical buildings,
231.
Town-hall, 563.
Brenz :
Church, 280.
Brescia: Cathedral, 51, 313.
Civic buildings, 580.
Ivory carvings, 112.
S. Salvadore, 207.
Breslau :
Brasses, 621.
Cathedral, monument of
Bishop John, 630. [446.
Church of the Magdalen,

725
Bresi.au— continued.
St. Elisabeth, altar-piece,
688.
Town-hall, 563.
Brindisi: Mintage, 468.
Briquebec: Church, 363.
Brixworth: Church, 379.
Bronnbach :
Church, 542.
Broussa: Palace, 194.
Bruges: Academy, Madonna by Jan
van Eyck, 703 (Fig, 422).
Cathedral, brasses, 603.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 588.
Guildhall, 591.
Hospital, Altar of St. John,
708.
— Shrine of St. Ursula,
708.
Town-hall, 591.
Brunswic. See Dankwar
derode.
Brunswick: Brazen Lion, 453.
Cathedral, 294, 535, 541.
— Candelabra, 460.
— Crucifix of Bernward,
452.
— Monuments of Henry
the Lion and his wife,
617.
— Paintings, 404.
Museum, gospel, 418.
Town-hall, 563.
Fortifications, 271.
Brussels. Library, miniatures, 709.
Museum.Altar of St.Bavo,
702.
St. Gudule, 588, 590.
— Windows, 698.
Town-hall, 591.
— Paintings by Rogier,
706.
Buddh Gaya:
Stupa, 132.
Buecken: St. Maternianus, glass
paintings, 409, 433 (Fig.
253).
Buedingen: Castle, 303.
Buildwas: Cistercian church, 521.
Buraburg: Convent, 214.
St. Peter, 213.

726

INDEX OF PLACES.

Burgos: Cathedral, 583, 584.
Dwellings, 586.
Bursfelde :
Church, 272.
ButwA: Mausoleums, 175.
Byland: Cistercian church, 521.
Caen :,
St. Etienne, 365, 366, 380,
499, 5°8 (Fig. 224).
St. Nicolas, 364.
Ste. Trinite, 365, 508 (Fig.
223).
Gesarea :
Architectural remains, 194.
Caesarea Philippi:
Statue of Christ, 103.
Cahors: Cathedral, 356.
— Tympanon, 474.
Cairo : [171.
Fountain of Abderrhaman,
— near Souq el Asr, 171.
Dar ul Noman, igg.
Mosque of Amru, 166, 167,
173 (Figs. 87, 88).
— of Barkuk, 168.
— of El Azhar, 168.
— of El Daher, 168.
— of El Hakim, 168.
— of El Moyed, i6g.
— of Ibn Tulun, 167
(Fig. 8g).
— of Hassan, 168, 169.
— of Kait Bey, 169 (Fig.
90).
— of Salaheddin Yussuf,
168.
Palace sculptures, 197.
Calcar: Collegiate church, carv
ings, 627.
Callundborg :
Church, 3g5.
Cambray :
Cathedral, 497, 4g8.
Cambridge: St. Sepulchre, 386 (Fig.
241).
Cammin :
Cathedral, 541.
Campen: Cistercian convent, 541.
Camprodon :
S. Pedro, 374.
Cangas: S. Cruz, 369.
Cannes: Coffin, 109 (Fig. 63).

Canosa :
Mortuary chapel of Boe-
mund (bronze doors),
470.
Canouge :
Mosque, 173.
Canterbury :
Cathedral, 380, 385, 522
(Figs. 324, 326).
— Monument of Black
Prince, 610.
Cappenberg :
Church, 276.
Capua: Cathedral (mosaics), 424.
Museum, sculptures from
Volturno, 468 (Fig. 287).
S. Angelo in Formis, mural
paintings, 424.
Carcassonne: St. Nazaire, 500, 513.
— Glass paintings, 651.
Carlsruhe: Library, Gospel of Bruch-
sal, 418.
Carpentras: [345.
Notre - Dame d'Aubune,
Cartmel: [522.
Church of the Augustines,
Cashel: Chapel of Cormac, 390.
Castellum Tingitanum:
Church (inscription), 20.
Castiglione d'Olona:
Baptistery (paintings), 671.
Collegiate church (paint
ings), 671.
Castrop: Church (paintings), 405.
Cavaillon :
Church, 339, 344.
Cefalu :
Cathedral, 331.
— Mosaics, 426.
Centula: Convent, 210, 223.
Chalons-sur-Marne: Cathedral, 497, 508, 513.
— Glass paintings, 650.
Notre - Dame, 485, 486,
487, 489.
St. Jean, 367.
Chambois: Donjon, 387.
Champ-le-Duc: Church, 281.
Chartres: Cathedral, 485, 48g, 4g4,
496, 503, 504, 508 (Figs.
304,308).
— Glass paintings, 433,
650.

Chartres — continued.
Cathedral sculptures, 477,
596, 598.
St. Pere, 484.
— Glass paintings, 433.
Chatsworth: Library of the Duke of
Devonshire, codex, 437.
Chi arav alle:
Church of the Cistercians,
567-
Chichester: Cathedral, 385.
Chiemsee: Convent, 213.
ChrisTenberg: Ecclesiastical buildings,
213.
Citeaux: Convent, 541.
Citta di Castello:
Cathedral, antependium,
472.
Cividale: Chapter-house, pax, 235.
— Psalters, 413, 418.
— Pax, 235 (Fig. 124).
Figures of Saints, 114.
Nunnery, relief, 234.
St. John, baptistery, 207,
208 (Fig. in).
St. Martin, relief, 234 (Fig.
123).
Civita Castellana:
Cathedral, portals, 324
(Fig. ig2).
Civray :
Church, 358.
— Sculptures, 475.
Clermont-Ferrand :
Cathedral, 500, 513.
Notre-Dame-du-Port, 208,
347-349, 500 (Figs. 210,
211).
Clonmacnoise: Church, 390.
Cluny:
Church, 351 (Fig. 212).
Cobern: Castle, 303.
— Chapel, 307.
Coblentz :
St.' Castor, 534.
Colb atz :
Convent church, 541.
Colmar: Museum, altar-piece from
St. Martin, 690.
— Staufenberg altar, 690.
St. Martin, sacristy, Ma
donna in the Rose Gar
den, 690.

INDEX OF PLACES.

727

Cologne: Archiepiscopal museum,
portable altar, 45g.
Cathedral, 230, 545, 546,
547-549, 553, 554 (Figs.
347, 348).
— Altar by Master
Stephen, 685.
— Altar of St. Clara, 685.
— Bronze funeral mon
ument, 621.
— Choir, figures of Apos
tles, 615.
— Choir screen paint
ings, 678,
— Shrine of the JWagi,
457-
Church of the Apostles,
282,291, 536.
City gates, 536, 563.
Great St. Martin, 212,282,
291, 536(^1.171, 172).
Guerzenich, 563.
New Hall, mural paint
ings, 678.
Oppenheim collection, St.
Eligius, 705.
St. Cecilia, 275.
St. Clement, 211.
St. Cunibert, 536.
— Glass paintings, 409.
— Mural paintings, 678.
St. Geoi^e. See St. James.
St. Gereon, 211 (Fig. 160).
— Mosaic pavement, 3gg
(Fig. 245).
St. James, 274.
St. Mary of the Capitol,
212, 222, 223, 257, 282,
291 (Figs. 169, 170).
— Carved door, 447.
St. Mauritius, 290 (F'ig.
167).
St. Pantaleon, 297.
St. Ursula, 275, 282.
— Antependium, 455.
Town-hall, 563.
— Mural paintings, 678.
Wallraf Museum, early Co
logne panel paintings,
683, 684, 687 (Figs. 414,
415)-
— Last Judgment, 686.
— Madonna in the Rose
Garden, Master Stephen,
685 (Fig. 416).
— Madonna with the
Bean Blossom, 685 (Fig.
398).
Comminge: St. Bertrand, sculptures,
474-

Como: Civic buildings, 580.
Ivory carvings, 111.
S. Abondio, 311, 315, 578
(Fig. 186).
Compostella: Santiago, 375-377 (Fig.
232).
Conques: Abbey Church, 349.
— Portal sculptures, 474.
Constance: Cathedral, 280.
Convent of Petershausen,
298.
Constantinople: Chalke, 61, 104.
Chapel of Romanus Laca-
penus, 62.
Church of the Apostles, 45.
— of the Saviour, 62, 63.
Heraeon, 61.
Mosque of Selim II. , 195.
— of Soliman II., 195.
— of Sultan Bajazet,
195.
Pantepoptes Church, 62
(Fig. 36).
Pantokrator Church, 62.
Porphyry column, 102.
St. Andrew, 62.
St. Irene, 22, 60 (Fig. 35).
St. Sergius, 51,55,66 (Fig.
32).
St. Sophia, 56-60,91 (Figs.
33, 34)-
St. Theodore, 62.
Statues of Constantine VI.,
103.
Statue of Justinian, 102.
— of Theodora, 103.
— of Phokas, 103.
Corbeil: Portal sculptures, 477
(Figs. 2g2, 2g3).
Corbie: Convent, 210.
Cordova: Az Zahra, 182.
— Fountain, ig6.
— Statue, ig7.
Mosque, 178-182 (Figs. g5,
96).
Palace of the Waterwheel,
Golden Lion, 197.
Coruna: S. Maria, 374.
Santiago, 374.
Corvey: Convent,, 231 (Fig. 122).
Courcy: Donjon, 387.

Coutance: Cathedral, 4gg, 513.
Cracow: Cathedral, Gospel of Hen
ry IV., 418.
Church of Our Lady, al
tar-piece, 626.
Gothic edifices, 593.
Creil: Castle, 517.
Cremona: Cathedral, 318, 576.
Civic buildings, 580.
Creuzberg: Ecclesiastical buildings,
213.
Cruas: [264).
Church, mosaic, 431 (Fig.
Ctesiphon: Palace of Khosru, 123
(Fig. 66).
Cuttack: Ganesa Grotto, 139, 140
(Fig. 78*).
Hathi Grotto, 139.
Rani Grotto, 139.
Cyprus: Gothic buildings, 593.
Dairbhile: Chapel, 389.
Damascus: Basilica of St. John, 159.
Dankwarderode :
Castle, 271, 303 (Fig. 179).
— chapel, 307.
Dantzic: Artushof, 563.
'Brasses, 609.
Church of the Virgin, 559.
Darabgerd :
Reliefs, 125.
Darmstadt: Museum, bindings, 462.
— Diptych, 110.
— Ivory carvings, 112.
• — Portable altar, 45g.
Delhi: Feroz Shah, Lat, 133.
Mausoleum of Ala-ud-din
Khilji, 174.
— of Altumsh, 174.
Mohammedan buildings,
176.
Mosque of Kutub, 173,
174.
Denkendorf: Church, 280.
Derba: Church, 47.
Dhar: Mosque, 173.

728

INDEX OF PLACES.

Dhumnar:
Chaityas, 138.
Diarbekr :
Palace, 121.
Diedenhofen: Chapel, 221.
Diesdorf: Church, 295 (Fig. 174):
Diest :
Ecclesiasticaledifices, 588.
Dijon: Castle, 517.
Chartreuse, sculptures,
604, 605.
— Fountain of Moses,
605 (Fig. 381).
Museum, altar from Char
treuse, 6gg.
— Monument of John
the Fearless, 606.
— Monument of Philip
the Bold, 605, 606.
— Sculptures from Char
treuse, 604.
Notre-Dame, 500.
St. Benigne, 351, 354, 513.
Dinant: Ecclesiastical edifices, 588.
Foundeiy, 452, 478, 603.
Domdidier: Church, 354.
Dover: Castle, church, 379.
Dresden :
Gallery, Madonna by Jan
van Eyck, 703.
Museum of the Grosser
Garten, clay statues,
619.
Drontheim: Cathedral, 592.
Druebeck: Church (Fig. 145).
Dublin :
Trinity College, codex
(Fig. 130).
Durham:
Cathedral, 383, 385 (Figs.
237, 238).
Earls Barton:
Church, 37g (Figs. 233,
234):
Ebersheimmuenster: Convent, 213.
Ebrach: Cistercian convent, 541
(Fig. 340).
Ebrodunum: Church of the Virgin,
208.

Echternach :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
St. Willibrord, 261, 275.
Ecrainville: Basilica, 362 (Figs. 217b,
218).
Edessa: Church, ig.
Eger: Palace, 304.
— Chapel, 306.
Egisheim: Castle, 216.
Eichstaedt: Cathedral, cloister (Fig.
358).
Convent, 214.
Elgin :
Cathedral, 533.
Ellora: Chaityas, 138.
Kylas, 146.
Ellwangen: Church, 280.
Eltenberg: Convent, 298.
Ely: Cathedral, 385, 522, 529,
530, 533 (Fig. 33°)-
— Sculptures, 479.
Emaus: Cloister, paintings, 680.
Embrun. See Ebrodunum.
Enger: Nunnery, 297.
Ephesus: Places of worship in pri
vate houses, 16.
Eresberg. See Mersberg.
Erfurt :
Cathedral, court, 561.
— Lampadophorus, 452.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 214.
Petersberg, 273.
Erlangen: Collection of University,
St. Sebastian by Traut,
689.
Erment :
Basilica, 32.
Erwitte: Church, portal sculptures,
443-
Erzeroum: Architectural remains, ig4.
Escalada: .
S. Miguel, 373 (Fig. 229).
Escurial: Codices, 418, 436 (Figs.
104, 267).,

Escurial — continued.
Descent from the Cross by
Rogier, 706.
Miniatures, ig8 (Fig. 104).
Espan. See L'Espan.
Essen: Abbey church, 2*21 (Fig.
114).
— Bindings, 462 (Fig.
283).
— Candelabrum, 460.
— Crucifixes, 456, 459.
Convent, 297.
Etretat :
Basilica, 362 (Fig. 217a).
Ettenheimmuenster : ¦
Convent, 213.
Eu: Abbey church, 499.
Evreux: Cathedral, 366.
— Glass paintings, 651.
Reliquary of St. Taurinus,
603.
Exeter :
Cathedral, 528.
¦ — ¦ Sculptures, 611.
Externstein. See Horn.
Falleri: S. Maria, portals, 324.
Faurndau :
Church, 280. .
Fecamp :
Abbey church, 499.
Ferrara :
Cathedral, 319.
— Sculptures, 465.
Firuz Abad:
Palace, 121, 122 (Fig. 67).
Fischbeck: Nunnery, 297.
Fleckenstein. See Weis-
senbttrg.
Florence: Academy, Madonna d'-Og-
ni Santi, 673.
— Panels of shrine by
Giotto, 673.
Baptistery, 314, 32g, 576.
— Doors of southern
portal, 641.
— Mosaics, 428, 65g.
Bigallo, 581.
— Sculptures, 638.
Campanile, sculptures, 63g
(-<%¦ 396)-
Carmine, Capella Bran
cacci, frescos, 671.
Cathedral, 570, 572, 574,
576 (Figs. 366, 367).
— Portal sculptures, 637.

INDEX OF PLACES.

729

Florence — continued.
Civic buildings, 580.
Hospital of S. Maria Nu-
ova, Nativity by Hugo
van der Goes, 705.
Laurentiana, codices, 96
(Fig. SS)-
Loggia dei Lanzi, 576,
581.
Opera del Duomo, Altar
of St. John, 641.
Orsanmicchele, 576.
— Altar-piece, 640.
— • Madonna, 673.
Palazzo Vecchio, 580.
S. Croce, 570, 572-574-
— Capella Bardi, paint
ings, 666.
— Capella Baroncelli,
paintings, 666.
— Capella Peruzzi, paint
ings, 666.
— Capella S. Silvestro,
frescos, 667.
S. Marco, frescos, 762.
S. Maria Novella, 569,
57°, 574-
— Capella Strozzi, altar-
piece, 673.
— Capella Strozzi, fres
cos, 667.
— Chapter-hall, Spanish
chapel, paintings, 666.
— Madonna by Cima
bue, 660 (Fig. 404).
S. Miniato, 329.
S. Trinita, 570.
Uffizi, annunciation by Si
mone di Martino, 674.
— Paintings by Rogier,
706.
Fontan/e: Convent, 210.
Fontanellum :
Convent, 210, 216, 223.
— Tower, 228.
— Wall paintings, 244.
Fontevrault :
Abbey church, 357.
— Cloister, 356.
— Royal Tombs, 601.
Fontvielle :
St. Victor, frieze, 401.
Fore: Chapel, 389.
Formich- Hammerstein castle, 302.
Foroclaudio: S. Maria la Libera, wall
paintings, 401, 424.
Fountains: '
Cistercian church, 521.

Frankfort-on-the-M ain :
Brentano collection, dip
tych of Melun, 656.
— Codex, 656.
Museum, portable altar,
459-
Palace of Charlemagne,
221.
Stone house, 564.
Frauenburg :
Cathedral, 559.
Freckenhorst: Baptismal font, 443.
Church, 276.
Convent, 2g7.
Fredelsloh :
Church, 273.
Freiberg (Saxony):
City church, 294.
— Golden portal, 445,
446, 535-
Freiburg (Baden):
Minster, 545, 546, 553,
554 (Figs. 345, 346).
— Sculptures, 615.
Freiburg (Thuringia):
Castle, chapel, 306.
Freising: Castle, 216.
Cathedral, 279.
— Sculptured pillar, 443
(Fig. 271).
St. Benedict, 212.
St. Stephen, 212.
Freshford: Church, 390.
Fricolet :
St. Michel, 346.
Fritzlar :
Collegiate church, 537, 538
(Fig. 335).
Convent, 214.
St. Peter, 213.
Froendenberg: Church, paintings, 405.
Frose: Church, 272.
FUENTE DE GUARRAZAR:
Treasure, 237 (Fig. 126).
Fuessen: Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Fulda: Convent, 213, 216, 224-
226 (Figs. 117, 118).
Furnep: Cistercian church, 521.
Futtehpore Sikri:
Mohammedan buildings,
176.
Gainsborough: Castle, 388.

Gallerus: Chapel, 38g. '
Gandersheim: Collegiate church, carved
funeral monuments,620.
Convent, 231, 272, 294,
297.
Gandhara: Topes, 131, 133.
Ganesa. See Cuttack.
Gargano, Monte:
S. Angelo, 579.
— Bronze doors, 470.
Gebweiler: Church, paintings, 677.
Gelnhausen: Church, 536.
Palace, 305 (Fig. 180).
— Chapel, 307.
Gemeticum. See Jumiiges.
Geneva :
Cathedral, 500.
Gennes: Church, 214.
Georgenberg: Cistercian convent, 541.
Gerbstaedt: Convent, 298.
Gernrode: Collegiate church, 258,
271 (Figs. 143, 148).
— Sculptures, 444.
Convent, 2g8.
Gerona: Cathedral, 585.
S. Daniel, 374.
S. Pedro, 374.
Ghazni: [172.
Mohammedan buildings,
Ghent:
Ecclesiastical edifices, 588.
Guildhall, 5gi.
St. Bavo, altar-piece, 701
(Fig. 420, 421).
St. Macarius, 297.
Giersberg: Castle, 303.
Girnar: Temple complex, 145.
Gladbach: Convent, 298.
Glanfeuil (Glannafo-
lium):
St. Michael, 209.
Glasgow:
Cathedral, 533.
Glenalough: Chapel, 389.
Gloucester: Cathedral, 531 (Figs. 323,
332).
Cloister, 533.

73°

INDEX OF PLACES.

Gmuend :
Wood-carvings, 625.
Gnesen :
Cathedral, door, 453.
Goerlitz :
Church of St. Peter, 535.
Goerz: Crosier, 462.
Goslar: Cathedral, altar of Crodo,
452-
Church, 272.
Palace, 304.
Walls, 271.
Gotha: Library, codex of Echter
nach, 413,462 (Fig.2Sb).
Gourdon :
Treasure, 237.
Grado :
Cathedral, 322.
Granada: Alhambra, 185-191 (Figs.
gg, 100, 101).
— Fountain of the Lions,
ig6.,
— Paintings, igg (Figs.
105, 106).
Capilla Real, 586.
— Painting by Rogier,
706.
Generalife, igi.
Marble Relief ig7 (Fig.
103).
Palace of King Badis, 197.
Grandmont: Church, 337.
— Cloister, 346.
Grandson: St. John, 354 (Fig. 214).
Granevolden: Basilica, 3g6.
Gravedona :
Mosaics, 242.
Grein :
Persenberg, 302.
Greussen: Ecclesiastical edifices,
213.
Gries, near Botzen:
Church, altar, 625.
Groeningen: Convent, 2g7.
St. Walburgis, 221.
Groppoli :
S. Micchele, pulpit, 465
(Fig. 284).
— Statue of St. Michael,
465.
Gualior: Mohammedan buildings,
176.

Guildford :
Castle, 388.
Guillem-du-Desert :
Church, 341, 343 (Figs.
2053, 207).
Gurk: Cathedral, 27g (Fig. 159).
— Paintings, 404.
Gyraspore: Temple (Fig. &ob).
Haarlem :
St. Bavo, 591.
Habsburg: Castle, 302.
Hadmersleben: Convent, 298.
Hagenau :
St. George, 280.
Halberstadt :
Cathedral, 550 (Fig. 349).
Church of Our Lady, 273
(Fig. 146).
Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
Reliefs, 444.
Hamburg: Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
Hamersleben :
Convent church, 274.
— Reliefs, 444. [140).
— Romanic capitals (Fig.
Hammerstein. See For-
nich.
Hanover: Royal treasury, altar, 457.
Town-hall, 563.
Hasenried :
Convent, 214.
Haslach: Cloister, 211.
Hausen: Church, altar, 691.
Havelberg: Cathedral, 2g5.
Hecklingen :
Basilica (Fig. 135).
Convent, 2g8.
Reliefs, 444.
Hedingham: Castle, 388.
Heerberge: Church, altar, 6gl.
Heggen: Church, paintings, 405.
Heidenheim: Convent, 214.
Heilbronn :
Cistercian convent, 541.
Heiligenkreuz: Chapter-hall, glass paint
ings, 4og.
Cistercian convent, 541.

Heilsberg :
Castle, 562.
Heiningen: Church, 272.
Heisterbach :
Monastery, 536.
Heliopolis :
Church, 47.
Herbsleben: Ecclesiastical edifices,
213.
Herford: Convent, 231, 297.
Herrenberg: Church, wood -carvings,
625.
Hersfeld: Convent, 297.
— Church, 277 (Fig.
158).
Herzebroch :
Convent, 297.
Hesslingen :
Convent, 298.
Hildesheim: Cathedral, bell " Canta-
bona," 621.
— Bindings, 462.
— Bronze doors, 449
(Fig. 274).
— Chandeliers, 460.
— Codices, 417.
— Font, 453.
— Pavement, 399.
— Shrine, 458.
Column of Bernward,
450.
Ecclesiastical edifices,
231.
Moritzberg, collegiate
church, 274.
Reliefs, 444.
St. Godehard, 257, 272
(Fig. 137).
St. Michael, 258, 272, 294
(Figs. 144, 153).
— Paintings, 405, 410
(Fig. 24g).
HlLLERSLEBEN :
Convent, 2g8.
HlLWARTSHAUSEN :
Convent, 2g8.
Hirsau: Convent, 2g7.
Hirschau: St. Aurelius, 280.
Hirzenach :
Church, 275.
Hitterdal: Church, 391, 394.
Hoechst :
St. Justinus, 274.

Hof: Church of the Holy Trin
ity, panel painting by
Wolgemut, 689 (Fig.
417).
Hohenburg: Castle, 216.
Convent, 213.
Hohenegisheim: Castle, 303.
Honau: Convent, 213.
Horn:
Extersteine, reliefs, 442.
Huesca: S. Pedro, 374.
Huesten: Church, paintings, 405.
Huyseburg: Church, 272. [139).
— Romanic capitals (Fig.
Ibrim (Armenia):
Basilica, 24.
Iconium :
Medresseh, 194.
Igalikko: Round building, 395.
Ilbenstadt: Basilica, 277.
Ilmmuenster: Convent, 213.
Ilsenburg: Church, 272.
Ingelheim: Palace, 221, 245.
— Paintings, 244.
Ispahan: Capitals, 123 (Fig. 69).
Palace of Maidan Shahi,
194.
Issoire: Church, 34g.
Jamalgiri: Vihara, 138.
Jaunpore: Mosque, 173, 174.
Jedburgh: Abbey church, 388.
Jehan-Abad. See Delhi.
Jerichow: Basilica, 2g5 (Fig. 173).
Jerusalem :
Chapel of the Ascension,
47-
Church of the Holy Sep
ulchre, 22, 24, 47.
Golden Portal, 4g.
Kubbet-es-Sachra, 159
(Fig. 86).
Mosque El-Aksa, 159.

INDEX OF PLACES.
Johan'nisberg: Church, 275.
JUMlfeGES: Abbey church, 363 (Fig.
220).
Convent, 210.
Kaestenburg: Castle, 303.
Kairvan: [177.
Mohammedan buildings,
Kaisarieh. See Ccesarea.
Kaiserswerth: Church, 275.
Kaisheim: Church, altar-piece, 691.
Kakortok :
Round edifice, 395.
Kalburgah :
Mosque, 175 (Fig. 92).
Kalkberg: Convent, 298.
Karli: Chaitya, 137 (Fig. 76).
Karlstein :
Castle, 563.
Chapel of St. Catherine,
paintings, 680.
Chapel of the Holy Cross,
pictures, 684.
Kaschau: Gothic edifices, 593.
Keferloh :
Church, paintings, 405.
Kelso :
Abbey church, 388.
Kempten: Convent, 213.
Kenheri: Chaitya temples, 138.
Kesslingen: Convent church, 212.
Khajuraho: Ganthai (Fig. 8oa).
Kholvi: Chaitya temples, 138.
Kiburg. See Zurich.
Kief: St. Sophia, 67 (Fig. 39).
— Sarcophagus of the
Grand - duke Jaroslaw,
116.
Kildare: Portal, 390.
Killaloe: Church, 390.
Kilmaduagh: Chapel, 389.
Kirkstall: Cistercian church, 521.
Kirkwall :
Church, 388.

731
Kitzingen: Convent, 214.
Kleinkomberg: Church, 280.
Klosterau :
Altar candlestick (Fig.
281).
Klosterneuburg :
Collegiate church, ante
pendium, 457.
— Candelabrum, 460.
— Cloister, 561.
Klosterrath: Church of the Augustines,
2gi.
Klus: Church, 272.
Knechtsteden: Church of the Premon-
strants, 2gi (Fig. 168).
Kochelsee: Convent, 213.
koenigsberg in the neu-
mark:
Church of the Virgin, 559.
Town-hall, 563.
Koenigsfelden :
Church, glass paintings
(Fig. 413).
Koenigslutier: Church, capitals, 273.
— Reliefs, 444.
Komburg: Abbey church, antepen
dium, 454.
— Chandelier, 460.
Konieh. See Iconium.
Kreglingen: Altar of the Virgin, 624.
Kremsmuenster :
Convent, 213.
— Chalice of Thassilo,
239 (Fig- 128).
Kreuzberg. See Creuzberg.
Kreuznach: Boeckelheim, 302.
Krukenberg: Castle chapel, 307.
Kuenzen :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Laach :
Convent church, 288 (Figs.
134, 166).
LA Coruna. See Cortina.
Lambach :
Church, paintings, 405.
Lammspringe: Convent, 231, 2g7. _
Landsberg: Castle, 303.
— Chapel, 3o6(Fig.i&2).

73?

INDEX OF PLACES.

Landshut: Convent of Seligenthal,
wood carvings, 620.
St. Martin, 558, 559.
Trausnitz, wood carvings,
620.
Langensalza :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 213.
Langres: Cathedral, 487.
Laon: Cathedral, 485, 486, 488,
489, 508, 512.
— Facade sculptures,
597-
Tower, 228.
Lauresham. See Lorsch.
Lausanne :
Cathedral, 500.
Lavant, Valley :
St. Paul, 279.
Leberau :
Convent, 213.
Lecce :
SS. Niccolo e Cataldo,
335-
Legden :
Church, glass paintings,
409.
Le Mans:
Cathedral, 497, 503, 504.
— Glass paintings, 433,
650.
Monument of Henry II.
of England, 603.
Lemgo: Town-hall, 563.
Lena: S. Cristina, 371 (Fig. 226).
Leon: Cathedral, 585.
S. Isidoro, 375 (Fig. 23T).
Lerida: Cathedral, 377, 583.
Lerins: Chapel of the Trinity,
344-
St. Honorat, 341, 342 (Figs.
205*, 206rt).
Lery: Church, 361.
L'Espan: Convent church, monu
ment, 601.
Le Thor:
Church, 337, 339.
Leyden :
St. Pancras, 591.
Lichfield: Cathedral, 528 (Fig. 329).
— Chapter-house, 532.
— Sculptures, 611.

Liege: St. Bartholomew, baptis
mal font, 453, 478.
St. John, 222.
Liesbjerg: Altar, 479.
Liget :
Chapel, wall paintings,
432.
Lillebonne: Donjon, 387.
Limburg on' the Haardt:
Convent church, 274 (Fig,
155).
Limburg on the Lahn:
Reliquary, 458.
St. George, 543 (Fig. 342).
Limoges: Cathedral, 502, 513 (Fig.
313).
St. Martial, bible, 435.
St. Michel-es- Liens, 514.
Lincoln: Cathedral, 523.
— Chapter-house, 532.
— Glass paintings, 657.
— Sculptures, 607, 611.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 215.
Lindisfarne. See Berwick.
Linio: S. Miguel, 370.
Lisieux: Cathedral, 499.
Loevenich: Church, 275.
London: British Museum, codices,
243, 434, 436-438 (Figs.
266, 268).
— Ivory carvings, ill.
Burleigh House, Madonna
by Jan van Eyck, 703.
Church of the French
Knights of St. John,
522.
Kensington Museum, altar-
piece from Liesbjerg in
Jutland, 479.
National Gallery, Jan van
Eyck, portrait of Gio
vanni Arnolfini, 703,
704.
— Margaritone, paint
ing, 660.
— Master of Liesborn,
paintings, 687.
Tower, 388.
— Chapel of St. John,
381, 385 (Fig. 235).
Westminster Abbey, 523,
525, 526.
¦ — Monuments, 609.

London — continued.
Westminster Abbey, Por
trait of Richard II. ,657.
— Superfrontale, 657.
Londres :
St. Martin, 337, 344 (Fig.
202c).
Lorch:
Bishopric, 213.
Lorsch: Church, 275.
Convent, 212. [121).
— Portal, 229 (Figs. 120,
Lough Corrib:
Chapel, 389.
Louvain: Cathedral, 589.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 588.
Guildhall, 591.
St. Peter, Corpus Christi
altar, 707.
Town-hall, 591.
Louviers: Cathedral, 4gg.
Lubeck :
Cathedral, 295.
— Baptismal font, 630.
— Bronze funeral monu
ment, 621.
Church of the Virgin,
bronze tabernacle, 630.
Hospital of the Holy
Ghost, 563.
St. yEgidius, baptismal
font, 62g.
St. James, baptismal font,
630.
Town-hall, 563.
Lucca: Cathedral, 32g (Fig. 369).
— Sculptures, 467.
— Tympanon relief, 633.
S. Anastasia, 324.
S. Carita, reliefs, 466.
S. Frediano, 207, 316.
— Baptismal font, 466.
S. Giulia, 325. '
S. Giusto, 324 (Fig. 193).
S. Micchele in Borgo, 207,
325-
S. Pier Cigoli, 324.
Luegde:
St. Kilian, 294.
— Paintings, 404.
Luene :
Church, antependium, 406.
Luetzelau: Convent, 213.
Lugo: Cathedral, 377.
Lund :
Cathedral, 394.

INDEX OF PLACES.

733

Lusignan: Church, 358.
Lutzell: Cistercian convent, 541.
Luxeuil (Luxovium):
Convent, 210.
Lyons :
Carved sarcophagi, 109.
Cathedral, 500.
Maasmuenster: Convent, 213.
Madrid: Palace, Gobelins, 6gg.
Prado, Descent from the
Cross by Rogier, 706.
— Seven Sacraments by
Rogier, 706.
Madura: Perumal pagoda, 146.
Magdeburg: Cathedral, 542, 543 (Fig.
34i)-
— Figure of Archbishop
Giselerius, 452.
— Funeral monument of
Archbishop Ernst, 631
(Fig. 392).
— Tombstone of arch
bishop to Frederick I.,
453-
Church of Our Lady, 273.
Convent of St. Maurice,
297.
Maguelonne: St. Peter, 339.
Mahavellipore :
Rathas, 138, u6(Fig. 81).
Malmsbury: Church of the Benedic
tines, 522.
Mandu: Mosque, 175.
Manikyala: Tope, 131 (Fig. 73).
Mantes :
Collegiate church, 513.
Portal sculptures, 597.
Marburg- St. Elizabeth, 554-556
(Figs. 352, 353, 377)-
— Monument of Land
grave Conrad, 617.
Marchthal: Convent, 213.
Marienberg: Church, 273.
Marienburg: Castle, 562. [619.
Golden portal, sculptures,
Marienstatt: Church, 542.

Marienthal: Church, 273.
Marienwerder: Castle, 562.
Marseilles: Carved sarcophagi, 109.
Church de la Major, mo
saics, 431.
St. Maximin, 513.
Maulbronn: Cistercian convent, 280,
300, 301, 541, 562 (Fig.
359)-
Herrenhaus (Fig. 357).
Mauresmuenster :
Convent, 211.
Mayence: Bridge, 232.
Cathedral, 212, 258, 275,
2S5, 536 (Fig. 163).
— Bronze doors, 449.
— Gold crucifix, 454.
— Monument of Arch
bishop Conrad von
Weinsberg (Fig. 388).
— Monument of Sieg
fried von Epstein, 618.
Fortifications, 211.
St. Lambert, 212.
St. Peter, convent, 298.
St. Stephen, 274.
Meaux:
Cathedral, 513.
Convent of the Cross, 210.
Mecca: Caaba, 161.
Mechlin: Guildhall, 591.
St. Rombout, cathedral,
589, 590.
Medina: [161.
Mosque of Mohammed,
Mehal: Mohammedan buildings,
176.
Meissen: Albrechtsburg, 563.
Cathedral, statues, 613.
Walls, 271.
Melk:
Collegiate church, portable
altar, 459 (Fig. 280).
Melrose: Abbey church, 533.
Melun: Diptych, 656.
Memleben: Convent, 298.
Mende:
Cathedral, 514.
Mensano: Church, frieze, 466.

Meran:
Castle, 304,
Mersberg: Ecclesiastical edifices,
231.
Merseburg: Cathedral, 272.
— Altar, 454.
— Monument of Ru
dolph of Suabia, 452
(Fig. 276).
Palace, 271.
— Paintings, 402.
Walls, 271.
Messina: Mintage, 468.
Methler: Church, paintings, 405.
Metten: Convent, 213.
Mettlach :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Metz: Cathedral, 550.
Mansion, 307.
Michelstadt: Church, 230.
Milan: Ambrosiana, codex, 93.
— Diptych of Areobin
dus, no.
Brera, Madonna by Gi
otto, 673.
Carved sarcophagi, 109.
Cathedral, 578.
— Ivory carvings, III.
Church of the Apostles,
209.
Civic buildings, 580.
Porta Romana, sculptures,
466.
S. Ambrogio, 313 (Fig.
183).
¦ — Altar, 240.
— Antependium, 114.
— Mosaic, 244.
— Tabernacle, 316.
St. Aquilinus, 40, 85.
S. Celso, 313.
S. Eustorgio, monument of
Peter Martyr, 640.
S. Lorenzo, 42, 50, 51 (Fig.
29).
— Baptistery, 314.
Milstadt: Church' of St. Saviour,
300.
Minden: Cathedral, 276, 550.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
Miningarneford. See
Muenster.

734

INDEX OF PLACES.

Minzeberg: Castle, 303.
Miraflores :
Cartuja, funeral monu
ments, 587, 606, 644
(Fig. 397).
Mittelzell: Basilica, 280.
Modena :
Cathedral, 318 (Fig. 190).
— Sculptures, 465.
Moissac: Convent, 355.
— Cloister, capitals, 474.
Molleges: Chapel of St. Thomas, 336
(Fig. 201).
Monra:
Ecclesiastical edifices, 213.
Monreale:
Cathedral, 332, 333 (Figs.
198, igg).
— Cloister, 332.
— Doors, 471. [426.
— Mosaic decorations,
Mons:
St. Wandru, 589, 590.
Monsee: Convent, 213.
Montamiata: Latin bible, 96.
Monte Casino:
Convent, bronze doors,
115, 470.
— School of art, 323.
Monte Gargano:
S. Angelo, bronze doors,
"5-
Montmajour: Abbey church, 337.
— Chapel, 344.
— Cloister, 346.
Montreal: Church, 500.
Mont-Saint-Michel :
Abbey church, 364 (Fig.
221).
Monza: Cathedral, diptych, no.
— Manuscripts, 235.
— Relief, 234.
Civic buildings, 580.
Palace of Queen Theode-
linde, wall decorations,
241, 245.
Moritzberg. See Hildes
heim.
Moscow: Kremlin, Church of the
Annunciation, 70.
— Church of the As
sumption, 6g.

Moscow — continued.
Kremlin, Church of the As
sumption, bronze doors,
115, 117. [40).
Vassili Blaggenoi, 70 (Fig.
Moscufo: [468.
S. Maria del Lago, pulpit,
Moustier: St. John, 338 (Fig. 203).
Muenster, near Colmar:
Convent, 211.
Muenster (Miningarne-
ford).
Cathedral, S39(Fig 338).
— Paintings, 404.
— Sculptures, 443, 612.
Dwelling-houses, 564.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
Museum, antependium of
St. Walpurgis at Soest,
406 (Fig. 250).
St. Maurice, crucifix, 459.
Town-hall, 563.
Munich: Church of Our Lady, 558.
— Monument of Louis
the Bavarian, 627 (Fig.
390).
Hospital of the Holy
Ghost, 563.
Library, bindings, 462.
• — Codices, 114, 247,
249, 414-417, 419, 422,
430, 462, 656, 695 (Fig.
257).
National Museum, Bava
rian panel paintings,
6g4-
— Brooch (Fig. 127).
— Ceiling from Augs
burg, 691.
— Madonna from Blu
tenburg, 625 (Fig. 389).
— Paintings from Reb-
dorf, 677.
— Portable altar of Hen^
ry H.,459.
Pinakothek, Death of the
Virgin, 687.
— Early Cologne paint
ings, 687.
— Heisterbachaltar,685.
— Kaisheim altar, 6g2.
— Life of the Virgin,
686.
— Panels of shrine by
Giotto, 673.
— Seven Joys of the
Virgin by Memling, 708.
— St. Veronica, 685.
— Triptych by Dierik
Bouts, 707.

Munich — continued.
Pinakothek, triptych by
Zeitblom, 691.
— Wings of Corpus
Christi Altar of Lou
vain, 707.
Reiche Capelle, gold cru
cifix, 459.
Murano:
Cathedral, 322.
— Mosaics, 427.
Ivory carvings, 112.
Murbach :
Church, 296.
Convent, 213.
Nakhsh-i-Rustam :
Reliefs, 125 (Fig. 71).
Nancy: Museum, tapestries, 699.
Nankin: Porcelain tower, 153.
Naples :
Carved sarcophagi, 109.
Catacombs, 13.
Cathedral, 579.
— Baptistery, 43, 85.
Duomo Vecchio, 335.
Incoronata, paintings,
668.
Mosaic portrait of Theod
oric, 241.
Paintings, 242.
S. Chiara, funeral monu
ments, 641.
S. Domenico, 57g.
N ARAN CO:
S. Maria, 371-373 (Figs.
227, 228).
Narbonne:
Cathedral, 500, 502, 513.
— Glass paintings, 651.
St. Paul, 500.
Nassik: Chaitya, 136.
Nahapana Grotto, 143
(Fig. 793).
Viharas, 140.
Yadnya - Sri Grotto, 142
(Fig. 79_).
Naumburg:
Cathedral, 537 (Fig. 336).
— Statues, 613.
Nave:
S. Pedro, 371.
Nepi: S. Elia, paintings, 423.
Neuenheerse: Church, 276.
Convent, 297.
Neuss: St. Quirinus, 536.

INDEX OF PLACES.

735

Neuweiler :
Convent, 213.
Sts. Peter and Paul, 537.
— Glass paintings, 409.
Nevers: St. Etienne, 350.
Newport:
Old Stone Mill, 395 (Fig.
244).
Nice a:
Palace, 194.
Niederaltaich :
Convent, 213.
Niederburg. See Fu
heim.
Niedermuenster: Convent, 213.
Niedernburg: Convent, 213.
Nienburg: Convent, 298.
Nocera: S. Maria Rotonda, 42.
Noerdlingen: St. George (Fig. 355).
— High-altar, 693.
Nordhausen: Nunnery, 297.
Walls, 271.
Norwich: Cathedral, sculptures, 479.
Nossendorf :
Tomb of Gerard von
Lynden (Fig. 387).
Novara: Baptistery, 42, 314.
Cathedral, 317.
Novgorod: Bronze doors, 117.
St. Sophia, 67.
— Bronze doors, 453.
Noyon :
Cathedral, 485, 487-490,
494, 499 (Figs. 297, 3°°)-
— Glass paintings, 650.
Nuremberg: Castle, chapel, 306.
Church of Our Lady,
sculptures, 615 (Fig.
385).
— Triptych, 687.
— Wood carvings, 626.
Foundery, 629-632.
Germanic Museum, ante
pendium from Queren,
455-
— Aquiminalia, 461.
— Clay statues, 619.
— Copper reliquary, 458.
— Madonna, 685.
— Paintings by Holbein
the Elder, 6g3.

Nuremberg — continued.
Germanic Museum, Per-
ingsdoerffer Altar, 689.
— Wood carvings, 626,
Nassau House, 564.
Play-house, 564.
Schoener Brunnen, 615.
St. .<*Egidius, wood carv
ings, 626.
St. James, wood carvings,
626.
St. John, wood carvings,
626.
St. Laurence, Annuncia
tion to the Virgin, 626.
— Imhof Altar, 687.
— Picture above tomb of
Margarethe Imhof, 688.
— Portal sculptures, 615.
— Wood carvings, 626.
St. Sebaldus, 538.
— Bridal Door, 616.
— - Parsonage, 564.
— Schreyer monument,
628.
— Shrine of St. Sebal
dus, 631.
Town-hall, 563.
Nymwegen :
Chapel, 221.
Palace, 221.
Oberwinterthur :
Church, paintings, 678.
Oberzell :
Church, 280.
St. George, wall paintings,
400-402 (Figs. 246, 247).
Oehningen: Convent, 298.
Oeren :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Ohle:
Paintings, 405.
Ohrdruf:
Ecclesiastical edifices, 213.
Olona: Basilica, mosaics, 241.
Palace of King Luitprand,
207.
Opherdicke: Church, paintings, 405.
Oppenheim :
St. Catherine (Fig. 350).
Orcival :
Church, 349.
Orleans: Seminary, subterranean
chamber, 212.
Orleansville: Basilica of St. Reparatus,
24, 32, 224.

Ortenburg: Castle, 303.
Orvieto :
Cathedral, 574, 576 (Fig.
368). .
— Altar-piece, 674.
— Sculptures, 635, 638,
639-
Civic buildings, 580.
Osnabrueck: Cathedral, 539 (Fig. 337).
— Baptismal font, 453.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
Shrine, 458.
Osterhofen: Convent, 213.
Otranto :
S. Caterina, 579.
Otterberg: Cistercian convent, 536.
Ottmarsheim :
Church, 222 (Figs. 115,
116).
Oudenaerde: Town-hall, 591.
Oviedo :
Camara Santa, 36g.
Oxford: [655.
Bodleian Library, codex,
Chapel, 533.
Chapter-house, 533.
Paderborn :
Cathedral, 276, 277, 540
(Fig- 157)-
— Portable altar, 457,
459-
— Sculptures, 443, 612.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 231.
St. Bartholomew, 261.
St. Bustorf, candelabrum,
460.
Padua: S. Agostino, 570.
S. Antonio, 56g, 571.
— Capella S. Felice,
paintings, 668 (Fig. 407).
S. Maria dell'Arena, mon
ument of Enrico Scro
vegno, 638.
— Wail paintings, 663-
665 (Fig. 405).
Palermo :
Capella Palatina, 193, 331,
332-
— Mosaic decorations,
426 (Fig. 262).
Cathedral, 331, 332,
Favara, 192, 331.
Kuba, 192, 333 (Fig. 102).
Martorana. See S. Maria
dell' Ammiraglio.

736

INDEX OF PLACES.

Palermo — continued.
Menani, palace, 331.
S. Giovanni degli Eremiti,
331 (Fig. 197).
S. Maria dell' Ammiraglio,
331-
— Mosaics, 426 (Fig.
262).
Palitana: Holy mountain of Satrun
jaya, 145.
Paneas :
Statue of Christ, 103.
Paris: Bibliotheque Mazarine,
codex, 655.
Chapel of Louis IX., 517.
Church of the Celestines,
514. [498.
Church of the Franciscans,
Cluny, museum, antepen
dium of Basle, 442, 454
(Fig. 277).
— Crown of Reccesvin-
thus, 237 (Fig. 126).
— Ivory carving, 112.
— Pyxis, 112.
Collection Feuillet de
Conches, miniatures,
656 (Fig. 403).
Hotel de St. Paul, 517.
Library, codices, 94, 96,
97, 246, 247, 249, 413,
652, 654 (Figs. 132, 400).
— Diptychs, no, 112
(Fig. 64).
— Miniatures, 709.
— Sketch-book of Villard
de Honnecourt, 498.
Louvre, 517 (Fig. 322).
— Arms of Childeric, 237
(Fig. 125).
— Codex (Fig. 56).
— Gold relief, 113 (Fig.
65).
— Madonna by Jan van
Eyck, 703.
National archives, codices,
653 (Figs. 401, 4.02).
Notre Dame, 485-487, 48g,
492, 503, 5°8, 510, 512
(Figs. 298, 301).
— Choir screen, 600.
— Sculptures, 597, 598.
Palace of the Cit^, 517.
Sainte Chapelle, 497, 498,
508 (Figs. 305, 312).
— Paintings, 649.
— Sculptures, 598.
St. Denis, Abbey church,
485, 487, 489, 497, 504,
507,508(^.316, 317).

PARIS — continued.
St. Denis, Abbey church,
facade and portal sculpt
ures, 596.
 Funeral monu
ments, 601-603.
 Glass paintings,
40g, 433. 650 (Fig. 3gg).
 Sculptures from
Corbeil, 477 (Figs. 2g2,
293)-
— Convent, 210.
Ste. Genevieve, 20g, 367.
St. Germain-des-Pres, 2og,
367, 486.
— Chapel of the Virgin,
498.
St. Martin-des-Champs,
484.
Parma:
Baptistery, 314.
— Portal sculptures, 467.
Cathedral, 317 (Fig. i8g).
— Pulpit, 467.
Passau :
Castle, 216. [kul.
Pattadkul. See Fttrud-
Paulinzelle :
Convent church, 274 (Figs.
136, 142).
Pavia: Cathedral, Area of St.
Augustine, 640.
Certosa, 578.
Mosaic portrait of Theod
oric, 241.
Palace of King Bertari,
207.
Regisole, 233, 234.
S. Maria del Carmine, 577.
S. Micchele, 313, 317 (Fig.
188).
Payerne: Church, 354.
Perigueux :
St. Front, 356, 357 (Fig.
215)-
Perschen :
Church, paintings, 405 .
Persenberg. See Grein.
Perugia: Civic buildings, 580.
Fountain, 635, 641.
S. Domenico, funeral mon
ument of Pope Benedict,
638.
Peterborough: Cathedral, 386 (Fig. 23g).
Peterlingen. See Payerne.
Petersberg: Church, 273.
Mortuary chapel, 213.

Petershausen: Church, high-altar, 454.
— Mural paintings, 400.
Pfaffenmuenster :
Convent, 213.
Pfalzel: Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Piacenza: Cathedral, 3ig.
Civic edifices, 58b.
Palazzo Publico, 580.
PlERREFONDS: Castle, 517.
Pisa: Baptistery, 326, 327, 576.
— Pulpit, 633 (Fig. 3g3).
Campanile, 327— 32g, 576.
Campo Santo, 570, 57g.
— Allegorical figure of
the city of Pisa, 637.
— Frescos, 667.
— Frieze, 466.
Cathedral, 325, 326, 576
(Figs. i94, i95, 196).
— Bronze doors, 471 (Fig.
289).
— Mosaic, 428.
— Pulpit, 637.
Civic edifices, 580.
Seminary, altar-piece, 674.
S. Casciano, reliefs, 466.
S. Micchele, facade sculpt
ures, 638.
S. Paolo a Ripa, 324.
S. Pietro a Grado, 324.
Pistoja : '
Cathedral, altar, 642.
— Crucifix (Fig. 263).
Civic edifices, 580.
S. Andrea, 324.
— Pulpit, 636 (Fig. 394).
— Reliefs, 465 (Fig. 285).
S. Bartolommeo, pulpit,
467.
S. Giovanni fuor' Civitas,
pulpit, 638.
— Reliefs, 465.
S. Maria, 324.
S. Pablo, 324.
S. Pietro, 324.
Plettenberg: Church, paintings, 405.
Plixburg: Castle, 303.
Poelde :
Monastery, 297.
POETNITZ : [262.
Church, Romanic capitals, .
Poitiers: Baptistery, 214 (Fig..ii2).
— Mural paintings, 401,
432.

INDEX OF PLACES.

737

Poitiers — continued.
Castle, 517.
Cathedral, 501 (Fig. 306).
Notre - Dame la Grande,
358.
— Facade sculptures,
475-
Ste. Radegonde, 358.
PONT-AUBERT :
Church, 500.
Pont-Audemer: St. Germain, 362 (Figs.
217c, 219).
Ponte Allo Spino:
Pieve, choir screen, 467
(Fig. 286).
Potsdam :
Friedenskirche, mosaic
from S. Cipriano in Mu
rano, 427.
Prague :
Cathedral, 551.
— Candelabrum, 460.
— Mosaic, 679.
Chapter-house, codex, 422.
Church of the Virgin,
paintings, 680.
Museum, miniatures, 6g5
(Fig. 4ig).
Palace, equestrian statue
of St. George, 621.
St. George, 279.
Town-hall, 563. ,
Prato: Cathedral, Madonna della
Cintola, 637 (Fig. 395).
Prenzlau :
Church of the Virgin, 558
(Fig. 356).
Preuilly :
Convent church, 484.
Priorio :
S. Juan, 374.
Provins :
Castle, 517.
Pruem: Convent church, 212.
Puisalicon: Campanile, 345.
Purudkul: Temples, 146.
Quedlinburg: College of St. Servatius,
2g7-
College of St. Wipertus,
297-
Dorsels, 410 (Fig. 254).
Palace church, 271.
St. Servatius, 271.
St. Wipertus, 257.
Walls, 271.

Queren: Church, antependium, 455.
Rajagriha: yihara of Malanda, 138.
Ramersdorf: Church of the German
Knights, paintings, 677
(Fig. 410).
Rani. See Cuttack.
Rapolla: Cathedral, 335.
Rappoltstein :
Castle, 303.
RatasS: Chapel, 38g.
Ratisbon: Alte Kapelle, portal sculpt
ures, 441.
Bridge, 308.
Cathedral, 301, 551, 552,
554(^-351)-
— Cloister, baptistery,
278.
— Windows, 68 1.
Dwellings, 307, 561.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 212.
St. Emmeramnus, 278.
— Carvings, 448 (Fig.
273)-
— Cloister, 561.
— Royal tombs, 617
(Fig. 386).
St. James, 26g, 278, 300.
— Portal sculptures, 443.
St. Stephen (old cathedral),
278.
Stone sculptures, 627.
Town-hall, 563. [2g7.
Upper minster, 231, 278,
— Paintings, 404.
Ratzeburg: Cathedral, 3g4, 541.
Rauschenberg: Castle, 302.
Ravello : [471.
Cathedral, bronze doors,
¦ — Pulpit, sculptures,
468, 63g (Fig. 288).
Palazzo Ruffolo, 57g.
S. Maria del Gradillo, 334
(Fig. 200).
Ravenna: Archiepiscopal palace, mo
saics, 87.
Baptistery of the Arians
(S. Maria in Cosmedin),
43, 44, 85 (Fig. 25).
— Mosaics, 241.
Baptistery of the Orthodox
(S. Giovanni in Fonte),
43, 44, 85 (Fig- 24).
47

Ravenna — continued.
Cathedral, ivory cathedra,
112.
Chapel of Galla Placidia
(SS. Nazaro e Celso),
45, 46, 85 (Figs. 26, 27).
— Carved sarcophagi,
iog.
Mausoleum of Theodoric,
205-207 (.fig-, no).
Mosaic portrait of Theod
oric, 241.
Palace of Theodoric, 204,
205 (Figs. 107, 109).
S. Apollinare in Classe,
35, 5o (Fig. 19).
— Mosaics, 89.
S. Apollinare Nuovo (S.
Martino in Coelo Aureo)
Mosaics, 86., 241 (Fig.
50).
S. Francesco, campanile,
34-
S. Vitale, 50, 51-55 (Figs.
30, 31)-
— Mosaics, 87, 88, 100
(Fig. Si)-
Statue of Theodoric, 233.
Rebdorf :
Church, wall paintings,
677.
Reddes: St. Peter, 337 (Fig. 202b).
Reichenau :
Convent, 213, 231, 258.
Reichenberg: Castle, 562.
Reichenhall: Parish church, 279.
S.Zeno, 2gg.
Reichenstein: Castle, 303.
Remy:
St. Paul, 346.
Reutlingen: Font, 627.
Rheims: Carved sarcophagi, log.
Cathedral, 4g6, 4g8, 503,
507, 508, 510, 512 (Figs.
30g, 318).
— Glass paintings, 650.
— Sculptures, 5g8, 600.
St. Remy, 367, 485-487,
48g, 4gg.
— Glass paintings, 408.
— Mosaics, 431.
Ste. Nicaise, 497, 498, 512.
Rhodes:
Gothic edifices, 593.
Ribe: Church, 394.

738

INDEX OF PLACES.

Rieux-Merinville :
Church, 345.
Ringelheim :
Nunnery, 2g7.
Ringsaker: Church, 396.
Rochester :
Castle, 388.
: Cathedral, 380, 385.
— Portal sculptures, 479.
Rodez: .
Cathedral, 514.
Roeskild: Cathedral, 394.
Church of the Holy Trin
ity, 391-
Romainmotier: Church, 353.
Rome:
Basilica of Julia, 26.
Basilica of Maxentius, 20.
Baths of Caracalla, 38 (Fig.
20b).
Catacombs, 3-13 (Figs.
2-7).
— Paintings, 72-79 (Figs.
42-45).
House of Crescentius, 323.
Lateran museum, carved
sarcophagi, 107, 108
(Fig. 61).
— Statue of Good Shep
herd, 106 (Fig. 58).
— Statue of. St. Hyppo-
lytus, 106.
Minerva Medica, 39 (Fig.
21).
Oratories, 14, 15, 44 (Fig.
9)-
Pantheon, 38.
Private basilicas, 16, 17
(Fig. 10).
S. Agnese, 22, 28, 30 (Fig.
17).
— Mosaics, 90 (Fig. 52).
S. Andrea in Catabarbara,
20.
— Mural decorations, 79
(Fig. 46).
S. Balbina, 24.
S. Bartolommeo, lectorium,
323-
S. Cecilia, mosaics, 90,423.
S. Clemente, 23, 24, 28,
33, 256 (Figs. 1, 13).
— Chapel of St. Cath
erine, frescos, 671.
— Mosaics, 424.
— Wall decorations, 423.
S. Constanza, 28, 40, 42,
46 (Fig. 22).
— Mosaics, 80.

ROME — continued.
S. Croce in Gerusalemme,
21, 32.
— Tabernacle, 323.
S. Generosa, 21, 22, 25.
S. Giovanni in Laterano,
21, 22, 32.
— .Baptistery, 40, 41, 42
(Fig. 23).
— — Mosaics, 80, go.
— Bronze doors, 471.
— Cloister, 324.
— Mosaics, 663.
S. Lorenzo fuori le mura,
22, 25, 28, 30.
— Choir stalls, 324.
— Mosaics, go.
— Tabernacle, 323.
S. Marco, go.
S. Maria della Navicella,
mosaics, go, 423.
S. Maria Domnica, 33.
S. Maria in Aracelli, ambo,
323-
S. Maria in Cosmedin, 28.
S. Maria in Trastevere,
28, 32.
— Mosaics^ 424, 663.
S. Maria Maggiore, 21, 22,,
24, 25, 26, 32.
— -Monuments of bish
ops, 638.
— Mosaics, 82, 83, 663.
S. Maria Nuova, mosaics,
424.
S. Maria Sopra Minerva,
56g,57o.
— Monuments of bish
ops, 638.
S. Nereo ed Achilleo, mo
saics, 90, 423.
S. Paolo fuori le mura,
22, 24, 28, 32 (Figs. 14,
18).
— Bronze doors, 470.
— Cloister, 324.
— Easter candlestick,
323-
— Mosaics, 82, 83, 104,
115, 425 (Fig. 48).
— Tabernacle, 638.
S. Petronilla, 21, 22.
S. Pietro in Vaticano, 22,
24, 25, 32 (Fig. 12).
— Imperial dalmatica,
100.
1— Portico, mosaic, 663.
— Sarcophagus, 107.
— Statue of St. Peter,
106 (Fig. 59).
S. Pietro in Vincoli, 25, 33
(Fig 15).

Rome — continued.
S. Prassede,- 28, 32 (Fig.
16).
— Mosaics, 90, 423.
S. Pudenziana, 21, 34.
— Mosaics, 81, 84 (Fig
S. Sabina, wooden door,
471.
— Mosaics, 82.
S. Silvestro, wall decora
tions', 425.
S. Stefano Rotondo, 42,
46.
— Mosaics, 90.
S. Symphorosa, 21, 25 (Fig.
11).
S. Teodoro, mosaic, go.
S. Venanzio, mosaic, go.
SS. Cosma e Damiano, 24.
— Mosaics, 83 (Fig. 4g).
SS. Quattro Coronati, 30.
SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio
alle tre fontane, 25, 28.
Septizonium, 26.
Temple of Romulus on the
Via Appia, 38, 3g (Fig.
20c).
Tomb of Helena, 39, 40.
Vatican, Chapel of Nicho
las V. j paintings, 672.
— Codices, 94, 96, 97,
247, 24g, 430.
— Sarcophagi, 107.
Rommersdorf: Church, 275.
Romsey: Crucifix, 47g.
Roppershausen :
Castle, 303.
Rosenweiler: Church, paintings, 677.
Rosheim: Church, 280, 2g6.
Rosslyn: Mortuary chapel, 533.
Rostock: [620.
Cathedral, baptismal font,
Rothenburg on the Tau-
ber:
Hospital church, altar, 624.
St. James, altars, 624, 6g3.
Rott: Convent, 213.
Rouen: [513.
Cathedral, 498, 499, 504,
— Funeral monuments,
603, 607.
St. Julien, 366.
St. Ouen, 513 (Figs. 320,
321).
St. Romain, 494.

Ruedisheim: Niederburg, 302 (Fig. 178).
Rueggisberg: Church, 354.
Ruffec: Church, 358.
— Sculptures, 475.
RUNKELSTEIN :
Castle, paintings, 67g.
Saeckingen: Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Saida: Coffins, log (Fig. 63).
Saint Albans:
Cathedral, 380, 385, 523.
Saint Antonin:
Town-hall, sculptures, 474.
Saint Emilion:
. Church, 316.
Saint Gall:
Codices, 247, 248, 4ig, 420
(Figs. 131, 133, 25S).
Convent, 211, 212, 226-
22g (Fig. ng).
— Ivory relief, 240 (Fig.
I2g).
— Mural decorations,
400.
S aint-Germain-en-Laye :
Palace chapel, 498.
Saint Germer:
Abbey church, 485, 486.
Chapel of the Virgin, 4g8.
Saint-Germigny-les-Pres :
Church, 222.
Saint Gilles:
Church, 339, 343.
— Facade sculptures,
473-
Saint Jean d'Acre :
Gothic edifices, 393.
Saint Nectaire:
Church, 349.
Saint Omer:
Cathedral, 497.
St. Bertin, 514.
Saint Riquier. See Cen-
tula.
Saint Savin: [432.
Church, wall paintings,
Saint Savinien:
Church, 367.
Saint Sulpice:
Church, 354.
Saintes Maries:
Church, 337, 338.
Salamanca: Cathedral, 377, 582.
Salerno: Cathedral, bronze doors,
115,470.

INDEX OF PLACES.
Salerno — continued.
Cathedral, mosaics, 424.
— Panel of ivory, in.
S. Domenico, cloister, 579.
Salisbury: Cathedral, 523, 524, 526,
527 (Figs. 325, 327, 328).
— Glass paintings, 657.
— Monuments, 608
(Figs. 3S2, 383).
Chapter-house, 532.
Salona :
Temple of Jupiter, 38.
Salonica: St. George, 40, 47, 91.
Salsette: Chaitya temples, 138.
Durbar grotto, 140.
Salzburg (Juvavia):
Castle, 216.
Crosier, 461.
Nonnberg, 212, 262, 298
(Fig. 175).
— Paintings, 402,
St. Peter, 212, 279, 2gg.
Salzburg in the Saalgau :
Castle, 303.
Salzwedel: St. Laurence, 540.
San Gimignano:
Town-hall, Madonna by
Lippo Memmi, 670.
Sanchi : [83).
Tope, 130, 133 (Figs. 72,
Sanct Florian:
Convent, 213.
Sanct Hippolyt:
Convent, 213.
Sanct Sigismund:
Convent, 211.
Sanct Thomas:
Nunnery, 536.
Sanct Ulrich:
Castle, 303.
Sanct Wolfgang:
Church, altar, 625.
— Crosier, 461.
Sankissa :
Triumphal columns, 134.
Sanlieu :
Church, 353.
Sant' Angelo. See Gar-
gano.
Santiannes de Pravia:
Church, 369.
Saragossa: .
Cathedral, 585.
Sarbistan :
Palace, 122 (Fig. 68).
Sarnath: Topes, 132.
Satruniaya. See Palitana.

739
Saumur: Tapestry weaving, 434.
Savennieres :
Church, 214.
Savigny :
Church, 366.
Sayn: Convent church, 534.
— Funeral monuments,
620.
Scala: Female bust, 469.
Schaffhausen: Minster of All Saints, 280.
Scharnitz: Convent, 213.
Scheftlarn :
Convent, 213.
Schelklingen :
St. Afra, paintings, 678
(Fig. 411).
Schildesche: Convent, 298.
Schlehdorf: Convent, 213,
Schleissheim:' Gallery, Bavarian panel
paintings, 694.
— Paintings by Holbein
the elder, 693.
Schleswig: Cathedral, carved altar,
626.
Schlettstadt :
St. Fides, 296, 536.
Schliersee: Convent, 213.
Schuttern :
Convent, 211.
Schwabach :
Parish church, altar-pieces,
624, 689.
Schwarzach: Convent, 213.
Schwarzrheindorf: Church, 2S5, 291.
— Paintings, 403, 404
(Fig. 248).
Schwerin :
Memorial brasses, 621.
Secundra: Mohammedan buildings,
176.
Seez: Cathedral, 513 (Fig. 319).
Segovia: Church of Corpus Christi,
373-
S. Lorenzo, 374.
S. Millan, 374 (Fig. 230).
Sekkau :
Convent church, 279.

740

INDEX OF PLACES.

Seligenstadt: Castle, 303.
Church, 230, 536.
Seltz: Convent, 298.
Senanque: Cloister, 346.
Sendenburg: Church, paintings, 405.
Senlis: [513.
Cathedral, 485-487, 494,
— Portal sculptures, 5g7.
Sens :
Cathedral, 485-489, 492,
508 (Fig: 299).
— Glass paintings, 650.
Sessa: [469.
Cathedral, choir screen,
— Easter candlestick,
469-
Seville: Alcazar, 183, 184 (Figs. 85,
98).
Casa de Pilatos, 184.
Cathedral, 585, 586.
Giralda, 183 (Fig. 97).
Mosque, 182.
Palace of Al Motamed,
paintings, igg.
Shah Dehri:
Vihara, 138.
Shahpur: Reliefs, 125.
Siegburg: Church, shrines, 457/458.
— Portable altars, 45g.
Siena :
Cathedral, 570, 574, 576.
— Altar-piece by Duccio,
660.
— Choir screen, 467
(Fig. 286).
— Pulpit, 635, 638.
Civic buildings, 580 (Fig.
370-
Dwellings, 581.
Gallery, altar-piece by
Gaddi, 673.
Palazzo Publico, fresco,
670. '
S. Domenico, Madonna by
Guido, 660.
Town - hall, mural paint
ings, 669, 670 (Fig. 408).
Sigtuna: Basilica, 396.
Siguenza: Cathedral, 582.
Sikri. See Futtehpore.
Silvacanne: Abbey church, 342, 343,
345-

Silves :
Palace, statues, 197.
Sinzig: Parish church, 536.
Siponto :
Cathedral, 334.
Sitten: Printed linen tapestry, 697.
Six-Fours: Church, 337.
Soest :
St. Patroclus, 277.
— Glass paintings, 409.
— Mural paintings, 404.
— Portal sculptures, 443.
St. Peter, 2g4.
St. Walpurgis, paintings,
406 (Fig. 250).
Wiesenkirche, 557 (Fig.
354).
— Altars. See Berlin.
Soignies :
St. Vincent, 281.
Soissons: Cathedral, 496.
— Glass paintings, 650.
St. Medrardus, 209.
Solenhofen: Convent, 214.
Sonnenberg. See Wiesba
den.
Souillac: Convent church, portal
sculptures, 474.
Southwell:
Collegiate church, 523.
Spalatro :
Cathedral, carved sarcoph
agus, 108 (Fig. 62).
— Wooden door, 471.
Palace of Diocletian, 27.
Temple of Jupiter, 39
(Fig. 20a).
Speyer: Cathedral, 286 (Figs. 161,
162, 164).
Church of St. Germain,
211.
Spoleto: Carved sarcophagi, 108,
109.
Cathedral, mosaics, 659.
Staffelsee: Convent, 213.
Stavanger: Basilica, 396.
Steinach :
Basilica, 230.
Steinbach :
Church, 280.
Steinfurt: Castle, 303.

Stendal: City gates, 563.
Steyning: Church, 385 (Fig. 236).
Stralsund :
Memorial brasses, 621.
Strasburg :
Codex, 420,421 (Fig. 259).
Minster, 231, 545, 546,553,
554-
— Glass paintings, 409.
— Pulpit, 627.
— Sculptures, 614, 615
(Fig. 384).
Stuhlweissenburg :
Cathedral, casula of St.
Stephen, 428.
Stuttgart :
Collection of antiquities,
altars by Zeitblom, 691.
Collegiate church, monu
ments, 617.
— Pulpit, 627.
Library, codices, 417-419,
421.
Sueideh :
Basilica, 24.
Surburg: Church, 280.
Convent, 213.
Susdal: Convent church, bronze
doors, 115, 117.
Syracuse :
Catacombs, 13.
Tabris :
Mosque, 193.
Takht-i-Bahi: Vihara, 138.
Takht-i-Bostan :
Reliefs, 125.
Takht-i-Gero: Sassanian monument, 124
(Fig. 70).
Tangermuende:
City gates, 563.
St. Stephen, 559.
Town-hall, 563.
Tarascon : [202«).
St. Gabriel, 337, 339 (Fig.
Tarragona :
Cathedral, 377.
Tauberbischofsheim :
Convent, 214.
Tchernigof: St. Sophia, 67.
Tegernsee: Convent, 213, 297.
— Glass paintings, 408.
Terni: Sarcophagus, 107.

INDEX OF PLACES.

741

Terracina: Palace of Theodoric, 204.
Thalbuergel: [151).
Church, 273 (Figs. 147,
Than:
Church, 363.
Thennenbach: Cistercian church, 542.
Thessalonica. See Salon-
ica.
Thionville. See Dieden-
hofen.
Tholey :
Ecclesiastical edifices, 211.
Thor. See Le Thor.
Thorn:
Memorial brasses, 621.
Thoronet: Abbey church, 343.
— Cloister, 346.
Thorsaeger: Round church, 395.
Tiefenbronn: Church, altar-pieces, 624,
690, 691.
Timahoe: Tower, 390.
Tind: Church, 391, 394.
Tingitanum. See Castellum
Tingitanum.
Tirol. See Meran.
Toledo :
Casa del Nuncio, 586.
Cathedral, 583, 584 (Fig.
373)-
Christo de la Luz, 181.
Dwellings, 586.
S. Cruz, 586.
S. Juan de los Reyes, 586.
S. Maria Blanca, 373.
Tolosa: S. Maria, 585.
Tongres :
Cathedral, 588.
— Candelabrum, 603.
— Reading-desk, 603.
Torcello :
Cathedral, 322.
— Mosaic, 427.
S. Fosca, 322.
Toro:
Collegiate church, 375.
Toscanella: S. Maria Novella, 329.
S. Pietro, 329.
Toul:
Cathedral, 513.
Toulouse: St. Sernin, 349. [290).
— Capitals, 474 (Fig-
— Frieze, 401.

Tournay :
Cathedral, 281, 485, 488,
588, 590 (Fig. 375).
— Reliquary, 457.
— Sculptures, 604.
— Tomb of Childeric,
237-
Tournus: St. Philibert, 350.
— Paintings, 649.
Tours: Cathedral, 497, 513.
SS. Gervasius and Prota-
sius, 208.
St. Julien, 497.
St. Martin, 209.
Trani: Cathedral, portal sculpt
ures, 468.
— Doors, 471.
S. Maria Immaculata, 317,
334-
Trent: Cathedral, 319.
Trettenburg: Ecclesiastical edifices, 213.
Treves: Cathedral, 203, 258, 275,
536 (Figs. 108, 156).
— Censers, 461.
— Cloister, 545, 561.
— Crosier, 461.
Church of Our Lady, 543,
544, 5 54 (Figs. 343, 344)-
— Sculptures, 612.
Library, bindings, 462.
— Codices, 246, 400,
412, 413 (Fig. 255).
St. Matthew, 275.
Trevigi :
S. Niccolo, 570.
Tribur: Palace, 221.
Trifels: Castle, 303.
Troja: Cathedral, doors, 470.
Troyes: Castle, 517.
Cathedral, 497, 504, 5X3-
— Glass paintings, 650.
St. Urbain, 4g8, 512.
Tuam:
Cathedral, 390.
Tudela: Cathedral, 377.
Tuebingen: Pulpit, 627.
Tung-Chow: Pagoda, 153 (Fig. 84).
Tunon:
S. Adrian, 370 (Fig. 225).

Turin: Gallery, Seven Sorrows of
the Virgin by Memling,
708.
Palazzo delle Torri, 207.
Turmanin: Basilica, 49 (Fig. 28).
Tyre:
Basilica, 22.
UdAyajiri. See Cuttack.
Uhrleben: Ecclesiastical edifices, 213.
Ujo: Parochial church, 374.
Ulm:
Cathedral, 554.
— Choir-stall, 624.
— Font, 627.
— Tabernacle for the
host, 627.
Ehinger hof, paintings,
679.
Fisher's fountain, 627.
Museum, singing -desk,
624.
— Wood-carving, 625.
Town-hall, 563.
Upsala: Cathedral, 592.
Urach :
Baptismal font, 627.
Wood carvings, 625.
Urbino: Academy, Last Supper by
Jost van Gent, 705.
Urnes :
Church, 391, 394 (Fig. 242).
Utrecht :
Cathedral, 54g, 5gi.
Uzes: Tower of St. Theodorit,
345-
Vaison: Cloister, 346 (Fig. 209).
Notre Dame, 345.
St. Quenin, 337, 338, 342,
343 (Figs. 206b, 208).
Valdedios :
S. Salvador, 373.
Valence :
Cathedral, mosaics, 431.
Valencia: Cathedral, 585.
Dwellings, 586.
Valladolid :
Dwellings, 586.
Museum, wood carvings,
644.
S. Gregorio, 586.
S. Pablo, 586 (Fig. 374).

742

INDEX OF PLACES.

Vandrille. See Fontanel
lum.
Vendome: Ste. Trinite, 494 (Fig. 303).
— Glass paintings, 433.
Venice: Dwellings, 581.
Library of S. Marco, cod
ices, 100, 709 (Fig. 57).
Palace of the Doges, 580.
S. Aponale, 322.
S. Catterina, 322.
S. Croce in Luprio, 322.
S. Leonardo, 322.
S. Marco, 60, 115, 321 (Fig.
191).
— Bronze doors, 470.
— Mosaics, 427.
— Pala d'Oro, 101, 472.
— Roodloft, 641.
S. Maria Gloriosa ai Frari,
56g, 570.
S. Secondo, 322.
S.-Zaccaria, 321.
SS. Giovanni e Paolo,
56g.
Vercelli: S. Andrea, 567, 577 (Figs.
360, 361).
Verden :
St. Andrews, brass, 621.
Verdun: Cathedral, 281.
Verona: Baptistery, font, 467.
Fortification walls, 204.
Monument of Can della
Scala, 640.
S. Anastasia, 570, 578
(Figs. 364, 365).
S. Fermo, 573, 578.
S. Pietro in Castello, 317.
S. Zeno, 316, 320.
— Sculptures, 465.
— Bronze doors, 470.
Veruela :
Abbey Church, 378.
Vessera: Church, 273.
Vezelay :
Abbey church, 352, 483^
492, 499 (Figs. 2I3,
296).
— Portal sculptures, 476
(Fig. 269).
Vezzolano :
S. Maria, 566.
Vianden :
Castle, 304.
— Chapel, 307.
Viborg: Church, 394.

Vienna: Ambras collection, liturgi
cal garments, 698.
Gallery, painting by Ro-
.gier, 706.
— Painting by Gerrit Tot
S. Jans, 707.
— Painting by Tommaso
da Mutina, 674 (Fig.
409).
Library, codices, 94, 95,
419, 709 (Figs. 53, 54).
St. Stephen, 553, 554, 556.
Treasury, alba, 428. [428.
— Coronation mantle,
Vienna (Neustadt):
Collegiate church, monu
ment of Frederick III.,
629.
Vignory: Church, 367.
Villamayor: S. Maria, 374. .
Viterbo :
Cathedral, 570.
Civic buildings, 580.
Vladimir :
St. Demetrius, 67.
Volvic :
Church, 349.
Walbeck :
Church, 273.
Convent, 298.
Waldsassen: Cistercian convent, 541.
Waltham :
Abbey church, 380, 385
(Fig. 240).
Warnheim: Church, 396.
Wartburg: .
Palace, 305, 306 (Fig. 181).
Wechselburg: Church, 273.
— • Altar-piece, 446.
— Crucifix, 448.
— Pulpit, 445 (Fig. 272)".
Weissenburg in Alsace:
Church, paintings, 677.
Convent, 211.
Fleckenstein, castle, 302.
Wells :
Cathedral, 523, 529.
— Sculptures, 607.
Chapter-house, 532.
Weltenburg: Convent, 213.
Werben :
St. John, 559.
Werdohl:
Church, paintings, 405.

Wessobrunn: Convent, 213.
Westergroeningen :
Church, 272.
Westervick :
Church, 395.
Westminster: Chapel of St. Stephen, mu
ral paintings, 657.
Chapter-house, 532.
Palace, 533.
— Painted chamber, 657.
Wetzlar: Collegiate church, sculpt
ures, 612.
Wiesbaden :
Sonnenberg, castle (Fig.
177).
Wilton: Wilton house, diptych of
Richard II., 657.
Wilzburg: Convent, 214.
Wimpfen am Berge:
Palace, 305.
Wimpfen im Thal:
St. Peter, 550.
— Sculptures, 615.
Winchester: Cathedral, 385, 523, 531
(Fig 33i).
Chapel, 533.
Chapter-house, 533.
Wittenberg: City church, font, 630
(Fig. 391).
Worcester :
Cathedral, 523.
— Tomb of King John,
607.
Worms:
Cathedral, 231, 287 (Fig.
165).
Palace, 221.
St. Dionysius, 231.
Wunsdorf. Church, 272, 2g4.
Convent, 297.
Wurzburg: Castle, 216.
Cathedral, 277.
— Font, 620.
Church of the Virgin, 214.
Library, codex, 413.
St. Burchard, bell, 621.
Xanten: Minster, carvings, 627.
York: Cathedral, 523, 526, 52g,
533-

INDEX OF PLACES.

743

York — continued.
Cathedral, glass paintings,
657-
Chapter-house, 532, 533.
Ecclesiastical edifices, 215.
Vpres: Ecclesiastical edifices,
588.
Guildhall, 5gi.

Zalt-bommel: . Church, painting, 6gS.
Zamora: Cathedral, 582.
Zara: Cathedral, 3ig.
Zurich: Codex, 246.
Diptych, no.

Zurich — continued.
Frauen minster, 2gg.
Great minster, 297, 299,
443 (Fig 176).
Kiburg, 302.
Zwetl:
Cistercian convent, 561.
Zwickau: Altar-piece, 689.

THE END.