There can be no doubt that the most ancient Christian basilica were expressly constructed for the purpose of religion, and their architectural details clearly point to the epoch in which they were erected. These new temples of religion borrowed, nevertheless, as well in their whole as in their details, so much from the ancient basilicæ, that it is not surprising they should have retained their name. We here place before the reader (fig. 141.) a plan of

the ancient basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Murà, and (fig. 142.) an interior view of it, whereby

its general effect may be better understood. The latter shows how admirably it was adapted to the reception of an extremely numerous congregation. The numberless columns which the ancient buildings readily supplied were put in requisition for constructing these basilica, whereof, adopting the buildings of the same name as the type, they proportioned the elevation to the extent of the plans, and, in some cases, decorated them with the richest ornaments. Instead of always connecting the columns together by architraves on their summit, which might not be at hand, arches were spanned from one to the other, on which walls were carried up to bear the roofing. Though the practice of vaulting large areas did not appear till a considerable time after the building of the first Christian basilicæ, it must be recollected that the Temple of Peace at Rome had previously exhibited a specimen of the profound knowledge of the Romans in the practice of vaulting: in that example, groined vaults of very large dimensions were borne on entablatures and columns. Nor does this knowledge appear to have been lost in almost the last stage of decline of Roman architecture under the emperor Dioclesian. In the baths of this emperor are to be seen not only groined vaults in three

divisions, whose span is nearly 70 ft., but at the back of each springer a buttress, precisely of the nature of a flying buttress, is contrived to counteract the thrusts of the vaulting. 276. In recording the annihilation of the arts on the invasion of Odoacer, at the end of the fifth and during the course of the sixth century, historians have imputed it to the Gothic nations, qualifying by this name the barbarous style which then degraded the productions of the arts. Correct they are as to the epoch of their ruin, which coincided truly enough with the empire of the Goths; but to this nation they are unjust in attributing the introduction of a barbarous style.

277. History informs us, that as soon as the princes of the Goths and Ostrogoths had fixed themselves in Italy, they displayed the greatest anxiety to make the arts again flourish, and but for a number of adverse circumstances they would have succeeded. Indeed, the people whom the Romans designated as barbarous, were inhabitants of the countries to the north and east of Italy, who actually acquired that dominion and power which the others lost. Instructed at first by their defeats, they ultimately acquired the arts of those who originally conquered them. Thus the Gauls, the Germans, the Pannonians, and Illyrians, had, from their submission to the Roman people, acquired quite as great a love for the arts as the Romans themselves. For instance, at Nismes, the birthplace of Antoninus Pius, the arts were in a state of high cultivation; in short, there were schools as good out of as in Italy itself.

278. Odoacer, son of Edicon, the chief of a Gothic tribe, after obtaining possession of Rome in 476, preserved Italy from invasion for six years; and there is little doubt that one of his objects was the preservation of the arts. He was, however, stabbed by the hand, or at least the command, of his rival and successor, Theodoric, in 493. Theodoric, the son of Theodemir, had been educated at Constantinople, and though personally he neglected the cultivation of science and art, he was very far from insensible to the advantages they conferred on a country. From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, the right of conquest aad placed Theodoric on the throne. As respects what he did for the arts, no better record of his fame could exist than the volume of public Epistles composed by Cassiodorus, in the royal name. "The reputation of Theodoric," says Gibbon, “may repose with confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of thirty-three years; the unanimous esteem of his own times, and the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity, which was deeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians." The residence of Theodoric was at Ravenna chiefly, occasionally at Verona; but in the seventh year of his reign he visited the capital of the Old World, where, during a residence of six months, he proved that one at least of the Gothic kings was anxious to preserve the monuments of the nations he had subdued. Royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, neglect, or depredations of the citizens upon works of art; and an architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port, were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the public buildings Similar care was bestowed on the works of sculpture. Besides the capitals, Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of the Italian cities, acquired under his reign the useful or splendid decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticoes, and palaces. His architects were Aloysius for Rome, and Daniel for Ravenna, his instructions to whom manifest his care for the art; and under him Cassiodorus, for fifty-seven years minister of the Ostrogoth kings, was for a long period the tutelary genius of the arts. The death of Theodoric occurred in 526; his mausoleum is still in existence at Ravenna, being now called Sta. Maria della Rotunda. That city contains also the church of St. Apollinaris, which shows that at this period very little, if any, change had been made in the arrangement of large churches on the plan of the basilica. The front of the convent of the Franciscan friars in the same town, which is reputed to be the entrance to the palace, bears considerable resemblance to the Porta Aurea of Dioclesian, at Spalatro. These buildings are all in a heavy debased Roman style, and we are quite at a loss to understand the passage quoted by Tiraboschi, from Cassiodorus, who therein gives a particular description of the very great lightness and elegance of columns; thus—“ Quid dicamus columnnarum junceam proceritatem? Moles illas sublimissimas fabricarum quasi quibusdam ercetis hastilibus contineri et substantive qualitate concavis canalibus excavatas, ut magis ipsas æstimes fuisse transfusas; alias ceris judices factum, quod metallis durissimis videas expolitum." (Lib. vii. Var. 15.) We know no examples of the period that bear out these assertions of Cassiodorus; on the contrary, what is known of this period indicates a totally different style.

279. If the successers of Theodoric had succeeded to his talents as well as his throne, and if they had been assisted by ministers like Cassiodorus, the arts and letters of Italy might have recovered; but. after the retirement of that minister, from the succession of Vitiges, towards 538, the arts were completely extinct. In 543-7, Rome was taken and plundered by Totila; and afterwards, in 553, this ill-fated city was again united to the Eastern empire by the talents of Belisarius and Narses.

280. From the year 568 up to the conquest of Italy by Charlemagne, in 774, the country was overrun by the Lombards, a people who quickly attained a high degree of civilization,

and were much given to the practice of architecture. Maffei, Muratori, and Tiraboschi have clearly proved that neither the Goths nor the Lombards introduced any particular style, but employed the architects whom they found in Italy. Fig 143. is the west end

of the church of St. Michael, at Pavia, a work executed under the Lombards, and, therefore. h. re inserted as an example of style. The anxiety, however, of the Lombards to preserve the arts was not sufficient to prevent their increasing decay, which daily became more apparent. Not more than the Goths do they deserve the reproach for their treatment of and indifference to them. Besides fortifications and citadels for defence, they built palaces, baths, and temples, not only at Pavia, the seat of their empire, but at Turin, Milan, Spoleto, and Benevento. Hospitals under them began to be founded. The Queen Theodelinda, in particular, signalised her pious zeal in founding one at Monza, near Milan, her favourite residence, and endowing it in a most liberal manner.

281. In the eighth century the influence of the popes on the fine arts began to be felt. John VI. and Gregory III., at the commencement of the eighth century, showed great solicitude in their behalf. During this age the popes gained great temporal advantages, and their revenues enabled them to treat those advantages so as to do great good for Italy. the ninth century Adrian I. signalised himself in this passion to such an extent, that Nicholas V. placed on his monument the inscription,

Restituit mores, moenia, templa, Demos.

In

His works were many and admirable. Among those of great use, he constructed porticoes from the city to San Paolo and S. Lorenzo fuori le Murà.

282. Before we advance to the age of Charlemagne, it will be necessary to notice the church of St. Vitalis, at Ravenna, which we have reserved for this place on account of the singularity of its construction. It was erected, as is usually believed, under the reign of Justinian, in the sixth century. See figs 144. and 145. The exterior walls are formed in a regular octagon, whose diameter is 128 ft. Within this octagon is another concentric one, 54 ft. in diameter, from the eight piers whereof (55 ft. in height) a hemispherical vault is gathered over, and over this is a timber conical roof. The peculiarity exhibited in the construction of the cupola is, that the spandrels are filled in with earthen vases; and that round the

exterior of its base semicircular headed windows are introduced, each of which is subdivided into two apertures of similar forms. Between every two piers hemicylindrical recesses are formed, each covered by a semidome, whose vertex is 48 ft. from the pavement, and each of them contains two windows subdivided into three spaces by two columns of the Corinthian order, supporting semicircular-headed arches. Between the piers and the external walls are two corridors, which surround the whole building, in two stories, one above the other, each covered by hemicylindrical vaulting. The upper corridor above the vault is covered with a sloping or leanto roof. We have before noticed the introduction of vases in the spandrels at the Circus of Caracalla; and we cannot help being struck with the similarity of construction in the instance above cited. It fully bears out the observation of Möller (Denkmahler der Deutschen Baukunst), “ that, though beauty of proportion seems to have been unappreciated in these ages, and architecture was confined within a servile imitation of the earlier forms, the art of compounding cement, the proper selection of building materials, and an intimate acquaintance with the principles of solid construction with which the ancients were so conversant, were fully understood."

283. The æra of Charlemagne, which opened after the middle of the eighth century and continued into the early part of the ninth, gave rise to many grand edifices dedicated to Christianity. This extraordinary man, rising to extensive dominion, did much towards restoring the arts and civilisation. "Meanwhile, in the south-east," says an intelligent anonymous writer, "the decrepid Grecian empire, itself maintaining but a sickly existence, had nevertheless continued so far to stretch a protecting wing over them [the arts] that they never had there equally approached extinction. It seems probable that Charlemagne drew thence the architect and artisans who were capable of designing and building such a church as the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, in Germany." "If Charlemagne," says Gibbon, "had fixed in Italy the seat of the Western empire, his genius would have aspired to restore, rather than violate, the works of the Cæsars; but as policy confined the French monarch to the forests of Germany, his taste could be gratified only by destruction, and the new palace and church of Aix-la-Chapelle were decorated with the marbles of Ravenna and Rome." The fact is, that the Byzantine or Romanesque style continued, with various degrees of beauty, over the Continent, and in this country, till it was superseded by the introduction of the pointed style. Möller, from whom we extract fig. 146. which represents the portico of the Convent of Lorsch, situate about two and a half German miles from Darmstadt, considers it as all that remains of the first church built in the time of Charlemagne. The same learned author observes, that, on comparison with each other of the ancient churches of Germany, two leading differences are discoverable in their styles, of which all others are grades or combinations. The first, or earliest, whose origin is from the South, is, though in its later period much degenerated, of a highly finished character, distinguished by forms and decorations resembling those of Roman buildings, by flat roofs, by hemicylindrical vaults, and by great solidity of construction. The second and later stvic still preserves the semicircular forms; but the high pitched roof, more adapted to the seasons

I

of a northern climate, begins to be substituted for the flat roof of the South, as at the cathedral of Worms on the west side, the western tower of the church at Gelnhausen, and in many other examples.

284. We are now approaching a period in which more light can be thrown on our subject than on that we have just quitted. In the ninth century, on, as it is said, the designs of a Greek artist, rose the cathedral of St. Mark at Venice, the largest of the Italian churches in the Byzantine style. Its plan is that of a Greek cross, whose arms are vaulted hemicylindrically, and, meeting in the centre of the building, terminate in four semicircular arches on the four sides of a square, about 42 ft. in length in each direction. From the anterior angles of the piers, pendentives gather over, as in St. Sophia, at Constantinople, and form a circle wherefrom rises a cylindrical wall or drum in which windows for lighting the interior are introduced. From this drum, the principal dome, which is hemispherical, springs. Longitudinally and transversely the church is separated by ranks of columns supporting semicircular arches. The aisles of the nave and choir, and those of the transepts, intersect each other in four places about the centre of the cross, over which intersections are small domes; so that on the roof are four smaller and one larger dome. In the exterior front towards the Piazza San Marco, the façade consists of two stories, in the centre of the lower one whereof is a large semicircularly arched entrance, on each side of which are two other smaller arched entrances of the same form. These have all plain archivolts springing from the upper of two orders of columns. On each flank of the façade is a smaller open arcade springing at each extremity from an upper of two orders of insulated columns. A gallery with a balustrade extends round the exterior of the church, in front whereof, in the centre, are the four famous bronze horses which once belonged to the arch of Nero. The second story towards the Piazza San Marco consists of a central semicircular aperture, with two blank semicircular arches on each side, not quite so high and wide. These five divisions are all crowned by canopy pediments of curves of contrary flexures, and ornamented with foliage. Between each two arches and at the angles a turret is introduced consisting of three stories of columns, and terminated by a pinnacle. The building has been considerably altered since its first construction; and, indeed, the ornaments last named point to a later age than the rest of the edifice, the general character of which has, nevertheless, been preserved. There is considerable similarity of plan between this church and that of St. Sophia.

285. Very much partaking the character of composition of St. Mark, but dissimilar in