No More Learning

Another typical building is the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus at
Constantinople, built about 526. The plan of the central area is an
octagon with semicircular recesses projecting from the alternate sides ;
there are eight strong piers but the interspaces are set with columns
which bear a marble entablature forming a gallery beam which follows
the tradition just described. The outer walls form a square, from which
to the eastward projects the apse of the bema. The central area is
covered by a dome which is protected by leadwork but not by any inde-
pendent roof. The church of S. Vitale at Ravenna closely resembles
that of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, but it has hemicycles of columns pro-
jecting from every side of the octagon except where the bema opens
to the east.
Both these churches were built before Justinian essayed the colossal
task at St Sophia, which became one of the greatest building triumphs
in the whole history of architecture. The reign of Justinian was a time
of astonishing architectural activity ; nothing of the kind was to be
experienced again, until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries marked, by
the erection of countless cathedrals, another flood-time of art. The
superb plan of St Sophia must have been led up to by a great number
of experiments in smaller churches, many of which have been destroyed
unrecorded. The church of Sergiopolis, the ruins of which still exist,
has great hemicycles of columns on either side of the “nave,” and
Wulff has recorded two fragmentary plans from ruined churches at
Tralles, one of which had some affinity with the church at Sergiopolis,
while the other had a great apse from which five apsidal niches projected.
CH. XXI.


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544
St Sophia
Then again the churches of St Irene and of the Holy Apostles, the
latter of which was later than St Sophia, were both experiments in form
and in the equilibrium of domes. The Church of Christ (the Holy Wisdom,
St Sophia) at Constantinople, has from the moment of its erection been
the most famous church in the world. It was only a century old when
Arculf brought an account of it to the West, and from that day to
this its reputation has been unchallenged. It was the supreme effort of
the greatest emperor-builder of the Christian era. It seems to be more
individual and original and less related to other buildings of its kind in
scale, power and splendour than is any other great architectural work.
As M. Choisy has said, “ It is a conception marvellous in its audacity-
the science of effect, the arts of counterpoise, and of noble decoration
can be pushed no further. ” This wonderful structure was begun on
15 January 532; it was completed in six years and dedicated at Christmas
537: an astonishing effort. The dome soon fell, but it was rebuilt and
the church was re-dedicated at Christmas 563.
It is a vast domed hall, surrounded by other halls forming aisles and
having two storeys, while the central area rises to the dome. The more
organic parts of the structure like the columns, door and window frames,
are all of porphyry and of marbles, some white, some coloured. All the
rest is rough brickwork entirely covered over within by a precious
plating of fine marbles and mosaics of pattern-work and figures on
gold backgrounds. There must be whole acres of these encrustations of
marble and mosaic. Procopius says, “The entire vaulting is covered
with gold, but its beauty is even surpassed by the marbles which reflect
back its splendour. ” On the exterior the structure is bare and plain.
It was probably partially sheeted with marble; the great windows are
filled with marble lattices. The domes are covered with lead applied
directly upon the brickwork. The central dome was much flatter as first
built than it is at present. Expanse rather than height was aimed at.
In front of the church was a great square court surrounded by arcades,
and many other enclosures full of trees formed quiet precincts around
the cathedral. From the description of the Court poet, Paul the
Silentiary, recited in 563, at the opening ceremony after the fallen
dome had been rebuilt, we may form some picture of the splendour of
the great building when complete with all its necessary furniture. The
stalls of the priests in the apse were plated with silver. The iconostasis
was also of silver, while the altar was of gold set with precious stones,
and sheltered by a ciborium, or canopy, of silver—“ a silver tower, on
fourfold arches and columns, furnished with an eight-sided pyramid, a
globe and cross above wrought with many a loop of twining acanthus. "
On the central axis in front of the iconostasis was the ambo, having a
flight of steps to the east and another to the west. It rose from the
midst of a circular screen of columns which enclosed also the place for
the singers. On the beam which rested on the columns stood many
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Contemporary descriptions
545
a
standards bearing lamps, “ like trees. " The ambo itself had a canopy,
and the whole was formed of precious marbles, silver and ivory. On the
elevated floor of this ambo the Emperors were crowned. It was the
prototype of the “pulpitum ” set up at Westminster where the English
kings were crowned.
“Who shall describe the fields of marble gathered on the pavement
and lofty walls of the church? Fresh green from Carystus, and many-
coloured Phrygian stone of rose and white, or deep red and silver; por-
phyry powdered with bright spots, green of emerald from Sparta, and
Iassian marble with waving veins of blood-red on white; streaked red
stone from Lydia and crocus-coloured marble from the hills of the Moors.
Celtic stone like milk poured out on glittering black; the precious onyx
like as if gold were shining through it, and the fresh green from the
land of Atrax, a mingled harmony of shining surfaces. The mason also
has fitted together thin pieces of marble figuring intertwining curves
bearing fruit and flowers, with here and there a bird sitting on the twigs.
Such adornment surrounds the church above the columns. The capitals
are carved with the barbed points of graceful acanthus; but the vaulted
roof is covered over with many a little square of gold, from which the rays
streaming down strike the eyes so that men can scarcely bear to look. ”
The church was dedicated and re-dedicated at Christmas, and the
axis of the church points exactly to the point of sunrise on Christmas
Day. It must have been at the very moment of sunrise that the doors
of the completed church were thrown open.
The poet says, “At last the holy morn had come, and the great door
of the new-built temple ground on its opening hinges. And when the
first beam of rosy light, driving away the shadows, leapt from arch to
arch, all the princes and people hymned their song of praise and prayer,
and it seemed as if the mighty arches were set in heaven. ”
The architects were two artists from Asia Minor, Anthemius of
Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. They were the most famous builders of
the age, and Anthemius with a younger Isidorus, nephew of the other,
is said to have built also the Church of the Holy Apostles.
The square area covered by the central dome of St Sophia is more
than one hundred feet in each direction ; it is prolonged, east and west,
by two vast semicircles, making a length of considerably more than two
hundred feet. From the eastern semicircle open three smaller apses,
and to the west open two apses and a central square compartment. All
this is unobstructed area, one colossal chamber. At the sides of the
square central space, and around the four corner apses, stand magnificent
monolithic columns of porphyry, and of marble, green spotted with white.
These columns with their arches support the gallery floor above the
aisles. Over them again rise other columns which bear the lateral walls
supporting the dome. The dome itself is pierced around its base by
forty windows through which a flood of light pours into the vast space.
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XXI.
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## p. 546 (#592) ############################################

546
Decoration
On the pendentives are still four colossal six-winged cherubim of mosaic,
which probably formed part of the first decoration. Similar creatures
are painted in the nearly contemporary MS. of Cosmas the traveller.
The dome probably had a figure of Christ in a circle at the summit and
the rest of its surface sprinkled with stars. Right and left on the vault
of the bema are still two great angels with wings which reach to their
feet. On the vault of the apse itself are also some remains, although
much injured and now obscured by paint, of a large figure of the seated
Virgin holding in her arms the Saviour who gives the benediction.
Probably these are works executed after the Iconoclastic interval.
Anthony, a Russian pilgrim (c. 1200), says that Lazarus the image-
painter first painted in the sanctuary of St Sophia the Virgin with Christ in
her arms and two angels. Now a celebrated artist of this name was one
of those who suffered at the Iconoclastic persecution; he was imprisoned
and tortured but he survived to replace over the great gate of the palace
called Chalce the image of Christ. Bayet, who quotes the story from the
life of Theophilus, speaks of this with some doubt as a monastic legend
(Byz. Art, p. 124). This very figure, however, is mentioned within fifty
years of the time required in an edict of Leo the Wise known as the
Book of the Prefect. In this it is ordained that the perfumers of the
city should have their shops between the Milion and the “Venerated
image of Christ which surmounts the Portico of Chalce, to the end that
the incense should rise toward the image. ” Further Dr Walsh, who was
chaplain to our embassy at the Porte about 1820, writes in a little book
entitled Essuys on Ancient Coins, “ There stood till very late in Con-
stantinople an inscription over the gate of the palace, called Chalce.
Under a large cross sculptured over the entrance to the palace were the
following words, “The Emperor cannot endure that Christ should be
represented (graphes) a mute and lifeless image graven on earthly
materials, but Leo and his young son Constantine have at their gates
engraved the thrice blessed representation of the Cross, the glory of
believing monarchs. " A plain cross had evidently replaced the original
image; later, possibly under Michael II, a crucifix was again placed over
the gateway. Doubtless a similar alteration was made in St Sophia and
other churches, and of one of these we still have ample evidence. The fine
conch over the apse of the church of St Irene in Constantinople has only
a large plain cross, erect on a stepped base set on a gold background.
In St Sophia at Salonica there is a similar plain cross over the apse, and
both these are almost certainly of the Iconoclastic period.
After this short description of the central classical example of Byzan-
tine art, St Sophia, Constantinople, it is impossible to attempt any
account of other individual buildings. At Salonica there is a wonderful
group of churches, including the superb basilica of St Demetrius. In
Asia Minor there are a great number of ruined churches, many of which
must have been built during the reign of Justinian. One important
6


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Other churches of the period
547
group of ruins comprising a monastery and a palace, ķasr ibn Wardān,
has only recently been discovered. The church in Isauria described by
Dr A. C. Headlam is now famous as a step in development. Later
researches by Sir William Ramsay and Miss Bell, and the German
excavations at Priene, Miletus and Ephesus, have brought to light an
immense body of new material. Syria is crowded with ruined churches,
many of which were built in the great sixth century. A well-equipped
American expedition, which lately worked over the ground, has added
greatly to our knowledge of the period. Still further east in Mesopo-
tamia and Armenia there are many interesting buildings, some of which
are still used for Christian worship. In Egypt and the Sūdān the
Christian ruins are at last receiving attention, and an Austrian expedi-
tion has excavated the convent of St Menas near Alexandria. The
excavations at Bawit and Sakkara have brought to light a wonderful
series of capitals and other sculptured stones. Many of these seem to be
prototypes of forms well known in Constantinople and Ravenna. One
or two second-rate capitals of this kind have recently been added to the
British Museum, but the best have gone to Berlin, where there is a very
fine collection of Christian art, and to Boston. To the
age
of Justinian
belong the monastery and church of St Catherine under Mount Sinai,
where still as when Procopius wrote, “monks dwell whose life is only a
careful study of death. ” It is a compact square fort surrounded by high
walls, within which is a large church half filling up the space, the rest
being occupied by a few narrow lanes of small dwellings. The Egyptian
monasteries are of this type, and that of Sinai was doubtless built by
masters from Egypt. The plan of the church has an Egyptian charac-
teristic in a chapel across the east end outside the apse. The church is
basilican with granite columns and a wooden roof. On the old timbers
were found three inscriptions, which shewed that the monastery was finished
between 548 and 562. In the apse is a much injured mosaic of the
Transfiguration which is probably of the age of the church. Besides
the celebrated enamelled door, which probably dates from the eleventh
century, are some carved wooden doors, which De Beylié thinks belonged
to the original work. The inscriptions spoken of above mention
Justinian, “our defunct empress Theodora," and Ailisios the architect. .
During the last generation an enormous body of evidence for Christian
art in North Africa has been recorded by French scholars. One of the
latest discoveries is a beautiful baptistery at Timgad, which had the floor
and the basin of the font with its curb-wall continuously covered with
mosaic. It may be mentioned here that parts of a mosaic floor, from
what must have been a baptistery at Carthage, are now in the British
Museum. This shews a stag and a hind drinking from the waters of
paradise, recalling the verse : “ As the hart panteth after the water
brooks. "
On the shores of the Adriatic and in Italy are many pure Byzantine
CH. XXI.
35-2


## p. 548 (#594) ############################################

548
Italian Byzantesque
works of the sixth century. One is the splendid basilica of Parenzo
with its atrium and baptistery complete. It has a great number of beau-
tiful carved capitals which were certainly imported from Constantinople.
There are also some fine mosaics. The most remarkable of these is one
covering the external surface of the west wall above the atrium roof.
It shewed the Majesty enthroned amidst the seven candlesticks. This
may remind us that Justinian encrusted the west external wall of the
basilica of the Holy Nativity at Bethlehem with a great mosaic of the
birth of Christ. Such external mosaics were quite common on Byzantine
churches. At Parenzo, as also at Ravenna, and in St Sophia itself,
there is much ornamental plastering of the sixth century.
At Ravenna is a large group of buildings, some of the age of Jus-
tinian, others both earlier and later. S. Vitale has already been mentioned.
The delightful small cruciform tomb-chapel of Galla Placidia has some
fifth century mosaics. There are also two large baptisteries and two
magnificent basilican churches with their splendid mosaics. Here also
is the very curious tomb of Theodoric with its monolithic covering
shaped like a low dome.
One of the chief treasures preserved in this city is a superb ivory
throne, a work of the fifth century, with panels carved with subjects
from the Old and New Testaments. This is almost certainly an Alex-
andrian work. Somewhat similar panels, preserved at Cambridge and
in other museums, suggest that more than one of such thrones had been
made.
In Rome there are several remnants from the age of Justinian, chief
amongst which are the choir enclosures of S. Clemente. At Milan, on
the north side of S. Lorenzo, is a beautiful chapel with mosaics in
apsidal recesses. One is of Christ and the Apostles, which is executed
in a very grey scheme of colour, largely black and white, with some
blue and green; the nimbus of Christ is white. Although so simple
these mosaics are most beautiful. At Naples there is a baptistery with
very fine but fragmentary mosaics, which date perhaps from the end of
the fifth century.
Byzantine mosaic decoration was one of the noblest art-forms ever
developed. Enormous areas were covered by perfectly coherent and
co-ordinated schemes of pictorial teaching, and a solemn majesty was
unerringly attained; while the splendour of the gold backgrounds
suffused the whole with a glowing atmosphere.
The types of Christian imagery which are found in the Byzantine
mosaics of the fifth and sixth centuries were probably drawn from Egyptian
Christian sources. It has been suggested that these types may have
originated in Palestine, and that the paintings and mosaics of the great
churches built there by Constantine largely influenced the schemes of
imagery in the rest of Christendom may not be doubted. It is improbable,
however, that Palestine was a school of iconographical invention; whereas
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Early art in books
549
Egypt seems to have been a glowing hearth of pictorial activity from
the Hellenistic age onwards.
Early Christian iconography must have been developed at an active
Hellenistic centre. Jerusalem was hardly this, and Palestinian art
for the most part must have been an offshoot of that of Alexandria,
It is probable that painted rolls and books were the chief sources,
from which the types to become familiar in paintings and mosaics were
spread abroad.
The codex form of book, which seems at an early time to have
become specially associated with Christian literature, was almost
certainly an Egyptian innovation. According to Sir Maunde Thompson,
codices of vellum, of the third century and earlier, have been found in
Egypt, and this form of MS. “ was gradually thrusting its way into use
in the first centuries of our era. . . . The book form was favoured by the
early Christians. In the fourth century the struggle between the roll
and the codex was finished. ” Some fine book-bindings, which may even
be as early as the sixth century, have lately been found in Egypt. The
noble Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century, now in the British
Museum, is an Egyptian book. So also, almost certainly, is the once
beautiful, but now almost destroyed, pictured book of Genesis called the
Cotton Bible. The writing of this volume is very like that of the
Codex Alexandrinus and of a great number of papyrus fragments. It
also seems to date from the fifth century, and furthermore its pictures
have some affinities with others in an Alexandrian chronicle of the
world on papyrus, which has been published by Strzygowski, while they
have a closer likeness to other painted books which have been judged to
have been produced in Alexandria, such as illuminated volumes of
Dioscorides and of Cosmas the traveller, and a roll of Joshua. Many
points in the miniatures with which the Cotton Genesis was crowded
bear out this view of its origin. Thus, two of those relating to Joseph
in Egypt shew a group of pyramids in the background; a third had
well-drawn camels ; and another the burial of a body wrapped like a
mummy. It has been proved by Dr Tikkanen of Helsingfors that this
MS. or a duplicate of it, was used by the mosaic workers at St Mark's,
Venice, at the end of the twelfth century, for the designs from early
Bible history which fill the domes of the narthex. Twenty-six of those
relating to the Creation were accurately enlarged copies of as many
miniatures from the now terribly injured book, and these subjects,
designs of great dignity and grace, can consequently be restored. Other
pictures in the volume which relate to Lot, Abraham and Joshua, were
again very similar to the series of mosaics executed in Sta Maria
Maggiore in Rome about A. D. 440, and, indeed, the types found in the
Cotton Genesis seem to have had an almost canonical importance.
Their influence can be traced far down in the Middle Ages, and even the
Biblical pictures of Raphael still retained some reminiscence of them. One
CH. XXI.


## p. 550 (#596) ############################################

550
Mosaics and paintings
characteristic of the Cottonian MS. is the appearance in the miniatures
of impersonations of such ideas as the Seven Days of Creation, and the
Four Rivers of the Garden; the former being represented as seven
angels, and the latter as four reclining figures with urns. The Soul
breathed into man is depicted in the form of a winged Psyche. The
Creator is shewn as Christ, “by Whom all things were made. "
Another famous book of Genesis at Vienna, having pictures painted
below the text on pages of purple vellum, is almost certainly later than
the Cottonian book, and although there are obviously some links
between them, the Vienna designs seem to stand outside the Alexandrian
circle. Two other books on purple, which have much in common with
the Vienna book, are the codices of Rossano and Sinope. All three
may probably be dated about A. D. 500, and may have been painted at
Constantinople. The magnificent Dioscorides, which is dated c. 512, is
almost certainly an Alexandrian book. Its fine, clear drawings of
plants may be copied from a more classical original. The Joshua Roll
of the Vatican is probably sixth century and of Alexandrian origin.
Several of the mosaics at Ravenna have characteristics similar to the
miniatures in these Egyptian books, and it may be regarded as certain
that it was not only at St Mark's, Venice, that the designs for mosaics
were taken from such sources. Indeed, it must be more and more
recognised that such compositions were very often drawn out of authori-
ties almost as fixed as the texts which they illustrated. All religious
art, and Byzantine art especially, has in a large degree been the handing
on of a tradition. The outlines of these iconographical schemes must
have been suggested by theologians'.
They were certainly not the result
of a free play of artistic fancy.
A number of figured textiles which have been found in Egypt are
also very interesting in regard to the treatment of their subjects. Some
are merely painted or dyed and others are woven and embroidered.
Three pieces of the dyed work in the Victoria and Albert Museum have
designs of the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Miracles of Christ.
These, again, are interesting as giving us versions of well-known types of
the subjects, and suggest that these designs also had their character
impressed upon them in Egypt. For instance, they closely resemble
others found on the ivory throne at Ravenna, and this similarity rein-
forces the argument in favour of that famous work having been made in
Alexandria, which was the great mart for objects in carved ivory? .
A favourite scheme of ornamentation on the Christian textiles found
in Egypt is the imitation of jewelling. Especially is this the case with
the Cross ; and the jewelled cross, which appears again and again in the
mosaics of Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople, would also seem to have
been an Egyptian invention. Recently many wall-paintings have been
1 As in some later Italian works, such as in the Spanish Chapel at Florence. See
Wood Green, J. , Sta Maria Novella, pp. 150 ff. 2 See Vol. 1. Chapter xxi.
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## p. 551 (#597) ############################################

The East, Rome and art
551
a
are.
exposed by excavation in Egypt and here, also, well-known types, like
the Majesty and the Ascension, have been found.
It has not been possible to speak of the quality of Byzantine art but
only of certain leading facts in its history. As a whole it was
wonderful movement of return to first principles in regard to structures
and to the free expression of feeling in what we call decoration. Roman
art was very largely official, grandiose, and a matter of formulas. The
Roman artist was as closely imprisoned in conventions as we ourselves
Then came a time and an influence which led the people to build
what they wanted only by the rules of common sense, and to draw for
decorative art fresh draughts from the springs of poetry.
So art was transformed and a great cycle of a thousand years was
entered on. Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic are
all incidents in its mighty sweep, and before it was spent great cathedrals
had been built all over Europe.
Having followed, so far as our space will allow, the main stream of
Christian art while flowing through Constantinople and the East, we
must now try to trace the broader facts of its development in the
West.
It is not to be doubted that, until the eastern civilisation was checked
by the Arab conquests in the seventh century, its art had been the true
heir of the ages, and that the great upheaval put a stop to its proper
progress, and then threw it back in many broken eddies over western
Europe. In our first volume we saw that early Christian art was a phase
of Roman art modified by eastern ideas. In western Europe, for the early
Christian period, there were in the main three influences at work, in the
culture of which art is one aspect : the native stock, the Romano-
Christian tradition, and the steady, unceasing pressure of oriental ideas.
In mentioning the latter we do not try to beg any “Byzantine question. "
It would doubtless be true to say conversely that the West influenced
the East, but here and now we are only concerned with the West and
the action of external forces upon it.
In reaction against claims which have been urged for oriental in-
fluence in Christian art, Commendatore Rivoira has lately made a
powerful plea for a further consideration of the part played by Rome
and Italy as the main source of western Christian art, but he confessedly
does this rather in regard to structural architecture than to the pictorial
and plastic matters which form so great a part of any complete architec-
ture. Further, in regard to the structures, his contention in many cases
only avails to shew that those eastern customs, which some earlier
writers had thought came in with Byzantine art, had already been taken
over by Roman builders. And it must never be forgotten that Roman art
itself was only one branch of a widespread Hellenistic culture the prime
centre of which was Alexandria.
Quite recently a whole new phase of Roman art has been coming
CH, XXI.


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552
Provincial Roman art
into view, that is, the form of it which was developed rather in the pro-
vinces than in the capital. An enormous body of this Roman provincial
art has been revealed by French researches in North Africa, and the study
of local antiquities in Italy, France, Spain, South Germany, and even
Britain, shews how far this little-known art had developed or degenerated
from the standards of the Augustan age. This art is rude and redun-
dant, shewing a ferment of undisciplined ideas, and in it we may find many
of the germs of the Christian architecture of the West which, by a true
instinct, has been called Romanesque.
Probably the best centre in which to study provincial Roman art is
Trèves, where a perfectly arranged museum is crowded with smaller monu-
ments, while many large ones are still extant in the streets. Among the
latter are a magnificent basilica, now a church, a great city gate, the Porta
Nigra, and a ruined palace, usually called that of Augustus, although
apparently it must belong to the fourth century. The monuments in the
museum comprise a great number of important, richly sculptured, tombs,
some of which are of the sarcophagus form, while others are like small towers
crowned by a pyramid, with a sculptured finial at the apex, a form which
recalls many a Romanesque tower and spire built centuries later. They
themselves seem to derive from the mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The
sloping surfaces of the pyramidal coverings are roughly carved into leafage
arranged like scales, and the rest of these monuments is adorned with a
profusion of sculptured figures and pattern-work. The large plain sur-
faces are frequently covered by what, in later art, we should call diaper
patterns, that is, recurring arrangements of lozenges, octagons and
circles, combined so as to cover the field and with the interspaces filled
in with simply-carved leafage. This type of ornamentation is practically
unknown in classical Roman architecture. It was doubtless taken up
from the East, and it is the precursor of a kind of decoration, which
thenceforth was to be common for many centuries; indeed, the covering
of flat vertical surfaces with roughly cut patterns in low relief is typical
of the art of the “Dark Ages. " It may be noted that the surface
patterns, and even the figure sculptures, on the monuments of Trèves
were painted with bright colours, and hence it seems probable that the
elaborate braided and chequered ornamentation of our own Saxon crosses
was completed by colouring.
What we have found best illustrated at Trèves must have been charac-
teristic, in greater or lesser degree, of all the cities of western Europe 1.
Even in London, at the Guildhall and British Museums, there are
fragments which shew that a similar type of architecture prevailed here.
Amongst the stones are some which clearly belong to tombs with pyramidal
coverings like those mentioned above, and other stones, some of which
belong to small columns, have diaper pattern-work. These fragments
1 Even in Britain the lion dug up at Corbridge (Corstopitum) is a striking
example.
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Rome's influence on its conquerors
553
.
probably belonged to the tombs of the rich merchants of Londinium.
The coins of Roman Britain shew a similar likeness to those of Trèves,
which in the fourth century was the capital of the western section of
the Empire. In the museum at Sens are important remnants of a
façade, which was largely decorated with boldly designed vine foliage
of a curiously “Romanesque" character.
Romanised Europe was a soil well prepared for the upspringing of
Romanesque art, and many centres, down to the end of the twelfth
century, shew us how the old monuments were turned to for inspiration
and guidance. In some places there was hardly any interruption of
continuity ; in others the conquering peoples from the North (although
they entered into that which they could not properly understand or
use) could not help crude imitation when they themselves had to build.
The problem of architectural history is now less one of inquiry as to
sources than a question as to the vigour of building impulse. An ener-
getically expanding school always gathers from everything it may reach,
but a declining school does not know how to use even what it has.
When the Romanesque movement in architecture was under way, the
Roman background was searched, and at the same time the current
customs of the more powerful art of the East were drawn upon.
In the fifth century, western Europe had a vast system of splendid
roads linking up a great number of provincial Roman cities. Many of
them were burned and ruined, but few can have been destroyed. Even
in Britain these Roman cities were sights to wonder at, as the poem
on the ruins of Bath witnesses, and Bede tells us how the citizens
of Carlisle guided St Cuthbert round the city shewing him the walls
and a fountain of marvellous workmanship constructed formerly by the
Romans. In Rome itself the early Christian tradition was being continued,
and there, as at Ravenna and Milan, at Lyons and Arles, Byzantine
influences were all the time being absorbed and passed on to the
West.
The third strain in Romanesque art was the barbaric element in the
blood and traditions of the people. After the Roman and Byzantine influ-
ences, which came from the Church, had been absorbed and transformed,
the art began to put on more and more of a barbaric character. This
was especially the case in the West after the Danish irruptions. Some of
the stone carvings wrought in England during the tenth century were
extremely savage in their character.
A school of art, which should be of extraordinary interest to us, is
that which arose in Northumbria in the second half of the seventh century,
but was soon to disappear. There is ample documentary record of the
culture of the time when Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop built churches and
formed monastic libraries, and when Bede wrote his famous history.
Some remnants of Wilfrid's churches yet remain, and Bede tells us how
they were decorated by paintings forming a consistent series of Biblical
CH. XXI.


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554
Roman influence in England
types and story. These paintings were brought from Rome, and the
fortunate discovery of the painted walls of Sta Maria Antiqua in that
city, which were decorated by Greek artists just at the time that Benedict
Biscop was making his collection, suggests very clearly what these
pictures must have been like. It cannot be doubted that they were
of eastern origin. Many works of art, which we still fortunately possess,
have been attributed to the same age, but some of them are so remark-
able as compared with other works of that time on the Continent that
Commendatore Rivoira and Professor Cook of Yale have argued with
great detail that they could not have been produced at that time. At
Ruthwell and Bewcastle, on either side of the Scottish border, are the
shafts of two tall standing crosses elaborately sculptured with figures and
pattern-work, with long inscriptions in runes, and, in the case of
Ruthwell, with Latin inscriptions as well.
inscriptions as well. Rivoira, approaching the
question from the Italian point of view, and with a wide knowledge of
European art, would assign them to the twelfth century, and Professor
Cook argues that they were probably erected by King David of Scotland
about 11401.
These noble cross shafts, however, are only the most famous of a large
class of monuments of more or less the same type, which must belong to
about the same period. If they have to be dated in the twelfth century, the
Irish crosses also, as is recognised by the critics just named, cannot be
earlier. Such a scheme in all its implications would make a tremendous
alteration in British archaeology. On the other hand, the early dates of
some of the Saxon works are so firmly established that they cannot even
be attacked. Such are large numbers of early Saxon coins, some of which
bear devices analogous to the decorations of the crosses, while others,
like the coins of Offa, have fine heads. Others, again, like a coin of
Peada, have runes of similar form to those on the crosses. If a selection
of such coins was published in comparison with the crosses, much that
has been said as to the improbability of the early date of these would
have to be ruled out. We also possess the splendid illuminated text
written and decorated at Lindisfarne very early in the eighth century,
with its braided ornamentation, symbols of the four evangelists, and
other designs which closely resemble the ornament and symbols on the
crosses. There is also the noble Codex Amiatinus, once owned by Abbot
Ceolfrid, and taken with him as a present for the Pope when he left
England for Rome in 716, which has some points of resemblance. It has
further been shewn that the Latin inscriptions, which describe the sculp-
tures on the Ruthwell Cross, are in an alphabet of a semi-Irish character
resembling the letters of the Lindisfarne book, while the runic inscrip-
tion of this cross contains a version of the old English poem on the
Dream of the Holy Rood, which Dr Bradley attributes to the authorship
of Caedmon. Another monument, the date of which has not been
1 See Baldwin Brown, G. , The Arts in Early England, Vol. v. 1921.
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The English crosses
555
attacked, is the shrine of St Cuthbert now at Durham, which is recorded
to have been made in 698. Some designs incised on it, which include
figures of Christ, angels, and apostles, together with symbols of the
ev gelists, a cross and inscriptions, are again singularly like the designs
found
upon the two great cross shafts. The runes on the Bewcastle
cross formed a memorial inscription, which is terribly decayed, and
doubt is cast on the readings, first made in 1856, by which it appeared
that it was set up to Alchfrid, son of Oswy, about the year 670. On
the other hand, the name Cyneburh, which was the name of Alchfrid's
wife, has often been read by many independent observers, including
Kemble, in 1840. Even the presence of the name Alchfrid is admitted
by Viator, the Runic scholar, but Professor Cook claims that the form
is feminine and cannot apply to Alchfrid. Thus the question stands for
the moment, but when, by comparative illustration, it has been shewn
that the objection to the early date of the art of these wonderful monu-
ments must fall to the ground, then we may anticipate that much of the
opposition to the interpretation of the runes will also disappear. At the
least the certain name of Cyneburh will be given its due weight. The
present writer has no doubt at all that these crosses were set up by a
powerful Northumbrian ruler in the seventh century. Professor Cook even
expresses a doubt as to whether these shafts were parts of crosses at all,
which to English scholars will seem like doubting whether a torn volume
was ever a book: His work, however, is valuable as stating the case
for the extremist reaction. In regard to the sculptures on the Ruthwell
cross, it has been shewn that they have affinities with the subjects on the
Byzantine ivory throne at Ravenna, which was probably made in Alex-
andria, and with some Coptic works. Now the second half of the
seventh century was exactly the time when Rome itself had become
almost completely Byzantinised. The church of Sta Maria Antiqua, before
mentioned, belongs to this time. It is no accident that it was just at
this moment that a Greek from Tarsus, Theodore by name, became
Archbishop of Canterbury. The sculptures on the Ruthwell cross in-
clude the Crucifixion, the Annunciation, Christ healing the blind man,
Christ and the Magdalene, and the Visitation on one side; on the other,
the flight into Egypt, SS. Paul and Anthony the hermits, breaking bread
in the desert, Christ worshipped by “beasts and dragons,” St John
Baptist, and the symbols of the evangelists. A third cross shaft, hardly
less remarkable, that of Acca, now at Durham, is accepted by Rivoira
as being of the eighth century. It is difficult for an English student
to understand why two should be taken away and the other left.
Saxon works of a different kind, but not less noteworthy, are the
silver Ormside cup, the celebrated Alfred jewel and the vestments of
Bishop Frithstan, now at Durham, which were embroidered at Winchester
about the year 912. It may be remembered that William of Malmes-
bury says that the daughters of Edward the Elder were skilful needle-
CH. XXI.


## p. 556 (#602) ############################################

556
Irish art
women, and it is not unlikely that these exquisite works came from this
royal school of art. It may be pointed out that one of the designs on
the Durham embroideries is the Right Hand of God. Now this same
device also appears on the Wessex coinage of Edward the Elder, and on
the sculptured Rood of Romsey Abbey, which probably filled the central
space on the west front of the church with figures of the Virgin and St
John on either hand of the Crucified Figure, above which the Hand
appears. A similar group, much defaced, may still be seen on the
west front of the little church at Hedbourne Worthy, close to
Winchester.
Anglo-Celtic art has been very much neglected, but in Great Britain
and Ireland we have an enormous number of sculptured monuments
which certainly have high interest for the history of art in Europe
during the dark ages. It may seem an extravagant claim, but if the
productions of the Anglian school are recognised, it will appear to be,
at its Northumbrian centre especially, the first Teutonic school of
Christian art. This is allowed for literature ; poems like Caedmon's were
not written in Gaul, but it has hardly even been suggested for sculpture,
metalwork, and other crafts. It is agreed that the later school formed
by Charlemagne became the centre for west European culture; yet, after
all, Charlemagne gathered up the Northumbrian traditions, and Alcuin
was but a follower of Wilfrid and Ceolfrid.
The Irish crosses are less competent in execution than the finest of
the Anglian works, and the same is true of other forms of Irish art.
The large number and the good preservation of the Irish crosses, however,
give them considerable importance. On them we find sculptures which
carry on the early Christian tradition in a very remarkable way. The
a
designs must, for the most part, have been copied from quite early painted
books of Eastern origin, and from ivories and other small works. The
subjects are of the Crucifixion, and of Christ the Judge, with many scenes
from the life and miracles of Christ, together with “ types " from the Old
Testament. Favourite types of Christ are the offering of Isaac, and
David protecting the sheep by slaying the lion. Over the Crucifixion
of a cross at Monasterboice is Moses with his uplifted arms supported
by two companions. The life of David as a type of Christ is given in
several scenes on some of the crosses. Another subject which occurs
very frequently is the meeting of SS. Anthony and Paul in the desert.
The ideals were clearly monastic, and those who had the crosses set up
looked reverently back to the hermits of the Egyptian desert.
Much in Carolingian Romanesque art was directly derived from
the Roman monuments; indeed, it must have been thought by Charle-
magne and his Court that Roman architecture was being continued just
as the Empire was being resumed. Romanesque, we may say, is “Holy
Roman architecture. " A letter of Einhard's exists, which was sent
together with an ivory model of a column shaped according to the rules


## p. 557 (#603) ############################################

Beginnings of Romanesque
557
a
a
of Vitruvius, and it is significant that the earliest existing text of
Vitruvius, the Harley MS. in the British Museum, is also Carolingian.
The doorway of Charles the Great's church at Aix-la-Chapelle, recently
exposed, has a large architrave of classical form. This doorway might
well be a work of the fourth century A. D. , and so might some of the bronze
doors, and the pine-cone fountain. The mouldings of the interior had
classical forms, and old Corinthian capitals, which were probably brought
from Italy, were re-used in the arches of the gallery storey. Of course
there was no thought of any archaeological distinction between what was
Roman and what was Byzantine; the great fact was that barbarism
took up the arts of civilisation, and it must have been thought that
Rome was being renewed by the efforts of Charlemagne. This Caro-
lingian Renaissance gives us an invaluable example of a conscious building
up
of a school of art.
In Italy many buildings, like the baptistery at Florence, shew a
deliberate attempt to be classical. In France, also, we meet with the
same intention. At Langres, once a Roman town, the fine cathedral
church (twelfth century) is wonderfully Roman in many particulars.
The buttresses between the chapels at the east end are in the form of
Auted Corinthian pilasters. In the interior the nave arches rise from
similar fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals; the triforium has fluted
pilasters rising to a horizontal string moulding; beneath is a bold band
of scroll carving of a classical type; and many of the columns have the
classical entasis. At Bourges, another Roman town, the elaborate
doorways of the north porch have finely carved lintels of scroll work
and foliage, which must have been practically copied from a Roman
original. At Autun the direct influence of the Roman gateway, which
is still standing, can be traced in the details of the cathedral. At
Arles, St Gilles, Le Puy, and in dozens of other places a similar trans-
ference from Roman prototypes is apparent in Romanesque architecture.
The Romanesque type of tower, with a low, square spire, with scale
ornaments cut into the sloping surfaces, must largely derive from the
late Roman tombs like those of Trèves above described. Even Roman
methods of construction, like concreted rubble walling, small facing
stones, and courses of tiles set in arches, persisted until the eleventh and
twelfth centuries.
The second great strain in Romanesque art was formed by the
constant inflow of eastern ideas and decorative objects, as well as of
monks and artists. After Justinian reconquered Italy, fragments of the
land remained dependencies of the Eastern Empire until the eighth cen-
tury. In Rome itself during this time Art became almost completely
Byzantinised. There are several beautiful Byzantine capitals and slabs
in Rome which were imported from Constantinople, and the round church
of St Theodore on the Palatine belongs to this time. Even a brick-
stamp of Pope John (A. D. 705) is inscribed with Greek letters.
CH. XXI.


## p. 558 (#604) ############################################

558
Sta Maria Antiqua
The monument which most clearly witnesses to the presence of the
East in the West is the church of Sta Maria Antiqua, excavated about
twenty years ago out of the débris at the foot of the Palatine Hill. It is in
the Forum, on the right in going to the Coliseum. It was an old
Roman building, which was transformed into a church early in the
seventh century, being a large, high hall having lateral chambers formed
into chapels. The walls were partly covered with a plating of marble,
and all the rest was adorned with paintings, which, for the most part,
are still in good condition. The paintings are inscribed mostly in Greek
with some Latin. A stone of the ambo had a bilingual inscription :
John Servant of the Theotokos. The art-types are obviously eastern,
and the saints depicted are both eastern and western. There are
paintings of the Crucifixion, the Majesty, the enthroned Virgin and
Child, the Annunciation, Nativity, Daniel in the Lions' Den, and many
others. In the apse of the chapel is a large figure of Christ between
two six-winged tetramorphs. The background of this subject is divided
into an upper portion painted black, and a lower part divided vertically
into four parts alternately red and green. The Crucifixion is very like
another in a Syrian book now at Florence. On either hand of the Cross
are the two soldiers, by one of whom is inscribed Longinus. On the Syrian
Gospel, which was written in 586 by the monk Rabula, the similar figure
of the soldier is named Aorinoc. The resemblances are altogether so
remarkable that it cannot be doubted that this very Syrian MS. or a
similar one was the direct source for the wall painting. It has been
already pointed out by Mr Dalton that a curious pattern which is found
at Sta Maria Antiqua, like a row of overlapping coins, occurs again also
in the Codex of Rossano, another book which is possibly of Syrian
origin, and it occurs again in a Syrian book at Paris. The coincidences are
so striking that it becomes evident that some oriental books must have
been directly used as the sources for the designs in the church. It has
often been pointed out that the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore must
have been drawn from some book of Genesis painted in the East.
Several of the mosaics in Ravenna follow a similar canon, and so again
do some fragmentary Genesis pictures in Sta Maria Antiqua itself.
Further, it has been proved by Tikkanen, as before mentioned, that the
Genesis mosaics at St Mark's, Venice, were accurately copied from the
Cotton Genesis, a book which almost certainly was painted in Alexandria
in the fifth century. In these instances we get examples of what was
happening all the time. Books from the East, especially ancient books,
were regarded as authorities; sacred designs were not made up at will,
but were handed forward as traditions. Doubts have been raised by
Ainalov as to whether the important Crucifixion picture of Rabula's
Gospel is not much later than the rest of the book, but the finding of
it repeated at Sta Maria Antiqua proves that it is probably at least as old
as the painting there. Other fragmentary paintings suggest that there
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## p. 559 (#605) ############################################

Romanesque among the Teutons
559
was a series of subjects drawn from the New Testament with their
" types” from the Old Testament set against them. Now Bede tells us
categorically that a series of pictures representing such types was brought
from Rome by Benedict Biscop to adorn his monastery. Thus paintings,
embodying theological conceptions, originated in the East and were
carried to Northumbria. Already in the Rossano book Christ appears
as the Good Samaritan, who aids the traveller and carries him to the inn.
This is a conception which is fully worked out in the superb late twelfth
century stained glass window at Sens. In the painted book of Cosmas
the Indian traveller, a sixth century Alexandrian work, there are several
pairs of types, thus the Sacrifice of Isaac, the escape of Jonah from the
Whale, and the Translation of Elijah, typify the Crucifixion, Resurrec-
tion and the Ascension of Christ. All these types reappear on the
sculptures of the Irish crosse Of course such "types" are found in
the catacomb paintings, but in these the idea had not been systematised.
From the time of Charlemagne until the generation in which Gothic
architecture was to emerge, Germany led in the arts.