BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE:DOMES, DECORATION, CARVED DETAILS

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CHAPTER XI.

BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Essenwein, Hübsch, Von Quast. Also, Bayet, L'Art

Byzantin. Choisy, L'Art de bâtir chez les Byzantins. Lethaby and Swainson, Sancta

Sophia. Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco. Pulgher, Anciennes Églises Byzantines de

Constantinople. Salzenberg, Altchristliche Baudenkmäle von Constantinopel. Texier and

Pullan, Byzantine Architecture.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER. The decline and fall of Rome arrested the development

of the basilican style in the West, as did the Arab conquest later in Syria. It was

otherwise in the new Eastern capital founded by Constantine in the ancient

Byzantium, which was rising in power and wealth while Rome lay in ruins. Situated

at the strategic point of the natural highway of commerce between East and West,

salubrious and enchantingly beautiful in its surroundings, the new capital grew

rapidly from provincial insignificance to metropolitan importance. Its founder had

embellished it with an extraordinary wealth of buildings, in which, owing to the

scarcity of trained architects, quantity and cost doubtless outran quality. But at least

the tameness of blindly followed precedent was avoided, and this departure from

traditional tenets contributed undoubtedly to the originality of Byzantine

architecture. A large part of the artisans employed in building were then, as now,

from Asia Minor and the Ægean Islands, Greek in race if not in name. An Oriental

taste for brilliant and harmonious color and for minute decoration spread over broad

surfaces must have been stimulated by trade with the Far East and by constant

contact with Oriental peoples, costumes, and arts. An Asiatic origin may also be

assigned to the methods of vaulting employed, far more varied than the Roman, not

only in form but also in materials and processes. From Roman architecture, however,

the Byzantines borrowed the fundamental notion of their structural art; that, namely,

of distributing the weights and strains of their vaulted structures upon isolated and

massive points of support, strengthened by deep buttresses, internal or external, as

the case might be. Roman, likewise, was the use of polished monolithic columns, and

the incrustation of the piers and walls with panels of variegated marble, as well as

the decoration of plastered surfaces by fresco and mosaic, and the use of opus sectile

and opus Alexandrinum for the production of sumptuous marble pavements. In the

first of these processes the color-figures of the pattern are formed each of a single

piece of marble cut to the shape required; in the second the pattern is compounded

of minute squares, triangles, and curved pieces of uniform size. Under these

combined influences the artists of Constantinople wrought out new problems in

construction and decoration, giving to all that they touched a new and striking

character.

There is no absolute line of demarcation, chronological, geographical, or structural,

between Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. But the former was especially

characterized by the basilica with three or five aisles, and the use of wooden roofs

even in its circular edifices; the vault and dome, though not unknown, being

exceedingly rare. Byzantine architecture, on the other hand, rarely produced the

simple three-aisled or five-aisled basilica, and nearly all its monuments were vaulted.

The dome was especially frequent, and Byzantine architecture achieved its highest

triumphs in the use of the pendentive, as the triangular spherical surfaces are called,

by the aid of which a dome can be supported on the summits of four arches spanning

the four sides of a square, as explained later. There is as little uniformity in the plans

of Byzantine buildings as in the forms of the vaulting. A few types of church-plan,

however, predominated locally in one or another centre; but the controlling feature of

the style was the dome and the constructive system with which it was associated.

The dome, it is true, had long been used by the Romans, but always on a circular

plan, as in the Pantheon. It is also a fact that pendentives have been found in Syria

and Asia Minor older than the oldest Byzantine examples. But the special feature

characterizing the Byzantine dome on pendentives was its almost exclusive

association with plans having piers and columns or aisles, with the dome as the

central and dominant feature of the complex design (see plans, Figs. 74, 75, 78).

Another strictly Byzantine practice was the piercing of the lower portion of the dome

with windows forming a circle or crown, and the final development of this feature

into a high drum.

FIG. 71.--DIAGRAM OF PENDENTIVES.

CONSTRUCTION. Still another divergence from Roman methods was in the

substitution of brick and stone masonry for concrete. Brick was used for the mass as

well as the facing of walls and piers, and for the vaulting in many buildings mainly

built of stone. Stone was used either alone or in combination with brick, the latter

appearing in bands of four or five courses at intervals of three or four feet. In later

work a regular alternation of the two materials, course for course, was not

uncommon. In piers intended to support unusually heavy loads the stone was very

carefully cut and fitted, and sometimes tied and clamped with iron.

Vaults were built sometimes of brick, sometimes of cut stone; in a few cases even of

earthenware jars fitting into each other, and laid up in a continuous contracting

spiral from the base to the crown of a dome, as in San Vitale at Ravenna. Ingenious

processes for building vaults without centrings were made use of--processes

inherited from the drain-builders of ancient Assyria, and still in vogue in Armenia,

Persia, and Asia Minor. The groined vault was common, but always approximated

the form of a dome, by a longitudinal convexity upward in the intersecting vaults.

The aisles of Hagia Sophia17 display a remarkable variety of forms in the vaulting.

DOMES. The dome, as we have seen, early became the most characteristic feature of

Byzantine architecture; and especially the dome on pendentives. If a hemisphere be

cut by five planes, four perpendicular to its base and bounding a square inscribed

therein, and the fifth plane parallel to the base and tangent to the semicircular

intersections made by the first four, there will remain of the original surface only

four triangular spaces bounded by arcs of circles. These are called pendentives (Fig.

71 a). When these are built up of masonry, each course forms a species of arch, by

virtue of its convexity. At the crown of the four arches on which they rest, these

courses meet and form a complete circle, perfectly stable and capable of sustaining

any superstructure that does not by excessive weight disrupt the whole fabric by

overthrowing the four arches which support it. Upon these pendentives, then, a new

dome may be started of any desired curvature, or even a cylindrical drum to support

a still loftier dome, as in the later churches (Fig. 71 b). This method of covering a

square is simpler than the groined vault, having no sharp edges or intersections; it is

at least as effective architecturally, by reason of its greater height in the centre; and

is equally applicable to successive bays of an oblong, cruciform, and even columnar

building. In the great cisterns at Constantinople vast areas are covered by rows of

small domes supported on ranges of columns.

The earlier domes were commonly pierced with windows at the base, this apparent

weakening of the vault being compensated for by strongly buttressing the piers

between the windows, as in Hagia Sophia. Here forty windows form a crown of light

at the spring of the dome, producing an effect almost as striking as that of the simple

oculus of the Pantheon, and celebrated by ancient writers in the most extravagant

terms. In later and smaller churches a high drum was introduced beneath the dome,

in order to secure, by means of longer windows, more light than could be obtained

by merely piercing the diminutive domes.

Buttressing was well understood by the Byzantines, whose plans were skilfully

devised to provide internal abutments, which were often continued above the roofs

of the side-aisles to prop the main vaults, precisely as was done by the Romans in

their thermæ and similar halls. But the Byzantines, while adhering less strictly than

the Romans to traditional forms and processes, and displaying much more ready

contrivance and special adaptation of means to ends, never worked out this pregnant

structural principle to its logical conclusion as did the Gothic architects of Western

Europe a few centuries later.

DECORATION. The exteriors of Byzantine buildings (except in some of the small

churches of late date) were generally bare and lacking in beauty. The interiors, on the

contrary, were richly decorated, color playing a much larger part than carving in the

designs. Painting was resorted to only in the smaller buildings, the more durable and

splendid medium of mosaic being usually preferred. This was, as a rule, confined to

the vaults and to those portions of the wall-surfaces embraced by the vaults above

their springing. The colors were brilliant, the background being usually of gold,

though sometimes of blue or a delicate green. Biblical scenes, symbolic and

allegorical figures and groups of saints adorned the larger areas, particularly the half-

dome of the apse, as in the basilicas. The smaller vaults, the soffits of arches,

borders of pictures, and other minor surfaces, received a more conventional

decoration of crosses, monograms, and set patterns.

FIG. 72.--SPANDRIL. HAGIA SOPHIA.

The walls throughout were sheathed with slabs of rare marble in panels so disposed

that the veining should produce symmetrical figures. The panels were framed in

billet-mouldings, derived perhaps from classic dentils; the billets or projections on

one side the moulding coming opposite the spaces on the other. This seems to have

been a purely Byzantine feature.

CARVED DETAILS. Internally the different stories were marked by horizontal bands

and cornices of white or inlaid marble richly carved. The arch-soffits, the archivolts

or bands around the arches, and the spandrils between them were covered with

minute and intricate incised carving. The motives used, though based on the

acanthus and anthemion, were given a wholly new aspect. The relief was low and

flat, the leaves sharp and crowded, and the effect rich and lacelike, rather than

vigorous. It was, however, well adapted to the covering of large areas where general

effect was more important than detail. Even the capitals were treated in the same

spirit. The impost-block was almost universal, except where its use was rendered

unnecessary by giving to the capital itself the massive pyramidal form required to

receive properly the spring of the arch or vault. In such cases (more frequent in

Constantinople than elsewhere) the surface of the capital was simply covered with

incised carving of foliage, basketwork, monograms, etc.; rudimentary volutes in a few

cases recalling classic traditions (Figs. 72, 73). The mouldings were weak and poorly

executed, and the vigorous profiles of classic cornices were only remotely suggested

by the characterless aggregations of mouldings which took their place.

FIG. 73.--CAPITAL WITH IMPOST BLOCK, S. VITALE.

FIG. 74.--ST. SERGIUS, CONSTANTINOPLE.

PLANS. The remains of Byzantine architecture are almost exclusively of churches and

baptisteries, but the plans of these are exceedingly varied. The first radical departure

from the basilica-type seems to have been the adoption of circular or polygonal plans,

such as had usually served only for tombs and baptisteries. The Baptistery of St. John

at Ravenna (early fifth century) is classed by many authorities as a Byzantine

monument. In the early years of the sixth century the adoption of this model had

become quite general, and with it the development of domical design began to

advance. The church of St. Sergius at Constantinople (Fig. 74), originally joined to a

short basilica dedicated to St. Bacchus (afterward destroyed by the Turks), as in the

double church at Kelat Seman, was built about 520; that of San Vitale at Ravenna

was begun a few years later; both are domical churches on an octagonal plan, with

an exterior aisle. Semicircular niches--four in St. Sergius and eight in San Vitale--

projecting into the aisle, enlarge somewhat the area of the central space and give

variety to the internal effect. The origin of this characteristic feature may be traced to

the eight niches of the Pantheon, through such intermediate examples as the temple

of Minerva Medica at Rome. The true pendentive does not appear in these two

churches.

FIG. 75.--PLAN OF HAGIA SOPHIA.

Timidly employed up to that time in small structures, it received a remarkable

development in the magnificent church of Hagia Sophia, built by Anthemius of

Tralles and Isodorus of Miletus, under Justinian, 532538 A.D. In the plan of this

marvellous edifice (Fig. 75) the dome rests upon four mighty arches bounding a

square, into two of which open the half-domes of semicircular apses. These apses are

penetrated and extended each by two smaller niches and a central arch, and the

whole vast nave, measuring over 200 × 100 feet, is flanked by enormously wide

aisles connecting at the front with a majestic narthex. Huge transverse buttresses, as

in the Basilica of Constantine (with whose structural design this building shows

striking affinities), divide the aisles each into three sections. The plan suggests that

of St. Sergius cut in two, with a lofty dome on pendentives over a square plan

inserted between the halves. Thus was secured a noble and unobstructed hall of

unrivalled proportions and great beauty, covered by a combination of half-domes

increasing in span and height as they lead up successively to the stupendous central

vault, which rises 180 feet into the air and fitly crowns the whole. The imposing

effect of this low-curved but loftily-poised dome, resting as it does upon a crown of

windows, and so disposed that its summit is visible from every point of the nave (as

may be easily seen from an examination of the section, Fig. 76), is not surpassed in

any interior ever erected.

FIG. 76.--SECTION OF HAGIA SOPHIA.

The two lateral arches under the dome are filled by clearstory walls pierced by twelve

windows, and resting on arcades in two stories carried by magnificent columns taken

from ancient ruins. These separate the nave from the side-aisles, which are in two

stories forming galleries, and are vaulted with a remarkable variety of groined vaults.

All the masses are disposed with studied reference to the resistance required by the

many and complex thrusts exerted by the dome and other vaults. That the

earthquakes of one thousand three hundred and fifty years have not destroyed the

church is the best evidence of the sufficiency of these precautions.

FIG. 77.--INTERIOR OF HAGIA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE.

Not less remarkable than the noble planning and construction of this church was the

treatment of scale and decoration in its interior design. It was as conspicuously the

masterpiece of Byzantine architecture as the Parthenon was of the classic Greek.

With little external beauty, it is internally one of the most perfectly composed and

beautifully decorated halls of worship ever erected. Instead of the simplicity of the

Pantheon it displays the complexity of an organism of admirably related parts. The

division of the interior height into two stories below the spring of the four arches,

reduces the component parts of the design to moderate dimensions, so that the scale

of the whole is more easily grasped and its vast size emphasized by the contrast. The

walls are incrusted with precious marbles up to the spring of the vaulting; the

capitals, spandrils, and soffits are richly and minutely carved with incised ornament,

and all the vaults covered with splendid mosaics. Dimmed by the lapse of centuries

and disfigured by the vandalism of the Moslems, this noble interior, by the harmony

of its coloring and its impressive grandeur, is one of the masterpieces of all time (Fig.

77).

LATER CHURCHES. After the sixth century no monuments were built at all rivalling

in scale the creations of the former period. The later churches were, with few

exceptions, relatively small and trivial. Neither the plan nor the general aspect of

Hagia Sophia seems to have been imitated in these later works. The crown of dome-

windows was replaced by a cylindrical drum under the dome, which was usually of

insignificant size. The exterior was treated more decoratively than before, by means

of bands and incrustations of colored marble, or alternations of stone and brick; and

internally mosaic continued to be executed with great skill and of great beauty until

the tenth century, when the art rapidly declined. These later churches, of which a

number were spared by the Turks, are, therefore, generally pleasing and elegant

rather than striking or imposing.

FIG. 78.--PLAN OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE.

FOREIGN MONUMENTS. The influence of Byzantine art was wide-spread, both in

Europe and Asia. The leading city of civilization through the Dark Ages,

Constantinople influenced Italy through her political and commercial relations with

Ravenna, Genoa, and Venice. The church of St. Mark in the latter city was one result

of this influence (Figs. 78, 79). Begun in 1063 to replace an earlier church destroyed

by fire, it received through several centuries additions not always Byzantine in

character. Yet it was mainly the work of Byzantine builders, who copied most

probably the church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Justinian. The

picturesque but wholly unstructural use of columns in the entrance porches, the

upper parts of the façade, the wooden cupolas over the five domes, and the pointed

arches in the narthex, are deviations from Byzantine traditions dating in part from

the later Middle Ages Nothing could well be conceived more irrational, from a

structural point of view, than the accumulation of columns in the entrance-arches;

but the total effect is so picturesque and so rich in color, that its architectural defects

are easily overlooked. The external veneering of white and colored marble occurs

rarely in the East, but became a favorite practice in Venice, where it continued in use

for five hundred years. The interior of St. Mark's, in some respects better preserved

than that of Hagia Sophia, is especially fine in color, though not equal in scale and

grandeur to the latter church. With its five domes it has less unity of effect than

Hagia Sophia, but more of the charm of picturesqueness, and its less brilliant and

simpler lighting enhances the impressiveness of its more modest dimensions.

FIG. 79.--INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S.

In Russia and Greece the Byzantine style has continued to be the official style of the

Greek Church. The Russian monuments are for the most part of a somewhat fantastic

aspect, the Muscovite taste having introduced many innovations in the form of

bulbous domes and other eccentric details. In Greece there are few large churches,

and some of the most interesting, like the Cathedral at Athens, are almost toy-like in

their diminutiveness. On Mt. Athos (Hagion Oros) is an ancient monastery which still

retains its Byzantine character and traditions. In Armenia (as at Ani, Etchmiadzin,

etc.) are also interesting examples of late Armeno-Byzantine architecture, showing

applications to exterior carved detail of elaborate interlaced ornament looking like a

re-echo of Celtic MSS. illumination, itself, no doubt, originating in Byzantine

traditions. But the greatest and most prolific offspring of Byzantine architecture

appeared after the fall of Constantinople (1453) in the new mosque-architecture of

the victorious Turks.

MONUMENTS. CONSTANTINOPLE: St. Sergius, 520; Hagia Sophia, 532538; Holy

Apostles by Justinian (demolished); Holy Peace (St. Irene) originally by Constantine,

rebuilt by Justinian, and again in 8th century by Leo the Isaurian; Hagia Theotokos, 12th

century (?); Monétes Choras ("Kahiré Djami"), 10th century; Pantokrator; "Fetiyeh

Djami." Cisterns, especially the "Bin Bir Direk" (1,001 columns) and "Yere Batan Serai;"

palaces, few vestiges except the great hall of the Blachernæ palace. SALONICA: Churches--

of Divine Wisdom ("Aya Sofia") St. Bardias, St. Elias. RAVENNA: San Vitale, 527540.

VENICE: St. Mark's, 9771071; "Fondaco dei Turchi," now Civic Museum, 12th century.

Other churches at Athens and Mt. Athos; at Misitra, Myra, Ancyra, Ephesus, etc.; in

Armenia at Ani, Dighour, Etchmiadzin, Kouthais, Pitzounda, Usunlar, etc.; tombs at Ani,

Varzhahan, etc.; in Russia at Kieff (St. Basil, Cathedral), Kostroma, Moscow (Assumption,

St. Basil, Vasili Blaghennoi, etc.), Novgorod, Tchernigoff; at Kurtea Darghish in Wallachia,

and many other places.

17. "St. Sophia," the common name of this church, is a misnomer. It was not

dedicated to a saint at all, but to the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), which name

the Turks have retained in the softened form "Aya Sofia."

Ebd

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