ROMAN AND MEDIAEVAL ART ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL ART BY W. H. GOODYEAR, M.A. AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY," "A HISTORY OF ART," "THE GRAMMAR OF THE LOTUS," "RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ART," ETC. REVISED AND ENLARGED, WITH MANY NEW ILLUSTRATIONS Neto gorfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. IQIO Ali rights reserved 6-6 COPYRIGHT, 1893, 1897, BY FLOOD & VINCENT. First published elsewhere. Reprinted November, igoo; July, 1905: February, 1906; April, 1909; March, 1910. Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass.. U.S. A INTRODUCTION. IT is a pity that the word "art" carries with it, to a person not interested in the subject or not versed in its history, a suggestion of luxury and of superfluity, as con- trasted with the utilitarian or the practical. Where this possibly derogatory tinge of meaning is not suggested, there is generally at least a feeling that the matters which the word calls up are those of interest to the specialist in design rather than to the world at large. People who are supposed to be interested in "art" might, according to this view, possibly not be interested in literature or in his- tory. Contrary-wise, people interested in history or in literature might possibly not be interested in "art." It is true that in recent centuries, those namely of recent modern history, the arts of painting and sculpture, at least, have become mainly matters of luxury, and that as arts of popular education and instruction they have been displaced by printed books. Hence the difficulty of making imme- diately apparent, before the subject itself has been opened up, that a history of art is not so much a history of the arts of design as it is a history of civilization. But if this point is not apparent in advance, it is notwithstanding the point which in recent years has drawn more and more attention to the subject, until it is beginning to figure as an indis- pensable part of the philosophy and knowledge of general history. As soon as history ceases to be conceived as a series of disconnected national chronicles, as soon as it begins to be iv Introduction. conceived as a sequent evolution of races and of epochs which has been unbroken in continuity since the time of the Chaldeans and Egyptians down to the nineteenth cen- tury the history of art appears as a study of the first im- portance. This is because it deals with the now visible relics of the past ; not only with buildings, statues, reliefs, and paintings, but with fabrics, utensils, coins, furniture, and all the accessories of daily life ; for in historic periods all these things were given an appropriate artistic treat- ment and setting forth. As revelations of the life of a nation or an epoch these relics appeal to the imagination because they appeal to the eye and assist each student to picture the past to himself. The student is no longer, then, dependent on the descriptions and accounts of another student ; he becomes himself an independent his- torian, for whoever evokes in imagination the life of the past deserves this title. The history of art has, moreover, especial value for a true philosophy of history in that it forces the student to subordinate the history of nations to the history of epochs. The grand divisions between the successive epochs of the ascendency of the ancient oriental nations of the Greeks, of the Romans, of the Germanic races (the Middle Ages), and of the Italians (the Renais- sance) are only seen distinctly when the history of art is called in evidence. As regards the epochs treated by this work, those of the Romans and of the Middle Age, the student must judge from the book itself how far a general knowledge of historic life and civilization is involved in the topics treated. CONTENTS. PART I. ROMAN ART. Chapter. Page. I. THE PREHISTORIC AGE 17 II. EARLY ITALIAN ART 24 III. THE EARLY ROMAN ART 57 IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMPIRE ... 63 V. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ROMAN ART . 72 VI. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING . . 78 VII. ROMAN DECORATIVE ART AND SCULPTURE 95 VIII. ANCIENT ROME AS SEEN BY MODERNS . . 104 IX. THE ROMAN DECADENCE 125 X. SUMMARY 138 PART II. MEDIEVAL ART. I. THE PERIOD OF THE GERMAN INVASIONS . 143 II. THE BYZANTINE ART 149 III. EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE .... 161 IV. THE DOME CHURCHES 170 V. BYZANTINE DETAILS AND ORNAMENTAL SYSTEM 174 VI. MOHAMMEDAN ART 178 VII. THE ROMANESQUE PERIOD 185 VIII. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE ..<... 196 V vi Contents. Chapter. Page. IX. THE GOTHIC PERIOD 208 X. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 221 XI. .NORTHERN GOTHIC SCULPTURE AND PAINT- ING 247 XII. THE SECULAR AND ITALIAN GOTHIC . . . 258 XIII. ITALIAN GOTHIC PAINTING 270 XIV. ITALIAN GOTHIC SCULPTURE . 288 ILLUSTRATIONS. Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, at Rome Frontispiece. Figure. Page. 1. The Ruins of the Roman Forum 20 2. Prehistoric Italian "Hut-Urns," Bronze Helmets, and Pottery 23 3. Polychromatic Egyptian Glass Vases from Italy. British Museum 27 4. Etruscan Bronze Statuette. British Museum 29 5. Etruscan Bronze Statuette. British Museum 30 6. Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Venus. British Museum . 31 7. Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Diana. British Museum . 32 8. Relief from a Stone Etruscan Cist. British Museum . 33 9. Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Mars. British Museum . 34 10. Greek Vase from an Etruscan Tomb. British Museum. 35 11. Etruscan Capital from a Tomb, Vulci. British Museum. 37 12. Ancient Etruscan Gateway. Volterra 38 13. A Room in the Etruscan Museum at Florence .... 40 14. Etruscan Cinerary Cist at Volterra. Actaeon destroyed by the Dogs of Diana 41 15. A Tomb in the Etruscan Museum at Orvieto 42 16. An Etruscan Tomb at Cervetri . 44 17. An Etruscan Tomb at Corneto 45 18. Etruscan Wall at Fallen 46 19. Archaic Greek Vases. Naples Museum 47 20. Greek Coins from Sicily. Naples Museum 48 21. Ruins of the Temple of Hercules. Selinus ..... 49 22. Greek Temple at Egesta 50 23. Temple of Concord. Girgenti 51 24. Temple of Ceres. Paestum 52 25. The So-called Basilica. Paestum 53 26. Temple of Neptune. Paestum 54 27. Temple of Neptune, Paestum, showing Doric Details . 55 28. Roman Portrait Busts. Capitol Museum ....... 58 vii Illustrations. Figure. 29. The Cloaca Maxima. Rome 59 30. Tuscan (Doric) Capital. Roman Period 60 31. Roman Glass from the Crimea. British Museum ... 61 32. Roman Triumphal Arch. North Africa 62 33. Roman Bronze Statuette of Jupiter. From Hungary. British Museum 64 34. Roman Aqueduct in Southern France. Nimes .... 65 35. Roman Bronze Statuette found in England. A Military Officer. British Museum 66 36. Roman Gateway in Germany. Trier 67 37. Roman Ruins in Syria. Baalbek 68 38. Roman Aqueduct in Spain. Segovia 69 39. Roman Ruin. East Jordan Territory 71 40. Greco-Roman Relief from the Decoration of a Foun- tain. Lateran Museum. A Nymph Feeding the In- fant Plutus from Her Horn of Plenty 73 41. Faun. Copy after Praxiteles. Capitol, Rome .... 74 42. Bust of Julius Caesar. Rome 75 43. Bronze Statuette. Venus. Naples 76 44. The " Maison Carrie." Nimes 79 45. Architectural Frieze Detail. Lateran Museum. From Trajan's Forum 80 46. Temple of Fortuna Virilis. Rome 81 47. Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Rome 82 48. Temple of Minerva. Assisi 82 49. Roman Composite (Corinthian) Capital 83 50. Ruined Apartment in the Baths of Caracalla 84 51. The Basilica of Constantine. Rome 85 52. Triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus. Rome .... 86 53. The Colosseum. Rome 87 54. Court of a Pompeiian House 89 55. Pompeiian Floor Mosaic. " Beware of the Dog." Naples Museum 90 56. Pompeiian Wall Painting. Naples Museum 91 57. Pompeiian Wall Painting. Naples Museum 92 58. Roman Mosaic. The Drinking Doves. Capitol, Rome 93 59. Pompeiian Street, as Excavated 96 60. Pompeiian Bronze Lamps. Naples Museum 97 61. Pompeiian Weights. Naples Museum 98 Illustrations. ix Figure. Page. 62. A Poet Holding a Tragic Theatrical Mask, and a Muse. Relief. Lateran, Rome 99 63. Bronze Statue of Drusus. Naples Museum 100 64. Roman Portrait Busts. Capitol, Rome 101 65. Bust of the Emperor Titus. Naples Museum 102 66. Sleeping Faun. Bronze from Herculaneum. Naples . 103 67. Casts from Roman Signet Gems. British Museum . . 103 68. The Appian Way, near Rome 105 69. Tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Appian Way 106 70. Tomb of Hadrian and Bridge of St. Angelo. Rome . 107 71. Column of Trajan and Remains of the Ulpian Basilica . 108 72. The Roman Forum no 73. The Forum of Nerva 113 74. Ruins of the Palace of Caligula, Palatine Hill .... 114 75. The Arch of Titus 115 76. Relief from the Arch of Titus 116 77. The Colosseum 117 78. The Temple of Vesta (so-called) . . 118 79. Gateway of the Money-changers 118 80. The Theater of Marcellus 119 81. The Pantheon. Rome 120 82. The Pyramid of Caius Cestius and Porta Paola .... 121 83. The Porta Maggiore and Tomb of Eurysaces 122 84. The Arch of Drusus 123 85. Wall Painting. Christ and the Woman of Samaria. Catacomb of St. Calixtus. Fourth Century .... 126 86. Basilica Church of the Manger. Bethlehem. Fourth Century 128 87. Basilica of St. Paul. Rome. Rebuilt 1828. Old Church, Fourth Century 131 88. Early Christian Sarcophagus Relief. The Resurrection of Lazarus. Ravenna 132 89. Early Christian Sarcophagus Relief. Christ and Four Apostles. Ravenna 134 90. Early Christian Sarcophagus Relief. Daniel in the Lions' Den 135 91. Ivory Consular Diptych. Victory, with Globe and Scepter. Fourth Century 136 92. Anglo-Saxon Whalebone Casket. British Museum . . 145 Illustrations. Figure, Page. 93. Tenth Century Wall Painting. The Annunciation. Church of San Clemente, Rome 147 94. Carved Ivory Book Covers. Saints or Apostles. Ra- venna. Tenth Century 148 95. Church of St. Mark. Vestibule with Mosaics. Venice. 150 96. Byzantine Mosaic. St. Mark's, Venice 153 97. Byzantine Mosaic. Procession of Saints. San Apolli- nare Nuovo, Ravenna. Sixth Century 155 98. Byzantine Mosaic Detail. Head of the Empress Theo- dora. San Vitale, Ravenna. Sixth Century .... 156 99. Byzantine Mosaic. The Day of Pentecost. Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. Fifth Century 158 100. Byzantine Madonna of a Type Common in Italy . . . 159 101. San Lorenzo. Rome. Sixth Century 162 102. San Apollinare Nuovo. Ravenna. Sixth Century . . 163 103. San Apollinare in Classe. Ravenna. Sixth Century . 164 104. San Apollinare Nuovo. Ravenna. Sixth Century . . 166 105. San Apollinare in Classe. Ravenna. Sixth Century . 167 106. San Vitale. Ravenna. Sixth Century . 169 107. St. Sophia. Constantinople. Sixth Century 171 108. Byzantine Capitals in St. Mark's at Venice 173 109. St. Sophia. Constantinople 175 no. Byzantine Well. Venice 176 in. Capitals and Arabesques from the Alhambra 179 112. Mosque el Aksa. Jerusalem 180 113. Mohammedan Dome and Dome of the Rock. Jeru- salem 181 114. Arcades in the Mosque of Amru. Cairo 182 115. Hall of Justice and Court of the Lions. Alhambra. . 183 116. Arcade in the Alcazar. Seville 184 117. Cathedral of Speyer 186 118. Romanesque Enameled Silver Relic Chests, in the Cathedral Treasury, Hildesheim 188 119. Cathedral of Mainz 189 1 20. South Aisle. Peterborough 191 121. St. Michael's. Hildesheim 192 122. Hereford Cathedral 193 123. Mainz Cathedral 196 124. Worms Cathedral 197 Illustrations. xi Figure. Page. 125. Speyer Cathedral ' . . 198 126. Portal. Haughmond Abbey . 199 127. Pisa Cathedral, Bell Tower, and Baptistery 200 128. Pisa Cathedral 201 129. St. Michael's. Lucca 202 130. Ivory Carved Book Cover. The Deposition. Hildes- heim. Eleventh Century 203 131. Limoges Emanuel. The Virgin Mary. Twelfth Century 205 132. Ivory Carved Book Cover. The Deposition and En- tombment. Thirteenth Century. Ravenna .... 206 133. Cologne Cathedral 212 134. Transept. Cologne Cathedral 217 135. Wells Cathedral , 222 136. Lincoln Cathedral 223 137. West Front. Melrose Abbey 224 138. Cathedral of Bayonne 226 139. North Aisle. Canterbury 227 140. Cathedral of Nantes 228 141. Choir. Milan Cathedral 230 142. St. Maclou. Rouen 231 143. Choir. Cathedral of Quimper 233 144. Tours Cathedral. (The Flying Buttress.) 235 145. Choir. Cathedral of Amiens 236 146. Cloisters. Winchester 237 147. Gothic Details. Southwell Collegiate Church. Chapter House 238 148. Lichfield Cathedral 240 149. Cathedral of Poitiers 242 150. Gargoyle and Gothic Details. Notre Dame, Paris . . 244 151. Gothic Portal Sculpture at Longpont (Seine et Oise), France ' ' . . 245 152. Gothic Portal. Chartres 248 153. West Door. Lichfield 249 154. English Ivory Triptych. Fourteenth Century .... 251 155. Virgin Mary from the Van Eycks' Altarpiece in Ghent. 252 156. Reliquary of St. Ursula in Ghent. Hans Memling . . 254 157. Detail of the Reliquary in Ghent. Hans Memling . . 255 158. The Presentation. Munich. Roger van der Weyden . 256 159. Guild Hall of the Cloth Merchants. Ypres 257 xii Illustrations. Figure. Page. 160. Palais de Justice. Rouen 259 161. Ludlow Castle 260 162. Aigues Mortes. Porte de la Reine (Queen's Gate) . . 260 163. Gothic Dwelling. Hildesheim 261 164. Milan Cathedral 262 165. Cathedral of Orvieto 263 166. Cathedral of Florence 264 167. Detail from the Porta della Carta. Venice. Fifteenth Century 265 168. Capitals from the Baptistery of Pistoja. Fourteenth Century 266 169. Interior of the Siena Cathedral 268 170. The Upper Church of St. Francis. Assisi 271 171. Cimabue. The Madonna. Academy, Florence . . . 272 172. Duccio. The Madonna. Perugia 273 173. Giotto. St. Joachim Driven from the Temple. Arena Chapel, Padua 274 174. Giotto. St. Joachim Accomplishes the Sacrifice. Arena 276 Chapel, Padua 175. Giotto. Birth of the Virgin. Arena Chapel, Padua . 277 176. Giotto. Mary's Suitors Receiving the Rods from the High Priest. Arena Chapel, Padua 279 177. Giotto. The Nativity of Christ. Arena Chapel, Padua 281 178. Giotto. The Flight into Egypt. Arena Chapel, Padua 282 179. Giotto. Christ Crowned with Thorns. Arena Chapel, 283 Padua 180. Giotto. The Deposition. Arena Chapel, Padua . . . 285 181. The Campo Santo. Pisa 182. Detail from the Bronze Doors of Troja Cathedral. 286 Eleventh Century 288 183. Detail from the Easter Candelabrum of Gaeta. The 289 Women at the Sepulcher ; the Day of Pentecost . . 184. Pulpit of the Pisa Baptistery. By Niccolo Pisano . . . 290 185. Detail of the Pisa Pulpit. The Crucifixion 1 86. Facade of the Orvieto Cathedral, showing its Relief- 291 Sculpture 292 187. Sculpture of Orvieto Cathedral. Story of the Creation. 293 Giovanni Pisano and Scholars. Detail of Fig. 186 . 188. Giotto. Tubal Cain. Florence Campanile 294 Illustrations. xiii Figure. Page. 189. Lucca della Robbia. Pythagoras [Arithmetic]. Flor- ence Campanile 295 190. The Madonna. Prato. Giovanni Pisano 296 191. The Campo Santo. Pisa 297 192. The Municipal Palace. Prato 298 193. The Municipal Palace. Volterra 299 194. The Palazzo Ca d'Oro. Venice 300 195. Palazzo Francetti. Venice 301 196. Detail from the Doge's Palace. Venice 302 PART I. ROMAN ART. ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL ART. PART I. -ROM AN ART. CHAPTER I. THE PREHISTORIC AGE. THE earliest relics of man's existence in Europe are roughly chipped implements and weapons of flint and stone, of horn and bone, the latter frequently resembling those used by the modern Esquimaux and the former similar to those still used by absolutely savage races. Of a later date are other stone implements carefully finished and polished. There is a gap, or "hiatus," between the age of rough stone implements, the Palaeolithic time, and the ''age of polished stone," the Neolithic time.* The highly vigorous drawings of animals on bone or ivory which belong to the Palaeolithic Age are not found in the later age of polished stone. It is not within our knowledge to say that Europe was uninhabited in the intervening time but it does not appear that the race of the age of exclusively rough stone imple- ments, whose artistic efforts were so singularly instinct with vitality, has anything to do with the later history of art in Europe. This race was apparently exterminated, supplanted, or succeeded, by the race which used the implements of polished stone, and it was this latter race * It is to be explained that the manufacturing of unpolished stone implements was not abandoned in the age of polished stone, but this age is specified by its best and distinctive work and there was in it an improvement generally in the finish of all these implements. 17 1 8 Roman and Medieval Art. which gradually acquired the arts of metal and especially of bronze, and so began the later continuous history of Europe. There is no known decorated pottery of this age which precedes the use of metals and there are no other remains of design preceding this use ; pottery, on account of its indestructibility,* being usually the material on which the earliest efforts of art are preserved. The first appearance of metallic arts in Europe and of decorated pottery appears to be due to the influence of a foreign and oriental civilization. There is also a sequence apparent in the order of development, as regards the influence of this foreign civilization, in which sequence the territories of Greece preceded those of Italy, while Italy in turn preceded Switzerland, Germany, France, and Spain. The indications in artistic forms and designs of a graded geographical contiguity in development are the strongest evidence that it took place. Now, the point I wish to make is this that as regards the history of civilization and of art in Europe, we begin our knowledge with the existence of opposing poles of highly developed civilizations and of very primitive, though not absolutely barbaric, human culture. Regard- ing the origin or beginnings of either of these conditions we know nothing. At the earliest dates known to us for Chaldea and Egypt, material civilization appears to have been absolutely perfect for the given local surroundings. At the earliest dates known to us for Europe, subsequent to the age of unpolished stone, the culture is highly primi- tive but it already shows influences of indirect or direct contact with the old Asiatic and African cultures. These influences were earlier in Greece, apparently slightly later * Not as regards breakage, but as regards material. The Prehistoric Age. 19 in Italy, and certainly later in Germany, France, Spain, and England. The modifications made by Greece in creating its own independent civilization out of the oriental were ultimately also lawgiving for Italy, which finally adopted them all. The modifications made by Italy in creating its own independent civilization out of the oriental, and out of the Greek, were ultimately lawgiving for South Germany, France, Spain, and part of England, which countries ultimately adopted them all. The history of these last modifications is the history of Rome. Four and five hundred years after Christ the hitherto independent Germanic races of Northern Europe flooded the Romanized portions of Europe, came under the influ- ence of their religion and civilization, and so began the history of the Middle Ages and of medieval art. These explanations assist us now to speak of Italy in the narrower sense, as sharing the history of all other Euro- pean countries as regards the Palaeolithic Stone Age and the age of polished stone and of bronze. But the history of art in Italy begins with the age of decorated pottery and of metals that is to say, it begins with the history of the foreign influences of a superior foreign civilization on the primitive culture of Italy, of which, let it be once more said, we know nothing before this influence began. The date 1500 B. C. would be, according to present knowledge, rather a late one for the first introduction of bronze into the territories of Switzerland, and approximate estimates may be made accordingly for other countries, north or south, as the case may be. In speaking of prehistoric art in Italy it should be added that the Gauls of the Po Valley retained this style of art The Prehistoric Age. 21 down to a comparatively late date, until the third century B. C. at least. Hence a great many objects found in North Italy and belonging to such late dates are representative for a state of culture which, in much higher antiquity, was common to the whole of Italy. The Museum of Bologna is especially rich in objects of this class. Its exhibits include, for instance, bronze vessels which were evidently made under the conditions of a rude and primitive Italian culture and which have not- withstanding clear indications of oriental influence. One of these indications is the use of horizontal bands or zones of animals, among which sphinxes designed in the style of Phenician or Assyrian art are common. Another indica- tion of oriental influence is the appearance of birds and animals like the goose and deer in such associations as to make it clear that they are the counterparts or copies of oriental designs which represented solar or celestial gods under the guise of these animals. We find, for example, the deer in association with the sacred lotus or water-lily, a talismanic emblem which, in oriental art, implies that the animal connected with it is conceived as representing a solar or celestial god. The flower itself is designed in such a way as to make it apparent that we are not con- cerned with a prehistoric Italian study from nature but with the copy of an oriental and conventional copy of the plant. In the same way lines of birds are found in the ornament of metals and pottery which are borrowed from the lines of geese which were used to represent Egyptian gods like Horus and Osiris. Much more numerous than these representations of ani- mals or of the human figure are the pattern ornaments. These are again suggestive of southeast Mediterranean influ- ence and are undoubtedly of Egyptian derivation originally. 22 Roman and Medieval Art. These patterns include the meander (or Greek fret), con- centric rings, spirals, and zigzags, and were adopted by the prehistoric Italians in their own pottery and metal designs according to a law which has many other illustrations. Whenever a lower culture borrows from one which is higher, the imitation of essentials is found to carry with it the imitation of non-essentials. In this case the essen- tial was the manufacture of bronze into vessels and weapons imitated from oriental models. These models had been imported before an independent manufacture was attempted. When the independent manufacture began, the imitation of these models included not only the process of manufacture but also the decorative designs. These designs are common to the Bronze Age of the whole of Europe, including Ireland and Scandinavia, and are to be conceived as having spread gradually by the main routes of trade from the south and southeast of Europe to the north and northwest. Many important improvements in the general conditions of life are to be argued from the introduction of the arts of metal into Europe and Italy, in the matter of habitations and masonry constructions, the use of textile fabrics, the arts of agricul- ture, and the general comforts of living.* According to the above account it will appear that the study of prehistoric Italy is not so much the study of an individual country as of the Bronze Age throughout Europe, a study in which our knowledge is pieced together from different quarters and very largely from circumstantial evidence. For instance, aside from the evidence derived from patterns and designs we have that of philology, which tends to show that the European * Campii Isaac Taylor's " Origin of the Aryans" is a most interesting account of this subject. The Prehistoric Age. words used for metals and for weights and measures are generally of Semitic (Phenician) derivation. All objects representing the period are obtained from tomb finds. In the case of the so-called "hut-urns" of FIG. 2. PREHISTORIC ITALIAN " HUT-URNS," BRONZE HELMETS, AND POTTERY. prehistoric Italy, which were used for burial of the ashes of the dead, we have an obvious imitation of the dwelling- house of the period. In our illustration of such "hut- urns" as found at Corneto, north of Rome, we notice also some specimens of prehistoric pottery and some bronze helmets (Fig. 2). CHAPTER II. EARLY ITALIAN ART. SOME clear conception of the outlines of Roman and therefore of ancient Italian history is an elementary con- dition of the study or knowledge of Roman art. But by the word history we must understand here not the list of the Roman kings or the chronicles of Roman wars or battles or the lives of the famous statesmen and emperors, but rather an account of the general conditions of the civilization. To this account the Roman art itself offers the greatest assistance and it is for this reason that we study it ; but there are entire centuries from which monu- ments* are lacking for the Romans themselves, and for which the general conditions of Italian history and civiliza- tion must be our guide in resurrecting in imagination that art of the Romans which once summarized and expressed their character. Broadly speaking, it is not till seven centuries of Roman history have been passed over in imagination that we can mention existing visible remains of its greatness ; and Roman art as we know it is mainly the art of the empire, which belongs to the five centuries between the accession of Augustus (B. C. 31) and the chieftainship of Odoacer, the first Germanic ruler of Italy (A. D. 476). f * The word is used in a sense meaning any surviving visible relic, whether of building or otherwise. t We do not consider Roman history in any sense as ending with the German invasions of the fifth century A. D., for it lasted a thousand years longer in Eastern Europe. But the ancient art and history of Rome, according to the cnrrent system of terminology, ended about this time ; after which we speak of medieval art and history in Western Europe and of Byzantine (East Roman) art and history in Eastern Europe. Early Italian Art. 25 It is clear that a history of Roman art is not merely a description of the ruins and relics which have come down to our day. Even for the periods which have been most fortunate in such survivals, the actual remains are a most insignificant and fragmentary portion of those which once existed. They assist us, however, to think of these others as once existing. And so of the periods which have left us practically nothing of the Romans, it also holds that our effort to reconceive them is vastly assisted by what we know of other Italian art, which has been somewhat more fortunate as regards survivals. But there is still a point to be made in the matter of his- tory as affecting Roman art. The word Roman has most singularly diverse meanings at different times. During the time of the monarchy (750-510 B. C. ) it applies at first to a territory about ten miles wide by twenty long. During the later republic and between 275-31 B. C. it includes the whole of Italy.* During the time of the empire (B. C. 3i-A. D. 476) it includes all the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin as well as portions of Britain, Germany, and Hungary. And these changes are not simply changes of area which imply a series of widen- ing conquests of foreign peoples which are ruled from a distance by foreigners to them. The Romans changed in quality, character, and literally in race, as much as the areas of domination changed. The Roman of the fifth century A. D. was any freeman living within the largest boundaries of the state a Gaul, Briton, Spaniard, North African, Egyptian, Syrian, or Greek and at this time he was not only Roman in name but also in language (if living in Western Europe), in laws, in rights, and in * The northern Po Valley was excluded from the political conception of Italy until the time of Caesar. 26 Roman and Medieval Art. civilization. The Roman of the times of Marius and Sulla (first century B. C. ) was any freeman within the bounda- ries of Italy Etruscan, Gaul, or Samnite, as the case might be. The Romans of the time of the early kings did not even include the Latin tribe to which they other- wise belonged and whose language was their own. It is clear then that the term Roman art is also not a fixed term. It implies also different things at different times. Luckily, however, it assists us to say in every time what the Romans of that time really were. Early Italian and Etruscan Art. We must begin then with some general conception of Italy at large in the time when the Roman city was first founded (about 750 B. C. ) and also with some conception of the relations of the whole country to the exterior civili- zation of its time. In the middle of the eighth century before Christ ancient Egypt was only two centuries and a quarter distant from final national downfall, with the Persian conquest, and Assyria had a century less of national existence to run through. The time even of Rome's foundation was there- fore not an early one in ancient history, which dates the Egyptian monarchy to 5000 B. C. , and which concedes that the civilization of Chaldea had reached its highest perfection at the time of the great pyramids. For many centuries before Rome's foundation, Italy had shared with other Mediterranean countries the benefits of Pheni- cian commerce, and that is to say that it was very inti- mately acquainted, at least through trade, with the technical arts and inventions of the Egyptian and Meso- potamian civilizations. For the Phenicians made their living as merchants and their own civilization was entirely Early Italian Art. 27 of Egyptian or Assyrian derivation.* Their great colony of Carthage had been founded in North Africa about fifty years before the foundation of Rome, but this was only one of countless settlements which they made along the shores of North and Northwest Africa, of Spain, of Southern France, of Sardinia, and Corsica. Thus one element of Italian and therefore of Roman art FIG. 3. POLYCHROMATIC EGYPTIAN GLASS VASES FROM ITALY. British Museum. was the oriental, but this point applies less to style than it does to technical manipulation and the knowledge and uses of materials and tools. In the matter of style we shall observe some oriental traits in surviving examples of early Italian art, but here rather because of Greek in- fluences, which in early days themselves exhibited an oriental character. This leads us to consider the influ- * Assyrian civilization was a repetition and continuation of the Chaldean. 28 Roman and Medieval Art. ence of the Greeks in Italy as contrasted with that of the Phenicians. The Greek colonies of Italy were especially numerous around its southern shores, but they reached as far north as Pisa. In Sicily they were especially important. Many of them were flourishing civic states as early as the eighth and seventh centuries B. C., and the Greeks had become very active rivals of Phenician commerce in the eastern Mediterranean as early as the eighth century. Italian art, when we first know it, is thus composed of two factors the oriental (through Phenician commerce) and the Greek the Greek having overlaid the oriental substratum of technical inventions with its own peculiar style, which in its early days had itself an oriental guise and quality. The three Italian nations which we know best at the time of Rome's foundation (aside from the Greek settlers of Italy) are the Samnites, the Etruscans, and the Gauls. They were mainly settled in the order named from south to north. The Gauls were the ruling nation of the Po Valley ; the Etruscans were especially strong in modern Tuscany, which is named after them, although they had settlements also in Campania (in the vicinity of Naples). Among these nations we owe most to the Etruscans for our general knowledge of ancient Italy, in which they were certainly the most highly civilized and powerful native nation. Aside from a few walls, tunneled aque- ducts, and arches, we know them best from the objects found in their tombs. Like other ancient nations the Etruscans believed in a life after death, and, like other ancient nations, they actu- ally believed that the utensils, ornaments, and surround- ings of this life were available for the use of the deceased Early Italian Art. 29 in the spirit world.* Hence the practice of burying in the tombs so many various objects of daily life, which, as excavated in the last two centuries, now enable us to reconstruct a picture of ancient civilization. The museums which are especially rich in the objects from Etruscan tombs are those of the Vatican at Rome and of Florence, while many others are in the Louvre at Paris and in the British Museum. These objects are by no means exclusively of Etruscan art and manufacture. Many of them are im- portations of commerce derived from the Greeks and from the Phenicians, which are significant of the general influences and conditions under which the Italian art developed, as already mentioned. Bronze, silver, and gold vessels, occasionally vases, more frequently saucer-shaped pateras, are embossed and engraved in an Egyptian style and with Egyptian subjects, and were made and sold by the Phenicians. Similar ones found in Cyprus can be seen in the New York Museum and are illustrated in Cesnola's ''Cyprus." Articles of jewelry of Egypto- Phenician make and style are especially well represented in the Campana Collection of the Louvre and in the FIG. 4. ETRUSCAN BRONZE STATUETTE. British Museum. * The traditional practice of placing these objects in the tombs undoubtedly survived by many centuries the belief in their actual utility to the dead. The practice continued among all pagan nations until the triumph of Christianity in the fourth century A. D., and there were many philosophic minds which were superior to so materialistic a view of the after life at least as early as the fifth cen- tury before Christ. Roman and Medieval Art. Vatican. The Etruscans were themselves great workers in metal, at first under oriental tutelage, and consequently using oriental patterns in the pieces of earlier date. Large bronze shields and vessels of their make can be seen in the British Museum. Much more numerous in the modern finds are vessels of black pottery (" Bucchero ware") with raised patterns imitating the embossed designs of metal. Diminutive vases of opaque polychromatic glass which were used for unguents or per- fumes of the toilet were among the objects of Egyptian impor- tation (Fig. 3). Various miscellaneous ob- jects of the above-mentioned classes can be dated to the seventh century B. C. It is not likely that many of those known a re older than the eighth. Among the most famous excavated early Etrus- can tombs are the ' ' Regulini- Galassi" tomb at Cervetri and the "Polledrara" tomb at Vulci. As early at least as the sixth century B. C. Greek influences are very distinct in Etruscan art and were in fact dominant from that time. They are not, however, obvious to an eye accustomed to the per- fected Greek style and to a person unaware how thoroughly oriental in appearance the early Greek art really was. The Cypriote Greek statuettes and figurines of the New York FIG. 5. ETRUSCAN BRONZE STATUETTE. British Museum. Early Italian Art. f Museum will offer, however, many analogies to the figures shown here in the text. The rude appearance of Fig. 4 would only allow us to say that, although in fact Etruscan, it might have been made by any Mediterranean people, imitating oriental art in a rude way ; for if the figure had been Egyptian it might have been equally stiff in posture but it would be far more re- fined and finished in details. But with Figs. 5 and 6 we have unmistakable Greek traits, although the figures them- selves are Etruscan. There is no reason for dating any of these figures earlier than the sixth century B. C. , although they represent a style which had existed in Italy for some considerable time before that date. This style continued with some slight improvement in the early fifth century B. C., as illustrated in Fig. 7. We have here a very good illustration, not only of the early Etruscan art, but also of the Greek art of the same time, on which it now became dependent. This statuette is a typical one for Greek and Etruscan style down to the FIG. 6. ETRUSCAN BRONZE Roman and Medieval Art. very threshold of the Phidian period. The pose shows Egyptian influences and places the left leg in advance, which is always found in Egyptian statues which place the legs in action. The drapery and gestures of the arms are distinctly early Greek. The bulging eyes would not be found, however, in a Greek piece which had reached the technical perfection of the execu- tion here ; and this execution, it should be observed, is by no means rude. The zig- zag drapery lines (ob- servable in Figs. 6 and 7) are originally imita- tions in Greek art from wooden figurines used in shrines, which were dressed in actual stuffs plaited to the figure in a manner thus copied. On the whole, it should be said that very erroneous conclu- sions as to the general condition of a civilization might be drawn from the odd appearance of such figures. Something is to be attributed to the conservative influence of religious tradition, but it should be remembered that the world did not yet know FIG. 7. ETRUSCAN BRONZE STATUETTE OF DIANA. British Museum. Early Italian Art. 33 that perfection of Greek art which has since become commonplace. The oriental art which had so far ruled the civilized world, and whose influences are still apparent in these illustrations, had reached a high perfection of formal and technical execution, but sculpture as practiced by the Egyptians had not for many centuries deviated from a fixed and motionless conception of the sitting and standing figure, and the very perfection of Egyptian civilization con- tributed to restrain and formalize at the outset the art of nations which were learning from it. FIG. 8. RELIEF FROM A STONE ETRUSCAN CIST. British Museum. The early Etruscan surface design (paintings as known from tomb frescoes, and reliefs) exhibits some traits foreign to Greek style and also a general dependence on it. In the relief from Chiusi (Fig. 8) the exaggeration and contortion of the attitudes are distinctively Etruscan, although the general conception of the art shows Greek 34 Roman and Medieval Art. traditions. A certain straining and violence in the atti- tudes of reliefs is very common in Etruscan art and is well illustrated here. The date is not far from 500 B. C. We come then finally, art of which as regards the design, to that shows dependence on the perfected style of the Greeks. Fig. 9 would be an illustration of this class and, judging from the face, is of a relatively early date late fifth, or early fourth century B. C. From this time on, Etruscan art is Greek in matter as well as manner, and with such slight devia- tions from the original that a practiced eye is required to note them. Quite numerous in the museums of Europe are the ladies' bronze mir- rors which are decorated on the back with sub- jects of Greek myth, and the circular bronze cists which held objects for the toilet are decorated in the same fashion. FIG. 9. ETRUSCAN BRONZE STATUETTE OF MARS. British Museum. Early Italian Art. 35 The most palpable indication of the Greek influences in Etruscan, and therefore in Italian, art is the very large number of imported Greek painted pottery vases found in the tombs. So numerous are they that the presumption long prevailed that they were native Etruscan works, and the title of ' ' Etruscan vases ' ' still clings in popular use to them, although not one in a thousand was actually Etrus- can work. The Etruscans were especially famous for their skill in working terra-cotta (baked clay), of which many examples sur- vive. In gem-cutting they even excelled the Greeks, as far as actual skill in execu- tion is concerned. Their bronze utensils were in request at Athens for artistic workmanship in the best days of Athenian art. The two most noted existing works of Etruscan art are the life-size bronze wolf of the Capitol Museum in Rome and the large bronze Chimaera in Florence. Their sculptured stone sarcophagi and stone cists (for the ashes of cremated bodies) are quite numerous in several FIG. 10. GREEK VASE FROM AN ETRUSCAN TOMB. British Museum. 36 Roman and Medieval Art. museums, but the decorative reliefs and surmounting re- clining figures of these works are generally of rather inferior art and execution. Finally, we have to mention the Etruscans as engineers and architects. It is here that they must have been most helpful to the Romans. No ruins of Etruscan temples have survived. They are known to have resembled the Greek temples in form and are presumed to have been rather inferior to them in the beauty of detail and of pro- portions. The Etruscans are credited with devising the cold and formal style of Doric capital which was generally used by the Romans in the time of the empire (when they employed the Doric) and which has been known as the "Tuscan" order (Fig. 30). It has been shown, how- ever, by an American archaeologist,* that the so-called Tuscan Doric capital is probably the survival of a very simple and undeveloped Doric form, rather than the late corruption and debasement of a better one. The capital in question, as illustrated here from a modern drawing, lacks the fine curve and bold projection of the Parthenon Doric and is also distinguished from the Greek Doric by a projecting fillet at the top of the column. It is probable that the so-called "Composite" order of the Romans (Fig. 49) originated with the Etruscans. A very interest- ing and beautiful variant of the Ionic capital in the British Museum shows an anticipation of this form in the row of acanthus leaves around the neck (Fig. n). The" most famous contribution of the Etruscans to Roman art is the use of the arch (Figs. 12, 29). That they were the first to use it in Italy is clear and it is also clear that they used it largely, though even the ruins of * Dr. Joseph Thacher Clarke, translator of Reber's " History of Ancient Art," and excavator at Assos in Asia Minor for the Archaeological Institute of America. Early Italian Art. 37 their work in this line are scanty. The early use of the arch in oriental countries is now generally conceded and it is undoubtedly one of the arts which the Etruscans borrowed from the East. The keystone arch was dis- covered in Egypt in 1891, in a tomb at Meydum, belonging to the Third Dynasty (about 4000 B. C.).* It has long been known in brick arches at Thebes, which are dated to the Eigh- teenth Dynasty (1600 B. C). Its use in ancient Assyria is demonstrated in door- ways, gateways, and drains, and is almost certainly demonstrated for the vault- ing (roofing) of Assyrian palaces. The general repug- nance of Greek builders to the arch is notorious and its later widespread use throughout the modern world is certainly due to the Etruscans, as the Romans learned its use from them. Etruscan engineering capacity is attested by various drainage constructions, of which the most famous is the Cloaca Maxima, or great sewer, at Rome, dating from the sixth century B. C. (Fig. 29). The Etruscan political system was one of independent cities banded together for foreign emergencies and ruled by oligarchy. This alliance of civic states was ultimately conquered by Rome during the Samnite wars (in which the Etruscans were no less engaged than the Samnites) * By Mr. William M. Flinders Petrie. FIG. ii. ETRUSCAN CAPITAL FROM A TOMB, VULCI. British Museum. Roman and Medieval Art. between 350 and 290 B. C. They were then gradually absorbed into the Roman political system. The Etruscans were all Roman citizens before the first century of the FIG. 12. ANCIENT ETRUSCAN GATEWAY. Volterra. Early Italian Art. 39 Christian era. Their language was displaced by the Latin, and in this the conquest of the Roman was most apparent, for there is no conquest of force which can equal that involved in the disappearance of a language. No litera- ture of the Etruscans has survived. Their language as found in inscriptions is undeciphered and appears to be foreign in derivation to other speeches of Europe. Their alphabet was borrowed from the Greeks and their deities appear to have been roughly analogous to theirs. Their religion, as would appear from tomb paintings, was more fantastic and more gloomy than the Greek. Considering the great excellence of their art and their obvious im- portance as a nation, almost nothing is known of this people. They are still awaiting their historian. This is partly owing to our ignorance of their language, and their lack of a surviving literature ; but it is a grand point to understand that although they disappear from history in name with the third century B. C. they did not disappear in fact. They were not exterminated or decimated as a race. They had been the foremost native people of Italy in its early civilization, and as Roman subjects and Roman citizens they continued to play their part less conspicu- ously, but not less serviceably. Maecenas, the great patron of letters and friend of Augustus, was an Etruscan so were the emperors Vespasian and Titus. Their artistic talents and technical knowledge certainly did their full share of service to the Roman imperial period which concealed under its name and shadow so many nations and so many national talents. In the Middle Ages and in the Italian Renaissance the Tuscan artists were the fore- most of Italy.* * A small but interesting collection of Etruscan objects is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Early Italian Art. Local Notes on Etruscan Tombs and Museums. Our illustration from one of the rooms of the Etruscan Museum at Florence will give an idea of the general character of a collection of Etruscan antiquities (Fig. 13). On the walls above we see some -copies of the tomb paint- ings. The apartment is filled mainly with sarcophagi and cists for the ashes of the dead. As appar- ent in the varying sizes of these objects, both ordinary burial and cremation were prac- ticed. The two large sarcophagi belong to a class which is not very numerous and the much larger number of cists for ashes show that cremation was the habitual custom. There is an even larger number of these cists in the Museum of Volterra, from which museum we have se- lected a characteristic example for the relief style of later date (Fig. 14) to contrast with the relief from Chiusi (Fig. 8). The size of these cists is generally about two feet in length. The subjects of the reliefs with which the front and sides of the cists are decorated are mainly taken from Greek mythology and very frequently from Homer. The FIG. 14. ETRUSCAN CINERARY CIST AT VOL- TERRA. ACTVEON DESTROYED BY THE DOGS OF DIANA. Roman and Medieval Art. execution is generally of rather indifferent quality, such as we should expect from an ordinary artisan, but the motives, action, and composition of the designs are of great beauty, for all periods later than the middle of the fifth century B. C. (Fig. 8 would represent the archaic or primitive style of about 500 B. C. ) An enormous number of these reliefs show a style which cannot be earlier than the first or second centuries B. C. , and many doubtless belong to later centuries. The reliefs of these cists are the best possible illustration of the manner in which Italian art became sat- urated with Greek influ- ences and of the con- ditions under which the Roman art developed. They also show how "Etruscan'' art long survived the civic inde- pendence of the Etrus- can states, whose impor- tance for Italian culture we are too apt to ignore after the date of the Ro- man conquest. The reclining figures which are represented FIG. 15. A TOMB IN THE ETRUSCAN MUSEUM On the Covers of the cist AT ORVIETO. . . , are invariably or a more hurried and ruder art than the reliefs on the body of the object and seem to have been made by an inferior class of artists. They represent the deceased in a conventional way and generally without effort at exact portraiture. Early Italian Art. 43 These reclining figures always hold a patera, or dish for the receipt of the funeral offerings of food and drink. In the matter of works of art of especially fine execution the Museum of Perugia leads almost every other Etruscan collection except the Vatican. Among its treasures we may specify a terra-cotta head of the Medusa, a terra-cotta cist decorated with a mask of the Medusa and two griffins, and a silver mirror-case with a relief of Bacchus riding on the Panther all of which will rival the most famous similar productions of Greek art. The small museum at Cortona boasts a bronze lamp with apertures for sixteen wicks, which was found sus- pended in a tomb, and is on account of its decorative relief designs the most remarkable object of its class in Europe. , In the Museum of Chiusi (the ancient Clusium) we find a large amount of pottery, many cinerary cists, and some statuary. The museum at Corneto (Tarquinii) is surprisingly rich, in view of the extent to which the tombs of this locality have contributed to the Vatican collection. Its most re- markable possession is a set of false teeth. This reminds us of an exception to the Roman law forbidding the burial of gold objects at funerals, in favor of the gold filling of the teeth of the deceased. The Vatican collection con- tains the finest examples of work in the precious metals. Among other interesting things may be noted here a bed- stead with interlacing flat strips of bronze corresponding to our modern bed springs. The Etruscan tombs are not generally so interesting at present as they are at the time of excavation and before the buried objects have been dispersed in the museums. An illustration of the humbler class of tombs is offered from the Museum of Orvieto, in which the stones have 44 Roman and Medieval Art. been set up as they were originally placed (Fig. 15). The tombs which are most generally visited by tourists are those of Cervetri (Caere) and of Corneto (Tarquinii), which are in the neighborhood of Rome. Fig. 1 6 is a picture from a tomb at Cervetri which shows two shields, a sword, a helmet, a staff, a drinking cup, a frying pan, and two necklaces, carved in relief on the walls FIG. 16. AN ETRUSCAN TOMB AT CERVETRI. of the tomb. This will illustrate the cases in which the actual objects are found in similar location. Here they are represented for a magical purpose, the theory being that to represent the object in the tomb was to endow the deceased with the use of its spiritual counterpart. We also notice the pillows carved in stone in the cavity where the body was laid to rest. The capitals of the pilasters are of a primitive Ionic form, illustrating the evolution of 4 6 Roman and Medieval Art. the Ionic capital from the Egyptian lotus flower, and also illustrating the way in which such primitive Greek forms are constantly found in Etruscan examples. Corneto is the locality most remarkable for tombs whose walls are decorated by frescoes. Our illustration from Cor- neto (Fig. 17) shows a banquet-scene and musicians. The style of drawing has something of the angularity to be seen in Fig. 8, but shows an improvement which bespeaks FIG. 18. ETRUSCAN WALL AT FALLERI. a later date, although probably still in the fifth century B. C. The animals, which are facing a shrub and which resemble leopards, are originally lions, and are copied from lions facing a " sacred tree," such as are common in early Greek art under oriental influence. The walls of Fallen, north of Rome (Fig. 18), are an example of what may be seen in the way of Etruscan masonry in various quarters. The lower layers of the town walls of Cortona, for instance, date back to the Etruscan Early Italian Art. 47 period and show a similar construction. In the surviving Italian towns, on sites dating from the ancient days of Latium, there are many remains of similar massive walls and also of town gateways. Of the latter class there is a fine example at Alatri, south of Rome. The Greek States of Italy and Sicily. Although the Greek states of Italy were not in direct contact with Rome, their significance for the history of that Italian culture which grew to be the Roman can hardly be over-estimated. South Italy was called Magna GrfEcia (Great Greece), which is suggestive of the con- ception attached by antiquity itself to this part of Italy. The great luxury prevailing in these Greek Italian cities is still attested by our word "sybarite," derived from Sy- baris. We shall presently mention the surviving monuments which are suggestive ^_ of the existence of ancient Greek civil- ization in Sicily and South Italy, but it may be well first to point the moral of the im- portance of this civili- zation for Roman Italy in another way ; that is, by considering simply the date at which the Roman ter- ritory began to ex- FIG. 19. ARCHAIC GREEK VASES. Naples Museum. pand beyond the narrow limits of Latium and by contrast- ing this date with the long preceding period of prosperity 48 Roman and Medieval Art. and greatness which the Greek states of the South had enjoyed. The first steps toward the Roman conquest of Central Italy were not taken till the time of Philip of Macedon, who overthrew the independence of the Greek states of the mother country. This was in the time of the beginning of FIG. 20. GREEK COINS FROM SICILY. Naples Museum. the Samnite wars in Italy (343 B. C. ). The Greek states of South Italy were amalgamated with the Roman territory after the war with Pyrrhus, 275 B. C. Now if we consider that the foundations of these Greek colonies were laid in the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B. C., it will be apparent for how long a time their influence in Italy had been exerted before this Roman conquest. Then let it be remembered in addition that this influence was much more direct and widespread after the Roman conquest. As a matter of fact, all ' ' Roman ' ' art and culture were ultimately Greek. The explanations are manifold, and very many have little or nothing to do with the existence of Greek states in South Italy and Sicily ; but for the Early Italian Art. 49 earlier dates of Italian and Roman history, say down to 275 B. C, we can hardly over-estimate their importance. Their direct influence was, of course, exerted by commerce and by contact. An indirect influence was exerted by local transfer from one point to another, inside the limits of the native Italic nations, of the Greek influence at first due to direct contact and direct commerce. As to the surviving remains of the Greek states, they are either tomb finds or temple ruins. Among the tomb finds we give the first importance to the pottery vases, of which mention has been already made under the topic of the Etruscan tombs. Many thousands of these Greek FIG. 2i. RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES. Selinus. vases are scattered through the museums of Europe which come from the south Italian and Sicilian states. Their manufacture was generally abandoned in the second century B. C., when glass seems to have very largely taken the place of pottery. Preceding that date we find a series of Roman and Medieval Art. styles corresponding to the general sequence of evolution in Greek art, but falling into two main classes : the prim- itive style, using black figures on a red ground, which was abandoned early in the fifth century B. C., and the per- fected style, using red figures on a black ground, which lasted till the second century B. C. The figure designs of the first class have the angular attitudes and quaint expression common to other examples of primitive Greek art, and show dependence on oriental FIG. 22. GREEK TEMPLE AT EGESTA. tutelage in various ways. The perfected style is sub- divided according to the sequence of evolution which also holds of Greek sculpture. We have in vases, as well as in statues, the grand and simple style of the Phidian period (fifth century B. C. ), the beautiful style of the time of Early Italian Art. Praxiteles (fourth century B. C. ), and the complicated or ornate style of the third and second centuries. Some knowledge of this sequence is also essential to the dating of objects in other departments of Italian art, which always FIG. 23. TEMPLE OF CONCORD. Girgenti. reflects the same essential facts in all its various depart- ments, owing to its general dependence on the Greek movement of culture. The Greek coins of Sicily and Italy are very numerous and very beautiful. As every city had its own inde- pendent coinage, the multitude of these cities and their importance in the history of commerce are brought to mind by these objects in the strongest possible way. Critics of art are unanimous in the opinion that the Greek coins are the most beautiful which have ever been struck. Roman and Medieval Art. The bold relief, noble expression (where heads are repre- sented), and firm, simple outlines of the stamped impres- sions speak for themselves. Ruins of Greek temples are especially numerous in Sicily. At Selinus, in the southwest angle of the island, there are remains of seven massive temples, all laid low by earth- quakes, so that there is hardly a column standing even to the height of a few feet. Among these temples there are three of larger dimensions than the Parthenon. The largest is 371 feet long (the Parthenon is 228 feet long). The metope reliefs from one of these temples, which are now in the Palermo Museum, are among the earliest extant examples of Greek sculpture. At Egesta, in the northwest corner of the island, there is a Greek temple in very fair preservation as regards the portico, entablature, and pediments. It dates from the fifth century B. C. There are also fine ruins of a Greek theater on this site. At Girgenti (the ancient Agrigentum), on the south shore of Sicily, about midway between its east and west promon- tories, there are remains of seven Greek temples. Of these the best preserved is the Temple of Concord. A temple of Zeus which has been wholly overthrown by an earthquake was of enormous size, as is still visible in the dimensions of certain details. It had a length of 363 feet. FIG. 24. TEMPLK OK CERES. Paestum. Early Italian Art. 53 Besides these temple ruins there is the splendid Greek theater at Taormina, on the east coast of Sicily. At Syracuse, which was the most important city of the island, the ruins are less significant. The Greek ruins of Italy are almost wholly limited to one site, that of Paes turn (the ancient Posidonia), which lies on the west coast, about fifty miles south of Naples. At Metaponto (the ancient Metapontum), on the Gulf of Taranto, there are, however, some Greek ruins, one of which has fifteen erect columns. It should be added that the chance survival of such ruins either in Sicily or Italy is a wholly fortui- tous accident, which has no relation to the original num- ber of the col- onies or their relative impor- tance. Gener- ally speaking, it is the iso- lation or de- sertion of the site which ex- plains the survival. Where the later population has been most numerous, there the greatest destruction has been the rule, the old buildings serving as a quarry for later ones. At Psestum it is the malarial atmosphere and consequent desertion of the site which explain the unusual preser- vation of the temples. FIG. 25. THE SO-CALLED BASILICA. Paestum. 54 Roman and Medieval Art. Here are found three very interesting ruins, the so-called Temple of Ceres, the so-called Basilica, and the so-called Temple of Neptune. The last named is the best preserved and the most interesting. Its date is the sixth century B. C. As regards the present effect of this building it may almost be regarded as the rival of the Parthenon, and there is certainly no other surviving Greek ruin which can be FIG. 26. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE. Paestum. compared with it. The building stone, which was once covered with stucco, is much coarser than that of the Parthenon but in massive simplicity the Temple of Nep- tune has no superior. It is one of the most remarkable instances of an effect of size and power independent of mere dimension. The length of the temple is only 189 feet and its columns are only 38 feet high. For a study of FIG. 27. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE, P.CSTUM, SHOWING DORIC DETAILS. 55 56 Roman and Medieval Art. the features of the old Greek Doric architecture this build- ing is one of supreme importance. The columns of the so-called Basilica are the most ex- treme case known of the diminution in diameter of the Doric shaft. The Temple of Ceres is in point of style and character of detail the least important of the three ruins and probably is the latest in date. CHAPTER III. THE EARLY ROMAN ART. OUR sketch and illustrations of Etruscan art must serve to give some idea of the surroundings and culture with which the Romans were in contact in early days. The great power and wealth of the Greek states of Italy must not be overlooked in the matter of influence, nor the fact that during nearly five hundred years of Roman history (750275 B. C. ) they were of much greater importance in Italian history than Rome itself ; but they were not geographically or otherwise in direct relations with this state, and their influence must be conceived rather as indirect through the Etruscans and the Samnites,* as ex- plained for these peoples. The main apparent fact in early Roman character is its practical, honest, and logical nature ; averse to luxury, and antagonistic in its strictly political and military tendencies to the more artistic and highly developed peoples of the peninsula. lV Roman art was mainly con- spicuous by its absence in early centuries of the monarchy and republic, if we conceive the word ' ' art " as relating to the decorative and luxurious sides of domestic or of national life. Statues and temples of the gods there were, arms and weapons for the soldier, implements and tools for the farmer, houses and clothes and utensils for rich and poor ; and most of these things, according to the practice of all ancient nations, must have had some fitting artistic * Much less is known of this people in the way of remains than of the Etrus- cans. Greek influences were paramount as far as we know their art. 57 The Early Roman Art. 59 setting forth and decorative treatment and yet rigid econ- omy, stern discipline, legal exactitude, steadfast fortitude, domestic simplicity, and national self-restraint were the points of character most obvious in the Romans. There was no nation in Italy so slightly endowed with purely artistic tastes and capacity, and none so gifted with the practical and common sense virtues. FIG. 29. THE CLOACA MAXIMA. Rome. It was this character which insured the Romans an ultimate triumph over all other states of Italy in the various contentions and rivalries of many centuries. They rose first as a small civic community to an ascendency over 6o Roman and Medieval Art. their own Latin tribe and territory (750-650 B. C. ). This territory did not begin to expand outside of Latium till the times of Philip of Macedon and of Alexander the Great (after 350 B. C. ). In the Samnite and Etruscan wars,* which then began, they rapidly became masters of all Italy between the northern Apennines and the Greek colonies of the South (290 B. C. ). These latter were also absorbed into their political system after the wars with the Macedonian Pyrrhus (275 B. C). It is at this time that we begin to form somewhat more definite ideas of what Roman FIG. 3 o.-i|scAN (ORIC) CAPITAL. art now was by remembering what Roman art became. The Romans were the only conquerors of antiquity who gave to the vanquished the rights and privileges of the victors, f Wisdom and common sense were partners of their generosity here. Their steps in this direction were never, however, taken rapidly or suddenly. Their allies and friends, cities or individuals, were given the prefer- ence. There was a graded series of rights and privileges for both individuals and cities, ranging between full Roman rights and none at all. But the steps were always being ascended in rising order, the area and amount of Roman privilege were always widening and increasing, and in Italy itself the Roman citizenship was the right of every * Samnites and Etruscans were in alliance, but the wars ate known in history as the " Samnite wars." f It was the habit of the Romans never to ask severer terms of an, enemy aftei the battle was won than they did before it began. The Early Roman Art. 61 freeman soon after B. C. 100. The system of soldier- farmer colonies was another element in the Romanizing process. Roman soldiers were not paid mercenaries in the time of the monarchy or of the early republic. They were citizen-farmers, some or many of whom were given new lands on the boundaries and lines of the new frontier whenever conquests had been made. This was another cause and explanation of the amalgamation which took FIG. 31. ROMAN GLASS FROM THE CRIMEA. British Museum. place between the conquered peoples and the conquerors. All these explanations are essential to a philosophic account of the manner in which the Roman art became the Italian and the Italian art became the Roman. Thus we see that the knowledge of Etruscan art is in reality not only a means of imagining what the early Roman art was, 62 Roman and Medieval Art. but it is also a means of knowing what the Roman art became, viz., that of Italy at large. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Mommsen's and Ihne's histories of Rome are the best (both German, both translated). FIG. 32. ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH. North Africa. CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMPIRE. / IT is only the nineteenth century which has been con- scientious in preserving the monuments of the past, but it is also like its predecessors in not fearing to pull down what has been done within a century or two, a system which, when applied for centuries, leaves very little to speak for any. As it frequently happens in our own time, so it was with the Romans. In the days of wealth and power the old buildings were not good enough or large enough to suit the new ideas of the people and were replaced by those whose ruins have partly come down to our time. Some of the walls built by King Servius Tullius and the Etruscan drainage aqueduct and sewer known as the Cloaca Maxima (Fig. 29) are the chief visible remains of the Roman monarchy (750-510 B. C). The early republic has been equally unfortunate. The first important remains of Roman construction in point of time are some of the aqueduct ruins of the Campagna* dating about 150 B. C. Meantime, before this date, still farther and more im- portant revolutions, or evolutions, had befallen the Roman state. Mistress of Italy after B. C. 275, f her power had become a standing threat to that of the Phenician Carthage which ruled the coasts of North Africa and Eastern Spain, and the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, with much less attention to the well-being of the conquered populations * The wide and now mainly deserted plains which surround the modern city. t The northern Po Valley was not considered a part of Italy till the time Caesar, B. C. 50. It was, till then, Cisalpine Gaul (" Gaul this side the Alps "). 63 64 Roman and Medieval Art. than was displayed by Rome with the conquered states of Italy. The contrast was apparent to the peoples oppressed by the C renicians, who in their turn were conscious of the hatred which their oppressions caused. Both saw in Rome the rival of the oppressor and consequently the champion of the op- pressed. Hence a jealousy which led to the wars with Carthage (260-200 B. C.), whose ultimate result was Roman supremacy throughout the whole western Mediterranean and over its shores. This enormous access of power roused the jealousy of the states of the Macedonian Greeks which had suc- ceeded to Alexander's great oriental empire. After B. C. 200 Rome thus became involved in contentions with the Greek Asiatic states, and with the Macedonian rulers, which contentions by FIG. 33. ROMAN BRONZE STATUETTE OF Ju- the time of Julius PITER. From Hungary. British Museum. Csesar (B. C. 50) had resulted in turning all the countries of the eastern Mediter- ranean into Roman provinces. The Development of the Empire. 65 We know Julius Caesar as the founder of the later empire and Augustus as its first recognized ruler. Its territories were ultimately (according to mod desig- FIG. 34. ROMAN AQUEDUCT IN SOUTHERN FRANCE. Nimes. nations) England, South and West Germany, Austria, France, Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, European Turkey, Greece, Roumania, and the Danube countries, Southern Hungary, and, of course, Italy. As re- gards the art of the Roman Empire, which, as already ex- plained, is mainly the only art of the Romans now known to us, we must insist on the process accomplished through its history, which corresponds to that already explained for the Romans of Italy and the Italians conquered by Rome. The same facts, on a broader scale, hold for all the territo- ries above named, but with one grand distinction between 66 Roman and Medieval Art. * Always excepting Egypt, wh nt style under Greek kings and t Who had founded many citi the eastern and the western halves of the empire. The East had a civilization long an- tedating that of the Romans, but affiliated with it, not only by cor- respondence of deri- vation and character, but also by a long series of transmissions and expansions to and over Italy herself (see the chapter on Etrus- can art). The art of the whole eastern Mediterranean was Greek after the time of Alexander the Great.* In Africa the Ro- mans succeeded to the heritage of Carthagin- ian civilization, which had become itself much Grecianized. In Spain the Romans succeeded to the heri- tage of the Phenicians and the Greeks, f In France they succeeded to the heritage of , which mainly continued to exhibit her own independ- and Roman emperors, many cities on the northeast coast. FIG. 35. ROMAN BRONZE STATUETTE FOUND IN ENGLAND. A MILITARY OFFICER. British Museum. The Development of the Empire. 67 Phenician and Greek influences* and yet in all these countries they were themselves largely the founders and fathers of later civilization, and for England, Northern France, and West and South Germany, they were almost entirely so. The. distinction then between the eastern and western FIG 36. ROMAN GATEWAY IN GERMANY. Trier. parts of the empire is that very largely in the west the Ro- mans were the propagators and pioneers, while in the east they were the heirs and the learners. The case, briefly stated, is that the Romans were the lawyers, the engineers, the systematizers, and the pathfinders of the later centuries of Mediterranean history. All the peoples of the empire became Roman in language, f in governmental systems, * There were many Greek colonies in Southern France, of which Marseilles was the most important. " ' . ' t If not already Greek ; both languages were commonly known to educated people. 68 Roman and Medieval Art. and in rights of citizenship,* and the Romans themselves were transformed into the general mass of the population which they had solidified and endowed with their own laws and culture. It is only in this way that we can rightly conceive the significance and importance of Roman ruins and works FIG. 37. ROMAN RUINS IN SYRIA. Baalbek. of art as found in England, Spain, France, Germany, Africa, Syria, etc. It is of great importance not to view these things as they have been viewed in a more elemen- tary stage of modern studies as monuments of conquest, as exported works of art, as relics of a foreign domina- tion in a word, as intrusive and as foreign to the *The edict of Caracalla (third century B. C.) gave citizenship to all freemen. FIG. 38. ROMAN AQUEDUCT IN SPAIN. Segovia. 70 Roman and Medieval Art. countries where they are found. They represent, on the contrary, the native civilization and the native art of the countries in which they were made, for the time in which they were made as the result not of military conquest but of commerce and of intercourse working through centuries. The power of the Roman did not lie in force of arms but in the catholic self-abnegation of the statesmen and heroes who conceived of history as an evolution of commerce, not as a carnage of rival armies. Soldiers and legions and generals there were, combats and jealousies of interior rival forces, and selfishness as always in history. But the legions of the empire were not raised to trample on the liberties of Roman citizens, and all free- men were Roman citizens or so became. These legions were the guardians of the civilization of their day. Their post was the frontiers of the state and their indirect mission largely was to continue the expansion of the domestic arts and sciences beyond its borders.* The illustrations through these immediate pages have been chosen as symbols of the diffusion of Roman civiliza- tion under the conditions just explained. On the other hand, it is most important where illustrations from Italy or the city of Rome are concerned, to look at them as repre- senting buildings or objects which once covered all the territories named. The most marvelous witnesses to the character of Roman civilization are the Roman ruins east of the Jordan in Syria, where there are more Roman ruins to-day than in the entire area of the old Roman world otherwise considered the explanation being simply that the Bedouin * The Roman legions were largely raised in the countries where they habitually served. They were British, German, or Gallic, as the case might be, but often subject to transfer. It is well known that they were much employed on the public works. The Development of the Empire. Arabs now dwelling in this country, and whose tribes have had it in possession since the seventh century A. D., live in tents and have never treated the ruins as quarries for building material. It is this use of Roman ruins as quarries by the later populations of all other territories named which has caused their destruction and disappear- ance, so that it is difficult to imagine now the territories of FIG. 39. ROMAN RUIN. East Jordan Territory. England, France, Spain, or North Africa, as having once exhibited the same wonderful number of constructions which the east Jordan territory still bears to view. CHAPTER V. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ROMAN ART. IT was in the second century B. C. that growing wealth at Rome, vast territorial power, and the influence of the Greek Macedonian and Greek Asiatic states brought about the first decided break with the old conservative traditions and with the old Roman indifference to art for its own sake. After the destruction of Corinth by the Roman gen- eral Mummius (146 B. C. ) enormous numbers of Greek statues were carried off to Rome. A certain number of the famous statues of the modern Italian museums doubtless found their way to Italy at this time. Greek philosophy and Greek literature were cultivated with more and more attention. It was, above all, the general luxury, refine- ment, and ease of living in the Alexandrian states which made headway at Rome and which involved that interest in art which is often professed by the man of wealth as a matter of display and ostentation, or at least of necessary fashion. The Greek art of the mother country was at this time itself in a condition of relative decadence, not of produc- tivity or technical capacity, but of simplicity of taste and grandeur of style. In sculpture the taste of the Roman therefore affected the realistic tendencies and minute technical perfection of the Medici Venus and of the Dying Gaul, of the Laocoon group, the Belvedere Torso, and similar works.* In the statues of Greek subjects *Cf. "A History of Greek Art," by F. B. Tarbell. FIG. 40. GRECO-ROMAN RELIEF FROM THE DECORATION OF A FOUNTAIN. LATERAN MUSEUM. A NYMPH FEEDING THE INFANT PLUTUS FROM HER HORN OF PLENTY. 74 Roman and Medieval Art. which began to be made more and more in Italy two tendencies were therefore apparent, either that minute and sometimes over-anxious attention to minor details, which is FIG. 41. FAUN. COPY AFTER PRAXITELES. Capitol, Rome. natural to the taste of the amateur and the dilettante^ or else a multiplication of copies of some given type in the rapid and mechanical execution of the artisan or stone- General Review of Roman Art. 75 cutter. It must be remembered that most of the statues from which we derive our knowledge of Greek art were such copies made during the Roman imperial period or in the time of the late republic. At all events, the multipli- cation of the Greek mythological subjects in sculpture through all the western territories of the empire was one result of its existence. In spite of the qualifications which a conscientious critic must make as to the productions of Roman-Greek art in face of the Parthenon marbles and similar works, an amazing degree of real beauty and of pure artistic taste continued to assert itself in these later days. This is es- pecially apparent in the collections of the Naples Museum, which, coming so largely from two excavated towns of the first century A. D. (Herculane- um and Pompeii), are a fair test of the taste of Southern Italy at -this time. Both of these places, it must however be remembered, had been Greek FIG. 42. BUST OF JULIUS CESAR. Rome. colonies originally. It must be said in general that the Roman imperial art was most successful in the purest sense when it was least 7 6 Roman and Medieval Art. pretentious and least ostentatious. The small bronze statuettes of Pompeii and Herculaneum are examples of this point. In decorative art, whether of utensils and furniture, or the sculptured carv- ing of public buildings, or the painted frescoes of ordinary domestic houses, the highest perfection of taste was displayed. The painted frescoes of the Pompeiian houses in the Naples Museum are an inexhaustible mine of vigorous de- sign and beautiful con- ception, but mainly of a playful and sportive rather than of a seri- ous taste. A characteristic and native expression was found in the Romar portr a it-sculpture The art of portraiture was not affected y the Greeks, whose sculpture was ori^i- nally devoted to na ;- ious purposes, - tid rarely abandoned its traditions on this point, but the p ac- tical, business-like, and common sense nature of the rlo- FIG. 43. BRONZE STATUETTE. Naples. VENUS. General Review of the Roman Art. 77 man found its own peculiar expressions in portrait- sculpture, and achieved its best original work in this department. It is especially, however, in architecture that the inde- pendent greatness of the Roman was apparent. In this practical and necessary art he has left astounding evidences of his boldness, firmness, and grandeur of character, and also of his attention to the material comfort and healthful lives of large masses of city population. CHAPTER VI. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING. WE have seen that the Etruscan and early Roman temples were copies of the Greek, and this naturally holds of the temples of the empire. The most important Roman temple which has been perfectly preserved (but in the exterior only) is the one at Nimes in Southern France, which is there traditionally known as the Maison Carrte (the "square house"). The charm of this building (first or second century A. D.) is indescribable to those who have not seen it and eludes a photograph. Its beauty lies in the optical mystifications caused by various slight intentional irregularities of construction similar to those found in the Greek temples. The origin of the town of Nimes in a settlement of Alexandrian Greeks (the Greeks were otherwise largely settled in Southern France) may be one explanation of the artistic beauty of this building. In Rome itself the best preserved temple of Greek style is the small Ionic Temple of Fortuna Virilis. The temple built in honor of the emperor Antoninus and his wife Faustina, which was completed under Marcus Aurelius (second century A. D. ), has lost its pediment and is now surmounted by the facade of a Christian church. The sites of several other magnificent temples of the city are marked by isolated groups of columns. In Italy at large, the most important surviving temple buildings are those at Assisi and at Pola.* A little temple at Tivoli near Rome * The province of Istria, in which Pola is situated, although now belonging to Austria, was a portion of Roman Italy. 78 Roman Architecture and Painting. 79 and the small Temple of Vesta (so-called) in the city are picturesque ruins of circular shrines in fair preserva- tion. A few columns at Athens mark the site of the colossal temple of the Olympian Jupiter completed under FIG. 44. THE " MAISON CARREK." Nfmes. Hadrian (second century A. D. ). The most magnificent temple ruins of the whole Roman world for size and also for the colossal dimensions of the building blocks are those of Baalbek in Syria, a day's journey north of the road be- tween Beyrout and Damascus (second century A. D.). The east Jordan territory is full of the ruins of Roman tem- ples. Among these one at Jerash (Gerasa) has the most imposing dimensions. Still another large group of ruins is found at Palmyra in the Syrian Desert, east of Damascus, a reminder of the days of Queen Zenobia and the emperor FIG. 45. ARCHITECTURAL FRIEZE DETAIL. LATERAN MUSEUM. FROM TRAJAN'S FORUM. Roman Architecture and Painting. 81 Aurelian, as well as of the former glories and high civil- ization of the now desolate territories of Western Asia. A comparison of these various buildings with the corre- sponding ruins of old Greek time shows them to be of less refinement in the masonry fitting and cutting and far less carefully elaborated in the details of construction.* A fre- quent departure from the beautiful Greek plan with the surrounding colonnade is found in the limitation of the Roman temple portico to the front, while the sides and rear are walls with ' ' engaged ' ' columns ; semi-attached, that is, to the wall surface, so as to simulate a portico. Departures from the old Greek refinement are also illustrated in the occasional abandonment of the curving outlines of the column, and of its flutings, one or both. An important dis- tinction lies in the use by the old Doric Greek temples of col- ored surface ornament. These later buildings, on the other hand, depend on a florid and elaborate but boldly picturesque execution of projected carving. The prevailing ' ' order ' ' is the Corinthian. The Ionic order, when found, is of relatively inferior quality as regards the grace and refinement of the capitals and other details. There is no temple now known of the Roman period which employed the Doric or Tuscan FIG. 46. TEMPLE OF FORTUNA VIRILIS. Rome. * Notwithstanding its picturesque charm the materials and masonry details of the Maison Carree cannot be compared with those of the Parthenon. 82 Roman and Medieval Art. FIG. 47. TEMPLE OF ANTONINUS AND FAUSTINA. Rome. order. The dominance of the Corinthian order in Roman monuments is, of course, explained by the fact that it was the favored and char- acteristic order of the Alexandrian Greeks. The capital known as ' ' Composite, ' ' which was much used by the Romans, has modified Ionic volutes at the top but otherwise shows the usual acanthus leaves (Fig. 49). In buildings which employed the arch and dome, the Romans showed their own characteristic boldness and force. Constructions like the aqueducts, which made no pretensions to artistic character, are fine examples of the powerful artistic effect of rough ma- sonry in elementary forms of construction. Aside from many ruins on the Campagna near Rome, and of far su- perior effect, the great aqueducts of Segovia in Spain and of NimeS FIG. 48. TEMPLE OF MINERVA. Assisi. Roman Architecture and Painting, in France (the Pont du Card) deserve preeminent men- tion. These aqueducts are an instance of the attention paid to the material comfort and hygiene of great cities which put our modern civilization to the blush. The city of Rome is now mainly supplied with water by three of its original thirteen aqueducts, and the city of Bologna now obtains its water through a restoration of its ancient aqueduct. It is said that hundreds of provincial Roman cities were more abundantly supplied with water than is the modern city of Lon- don. This abundance of the water supply in Roman cities was con- nected with a system of public baths of great magnificence and great utility. The baths were also club-houses for the people, which contained lounging and reading rooms, libraries, and gymnasiums. Large numbers of the statues of the modern Roman collec- tions were found in their ruins, showing that they were also museums and galleries of art. Outside of Rome the recently excavated ruins at Bath in England are the most important remains of this class of building. In Rome the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla are now the most imposing and originally accommodated sixteen hundred bathers. The statues now in Naples which belonged to the Farnese FIG. 49. ROMAN COMPOSITE (CORINTHIAN) CAPITAL. 84 Roman and Medieval Art. Collection, like the Farnese Hercules, Farnese Bull group, etc. , were found in the Baths of Caracalla. The Baths of Diocletian are next in order of present importance and FIG. 50. RUINED APARTMENT IN THE BATHS OF CARACALLA. were partly turned into a Christian church by Michael Angelo. The Baths of Titus were in fair preservation in the time of Raphael and his decorative designs in the Vatican Palace were borrowed from them (the Loggie frescoes). Here was found the Laocoon group of the Roman Architecture and Painting. Vatican. The Baths of Pompeii are well-preserved struc- tures, showing all arrangements of the antique system for steam and hot baths, plunges, etc., and the various refinements which were handed down to the Russians and the Turks from the Roman Byzantine system and which are now known and practiced under foreign names. The basilicas were great halls assigned to the use of the merchants and of the courts of justice and were found in every city. The Basilica of Constantine at Rome is the FIG. 51. THE BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE. Rome. most notable ruin of this class as regards present dimension. For Roman palaces the most interesting ruin is that of Diocletian's palace at Spalatro in Dalmatia (fourth century A. D.). 86 Roman and Medieval Art. The triumphal arches were memorials of victory and successful wars, under which the processions of triumph took their way. There are various ruins of this class in Italy and elsewhere, the most important being those of FIG. 52. TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. Rome. Rome the Arches of Constantine, of Septimius Severus, and of Titus. The most imposing of all Roman constructions were the enormous amphitheaters, built for the spectacles of the gladiatorial combats and the fights of wild animals. Next to the Colosseum at Rome, begun by Vespasian and com- pleted by Titus (80 A. D.), the most splendid ruins of this class are at Nimes and Aries in France and at Verona in North Italy. Roman Architecture and Painting. In all these buildings (except the aqueducts) a method and style of ornament were originally employed* which were revived by the Italians of modern history in the Renaissance period a thousand years after they had ap- parently passed into oblivion. This ornamental style, now known as the Renaissance, has had so wide a vogue FIG. 53. THE COLOSSEUM. Rome. in modern architecture that a distinct idea as to its Roman origin and use is a really essential thing for every educated person. We have seen what debt the Romans owed the Greeks and yet how foreign to Greek art was their system of arch * In the ruins of the baths and basilicas, which were built of brick faced with marble, the marble panels have been torn away and the ornamental system does not now appear. 88 Roman and Medieval Art. and dome construction. To this arch construction the Roman applied the Greek construction as an ornamental mask and facing. It is common to charge any use of "engaged" columns* to the score of the Romans as a departure from Greek ideas and usage, and yet we see from engravings of the Erechtheum at Athens, which were made in the eighteenth century, that one portion of it was decorated with ' ' engaged ' ' columns. The same use appears in the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at Athens. These instances in Greek survivals make it practically certain that the system passed into Italy through the Alexandrian Greeks. It is not a use of the columnar form to be commended in theory, as it violates constructional truth and its occasional appearance in Greek monuments of the later period only shows, what we other- wise know, that a relative decline of taste rapidly followed the completion of the Parthenon. In Roman art it must be confessed that the results of using the "engaged" columns were picturesque and the contrasts of line harmonious. It is a difficult matter to pass judgment critically without, on the one hand, yield- ing a point which is very much to be emphasized, viz. , the desirability of constructional truth in building ; or, on the other hand, committing the absurdity of condemning wholesale some of the finest architectural monuments of the world. The easiest way out of the difficulty is to treat the matter historically. Criticism is for the present ; history is for the past. In the Roman ornamental system we observe first the use of the ' ' engaged ' ' column as found in temples, that is, as a simulated portico (Figs. 44 and 46). It appears again in arch constructions as an ornamental framework support- columns used, not tor actuai porticoes, but for surface wall ornaments. Roman Architecture and Painting. 89 ing simulated entablatures. These entablatures are fre- quently seen jutting forward so as to correspond with the projecting surface of the columns (Fig. 52). In late imperial art, as in the Renaissance decadence, these breaks were inordinately multiplied and exaggerated. Finally, the system of gables, pointed or rounded or broken at the center to surmount niches, doors, and windows, is an obvious adaptation of the shape of the Greek temple pediment to decorative uses (Fig. 39). This also was probably first devised by the Alexandrian Greeks, as there are signs of its former use on the Tower of the Winds at Athens. The most extravagant and corrupt instances of the gable ornament are found in the late Roman buildings of Syria; at Palmyra, in the east Jordan country and in FIG. 54. COURT OF A POMPEIIAN HOUSE. Roman and Medieval Art. the rock tombs of Petra (.north of the Sinai Peninsula). The domestic architecture of the Roman period is best known to us through the buried town of Pompeii, near Naples. The ashes of Vesuvius, whose vol- canic eruption in the year 79 A. D. buried this town, have pre- served its dwelling houses in marvelous condition until the excavations of the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. The town was a small pro- vincial one, and though it was apparently much , affected by the Romans as a pleasure resort and watering place, the FIG. 55. POMPEIIAN FLOOR MOSAIC. "Be- biiildinp's rertainlv can- ware of the Dog." Naples Museum. not have compared in dimension or height with those of Rome, where we know that houses of six stories were found. None in Pompeii were more than two stories high on the line facing the street. When built on a declivity we find occasionally a third story in the rear. It is only in one or two cases that the second story has been preserved. This general destruction of the upper story is due to the charring of the timber beams and the pressure of the superincumbent vol<- \ canic ashes. The general arrangements of the ancient' dwelling houses are, however, well represented. Like the domestic oriental buildings of our own time, they were ab- Roman Architecture and Painting. solutely unpretentious in exterior appearance and with few windows opening on the streets. Each house was built about a court or a series of courts" on which the small apartments opened. In many cases the street front was FIG. 56. POMPEIIAN WALL PAINTING. Naples Museum. devoted to shops, disconnected with the house and separately rented. The great interest of the Pompeiian houses lies in their painted decorations, not only on account of their beauty but also because they were the work of ordinary artisans and illustrate the artistic capacities of common 92 Roman and Medieval Art. workmen of that day. Most of the important frescoes have been moved to the Naples Museum. They lose a certain portion of their brilliancy soon after excavation, but the colors are still warm in effect and many are even FIG. 57. POMPEIIAN WALL PAINTING. Naples Museum. bright. The pictures themselves are in many cases copies of more important ones by superior artists, which have been destroyed, and represent nearly all that we know, by survivals, of the earlier Greek painting. A number of very beautiful frescoes have, however, also been found in Rome. Roman Architecture and Painting. 93 The execution of these pictures was offhand and rapid, as natural to plaster decoration, and in details we fre- quently find the slips and carelessness of rapid artisan work. On the other hand, they bespeak an amazing fertility of invention and capacity for rapid execution of the most beautiful motives and poses. The subjects of these paintings correspond to the taste of the later periods of Greek art for playful and amatory themes drawn from Greek mythology, although there are other and many scenes from daily antique life and its surroundings. Many of them are in large or life-size dimensions. On the plastered surfaces color was universally em- ployed where no pic- tures are found. The warm dull red known as "Pompeiian red" and orange yellow were much used. The columns of the porti- coes, which universally inclose the interior courts, were stuccoed FIG. 58. ROMAN MOSAIC. THE DRINKING DOVES. Capitol, Rome. and painted in the same bright colors, red and yellow. In the more important houses, bright mosaic pictures made of small cubes of colored glass or variously colored small cubes of stone are frequently found. Some were used for floor decorations, others for niches or small wall pictures. The most important of these, and the most important survival of ancient pictorial art, is the large floor mosaic now in the Naples Museum, which represents the battle of Issus^ the victory of Alexander the Great over the Persian king, Darius. Among the frescoes found in or 94 Roman and Medieval Art. near Rome, the small painting now in the Vatican known as the " Aldobrandini Wedding," from the modern villa on whose grounds it was discovered, is the most famous. Some other remarkable cases of landscape painting have been found in Rome in recent years. The mosaic in the Capitol Museum of the "Drinking Doves" also deserves especial mention. Beautiful mosaic floorings have been found in many of the territories which the empire em- braced many in England, many in North Africa, etc. A number of these are in the British Museum. CHAPTER VII. ROMAN DECORATIVE ART AND SCULPTURE. AGAIN starting from Pompeii as the main center of such finds, we have to mention the wealth of utensils and furni- ture of daily life which is in the Naples Museum. Natu- ally it is the bronzes and metals which have survived. othing is left of the luxurious upholstery and wooden 'urniture which the paintings illustrate. In the bronze vases, tripods, lamps, and utensils of the Naples Museum we again learn how much taste and fine art adorned the lives of the every-day people of antiquity. Constant variety of invention and originality of designs are united with constant attention to use and structural form. The ornament emphasizes and develops the construction. In the pitcher-shaped vases it is, for instance, the handle itself which forms the ornamental motive or else it is the joints of its attachment. In the tripods, tables, and settees the feet and legs and joints are the points or lines of the ornament. These various objects again illustrate the way in which Greek art had permeated the life of Italy and its dependent provinces and, with slight distinctions as to style, would equally well illustrate the art of the centuries before and after the time of the Pompeiian pieces. The bronze weights, finely executed in the shape of human heads, are an instance of the fertile devices for combining use with beauty. Utensils similar to those of Pompeii have been otherwise most largely found in Etruscan tombs, but this simply 95 9 6 Roman and Medieval Art. means that, for reasons unknown to us, the fashions of in- terment among the Greeks themselves chose other objects for the burials. Aside from burial finds it is a rare occur- rence that such objects have been found outside of Pompeii and Herculaneum.* A unique discovery was made, how- ever, near Hildesheim in Germany, in 1869, of nearly a hundred pieces of the elaborately decorated silver table serv- FIG. 59. POMPEIIAN STREET, AS EXCAVATED. ice of a Roman officer or general. It is supposed to date from the defeat of the Roman legions under Varus, near this place, in the year 9 A. D. This find is in the Berlin Museum. Perhaps the most interesting objects among all those * Herculaneum is a closely adjacent ancient city but it was buried under vol- canic deposits which have hardened into solid rock. Almost nothing has been done here in excavation since the middle of the eighteenth century, on account of the difficulty of mining through this rock. Roman Decorative Art and Sculpture. 97 found at Pompeii are the carpenters' and workmen's tools, surgical instruments, gardening implements, etc. Although these do not come under the head of art, they have an equal or greater value in stimulating the imagina- tion to resurrect the life of the ancients and it is mainly for this purpose that we study their art. The forms are largely the types of those in use to-day. Decorated pottery like that of the Greek vases (Fig. 10) was not used after the second century B. C. , and is conse- quently not found at Pompeii. The pottery of the Roman period, found in all countries of the empire, was the so-called "Samian" (aside from the coarser and ordinary ware). This Samian ware is of a fine red paste decorated with molded or pressed de- signs, but it has no great artistic value. The use of the finer early Greek pottery was displaced largely by glass, which was not very familiar to the Greeks of the fifth century B. C. Glass manufacture was an oriental and especially an Egyp- tian art which spread to the Phenicians and was much cultivated in Syria. Here were many of the important factories throughout the time of the empire and even in the early Middle Ages. Glass manufacture was independently cultivated in all territories of the empire also, and its forms and colors rival those of the modern Venetian glass, which FIG. 60. POMPEIIAN BRONZE LAMPS. Naples Museum. 9 8 Roman and Medieval Art. is a traditional survival of this ancient art (Fig. 31).* It was a favored article for the interments and many beautiful specimens have thus survived. The ' ' Portland Vase ' ' of the British Museum is the most celebrated instance. The finest single collection of ancient glass is the Slade Collec- tion of the British Museum, but the New York Museum possesses the best collection of the whole world, next to this.f \ We may finally return to the Roman sculpture to ob- FIG. 61. POMPEIIAN WEIGHTS. Naples Museum. serve that the reputation of individual busts or statues is rather owing to the fame of the personalities represented, * Venice is a direct connecting link with antiquity, haying been founded in the fifth century A. D. It preserved its autonomy until the times of Bonaparte. t Its best pieces belong to the series gathered by the Parisian expert Gharvet, but there is also an enormous collection of Roman glass from Cyprus. Roman Decorative Art and Sculpture. 99 among whom nearly all the ^reat Roman statesmen and emperors are included, than to special distinction in work- manship. The merit of the execution and the obvious fidelity to nature are marvelously uniform and marvelously good. The largest collections are naturally in Rome and Naples, and the Louvre at Paris stands next in this depart- FIG. 62. A POET HOLDING A TRAGIC THEATRICAL MASK, AND A MUSE. Relief. Lateran, Rome. ment. The most interesting portraits are those of poor people made by ordinary artisans, because they best exhibit the talent of the people at large rather than that of some artist employed by a person of distinction. The grand point, in fact, which distinguishes ancient art from modern is the surpassing excellence of the ordinary popular art, and this excellence is not only mechanical and 100 Roman and Medieval Art. technical but also that of observation, of patient labor, of simplicity, and of the ability to distinguish the thing which is characteristic and essential from that which is transient and unimportant. Although the study of original Greek art is so largely made through Roman copies that we may feel disposed to hurry over this por- tion of the subject when the Roman period itself is in ques- tion, we must still say, after all necessary dis- tinctions have been drawn regarding the superior merit of earlier Greek works and the various signs of relative decadence in the times of the empire, that the statu- ary and relief art of Roman antiquity in its minor works, in its -:;v artisan copies, in its .!.''>'. popular productions, '- ' ' ; '- : :;i is a most marvelous instance of the possi- ^ ^w!?*^ bilities and true great- ness of the average man under favorable FIG. 63. BRONZE STATUE OF DRUSUS. conditions. Naples Museum. How favorable these conditions were to the art of sculpture we must not, how- Roman Decorative Axt t and\Sc>i?ptur*e\ I-CM ever, forget. The enormous amount of work done was one main condition of its technical excellence. This again is explained by a large popular demand. In spite of the inroads of skepticism and the weakening FIG. 64. ROMAN PORTRAIT BUSTS. Capitol, Rome. influence of philosophy, the mythology of the Greeks, as adopted by the Romans, retained a vital hold on the popular consciousness as late as the third century A. D. The ancient Greek method of personifying abstract ideas, virtues, and moral lessons in the guise of bodily forms continued till this time. An entire series of subjects of legendary art was employed in the relief decoration of the sarcophagi. The open-air life of antiquity, the interest in monumental decoration, and the public attention to public art made much patronage for the ordinary artisan and 102 Roman and Medieval Art. promoted the education of other and superior artists. On the whole, in insisting on the value of Roman statuary copies for a study of the earlier Greeks, we must not overlook the signifi- cance of these statuary works for the empire itself. For the compre- hension of all art be- fore the invention of printing and the con- sequent diffusion of books we cannot in- sist too much on the point that books and printing have taken the place which art once took. It was not only the means of monumental record but also of popular in- struction and of popu- lar amusement. We should never dream of studying the daily life of the nineteenth "cen- tury through its paint- ing and its sculpture, but this is our main authority and our necessary authority for the daily life of antiquity. The greatest importance consequently attaches to the minutest and apparently most FIG. 6 5 .- TITUS. Roman Decorative Art and Sculpture. 103 trivial objects of Roman art, because they are most sig- nificant for this daily life and most charac- teristic for the taste of every-day people. It is from this point of view that the Roman engraved gems used in the signet rings are interesting. A wealth of beauty and of artis- tic adaptation of means to ends is apparent in these little objects (Fig. 67). Here again the designs represent Greek subjects. The illustration, being pho- tOgraphed from Casts, shows the raised impression made by an intaglio, i. e. , a gem with the design "cut in" (intaglio), or hollowed out. FIG ^.-Six** FAUN . BRONZE FROM HERCULANEUM. Naples. FIG. 67. CASTS FROM ROMAN SIGNET GEMS. British Museum. CHAPTER VIII. ANCIENT ROME AS SEEN BY MODERNS. IN our rapid summary connecting some of the surviving Roman monuments of various localities with the essential facts regarding the types of Roman buildings and their system of construction and decoration, we have done scant justice to the importance and local interest of many ruins in the city of Rome. The aim of the present chapter will be to enumerate such important remains as have been omitted from previous mention, or to give a more adequate notice of others which have been too hastily passed over. We shall begin this account with an illustration of the Appian Way (Fig. 68). This was the earliest of the famous military roads of Rome. It was first con-" structed as far as Capua by the censor Appius Claudius Cse- cus in 312 B. C, and was subsequently extended to Bene- ventum and Brundusium. The ancient construction of the road and its original massive paving-blocks of lava have been laid bare by modern excavations in the neighborhood of Rome for several miles. Remains of similar roads have been found in many territories of the empire, but they ap- pear most wonderful, or most suggestive of the wonderful services of Rome to the cause of civilization, in those countries which are now destitute of similar facilities for traffic ; for instance, in Asia Minor, Syria, and many parts of North Africa. There are at present only two short carriage roads in Syria : one running from Beyrout to Damascus, the other running from Jaffa to Jerusalem, Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. whereas the vestiges of the Roman roads are visible in all 1 parts of that country. The present state of things is much the same in Asia Minor and in North Africa (outside of the French territory of Algiers). Generally speaking, there was down to the close of the eighteenth century no FIG. 68. THE APPIAN WAY, NEAR ROME. such perfection of roads in Europe as had been universal inside the Roman frontiers, as early as the beginning of the Christian era. These wonderful roads were connected with a system of no less wonderful bridges, which rivaled the most important engineering feats of our own day in the same direction. In the neighborhood of Narni, north of Rome, may still be seen one ruined arch of the bridge built by the emperor Augustus across the> river Nera. This arch has a height of sixty feet. The aqueduct crossing the river Garden near Nimes in France has been already mentioned and illustrated (page 65, Fig. 34). This aqueduct has also io6 Roman and Medieval Art. ' > connected with it a commodious bridge, which is still in use , and which may be seen in the illustration above the first line of arches and beyond the buttresses of the second line of. arches. The whole height of this construction is 160 , feet and the whole length is over 880 feet. The bridge at Rimini on the Adriatic shore of Italy, which was built Jay Augustus, is also still in use. Another ancient Roman bridge in modern use is the Fabrician bridge, crossing an arm of the Tiber at Rome, which was built in 62 B. C. by the Roman from whom it is named. The ancient pavement of a Roman street may be seen in P^ -~ the illustration from Pompeii (Fig. 59). Such pavements are not uncommon among the ruined cities of Eastern Syria, where they may be seen with the ruts of the carriage wheels remaining in them, as is also the case in Pompeii. There is also in the museum at Pompeii a natural cast in volcanic ashes of a cart wheel exactly sim- ilar to those now used in Italy. A road roller such as are now used in leveling and crushing down layers of road metal is shown by a stucco relief in the Baths of Stabiae at Pompeii. The Appian Way is bordered on either side by monu- mental tombs. The largest of these tombs is the circular one seen in Fig. 69, which has a diameter of sixty-five FIG. 69. TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY. Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 107 feet. This is the tomb of Csecilia Metella, wife of the younger Crassus, the son of the triumvir. The battle- ments above belong to a fortress which was constructed on the summit in the Middle Ages. The tops of such monu- . ments were usually covered by mounds of earth on which FIG. 70. TOMB OF HADRIAN AND BRIDGE OF ST. ANGELO. Rome. trees and shrubs were made to grow. Although cemeteries in the modern sense were by no means unknown to the Romans, it was also habitual to line the main roads leading from the cities with tombs. This custom also appears in the Street of the Tombs at Pompeii which issues from the Nola Gate (Fig. 59). The largest tomb surviving from the Roman period ie that of the .emperor Hadrian, which lies in the north- ern part of the modern city of Rome (Fig. 70). Its ruins io8 Roman and Medieval Art. were used as a castle by the medieval popes, and a covered passage now leads from it to the papal palace of the Vati- can. The present circular construction, which has a diame- ter of 324 feet, was formerly topped by another of smaller size which supported a colossal statue of the emperor. Both of these were encrusted with marble and with columnar decoration, and the whole rested on a base 342 feet square. Although this tomb is named from Hadrian, it was also designed by him for his successors and these were also buried here down to the time ol Caracalla inclusive. Hadrian's predecessor, Trajan, has also left his stamp on the modern city of Rome. Nearly in its center are found the remains of the Forum which he added to the accommodations of the original Roman Forum. Nothing is left of its walls and porti- coes, of its temple, or of its two libraries. We still see some of the col- umns of the Business Exchange, or Basilica. Its original size and general arrangement FIG. 71. COLUMN OF TRAJAN AND REMAINS may be imagined from OF THE ULPIAN BASILICA. . . our picture of the Chris- tian Church of St. Paul outside the walls (Fig. 87). For, as we shall see later, the plan of such a church was derived from a building of this kind. The Column of Trajan (Fig. 7 1 ) was the tombstone of the emperor and he was buried beneath it. His statue, which once stood on it, has dis- Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 109 appeared and is replaced by another of St. Peter. The height of the column (147 feet) represents the height of a hill which was dug away in order to relieve the traffic of the Forum proper, to make an easier access to the northern portion of the city, and to obtain the level space needed for the constructions mentioned. The col- umn itself is decorated by a continuous spiral relief giving a history of Trajan's campaigns in Dacia (part of modern Hungary), which he added to the territory of the empire. This is the most important relic of Roman relief-sculpture in existence, but the reliefs cannot be studied at present on the column, which was once surrounded by a two- storied gallery. Near by is the Roman Forum proper. To the view of this Forum given on page 20 we now add another, looking in the opposite direction (Fig. 72). The relation of this illustration to the one preceding is made clear by comparing the columns of the Temple of Saturn which are seen in the foreground on page 20 with the same columns as seen in the distance in Fig. 72. The excavation of the Roman Forum as here illustrated has been accomplished since 1871. Down to the eighth century of our era the old level of the Forum had been preserved, but after that date the site was covered by medieval towers and castles, which were constructed from the surrounding ancient buildings. These feudal construc- tions were demolished in the thirteenth century, after which the site became a dumping ground and rubbish heap. The buildings themselves, both ancient and medie- val, as they were dismantled and pulled down for the sake of their building material, served by their downfall to raise still further the level of the debris by which they were surrounded. In some places, at the time of recent excava- Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 1 1 1 tions, the soil had risen forty feet above the ancient level. The use of the ruins as quarries continued here, and else- where in Rome, to the middle of the eighteenth century. We see on the left of the general view of the Forum some remains of the dwellings of the vestal virgins, one of whose duties it was to tend the sacred fire which was kept burning in the Temple of Vesta. The round foundations of this temple are visible in the illustration. Beyond this foundation we see on the left three columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, which date from a re- construction of this temple by Tiberius. The original temple commemorated the victory of the Romans over the Latins at Lake Regillus, in B. C. 496, and was dedicated to the twin gods whose aid was thought to have turned the tide of bkttle. Next come the foundations of a basilica which was erected by Julius Caesar. The Temple of Saturn, whose columns appear in the foreground on page 20, was the seat of the earliest public treasury. The present remains belong to a restoration of the Roman decadence. Just to the right of this was the Temple of Concord, of which only a portion of the platform is in position. Then come the three remaining columns of a temple built by Domitian. Next to these we see the Arch of Septimius Severus, which commemorated his victories in the Tigris- Euphrates Valley (Fig. 52), and on the right in the foreground is the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (see also Fig. 47). The Basilica of Constantine (Fig. 51) is directly ad- jacent to this last-named ruin. This building was erected by Maxentius and dedicated under Constantine. What is seen of the Basilica of Constantine in the illustration is the ii2 Roman and Medieval Art. ruin of one of its side aisles, whose arches have a height of sixty-eight feet. The span of the central nave was eighty feet and its height 112 feet. The ground plan was about 300 feet by 264 feet. This ruin is the finest surviving example of the Roman system of vaulting and served as a model for the modern Church of St. Peter, whose nave has a corresponding width. It also illustrates the important part which was played in Roman building by the use of concrete. This concrete was poured in a fluid state into timber casings, in which it set and hardened. The size of these casings was regulated by the convenience of construction and would have corresponded in the lower part of this building to the thickness of the piers, but not to their height. The piers were built in a series of sections and the casing was raised or reconstructed as the work went on. Only the facings of the piers and arches were of brick. This method of building avoided the ' ' thrust ' ' which is exercised by an arch or vaulting wholly composed of brick or -stone ; for the arch was, so to speak, cast solid as regards most of the material used in its construction. The exterior brick facings were in their turn covered by a casing of precious marbles and by decorations of Greek columns, entablatures, and pediments, in the style described in a previous chapter. A large Corinthian column which once faced one of the piers of the Basilica of Constantine now stands in front of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The general disappearance of the marble decorations of such buildings is due partly to the use of the columns in later constructions, and partly to the medieval habit of burning the marbles for the manufacture of lime and mortar. In the recent excavations of the Forum remains Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. of three lime-kilns were found on the platform of the basilica built by Julius Caesar. The above remarks as to the use of concrete, of brick facings, and of the marble facing which covered the brick walls will also apply to the Baths of Caracalla (Fig. 50). North of the Roman Forum and in its immediate neigh- borhood are the three columns of a Temple of Mars Ultor, built by Augustus, and famous for their beautiful Corinthian capitals. In this neighborhood are also two columns and a portion of the wall of the Forum built by the emperor Nerva( Fig. 73). The projecting entabla- tures resting on these col- umns are an exaggeration of the ordinary Roman breaks in the line of the entablature. These breaks are due to the use of the Greek column as a wall deco- ration. In this instance, although the columns stand free from the wall they are still purely ornamental and the jut- ting entablature is a result. South of the Roman Forum lies the Capitoline Hill, which is now covered by a confused mass of ruins belong- ing to the palaces of the Caesars. Among them was a palace seven stories high built by Septimius Severus. Remains of this building were standing as late as the sixteenth century. East of the Roman Forum lies the Arch of Titus and next comes the Colosseum. The Arch of Titus commemorates the destruction of FIG. 73. THE FORUM OF NERVA. Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. Jerusalem by this emperor, 70 A. D. On the inner walls of the arch are reliefs showing portions of the triumphal procession which celebrated this conquest of the Jews. On one side is seen the emperor in his chariot ; on the other, Roman soldiers bearing the seven-branched candle- stick of gold and other spoils of the Jewish temple. These reliefs are significant, like those of the Column of Trajan, for an impor- tant distinction between Greek and Roman sculpture. Matter-of- fact history was not treated by Greek relief- sculpture, whose sub- jects were wholly relig- ious and mythological. The same practical and utilitarian point of view which we find in the Roman preference for portrait- sculpture as FlG " 75 - THE ARCH OF TlTUS ' contrasted with the Greek indifference to portrait art is illustrated here. (For a typical Greek relief see page 73.) It must be remembered that these Greek reliefs were con- stantly copied by Roman art ; but similar ones from the field of Roman mythology were not originated. Our picture of the Arch of Titus (Fig. 75) shows the Colosseum in the distance and explains its location as related to the Roman Forum. This largest of the Roman amphitheaters is a fine instance of the imposing effects which may be achieved by plain masonry construction, as well as of the massive character and monumental propor- n6 Roman and Medieval Art. tions of the Roman buildings. This amphitheater was founded by Vespasian and completed by Titus (80 A. D.), but it appears probable that the upper stories were origi- nally of timber and that the reconstruction of these in masonry was achieved at a later date. The exterior circumference, which has an elliptical plan, is nearly one third of a mile. The exterior long diameter is 615 feet, and the corresponding shorter diameter is 510 feet The FIG. 76. RELIEF FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS. seating capacity was 87,000. The seats, but not the arena, were protected by an awning. In the middle of the eighteenth century the further destruction of the Colosseum, for the sake of its building material, was stopped by Pope Benedict XIV., who con- secrated the interior by the erection of a number of small chapels in memory of the Christian martyrs whose Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 117 blood was shed here. Fig. 53 shows the arena with these small shrines, as it appeared before the excavations of 1874. The purpose of these was to lay bare the subter- ranean dens, and arrange- ments for raising the scen- ery and cages of wild beasts through the trap doors in the wooden floor- ing of the arena. The result of these excavations has been to destroy much of the picturesque beauty of the ruin and they have not added any important knowledge to the archaeol- ogy of the special subject. The games of the gladia- tors were given up at the opening of the fifth cen- tury, during the reign of the emperor Honorius. FIG. 77. THE COLOSSEUM. The name of Colosseum is thought to have been derived from a colossal bronze statue of Nero which long stood near it. Close to the Colosseum stands the Triumphal Arch of Constantine. It commemorates his victory over his rival Maxentius in 311 A. D. , from which is dated the triumph of Christianity in the Roman state. Most of the relief decorations of this arch were taken from the Arch of Trajan, which was destroyed for this purpose. Some smaller reliefs dating from the time of Constantine are of marked inferiority to the others and the decadence of the late Roman sculpture is well illustrated by this re-use of the decorations of an earlier monument. n8 Roman and Medieval Art. FIG. 78. THE TEMPLE OF VESTA (SO-CALLED). The imposing re- mains of the Baths of Caracalla (Fig. 50) are about half a mile (in a straight line) south of the Colosseum. In their present con- dition they are a magnificent illus- tration of the work done by the Ro- mans in brick and concrete, and of their arches and vaultings, .but there is nothing left of the architectural decorations, marble casings, mosaics, etc. The total area occupied by the grounds and buildings was nearly 1,100 feet square. The main building was 720x372 feet. Only the general dimensions and main constructive features of the larger apartments can be gathered from a su- perficial study of the existing remains. There are several ancient monuments in that quarter of modern Rome which is bordered by the Forum, the Tiber, and the Palatine and Capitoline Hills. Be- sides the SO-called FIG. 79. GATEWAY OF THE MONEY-CHANGERS. Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 1*9 Temples of Vesta (Fig. 78) and of Fortuna Virilis (Fig. 46), already mentioned, we find in this quarter the so- called Arch of Janus, probably dating from the time of Constantine, and the small Arch of the Money-changers, who erected it in honor of Septimius Severus (Fig. 79). This is, properly speaking, a gateway and not an arch. A more important ruin in the same quarter of the city is FIG. 80. THE THEATER OF MARCELLUS. that of the Theater of Marcellus (Fig. 80), built by Julius Caesar, but dedicated by Augustus and named after his nephew Marcellus. Tt is said to have seated 20,000 spec- tators. The one ancient building of the whole Roman world, now in fair preservation both inside and out, is the great dome structure known as the Pantheon (Fig. 81). This 120 Roman and Medieval Art. lies about midway between the Theater of Marcellus and the Tomb of Hadrian. Although this building was dedicated, after construction, to the gods of the con- quered nations, it is thought to have been connected with the Baths of Agrippa, which stood directly beside it. That the original destination of the Pantheon was that of a swimming bath has been contested, but not dis- proven, and very recent publications support this view with strong arguments. The building is, at all events, the best surviving illustration of the great domes which were usually constructed in the Roman baths. 'Nie interior diameter of the dome is 140 feet and the height about the same. It is very effectively lighted by_ an orifice at the center of the dome. The exterior portico is of very im- posing dimensions and the most famous ex- tant example of the Roman imitations of a Greek temple front. The form of a Greek temple portico is not, however, a logical development from the plan of a . dome building, and we have here another instance of Ro- man imitative methods based on Greek art and applied to constructive forms which are not found in Greek architec- ture. The pitch of the pediment is more acute than that; found in the original Greek temples, where the angle is low and obtuse. (Compare the view of the Greek temple at Egesta, Fig. 22). The ancient bronze doors of the Pantheon are still in position. Since the seventh century FIG. 81. THE PANTHEON. Rome. Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 121 it has been used as a Christian church (Santa Maria Ro- tonda). This building may be regarded as the parent- of the dome of v St. Peter's,, whose construction was undoubt- edly suggested by it. Near the Pantheon stands the Column of Marcus Aure- lius, which is similar to that of Trajan and of equal height, but not as interesting in^ its details nor as beautiful in FIG. 82. THE PYRAMID OF CAIUS CESTIUS AND PORTA PAOLA. its proportions. In the same neighborhood there are eleven Corinthian columns of a temple of Neptune, built by Hadrian, which have been built into a modern con- struction. The so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, which is situ- ated near the walls of the city on its eastern side, is the ruin ,of a bath of which there are no literary records. In 122 Roman and Medieval Art. general appearance and character of preservation it much resembles the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. At three of the gates of the modern city we find relics of antiquity. The Pyramid of Caius Cestius, just outside the Porta San Paolo, is a tomb which illustrates the influence of Egyptian art on the taste of the empire (Fig. 82). It dates a few years before the beginning of the Christian era. FIG. 83. THE PORTA MAGGIORE AND TOMB OF EURYSACES. In the Porta Maggiore (east side of the city) we have the arches of a Roman city -gate which supported the conduits of two aqueducts built by the emperor Claudius (Fig. 83). The gable-shaped pediments above the niches (originally designed for statues) are a reminder of the Roman origin Ancient Rome as Seen by Moderns. 123 of a very familiar furniture and architectural decoration of our own day. This feature of the Renaissance style has already been mentioned (page 89). The monument beside this gate is that of a baker and grain purveyor of the late republic named Eurysaces. It is composed of stone imitations of measures for grain, some of which are placed erect while others are laid on the side. Our list of ruins in the city of Rome closes with the Arch of Drusus, father of the emperor Claudius, dating 8 B. C. The. road which passes through this arch fol- lows the line of .the Appian Way. The aqueduct leading t o the Baths of Caracalla was subsequently carried above this arch, thus destroying the pediment by which it was crowned (Fig. 84). Outside the walls of the city, aside from the tombs of the Appian Way, the most interesting ruins are those of the aqueducts already mentioned. These cover the Cam- pagna in all directions. Measured by the length of the aqueduct itself, which sometimes follows a winding course, the longest was fifty-nine miles, and the shortest eleven miles in length. These constructions were not confined to the use of conduits raised on arches, as would appear from FIG. 84. THE ARCH OF DRUSUS. 124 Roman and Medieval Art. the visible ruins, but the water was frequently carried underground as well as on the level. As the Romans were not acquainted with the use of cast-iron pipes they were obliged to maintain a very gentle descent in the general course of the aqueduct to prevent the bursting of the conduits by pressure. hence the use of the conduit raised on arches, when carried over a plain, which appears so largely on the Campagna. CHAPTER IX. THE ROMAN DECADENCE. THE great service of the Roman Empire to the nations of Western Europe ultimately caused its own great weakness. It had brought the Gauls, the British, the Spaniards, and the west and south Germans within the pale of civilization, but it could not leaven so large a mass of population with its own culture without suffer- ing a corresponding loss of vitality and without sacri- ficing the standards of perfection in literature, in art, and in public taste which it had either inherited or trans- ferred from the older Greek culture of the eastern Medi- terranean, The history of the beginnings of the empire and its art is not a history of evolution or development (outside of politics) so much as it is a history of diffusion and of transfer. The arch with its borrowed Greek decorative adjuncts spread from Italy all over Western Europe (Fig. 36). The style of Roman-Greek sculpture was found in Hungary and in Britain (Figs. 33, 35), but there was a certain loss of quality involved in these transfers. The Roman Italian himself was a borrower, as we have seen, therefore he could not lend too lavishly to others without encroaching on his own resources. In the very beginnings of the empire the party of reaction against the policy of favoring the provincials had instinctively foreseen these results. Caesar was assassinated because he had admitted Gauls and Spaniards to the Roman Senate. In this policy 125 126 Roman and Medieval Art. he represented the march of events, but this march of events led to the decline and downfall of ancient civilization in one sense, though not in all. In the first century of the empire we naturally dis- tinguish excellencies in the art of the capital city and of Italy which do not hold of the Roman art of Gaul or of Africa. As the provinces became more thoroughly Ro- manized, their still inferior art and culture reacted on the capital city and on Italy at large. In the second century A. D. we thus distinguish a certain decline, for in- stance, in the general quality of the sculpture done at Rome ^s com- pared with that of the first century A. D. In the third century of. the Christian era the de- cline was so rapid in the art of ancient sculpture that the close of the century had almost wit- nessed the downfall of this art, as regards the production of any repre- sentative examples which could be quoted beside the masterpieces of antiquity. In architecture the same change was going on as regards the purity of classic Greek details and the refinements of masonry construction. The monuments ^IG. 85. WALL PAINTING. THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. Catacomb of St. Calixtus. CHRIST AND Cataco Fourth Century. The Roman Decadence. I 27 which would illustrate this decline in classic buildings are mainly lacking in Italy, but the fragments which exist are sufficient testimony. We might specify, for instance, the base Ionic capitals and the unfluted columns (also lacking the entasis) of the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum (page 20). In the buildings of the east Jordan territory, which belong mainly to this time, there are numerous instances of the corruption and disintegration of classic architecture. Throughout the first three centuries of the Christian era there was another element of disintegration of classic art involved in the rise and rapid spread of the Christian religion. The bitter persecutions of the second and third century are only a witness to the large number of converts then existing, and the action taken by the emperor Con- stantine at the opening of the fourth century definitely announced that the Christians formed the majority of his subjects. Although the emperor was himself baptized on his death-bed, it is clear that his earlier action in placing Christianity under state protection and giving it a state recognition was based on political motives, and that it was intended to secure, as it did secure him, the political support of the majority of his subjects in his own struggle for power against his rival, Licinius. In contrasting this political recognition of the Christian faith in the fourth century with the bitter persecutions which preceded, it is well to remember that Roman policy was in general one of toleration to all religions, but that it only recognized those of national character. Sects and schisms within the national limit could not be tolerated without sacrificing the national good-will to Rome which the policy of toleration was intended to secure. Christian- ity was at first considered a sect or schism of the Jews, 128 Roman and Medieval Art. whose own faith was tolerated. The refusal of the Chris- tians to do divine honors to the emperor, which to them was contrary to conscience, was also supposed by the pagans to be an indication of disloyalty to the state. The general tolerance practiced by the Romans is in- dicated by the dedication of the Pantheon to the gods of the conquered nations (page 120). These explanations may serve to show that there was no real break with Roman political traditions involved in FIG. 86. BASILICA CHURCH OF THE MANGER. Bethlehem. Fourth Century. the triumph of Christianity, and that this triumph was a logical continuation of the idea which the Romans had represented in ancient politics. They had repre- sented the ideal of the political brotherhood of man, and the spiritual brotherhood announced by Christianity was a The Roman Decadence. 129 logical result. The Romans had broken down the preju- dices of national antagonism and had united all the nations of the civilized world, as then existing, under one govern- ment. The downfall of national religions in favor of a uni- versal religion was a counterpart of this movement. But the decadence and absolute downfall of ancient art were an inevitable consequence of the triumph of Christianity. Ancient temple architecture was pagan ; ancient sculpture was pagan and ancient painting was pagan. The destruction of the idols and the temples was the first duty and the first act of the successful Christians. That the Greek statues had been personifications of noble and beautiful ideas was not so clear to the early Christians as it is to us. With them the imputation of idolatry involved the wholesale condemnation of the art. There was involved here a double cause of art decay. First and foremost the art of sculpture was abandoned in so far as its subjects had been mythical or religious, that is to say pagan. Now, aside from Roman portraits almost the entire ancient art was ostensibly mythical in subject. The cessation of patronage involved the downfall of the art. There was furthermore the antagonism of the Chris- tian ideal of those days to the ancient ideal of beauty and physical well-being as expressed in sculpture. The mission of the Christian was to exalt the things of the spirit above the things of the body poverty, humility, long-suffering, and the mortification of human desires were the virtues which he exalted. There was, moreover, a natural bond of connection between the deterioration of Roman art (in- volved in its widespread diffusion among the provincials) and the triumph of the Christians. For in this triumph was involved a revolution in the social order and in the standing of the classes of society. The Christian faith 130 Roman and Medieval Art. found its first converts among the poor and lowly. It spread most rapidly among the lower orders of society. Their triumph was the defeat of the aristocracies of wealth and blood which did not ally themselves with the new movement. For it was with the philosophers, with the learned, and with the well-born, that paganism especially found its strongest supporters and advocates. The de- terioration of taste and refinement, which has been ex- plained as a natural result of the diffusion of Roman culture over Western Europe, was allied with the social revolution which the triumph of the Christians carried with it. But there is still something to be said as to the deca- dence of antique Roman art, which regards the introduc- tion of foreign barbaric elements within the limits of its civilization. In the later days of the empire (third century B. C.) its borders may be roughly described, outside of Britain, as the Rhine, Danube, Black Sea, Caucasus, and the Syrian, Arabian, and African Deserts. On one of its frontier lines especially, that of the Rhine and Danube, there had long been going on a Romanizing process beyond the frontier among the German and Gothic tribes. These were semi-barbarians, of great vigor and valor, addicted to warfare and renowned for military prowess. It was among these tribes that the Roman legions of these frontiers were very largely recruited, the interior popula- tions of the empire having by long peace grown unaccus- tomed to war. A final element of deterioration was therefore the employment and settlement within the em- pire of enormous masses of barbarian troops, and ultimately not only the legions themselves were thus recruited, but certain tribes were enrolled in mass under the Roman standards and subsequently settled on Roman territory. j The Roman Decadence. The tribes so enrolled were partly Romanized and were Christian converts. It was at the close of the fifth century after Christ that all these various elements of disintegration showed FIG. 87. BASILICA OF ST. PAUL. Rome. Rebuilt 1828. Old Church, Fourth Century. their results in what historians call ' ' the downfall of the Roman Empire of the West." The Roman Christian Art. There is not the slightest reason why the Christian pictures of the catacombs and the sculptured Christian sar- cophagi, which are our main relics of early Christian art, should not be formally included with the Roman art of the ancient Roman Empire. They belong to it in time and in civilization. They reflected and shared and partly caused Jts decadence and they assist us, when so placed and 132 Roman and Medieval Art. studied, to comprehend the continuity of history as existing between the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Age. An entire century elapsed after the recognition of Chris- tianity by Constantine before the establishment of the first Germanic state in Western Europe, with which the history of the Middle Ages should properly begin.* From the FIG. 88. EARLY CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS RELIEF. THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. Ravenna. opening of the fourth century onward, there were Christian churches and there was Christian art in all the territories of the empire in Britain, France, Spain, Italy, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, the Danube countries, Macedo- nia, and Greece. The oldest standing Christian church is the Church of the Manger at Bethlehem, built in the early fourth century * The State of tne West Goths ; at first confined to Northeast Spain. The Roman Decadence. 133 and traditionally reputed to stand on the site of Christ's nativity.* This is the only positively dated standing basilica of the fourth century A. D. There are some ruins in North Africa of older churches, but in general the perse- cutions made constructions definitely assigned to worship impossible, and these persecutions were not forbidden till the opening of the fourth century. A small circular church of the fourth century, still stand- ing at Rome, is that of St. Costanza, the daughter of Con- stantine the Great, and was built as her mortuary chapel. The most famous churches of this time were the Roman church basilicas of St. Peter and St. P.aul, each reputed to be on the site of the martyrdom of its saint. The St. Peter's basilica was torn down in the sixteenth century to make way for the -new church then built. The St. Paul's basilica was mainly destroyed by fire in our own century (1828), and has been since rebuilt, but one portion is ancient. In general, we are dependent on churches of the sixth, seventh, or eighth centuries for our knowledge of the earlier ones, but these are also few in number. We should not the less insist on the fact that both the western and eastern portions of the Roman Empire were full of Christian churches after the opening of the fourth century A. D. The most interesting remains of earlier Christian art are the paintings of the catacombs. These were under- ground cemeteries to which the early Christians resorted for refuge in times of persecution. Small chapels for * The three centuries which elapsed between the time when the first gospels were written and the period of Constantine were times favorable to the growth of hastily accepted and unauthorized traditions as to the actual localities of the events described by them. The record of tradition in itself is, however, often as valid and authentic as that of writing. There is as little reason /9r hastily doubting as there is for hastily accepting these traditions. Probabilities, facts, and records have to be considered for each special case, and the tradition itself is always a noteworthy and interesting thing even when proven erroneous. 134 Roman and Medieval Art. prayer and worship were occasionally associated with the burial places of eminent martyrs or saints and are the points at which these decorative paintings are found. The earliest known are probably of the second century A. D. , and they continue through the eighth century. The style FIG. 89. EARLY CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS RELIEF. CHRIST AND FOUR APOSTLES. Ravenna. of these pictures is the same as that of the contemporary pagan art. The subjects of some of them are adaptations of pagan myths to a Christian use. In one of them Christ appears as Orpheus. The catacomb pictures (paintings on the plastered walls) are small, but bright and happy in color and combined with pattern ornaments of classic style.* The remains, however, are scanty and the number known is not large. The treatment of the subjects, the "Last Supper," the "Woman at the Well," etc., has an imposing simplicity and earnestness. The technical execution and perfection of these works vary with the period and, strangely enough, we have here the spectacle of a newborn art as to subject * It is quite difficult to realize from photographs the true appearance of these frescoes. See Fig. 85. The Roman Decadence. 135 which declines in quality of style as time goes on. The third century art of the catacombs is inferior to that of the second century. This is one curious illustration of the general deterioration in ancient art whose causes have been considered. The catacombs are variously named, according to the owners of the land on which the excavation was begun. Aside from these paintings the early remains of Christian art consist mainly of coffin sculptures. The sarcophagi FIG. 90. EARLY CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS RELIEF. IN THE LIONS' DEN. DANIEL carved in relief, which were used for burial by the later Romans, continued in Christian use and 'were likewise decorated with relief-sculptures of Christian subjects. The most interesting collections of these sarcophagi are in the Lateran Museum at Rome, at Ravenna, and at Aries in 136 Roman and Medieval Art. Southern France. The practice of making these sculp- tured coffins disappeared with other late classic influences and was gradually abandoned after the fifth century A. D. It is a consideration which helps one to understand the decadence of ancient sculpture that in early Christian art its only important use was the decoration of the stone coffins, and that even this use was rapidly abandoned. Of all the arts of de- sign, that which lasted longest and which survived in finest style was the carving of ivory. This was prac- ticed for book covers and for the ' 'diptychs, ' ' or tablets of ivory, which were distributed by the consuls of the later empire in honor of their election to office. It is obviously in- different to the student in what material or how small and apparently insignificant the object is which illustrates the history or style of a period. Partly because the practice of this art was a favored one, partly because the ivory tablets did not offer the temptation to pillage in the times of the German inva- sions to which the works of metal were exposed, and partly because the ivory material has been a durable one, it is especially to the ivories that we must turn when we FIG. 91. IVORY CONSULAR DIPTYCH. VICTORY, WITH GLOBE AND SCEPTER. Fourth Century. The Roman Decadence. 137 wish to find a survival of fair antique design at a late period of the Roman decadence. The connecting links with the later art of the Middle Ages are consequently most obvious here and the way in which one period always merges into another without abrupt changes or sudden revolutions is especially well illustrated by these objects. A curious exception to the general law of inferior style and declining force in the later Roman art is offered by the art of glass. As the practice of placing objects in the tombs generally disappeared with the Christian conver- sions, we cannot trace this art farther than the sixth century, but when its relics disappear the art was at a very high level of excellence.* The explanation is a commen- tary on the general conditions which otherwise explain the decline of ancient design. Glass-making was not an art in which figure designs could be generally introduced. Therefore it did not exhibit subjects from pagan art and consequently it was not exposed to the antagonisms and destruction which befell the arts of temple architecture, of sculpture, of painting, and of metal. * There is a piece of sixth century glass illustrating this point in the New York Museum. CHAPTER X. SUMMARY. ACCORDING to the points of view laid down in this entire account of the Roman art, we may repeat and emphasize the following : (a) A certain general deterioration of taste and style is visible as early as the second century A. D., although the Roman architecture was less visibly affected than other arts by this movement. This deterioration is most appar- ent in the provincial territories and reacted on the original and native centers. It became more visibly apparent in the third century, which was the last, in general, of a dis- tinctly antique art, although the survival of antique traits and style continued in Christian art long after this time. () The decline and decadence of the antique art re- sulted partly from its wide diffusion over territories to which it was not originally native and from its transfer to populations which took and used it at secondhand. Partly, and very especially, it resulted from the spirit and influences of the Christian religion and its antagonism to the subjects and ideals of pagan art for any attack on the basis and foundations of an art necessarily results in sapping its technical powers practice and patronage being the necessary conditions of perfection. The decline of taste was again partly caused by the rise of the lower orders of society, who were especially attached to the Christian faith, and by the overthrow in power and influence of the higher classes, which had remained attached to paganism. 138 Summary. 139 The decadence of art was again caused by the influences of exterior barbarism, which in the declining physical and moral forces of the empire became its military prop and material support. (V) Roman art had originally the same general qualities and perfections, wherever found ; within the boundaries established by the ocean, by the Irish Channel, the high- lands of Scotland, the Rhine, Danube, the Black Sea, and by the Syrian, Arabian, and African Deserts. Throughout this area it represented the civilization of the peoples of the given countries at a given time, and essentially it did not represent the importation or intrusion of objects due to military conquest and foreign colonization or the erec- tion of buildings by foreign and oppressive rulers. The "Romans" of the given time were all the freemen of all these countries. (d?) The two factors of Roman art and Roman civiliza- tion were originally the technical and industrial arts of the oriental world as molded and transformed by Phenician or Etruscan and Greek style and influences, and secondly the Greek civilization itself, as independently developed in all the territories east of Italy, which subsequently became provinces of the empire, and which remained in civilization after that political change as they had been before. (e) Among the countries of the Western Mediterranean, North Africa, Spain, and Southern France had experienced foreign civilizing influences through Phenicians or Greeks, or both, before the Roman power was established in them. The countries most distinctly colonized and civilized by the native Romans alone, after the time of Roman imperial power began, were Northern France, England, Southern and Western Germany, and Hungary. (/) Roman art or civilization was that of the Italians at 140 Roman and Medieval Art. large who adopted the Latin language and became "Romans." It follows from these points that the ruins and works of art of the city of Rome and of the Italian territory are representative for many other countries where the destruction of the monuments has been more complete. The ruins and remains of other countries are to be re- garded conversely not so much as survivals of the individ- ual objects and buildings themselves as indications of an entire and universal civilization for the given area. We have seen that the most perfect picture of the old Roman world as regards the ruins of buildings is found to-day in the remote fringe of territory bordering on the Syrian Desert, for the simple reason that here only the ruins have not been treated as quarries in later times. It will also be observed that we owe to the chance destruction of two individual towns by volcanic eruptions almost all the knowledge that we possess of the domestic life of entire centuries and of many different nations. PART II. MEDIEVAL ART. PART II. MEDIEVAL ART. CHAPTER I. THE PERIOD OF THE GERMAN INVASIONS. WE may now return to our elementary summary of ancient European history (page 17) for a conception of the life of the countries of Northern Europe before the in- fluence of Roman history began to reach them. What holds broadly for Italy at one date holds broadly and successively for the Germanic or Celtic races at another and a later date. In the main the history of the art of the Middle Ages is the history of civilization in the Germanic or Germanized countries of Europe, with the all-important modifications carried by the Christian religion. At the close of the fourth century A. D. an invasion of Mongolian tribes from Asia flooded the territory north of the Black Sea and crowded against the Gothic (Ger- man) tribes who were settled north of the lower Danube. These were themselves emigrants from Scandinavia, whose appearance in Southern Europe a century before had crowded other German tribes against the Rhine frontiers and had consequently been the cause of ceaseless warfare for the Roman legions who were there posted. At the appearance of the Mongolian Huns the Goths first menaced by them (at this date Roman Christians) begged permission to pass the Danube frontier, and this was granted. These Visigoths (West Goths) were subse- 143 144 Roman and Medieval Art. quently taken into Roman pay as mercenary warriors, were then employed in warfare between rival Roman emperors, and were finally settled in Northeastern Spain, where they founded the Visigothic kingdom (412 A. D.), which spread over most of Spain and over Southwestern France. Meantime other German tribes had been pushed by the Huns across the Rhine (406). The Roman emperors of Western Europe* had now become so dependent on the foreign troops that one of their chieftains (Odoacer) him- self took the title of King of Italy in 476, although he pro- fessed nominal allegiance to the eastern emperor and con- sidered himself as his military deputy. After and before this time, during the century and a half between 400 and 550 A. D., there was a chaos of contending armies and a general mele*e between the German tribes and the Roman civilization of the West, in which the Christian faith of both parties and the German habit of serving nominally or actually as Roman soldiers did much to soften and mitigate the horrors of war and the sufferings of the vanquished party. The general result of these invasions was by no means the extermination or even conquest (in an odious sense) of the old Romanized populations of Italy, Spain, and France, among whom so many Germanic people now became settled. But the general result was most dis- tinctly a great depression or absolute cessation of com- mercial prosperity, a general impoverishment of the refined and cultured classes, and the elevation to power of rude and illiterate military chieftains whose equally uncultivated * As the title of emperor corresponded to that of general-in-chief, it had been customary since Diocletian's time (300 A. D.) on account of the constant pressure on the frontiers (of Persia as well as of Germany) to divide the imperial power be- tween generals (emperors) of the East and West. These were frequently rivals and engaged in civil wars which much weakened the state. The Period of the German Invasions. warriors become the great landowners and the ruling caste of Europe. Learning took refuge in the church. The clergy were the only power which could cope with the rough characters of the military caste. The Germanic settlers were sincere although supersti- tious and illiterate Christians, and the old Roman rule con- tinued in this spiritual guise. Bishops and priests were the successors of the emperors and consuls. FIG. 92. ANGLO-SAXON WHALEBONE CASKET. British Museum. The Anglo-Saxon states of England (founded after 449) were the only ones which were not Christian at the time of foundation and England was the only country in which the actual displacement, or comparative extermination, of one race by another was the result of the invasions. These in- 146 Roman and Medieval Art. volved, for the time being, an utter downfall of the old Roman and Christian civilization of Britain, whose fate was much harder than that of any other Roman country. During the sixth century the Germanic Prankish state, from which modern France is named, gathered power in this country and in Germany. In Italy the half-century rule of the Germanic east Goths was succeeded by that of the Germanic Lombards. Here also the power of the east Roman emperor was again permanently established over certain coast territories, including the city of Rome, but was especially powerful at Ravenna and in neighboring territory on the upper Adriatic coast of Italy. All these political and social changes point to and ex- plain a culmination of the art decadence and a long period of at least apparent barbarism in the civilization and art of Western Europe. There are some main things to be said on the general question of the culture of this time down to the Italian Renaissance and the beginnings of modern history. The Germans before the invasions were by no means a barbaric or savage people, but the warfare, pillage, and marauding of the warrior caste lowered their morals when their homes became unsettled. As northerners and as Germans, unused to the luxuries and refinements of Roman life and the climate of southern countries, their manners became more lax and their natures were deteri- orated after the invasions, as is always the case when a ruder people is thrown into contact with one more highly civilized. There is then an undeniable element of semi-barbarism in the culture and therefore in the art of the earlier Middle Ages. Moreover, there were successive setbacks involved in the leavening of still other uncultivated tribes or nations The Period of the 'German Invasions. 147 after the process had been accomplished for some. The progress which had been made in France between the sixth and ninth centuries was again arrested by the North- men's raids from Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Danes in England were the same people FIG. 93, TENTH CF:NTURY WALL PAINTING. THE ANNUNCIATION. Church of San Clemente, Rome. under another name and did the same injury here. After the Danes and the Northmen had been worked over into the medieval system the same process had to be repeated with the Hungarians of Eastern Europe (bar- barian settlers from Asia in the tenth century), with the Slavonic populations of Eastern Europe, and with the native inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These successive and repeated contests of dawning civiliza- tion with new races and new difficulties absorbed much of the energy of the medieval populations and retarded the progress of those which had been first Romanized. 148 Roman and Medieval Art. Of the entire Middle Ages, however, it must be said that much which appears to us barbarous in their design is merely the result of the early Christian prejudice against the study of natural form and of the early Christian in- difference to natural beauty. The learner could not rise above his teacher in such a matter because he had otherwise too much to learn, and the Germanic states of Europe long accepted the style of the Roman decadence with the same unquestioning faith which they professed in their new religion. It was in fact entirely re- ligious art which they practiced and this was naturally a borrowed art. In our own times design is taught for its own sake and for the sake of imitating na- ture. As the imitation of nature was not the object of the medieval art, which only aimed at religious instruction or expression of religious sentiment, there was less attention to the question of nature. The ugliest and most barbaric designs of the period become intensely interesting when we view them as historic monuments and as traditional types. The subject and its meaning are always to be considered first and the execu- tion second. From the subject we learn what interested the people, how great was their faith, and how this faith was expressed in every possible visible way which was open to them. FIG. 94. CARVED IVORY BOOK COVERS. SAINTS OR APOSTLES. Ravenna. Tenth Century. CHAPTER II. THE BYZANTINE ART. IT is not till the eleventh century that we see spon- /taneous efforts at improved design in Western Europe, and for that date the existing monuments of such spon- taneous efforts are quite rare for instance, the bronze cathedral doors made under direction of Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim. Meantime we see either survivals of the old classic decadence, as represented by some of the sarcophagi of Ravenna (Figs. 89, 90); or efforts of more or less untrained barbarism or ignorance (Figs. 92, 93); or what is known as the "Byzantine" style. This last was native to Eastern Europe and the Roman territories of the eastern Mediterranean, but is found in widespread examples also in all parts of Western Europe. It should be explained that these three classes of art works are not to be conceived as existing at one time in one ter- ritory. The coexistence of the Byzantine style with semi- barbaric art is to be expected. The coexistence of the survival of the older classic decadence (Fig. 90) with the Byzantine style is also to be expected. But the classic de- cadence survival will, generally speaking, exclude the bar- baric art and for obvious reasons. Being a survival it is confined to certain localities which for one reason or another had escaped the more overwhelming devastations of the in- vasions. Aries (in Southern France), Rome, and Ravenna, are the places where this style is best represented and it scarcely survived the sixth century. Otherwise we find its 149 FIG. 95. CHURCH OF ST. MARK. VESTIBULE WITH MOSAICS. Venice. The Byzantine Art. 151 examples, and some peculiarly fine ones, in ivories, and for the reason that this art was much practiced and consequently preserved a higher traditional standard of excellence. The Byzantine style is naturally found coexistent with the semi- barbaric art because it represented the intrusive art of imported Byzantine workmen or was itself actually imported. We also find various stages of imitation of the Byzantine style, so that there are all possible transitions between a wholly clumsy, untrained, early, medieval effort and a highly finished product of the pure Byzantine style (Figs. 92, 94, 96). We shall now consider this style somewhat more closely. As regards its name we observe that Byzantium was the older title of the Greek colony on the Bosphorus, whose site was selected by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century for the new capital of his empire. As to all the reasons which inspired Constantine in this transfer of the seat of the capital from Rome we are not clear, but the most important one is obvious. As the residence of the emperor (who was always a military man and com- mander in chief of the army above everything else) Byzantium was halfway between the two frontiers which were most in danger in the fourth century, viz. , the lower Danube and the upper Euphrates. Although this capital has always been known as Constantinople since the time of Constantine the adjective "Byzantine" (probably for reasons of euphony as preferable to ' ' Constantinopolitan ' ' ) has always been applied by moderns to the empire whose sole capital it became after the German tribes founded their new states in the Western Empire. The Byzantine Empire is simply, therefore, the Roman Empire under a new name, which name is applied to it for the period after the German invasions and is therefore to be understood as 152 Roman and Medieval Art. meaning the empire bereft of those territories which became the Germanic states of the Middle Ages. As the Ottoman Turks conquered, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, all the countries of the Byzantine Empire, a map of Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia in its widest extent (and before recent nineteenth century losses) will give a fair idea of its territories. In its most flourishing period, which was the time of the emperor Justinian (sixth century), it included for a short time also the whole of Italy, and it retained possession of Ravenna and the "exarchate of Ravenna" until the close of the eighth century. It also ruled in Justinian's time the whole of North Africa. This territory, together with Egypt and Syria, passed to the Arabs in the seventh century. The empire lasted in Asia Minor till the fourteenth century, and in Eastern Europe till the fifteenth century (1453). These political facts are essential to the comprehension of the influence of Byzantine art in Western Europe and of the long-continued duration of this influence. The peculiar style of Byzantine design is shown by a number of illustrations (Figs. 96-100), which are, how- ever, highly unfair to it where color is concerned, and that is to say in the case of all mosaics. The evolution of this style from the earlier classic art of the Roman-Greek eastern countries is not represented by existing monu- ments. We find it in the sixth century fully developed, and the transition stages are not well known to us. It is clearly a style which grew out of traditional repe- tition of set designs pictures of saints, Bible stories, etc. without the least reference to correction by observation of natural forms, and this indifference to nature has been explained as an element of the eaj-ly Christian movement \ (page 129). The figures are unnaturally elongated, the FIG. 96. BYZANTINE MOSAIC. St. Mark's, Venice. 154 Roman and Medieval Art. attitudes are formal and motionless, the expressions are rigid, conventional, and lifeless. The technical execution is frequently or generally of finished perfection for the given material. Mosaics. Aside from architecture itself, the best efforts of Byzan- tine art were devoted to church decoration and especially to decoration in glass mosaics. It is here that the east Romans succeeded best and that their art, for the given purpose, was entirely adequate. In this art also, their own workmen were sought for in all other countries, and through this art their influence is most apparent and was most felt in Western Europe. The most important surviving example of a church interior decorated with mosaics is the Church of St. Mark at Venice, begun in the tenth century, which is also the tomb and shrine of the (supposed) body of the saint, which was brought at that time from Alexandria, in Egypt. The mosaics are not all of the date of the church and some have been considerably restored, but the general effect corresponds to what it has always been. The back- grounds of the glass mosaics are invariably gold,* the other colors are brilliant or warm in tone and beautifully harmonized and contrasted. The formalism of the designs assists the color effects and is largely essential to them. This is because colors are more effective when boldly opposed and contrasted with one another, and less effective when connected by shaded transitions or modified tints. When colors are directly contrasted there must be a boundary between them, that is to say, a formal line. * In the developed Byzantine style. A blue background was used in the very early Christian mosaics. The Byzantine Art. 155 That these outlines may be beautiful and in a sense natural is true, and the Greeks so understood the art of decorating with figures, but it is also true that as far as color results are concerned the beauty of the form is a matter of indiffer- ence. This appears in the fine color effects of many oriental designs whose forms are stiff and unnatural. It is when we study the mosaics in their architectural position and in their decorative " color results that the peculiar Byzantine style is seen at its best and for the given use and FIG. 97. BYZANTINE MOSAIC. PROCESSION OF SAINTS. San Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. Sixth Century. place it then seems absolutely perfect from a decorative point of view. For some reasons the mosaics of the Ravenna churches are superior to those first mentioned. The fifth and sixth centuries did best. in this art, and those of St. Mark's are too late in time to represent the best works as regards composition and detail. It is in the preservation of the color effect of an entire interior that St. Mark's stands fore- 1 156 Roman and Medieval Art. most. At Ravenna, San Apollinare Nuovo exhibits an interior whose side walls are still entirely covered with mosaics of the sixth century, the only existing church oi the basilica type in the world which can claim this distinc- tion. The main wall surfaces show processions of saints issuing from the cities of Ravenna and Jerusalem and terminating with an Adoration of the Magi and a group of angels with the Madonna and infant Savior. The Church of San Apollinare in Classe, at Ravenna (sixth century), has preserved the mosaic of its apse, or choir, dating a century later than the church, a picture of Christ as the Good Shepherd with his flock. In the tomb chapel of Galla Pla- cidia, at Ravenna, there is a fine mosaic of the fifth century, "Christ as the Good Shepherd." In the Church of San Vitale, at Ravenna, are the famous mosaic por- traits of the emperor Justinian and his empress, Theodora, surrounded respectively by courtiers and ladies of the court (Fig. 98). The mosaics of the ancient Roman churches are gener- ally of inferior quality or preservation, but the apse mosaic FIG. 98. BYZANTINE MOSAIC DETAIL. HEAD OF THE EMPRESS THEODORA. San Vitale, Ravenna. Sixth Century. The Byzantine Art. 157 of the Church of Santi Cosma and Damiano on the Roman Forum has a sixth century mosaic of the Savior as Judge, in colossal proportions, which is the grandest existing work of early Christian art. The Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople (now a mosque) has mosaics entirely filling its dome, but these have been whitewashed by the Turks and are not visible. Of later date than the early mosaics of St. Mark's or of Ravenna are those of the Cathedral of Monreale, near Palermo, and of the Capella Palatina at Palermo. Both of these, and especially the former, are magnificent instances of this system of decoration. Aside from the cities or churches mentioned, remains of early church mosaics are almost unknown, although there were once many of them in Europe. The art de- clined rapidly after the tenth and eleventh centuries. The causes of this decline were especially the inde- pendent developments of native talent in Western Europe after this date and the abandonment of the habit of em- ploying the Byzantine workmen who were familiar with the art. Fresco paintings then took the place of mosaics both in Northern and Southern Europe, and almost nothing was attempted in this line in Italy after the begin- ning of the fourteenth century, and the rise of the school of wall painting headed by Giotto. Survivals of the art at a later date, as, for instance, in the decorations of St. Peter's in the seventeenth century, do not remotely com- pare in effect with the Byzantine works, as they were imitations of the style of the oil paintings of the same date. A realistic pictorial style is inconsistent with the con- ditions of wall decoration because the shadings and tran- sitions of color prevent contrast, and the objects taken in mass, being too numerous and too much detailed, lose the 158 Roman and Medieval Art. necessary effects of dimension, simplicity, and balance. In mosaic there is the farther necessary and natural limitation inherent in the coarse material and in the size of the individual cubes of which the picture was composed. No effort was made in the Byzantine style to refine the picture FIG. 99. BYZANTINE MOSAIC. THH DAY OF PENTECOST. Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. Fifth Century. beyond the natural limitations of the material used and this is their great decorative merit. Fig. 98 illustrates this frank exhibition of the material. There is no doubt, however, that the stiffness, rigidity, and formalism of Byzantine art were exaggerated and perpetuated by the methods of the mosaic style, which subsequently reacted on the minor arts. Byzantine oil paintings are often obvious imitations of the mosaic style (Fig. 100). The Byzantine Art. 159 It is from this point of view therefore that the topic of Byzantine painting is best approached. The subjects were invariably religious and treated traditionally. The illus- tration represents the type of panel pictures which were general in Italy until the fourteenth century. The art of the Greek Church in eastern Mediterranean countries has perpetuated this style down to the present century. It still survives also in Russia, which obtained its civilization, art, and religion from the Byzantine state. Sculpture, as practiced for life-size figures, was almost absolutely un- known to Byzantine art, which shared the helplessness and incapacity of all early Christian times in this sense. But there was also at one period of Byzantine history a movement in the Greek Church which was headed and promoted by certain emperors (the iconoclasts, or image-breakers) which antagonized the use of images in churches, paintings included. As a theory enforced by law or religious zeal the iconoclast movement was not lasting ; but, in matter of fact, the Byzantine art only practiced sculpture of the human figure in exceptional cases. It is mainly in relief carvings, which approximate to pictorial art, that the art of sculpture is found in wood-carving, in ivory carving, and in worked metal. These materials were variously employed for caskets, especially reliquaries, shrines, altars, book-covers, trip- tychs, etc. The "triptychs" were small altars with fold- ing panels, or wings, used for private devotion. The foregoing historical accounts of the German in- FIG. 100. BYZANTINE MA- DONNA OF A TYPE COM- MON IN ITALY. 160 Roman and Medieval Art. vasions and Germanic states, of the Byzantine Empire, and of the general conditions of civilization in Eastern and Western Europe, as assisted by the illustrations, will give a fair idea of the medieval art of design between the fifth and the eleventh centuries (500-1000 A. D. ). No gen- eral account of this time would, however, be complete which did not emphasize the importance of Irish civiliza- tion and of the influence of the Irish monks in England, France, and Germany. During the invasions Ireland be- came the refuge of the art and learning of Western Europe ; for this island escaped the terrors of invasion and consequently became a center for the diffusion of later civilization in Europe, only second in importance to the Byzantine Empire. Otherwise, it may be said of this period that the forces of civilization in Western Europe w-ere weakest in Italy, because the ruin of the old culture was most sensibly felt there, and that they were strongest (outside of Ireland) in the Prankish state, which finally rose to a territorial power under the emperor Charlemagne (ninth century) which reached to the Elbe, to the borders of Bohemia and Hungary in Germany, to the Ebro in Spain, and which included the greater part of Italy. CHAPTER III. EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE. WE have so far left unconsidered the most interesting and the most important department of the art history of the early Middle Ages, viz., its architecture. There are no remains of any buildings in Northern Europe, pre- ceding the Roman period, unless the open-air temple inclosures of the older Celtic time, like Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England, should be considered as build- ings. We have seen what monuments of architecture were universal in certain European countries under the empire, and we have seen that a century of church building had passed away in direct development from the Roman classic art before the downfall of the Roman Empire in the West. The changes in architectural style which are apparent after the triumph of Christianity in the empire were not less marked than those which affected the arts of design. It is true that we can hardly point to a surviving church in Northern Europe of earlier date than the eleventh century. Crypts (underground chapels) or small portions of churches built into later ones are occasionally met with. The chapel built by Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany, now a portion of the later cathedral, and one or two oratories (small chapels) in Ireland are among the rare exceptions. But certain surviving churches of Italy enable us to picture the general style and arrangements of buildings which have disappeared. Aside from the Church of the Manger at Bethlehem and, 161 162 Roman and Medieval Art. possibly, the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, now known as the Mosque of Omar, whose date is not absolutely certain, our references for churches between the fourth and ninth centuries, inclusive, are mainly confined to Rome and Ravenna. The chief exception is the most important FIG. ioi. SAN LORENZO. Rome. Sixth Century. building of all, the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, which has been a mosque since the Turkish conquest of 1453. There are also interesting ruins of ancient churches in Armenia, in Northern Syria, and in the east Jordan country. As regards the ancient surviving churches of Rome it must be said that those which have preserved their old appearance are comparatively unimportant in respect to size or decorative details. Others of larger size and Early Christian Architecture. 163 greater fame have been so transformed b/ the restorations, rebuilding, and would-be improvements of later date that they have absolutely no value as archseologic references. It is in Ravenna that the most interesting survivals of the early Christian buildings of Europe are preserved. This town, which is situated on the upper Adriatic shore of Italy, is surrounded by a swampy territory which has tended to isolate it from the commerce and intercourse FIG. 102. SAN APOLLINARE Nuovo. Ravenna. Sixth Century. of later times. It has been a poor city, without enterprise, and consequently without the wealth which in other quarters has inspired the destruction of the ancient buildings, either by reconstructions and restorations of 1 64 Roman and Medieval Art. them or by actuai displacement in favor of new ones. It is significant of this general law that the cathedral church of Ravenna is a modern building, but the " improvement" of Ravenna, fortunately for the history of art, stopped here. The situation which in later times has made Ra- venna poor was once the cause of her prosperity. In the FIG. 103. SAN APOLLINARE IN CLASSE. Ravenna. Sixth Century. convulsions of the fifth century, when the western emperors had successively abandoned Rome and Milan as their capi- tals, Ravenna was chosen as their final post of refuge and defense and consequently became an important connecting link with East Rome and with Byzantine art and civiliza- tion. In the early sixth century it was the seat of the Ostro-Gothic Empire of Theodoric the Great, and in the Early Christian Architecture. 165 later sixth century it was the capital of Justinian's rule in Italy. Ravenna then became the head of that " exarchate of Ravenna" whose territories continued Byzantine until the time of the Prankish king Pepin, the father of Charle- magne. Pepin gave them to the popes and thus founded the States of the Church and the papal temporal power. There are three Ravenna churches of the sixth century which are especially important buildings for the history of art San Apollinare Nuovo, San Apollinare in Classe, and San Vitale. Some of their mosaics have been already mentioned (Figs. 97, 98). We will, however, not consider these buildings in detail aside from a general account of the system of other churches which they have survived to illustrate. There were two distinct types of churches in use during the centuries before the Romanesque cathedrals, whose his- tory begins after the year 1000 A. D. One was a continua- tion of the type of the Roman business exchange, or basilica (page 85); the other was a continuation of the type of the great domed apartments of the Roman baths (page 83). The former is the type which developed into the later medie- val cathedrals, and on this account may be given first notice. It is in the plan of these buildings rather than in details or style of ornament that the Roman system survived. We have one ancient building in Rome, the Triumphal Arch of Constantine, which shows that the Roman system of engaged exterior classic columns and entablatures was used in Italy in the fourth century, but there are no Christian churches which show any survivals of this system of ornament. Their exterior walls are of plain masonry, broken only by windows and occasionally relieved by blind arcades.* * Blind arcades are simulated arches with simulated narrow pier supports. These admit elsewhere of a slighter, thinner wall construction. See Fig. 105. 1 66 Roman and Medieval Art. The particular constructive system of the pagan Roman basilicas which was continued by the Christian churches was not like that of the Basilica of Constantine (Fig. 51), one of vaulted ceilings of masonry or concrete. The church basilicas were timber roofed. This is one of the important points in which they differ from the typical Romanesque cathedrals, which were vaulted. Such a timber-roofed basilica, whose broken columns are one of the ruins of Rome, was the one built by the Roman emperor Trajan. The ground plan of a Roman basilica was oblong and rectangu- lar, with longitudinal divisions into a central nave and side aisles and terminating in a semicircular apse, or large niche, facing the entrance. This apse was the seat of the Roman magistrate and was allotted with the adjacent portion of the building to the uses of a court of justice. It was parted from the rest of the build- ing by a transverse row of columns. These columns are not found in the church basilicas, which devoted this part of the building to the altar, to the officiating clergy, and to the bishop. In the times of the invasions the bishop FIG. 104. SAN APOLLINARE Nuovo. Ravenna. Sixth Century. Early Christian Architecture. 167 of the city took the place of the earlier Roman magistrate in many senses and there was a certain continuity of his- tory in this arrangement. The apse is thus the origin of the choir of the cathedral, FIG. 105. SAN APOLLINARE IN CLASSE. Ravenna. Sixth Century. which finally reached enormous dimensions in the period of the Gothic. The division of the nave and aisles is also one of great importance in the plan of the later cathedrals. This results from the higher elevation of the nave as arranged for 1 68 Roman and Medieval Art. the convenience of lighting the structure from above ; for it is the supports of the nave which constitute the division. The arrangement is additionally explained by its conve- nience for roofing wide structures with timber beams. If it be asked why the plan of a business exchange was adopted for churches, we can only answer that the pagan basilicas were places of large public concourse, such as were a_lso needed in Christian worship ; whereas the temples of antiquity were shrines for statues and not in- tended for large gatherings. The dimensions of the antique temple were much increased by the exterior porticoes, but the interiors were not generally of large dimensions. It was therefore the interior dimensions of the basilica which caused its plan to be chosen for churches. The supporting system of the church basilicas is one which was only known in very late Roman buildings and there is only one Roman ruin in Europe which now exhibits it the palace of Diocletian at Spalatro. The supports were columns connected with arches. In ancient Roman^ use arches were supported by piers, built of aggregated masonry, and the columns and entablatures were ornamental surface additions (Figs. 32, 36, 52). Columns, when used in actual construction, always sup- ported the straight stone beam, or lintel (Figs. 47, 48, 81), as. was the method of the Greeks. The use of the column and the arch to support the walls of the nave (Figs. 102, 103) is not absolutely universal in the ancient churches. One or two of the earlier churches of Rome employ the straight beam, as does also the Church of the Manger at Bethlehem, but the beams are not detailed in the architrave and frieze divisions of the classic entablature. In these exceptional uses of the lintel we note a survival of antique traditions, which soon yielded Early Christian Architecture. 169 to the new system and absolutely disappeared. The con- struction of arches and columns was ultimately abandoned in the Romanesque and Gothic systems for arches and piers. Thus we emphasize the use of the arch and column and the use of the timber ceiling as important points of dis- tinction between the system of the later cathedrals and the system of the basilicas. Finally, the origin of the word ' ' basilica ' ' and its trans- fer to Christian churches are matters of interest. As de- rived from the Greek word ,3affdeu$ (king), the word basilica (royal house) was a fitting designation for a church, though not apparently for a busi- ness exchange. It was first used in Athens and was there applied to a public building which had been named after one of the archons, or elective officers, who retained the title of basileus, after the abolition of the monarchy, an event antedating any records of ancient Athenian history. His office was judicial. The bell tower of the early churches was a distinct structure (Figs. 104, 105). It was subsequently attached to the building in the Romanesque period and was often doubled or quadrupled. It then developed into the Gothic tower or spire and so into the modern steeple. Through- out the Middle Ages in Italy, however, the bell tower was generally a separate structure. FIG. 106. SAN VITALE. Ravenna. Sixth Century. CHAPTER IV. THE DOME CHURCHES. THE important early surviving illustrations of the dome churches are the chapel built by Charlemagne, already men- tioned (page 161), the Church of St. Mark at Venice (page 173, Fig. 95), the Church of San Vitale at Ravenna (Fig. 1 06), the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and pos- sibly the "Dome of the Rock," or Mosque of Omar, at Jerusalem. It was the theory of the English architect, Fer- gusson, that this was a Christian church of the fourth cen- tury, built over the supposed site of the Holy Sepulcher.* The present dome, the exterior decoration of porcelain tiles, and the inserted pointed-arch windows are Arab recon- structions. Two baptisteries at Ravenna (fifth century) and the Baptistery of St. John Lateran at Rome (fifth cen- tury) are smaller buildings of the same general type. Among the buildings named and illustrated those are most obviously available as indications of the type which are most obviously of a radiating plan. The domed ceiling was natu- rally used for such a building and herein lies the distinction as compared with the long perspective view of the basilicas. It was from the great domed apartments of the Roman baths that this plan of construction was adopted and even their name was retained. They were called ' ' baptisteries, ' ' that is to say, baths ; and the title of baptistery, or bath, survived as applied to the churches copied from them. The name and plan subsequently became distinctive in *The site of the Holy Sepulcher is not supposed by any critic to be that of the present church of the name. 170 The Dome Churches. 171 Italy for a building specially designed and used for baptisms, which were always by immersion in the early church. Each Italian city of the Middle Ages possessed one of these buildings, \ which we must carefully distinguish from the baptistery churches. These were generally aban- FIG. 107. ST. SOPHIA. Constantinople. Sixth Century. doned in Western Europe after the beginning of the Romanesque period. By its grand dimensions and grand interior effect the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople surpasses all other buildings of its time and most of those which have followed it. It was built in the sixth century by the emperor Justinian. The height of the main dome from the floor is one hundred and seventy-seven feet, its diameter is one hundred and six feet. 172 Roman and Medieval Art. It is probable that the dome was more commonly employed in earlier oriental buildings than the actual remains would visibly indicate, and this view has been recently much advocated by experts of distinction. Ac- cording to this view the Roman use of the dome would go back to Mesopotamian originals, which continued its use in their earlier home down to and after the Byzantine period. There is no doubt that Byzantine architecture especially affected the dome, and that in Western Europe its use was continued by that influence. As visible re- minder of the antique originals of the form we are confined to the Pantheon at Rome, which must rank with the Church of St. Sophia as one of^the two finest dome constructions of the entire world. The merit of these buildings as compared with later ones which have used the dome, like St. Peter's at Rome, St. Paul's in London, or the Cathedral of Florence, is that the interior effect is immeasurably superior, because the domed apartment itself constitutes the whole interior. To place a dome above a portion of a cathedral, as done in the cases just mentioned, may or may not add to the exterior effect in adequate proportion to the expense and effort neces- sary in the cases named, but the dome is lost for an interior which is not distinctly planned for it. The Pisa Cathedral is by far the finest instance of a building using the dome in combination with the oblong cathedral plan, because its modest proportions do not antagonize the main plan. There is one famous church in Europe already men- tioned for its mosaic decoration which deserves more explicit notice St. Mark's at Venice. This church was not begun till the tenth century and much of its construc- tion and adornment was accomplished in the period which we usually designate as Romanesque, /'. e. , the period after The Dome Churches. 173 1000 A. D. But this terminology of periods only applies to Western Europe and Byzantine art long outlived this date in its own home. Venice was so closely connected with the Byzantine Empire and with its capital city, Con- FIG. 108. BYZANTINE CAPITALS IN ST. MARK'S AT VENICE. stantinople, that St. Mark's is the best surviving picture in the whole world of an old Byzantine church. The form of its plan is that of a short basilica, but its system of roofing is one of domes, so that it may be considered as a com- bination of the two styles of church so far described. The famous facade, in its present shape, has an overlay and crowning of Gothic carving done in the -fifteenth century, but most of the details and all the surface casing of the interior belong to the ornamental system to be described in our next chapter and furnish its most remarkable surviving illustration. CHAPTER V. BYZANTINE DETAILS* AND ORNAMENTAL SYSTEM. IN the early Middle Ages the classic buildings were plundered for their columns and capitals as long as any could be found. It is pure chance or the inexhaustible supply of ruins in certain instances (like the city of Rome, where very little building moreover was done in the later Middle Ages) that has left us any ruins at all. The piece- meal adaptation of the old material to new uses is found in many places. Besides these direct adaptations of classic forms new ones were designed in more or less original departures from them. Capitals which clearly go back to Corinthian or Ionic originals are found as late as the twelfth century. All of these had Byzantine prototypes. There is, however, a distinctive form of Byzantine capital, the cube form, expanding from the neck of the column^to an intermediate supporting member (which took the place of the ancient abacus), which has many beautiful variants. The surface ornaments of these capitals, like other orna- mental Byzantine details, are simplified evolutions from the classic scrolls, spirals, acanthus leaves, and trefoils, which they frequently also repeat in very obvious derivative forms. There are many beautiful Byzantine capitals in Ravenna, in Venice (St. Mark's), and in Constantinople. The later Romanesque churches continued many of their forms and details. The true artistic genius of the Byzantine art is nowhere so immediately obvious as in its architectural * The word " detail " is applied in architectural use to any ornamental pattern and especially to architectural carved ornament. Byzantine Details and Ornamental System. 175 ornament. Its study is moreover important as leading to the comprehension of the arabesque (or Moresque) patterns, which were originally based upon and derived from it. Aside from decorative sculptured, or stuccoed, details, the Byzantine churches employed a system of marble paneling, in which the slabs, as sawn into thin pieces, were so fitted together as to form a series of symmetrical patterns from the veining of the marble. St. Mark's at Venice and the St. Sophia Church at Constantinople show the finest examples of this work. When we add the effect of the colored mosaic decorations already described, it is clear that Byzantine architecture was a glorious and artistic creation. The peculiar failings and limitations of the figure design, when compared with the perfection of FIG. 109. ST. SOPHIA. Constantinople. FIG. no. BYZANTINE WELL. Venice. I7 6 Byzantine Details and Ornamental System. 177 Byzantine decorative art, thus appear more clearly to be due to general historic causes and are certainly not due to any element of barbarism or natural ignorance, for we know in many ways that the east Roman civilization was of a highly refined and elaborated character. As regards Western Europe in general it will be under- stood that the models furnished by Ravenna and by Venice are by no means types of an equal perfection else- where. These cities were distinctly connected with Byzan- tine civilization, one by government and the other by commerce. The meaner and more carelessly built exist- ing ancient churches of Rome would be better examples of what was done habitually in most parts of western Christen- dom between the fifth and eleventh centuries. CHAPTER VI. MOHAMMEDAN ART. As far as Europe was concerned before the fifteenth century, when the Turkish invasion overran its eastern countries, Mohammedan art was confined to Spain and Sicily. The Moors were, however, not expelled from Granada till 1492 and meantime their art had considerably influenced the Spanish Gothic. The crusaders were brought in contact with the art of Syria and Egypt when the Arabs and Turks were masters of these countries and by way of Sicily also the Arab art had influence on Southern Italy. Some slight mention of it is a proper appendix to any history of Byzantine art. It was in the seventh century that the Arabian world, under the influence of the teachings of Mohammed, began its career of foreign conquest. Of Arab art before this time we know at present nothing. It was in the east Roman provinces of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, then conquered, that the earliest Mohammedan art developed from the Byzantine. The mosques were frequently Chris- tian churches transformed to this use or were sometimes copied from them. The Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem is reputed to be of the former class. The El Aksa Mosque at Jerusalem is known to be of the latter. In later days the Turks, who became the military force of the Arabs and then converts to their Arab faith, and subsequently became the political masters of their former lords, not only converted the St. Sophia Church to their 178 FIG. in. CAPITALS AND ARABESQUES FROM THE ALHAMBRA. 179 i8o Roman and Medieval Art. own worship but also built the later mosques of Constanti- nople on modifications of its plan. It was especially the By- zantine art of Egypt which gave the first impulse to the Arab. In Cairo, where we find, aside from Damascus and Jerusa- lem, the most accessible illustrations of the early Moham- medan mosques, an open court surrounded by arcades was the plan first generally adopted. Dome buildings surmount- ing a cruciform plan were at a later day the ruling type. In these constructions and in their ornament the fanciful FIG. ii2. MOSQUE EL AKSA. Jerusalem. and imaginative nature of Arab art wandered widely from Byzantine types ; but in the elements of construction and in the elements of ornament the original forms are obvious. Columns and capitals were often plundered from Byzantine buildings and rarely are devoid of Byzantine reminiscence. Mohammedan Art. 181 The well-known law of Mohammed forbidding imitations of human or animal form in art found no obvious violations in the scrolls and trefoils of the east Roman decorative system. These were the originals of most of the patterns known as the "arabesque." A distinctive form of orna- ment is, however, the complicated and intricate linear system which has such beautiful examples in the wood- carvings of latticed windows and on sur- face panels. It is said that all the decorative works of the Arabs in Egypt were mainly executed by the Copts, the native Christian inhabitants of the country, and it has been suggested that the initiative here was also thus derived. FIG. 113. MOHAMMEDAN DOME AND DOME OF THE ROCK. Jerusalem. There is no doubt that Byzantine Egypt was the first important art school of the Arabs. The minaret, or tower, from which the worshiper was summoned to his prayers, was also an original architec- tural form. By way of North Africa and the straits of Gibraltar the Arabs invaded Spain at the opening of the eighth century, and for a time became masters of nearly the entire country. Their first onset carried them as far as Southern France. The Moors of North Africa were their converts and attendants and there is little distinction to be drawn in Spain between them. As ultimately confined to the prov- ince of Granada the Arab culture has left its most famous 182 Roman and Medieval Art. monument in the Palace of the Alhambra (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries). The great Mosque of Cordova, the Alcazar of Seville, and the great tower (minaret), known as the Giralda, in Seville, are otherwise the most quoted survivals of their Spanish architecture. Aside from their new developments of surface ornament the originality of the Arab architecture shows itself in the employment of the pointed and of the ' ' horseshoe ' ' arch. These forms were most consonant with the light and airy nature of their constructions, which were frequently of a somewhat flimsy character. It is probable that the sug- gestion for the use of the pointed arch passed into the later Gothic style through the contact of the crusaders with the Saracenic buildings of the East and through the amalgamation of the Arab and Chris- tian art, which was especially apparent in Sicily. The Arabs had conquered- Sicily in the ninth century but were displaced by the Normans as a political power in the eleventh century. As late as the thirteenth century, when Sicily became for a time a territory of the Hohenstaufen German emperors, the Saracenic culture was favored here by the liberality ot the emperor Frederic II. The Cathe- FIG. 114. ARCADES IN THE MOSQUE OF AMRU. Cairo. Mohammedan Art. 183 dral of Palermo is a famous survival of the amalgamated style resulting from this contact. In general the influence of the Arabs in Europe was most apparent in the matter of tiles and enameled clay, in the manufacture of textiles, and in the diffusion of the patterns which they habitually used in them. The word "Majolica" still bears witness to the importation into Italy of the arts of enameling or glazing pottery from the island of Majorca during its Arab period. The common glazed wares of Spain still show universally the Moresque influence, which has thus penetrated in modern times even to the similar manu- factures of Mexico and of South America. The earliest medieval manufactures of silks and velvets in Europe were at Lucca in Italy, where they were intro- duced from Sicily and from other oriental sources. Many of our modern textile patterns still bear witness to this history of the art. The importations o f the Venetians into Europe of oriental stuffs had a no less important influence. The building which bears witness in our time to the beauty of Arab tile decoration is the Mosque of Omar, at Jerusalem, whose exterior is still entirely covered with en- FIG. 115. HALL OF JUSTICE AND COURT OF THE LIONS. Alhambra. 184 Roman and Medieval Art. ameled tiles in blue and green ornament. This art was ob- tained partly in Byzan- tine Egypt and partly in Persia. The Mesopo- tamian countries were also conquered by the Mohammedans in the seventh century. In these Persian terri- tories a bastard classic art had prevailed since the fourth century B. C. This had amal- gamated in later centu- ries with the Byzan- tine, each reacting on the other. The tech- nical perfection of tile decoration was how- ever a native Mesopo- tamian art, since the days of the Chaldeans, and has especially spread from this quarter, through Arab transmission, to the modern world. FIG. 116. ARCADE IN THE ALCAZAR. Seville. CHAPTER VII. THE ROMANESQUE PERIOD. THE main periods of the art of the Middle Ages are three in number and these periods are especially apparent in architecture. They are consequently named in general according to the architectural divisions. The art of archi- tecture will be always found to be the dominant one in history and as far as classifications and systematic concep- tions are concerned it is always necessary to move from it. According to this system the Gothic period is the latest of the Middle Ages and its centuries are in round numbers those between 1 200 and 1 500 A. D. The period intervening between the Byzantine or early Christian and the Gothic will therefore be the two centuries from 1000 to 1200 A. D. As regards the designation of the first period it will be understood that Byzantine style long outlasted the eleventh century in Eastern Europe. It was in the first place coexistent with the empire from which it derives its name, which lasted till 1453. It was subsequently practiced by the Christians of the East under Turkish rule, and in Russian art it was the main factor until the nine- teenth century. Byzantine art was not universal in West- ern Europe during the early Middle Age, although it was universally influential before the eleventh century, and no high technical perfection was reached without it. The matter of fact of history on this point has been stated on page 149. There were, aside from Byzantine influences, those which moved directly from the old western Roman 185 FIG. Ft?. CATHEDRAL OF SPEYER. 86 The Romanesque Period. 187 Christian art of the fourth and fifth centuries, and there were the various semi-barbaric modifications of both. The most exact general title for the period between the fifth and eleventh centuries in Western Europe (5001000 A. D. ) would be ' ' Early Christian and Byzantine. ' ' The word Romanesque will be explained when we take up the architecture of the time. Meantime we will accept it and after making the necessary historic summary we will deal with Romanesque art as a whole, seeking first in the figure designs the connection and contrast with the earlier time. It is obvious that in actual history there are no divisions of periods there is only a continuous chain of events which is reflected in the works of man. After given intervals of more or less duration we can distinguish very obvious revolutions and changes which lead us to coin words to characterize them, and we are then obliged to notice in general the more obvious signs of the ap- proaching change which have been first observed in its entire later result. It is according to these signs of an approaching change that the opening date o{ an art period is fixed. All divisions of periods are consequently arbitrary in one sense and the transitions and connecting links which are the most interesting features of every evolution are naturally the points most to be emphasized at the begin- ning of what we call, for our own purposes of convenience, a new period. Stated broadly, the essential character of the Roman- esque period is its effort' to be itself, its effort to study nature independent of traditional forms in design, its effort to solve new architectural problems and meet new conditions of life in an independent and original way. t It is always in political and first of all in social life The Romanesque Period. 189 that a revolution in art is effected. The forms of art are the expression and result of these conditions. In general history we seize upon the career of Charle- magne and on the history of his time (ninth century ; he was crowned emperor at Rome in the year 800) as leading up to the changes which we distinguish in the eleventh century. The Prankish Germanic state, which was founded by the barbaric war chieftain Clovis in Northern France and Southern Belgium* after 481 A. D., had gradually in some cases, and rapidly in others, ab- sorbed all the territo- ries and tribes covered by the history of the German invasions, f excepting England, Spain, and South Italy, when Charle- magne became its monarch. It is then, broadly speaking, the whole of Central Europe which was in question ; bordered by Spain on the one side and by the Elbe and the frontiers of Bohemia and Hungary on the other. France, Germany, and Italy were thus the countries of his empire, which even reached to the Ebro in Spain. At this time most of the rest of Spain was Arabian, * The separation of the boundaries of those modern states naturally did not then exist, f Reference to pp. 143-148 is here suggested. 190 Roman and Medieval Art. and the Anglo-Saxons of England were so overrun by Danish barbarism that they are hardly to be considered as within the pale of civilization. The territories of Charle- magne therefore included all that were distinctly those of west European civilization. Meantime dissensions between the bishop of Rome (the pope) and his political rulers, the Byzantine emperors,* combined with the inability of these rulers to protect him from the incursions of the barbaric German Lom- bards who were settled in Italy, led to an alliance between the Prankish state and the pope. The Roman Empire of the West was thus revived. Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III. The theory of this proceeding was that the Roman imperial power of the West had been only in abeyance, and this theory was consistent with the fact that many of the German chieftains of the time of the invasions had nominally or actually professed themselves subjects either of the western or eastern emperor. The difference lay in the changed conditions of the actual civilization of the Middle Ages, when power had fallen into the hands of feudal chieftains, the descendants of the minor German warriors and chiefs, whose great territories and consequent practical independence of any superior monarchical or imperial power made a revival of the old Roman Empire impossible. The theory was notwithstanding put into practice as far as circumstances and events allowed. For the lifetime of Charlemagne it was fairly realized in the territories named. A triple territorial division of his empire among his grandsons set the imperial theory adrift in conflict with actualities ; but it was again revived by the German kings *Rome had belonged to the exarchate of Ravenna (page 165). FIG. 120. SOUTH AISLE. Peterborough, I 9 2 Roman and Medieval Art. of the Saxon dynasty in the tenth century. These now be- came as ' ' Emperors of the West ' ' the greatest potentates of Christendom. Western France was left to struggle with Northman (Norman) invasions ; but Eastern and Southern France were portions of this empire. Italy belonged to it ; Denmark, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary yielded to its sway. All these political facts rest on a greater fact, which is that the civilization of Germany had risen to a point where it could and did assert itself ; to a point where it was the vital and the active center of European history. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries were thus the great days of the Germanic emperors of the Saxon, Fran- conian, and Ho hen - staufen dynasties powerful kings of Ger- many at least, em- perors of western Christendom in title, actually rulers of Italy, with German bounda- ries which then in- cluded the Tyrol and Switzerland, modern Holland, and Belgium, and as much of France as lay east of the Rhone or of the con- tinuation of its main line to the north. It was in these countries that the great Romanesque cathedrals were built as results of this FIG. i2i. St. MICHAEL'S. Hildesheim. The Romanesque Period. 193 prosperity and power, and it is especially the cathedrals of Southern France, and of the Rhine at Speyer, Worms, and Mainz which perpetuate the memory of these centuries. Otherwise the Cathe- dral of Bamberg (Bava- ria) and the churches of Hildesheim are among the most im- portant Romanesque monuments of Ger- many. In Italy the Cathedral of Pisa is the greatest of its age. In the eleventh century the Normans had become the great- est power in Northern France and their churches at Bayeux and Caen are con- sequently among the most important. From the Normans and through their conquest of Eng- land at the close of the eleventh century the Romanesque style spread to England, where it is frequently, though erroneously, named the ''Norman" style. It appears at Ely, Norwich, Peterborough, Hereford, and Durham, and in portions of the Cathedrals of Winchester and Can- terbury, and there are many English churches or cathe- drals which retain ' ' Norman ' ' features in connection with later reconstructions. These various cathedrals were generally decorated with frescoes of which the remaining fragments are so scanty FIG. 122. HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 194 Roman and Medieval Art. that they hardly offer even the material for a chronicle. Those surviving in St. Michael's at Hildesheim (twelfth century) are, however, of marvelous power and artistic quality. Other fine wall paintings are to be seen in the Church of St. Savin in Poitou and in the Church of Schwarz-Rheindorf near Cologne. In Romanesque sculpture Germany generally offers the most important monuments. The earliest are the bronze doors of the Hildesheim Cathedral. Its bronze font and chandelier are also famous relics. The cathedral sculp- tures of Freiberg (Saxony) and of Wechselburg are the finest works of Romanesque sculpture. Figs. 130, 131, and 132 are examples of the crude but honest efforts of the early Romanesque period in figure design. Fig. 131 illustrates dependence on Byzantine art (compare the mosaics). CHAPTER VIII. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. THE word "Romanesque" does not, as sometimes supposed, refer to a debased and degraded Roman style adopted by the Middle Ages, but rather specifies the two traits of Roman architecture which were reemployed at this time, viz., the pier and the vaulting arch. All the great Romanesque cathedrals of North Continental Europe use this construction and are distinguished by it from the earlier basilicas with timber roofs and with columns sup- porting the arches of the nave. Timber ceilings for minor churches were by no means abandoned at any time. In Italy they continued the rule even for many of the important cathedrals, like that of Pisa. The Romanesque naves were rarely vaulted in Eng- land, although this use was general in the aisles. Finally the earlier churches of the Romanesque period in Northern Europe adhered more or less to basilica methods of con- struction. Notwithstanding these exceptions, it is the pier and the vaulting which distinguish this period of cathedral building as a whole and it is this use which has suggested the word "Romanesque." It may be added that the evolution of the Gothic style from the Roman- esque was absolutely dependent on a peculiar development of the vaulting. Hence, above all, the necessity for in- sisting on it and understanding it, as a necessary prelim- inary to the study of this later style. As far as our illustrations go, the character of a Roman- es FIG. 123. -MAINZ CATHEDRAL. T 9 6 Romanesque Architecture. 197 esque vaulting is most distinctly illustrated by the view of one of the aisles of Peterborough (Fig. 120). The vault- ings of the nave are also shown by the views of the Speyer and Mainz Cathedrals (Figs. 117, 119). The contrast with a timber ceiling is best shown by the views of St. Michael's at Hildesheim and of San Apollinare Nuovo (Figs. 121, 102). The actual construction of the timber framework supporting the roof when not "ceiled in" is FIG. 124. WORMS CATHEDRAL. shown by the Church of the Manger (Fig. 86) and by San Apollinare in Classe (Fig. 103). As regards the distinction between a pier and a column it is best illustrated in a church which exhibits both. Compare the view of St. Michael's at Hildesheim, where the square pier and the round column are easily con- trasted (Fig. 121, or compare 103, 120). The shape is not, however, the determining point, for round piers are found in the English Romanesque. This appears in the 198 Roman and Medieval Art. view of Hereford Cathedral (Fig. 122). Properly speak- ing, the pier is an aggregation of masonry without refer- ence to shape, as visible also in this last case. The column as distinguished from the pier is a monolith in the diameter and frequently also in the perpendicular. In the classic columns the division into "drums" or sections was fre- quently made necessary by the great perpendicular dimen- sions. In the columns of medieval churches, which were almost invariably taken from Roman ruins, as long as the supply lasted, it appears to have been almost invariably the entirely monolithic columns which were chosen. As FIG. 125. SPEYER CATHEDRAL. far as the Middle Ages are concerned, we may therefore boldly define the column as a round support which was monolithic both in the diameter and the perpendicular, Romanesque Architecture. 199 and the pier as a support (sometimes round) which was built up of masonry. If we turn now to the Roman ruins (Figs. 51, 52) we shall see that the vaulting arches were invariably sup- ported by such masonry piers. This construction is, in fact, always necessary when a vaulting is employed, for a column is too slender a support for the superincumbent mass. We should therefore conclude that the piers of the Roman- esque cathedrals were made necessary by their vaulted ceilings and that philosophi- cally we ought to begin our explanations with these. It should be added, however, that practically the supply of ancient columns had been mainly exhausted in the first five centu- ries of Christian build- ing, and that a resort to masonry piers would have been natural in consequence, to a period unac- customed to the quarrying of columns. Regarding the enormous pressure of the stone vaultings and the great strength required to resist it, we have an especially inter- esting illustration in a Scottish ruin of the Gothic time which shows the section of a vaulted building (Fig. 137). As regards the general reasons for the introduction of a vaulting system in cathedrals we may also find the most FIG. 126. PORTAL. Haughmond Abbey. 200 Roman and Medieval Art. obvious illustrations in the Gothic ; for when the Gothic vaultings (Figs. 138, 139, 140) are compared with the timber ceilings (Figs. 87, 102) there is not the slightest difficulty in appreciating their artistic superiority for an interior effect. The same point holds of the Romanesque cathedral interiors like Figs. 117, 119, although the con- trast may be slightly less obvious. A church with a vaulted ceiling is obviously of one solid material through- out walls, roof, and columns are all of stone. There is not the sense of incongruity, as regards durability and material, between two parts of the buildings. Both are harmonized into one mass not only as regards material but FIG. 127. PISA CATHEDRAL, BELL TOWER, AND BAPTISTERY. also as regards lines and surfaces. For the lines and surfaces of the arch unite insensibly with those of the wall and the pier. The extra height obtained by the arch Romanesque Architecture. 20 1 as against a flat ceiling is also a point to be considered. A most important consideration is that relating to possible conflagrations and the resulting disaster to a timber-roofed building. There is no doubt that the occurrence of such FIG. 128. PISA CATHEDRAL. destructions by fire had much to do with the introduction of the vaultings. In the general prosperity and power of the German Empire we have already found the material causes of a new building and artistic activity. The rivalry of great towns, of powerful bishops, and of various monastic orders, the wish of the emperors to leave monuments of their great- ness to future ages all conspired to create the Roman- esque style. The exteriors (Figs. 123, 124, 125), when compared with those of the old basilicas, have a manifestly 202 Roman and Medieval Art. monumental purpose. The spirit of pride and power, of ambition and successful effort, is apparent in them. The vigorous Germanic blood had been poured into the veins of the old Roman Christian civilization of the fourth and fifth centuries and this was the result. Out of the simple bell tower of the ancient basilica had grown the system of exterior towers shown by the views of FIG. 129. ST. MICHAEL'S. Lucca. the Speyer and Mainz Cathedrals. Over the junction of the nave and transept was generally raised a dome covered by a pointed roof (Fig. 123). In the Pisa Cathedral the rounded dome construction is, however, also apparent on the exterior (Fig. 127). The surfaces of the exterior walls were broken and spaced by pilasters. Galleries of columns and arches were Romanesque Architecture. 203 constructed on the towers and occasionally on the fa9ades or at other proper points of the upper walls (Figs. 123, 124, 125). The lines of the cornices were decorated with small round arches. The portals, especially of the later Romanesque, were richly ornamented with carving and recessed with columns and concentric arches, diminishing in size to the doorway (Fig. 126). It is necessary, after dwelling on these various points, to consider the ground plans of the Romanesque cathedrals. These differed from the basilica plan by the introduction of the transept or cross form.* This added to the dimensions and the picturesque effects of both interior and exterior. The choirs were considerably enlarged (Fig. 123), a development from the apse of the basilica. As regards the di- vision of nave and aisles and the system of lower aisles, border- ing the nave with its higher walls and upper windows, the arrange- ment of the basilica was retained. As re- gards plan and system FIG. 130. IVORY CARVED BOOK COVER. THE DEPOSITION. Hildesheim. Eleventh Century. these cathedrals were therefore a direct evolution from the earlier buildings, with increased grandeur, size, picturesque * It appears occasionally in a rudimentary way in the early Christian basilicas. 204 Roman and Medieval Art. effect, and a more permanent and durable construction. The round arch was employed as in the preceding- period. The exterior walls were massive and the Romanesque is a fine illustration of the value, for artistic effect, of large surfaces of masonry. Its recent employment in modern revival has been mainly promoted by an artistic taste which has felt the value of its undecorated masonry sur- faces and simple masonry construction. Having treated the Romanesque cathedral as a finished type, we may now consider the steps of transition by which it was reached. As regards the vaultings they were sometimes at first only attempted in the side aisles. We have seen that the English "Norman" cathedrals often stopped at this point. The English style being one of foreign introduction, it appears that the traditional national habit of using the timbered ceiling asserted itself here, and it may be that masons were not numerous in Eng- land who were sufficiently dexterous to undertake the vaulting of a nave. The general backwardness of English culture at this date as compared with that of Continental Europe is undoubtedly in one way or another the explana- tion. It should be added that the important building activity of English cathedrals as compared with portions of the Continent does not begin until the time of the Gothic. Aside from the tentative introduction of vaulted aisles as forerunner of the developed Romanesque, it may be said that the churches of Southern France seem to have been foremost in the use of vaultings and it would appear that there was a traditional survival here of the old Roman practice. There are many instances in this part of Europe of such survivals of Roman tradition. As regards the piers, many early churches show an alternating arrangement in which piers and columns both Romanesque Architecture. 205 appear, another obvious transition to the later system (Fig. 121). Many early Romanesque churches continued the basilica plan without important modifications (Figs. 121, 128). This was especially the case in Italy and for two reasons. The basilica traditions were stronger there and the supply of columns from ancient buildings lasted longer. In Lombardy (North Italy) the northern system of vault- ings appears at an early date, but in Tuscany (south of the Apennines) the Italian Roman- esque, in the larger number of cases, exhibits an intermediate stage of development as com- pared with the buildings of the North. It constantly shows Romanesque ornament and de- tails, without the vaultings and without the pier. The Pisa Cathedral is the finest instance of this intermediate system. Only the side aisles of this cathedral are vaulted. Its exterior ornament is, however, more elaborate and more care- fully planned than that of any northern building (Fig. 127). The system of variegated masonry in horizontal stripes is peculiar to Italy as far as the Romanesque is concerned. These stripes are found in oriental Byzantine, and in FIG. 131. LIMOGES EMANUEL. THE VIRGIN MARY. Twelfth Century. 2O6 Roman and Medieval Art. Saracenic buildings, and are thence derived. St. Michael's at Lucca and many other churches of Tuscany are variants of the Pisa Cathedral. The ornamental carvings and the capitals of Roman- esque art are developments from the Byzantine. Where columns were employed the cube capital is common (Fig. 121).* For the pier capitals new forms were invented or evolved. The introduction of grotesque forms of animals or men in these ornaments is peculiar to this period, as distinct from the one which pre- ceded. Tnese gro- tesques represent the w- i fantastic and original spirit of the Germanic North as contrasted with the more sedate Byzantine depend- ence on earlier classic designs. In the rare examples of northern Romanesque wall painting which have survived, there is visible a finished and powerful style which bespeaks long previous practice and an interesting survival of classic art. It is far other- wise in the sculpture, where the early efforts are clumsy and rude, though interesting for the originality of the motives and the earnest effort of the workman (Figs. 130, FIG. 132. IVORY CARVED BOOK COVER. THE DEPOSITION AND ENTOMBMENT. Thirteenth Century. Ravenna. *The capitals of the Pisa Cathedral are antique. The columns and capitals were brought from Sicily. Romanesque Architecture. 207 132). The conclusion is obvious that the efforts in sculp- ture were less assisted by tradition, and the dearth of Byzantine art in this line has been explained. In enamels and metal work there are many survivals of Byzantine influences (Fig. 131). The rudest art of tr^e period, as regards sculpture and painting, survived latest in Central and Northern Italy, where we find incredibly barbaric design even in the thirteenth century. The style represented by Fig. 132 was general at this time in the territory specified and was not improved upon until the advent of Niccolo of Pisa. On the other hand, we find between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, inclusive, in Southern Italy, remarkable examples of progress in design of which a more extended account will be given later. CHAPTER IX. THE GOTHIC PERIOD. IN the thirteenth century a long-standing contention be- tween the popes and the Germanic emperors ended in the complete downfall, for many centuries, of imperial terri- torial power, and the consequence was that even as German kings the emperors also lost their power. The contention between the emperors and popes was one regarding epis- copal appointments, which the emperors wished to control on account of the enormous dimensions of the spiritual territories which they themselves had created in order indirectly to keep the territorial power in their own hands. This was constantly tending to slip from their grasp, owing to the hereditary power of the feudal sovereignties.* The popes naturally preferred to have the appointment of bishops made for ecclesiastical and not for territorial and political reasons, and to retain the privilege of confirming or rejecting the appointment, which practically gave them a share in making it. As one result of the success of the popes in this contest, aside from the great increase in their own political signifi- cance, we may mention the complete independence of the Italian civic states from the Germanic emperor. Another result was the reduction of the titular king of Germany and * The enlargement of the bishoprics was part of their effort to break down the opposition to the monarchy of the hereditary feudal sovereignties. The right of filling vacancies in spiritual appointments was thus used by the emperors to antagonize the feudal system. When large territories were given away at each new episcopal appointment something could be exacted in return and the influence remained with the king. Where large states were hereditary this influence was lost. 208 The Gothic Period. 209 titular emperor of Christendom to such a condition of weakness that he was frequently worse off in estates and influence than many of his own supposed vassals. On the other hand, France now became what Germany had been the leading state of Europe. Her kings began to consolidate their territories and to master them in fact, as well as in name. In this rise to power they were assisted by an alliance with the communes (that is, the cities of France), which were in turn protected and assisted by the kings in their own contentions with the feudal nobles. The crusades had been especially favored and supported by France, and their reacting influence on European his- tory was also most apparent in this country. This influ- ence was partly to further commerce, partly to increase the power of the kings, partly to weaken the influence of the feudal nobles all results which in one way or another raised the importance of the cities. Now the first Gothic cathedrals were built in France and within the individual domain of their kings. Their archi- tectural style was a French invention. Its spread through- out Europe signifies French ascendency and influence in the later Middle Ages, as the Romanesque especially signifies Germanic power and greatness in the earlier Middle Ages. As regards England, Germany, and Spain, the Gothic was a borrowed style. As far as it very slightly influenced Italy the same point holds. In Gothic architecture we have therefore to consider two distinct movements. One was the evolution as accom- plished in one spot. The other was the gradual displace- ment of Romanesque methods in countries exterior to France, where they were supplanted by a style directly introduced and, so to speak, ready-made. 2io Roman and Medieval Art. As the rise and spread of Gothic cathedral architecture was undoubtedly the most important feature of art history between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries (1200- 1500 A. D.), this period is accordingly named ; but most interesting developments in the art of design were made in Italy during these centuries, which were quite independent of it, as was also mainly the Italian architecture, which is, notwithstanding, for the given dates known as the "Italian Gothic." The word " Gothic" itself is one of Italian coinage and was used by the Italians of the later Middle Ages to designate all buildings of Northern Europe without reference to any of our own distinctions of period or style. We still speak of the " Goths and Vandals " when we wish to designate barbarism, and the word "Gothic" simply meant to Italian comprehension ' ' Germanic ' ' in the large sense, or, as we should say, ' ' medieval. ' ' Both the Visi- goths and Ostrogoths had been invaders of Italy during the downfall of the Western Roman Empire.* The word ' ' Goth ' ' was thus a characteristic designation for the Ger- mans at large, and although France in the later Middle Ages had lost all vestige of her Frankish Germanic origins, the Italians were good enough historians, or bitter enough haters, to remember that all the countries of the Western Empire had been Germanized and that Italy had suffered most from their invasions because she had the most to lose. This historic prejudice of the Italian against Germanic and Northern Europe explains the first use of the word ' ' Gothic, ' ' which was subsequently adopted by Northern Europe with the style and taste of the Renaissance during *The Goths had been designated as West Goths and East Goths, according to their location north of the lower Danube; hence the names "Visigoth" and "Ostrogoth." The Gothic Period. 211 and after the sixteenth century. It was this Renaissance style (revival of the Greco-Roman classic style) which finally, then, displaced and supplanted the Gothic. This was abandoned more or less rapidly all over Europe, and there is, broadly speaking, a gap of three hundred years between the modern copies of Gothic buildings and the old originals, which gap is rilled by the Italian Renais- sance style.* In Northern Renaissance Europe the word "Gothic" was also applied indiscriminately to medieval buildings of all dates and without reference to the peculiar style which we distinguish by it. The word was also used in the same contemptuous and prejudicial sense. It was not till the nineteenth century that a revived interest in the Middle Ages at large led to a revived interest in the latest, largest, and most numerous cathedrals, and a distinctive name was then required for their style. This was obtained by confining the word already in use to the one period and coining new ones for the earlier styles. This history of the word is therefore a history of the causes which led to the overthrow of the style, and also of the causes which have recently led to its revival and to the modern study of its ancient monuments. Although the earliest Gothic buildings are in the French territory surrounding the city of Paris (the choir of the Cathedral of St. Denis, Cathedrals of Noyon, Laon, and of Notre Dame in Paris), it is through the fully developed buildings that we can most distinctly explain Gothic traits and we shall select examples for illustration without refer- ence to early date accordingly, f The elementary explanations of the rise of the Gothic * Before the Greek revival of the later eighteenth century, t The choir of the Cathedral of St. Denis dates from 1144. The Gothic Period. 213 style are all connected with the increasing areas and size of the great cathedrals, and this increase of dimensions, as found, for instance, in France, is related to the growth of the French cities under the political and historical con- ditions just explained. And what held especially for France at this time in the first instance, held also for Europe in general in its Gothic period. The prosperity of England was never so great, at least since the days of the Roman Empire, as it was from the time of Edward I. on (thirteenth century); and the beginnings of the English Gothic date from the times of John and the Magna Charta (early thirteenth century).* The prosperity of the Netherland cities, owing especially to their manufactures of cloth, was something phenomenal in the later Middle Ages. Although the monarchy had been depressed in Germany the free cities had risen in importance. Now came the great days of the Hanseatic League and of the commerce of the Baltic. There have never been in Europe since that time such imposing buildings, such enormous church in- teriors. St. Peter's at Rome and St. Paul's at London are rare exceptions of large interiors for modern (Renaissance) times as compared with the general rule for all the impor- tant Gothic cathedrals. In laying stress on this point of the commercial prosper- ity of the cities and the consequent demand for large cathedrals, we must of course also take account of condi- tions which would explain why commercial prosperity in later times has not had an equal influence in the same direction. One main explanation is that the public spirit of these cities was more active because they were more independ- *The first Gothic portions of Canterbury Cathedral were begun in 1174 by a French architect. 214 Roman and Medieval Art. ent. They were practically independent civic states. The league between them and royalty in France was much more one of joint partnership of opposition to the power of the nobles than a condescending protectorate on the one hand or a dependent submission on the other. In all countries of the late Middle Ages, excepting Italy, where there was no monarchy, the general rule holds of an alliance between the monarchy and the commercial classes. Contrary to possible supposition, monarchy and aristocracy are by no means synonymous terms or natural allies. In original development they have always been rivals and were avowedly so in Europe down to the eighteenth cen- tury. The kings wanted money and it was only the cities which could give it. Standing armies and artillery to crush feudal opposition to the monarchy were thus ob- tained. Backed by this alliance, the public spirit of the cities of that day corresponded to the patriotism of a modern nation, but was a much more active force in art because the relation between art and the people was more direct and more obvious. The cathedral, when it was built, was seen and used by all the citizens who had helped to pay for it. They all took a personal pride in it and all felt a personal rivalry with every other city which was boasting or preparing to boast of its own great structure. Human- ity only reaches great results when combined and organ- ized in masses ; but these masses must not be so large that the individual loses his sense of relation to the whole, or that his individual interests are not visibly a part of the whole. In the modern states a national public art corre- sponding to that of the Greeks or of the Middle Ages has been so far impossible because public art, to be good, must be visible to all the people who pay for it and must The Gothic Period. 215 represent their personal interests and show forth their personal ambition and personal pride. The modern state is too large as compared with the free city of the Middle Ages to obtain such results in art as were then obtained as far as society has been organized since that time. All explanations or comprehensions of a great art must start from the conditions which produced it. Therefore, we must first consider the Gothic architecture from this point of view. Its masonry is vital with the life of an epoch and this we must first try to seize. One grand point is that modern states and modern nations did not exist in the Middle Ages. There were corporations, there were cities, there were religious orders, there were feudal estates with their owners (chiefs or "barons") and warrior supporters, and there were kings but there were no countries and no nations. That is to say, there were no national countries. Each language of modern Europe is the development of a dialect. In the language of a given nation there were then as many dialects as there are now languages in Europe, and these were as incomprehensible to the other districts of the country as a foreign language now is to one who has not learned it. This was one great cause of the power of the clergy, who all spoke one language, viz., Latin. Now a nation and a country, as we understand the word, must have a common language. This is the first necessary bond between men to be understood. In the absence of a country and of obvious national interests, the corpora- tions, cities, religious orders, and feudal estates were the units of society. National states were being organized by the monarchies, but they did not exist in a developed form until the sixteenth century, when the Gothic cathedral style was abandoned. An equally important consideration concerns the re- 216 Roman and Medieval Art. ligious faith of the people and the importance of this faith in their daily lives, and consequently in their art. In the absence of the scientific, historical, poetic, and romantic literature of modern times, the literature of the Bible had an absorbing historical and poetic, as well as purely re- ligious, interest for the Middle Ages. The lessons and the stories of the Bible were taught and told by painting and sculpture in default of printed books. In paintings and sculptures and stained glass, the cathedral was a monu- ment of literature in stone. The interest in church matters is shown by the number of minor churches which were built. There is a beautiful church in Cologne which is said to have been built in the leisure hours of the masons of the cathedral, and the tradition is significant without any relation to its truth. That smaller churches were con- stantly built in the close neighborhood of the cathedrals in times when there were no denominational sects, is also very significant. This brings us to the uses and public significance of a cathedral. For the Gothic period the cathedrals were almost as much civic buildings as they were churches, and in the sense that they embodied the pride, the ambition, and the rivalries of the cities, this was eminently the case. But they were also actually used for town meetings, for public festivals, and for theatrical exhibitions the ''miracle plays ' ' and ( ' passion plays, ' ' which have survived in one famous modern instance at Ober-Ammergau. In the Middle Ages the church and the cathedral were always open, like the Catholic churches of our own day. Here the poor man was the equal of the rich. The beggar and his lord met on terms of equality in the liberty of using the building and in the theory of its religious teachings. There were no pews for favored owners. The cathedral was the FIG. 134. TRANSEPT. Cologne Cathedral. 218 Roman and Medieval Art. palace of the poor, and its entire space outside the sanctu- ary was open to their daily visits and sojourn at will, without disturbance. The cathedral was the museum of art ; a museum made, not to display the ostentation of the rich or the luxury of his life, but to teach by pictures and reliefs the history of the world as then known and comprehended by the traditions of the church, and the lessons of faith and of sac- rifice. Here were, moreover, the actual memorials and relics of past ages; for here was the treasury not only of the art of the present but also of the art of the past. Finally, the cathedral was the sanctuary of the famous and illustrious dead. Their tombs were its decoration and its pride. This popular significance and these popular uses hold for the cathedrals of all periods, consequently for the Byzan- tine and Romanesque as well as the Gothic. But the Byzantine cathedrals were more largely the erections of the clergy, the Romanesque cathedrals were largely the erec- tions of the Germanic emperors or of the great religious orders, while the Gothic cathedrals were especially the buildings of the municipalities. The union in these build- ings of the arts of stained glass, of fresco ornament and sculptured stone decoration, of panel pictures, of metal work in the altars, shrines, and chandeliers, and of wood- carving in the seats of the clergy, is to be constantly kept in mind. The pulpits were also objects of special artistic splendor. Thus the industrial arts of the Gothic period as a whole are illustrated through these buildings, which are more- over, as monuments of engineering execution, worthy of all admiration. The mathematical, geometrical, and en- gineering science requisite for their construction is pur best Gothic Period. 219 reference for the high civilization of their time. Their architects were moreover not, like our own, educated apart from the artisans and masons and sculptors who were their servants. The architect of the cathedral was the master-mason, a fact of supreme importance for the perfection of these buildings, for the understanding of their subtle art, and for the comprehension of the changed conditions in our own time which make it impossible for us to rival them. It was, in other words, the actual combination of theory and practice in the person of one designer which made their perfection. Our greatest modern architects spend their lives in an office where they employ a number of draughtsmen to prepare their plans. The modern con- structor who is employed by the architect belongs to another profession, also living in an office, and, again, distinct from a series of contractors who are employed by him. These again employ the artisans and actual builders. The architect of the Middle Ages was a man of the people and a trained mason who spent his life on the scaffolds of his buildings in actual superintendence of the work. The masons and carvers themselves were persons of experience and standing, banded together in guilds or societies which perpetuated their traditions of method and technical skill. These corporations never died and their art was immortal while it lasted. The ' ' Ma- sonic" societies of our own time are survivals of these masonic guilds. I should be far from underrating, among all these con- siderations, the influence of the church itself and its clergy. The clergy of the Middle Ages were its men of science and of learning, its teachers and masters of foreign languages, its literary workers and students, the guardians, moreover, 220 Roman and Medieval Art. of the literature of the present and the past. They were the librarians, the diplomats, and the courtiers of the age, skilled in political art and the knowledge of men ; even warfare was not always foreign to their life. Finally, and above all, they were teachers of religion. At once the guardians of the literature and civilization of Roman antiquity, in the time of the German invasions and early German states, when every convent was a center of instruc- tion in the industrial arts and every priest a mediator between the barbarian and his helpless prey, they had become the revered and honored masters of their age. The wealth of their corporations and their orders was only equaled by their charity to the poor. While the power of the king and the baron was inherited by birth, the highest honors of the church were open to the son of the humblest serf. Visible and material signs and results of this power of the church the cathedrals undoubtedly were, but the Gothic cathedrals, especially, were undoubtedly built, in the main, by the energy and offerings of the people at large. There are records of the donations by women of their jewels, and by poor people of various modest offer- ings and small sums of money, which prove this to have been the case. We have been led into an account of the general causes which contributed to the grandeur of the Gothic cathe- drals, by insisting first on the average increase of area and dimensions in important churches, as due to a particular rise in power of the cities of the Middle Ages in which France led the way. We may begin our explanation of the style itself in structural details by showing that the pointed arch, which is one main feature of it, was adopted on account of this increased dimension. CHAPTER X. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. THE pointed arch is not known in existing remains of architecture (outside of Assyrian vaulted drains and ruins of the upper Nile) before the time of the Arab buildings (Figs. 112116). There is no doubt that it was through contact with these that its form became familiar to the crusaders as well as to architects of Spain and Southern Italy. The pointed arch is found in occasional use in the later Romanesque, and we find here another instance of the transitions by which the new style was reached, but as it appears in these cases it was used without any distinct system of Gothic development. In the case of the Gothic style it is clear that its adoption was not due to imitation of Saracenic art or to any decorative preference. A decorative preference might appear to be indicated by its constant decorative use, for the round arch is not found in the Gothic period, excepting in Italy, but the original explanation is to be sought in the weight of the vaulted ceilings. The decorative use followed the construction. The view of the ruin of Melrose Abbey (Fig. 137) is the best illustration on this head, because its peculiar and un- usual exhibition of a section of the actual construction shows the weight of masonry which presses on the arch. The weight is greater here than was usually the case, but the illustration serves its purpose, This will consequently lead us to consider the difficulties and problems which beset the constructors of the round-arch Romanesque vaultings. We 222 Roman and Medieval Art. have already insisted on the point that the Gothic can only be comprehended through a preliminary study of the sys- tem of vaulting employed by the Romanesque (page 195). Mathematically considered, we know that the round arch is a perfectly stable form, but, physically considered, FIG. 135. WELLS CATHEDRAL. the resistance on the sides must be sufficient to keep its blocks in position. If the side resistance gives way or is weakened, the blocks of the arch are displaced and the entire structure is ruined by its fall. That this disaster actually befell a certain number of early Gothic cathedrals during, or soon after, construction is known, and this helps us to understand the pains taken in other cases to avoid this misfortune. For instance, in the case of the choir of Beauvais, where unusually lofty dimensions were attempted, Gothic Architecture. 223 the ceiling of the choir fell in, twelve years after comple- tion, and the entire building had to be reconstructed in consequence. In the enormous development of dimension in the buildings which began to be used in the Gothic period, the round-arch vaultings were found insecure for the in- creased height, width, and weight. Some instances of the dimensions attained will explain the reasons. The height of the nave at Amiens is 132 feet, at Beauvais 146 feet, at Cologne 140 feet, at Burgos 140 feet, at Milan 157 feet. Milan Cathedral holds 40,000 people. The spire of Strassburg is 452 feet high. The Church of San Petronio at Bologna was planned for a length of 640 feet. The exterior length of Cologne Cathedral is 530 feet, of Lincoln Cathedral 524 feet, of Salisbury Cathedral 430 feet. The area covered by York Cathedral ex- ceeds by 4,100 feet that of St. Paul's. The span of the cathe- dral nave of Pal ma in Spain is 65 feet, at Gerona in Spain it is 73 feet. When the average dimensions of the great cathe- drals are considered and especially the great heights of the naves, the reason for the use of the pointed arch will FIG. 136. LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 224 Roman and Medieval Art. easily appear. In preference to adding to the weight of the exterior walls, which would have been practically im- possible, resort was had to the pointed form of the arch, in which the lateral pres- sure relieves the key- stone from a portion of the weight. From the way in which two leaning ob- jects will support one another, we may understand how the two sides of a pointed arch lean against and tend to support one another. The employ- ment of the pointed arch in doors and windows was a con- venience of use follow- ing that which was FIG. 137. WEST FRONT. Melrose Abbey. absolutely necessary, and its application to decorative details was a natural con- sequence. A consideration favoring the use of the pointed arch was its adaptability to the varying widths of nave and aisles when connected with one given pier. In the Romanesque interiors (Figs. 119, 120), it will be ob- served that only the alternate piers have pilasters, which are connected by ribs with the ceiling of the nave. The given number of piers represent ribbed supports for every bay of the aisles (compare the aisle of Peterborough, Fig. 120) which are half the width of the nave ; but because Gothic Architecture. 225 the round arches are concentric they must span a greater space when they rise to a greater height (Fig. 117). With the pointed arch every pier of the side aisles was also available as a true pier for the nave (Figs. 138, 139), because arches 'of varying height could be carried from the same pier. The gain in security for the nave, or what comes to the same thing, the economy of material to secure a given result, is obvious. We can see in Fig. 138 that the arches inclosing the upper windows of the bays must be more pointed than those which span the nave, and in Fig. 117, for the Romanesque, we can see that the arches which span the nave are equal in size to those which reach from the same piers to form the upper bays of the nave. The intermediate piers are here only available for the vaultings of the aisles. I have intentionally massed together the views for the interiors of the Gothic churches. In all of them the solid masonry of the ceiling must be especially considered. In some of them the skeleton framework of the ribbings, which are the main lines of support for the ceiling, is espe- cially distinct in the pictures (Figs. 138, 139). A point which cannot be well illustrated in photographs, and which can with difficulty be observed in the buildings when the ceiling is viewed from the floor, is the manner in which the spaces between the ribs are slightly arched in such a way as to make the ribs the actual supports of the ceiling. These in their turn transmit the pressure to the piers. The piers of the Gothic have a lighter and more slender construction than those of the Romanesque. The latter were sometimes of plain square section (Figs. 119, 121), or were square and beveled at the corners, or were some- times massive and clumsy round supports, as in Fig. 122 FIG. 138. CATHEDRAL OF BAYONNE. 226 Gothic Architecture. 227 (the latter mainly Norman). With other Romanesque piers are found small pilasters leading up to the ribs above and connected with them (Figs. 117, 120). In the Cathe- dral of Mainz we see the square pier alternating with the square pier and pilaster (Fig. 119). In the Gothic the piers are generally treated as a cluster of slender ribs, each rising to its own definite and special functions (Figs. 138, 139, 140). Effects of a massive or clumsy appearance are avoided. A strictly logical and strictly economical use of materials and forces is apparent. Round piers are not unknown to the Gothic, but they are not generally found in highly developed or characteristic examples of the style. In the use of the pointed arch there is the appearance of an aspiring tendency and of a sentiment for alti- tude. This is en- hanced by the treat- ment of the pier, which multiplies, both by lights and by shadows, the rising lines which tend to enhance the effect of height. The same sentiment is visible in the actually enormous altitudes of the cathe- drals. These effects of altitude are also exaggerated by a relative narrowness of nave and aisles (Figs. 139, 140). The general result is 228 Roman and Medieval Art. to dwarf the spectator and his immediate surroundings. It was not only actual dimension but the effect of dimension which was sought for and attained. Dispropor- tionately high apartments and those which surprise the eye by an effect of height are known to have-this effect of dwarfing, in appear- ance, the persons in them. In this point of the effect of dimen- sion the cathedrals attain greater results than the pyramids, with far less material effort. For the matter of the Gothic windows we should logically be speaking of the interiors for whose service they are made, but exterior views may illustrate them more visibly, as being taken from the sides of the buildings rather than down the length of nave or aisles (Figs. 133, 141). In developed examples almost the whole wall surface, aside from the fa9ades, is given up to the windows. The infinitely varied designs of their deli- cate stone ribbings are a beautiful feature of the Gothic. The perpendicular stone bars are called ' ' mullions. ' ' The delight in the color effects of the stained glass window pictures is undoubtedly one explanation of their dimensions and number, but it should be added that FIG. 140. CATHEDRAL OF NANTES. Gothic Architecture. 229 throughout the developed and later Gothic there is an obvious effort to dispense as far as possible with blank walls, or solid masonry surfaces. It is on this account that in developed and later Gothic, as far as the masonry appears, it is treated in filigree, so to speak (Fig. 142); /. e., broken up as regards effect of bare surface by the expansion over the wall surfaces of a tracery system bor- rowed originally from the designs of the windows (Figs. 134, H 1 )- It is in the same sense and to the same purpose that the statuary decoration is conceived and elaborated. We must remember, however, that the effort to illustrate the lessons and teachings of religion and to glorify the saints and prophets and apostles was also in question here. In the great Gothic portals the statues may be counted by fifties and by hundreds, and they are frequently lavishly distributed over other portions of the building, especially on the facades. There are two thousand statues on the exterior of Milan Cathedral. So far we have considered everything but the one thing of importance essential to all the rest, namely, the stability of the building. When we remember that these tremen- dous vaultings of the interior have been raised high in air over walls which on the sides of the building, at least, are conspicuous for their flimsy appearance and large window openings, it is evident that the buttress architecture of the exterior was a serious and necessary feature not designed for ornament or to please the eye, but the abso- lute and sole condition of the existence of the building. It is here that our own modern copies of the Gothic buttresses have tended to obscure their original use. The vaultings of the old Gothic cathedrals have been so rarely attempted in modern times that the instances are not FIG. 141. CHOIR. Milan Cathedral. Gothic Architecture. 231 worth mention as a matter of argument. Where vaultings are seen in appearance, they are imitations in cement or in stuccoed laths and plaster. At the time when copies of the Gothic became fashionable in modern architecture, little attention had been paid to the constructive conditions of the old buildings. It was their appearance, not their construction, which was imitated. The sentiment which called for these imitations was a literary historic interest, a literary fashion, not a movement inspired by the necessities FIG. 142. ST. MACLOU. Rouen. or habits of modern construction. We have consequently become so familiarized with the appearance of the buttress in imitations of the Gothic, that it is difficult to realize its constructive necessity in the ancient cathedrals. It is undeniable that the use of the buttress in appropriate 232 Roman and Medieval Art. and modest dimensions was transferred to village timber- roofed churches equally undeniable that there is not one great Gothic cathedral of the continent of Europe which is not vaulted and that the style as such is a vaulting style. There is not the slightest objection to a wall buttress, wherever and whenever it is needed, and it may easily be made a means to economy of material in a timber-roofed church, but its imitation as a matter of "style" without reference to use, which has been a very general thing in the modern Gothic copies, is absurd as all unthinking imitations must always be. It is this frequent lack of con- structive necessity in the modern Gothic buttress which has promoted the recent movement in favor of the modern "Italian Gothic" and the modern "Romanesque." In the old cathedrals the "flying buttress" was a neces- sary consequence of the higher elevation of the nave as compared with the lower elevation of the side aisles. Its practical use is perhaps best illustrated by the view of Melrose Abbey (Fig. 137), although it appears here in a rudimentary and clumsy form. The buttress was fre- quently surmounted by a pinnacle ; always, in fact, when the flying buttress was used ; or by a statue surmounted by a canopy. The pinnacle added an additional weight to the resisting power. It also emphasized the rising lines of the building and its effects of altitude. It was, in a word, an ornament emphasizing construction. It will, on the whole, best explain the uses of the buttress to consider in the case of a given building (Fig. 145) what the alternative would be if the given cathedral were Romanesque. In this case the wall would neces- sarily be as thick at all points and in solid mass as it now is where the buttresses project. The same econon-fy of material and effort is therefore visible here which appears FIG. 143. CHOIR. Cathedral of Quimper. 234 Roman and Medieval Art. otherwise in the Gothic. The resistance of the buttress is always exactly opposed to the interior pier. We have seen that the treatment of the ribbed skeleton of the vault- ing is such that all the weight converges on the pier. It is exactly at the corresponding exterior point that the buttress is placed. This will be also apparent by com- paring the exterior relation of the window spacings between the buttresses to their interior situation between the piers. An ornament which is very common in the middle Gothic and later Gothic of the Continent, but less common in England, is the gable-shaped skeleton masonry form which appears over portals or window in Figs. 134, 142. This is a reminiscence of the upper construction of a cathedral in cross-section, understanding the gable line as representing the exterior roof and the pointed arch line as representing the interior vaulting. It must be observed that a solid stone vaulting extending to the line of the roof, as it appears in Melrose Abbey (Fig. 137), is an unusual deviation from the usual construction, which admitted an interior vacant space between the arched vaulting and the beams of the exterior timber roof, which was always, of course, tiled or slated over. This point regarding the distinction between the exterior protecting roof and the interior masonry ceiling is an important one. The former was demanded to prevent the penetration of moisture into the joints of the masonry and its consequent disintegration as the result of frost or otherwise. The capitals and other ornamental details of the Gothic show at first dependence on the later Romanesque and gradually develop from them, but the naturalism which, in the Romanesque, had advanced to grotesque forms taken from the animal world, now seized on the forms of vegetable life and applied them in beautiful adaptations to Gothic Architecture. 235 architectural detail. The later Gothic shows a great deal of closely realistic ornament, but with the necessary amount of conventional treatment required by the solid material. I have so far avoided reference to matters of local interest or to individual buildings, aside from their use to illustrate general points, and in the choice of the views I have been controlled by the availability of the photograph for a given purpose, rather than by the reputation or other importance of the building; but some indications on the head of specially famous buildings will be expected. According to ex- planations given, the French Gothic de- serves first considera- tion as a matter of logic, and because the deviations from French standards in other countries are to be ex- plained where they occur, by local causes or national predispo- sitions. The pictur- esque beauty and the grand effects of the Gothic are found in all European countries, but since they are due to France in the first instance, this country should stand first in mention. Among the earliest fully completed Gothic cathedrals of France may be mentioned those of FIG. 144. TOURS CATHEDRAL. Buttress.) (The Flying 2 3 6 Roman and Medieval Art. Noyon, Laon, and Notre Dame at Paris. In order of time the Cathedral of Amiens is the first example of developed Gothic. Rheims, Chartres, Rouen, and St. Denis near Paris, cannot be omitted from any mention. The Church of St. Ouen at Rouen (distinct from the cathedral there) deserves and has an equal reputation. Not to mention many others will seem unjust to those who know them by name or by fame. In Germany the Cathedral of Cologne stands first. Strass- burg and St. Stephen's at Vienna probably deserve the next men- tion. In Italy, Milan, and in Spain, Burgos, claim the first mention. In England, Westmin- ster Abbey or Canter- bury would naturally take first place. After these are named discrimination becomes difficult. In Belgium the Church of St. Gudule, at Brussels, and the Cathedral of Antwerp are rivals of the first rank. It is difficult to dwell on the number or the magnificence of hundreds of other churches of this period without apparent exaggeration of language or descriptions which have not much value apart from illustrations. It is to be remembered, however, that, although the Romanesque is somewhat at a disadvantage in the matter of modern FIG. 145. CHOIR. Cathedral of Amiens. Gothic Architecture. 237 survivals and also of popular reputation, it has its own distinct and noble worth. In the matter of picturesque exteriors, at least, it has no cause to shun comparison with the succeeding style. Both in the Romanesque and Gothic there is a regular transition, depending on sequence of time and regular historic development, from the simple and severe to the elaborate and ornate. The early Gothic is quite simple and relatively massive, the windows are smaller, and tracery less developed, the towers heavier, the fa9ades plainer, the proportions less exaggerated in elevation, and the piers plainer in treatment than in the developed Gothic. The ornament is restricted, and there is little that is realistic. It was only by degrees that the pure Gothic character was reached and this again at a later date became florid, overladen, pedantic, capricious, and illogical, always also by degrees, but with increasing rapid- ity as the sixteenth century was neared. The corruption and decadence of the style were very apparent before the Renaissance style appeared in Northern Europe, and in some senses the Gothic died a natural death. These distinctions of development within the Gothic have been designated in English terminology for English buildings as the three periods of the "Early English," the "Decorative," and the "Perpendicular" styles. The FIG. 146. CLOISTERS. Winchester. 2 3 8 Roman and Medieval Art. word "perpendicular" relates to only one phase of the Gothic decadence, and is illustrated by the cloister of Winchester (Fig. 146), where the upright lines of the window tracery are seen to enter the exterior lines of the arch abruptly. Com- pare the window tracery of Figs. 134, 141, for other methods of treatment. This was only one trait of the decay of taste out of many which are seen in the decadence, but it is by this trait that the English Gothic decadence has been specified in general. A very depressed arch was used in England in the late Gothic, which is known as the "Tudor arch." The period in which this use is found is the most inferior of all. The late Gothic is known in France as the "flam- boyant," /. so-called in later days, after it was occupied *> tne body-guard of th' grand dukes of Tuscany^ rhe town halls of Vol- ter-a and Prato char^ * lstlc examples of these mas- ,ive and Stress-like - actures > w ich literally were town fortress. Vllilt t m st * nd ^ stormy outbreaks and civic convulsion "J which the overflowing vigor of these municipalities founu'ent. The massive simplicity of these ~^rhe English transition the word Renaissance. 3oo Roman and Medieval Art. buildings is worthy of all praise. They are direct continua- tions of similar structures of older time and only in the arch of doors or windows do we find the means of dating are FIG. 194. THE PALAZZO CA D'ORG Venice. them u D0 int of style. Splendid buildings oi x this class also found iL^na, Perugia, and Piacenza. In marked contk^ to t h ese buildings are thfe palaces of the Venetian- ^^j c Here a pleasure^ and opulent life fl f^ h ^,r>**y day. The string constitution of Venice saved her *^e anai^y which so often befell the republics and petty c ^ ot ^ and her buildings have none of the ^mmou^^ ^ of those just described. The palaces oi ler nob]es ^ taken in mass, the earliest decorati e ^ ate bui]dfng . s ^ Italian Gothic Scidpture. 301 Europe. The same purely decorative use of Gothic forms, otherwise noted in the Italian Gothic, is also apparent here. The Palace of the Doge at Venice is the most splendid example of the style. In its present form the exterior faades date from the fifteenth century. The court shows an architecture dating from various periods of the Renaissance. Various references in foregoing pages (229, 257, 279, 288) have indicated that medieval thought and culture, and consequently medieval art, were dis- placed in the sixteenth century by a move- ment of Italian origin known as the Renais- sance. The beginnings of modern history, which for Northern Europe are first dis- tinctly visible in the sixteenth century, must all be sought in Italy by any correct philosophy of history. Hence it will be ob- served that the history of medieval art, as sketched in this book, closes a century earlier for Italy than for Northern Europe. We have carried the history of the northern Gothic architecture, sculpture, and paint- ing as far as the sixteenth century, but for Italy we have drawn the line at the close of the fourteenth century. Strictly speaking, we cannot, however, specify a Renais- FIG. 195. PALAZZO FRANCETTI. Venice. 3 02 Roman and Medieval Art. sance art in architecture or painting before 1425. On the other hand, the Italian Gothic period is full of anticipations and forecasts of the approaching revolution. In Italian architecture the repugnance to the northern Gothic has this significance. In sculpture the Italian Gothic already ex- FIG. 196. DETAIL FROM THE DOGE'S PALACE. Venice. hibits, with Niccolo of Pisa, the antique influence which is characteristic of Renaissance art. The awakening interest in visible nature, as distinct from the traditional repetition of religious formulas in art, which is an equally character- istic phase of the Renaissance, is already distinctly visible in the painting of Giotto and his period. INDEX. Adoration of the Lamb (Van Eycks' painting), 254. Aisles, of churches, origin, 166, 167. Aix-la-Chape1le, Charlemagne's chapel, 161. Alatri, walls, 47. Alcazar, Seville, 182 ; Fig. 116. Aldobrandini Wedding (Roman fresco), 94- Alhambra, the, 182; Fig. in. Amiens Cathedral, 223, 236; Fig. 145. Amphitheaters, Roman, 86 ; Fig. 53. Andrea of Pisa, 296. Antwerp Cathedral, 236. Appian Way, 104 ; Fig. 68. Apse, origin, 166, 167 ; Gothic develop- ment, 239. Aqueducts, Roman, 82, 83; Figs. 34, 38. Arab art, 178-184 ; derived from Byzan- tine, 181 ; ornamental system, 181 ; minarets, 181. Arabesque ornament, origin, 181. Arch, Etruscan, 36 ; Roman, 82-87, 125 ; of Constantine, 117, 165; of Drusus, 123; of Septimius Severus, in (Fig. 52); of Titus, 113; arch and column (Byzantine), 168, 169; Arab "horse- shoe," 182; Arab pointed, 182; Ro- manesque, 195-204 ; Gothic, 221-225 I Tudor, 238. Architecture (see Roman, Early Chris- tian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic). Arena Chapel, Padua, 287 ; Figs. 173-180. Arian Baptistery (Ravenna), 183. Aries, 86, 135, 149. Armenian churches, 162. Assisi, Church of St. Francis, 260, 283, 284, 287 ; Fig. 170. Bamberg Cathedral, 193. I Baptistery, churches, 182 ; of St. John Lateran, 170; of Pisa, 244, 294; of Florence, 296. Basilica, pagan, 85 ; Christian, 166-169; origin of the term, 169 ; of St. Peter, Rome, 133 ; of St. Paul, Rome, 133 ; of Constantine, in, 166 (Fig. 51). Baths, Roman, 83-85; of Agrippa, 120; of Caracalla, 113, 118, 123 (frontispiece and Fig. 50). Battle of Issus (mosaic), 93. Bayeux, churches of, 193. Beauvais Cathedral, 223. Bell towers, 169, 202, 263. Berlin Museum, 98. Bethlehem, Church of the Manger, 132, 161,168; Fig. 86. Bologna, museum, 21 ; San Petronio, 223. Bronze Age, 22; utensils, ancient, 34, 95 (Fig- 60) ; doors, 290, 291, 294. Brussels, Church of St. Gudule, 236. Bucchero ware, 30. Burgos Cathedral, 223, 236. Buttress, Gothic, 229-234 ; flying, 232. Byzantine art, 149-160; adjective ex- plained, 151 ; mosaic, 154 ; sculpture, 159, 160; painting, 159 : duration of the style, 185 ; art displaced by Italian, 282. Caen, churches, 193. Caere, 44. Cairo, 180. j Campagna, the, 123. Campanile, 263. I Campo Santo, Pisa, 264, 287 ; Figs. 181, 191. Canterbury Cathedral, 236, 239. Capitals, classic, 36, 82 ; Byzantine, 174; Arab, 180; Romanesque, 205; Gothic, 234- Capitoline Hill, 113. 303 304 Index. Carthage, founded, 27 ; wars with Rome, 64. Catacomb paintings, 133; Fig. 85. Cathedral (see Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic). Cervetri, 44. Chartres Cathedral, 236, 250; Fig. 152. Chiusi Museum, 43. Choir, origin, 166, 167; Gothic, 166, 167, 239; Romanesque, 203. Christian art, causes of early inferiority, 143-148. Christianity, in the Roman Empire, 128; antagonism to pagan art, 129 ; ideal of its early art, 129. Church of the Manger, Bethlehem, 132, 161,168; Fig. 86. Cimabue, 281, 283 ; Fig. 171. Clerestory, 240. Cloaca Maxima, 37, 63 ; Fig. 29. Coins, Greek, 51 ; Fig. 20. Cologne Cathedral, 223, 236, 241, 256; Figs. 133, 134. Colosseum, 86, 115; Figs. 53, 77. -Column, of Trajan, 108 (Fig. 71); of Marcus Aurelius, 121. Columns, " engaged," 88; combined with arches, 168 ; distinguished from piers, 198. Composite order, 36, 82 ; Fig. 49. Copts, influence on Arab art, 181. Cordova, Mosque of, 182. Corinthian order, 81. Corneto, 23; museum, 43; tomb, 46 (Fig. 17). Cortona Museum, 43. Decadence of Roman art, 126-131. Decoration (see Ornament). " Decorative " English Gothic, 237. Diptychs, 136; Fig. 91. Dome, Roman, 82, 85, 172 ; in Christian churches, 170-172; Byzantine, 172; Mohammedan, 180; Romanesque, 202. Duccio, 281 ; Fig. 172. Durham Cathedral, 193. Early Christian art, 125-177. " Early English " Gothic, 237. East Jordan ruins, 70 (Fig. 39); churches, 162. Easter candelabra, 290, 292. Egesta, ruins, 52 ; Fig. 22. Egyptian influence on ancient Italian art, 27, 31. Enamels, Byzantine and Romanesque, 207; Fig. 131. " Engaged " columns, 88, 165. Entablatures, 89. | Etruscan art, 26-47. j Fallen, walls, 46 ; Fig. 18. " Flamboyant " Gothic, 238. Flemish painting, 253-256. Florence, museum, 41 ; cathedral dome, 172 ; cathedral, 261, 267 (Fig. 166); municipal architecture, 299. Forum, Roman, 109 (Fig. 72) ; of Nerva, "3 (Fig- 73). Freiberg sculpture, 194. Frescoes, Roman, 91 ; Romanesque, 194, 206; Italian, 157, 271, 295. Furniture, Roman, 95. Gable ornament, Roman and Renais- sance, 89; Gothic, 234. Galla Placidia tomb (mosaics), 156. Gargoyles, 242 ; Fig. 150. Gems, Etruscan, 35 ; Roman, 103 (Fig. 67). Gerona Cathedral, 223. Giotto, 281, 284-287 ; Figs. 173-180. Giovanni Pisano, 295 ; Figs. 187. 190. Giralda, the (Seville), 182. Girgenti, ruins, 52; Fig. 23. Glass, Roman, 97, 137 ; Fig. 31. Gothic art, 208-302 ; its architecture of French origin, 209 ; period specified, 210; word explained, 210; vaultings, 221, 225, 229; cathedral dimensions, 223 ; piers, 225, 227 ; buttress, 229-232 ; pinnacles, 232 ; capitals, 234 ; orna- ment, 234 ; great cathedrals speci- fied, 236; distinctions of style and period, 237-239 ; cathedral plan, 239 ; spires, 240 ; picturesque qualities, 241- 246 ; gargoyles, 242 ; sculpture, 229, 247-250, 289; painting (Flemish and German), 250-256; stained glass, 251; municipal and domestic architec- ture, 258, 259; castles, 258; fortifi- cations, 259 ; Italian, 259-269, 299, 302. Index. 305 Greek colonies in Italy, 47-56 ; influence on Etruscan art, 33-35 ; influence on Roman art, 72. Grotesque ornament (Romanesque), 205. Guild halls (Gothic), 258; Figs. 159, 160. Herculaneum, 96. Hereford Cathedral, 194; Fig. 122. Hildesheim, silver find, 96; bronze cathedral doors, 149, 194 ; font, 194 ; churches, 193 (Fig. 121). Hut-urns, 23 ; Fig. 2. Iconoclasts, 159. Ionic capital, origin, 44 ; order, 81. Irish art, 160. Italian art, early ancient, 24-56 ; Gothic architecture, 258-269; painting, 270- 287 ; sculpture, 288-302. Ivory carvings, 136; Figs. 91, 130, 132, 154- Jerusalem, Mosque el Aksa, 178 (Fig. 112) ; Mosque of Omar, 170, 178 (Fig. "3). Julius Caesar, 65, 125. Kolner Dombild, 256. Laon Cathedra], 236. Last Judgment, fresco in Pisa, 287. Lateran Museum, 135. Leaning Tower of Pisa, 246 ; Fig. 127. Lichfield Cathedral, Figs. 148, 153. Lincoln Cathedral, 223 ; Fig. 136. Lotus, 21. Louvre Museum, 99. Lucca, textile manufactures derived from oriental, 183 ; St. Michael's, 205 (Fig. 129). Mainz Cathedral, 193; Fig. 123. Maison Carree of Nimes, 78 ; Fig. 44. Majolica, Arab origin, 183. Master-masons of the Middle Age, 219, 243- Melrose Abbey, 221 ; Fig. 137. Memling, Hans, 254 ; Figs. 156, 157. Milan Cathedral, 223, 229, 236, 267, 288 ; Figs. 141, 164. Minarets, 181. Mohammedan art, 178-184. Moresque ornament, 175. Mosaics, Roman, 93; Byzantine, 154-159, 175 ; F'gs- 55, 58, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99- Mosques, origin and character, 178-182 ; of Omar, 162, 170, 183; el Aksa, 178; of Cairo, 180 ; of Cordova, 182. Mullions, 228. Naples Museum, 75, 76, 92. 93, 95, 99. Nave, origin, 166, 167; Romanesque, 203 ; Gothic, 239. New York Museum, 29, 98. Niccolo of Pisa, 207, 289, 294, 295; Figs. 184, 185. Nimes, 78, 86. Norman style (so-called), 19*3, 194, 204. Notre Dame, Cathedral of, 236; Fig. 150. Noyon Cathedral, 236. Oratories, early Irish, 161. Oriental influence in Italian art, 28, 57. Origin of Mediterranean civilization, 18. Ornament, Roman, 87, 103 ; Byzantine, 174-177 ; Arab, 180-184 ; Romanesque, 205 ; Gothic, 234. Orvieto, museum, 43; cathedral, 261, 263; reliefs, 295; Figs. 165, 186, 187. Padua. Arena Chapel, 287 ; Figs. 173- 180. Paestum, ruins, 53, 54; Figs. 24, 25, 26, 27. Painting, Roman, 91-94; catacombs (early Christian), 133-136 ; Byzantine, 159 ; Romanesque, 206 ; Gothic (Flem- ish and German), 250-256; Italian, 270-287. Palaces of the Caesars, 113 (Fig. 74) ; of Diocletian, 85, 168. Palermo Cathedral, 183. Palma Cathedral, 223. Palmyra ruins, 89. Pantheon, 119, 128; Fig. 81. " Perpendicular" Gothic, 237. Persecutions, Christian, 127. Perugia Museum, 43. Peterborough Cathedral, 194; Fig. 120. Petra, rock tombs, 90. Phenician influence in Italy, 27. Piers, defined, 168 ; Romanesque, 195, 197; Gothic, 225. Pinnacles, Gothic, 232. Pisa, cathedral dome, 172 ; cathedral, 193, 20 5 (Figs. 127, 128) ; baptistery, 3 6 Index. 244 ; Leaning Tower, 246 ; Campo Santo, 264, 287 (Figs. 181, 191) ; fres- coes, 287 ; baptistery pulpit, 295. Pointed arch, Arab, 182 ; Gothic, 221- 225. Polledrara tomb, 30. Pompeii, 90-97, 106, 107. Pont du Card, 105 ; Fig. 34. Porta Maggiore, 122. Poi'tland vase, 98. Pottery, Roman, 97. Prehistoric age and art, 17-19, 161. Pyramid of Caius Cestius, 122. Ravenna, sarcophagi, 135; history, 146 ; classic decadence, 152 ; exarchate, 152 ; mosaics, 156 ; churches, 162-167, I 7- Regulini-Galassi tomb, 30. Renaissance style, 87, 237, 265, 266, 281, 294, 295,301,302. Rheims Cathedral, 236. Roads, Roman, 104. Roman art, distinctions of period, 25; territories, 65 ; architecture, 78-91 ; sculpture, 72-77, 98-103 ; decorative art, 95-98; painting, 91-94; Forum, 109 (Fig. 72) ; roads, 104; art deca- dence, 138; Christian period, 131-137. Romanesque art, 185-207 ; adjective ex- plained, 195 ; duration and period, 185; character, 187, 189; cathedrals located, 193 ; frescoes, 194 ; sculpture, 194-207 ; architecture, 195-205. Rouen, Church of St. Ouen, 236. Russian art, derived from Byzantine, 159, 185. St. Denis Cathedral, 211. St. Mark's (Venice), 154, 170, 175. St. Paul's (London) dome, 172. St. Peter's dome, 172. St. Sophia, Constantinople, 162, 170, 171, 175, 178; Figs. 107, 109. Salisbury Cathedral, 223. Samian pottery ware, 97. Samnites, art, 28, 57 ; wars, 60. San Apollinare in Classe (Ravenna), \ 156, 165; Figs. 103, 105. San Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna), 156, 165 ; Figs. 102, 104. San Vitale (Ravenna), 165, 170 ; Fig. 106. ! Sarcophagi, Etruscan, 35, 41 ; Roman, 101 ; Christian, 135 (Figs. 88, 89, 90). Scaligers, tombs of the, 296. School of Cologne, 253, 256. Sculpture, Etruscan, 29-43 ; Roman, 72- 77, 83, 84, 98-126; early Christian, 135, Byzantine, 159-160; Romanesque, 194, 206; Gothic, 247-250; Italian Gothic, 294-302. Segovia, aqueduct, 82 ; Fig. 38. Selinus, ruins, 52 ; Fig. 21. Seville, the Alcazar, 182 (Fig. 116) ; the Giralda, 182. Sicily, a seat of Arab art, 183. Siena Cathedral, 261, 268 (Fig. 169); pulpit, by Niccolo Pisano, 295. Slade Collection (glass), 98. Spalatro, 85, 168. Speyer Cathedral, 193 ; Fig. 125. Spires, origin, 169; Gothic, 240, 263. Stained glass, 251, 271. Steeples, origin, 169. Stonehenge, 161. Strassburg Cathedral, 250. Taormina, ruins, 53. Tarquinii, 43, 44. Temples, Roman, 78-81 ; Maison Carres, 78 (Fig. 44); Fortuna Virilis, 78, 119 (Fig. 46); Antoninus and Faustina, 78, in (Fig. 47) ; Assisi, 79 (Fig. 48); Pola, 78; Tivoli, 78; Vesta, 79, in, 119; Olympian Jupiter, 79; Baalbek, 79; Jerash, 79; Castor and Pollux, in ; Concord, in ; Mars Ultor, 113. Theater of Marcellus, 119 ; Fig. 80. Tiles, Arab, 184. Tomb of Caecilia Metella, 107 (Fig. 69); of Hadrian, 107 (Fig. 70) ; of Eurysa- ces, 123. Trajan's Column, 108; Fig. 71. Transept, Romanesque, 202 ; Gothic, 240. Triforium, 240. Triptychs, 159, 250 ; Fig. 154. Triumph of Death, Pisan fresco, 287. Triumphal arches, 86 ; Fig. 52. Tudor arch, 238. Tuscan order, 36, 81 ; Fig. 30. Utensils, Roman, 95. Index. 307 Van der Weyden, Roger, 254-256 ; Fig. 158. Van Eycks, the, 254-256 ; Fig. 155. Vases, Greek, 49, 50; Figs. 10, 19. Vaulting, Romanesque, 166, 195, 199, 200 ; Gothic, 221-225, 229. Venice, palaces, 259, 300 (Figs. 194, 195); Palace of the Doge, 301 (Fig. 196); see also St. Mark's. Verona, amphitheater, 86 ; cathedral, 267. Volterra, museum, 41 ; Etruscan gate- way, Fig. 12; town hall, 299 (Fig. i93)- Wechselburg, sculpture, 194. Weights, Roman, 95 ; Fig. 61. Wells Cathedral, Fig. 135. Westminster Abbey, 236. Windows, Gothic, 228, 229, 250. Worms Cathedral, 193 ; Fig. 124. York Cathedral, 223. '*"'' D 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. JAN 3196682 "CEIVED -A Pi NOVi9 196948 .-,.'-' . t i ' I " I J^" " ; n nFmq'69-4PII 7 1980 MftR 7 'r LD 21A-40m-4,'63 (D6471slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley LIBRARY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. THIS BOOK IS DUE BEFORE CLOSING TIME ON LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Y USE REC'D LD MARX8'65 f 5P T,D 62A-50m-2,'64 General Library University of California Berkeley