Reference has already been made to the eaves-galleries of the apses of the Lombard churches. A similar gallery was carried across the main front, rising with the slope of the roof, as in San Michele, Pavia; also on the west fronts of San Pietro in Cielo d’oro and San Lanfranco, at Pavia; and in the cathedrals of Parma and Piacenza. In all these cases the galleries are not quite continuous, vertical buttresses or groups of shafts or single shafts being carried up through them to the corbel tables. In S. Ambrogio at Milan the central original lantern is surrounded with two tiers of galleries. The finest example of their employment, however, is in the magnificent central tower of the Cistercian church at Chiaravalle, near Milan, where the two lower storeys form the drum of the internal dome, the two storeys above are set back, and the upper storey consists of a lofty octagonal tower with conical spire.
One of the serious defects in the front of the church of San Michele at Pavia is that it forms a mask, and takes no cognizance of the aisle roofs, which are at a lower level, and the same is found in San Pietro-in-Cielo d’oro at Pavia. This mask is carried to an absurd extent in the church of Santa Maria della Pieve at Arezzo, in which, above the ground storey of the arcades, are three galleries forming strong horizontal lines, which suggest the numerous floors of a civic building instead of the vertical subdivisions of a church. This defect is not found in the church of San Zeno at Verona, which is one of the finest of the Lombard churches; the church is basilican in plan, the nave being divided into five bays with compound piers, as in Sant’ Ambrogio, as if it were intended to vault it; this, however, was never done, but stone arches are thrown across the two westernmost bays of the nave as if to carry the roof (now concealed by a wooden ceiling). The façade is of marble and sandstone, with pilaster-strips rising from the base to the arched corbel table, and the outline of the nave and aisles is preserved in the front, in which all the mouldings and carving are of the utmost delicacy. Both here and in the cathedral are fine examples of those projecting porches, the columns of which are carried on the backs of lions or other beasts. At Piacenza, Parma, Mantua, Bergamo and Modena are porches of a similar kind, and in the cathedral of Modena the columns which support the balcony on the entrance to the crypt are all carried on the backs of lions. The cathedral of Verona has suffered so much from rebuilding and restoration that little remains of the earlier structure, but the apse of the choir, decorated with a close set range of pilaster-strips, with bases and Corinthian capitals and crowned with a highly enriched entablature, is quite unique in its design.
Among circular buildings, the Rotonda at Brescia was at one time considered to date from the 8th century, owing to its massive construction and the simplicity and plainness of its external design. Later discoveries, however, have shown that the early date can only be given to the crypt of San Filasterio situated to the eastward of the Rotonda. The church of Santo Sepolcro at Bologna, as its name implies, is one of those reproductions of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem which were built by the Templars during the crusades. Of much earlier date is the circular church of San Tommaso-in-Limine, an early Lombard work of the 9th century, to which period belong also the baptisteries of Albenga, Arsago, Biella, Galliano and Asti. One of the most beautiful examples is the baptistery of Santa Maria at Gravedona, at the northern end of the lake of Como, built in black and white marble. The plan is unusual, and consists of a square with circular apses on three sides.
Byzantine Romanesque.—Although in the first basilican church of St Mark at Venice, erected in 929 to receive the relics of the saint recovered from St Mark’s in Alexandria, the capitals of the columns and other decorative accessories showed Greek influence, its transformation into a five-domed Byzantine structure was not begun till about the middle of the 11th century. The date given by Cattanco is 1063, the same year in which the cathedral of Pisa was begun; it is probable, however, that the scheme had already been in contemplation for some years, as the problem was not an easy one to solve, owing to the restrictions of the site, and to the desire to reproduce in some way the leading features of the church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. This church was destroyed in 1464, but its description by Procopius is so clear, and corresponds so closely with St Mark’s, completed towards the end of the 11th century, as to leave little doubt about the source of its inspiration. From what has already been said with reference to the great changes made when it was proposed to vault the early Lombard basilican churches, those of equal importance which were carried out in St Mark’s will be better understood. The nave was divided into three square bays (fig. 37), with additional bays on the north and south to form transepts; the five square bays thus obtained were covered with domes carried on pendentives, as in St Sophia at Constantinople, and on wide transverse barrel vaults; the domes over the north and south transepts and the choir were of slightly less dimensions than those over the nave and crossing, in consequence of the limitations in area caused by the chapel of St Theodore on the north, the ducal palace on the south, and the ancient apse of the original basilica which it was desired to retain. In the reconstruction, many of the old columns, capitals and parapets were utilized again in the arcades carrying the galleries and in the balustrades over them. Externally the brick walls were decorated with blind arcades and niches of Lombard style, and all the roof vaults were covered with lead as in Constantinople. The subsequent decoration of the exterior took two centuries to carry out, not including the florid work of later date. There is no precedent in the East for the superimposed columns and capitals exported from Constantinople and Syria which now decorate the north, south and west fronts (Plate I., fig. 63), though the materials were all of the finest Byzantine type. Internally, the mosaic decoration of the domes, vaults and the upper part of the walls, was carried out by Greek artists from Constantinople, who probably also were employed for the marble panelling of the lower part of the walls. The marble casing of the front was certainly executed by Constantinopolitan artists, since the moulded string known as the “Venetian dentil” is a direct reproduction of that in St Sophia. At a later date the domes were all surmounted by lanterns in wood, covered with lead, and the roofs were all raised. So far, therefore, the building departs from its prototype, the church of the Apostles. A similar transformation took place in the church of Santa Fosca at Torcello, where a single large dome was contemplated over the centre of the original basilican church, but was never built. The cathedral of Torcello and the church at Murano are richly decorated with carved panels, capitals, choir screens and other features, either imported from the East or reproduced by Greek artists or Italians trained in the style. The influence of St Mark’s in this respect extended far and wide on the east coast of Italy; and at Pomposa, Ancona, and as far south as Brindisi, Byzantine details can be traced everywhere. The designs of the churches of San Ciriaco at Ancona and of Sant’ Antonio at Padua were both based on St Mark’s. Sant’ Antonio’s had six domes, there being two over the nave; and in all cases the domes were surmounted by domes in timber like those of St Mark’s.
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| From R. P. Spiers’s Architecture, East and West. Fig. 37.—Plan of St Mark’s, Venice. |
