Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/663

Rh Europe through the Crusaders may be considered now as disposed of by the work of M. de Vogué on the churches of the Holy Land, from which it will be seen that they all date from a period long subsequent to the regular employment of the pointed arch and barrel vault in the south of France for constructional reasons. For proper consideration of the question the subject should be divided into two parts-(1) that which has to do with its im- mediate constructional object; and (2) its constant employment for almost every form of arch and vault during the Middle Ages. The earliest example of the pointed arch known is that found by Professor Flinders Petrie in the Pyramid of Hawara, 2622-2578 B.C. The second was that discovered in the drains of the palace of Khorsabad built by the Assyrians c. 721 B.C. In Egypt its first appearance is in the Nilometer of the Island of Roda, A.D. 861; and after the erection of the Mosque of Toulon, A.D. 879, it was always employed. From there it was probably imported into

Sicily which the Saracens occupied from 941 to 1072. Unfortunately no example of that date remains; but when the Normans conquered Sicily, 1072, they employed the Mahommedan workmen, so that the Saracenic style lingers throughout the buildings crected in Sicily for more than a century. The pointed arch, there- fore, was universally adopted in Sicily, and we find it in the church of S. Giovanni de' Leprosi outside Palermo, 1072, and in the Ponte dell' Ammiraglio, built in 1110, the arches of the bridge are of two orders, the lower ring of the arches being recessed slightly behind the upper ring. Of later buildings the church of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti and the Cappella Palatina, both built before 1132, and the church of La Martorana, completed 1143, are all built with pointed arches. Passing now to the south of France, in the church of St Stephen at Périgueux, the western bay, erected 1014, still preserves a portion of its dome and pendentives built on pointed arches. The churches of Brantôme, St Jean de Cole, and Cahors were all built with similar features before the close of the century, and the Cathedral of Angoulême (first bay), and the church of Fontevrault before 1130. It should be pointed out that in the domed churches of Périgord and Angoumois the setting out of the pendentives and its construction in horizontal courses is entirely different from Byzantine dome construction in the East. Throughout Provence the churches were vaulted with pointed barrel vaults, all in the 11th century, the finest example being that of the church at Carcassonne, 1090. In Palestine, prior to the crusades, all the doors and windows had circular arches, the vaults only, for constructional reasons, being pointed. The earliest churches built by the Crusaders in Pales- tine were those of Tortosa and Beyrout, in both of which the naves are covered with pointed- barrel vaults similar to that of Carcassonne, and probably carried out under the direction of the monks of Cluny. From 1142 onwards the Crusaders introduced the dome over the crossing of nave and transepts, pointed arches carrying pendentives and dome, and the construction of the latter is the same as that employed in Périgord, and quite different from that of the Byzantine dome and pendentives of the Greek churches. The arches of the naves of these churches are pointed and of two orders, like the bridge already referred to near Palermo; and the masonry bears so close a resemblance to Sicilian work as to lead ns to suppose that Sicilian masons, whose language was either Greek or Arabic, were taken over to Palestine, as they would be better able to direct the native labour of the country. The masons' marks found in the Holy Land are either French or Italian; English or German masons' niarks have not been found. There is a natural tendency in M. de Vogué's work to ascribe to French masons the design and erection of all the Crusaders' churches; and in the more important, it is true, we recognize the genius of the French sculptor. The portals of the south doorway of the church of the Holy Sepulchre are identical with examples in the south of France (Fig. 7). On the other hand the mouldings of the west portal of the Church of the Resurrection at Nablûs are of Early English section and associated with the dog-tooth ornament. The only characteristic difference between the Crusaders' churches and those in Europe are that the former have-(1) flat roofs over the aisles and sometimes over the nave, which were possible in the East; and (2) the exterior of the apses was occasionally polygonal, in imitation of those of the Greek Church.

A New Christian Style.-A second work by M. de Vogué on the architecture of Central Syria, published in 1867, revealed the existence of a new Christian style of architecture, religious and secular, hitherto unknown, which, though developed by the Greek Christians of Palestine, is based more directly on the Roman remains in the country. The only parallel to it found in Europe is that which exists in Burgundy in the churches of Autun and Langres, based similarly on Roman work; but there is a difference of five or six centuries in date, and as these towns and villages in Central Syria were deserted during the Mahommedan invasion in the 7th century, and being in the centre of Syria were never even approached by the Crusaders, there can never have been any connexion between the two. M. de Vogué's book is not confined to Christian work. Many earlier buildings of Herodian and Roman work are illustrated in it, and amongst them the stone buildings of the Hauran, which, owing to the absence of timber, are entirely-roofs, doors, and windows- built in stone. These had been visited and described by Burckhart, the Rev. J. L. Porter, and other travellers; but it has only been from the engraved illustrations in M. de Vogue's book that a fair idea has been given of their design and remarkable construction. St Mark's, Venice.-Discoveries in the archives of Venice since 1890 have led to a revised date being given for the construc- tion of the five domes within the basilican church of St Mark's, Venice, restored only by Orseolo in 976. The late Professor Cattaneo arrived at the conclusion that these domes were not built till 1063. It follows, therefore, that the five-domed church of St Front at Périgueux, which was copied from it, is not the first domed church in France, as St Stephen's in Périgueux, and other domed churches, were built in the first half of the 11th century. A more careful examination of the so-called Latin church which stands on the western side of the five-domed church at Périgueux, has revealed features dating from the first half of the 11th century, so that this was the church burnt down in 1120. Moreover, the five-domed church is entirely in stone, so that no such conflagration could have taken place as is recounted in the chroniele. From the fact that the bodies of the saints were not brought back till 1171 to be placed in the new church of St Front, it is probable that it was S. I. -77