Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/407

Rh bk. v:i. ch. vn. ST. MARK'S, VENICE. 391 A dome. At St. Mark's they are in front, behind, and beside it, Ag a great transeptal arrangement, which, to say the least of it, ery unusual in the East, if indeed it is there known at all. Many are inclined to ascribe to it an Oriental origin from the ofusion of gold mosaics which cover every part of its interior; but jhis was the case with the apses and semi-domes of all the Romanesque churches, and generally of the walls, too, when the light was favor- a])le. They could not so adorn their roofs, because they were of wood ; and the Gothic architects were equally debarred, by the twisted and cut-up surfaces of their vaults, from the employment there of this class of decoration. p *B « 30 ■« 00 (9 7a O en lo Ft 822. Section of St. Mark's, Venice. (From "Chiesi Principali di Europa.") There can be no doubt that, owing to their continual intercourse with the East, the Venetians received many hints from a country that had at that time more leisure to work out this style. The probability is that if we had a few^ more examples of what was doing in Italy, from the decline of Ravenna to the rise of Venice, we might more certainly associate St. Mark's with the indigenous French and Italian styles of that age than has hitherto been thought jirobable. The foundations of the present church were laid in 977, in replace- ment of the original building burnt down in a tumult in the previous year, and it was completed in all essentials within a century from that time (1071) ; but the mosaics and internal decorations occupied ten, or