Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/417

Rh Bk. VIII. Ch. VIII. CATHEDRAL AT MONREALE. 401 churches, is that of a Roman basilica, far more than of a Gothic church. In none of them was any vault ever either built or intended. The central is divided from the side-aisles by pillars of a single stone, generally borrowed from ancient temples, but (in this instance at least) with capitals of great beauty, suited to their position and to the load they have to support. The pier-arches are pointed, but not Gothic, having no successive planes of decoration, but being merely square masses of masonry of simple but stilted forms. The windows, too, though pointed, are undivided, and evidently never meant for painted glass. The roofs of the naves are generally of open framing, like those of the basilicas, and ornamented in Sara- cenic taste. The aisles, the intersection of the transepts and nave, and the first division of the sanctuary are generally richer, and consequently more truly Moor- ish The apse again is Roman. Taken altogether, it is oniy the accident of the pointed arch having been borrowed from the Moors that .has led to the idea of Gothic feeling existing in these edifices. It does exist at Messina and Cefalu, but in sai. I'lun of Church at Monreaie. T>i • 1 iVii „*• (From Hittortt and Zanth.) Palermo is almost wholly wanting. Scale loo ft to i in. It is evident that the architectural feat- ures in the buildings of which the cathedral of Monreale is the type, were" subordinate, in the eyes of their builders, to the mosaic decorations which cover every part of the interior, and are in fact the glory and pride of the edifice, by which alone it is entitled to rank among the finest of Medieval churclies. All tlie principal personages of the Bible are represented in the stiff but grand style of Greek art, sometimes with Greek inscriptions, and accompanied by scenes illustrating the Old and New Testaments. They are separated by and intermixed with arabesques and ornaments in color .and gold, making up a decoration unrivalled in its class by anything — except, perhaps, St. Mark's — the Middle Ages have produced. The church at Assisi is neither so rich nor so splendid. The Certosa is infamous in taste as compared with this Sicilian cathedral. No specimen of opaque painting of its class, on this side of the Alps, can compete with it in any way. Perhaps the painted glass of some of our cathedrals may have surpassed it, but that is gone. In this respect the mosaic has the advantage. It is to be regretted that we have no direct means of comparing the effect oi these two modes of decoration. In both the internal architecture was