Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/432

416 416 BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. Part II. history which stopped with the beginning of the 7th century, the only philosophical mode of treating the question would be to consider the style as one and indivisible for that period ; but as the separation was throughout steadily, though almost ini])erceptibly, making its way, and gradixally became fixed and permanent, it will be found more con- venient to assume the separation from the beginning. This method will no doubt lead to some repetition, but that is a small inconvenience compared with the amount of clearness obtained. At the same time, if any one were writing a history of Byzantine architecture only, it would be necessary to include Ravenna, and probably V^enice and some other towns in Italy and Sicily, in the Eastern division. On the other hand, in a histoiy devoted exclusively to the Romanesque styles, it would be impossible to omit the churches at Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or Salonica, and elsewhere in the East. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to draw an arbitrary line somewhere ; and for this purpose the western limits of the Turkish Empire and of Russia will answer every practical purpose. Eastward of this line every country in which the Christian religion at any time prevailed may be considered as belonging to the Byzantine province. During the first three centuries of the style (324-622) it will be convenient to consider the whole Christian East as one architectural province. When our knowledge is more coniplete, it may be possible to separate it into several, but at present we are only beginning to see the steps by which the style grew up, and are still very far from the knowledge requisite for such limitations, even if it should here- after be discovered that a sufticient number exist. All the great churches with which Constantine and his immediate successors adorned their new capital have perished. Like the churches at Jerusalem and Bethlehem, they were probably constructed with wooden roofs and even wooden architraves, and thus soon became a prey to the flames in that most combustible of capitals. Christian architecture has been entirely swept off the face of the earth at Antioch, and very few and imperfect vestiges are found of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Still, the recent researches of De Yogiie in Northern Syria,i ^nd of Texier in Salonica ^ show how much unexpected wealth still remains to be explored, and in a few years more this chapter of our history may assume a shape as much more complete than what is now written, as it excels what we were compelled to be content with when the Handbook was published, 1855. Since therefore, under present circumstances, no ethnographic treatment of the subject seems feasible, the clearest mode of present- ing it will probably be to adopt one purely technical. 1 " Syrie Centrale : Architecture civile et religieuse du I" au VII™ Sifecle. Par le Compte Melchior de Vogue." The plates are complete, the text still unpublished. 2 " Byzantine Architecture," by Texier and Pullan. Folio, London, 18.54.