Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/482

466 466 BYZANTINE ARCHITECTUIiE. Pakt II. ^^F^^^a 912. Plan of Church al L'suiilar (From (iriiiiin.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. Constantine. The horse-shoe again occurs in the cliurch at Dana on the Euphrates in 540.^ At Digbour we find it used, not in construc- tion, but as an ornamental feature. The stilting of the arch was evidently one of those experiments which the architects of that time were making in order to free themselves from the trammels of the Roman semi-circular arch. The Saracens carried it much further and used it with marked suc- cess, but this is probably the last occasion in which it was employed by a Christian architect as a decorative expedient. The six buttresses, with their offsets, which adorn the fa9ade, are another curious feature in the archaeology of this church. If they are integral parts of the original design, which there seems no reason to doubt, they anticipate by several centuries the appear- ance of this form in Western Europe. One of the oldest and least altered of the Armenian churches seems to be that of Usunlar, said to have been erected by the Catholicos Jean IV. between the years 718 and 726. In j^lan it looks like a peri- stylar temple, but the verandahs which surround it ai'e only low arcndes, and have very little affinity with classical forms. These are carried round the front, but there pierced only by the doorway. The elevation, as here exhibited, is simple, but sufficiently expresses the internal arrange- ments, and, with an octagonal dome, forms, when seen in perspective, a j)leasing object from every point of view. Both plan and design are, however, exceptional in the province. A far more usual arrangement is that found at Pitzounda in Abkassia, which may be considered as the typical form of an Armenian church. It is said to have been erected by the Emperor Justinian, and there is nothing in the style or ornamentation of the lower part that seems to gainsay its being his. But the plan is so like many that belong to a much later age, 913. West Elevation of Church at Usunlar. (From Grimm.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 914. Plan of Cluuch at Pit- zounda. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 1 Texier and Pullan, '• Byzantine Architecture," pp. lix. Ix.