Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/558

542 542 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. fAKT m. these parts are requisite to complete the establishment of a great imperial mosque. Internally the construction rests on four great piers of pleasing and appropriate design ; and the screen of windows on each side, under the great lateral arches of the dome, is borne by four mono- lithic shafts of porphyry of great beauty. These formerly supported statues in the hippodrome, and most probably were brought origin all ^■ from Egypt. Each is 28 ft. in height, or, with the base and capital, 35 ft. The dome itself is 86 ft. in diameter internally, and 156 ft. in height. This seems even a better proportion of height to diameter than that of !Sta. Sophia, though the dimensions are so much less that 979. View of Suleimaiiie Mosque. ^Froiu a Pbotogiaph by Bedford.) it has not, of course, the same grandeur of effect. At Sta. Sophia the dome is 108 ft. in diameter, and 175 ft. in height, or 21 and 19 ft. more respectively. These smaller dimensions, as well as the absence in the mosque of all the mosaic magnificence of the church, and the presence of a -ood deal of modern vulgarity, renders it extremely difficult to institute any fair comparison between the two buildings. On the whole, it may, perhai)S, be said with truth, that the mosque is more perfect mechanically than the church, that the constructive l)arts are better disposed and better proi^ortioned ; but, that for artistic effect and poetry of design, the church still far surpasses its rival, in so far at least as the interior is concerned.