Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/559

Rh Bk. I. Ch. IV. TURKEY. 543 Externally the mosque suffers, like all the buildings of the capital, from the badness of the materials with which it is constructed. Its walls are covered with stucco, its dome with lead, and all the sloping abutments of the dome, though built with masonry, have also to be protected by a metal covering. This, no doubt, detracts from the effect; but still the whole is so massive — every window, every dome^ every projection is so truthful, and tells so exactly the purpose for which it was placed where we find it, that the general result is most satisfactory, and as impressive an external effect has been produced Muth one-half the expense of adornment requisite for a Gothic building of the same pretensions. The tomb of the founder, which stands in the garden behind, avoids these defects. It is built in marble of various colors, and every detail is most carefully elaborated. It is too small — only 46 ft. in diameter externally — to produce any grandeur of effect; but it suffices to show that the architects of those days were quite competent to produce satisfactory designs for the exteriors of their buildings if they had found appropriate materials in which to execute them. Next in importance to the Suleimanie, among the imperial mosques of Constantinople, is that which the Sultan Ahmed commenced a.d. 1608. The mosque itself is in plan somewhat larger than the pre- ceding, measuring 235 ft. by 210, and covering nearly 50,000 sq. ft. ; but it is inferior botli in design and in the richness or taste of its decorations. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 980), it deviates still fui-ther than the Suleimanie from the design of Sta. Sophia; and in the exact ratio in which it diverges froni that type does it fail in producing any artistic effect. Its great defect is that it is too mechanically regular. In the nave of Sta. Sophia the propor- tion of length to breadth is practically as two-and-a-half to one. In the Suleimanie it is nearly two to one, but the Ahmedjie is absolutely square. Without asking for the extreme difference between length and breadth which prevails in Gothic cathedrals, a design must have sides — there must be some ])oint towards which the effect tends. In this mosque, as in the Pantheon at Rome, if the plan were divided into quarters, each of the four quadrants would be found to be identical, and the effect is consequently painfully mechanical and jn-osaic. The design of each wall is also nearly the same ; they have the same number of windows spaced in the same manner, and the side of the Kibleh is scarcely more richly decorated than the others. Add to this, that all the windows are glazed with white glass, and that, above the marble wainscotting, whitewash has been unsparingly employed, and it will be easy to understand how the mosque fails in producing the effect which might fairly be expected from its dimen- sions and the general features of its design. Still, a hall nearly