Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/92

 XI. — Byzantine Architecture. The Byzantine style of architecture is that adopted by the Slavonic races of Europe, as distinct from the Teutonic, and was generally employed in all those countries where the Greek form of Christianity was professed. Simul- taneously with the transformation in the West of the Roman basilicas into places of Christian worship, a new style began to develop itself in the East, likewise founded on Roman models. Constantinople or Byzantium was to Eastern Europe what Rome was to Western. It was in Byzantium that ancient art was saved from total oblivion, in the dark period of the middle ages. There was pre- served the remembrance of the ideal forms of antique beauty, together with the technical knowledge necessary for their embodiment anew. Byzantine architecture was not, like the Roman, a mere combination of antique styles without individuality or originality : by its artistic recog- nition of all that distinguished Christianity from paganism, and by its bold and original development of those principles of plan, construction and decoration which it adopted, it gained for itself a position as an original school of art. The chief peculiarity, or rather the fundamental principle, of the construction of Byzantine churches is the employ- ment of the cupola or dome covering in the central part of the church, and the substitution of an almost square plan for the long aisles of the Roman churches. Instead of the rows of columns of the basilicas, strong and lofty piers connected by arches supported the cupola. To the central space, covered by the cupola, were joined half-domes of less magnitude. Small columns were only used for supporting galleries and, so to speak, railing off the central portion of