Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/463

Rh known as the Torre clei Schiavi, but it is only in the very earliest of the Christian edifices that we find a trace of the portico, and even in them hardly any attempt at external decoration. The temples of the Christians were no longer shrines to contain statues, and to which worship might be addressed by people outside, but had become halls to contain the worshippers themselves while engaged in acts of devotion.

The tomb of the Empress Helena (Woodcut No. 226) is one of the earliest examples of its class. It has no pillars internally, it is true, but it likewise has none on the exterior—the transition was not then complete. The same is the case with the two tombs on the Spina of the Circus of Xero (Woodcut No. 274). They too were astyler, and their external appearance was utterly neglected.

When from these we turn to the Tomb or Baptistery of Constantine, built some time afterwards (Woodcut No. 294), we find the roof supported

by a screen of eight columns, two stories in height, and through all its alterations can detect the effort to make the interior ornamental. It has, however, a portico, but this again is practically an interior, both ends being closed with apsidal terminations, so that it really forms a second apartment rather than a portico. In both these respects it is in advance of the building next to it in age that we know of—the Octagon at Spalatro—which it otherwise very much resembles. The eight internal pillars instead of being mere ornaments have become essential parts of the construction, and the external peristyle has disappeared, leaving only the fragment of a porch.

The tomb which the same Emperor erected to contain the remains of his daughter Constantia, is another example of the same

transitional style. The interior in this instance is vaulted, but so timidly that twenty-four pillars are employed to sustain a weight for which half that number would have been amply sufficient. In the square niche opposite the entrance stood the sarcophagus of the princess, now in the Vatican. The roof of the aisle is adorned with paintings of the vintage and scenes of rural life, which, like all those on the tombs of Pagan Rome, have no reference to the sepulchral uses to which the building was dedicated. The whole internal diameter of the tomb is 73 feet, that of the dome 35.