Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/499

 Bk. II. Ch. II. AQUITANIA. 467 fragments of that people still existing on its southern frontier, it would appear most likely that they were the influencing race. If so, their love of domes would be almost suflicient to establish their claim to a Turanian origin, for though domes are found, no doubt, farther north, it is in a modified form. These phenomena are, however, sufficient to induce us to include for the j^resent in the province of Aquitaine the doubtful districts of the Angoumois and Vendee, though it is possible that these provinces may eventually turn out to belong more properly to Anjou. In describing them, it may be convenient to take the domical stvle first, as its history — with one or two exce2> tional examples in the neighboring provinces — begjins and ends here. It will, no doubt, be found beyond the Pyre- nees so soon as it is look- ed for; but in a country whose architecture has been so imperfectly in- vestigated as has been the case in Spain, fifty different styles might exist without our being "cosrnizant of the fact. The principal and best preserved example of the domical style of Aquitaine is the church of St. Front, Perigeux. As will be seen from the Avoodcut No. 328, its plan is that of a Greek cross, 182 ft. each way internally, exclusive of the apse, which is com- paratively modern, and of the ante-church and porch, shaded darker, extending 150 ft. farther west, which are the remains of an older church, now very much mutilated, and to which the domical church appears to have been added in the 11th century. Both in plan and dimensions, it will be observed that this church bears an extraordinary and striking reseml>lance to that of St. Mark's, Venice, illustrated further on. The latter church, however, has the 329. Part of St. Front, Perigeux. (From Verneilh.)