Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/146

 the walls, either free red brick or of faience. At the intersection of the cloisters small discs of faience are also inset, forming multi-coloured groups of red, yellow and green imposed on the darker red surface. On the belfry the same coloured ornamentation is to be found.

Only one thing was omitted by the architects: the need for light was completely overlooked. The rays of the sun hardly entered through the narrow windows. In the interior of the church priests and worshippers foregathered in semi-darkness. The church was all too small, also, to hold those participating in family ceremonies which required the blessing of the priest. Thus, in the Moldavia of the 16th century, the outer narthex took form, an example being that of the church at Bălinești. In the second half of the following century this innovation became more or less general.

Towards 1550 the Wallachians adopted this synthesis, which was the work of their northern brethren. In the warmer climate of the former province the porch was even more necessary than in Moldavia. The principal features of the Roumanian church, however, could not be further changed.

The artists in both principalities were no aliens from the Balkan Peninsula or the more appropriate occidental states. Foreign craftsmen were employed by the rich princes who wished to perpetuate the memory of their reign by the erection of churches. In the burial church of Cozia the works of the last Serbian painters are to be found.

But how a new era of a strongly uniform character had begun. Each new development is determined by the qualities of the race, but the workers were subjected at the same