The Brochure Series
OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.
| Vol. I. | APRIL, 1895. | No. 4. |
BYZANTINE-ROMANESQUE WINDOWS INSOUTHERN ITALY.
The collection of photographs fromwhich the plates in this and theFebruary number were selectedwas only recently made under thedirection of Signor Boni, an official ofthe Italian government, charged with thecare and restoration of historic monuments.
The province of Apulia has been solittle invaded by the march of modernimprovement, and its present inhabitantsare, as a rule, so poor, that it isdifficult to travel here except on the lineof a few main thoroughfares, and strangersseldom visit more than one or two of theprincipal towns on the coast. Bari andBrindisi are known to tourists, as they arein the line of travel to and from Greece,but the inland towns are isolated in abarren priest-ridden country in whichstrangers are not welcome. The hardshipswhich it is necessary to face deterall but the most adventurous even of theItalians, familiar with the language andmanners of the people. Architects seldomvisit this neighborhood, and little isknown of its rich treasure of mediævalbuildings, except through the few publishedworks treating of it. Signor Boniexpressed himself as surprised at thegreat amount of beautiful work scatteredthrough this region, of which he previouslyhad no knowledge. The opinion of Fergussonhas already been quoted in thepreceding article.
The mixture in the work here illustratedof Byzantine and Romanesque elementshas also been referred to in thepreceding article, but the special characteristicsof each style were not particularlypointed out. In the present considerationthe peculiarities of detail andornament are all that need be taken up,as the views given furnish no opportunityfor the study of plan or general design.The derivation of the Byzantine style wasindicated in the March number of TheBrochure Series in describing the Ravennacapitals there illustrated.
Byzantine conventional ornament appearsto be of two types,—the one usuallyused in mosaics, of thin scrolls, terminatingin flowers or symbols, displayed upona ground which is much greater in quantitythan is the ornament; the other,usually confined to sculpture, an intricateinterlace of ribbon lines with spacesfilled with Byzantine acanthus, the ornamentmuch greater in proportion thanthe ground, which only shows in smallseparate pieces. Apart from these arethe borders, occasionally of overlappingleaves, often of small repeated units, suchas Greek crosses and squares and diamonds,or else meanders or guilloches.The guilloche takes a new form in Byzantinedesign, and instead of being acontinuous succession of small circlesenclosed in an interlacing ribbon, itassumes the form of alternating small[53]and large circles, or of small circles alternatingwith large squares, and often progressingin both directions at once,horizontally and perpendicularly, andthus forming an all-over pattern. Theroses of ornament are often incorporatedinto this form of guilloche. Sculpture ofthe human form becomes more and morefeeble and crude. The acanthus, however,went steadily through successivevariation until it attained the virile formseen in the best Byzantine work. It is nolonger the olive type of the Romans, orthe heavy, stupid leaf of the earlier centuriesof the Christian era, but has againturned towards the