VI.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN STYLE.

After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity, in the fourth century, the Christians who, as a persecuted sect had hitherto held their religious observances in hiding, in the catacombs of Rome, adopted the basilica as the most convenient form of building for the purposes of their worship. The bishop occupied a throne in the apse, surrounded by the presbyters or fathers of the church, and the congregation of the faithful filled the central nave.

For several centuries this plan was but little changed, the only notable additions to it being the continuation of the transept beyond the line of the walls of the nave, thus making it cruciform; the occasional substitution of double aisles, making five divisions in the body of the church, instead of the original three, and the addition of a tower or belfry.

All subsequent churches, whether Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance were constructed on but slight modifications of this original plan, which, in fact, was itself evolved from that of the Roman temple.

Illustration: PLAN OF THE OLD BASILICA OF ST. PAUL’S BEYOND THE WALLS.

A - Apse T - Transept N - Nave X - Narthex]

The first basilicas erected for Christian worship had double aisles; this form was, however, soon discontinued, probably owing to the difficulty of observing the offices of the clergy from the outer aisle. Of these St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s beyond the walls, and St. John Lateran were the finest examples. The first-named was built upon the site of the present cathedral, and was removed in the sixteenth century to make room for it. Its dimensions were of notable size, being about 380 feet long by 212 feet in width. It was preceded by an atrium, or open court, surrounded by a colonnade, in which the Christians met to transact their affairs. The basilica of St. Paul’s was destroyed by fire in the early part of this century, and a new structure resembling the old was erected in its place on a scale of great magnificence. The columns of its Corinthian colonnade and the floor are of polished marble and the wooden roof lavishly ornamented with carving and gilding. The transept is enriched with mosaics, and contains a baldachin over the altar, in which malachite and other choice stones have been used unsparingly.

A typical basilica was generally arranged as follows: The atrium or quadrangular open court, surrounded by porticos, preceded the main building, or was replaced by a porch composed of columns sustaining a low roof which was called the narthex. Within, the structure was divided into a nave, side aisles, transept, and apse. The nave (derived from “navis,” a vessel, symbolical of that of St. Peter) was loftier than the adjoining aisles, the upper wall being usually panelled with pictures and pierced at the top by a range of windows, from which the Gothic clerestory was derived later on. In one or two instances where the side aisles had a second story or upper gallery for the women, the panels and windows were placed in the outer wall.

The interior lines of columns were usually of the Ionic or Corinthian orders, having been taken from older buildings, but if new they were of stouter proportions than the Classical models. These columns supported either a continuous architrave or circular arches.

Wooden doors, often covered by chased bronze, were hung in the main entrance and the wall above was usually pierced by a round window or bull’s-eye, afterward developed into the rose window. At the other end of the nave a wide arched opening, called the triumphal arch, connected it with the transept.

An enclosure, separated from the body of the church by a balustrade, at the upper end of the nave, contained the seats of the choristers and the reading-desks.

The altar was placed in the transept and was frequently surmounted by a baldachin composed of four or six columns supporting a light dome. Behind the altar in the centre of the apse was the throne (cathedra) occupied by the bishop (episcopus), being raised by steps from the semicircular stone seats (exedra) used by the presbyters, which were covered with carpets. The walls of the transept and apse were inlaid with mosaic inscriptions and pictures, in which the head of our Saviour, the figures of saints and holy emblems were the chief subjects. Deep blue, purple, and green were the prevailing colours and the letters were of gold. The floors were decorated with mosaic patterns. The roofs were either flat with sunken panels framed with mouldings and gilded ornaments, or else showed the open trussed wood-work, though the latter was the exception. Externally there was no attempt at enrichment, the exterior generally offering a great contrast to the lavish internal decorations.

At the present day nearly all the basilicas have undergone transformation, the old roofs have been replaced, the walls covered with a modern adornment of pilasters and gaudy paintings, the colonnades have been broken through to allow of entrances to side-chapels, or disfigured by the heterogeneous decoration of the eighteenth century, and the exteriors treated with renaissance façades.

Nevertheless the general plan and arrangements have remained substantially the same, and we have very interesting specimens of this class of building in St. Maria Maggiore, St. Agnese, San Clemente, and others, in Rome, San Appolinare, in Ravenna, the basilicas at Torcello, in the Venetian lagoons, and later examples in St. Ambrogio, of Milan, and St. Maria Sopra Minerva, in Rome. The basilica at Torcello was built mainly from fragments of an older church upon the mainland at Altino. The bishop’s throne is one of the most interesting and best preserved examples we have.

The Greek name for this, cathedra, was the origin of our term cathedral, applied to churches containing the bishop’s seat, there being no architectural distinction between the buildings.

From the tombs of the Romans the Christians derived their conception of the edifices which they used as baptisteries. Their exterior walls were either polygonal or circular, and of severe simplicity. The interiors were generally divided by a row of columns sustaining a round vault, and forming a circular enclosure in which the font was placed. A wall, carried on these columns, contained windows, and served as a lantern to light the building. This wall occasionally supported a dome. San Stephano Rotondo, in Rome; St. Angeli, in Perugia, and St. Vitale, in Ravenna, are the best examples among the many found in Italy.

San Stephano has a double range of interior columns, taken from Roman temples, the one supporting an entablature, and the other a series of arches. The church has been much modified by successive alterations, and the interior is ornamented with curious paintings, representing the sufferings of the martyrs.

The baptistery of St. Angeli is smaller, but has preserved its original form in a greater degree.

[Illustration: ST. VITALE, OF RAVENNA.]

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA.]

St. Vitale is a type of structure much copied in subsequent buildings. It is itself modelled on the so-called temple of Minerva Medica, differing only in having an octagon instead of a decagon plan. Of this Fergusson gives the following account:

“It certainly belongs to the best days of the Roman empire, if, indeed, it be not a Christian building, which I am very much inclined to believe it is, for on comparing it with the baptistery of Constantine and the tomb of St. Contanza, it shows a considerable advance in construction on both of these buildings, and a greater similarity to San Vitale, at Ravenna, and other buildings of that time, than to anything else now found in Rome.

It has a dome eighty feet in diameter, resting on a decagon of singularly light and elegant construction. Nine of the compartments contain niches, which give great room on the floor, as well as variety and lightness to the general design. Above this is a clerestory of ten well-proportioned windows, which give light to the building; perhaps not in so effective a manner as the one eye of the Pantheon, though by a far more convenient arrangement, to protect from the elements a people who did not possess glass.

“So far as I know, all domed buildings erected by the Romans up to the time of Constantine, and, indeed, long afterward, were circular in the interior, though they were sometimes octagonal externally. This, however, is a polygon both internally and on the outside, and the mode in which the dome is placed on the polygon shows the first rudiments of the pendentive system, which was afterward carried to such perfection by the Byzantine architects, but is nowhere else to be found in Rome. It probably was for the purpose of somewhat diminishing the difficulties of this construction that the architect adopted a figure with ten instead of eight sides.”

The plans of the temple of Vesta and of the baptistery of Constantine have been placed here next to one another in order to show the transposition of the columns from the exterior to the interior, which is the chief distinction between the Roman circular buildings and Christian baptisteries.

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF VESTA, SOMETIMES CALLED THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES.]

[Illustration: THE BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE.]