OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.
VOL. I. FEBRUARY, 1895. No. 2.
BYZANTINE-ROMANESQUE DOORWAYS IN SOUTHERN ITALY.
The illustrations chosen for this issue are all from the Byzantine Romanesque work in the province of Apulia, that portion of Southern Italy familiar in school-boy memory as the heel of the boot. Writers upon architecture have found it difficult to strictly classify the buildings of this neighborhood, as in fact is the case with most of the medieval architecture of Italy, although the influences which have brought about the conditions here seen are in the main plainly evident. The traditions and surroundings, of Roman origin, were modified by trade and association with the Levant through the commerce of Venice and Pisa, resulting in a style embodying many of the characteristics of both the Romans and the builders of Byzantium. Oftentimes these characteristics are so blended and modified by one another as to be entirely indistinguishable, while at other times features unquestionably belonging to the Romanesque or the Byzantine will be found side by side. An illustration of the latter condition may be seen in the two views of the doorway to the cathedral of Trani. (Plates IX. and X.) On account of the intimate relations maintained during the Middle Ages between this province and Magna Grecia, and it may be partly on account of the comparative remoteness from the principal cities of the north, the Byzantine influence is here more strongly marked than in the cities of Central and Northern Italy.
According to the classification adopted by Fergusson, the church of San Miniato at Florence is one of the oldest examples and a good type of this rather mixed style. It was built about the year 1013. It is rectangular in plan, nearly three times as long as wide, with a semicircular apse. Internally it is divided longitudinally into aisles, and transversely into three nearly square compartments by clustered piers, supporting two great arches which run up to the roof. The whole of the inner compartment is occupied by a crypt or under church open to the nave, above which is the choir and altar niche, approached by flights of steps in the aisles. This general arrangement is followed more or less closely in the churches at Bittonto, Bari, Altamura, Ruvo, Galatina, Brindisi, and Barletta. The scale of the southern churches is, however, much smaller than those of the north, the width of the nave of the cathedral at Trani being only 50 feet, and the length 167 feet, while the corresponding dimensions of the cathedral at Pisa, which is referred to by Fergusson as the most notable example of this style in the north, are 106 x 310 feet.
In these smaller churches, as far as external treatment is concerned, the main attention is devoted to the principal façade, and here most of the ornament is usually covered with a rich hood supported by pillars resting on monsters, following the custom prevalent throughout Italy during this period. Above this is either a gallery or one or two windows, and the whole generally terminates in a circular rose window filled with tracery.
X. The Principal Doorway to the Catherdral at Trani, Italy.
Fergusson's final summing up of the architecture of this neighborhood can scarcely be considered too enthusiastic in the light of the eight illustrations here given. He says: "No one who takes the pains to familiarize himself with the architecture of these Southern Italian churches can well fail to be impressed with their beauty. That beauty will be found, however, to arise not so much from the dimensions or arrangement of their plans, or the form of their outline, as from the grace and elegance of their details. Every feature displays the feeling of an elegant and refined people, who demanded decoration as a necessity, though they were incapable of rising to any great architectural conception. They excelled as ornamentists, though at best only indifferent architects."
The examples of doorways chosen for illustrating this number unquestionably show the work of men who labored for the enjoyment and satisfaction to be got from their work. This is sufficiently evident in the results before us. Its logical and constructive bearing can of course be called in question, as in fact is the case with all but the merest fraction of the architectural efforts of the world. As decoration we can but admire the masterly way in which the ornament is distributed, the refined sense of scale and proportion, and the skilful and subtle treatment of light and shade, even if the detail of the ornament itself is crude and archaic.
In making the choice of these subjects this point was kept in mind, and they are not offered as material which can be cut out in portions of the size and shape desired and transferred bodily by the designer to embellish a modern masterpiece, in the manner in which the Gothic architects of Venice used their patterns of window tracery. These plates show certain qualities in decorative design in their fullest and best development, and are on this account invaluable as suggestions to designers of the present day. For "cribbing material" they do not stand for much; but this should not be counted as against their usefulness, for the draughtsman who has not advanced beyond the "cribbing" stage has much still to learn before he can do the best and most satisfactory work.
[IX.] and [X.]
PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE CATHEDRAL AT TRANI, ITALY.
The cathedral at Trani dates from about the middle of the twelfth century. Its main features have been indicated above in describing the general characteristics of the class of churches to which it belongs. The bronze doors shown in the illustration were made in 1160, and are exceptionally fine examples of the work of this period.
[XI.]
PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE CATHEDRAL AT CONVERSANO, ITALY.
Doorways of this general design are so familiar in the so-called Romanesque architecture of our American cities that it seems almost like an old friend; but we regret to say that most of our American designs would hardly show to advantage if compared side by side with this.
[XII.]
PORTION OF THE FACADE OF THE BASILICA AT ALTAMURA, ITALY.
The remarkable sense of spotting and distribution of ornament shown in the designing of this facade can hardly be too much commended. The strong light and long slanting shadows of the photograph are well calculated to emphasize this quality in the design, and we can readily find justification here for the estimate of Fergusson quoted above.
[XIII.] and [XIV.] PRINCIPAL DOORWAY TO THE BASILICA AT ALTAMURA, ITALY, AND DETAIL OF THE SAME.
[XV.]
DOOR OF MADONNA DI LORETO, TRANI, ITALY.
[XVI.]
ENTRANCE TO THE CHURCH OF THE ROSARY, TERLIZZI, ITALY.
XI. The Principal Doorway to the Cathedral at Conversano, Italy.
Advice to Young Architects.
Prof. Aitchison's Royal Academy Lectures upon Architecture should be read by all students who can obtain access to them, and this is not really very difficult to accomplish, as they are always reported at length in the English architectural periodicals, and then usually reprinted without credit by one or more of the American papers. The latest one, reported in the Builder of Feb. 16, is that delivered on Feb. 4, under the general title "The Advancement of Architecture." It deals in a common-sense fashion with the aesthetics of architecture, and contains many valuable suggestions upon the study and practice of architecture as an art. The three following quotations are well worth attentive reading:--
"Swift, in his 'Letters to a Young Clergyman,' says: 'I cannot forbear warning you in the most earnest manner against endeavoring at wit in your sermons, because, by the strictest computation, it is very near a million to one that you have none.' Perhaps that would be good advice to all who consciously seek for what is called originality, which is mostly attained by exaggeration, disproportion, and oddness of arrangement; real originality only comes from original minds, and will in that case show itself properly and naturally, just as wit shows itself spontaneously in the witty; for surely those original architects, who have only been able to raise in us emotions of contempt or disgust, would have been judicious had they abstained from the attempt. I think that most architectural students, if they will only study the best buildings, will make their plans to accurately answer the purposes wanted, including the efficient lighting of the rooms, will study the Vitruvian symmetry until their eye revolts from disproportion, will try and make their profiles tell the story they want told, and will try and bring such parts that, from the exigencies of the case, obtrude themselves in odd places into harmony with the whole, that they will produce an effect which will raise their buildings to the dignity of humanity, and out of the range of the dog-kennel and rabbit-hutch type, and will not exhibit ugliness, disproportion, or vulgarity. We see plenty of examples where the designs have sunk much below this level; no building of dead walls, with holes in it for doors and windows, could cause us such disgust. Let me here say, by way of a parenthesis, that if you candidly consider that your design is more offensive than a dead wall, do not waste money and materials in making the wall more repulsive, but let it alone."
"Any one can be original if he be only impudent enough; any one can be graceful if he is servile enough to copy: but to be both original and graceful requires deep study, much striving, and natural talent."
"I have also to remind you that architecture cannot be brought into vigorous life again, so long as architects insist on using old forms for beauty that are inseparable from a construction that has been abandoned; so long as this practice persists, so long will architecture be a kind of potted art; to be vigorous it must learn how to take the materials, and construction that would be ordinarily used in buildings for purely practical purposes, and give to these materials and this construction forms that will excite the proper emotions. You must not suppose that I mean that if you have a vast hall, or what not, that because you can put an iron trussed roof over it from wall to wall, that this will make it into a hall that will raise emotions. You will only get a rail-way platform or a coal shed. You have got to set your wits to work to see how it can be properly brought within the pale of aesthetics, and not only as to the shapes and proportions of the parts, but the dividing of the whole by supports. It is probable that if you were obliged to vault a cathedral in stone, with no more money than was necessary, and to have a clearstory to it, that you could not do it cheaper, and perhaps not better, than the Gothic architects did it; but to vault such a building in stone when you could do it much cheaper and better with iron ribs and concrete is, in my opinion, dilettante art. Groins are not beautiful things, but, on the contrary, are ugly, and we should wish to obviate their ugliness if we could; but when they were merely unavoidable methods of cheap construction, we admire them for the invention and skill of their architects, and we have to some extent got to love even their ugliness from old association; though perhaps the ribs at Westminster Abbey, as seen from the west end, are not offensive."
XII. A Portion of the Façade of the Basilica at Altamura, Italy.