Ravenna.—In the development of early Christian architecture a very interesting part was played by Ravenna. For this city, situated on the Adriatic (though the sea has since receded to a distance of six miles), was the chief port by which the trade of Constantinople or Byzantium entered Italy. Accordingly some of the tombs and churches present a fusion of Byzantine and Syrian influences with Roman. The change from the basilican type is especially marked in the character of the plan and by the adoption of domes.
Thus the Baptistry of Ravenna is an octagonal structure, surmounted by a dome of hollow tiles. The Tomb of Galla Placidia is cruciform in plan with a lantern raised over the crossing or intersection of the arms of the cross. The lantern is pierced with four windows and surmounted by a dome, supported on pendentives—a method of construction, peculiarly Byzantine, which will be considered presently.
When Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostro-Goths and ruler of Northern Italy, selected Ravenna as his capital, he built the Church of S. Apollinare Nuovo, importing twenty-four marble columns from Constantinople and employing Byzantine artists and artisans. The plan is basilican, though the atrium and apse have been removed by subsequent alterations, but the interior is richly embellished with Byzantine mosaics. The latter also adorn the larger basilican Church of S. Apollinare-in-Classe, so called from its being situated near the port. Its columns also are distinguished by the peculiarly Byzantine feature of the impost block, to be described later.
After the death of Theodoric in 536 the Emperor Justinian, having through his general, Belisarius, routed the Goths from the country, made Ravenna the political capital of Italy, under the authority of an exarch. Then was built, probably as Court Church, the famous example of Byzantine influence, the Church of S. Vitale. We will return to this after a consideration of what is involved in the Byzantine style.
Byzantine.—The term Byzantine is applied to the style of architecture gradually developed in Byzantium after Constantine, in A.D. 324, transferred the capital of the Roman Empire to that city. Its distinctive features are the use of brick and stone in place of concrete; the use of imposts in connection with columns and arches; the character of the carved ornament applied to surfaces and, most important of all, a system of covering rectangular spaces with domes. It reached its highest point of development under the Emperor Justinian, between the years 527 and 565.
The style was the result of evolution; a product of the combination of principles of construction derived from Roman, Early Christian and Syrian architecture, and from the traditional methods of the Iran builders of Assyria; affected in matters of decoration by the luxurious taste of the Orient.
The favourite material of Byzantine builders was brickwork; the bricks being one and one-half inches in thickness, like the Roman, and laid between layers of mortar of similar thickness. In the case of cornices the bricks were moulded to the required contours and when used for the shafts of columns were circular in outline. The mortar was composed of sand, lime, and crushed pottery, tiles, or bricks. Except in the case of marble columns which were cut and put in place by masons, the whole of the preliminary work was done by bricklayers who constructed the entire “carcass” of the building. When this
FROM THE INTERIOR OF SAN VITALE, RAVENNA