Greek Cross.
Latin Cross.
The great characteristic of Byzantine church architecture was a plan formed on the Greek cross, and surmounted at its points of intersection by a central dome. The direct imitation of the antique capitals was eschewed, and a foliated capital was introduced in its place, varying considerably in pattern even in the same building: the arch was in general semicircular, and the use of mosaic ornament universal, but it was some time before the Byzantine style received its full development; for the earlier Christians generally maintained a profound antipathy to all Art, as ostentatious, and savouring overmuch of worldly delights. It is not, however, in the nature of man to exist for any length of time in this world, wondrously adorned as it is by its Divine Creator, without imbibing a love for the adornment so profusely displayed around him. This natural feeling, which St. Augustine and the stricter Christians vainly sought to decry and repress, was strengthened and aided by the more forcible notion of holding out some attraction to the pagans, who, accustomed to the ceremonies and charms of their old rites, might be repelled by the apparent gloominess of the new creed. As the number of converts increased, a demand for church ornament made itself felt, and Art once more awoke, not in the excelling beauty of its former life, but rude, unpolished, and crippled by religious necessity, which placed, as in Egypt of old, a restriction upon the forms of nature, lest by copying them the people should relapse into the idolatrous worship of graven images. In the Eastern or Greek Church, even the rude and grotesque sculpture first allowed was speedily forbidden and banished for ever. The mosaic painting, however, was continued by Greek artists, and this peculiar style of ornamentation is one of the most distinctive features of Byzantine architecture. Not only were the walls and ceilings covered with extraordinarily rich examples of glass mosaic work, formed into pictures illustrative of Scripture subjects and saintly legends, or arranged in elaborate patterns of geometrical and other ornament, but columns, pulpits, &c., were rendered brilliant with its glowing colours. Mosaic work also is at times found on the façades of the Byzantine buildings; whilst the pavement, if less gorgeous, was at least as richly ornamented with coloured inlay of marble mosaic. As we have, however, just observed, the fear of idolatry led to the comparative neglect of sculpture, and the edict forbidding the sculpture of images for religious purposes became one cause of the separation of the Latin Church in Rome from the Greek Church in Constantinople, and thenceforth the two churches remain distinct. In the former, sculpture continued to exist, not as an independent art, but as a mere architectural accessory.
Byzantine Court—Arches from the Nave.
Byzantine architecture flourished from A.D. 328 to 1453; but the Byzantine proper can be said to extend only from the 6th to the 11th centuries. Romanesque architecture in its various developments was more or less impressed with the Byzantine character, and in its general features resembles the source from which it was in a great measure derived; although the dome is generally absent in the churches of northern Europe, which retained the plan of the old Roman basilica in preference to that of the Greek cross, for a long time peculiar to the Eastern Church.
It would not be hazarding too much to assert that Byzantine architecture was generally adopted throughout most European countries from the 6th to the 11th century, with such modifications as the necessities of climate, the differences of creed, and the means of building necessitated.
Ground Plan of Byzantine Court.