The earliest work carried out under this semi-Byzantine influence was, so far as we know, the church of St. Front, at Perigueux ([Fig. 443]), a building obviously copied from St. Mark’s, at Venice.[67] The two churches are, in fact, nearly identical in their plans and sections, the one being an almost unadorned copy of the other, showing us what St. Mark’s would be if stripped of its marble encrustations and its mosaics.
Fig. 443.—Plan, St. Front, Perigueux.
There is, however, one important difference, and one which bears directly upon the foregoing observations:—The domes at St. Front, as well as the great arches which support them, are pointed instead of round, though all the minor arches retain the older form (Figs. [444], [445]). This agrees with what I have stated in my earlier lectures, that the pointed arch was introduced, not so much as a matter of taste as of construction. Thus, in the buildings in which it first appears, we usually find it in the arches carrying towers, in the wider vaulting, and in other positions where great weight had to be sustained, before it made its appearance in minor features.
Fig. 444.—Section, St. Front, Perigueux.