A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance (1901) (14597761099)

Identifier: historyofarchit02cumm (find matches)
Title: A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Cummings, Charles Amos, 1833-1905
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto



Text Appearing Before Image:
. (Fig. 256.) Herethe apse is remarkablein having two tiers ofcolumns standing free;those of the first tier ona continuous stylobate,with foliage capitals, andstilt-blocks running backinto the wall, on whichstand the columns of thesecond tier, with capitalscharged with grotesqueLombard beasts and car-rying round arches. Un-der the middle arch isthe usual high apse win-dow, with carved lintel,carried on columns whichstand on lions issuingfrom behind the columnsof the arcade,—a curiousand most characteristi-cally Lombard caprice. At Siponto the half-ruined churchof S. Maria ■Maggiore shows also, butto a less degree, the Pisaninfluence. Of the origi-nal church of about 1100,only the external wallsremain, the interior hav-ing been reconstructed in^1508. It is a square ofabout sixty feet, with adoorway on the west front and apses on the east and south. Oneither side of the doorway are two round blind arches on columns,with decorated lozenges between the shafts, and two at the spring of
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 256. Troja. Portion of Apse. 26 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY the arches. The eastern side is similarly treated, including the apseas well as the flat wall from which it projects. The church has an interesting crypt, divided by columns andarches into twenty-five square bays covered by groined vaults, withapses in the centre of the east and south walls. In the rebuilding of1508 four of the small columns were replaced, or perhaps enclosed,by massive piers which sustain the piers of the upper church sup-porting the modern dome. Otherwise the crypt retains its originalaspect.^ As in the North, so in the South, but less frequently, the circularBenevento, P^^^ ^^^^ sometimes adopted. The oldest and most inter-s. Sofia. esting example of this plan is to be seen in S. Sofia atBenevento, founded by Prince Arrigis in 774. The arrangement ispeculiar. (Fig. 258.) The central division is a hexagon formed bysix arches resting on antique Corinthian columns and supjDorting adome. Around this hexagon is