Identifier: monumentsofearly00lowr (find matches)
Title: Monuments of the early church
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lowrie, Walter, 1868-1959
Subjects: Christian antiquities Christian art and symbolism Church architecture Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company London, MacMillan & Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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FiG. 23. — Plan of old St. Peters. 110 ARCHITECTURE tecture ; but as the columns were very close together the archeswere insigniticaut, and at any rate the horizontal line wasstrongly maintained by a cornice, if not also by a frieze. Thepanels of mosaic, or fresco (Fig. 38), or still more signally theprocession of saints such as decorates the wall of S. ApoUinareNuovo at Kavenna (Fig. 37), conduced to the same effect.Structurally there was not much to choose between these twotypes, for if the architrave proved a poor support for the wall,the thrust of the arches tended to dislocate the columns. Thearch had this advantage, however, that it permitted a greater
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• The old basilica of S. Peters, Rome. interval between the columns, and consequently a freer pros-pect from the aisles. This, as time went on, became of evergreater importance, for ancient columns became rare and newones more difficult to make. As a rule the interval between the columns was small in thebeginning and greater in the later period ; it is specially greatin the churches of Ravenna. This was carried no farther, how-ever, than the limits prescribed by the dimensions of the Classi-cal shaft. Further progress toward the unification of the roomof the congregation was possible only by the use of the pillar,which, affording a more solid base, permitted the constructionof a broader arch. THE BASILICA—Columns and Pillars 111 In the early Christian period the pillar was seldom substi-tuted for the column except in Central Syria. Its use in Syriawas due in part to the lack of ancient columns to draw upon,but still more to the fact that, no wood being available, the con-struction

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