File:An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience (1881) (14596878069).jpg

Identifier: essayonhistoryof00scot (find matches)
Title: An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Scott, G. Gilbert (George Gilbert), 1839-1897
Subjects: Church architecture Church architecture
Publisher: London, Simpkin, Marshall and co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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tandi, king of Roum. * Curzon describes (in his Monasteries in the Levant, pp. 121,122) an ancient subterranean tomb nearThebes, in Egypt, which has apparently been adapted to the purposes of christian worship, during the early per-secutions, and which is thus an instance parallel to those afforded by the catacombs of Syracuse and Rome,and by the churches of Surp Garabed. This tomb is a magnificent hall, divided into three aisles by squarecolumns ; its walls retain the brilliant white, which is so much to be admired in the tombs of the kings andother stately sepulchres. On the walls are various hieroglyphics, and on the square piers, tall figures of the godsof the infernal regions—Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris, are portrayed in brilliant colours, with their immense capsor crowns, and with the heads of the jackal and other beasts. The christian occupation of this subterraneanhall is indicated by a stone altar, standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. PLATE XII.
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FIG. I. PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF .SURP-GARABED, IN CAPPADOCIA.FIG. II. PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF DER-EL-ADRA, UPON THE NILE. The history op English church Architecture. S3 This church is also, in part, subterranean, being built in the recesses of an ancient stonequarry. The roof is formed of beams of palm-tree wood, on which a terrace of reeds andearth is laid. Its height is about twenty-five feet. It is approached by a long descent of stepsopening upon the end of one of the aisles. The aisle is continued across the end opposite tothe apse, as in the cathedral of Messina, and the church of St. Agnes, without the walls, atRome. The apse is of regular antique architecture, ornamented by six pilasters and threerecessed niches. Here, as at Surp Garabed (although there are aisles), there appears to beno suggestion of any reference to the pagan basilican type. Indeed, by the writers of the eastern church the term basilica is never used,^ which is themore remarkable when we remember that the word i

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