File:A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance (1901) (14781330611).jpg

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

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eved with great beauty (p. 566). 2 Yet not always so. Some of the arch soffits have circles enclosing saints. SICILIAN ARCHITECTURE 109 the most part, scenes from the Old and New Testaments; a singlerange covering the wall spaces between the windows of the aisles,two ranges the clerestory wall, three ranges the walls of the transeptends, while upon the high walls of the central bay are five ranges ofsubjects, divided by bands of geometrical mosaic. At the summitof the clerestory wall is a broad frieze composed of a series of circlesenclosing half-length figures of angels. The whole vault of themiddle apse is occupied as at Cefalu by a gigantic half-length figureof Christ, which dominates the whole church. Below it, on the cir-cular wall of the apse, are two rows of standing figures of saints. It is to be remarked that the mosaics of Monreale, though per-haps not superior in color and general decorative effect to the mosaicsof the Cappella Palatina and to those of the Martorana and the
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Fig. 312. Monreale. General View of Cathedral. cathedral of Cefalii, show a distinct advance in drawing and inmechanical execution over the earlier work.^ ^ Gravina thus describes the method employed in Sicily in the execution of the mosaicsas being at once very expeditious and calculated to ensure permanency. A coat of finelime mortar is spread on the wall, upon which, while it is still fresh, the picture isbroadly painted in fresco in its proper colors. The painter is immediately followed bythe mosaicist with his cubes, which are imbedded in the soft mortar and pressed to aneven surface. Gravina, II duomo di Monreale, text, p. 78. 110 ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY As in the Cappella Palatina, the decoration of this noble interioris carried into the minor details. The beautiful pierced balustradeof the chancel, the faces or risers of the steps of the altar and ofsome of the doorways, are examples not less noteworthy than themosaic pavement of the chancel.^ Several of the interior doorwaysare

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