File:A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance (1901) (14781751924).jpg

Identifier: historyofarchit01cumm (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

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
is veryapt to be Byzantine in character, with birds and beasts in the midstof coils and meanders of vine-stems and foliage. (Fig. 125.) In someof the capitals of the nave this character of the abacus is verymarked, and the design has a flowing grace in strong contrast to the TUK LO.MIiAlil) KOMANKSCillK 187 figuro sculpture of the cjii)it;il below, of which the figures still retain,as indeed they do to the end ol the L()ini):ird jxM-iod, their distortedand deformed character. San IVIichele is to the Lonil>ard sculpture; what St. Marks is tothe Byzantine, — a great storehouse or museum where the work ofvarious periods and various styles has been brou<^ht together. Inthe great doorways, both of the west front and of the transei)ts,much of the i)r()fuse carving of the mouldings and archivolts has theByzantine stamp of which we have spoken nbovr*. —tlie minirling ofbirds and the smaller „„,„„„,,, ,,,,,,,,,,., ,, t-tt-, , coiling llll.Ill 111 H ill 1^ ;■ -^=^^-~ *^* w
Text Appearing After Image:
animals withor meandering foliage.But even here, in manyinstances, the animals,though of a gentlertype than the Lombardloved, show the sameinsatiable appetite forbiting and fightingwhich we have re-marked in the trulyLombard work. If theanimal is alone he isnipping his own tail orwings or back, or thestem of a vine ; if heis in company he iseither biting; or beino-bitten, or pursuing orflying. While in the capitals, as a rule the Lombard charac^ter ismore rigidly preserved: the griffin holds down a smaller beast, andbites or threatens him ; the eagle grasps a lesser animal in his talons ;a man standing on a human head holds off a ramping, snarling beast :or a man sits astride a dragon with a head at each end, each headthreatening him with distended jaws. In the southerl)^ or right hand side door of the facade, we mayIemark on the left jamb a capital, or, more properly speaking, a divi-sion of the impost, of which the ornament consists of four rows ofheads, while on the right the outer

Note About Images