Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . zantine art. Ravennate art falls into three periods : the first duringthe later Empire till its extinction in 476, which may becalled the Imperial or Roman period : the second underthe Gothic kingdom till the conquest by Justinian in 539;the third under the Byzantine exarchate till the Lombardconquest. Ravenna had no doubt attracted many of the scatteredartists who fled from Rome and Milan at the approach ofAlaric and his Goths, and with the arrival of Honorius,and the choice of the city for the seat of empire an era ofbuilding evidently set in. The bish
Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . zantine art. Ravennate art falls into three periods : the first duringthe later Empire till its extinction in 476, which may becalled the Imperial or Roman period : the second underthe Gothic kingdom till the conquest by Justinian in 539;the third under the Byzantine exarchate till the Lombardconquest. Ravenna had no doubt attracted many of the scatteredartists who fled from Rome and Milan at the approach ofAlaric and his Goths, and with the arrival of Honorius,and the choice of the city for the seat of empire an era ofbuilding evidently set in. The bishop at that time wasUrsus (400-412) chaste in body, holy in his work,intent and handsome in face, slightly bald, who firstbegan to build Gods Temple, to gather in one foldfrom their separate hovels the wandering Christianflock. He built, continues his biographer, thechurch we call Ursiana, surrounding the walls withprecious stones, and the whole roof of the church withdiverse figures in varied tessellated work * * *. Cuserius Plate XXVI. THE URSIAN BAPTISTERY—RAVENNA CH. x] RAVENNA, ROMAN PERIOD 149 and Paulus adorned one wall on the womens side, nextthe altar of St Anastasia, which Agatho made. Anotherwall, on the mens side, Janus and Stephanus adorned,as far as the aforesaid door, and on this side and thatincised in alabaster slabs^ divers riddles of men, animalsand quadrupeds, and composed them excellently Basilica Ursiana was unhappily destroyed in 1734to make way for the modern cathedral, but from a planthat has been left us by Buonamici, the architect of thenew building, it appears to have been a five-aisledbasilican church, with a single apse, semi-circular insideand polygonal out^ The body must have had a woodenroof and the apse a semi-dome with mosaic like theother churches in Ravenna. The baptistery of Ursus however remains (Plate TheUrsian bciptistery XXVI); a domed octagonal building now sunk deepin the ground, built, some say, on the foundations ofa bath
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjacksont, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
