Architecture in Italy, from the sixth to the eleventh century; historical and critical researches . many, works of sculpture (the most potent auxiliary of theart of architecture) remain to us. 28 The last work of certain date that belongs to the sixthcentury is a parapet in the church of SS. John and Paul,which, as an incised inscription on it tells us, was ordered byAdeodato, chief of the imperial guards in the time of the Arch-bishop Mariniano (596-606), and precisely in the year 597. It is composed of a slab of marble, curvilinear and slightlytrilobate, whoseconvexity formsabout the quar-te
Architecture in Italy, from the sixth to the eleventh century; historical and critical researches . many, works of sculpture (the most potent auxiliary of theart of architecture) remain to us. 28 The last work of certain date that belongs to the sixthcentury is a parapet in the church of SS. John and Paul,which, as an incised inscription on it tells us, was ordered byAdeodato, chief of the imperial guards in the time of the Arch-bishop Mariniano (596-606), and precisely in the year 597. It is composed of a slab of marble, curvilinear and slightlytrilobate, whoseconvexity formsabout the quar-ter of a circle,flanked by twonarrow recti-lineal ornamenta-tion, like thewhole, is almostcopied from the ¥,ambo of the kcathedral con-structed in thefirst half ofthe century byArchbishop Ag-nello, and con-sists of littlesquares sym-metrically dis-tributed over thewhole surface ofthe parapet andseparated bycrossed fillets, bystriated fasces,and thesesquares are sculptures representing symbolic animals ranged inzones—lambs, stags, peacocks, doves, and fish. The highest. Fig. 1.—Ambo of SS. John and Paul at Ravenna— 597. 29 squares of the wings arc larger tlian the rest, and enclose thefigures of the titular saints of the Church. The whole is terniinatodhy a cornice of little leaves and olive moulding. In truth,even if the inscription did not proclaim the date, one might yetread at once on the wretched sculptures of this ambo the sixtyyears that divide it from that of the cathedral. In this latterthe various figures, though flattened, have free and often elegantcontours, and every animal is depicted in a form easilyunderstood at first sight: in the ambo of SS. John and Paul,on the contrary, it is useless to seek for form and design. Wedistinguish the lamb from the stag only because the latter hasbranching horns, and the dove from the peacock because thehead of this last bears a little tuft: eyes, wings, and feathersare made conspicuous by rude f
Size: 1297px × 1927px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectarchitecture, bookyea
