. Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies. III. 79. — Plan of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, This colossal scheme is worked out with the greatest struc-tural cleverness. As may be seen in the plan (111. 79), the pro-portion of solids to voids is unusually low. By comparing thesection (111. 78) and M. Choisys perspective (111. 77) it will beseen that each dome and semi-dome is buttressed by heaviermasonry at the haunch where the thrust falls. It was a bold, 110. HAGIA SOPHIA yet successful experiment to pierce the base of the dome withwindow
. Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies. III. 79. — Plan of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, This colossal scheme is worked out with the greatest struc-tural cleverness. As may be seen in the plan (111. 79), the pro-portion of solids to voids is unusually low. By comparing thesection (111. 78) and M. Choisys perspective (111. 77) it will beseen that each dome and semi-dome is buttressed by heaviermasonry at the haunch where the thrust falls. It was a bold, 110. HAGIA SOPHIA yet successful experiment to pierce the base of the dome withwindows, for the event has proved that the intermediate pierswere amply sufficient to support the immense superincumbentweight. The tendency of the dome to push the great archesoutwards is met to the eastward and westward (111. 78) by thesemi-domes placed against it. These semi-domes are in turnbuttressed by the half-domes of the niches. All this careful and scientific balancing of thrust againstthrust is a wonderful advance over anything that had hithertobeen accomplished in architectural construction, and we do notwonder that the astonished Byzantines hailed Anthemios as agreater mathematician than Archimedes. But great as was thestructural cleverness of this design, it yet contained certain de-fects. In the first place, the four great buttresses at each angleof the center bay were not well placed. In the groin-vaultedbasilica of Constantine the same buttresses had been exactlycalculated to meet the combined t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecad, booksubjectarchitecture, bookyear1912
