Monuments of the early church . rishable material, no ancientceiling has been preserved. The Liher Pontificalis frequentlyrecounts the restoration of the ceiling timbers. But the res-torations were often accomplished piecemeal, and they may besupposed to have followed often the ancient pattern. The decoration of the floor and walls is treated in the chap-ter on Mosaic (page 295); it need be described here only so far THE BA SILICA — Decor alio i 119 as is necessary in furnishing once for all a general impressionof the basilica. The floor, in accordance with Roman custom,was finished in stone m
Monuments of the early church . rishable material, no ancientceiling has been preserved. The Liher Pontificalis frequentlyrecounts the restoration of the ceiling timbers. But the res-torations were often accomplished piecemeal, and they may besupposed to have followed often the ancient pattern. The decoration of the floor and walls is treated in the chap-ter on Mosaic (page 295); it need be described here only so far THE BA SILICA — Decor alio i 119 as is necessary in furnishing once for all a general impressionof the basilica. The floor, in accordance with Roman custom,was finished in stone mosaic, predominantly in light-coloredmarble. The side walls and the recess of the apse, up to orabove a mans height, were lined with colored marbles com-posed in large geometrical patterns (opus sedUe). The rest ofthe wall space was covered with mosaic pictures, which duringthe early part of the fourth century were executed with natu-ral stones, afterward with cubes of colored glass, in many ^-^y.^ K^>^X>^s:^//>^-v /. Fig. 36. — Cathedral of Torcello. Seventh century. tints, but usually upon a background of purple or gold. Wheremeans failed for the execution of pictures in mosaic, they weredone in fresco, and in one way or another the whole surface ofthe brick wall was covered and concealed, as the traditionsof Roman construction demanded. There was no effort torepresent in the decoration the structural purpose of the wall;above the cornice, or the frieze, the structural symbolism wasentirely ignored; the wall was treated merely as a screen whichenclosed the room, with complete abstraction of the fact thatit actually supported the weight of the roof. In the Byzantinedomed architecture there was the same freedom in the treat-ment of the wall merely as a field for pictorial decoration. 120 ARCHITECTURE This has often been accounted a serious defect in early Chris-tian architecture; it stands in specially strong contrast to thestrictly organic treatment of the Gothic.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectchristi, bookyear1901
