Identifier: byzantineromanes131jack (find matches)
Title: Byzantine and Romanesque architecture
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Jackson, Thomas Graham, Sir, 1835-1924
Subjects: Architecture, Byzantine Architecture, Romanesque
Publisher: Cambridge (Eng.) University press
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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lready mentioned. All thecapitals but two in this stage seem to be antiques,the other two are Byzantine. One of the six wasonce an angle capital, and one of the shafts is an oldcornice or handrail set on end. They all have a pulvinoor super-abacus, but the archivolts are clumsily managedand do not sit nicely on the abacus. Many of theseirregularities, however, are due to subsequent alterations.Original The Original level of the floor was some six or seven feetfl^oor ° lower than the present, which has been raised above thewater level. Even now it is I believe below the highwater mark of the feeble Adriatic tides. The columnshave been raised, for the capitals would have beenoriginally more than a foot lower; they are now abovethe springing line of the lunettes, but a good part of 1 Experiment alone could prove this. The difficulty would be with thethick beds of mortar necessary to fill in between the amphorae. Onewonders it did not occur to the builders to make them square. Plate XXVn
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THE URSIAX BAPTISTERY—RAVENNA CH. x) RAVENNA, ROMAN PERIOD 151 the shafts and the bases is still buried below the floor.The proportions of the interior have of course sufferedseriously by these alterations. The lunettes under the lower arches are now linedwith a dado of porphyry and marble, which has beenadded within the last few years. The next stage contains in each bay a large windowbetween two small blank arches. The columns betweenthese arches and in the angles of the building carry Ioniccapitals, and the three arches of each bay are includedunder a wide arch springing from a corbel on the top ofthe angle column. The dome springs from the samelevel, so that these eight arches cut up into it somewhatawkwardly, with a soffit that widens as it rises and thedome comes forward. The mosaics which cover wall and celling are ex- Thecessively beautiful: they are carried round the edges ofthe arches and under their soffit without any stone archi-trave, in the way formerly described. The

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