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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hus leaves and volutes; some of the plain basket shapeeither with an Egyptian-like lotus within borders ofplaited work, or covered with a network of scrolls whichare undercut so as to be detached from the bell; andothers of the melon shape, fluted from the corners andfrom a projection in the middle of each face representingthe Corinthian rosette. The outside octagonal wall has a pier at each angle,and between these piers on each face of the octagon twoflat buttresses running up to the eaves and interruptingthe brick cornices. Arches across the gallery in the lineof the angle buttresses support the central drum andvault, which is also steadied by the weight of the wallsthat are carried up and enclose the cupola. There is inthis construction something approaching that by equi-librium of forces which prevailed in the middle ages. Rivoira, Origini etc., vol. I. p. 57, says recent discoveries show thegallery floor was originally of wood, and vaulted later.2 V. sup. p. 169 note. Plate XXX17
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S. VITALE, RAVENNA CH. xii) RAVENNA, THE EXARCHATE 177 but the construction seems to have required further support, s. Vitaiefor at some time flying buttresses have been constructedagainst two of the exterior angles of the octagon. The exterior of the semi-circular apse is polygonal. The original plan included a fine narthex, now much Thedilapidated, with a round turret and winding stair at eachend to reach the womens gallery. One of these towerswas raised afterwards into a campanile. The fa9ade however was in later times masked, andthe narthex absorbed by the cloister court of the Bene-dictine monastery. This in its turn has been convertedinto a barrack, and the narthex till lately has served asa military storehouse, completely cut off from the church.It is now being rescued from this condition; the archesinto the church are reopened, and the conventual buildingsabove the narthex removed, leaving however the Bene-dictine cloister, which is a fine piece of Renaissance work,standing in

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