Identifier: architectureclas00smit (find matches)
Title: Architecture, classic and early Christian
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Smith, T. Roger (Thomas Roger), 1830-1903 Slater, John, 1847-1924
Subjects: Architecture Church architecture
Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Ltd., St. Dunstan's House, Fetter, Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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nches and leaves wreathed into lines ofadmirable grace, and every part standing out, owing totlie fine piercings of the marble, as distinctly as a treeof Jesse on a painted window iu a Gothic cathedral. The dome at Bijapur, a tomb larger than the Pantheonat Rome, and the Kutub at Delhi, a tower not unfit tobe compared with Giottos campanile at Florence, are con-spicuous among this series of monuments, and at Delhione of the grandest mos(pies in India (Fig. 194) isalso to be found. The series of mosques and tombs atAhmedabad, however, form the most beautiful group ofbuildings in India, and are the only ones of which acomplete series of illustrations has been published.These mosques are remarkable for the great skill withwhich they are roofed and lighted. This is done bymeans of a series of domes raised on columns sufficientlyabove the general level of the stone ceilings, which coverthe intervening spaces, to admit light under the lineof their springing. The beauty of the marble tracery
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a n ^a C3I 2C8 MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE, and surface decoration is very great. Pointed archesoccur here ahnost invariably, and in most cases theoutline of the opening is very slightly turned upwardsat the apex so as to give a slight increase of emphasis tothe summit of the arch. The buildings are not as arule lofty; and though plain walls and piers occur andcontrast well with the arched features, pains have beentaken to avoid anything like massive or heavy construc-tion. Great extent, skilful distribution, extreme light-ness, and admirably combined groupings of the featuresand masses, are among the fine qualities which lend toMohammedan architecture in Ahmedabad a rare charm. The religion and the art of Islam seem destined to liveand die together. Nothing (with the one exception of thesuggestion of the pointed arch to Western Europe at thevery moment when Romanesque art was ripe for a change)has developed itself or appears likely to grow out ofMoliammedan architecture in any pait of th

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