290 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Past II. 



origin ; nor did they start into existence, Minerva-like, in full 

 beauty from the head of any creating genius. The Greek 

 derived much from Egypt and from Asia ; the Eoman directly 

 imitated the Greek, and having decomposed the simple out- 

 lines and forms of its predecessor, it prepared the way for the 

 various styles that grew out of it. It was the debased Roman 

 that gave rise also to the Byzantine, the Romanesque, the 

 Lombard, the Saxon, and the Norman. 



72. The early Arabs in like manner, in their round-headed 

 windows, their massive unornamented walls, and the semicir- 

 cular arches supported on columns, imitated the latest Roman 

 works ; they then derived more varied features and greater 

 luxury of ornament from Persian and from Byzantine build- 

 ings, borrowing from these last the cupola and some other 

 peculiarities that have ever since formed marked features in 

 Saracenic architecture. They even derived the pointed arch 

 from some earlier Eastern people, for it is of a far older period 

 than is generally supposed ; and some isolated examples of it 

 occur in monuments erected before the Christian era. It was 

 perhaps first regularly employed by the Arabs; and in 879 it 

 was already commonly used in their mosks. Nor can there 

 be any doubt that its introduction into Europe was owing to 

 an intercourse with the East, to which pilgrims resorted before 

 it was known in Europe, even if, as there is reason to believe, 

 it was used in France as early as 1047; as in the Church 

 of St. Front, at Perigueux. In like manner, it was to the 

 Byzantine Greeks that Italy was so deeply indebted for her 

 early art in painting, for her mosaics, and for many architec- 

 tural hints. Nor is it surprising that the pointed arch should 

 have been adopted as soon as it became known to our archi- 

 tects ; even the Normans, prepossessed as they were in favour 

 of their round arch, introduced it into their Sicilian buildings, 

 in imitation of the Saracens ; and when the height of our 

 churches increased, its importance was felt from its fulfilling a 



