98 



lie marks on Wilton Church. 



it is hard to imagine a different or more agreeable arrangement than 

 that which the first Christian arehitects adopted, while for general 

 effect and acoustic properties, the Basilica, is not, I think, matched. 



With Justinian, as I have said, in the year of our Lord 527, a 

 development of this style — nay, almost a partial revolution in it, 

 may be said to have occurred. The Emperor Justinian not content 

 with aspiring 1 to be the legislator of mankind, claimed also to be 

 their gTeat architect. I suppose he must have had at Constantinople 

 some master mind to consult ; but of one of the two chief character- 

 istics of the new style of building introduced in his time, he claimed, 

 it is said, himself to be the originator. The Cupola or Dome, as 

 applied to a Christian church, was his own idea, and this with the 

 short equal-limbed Greek Cross was the vital distinction of the 

 Byzantine style. The first experiments in this style were made at 

 Constantinople, and between the reign of Constantine and that of 

 Justinian it is said that 1800 religious structures were erected in the 

 Eastern Empire. 



As there is hardly however a trace in Wilton church of anything 

 Byzantine, I need not occupy time in describing this style. Perhaps 

 we ought to call mosaic decoration a Byzantine idea, (since the 

 Greeks are supposed to have taken out a sort of patent in enamel at 

 this time) and if so, all ages are indebted to them. The splendour 

 and finish which this work gives to every part of the interior of any 

 spacious church, can hardly be described. One must go to the 

 scenes of its triumphs, at Milan, at Venice, at Ravenna, to see what 

 can not be imagined. At the latter-named place there is perhaps 

 the oldest mosaic, since of St. Vitale Justinian was himself the 

 builder, and the example serves to show many features of the style 

 of which I am speaking. There may be noticed the dome, the 

 massive piers, and the tiers of arcades which occur on the face of 

 the inside walls, and it may be readily imagined to what endless 

 modifications or exaggerations the introduction of these two features 

 alone gave rise. To the introduction of the cross by the Greeks 

 who repaired to Ravenna (the seat at that time in the west of the 

 Imperial Government) the Latin cross as applied to building almost 

 owes, I believe, its existence. In all the early Basilican churches 



