By James E. Nightingale, Esq. 115 



in the glorious exterior of the cathedral under whose shadow we 

 are now assembled. 1 



Gothic architecture seems to have required, as a condition of its 

 existence and vitality, the principle of perpetual change. It will 

 not be necessary to follow the different beautiful phases of this 

 style which succeeded each other so rapidly, till, after the brief but 

 brilliant period of the cinque-cento, it ceased altogether in the 16th 

 century. 



Gothic architecture never took root in Italy. Several varieties 

 and distinct schools may be found, and capable of certain rules 

 and arrangements, as Professor "Willis has shown ; but they never 

 seem to have succeeded wholly in throwing off the influence of clas- 

 sical examples. The great cathedral at Milan, magnificent as it is, 

 will scarcely bear the test of the principles of genuine Gothic ; 

 whilst the really fine Gothic church at Assisi — that storehouse of 

 Christian art — is known to have been built by a German, Jacopo 

 Tedesco. 



As the architecture of the early Christian churches was an adapt- 

 ation of a style previously existing in ancient Rome, so too was 

 the origin of their peculiar decoration — namely Mosaic. The tes- 

 sellated pavement was popular throughout Rome and its colonies ; 

 many fine examples have been found and still exist in this country : 

 at Thruxton and at Cirencester, both on the borders of this county, 

 magnificent specimens have been brought to light. 



From the time of Constantine down to the 14th century this art 

 seems to have been practised almost entirely by the Greeks. A 

 distinguishing feature in the churches of the Byzantine school is 

 the profusion and splendid display they present of mosaic work : 



1 The ground-plan of the Cathedral at Salisbury, like several of the large 

 churches in England, is that of a Greek Cross with double transverse arms. 

 This is more decidedly Oriental and Byzantine than the ordinary Greek Cross of 

 four equal limbs ; it is found at Athens and in Mount Athos in buildings of a 

 very remote period. Nothing analogous exists in France. M. Didron cites 

 this fact as another proof of the existence of a certain Byzantine influence to be 

 found in monuments in England. See "Manual d'Iconographie Chretienne," 

 pp. 371, 382 ; and " Christian Iconography," p. 380. (Bonn's Ed.) Similar Byzan- 

 tine traditions have been traced in monuments of an earlier period in Ireland. 



q2 



