ture something less than that of a hemisphere, being one hundred and seven feet across by forty-six feet in height. Forty windows at its base afford abundant light. The summit of the dome is not less than one hundred and seventy feet above the pavement, and full effect is given to this great altitude by the arrangement of the adjacent spaces. "The eye wanders upwards from the large arcades of the ground floor to the smaller arches of the galleries, and thence to the smaller semi-domes. These lead the eye on to the larger, and the whole culminates in the great central roof. Nothing probably so artistic has been done on the same scale before or since." 1

On the exterior the St. Sophia presented a plain appearance. Some suppose that here the design was left incomplete, it having been the intention of the founder that marble facing and other ornamentation should be added. The interior, on the other hand, was marvellously rich. The altar was a mass of costly stones and precious metals. The pillars were of porphyry, verd antique, or marbles of the finest quality. The walls, the domes, the roofs, were lavishly adorned. The effect of the whole before yet the hand of the Mohammedan victor had defaced any part must have been well-nigh beyond competition.

"When we consider," says Sir Gilbert Scott, "the whole as clothed with the richest beauties of surface, its piers encrusted with inlaid marbles of every hue, its arcades of marble gorgeously carved, its domes and vaultings resplendent with gold mosaic interspersed with solemn figures, and its wide-spreading floors, rich with marble tessellation, over

1 Fergusson, Pt. II. Bk. ix. Chap. III.

which the buoyant dome floats, self-supported, and seems to sail over you as you move, -I cannot conceive of anything more astonishing, more solemn, and more significant. Well might its imperial founder exclaim, when with pardonable exultation he viewed the result of his costly aspirations, Glory to God, who hath thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work. I have vanquished thee, O Solomon !'" 1

The estimate of Fergusson is not less appreciative. "Turn it as we will," he says, "and compare it as we may with other buildings of its class, the verdict seems inevitable that Sta. Sophia - internally at least, for we may omit the consideration of the exterior as unfinished - is the most perfect and beautiful church which has yet been erected by any Christian people."

St.

The Byzantine continued to be the model for the Eastern Church.2 On western soil it also exercised a marked influence as a modifying factor and found besides some specific embodiments. The church of S. Vitale in Ravenna and the chapel of Charlemagne at Aix la Chapelle were of the Byzantine order. Mark's in Venice, however, presents the most renowned western specimen of this style. To be sure, St. Mark's in its composite character embraces other elements, but the Byzantine so preponderate that it is most fitly ranked under this name. It was built mainly between 976 and 1071. The foundation plan is the Greek cross, the interior length being two hundred and twenty-eight feet and the breadth two hundred and ten feet. The

1 Lectures on Medieval Architecture, Vol. II.

2 Still it was not followed exclusively in all regions. The Coptic Churches in Egypt present a mixture of the Basilican and the Byzantine types (A. J. Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt).

roof is surmounted by five domes, one over the centre and one over each arm of the cross. Five hundred columns, in varied styles, enter into the ornamentation, interior and exterior. The mosaics are said to cover an area of more than forty-five thousand square feet, and there is besides a profusion of ornaments in the way of gilding, bronze, and Oriental marble. The result is an appearance of amazing richness. In the view of some critics ornamentation has been carried to the border of the fantastic. Others, however, have not hesitated to pronounce St. Mark's the most perfect piece of color harmony in the world.

Painting naturally took a rank altogether superior to that of sculpture in the appreciation and uses of Christianity. Intrinsically the former is better adapted to the representation of Christian ideals than the latter, being at once warmer and richer in the power of expression. Moreover, sculpture had been more thoroughly monopolized by heathen art, and was more strongly associated with idolatry. Scantily used in the Greek Church before the iconoclastic controversy, it suffered proscription in that Church for religious uses after the close of that great strife. In the West the aversion to sculpture was not so marked. Still the art was given but narrow scope; for a long time it was in entire subordination to architecture, and about the only office it was called to fulfil was that of ornamenting the churches. It was first in the fourteenth century that the genius of Nicolo Pisano lifted it to a higher plane

of appreciation. In the next century, fostered by such masters as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Michael Angelo, sculpture proved its right to be something more than the handmaid of architecture, and advanced to a position of independent worth. Even then, however, it did not become fairly a rival of painting.

Whatever jealousy may have existed among the early Christians toward art, it was neither universal nor unqualified. There were at least some in the primitive days of Christianity who were ready to exercise their skill in pictorial representations of religious facts and truths, so far as this could be done without directly countenancing idolatrous associations.

The first Christian pictures included little else than symbolism. This was due in part to the feeling that the sacred things of religion ought not to be directly portrayed. But other motives also had weight, especially the desire to avoid unnecessarily provoking heathen scorn and mockery. It may be, too, that the religious mind at a certain stage is naturally attracted by the mystic element in symbolism. The same temper among the early Christians which found so much delight in allegorical interpretations of the Bible would, it may be supposed, spontaneously incline toward allegorical and symbolical forms in its artistic efforts.

Since the catacombs were the chief depositories of early Christian art, in treating of them we have already indicated the symbols which were most frequently employed. Some of these were suggested specifically by the truths of Christianity. Some were borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures, in accordance with the

belief that the events of the old dispensation were typical of the great facts of the new. Some were appropriated from the common fund of symbolism to which the nations generally have been heirs. In individual instances the classic mythology was not eschewed, and scenes having a capital aptitude for the expression of religious truth, like that of Orpheus enchanting the beasts with his music, or of Ulysses encountering the wiles of the Sirens, were utilized for Christian purposes. From whatever source derived these symbolic representations have the same characteristic. Their tone is in general that of a blithe serenity. While they are attachments of the sepulchre, "they are as cheerful as if they had been designed for living households." "1

The form of Orpheus easily suggested to the Christian mind the office of Christ as the unrivalled charmer of souls. But other ways of representing the Redeemer were much more current. The lamb was a chosen symbol. Very frequently also Christ was represented as a shepherd pasturing His sheep or tenderly bearing upon His shoulder the straying member of the flock. It might be imagined that this form of portrayal was not altogether symbolic. Yet it must be counted such, for while the human form was assigned to Christ there was no pretence of giving His exact features. Indeed, the figure in which He commonly appeared, that of a beardless youth, was obviously designed to be nothing else than an ideal, no real copy of the historical Christ.

Gradually, as the Church became assured of her pos

1 Woltmann and Wörmann, History of Painting, English translation.