saders, whereas the Rotunda is the work of the Greek Emperor Monomachus, and was in existence before they obtained possession of Jerusalem. The large arch in question, in the original building, probably opened into a short chancel terminated by an apse, which apse the Crusaders removed, and erected their piers against the chancel-walls, in the manner shewn by the Plan, and which will be explained more fully below. The western face of this arch which fronted the Holy Sepulchre, appears to have been more highly ornamented with columns than the rest of the Rotunda. Unfortunately, the only view of the decoration of the arch is that given in the Travels of Zuallardo', which is evidently very inaccurate; but it may be concluded that the piers of the arch were ornamented with tiers of columns in a manner somewhat analogous to the lower part of the West front of St Mark in Venice, a Church erected in the Eastern style like that of our Rotunda, which resembles it also in the alternate disposition of single arches on plain piers, and of groups of arches on pillars having bases and capitals. Plan and Elevation will shew the order in which these pillars and arches are set between the piers. The pillars are represented in Le Brun's engraving with regular pedestals and Corinthian capitals; but from the usual inaccuracy with which the artists of his time repre This view appears in the Travels of Furer, A.D. 1565. It has been suggested to me that this and other similar engravings of the holy places were made for sale to the pilgrims, and thence copied into books of Travels. 2 S. Mark was founded A.D. 977 or The in 1043, and was finished in 1071, excepting the upper part of the West front. The rotunda of the Sepulchre was begun soon after 1010, and carried on to its completion about thirty years after. sented mediæval buildings, we may infer that this only means that they had foliated capitals and pedestals of some kind or other3. The number of arches in the triforium are exactly equal to that of the pier-arches below, each over each, but the alternation of square piers and round pillars follows a different law. A plain arch, on piers, stands over each similar plain arch below, at the cardinal points, west, north, and south. Between these, however, the arches are disposed in pairs, with a pillar and pier alternately, as shewn in Plate 3, so as to make up, on the whole, ten square piers and eight round pillars. Above the triforium is a clerestory-wall, in which are sunk arched panels, one over each of the arches below. These panels were ornamented with figures in mosaic, on a gilt ground, having their names inscribed over their heads, and holding tablets in their left hands, on which certain sentences were written, which may be found in Quaresmius. On the east and west sides, in this writer's time, the figures had all fallen to pieces; but on the south, towards the west, there remained the story of Tobias and the fish; and thence followed in order the Prophets Ezechiel, * Pedestals sometimes occur in Greek churches, as in St Sophia and the church at Mistra. See Couchaud, Eglises Byzantines de la Grèce. • The ten piers are exclusive of the piers of the eastern arch. This arrangement of piers and pillars is described in the Italian original text of Zuallardo, who states that the church has "due chiostri, ò anditi, l' uno sopra l'altro: hora di due colonne quadre et un pilastro in mezzo, et hora di due o tre, et una colonna." p. 188, ed. Rom. 1587. But the sense is quite perverted in the French translations of this author. 5 "Fatte di lavoro mosaico indorato," Zuallardo, p. 190. In Canina's great work, Dei Templi Christiani, a restored view of this church is attempted, but evidently very hastily and rashly executed. Amongst other unwarrantable features he has inserted windows instead of the mosaic pannels of the Rotunda. Daniel, and Hosea; the Emperor Constantine, in a nic in imperial robes, bearing in his right hand a cross a in his left a globe marked with a cross; the Proph Joel, Amos, and Obadiah. On the north side were t shattered remains of some effigies of the Apostles, w their names, as SS. Thomas, James, Philip, Matthe Bartholomew, and Simon; and in a niche in the midd opposite to the Emperor Constantine, was the Empr Helena, similarly robed in a royal dress, bearing cross and the globe, and having an Angel above. T names of the Emperor and Empress were repeated Latin and in Greek. Those of the other figures their accompanying sentences were in Latin only1. The roof of the Rotunda was of wood, built of squared cedars, in the form of a single cone trunca at the top, where the light was admitted throug circular aperture, twelve feet, or perhaps more, in meter. And this was the only opening through w light entered into this part of the Church; but example of the Pantheon at Rome shews that s a mode of admitting light from a single apertur the crown of a dome, is amply sufficient. The w work of the roof had been ornamented with gilding silvering. The top of the roof, or margin of the a ture, was 106 feet above the pavement. The rav of the unhappy fire of 1808 were especially dest tive to the Rotunda, for its wooden roof fell a pre the flames, and excited their fury to such an extent I copy this description from Quaresmius, (p. 368) who describes the decorations of the whole church, as far as they remained, very minutely; other travellers merely allude to ther his residence at Jerusalem enable to collect these particulars at leis enabling them to calcine and split the stone-work and marble columns, that it became necessary wholly to rebuild the inner wall which we have been considering. Probably this rebuilding is a mere casing of the old nucleus; and an experienced observer may yet find in the aisles and triforium traces enough to discover the exact dimensions of the parts I have been describing ; for the diameter of the new Rotunda is about six feet less than that of the old one. The design is unfortunately wholly different, and of a most heavy and barbarous character, as may partly be seen in the vignette at the beginning of this volume, which shews the wall of the Rotunda in the back-ground. This heaviness may be due to the fact of its being a casing of the old work. A vaulted side-aisle encircles the Rotunda, but is cut off eastward by a straight wall that extends north and south from the piers of the great eastern arch in the manner shewn by the Plan. The aisle is concentric to the Rotunda for rather more than a semicircle westward, and this portion of the aisle is bounded by a thick wall containing three small apses (5, 7, 8) about twenty-three feet in diameter, of which the northern and southern are not placed exactly upon the diametral line, but so that the whole apse lies to the west of that line. This wall appears to have remained from a very early period, as it naturally would do, and may be supposed to have belonged to the church of Modestus, if not even to the original Basilica of Constantine. The three apses are expressly mentioned by Arculfus (A. D. 697) as also containing altars, but when the altars were removed or abandoned does not appear. The southern apse (5) was in the last century assigned to the Abyssinians, and is now, together with the adjoining aisle, in possession of the Armenians. The western apse (7), with the adjacent tomb of Joseph of Arimathæa (6) already described, is in the hands of the Syrians. The northern apse (8) has a door opened in its wall, and serves as a passage to the offices outside the Church, as well as to a cistern (10), termed the well of St Helena, which furnishes an abundant supply of water without any apparent spring or well, as Quaresmius relates'. Near this door stands (or did stand before 1808) a marble font (9), square on the outside, but cut into the form of a rose within, the baptisterium of the old Church, in the words of Quaresmius. In the triforium at the extreme west point was the original west door of the Church, by which it was entered from the contiguous street, before the Mohammedans obtained possession of the city. When they converted this Church into a source of revenue, by taxing the pilgrims, they carefully walled up every entrance to it excepting one door (56) in the south transept, to enable them more conveniently to collect the tax and prevent any person from evading it. The level of this western street is so much higher than the floor of the Rotunda, that it was found more convenient to make the entrance into the triforium at once, than to descend to the lower level by steps from the street. The arch of this doorway may still be seen in Patriarch-street; and is marked in the plan of Jerusalem which accompanies this work. A sketch of it by Mr Arundale, which is lying before me, shews the southern "Nullus est fons vel puteus." Quar. 371. 2" Præ foribus ostii est marmoreum vas quadrum, formam rosæ intus præ se ferens." Quar. 371. It is marked in Bernardino's Plan (24) as the Greek font. |