The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic GuildScott, Leader
History
The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild
Scott, Leader
Cathedrals; Church architecture; Guilds
Let us see if their work can throw more light on the question. Is the
Pisan church Byzantine? Decidedly not. There are no domes except the
central one, which is seen in most Lombard churches; no Oriental
arches resting on bulging capitals; but round arches supported on the
identical Romano-Lombard composite capitals one sees in every Italian
church of the time. The façade too is a very wilderness of Lombard
galleries in every direction. Instead of following the line of roof,
they cover the whole front, one below another. If Buschetto had
brought back from Byzantium an idea of more richness of ornamentation,
he certainly worked it out in Italian forms, by merely multiplying his
little pillared galleries till a network was formed over the whole
building. This was not confined to him; it became a mark of Comacine
work for the next two or three centuries, as we may see at Lucca,
Ancona, Arezzo, and other places. The style is called Romanesque, and
it stands between the heavier Lombard style of the earlier Comacines,
and the more finished Italian Gothic of the later ones, as shown in
Florence and Milan. They are all, however, only different developments
of the same guild.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF PISA CATHEDRAL, 11TH CENTURY.
_See page 212._]
The richness of ornamentation suited the temper of the Pisans at that
time. They were proud of many victories, and had brought back from
Majorca, Palermo, and other places, various spoils, such as porphyry
colonnettes, rare marble, etc. etc.[166] They desired a particularly
grand and gorgeous church, and that it should be in a style hitherto
unknown. The many antique capitals and columns among the spoils placed
at his disposal suggested, of course, arches, so by way of being very
original, Buschetto or Rainaldo, whichever of the two designed it,
made his façade with four arcades, instead of one, or two, as his
brethren in the north were accustomed to do. The colonnettes in these
four galleries are fifty-eight in number, some of _rosso antico_,
others of the black and gold-streaked Luna marble. The two large
columns at the central door are also of antique Greek work; they are
beautifully carved in foliage intertwined; the other four columns are
fluted and wreathed with foliage. The capitals also are chiefly
ancient classic work; there are Corinthian and composite ones. The
remaining capitals are Comacine work, and have their usual mixture of
animals and hieroglyphic figures. Here, too, are the lions of Judah in
juxtaposition with the pillars, but as yet they appear above the
pillar and not beneath it, as was the invariable custom a century
later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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