|
From the beginning Christian churches, in contrast to the ancient temples,
were intended to be places for the assembling of the faithful. The
temperament of the people of the East and of the South where Christian
houses of worship first appeared, required the admission of much light by
large openings in the walls, that is, by windows. As a matter of fact the
early Christian basilicas were richly provided with large windows, placed
partly in the central nave, that was raised for this purpose, partly in
the side aisles and facade. In Western Europe, or rather in the countries
under Roman influence, the places where the windows existed on the side
aisles can no longer be identified with absolute certainty, owing to the
chapels and additions that were later frequently built. In the East,
however, where it was customary to select isolated sites for church
buildings large windows were the rule. The place of the window was
determined by the architectural membering of the basilica, the distance
between two columns generally indicating the position of a window.
However, there were endless exceptions to this rule in the East; thus at
Bakusa in Syria the windows are close together as well as over the
columns; at Kalat-Seman each intercolumnar space contained two windows. In
general two or three windows united in a group, as was later the rule in
Roman architecture, were even then of frequent occurrence in the early
Christian architecture of Asia Minor. The form of the window is nearly
everywhere the same; a rectangle that usually has a rounded top, but
seldom a straight lintel. When the latter is used it is generally balanced
by a semicircular arch of wedge-shaped stones. Ornamentation of the
windows was hardly possible in the basilicas of Western Europe, which were
generally built of brick, while the Syrian stone churches, and as an
exceptional case those of the school of Spoleto, displayed rich contours
and ribbon-like ornamentation. Of that troublous period which extended to
the time of Charlemagne and later until the beginning of Romanesque art,
few monuments remain that give a clear conception of the window
architecture then in vogue. According to Haupt's researches, the windows
of the earliest Germanic churches had a round arch above, which was
generally a hollowed stone. Towards the bottom these windows, strange to
say, were frequently somewhat broader than above. It was not unusual in
Spain, England, and France to finish the window-casement with a horseshoe
arch, the upper part being formed by two stone shafts set obliquely, that
is, like ribs of an arch. An example of this method is found at Deerhurst
in England. The windows of this period are frequently very different on
the inner and outer sides, the richer ornamentation being found on the
inner side, as at Saint-Germain-des-Pré in France where there are engaged
columns and ornamented archivolts.
|