Thus, then, we perceive, when Romanesque architecture was emerging from the chaos, references in all its parts to ancient Roman forms and principles, but the utmost licence in their application ; and what the architects of the period did, was to reduce the discord into order, and to mould the whole into a consistent system. Among the distinctive characteristics of this style in its maturity may be mentioned in the first place, its general Massiveness of construction and severity of character. The walls are usually of great thickness and pierced by windows of a comparatively small size and few in number. Indeed, in nothing does pointed Gothic differ more markedly from the round arched style out of which it grew than in the enlargement and the promlnency given to windows—a characteristic due to the introduction of painted glaze, and the admiration felt for it by the ecclesiastics of the west and north,—the decorations of the essentially of Italian origin, having been chiefly mural paintings and mosaics. But besides the massiveness of construction, a leading characteristic is the predominance of horizontal lines in the general composition, which chain distinguishes this style from Pointed Gothic, iu which a general tendeocy to verticality is as decidedly apparent.
The semicircular or segmental arch is distinctive of the style. It is employed for all purposes, and occurs of all sizes in the same building.
Usually it is employed in combination with the columns, the column being made the essential support of the arch—all appearance of en tablature being now discarded. At first the columns themselves were mostly tapering, not cylindrical like the slender detached ones met with in the Pointed style, and the capitals bore a more or less close resemblance to those of the Corinthian order in contour and proportion. The capital itself, however, was larger in proportion to the rest of the column, thereby affording a greater surface or impost for the arches to rest upon ; and also combining the appearance of security at that point with general lightness of appearance. The shaft was mostly plain, yet frequently highly ornamental, striated or carved in different ways, and sometimes twisted, either singly or with two stems twining spirally round each other. Columna furnishing examples of all these different modes occur in the cloisters of San Paolo and San Giovanni Lateran° at Rome; and the capitals present quite as much variety, it seeming to have been the aim on such occasions to introduce as much diversity as poseible, instead of so arranging the columns as to have two of the same kind placed together: a practice probably originating in making use of fragments takeu from other buildings, and afterwards retained as conducing to variety and richness.
Although the arches were, as frequently as not, quite plain, and without archivolt mouldings of any kind, the use of archivolts was by no means uncommon ; sometimes consisting of merely a single mould ing enclosing a plain border around the arch, at others divided into fade., and more or lees enriched,as in the front of the cathedral of Pisa, in which building the arches describe more than a semicircle above the capitals of the columns, being prolonged downwards by a deep abacus, consisting in some places of two, in others of a single plain block resting Immediately on the capital. Similar blocks or abed occur in the remains of Frederick Barbarom's palace at Gelnhausen, where small heads or masks are introduced immediately above such abaci, so as to fill up the same space there between the arches, and continue in some degree the vertical lines produced by the eoltinms.
In some Romanesque buildings the design consists of little more than an assemblage of arches variously disposed, the apertures for windows being few and small and destitute of ornament ; and they generally form either successive tiers, one above the other, like so many blank galleries, or occur at intervals in the vertical line of the edifice. In these kinds of arcades [ARCADE]. that which is uppermost is generally of much [mailer dimensions than the one beneath, so that two of its arches occupy no wider space than one of those below it. Another practice peculiar to this style is that of carrying a range of arches beneath a gable, ascending one above the other in the same sloping direction as the sides of the roof ; instances of which occur in the fronts of the Duomo at Parma, San Michele at Pavia, and in those of the cathedral at Carrara, and the church of San Zeno at Verona, in which two latter instances, however, the bases of the columns are all on the same level, and consequently the columns themselves gradually increase in height as they approach the centre. The front of the cathedral at Pisa offers a double instance of the same kind iu the upper, or gable story, and in the half gables over the ends of the second one, with the difkrenee, that in the latter the pillars support merely blocks placed beneath the inclined lino of the roof. To this may be added the very prevalent custom of making an upper cornice or border of very small interlacing arches, or of mouldings producing that appear ance. Interlacing arches were also very common in the decorative arcades.