Byzantine architecture existed even beyond the political limits of the Empire. farts of Italy were pervaded by it between the Sixth and Twelfth centuries. Ravenna is a well-known exam ple of the earliest period, with its San Vitale, its mansfilemn of Gallo. Placidia, and its baptis teries. Venice also was an outpost of the East. Saint Mark's was a reproduction of the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople. with its five domes on a Greek cross and with its superb series of mosaic and marble decorations. It is decoratively at least a better representative of Byzantine art than Saint Sophia. The earliest palaces of Venice also are thoroughly Byzantine, not only in style, but in plan, as, for instance, the Fondaco dei Turchi and many of smaller size lint better preservation. Santa Fosea at Toreello is also purely Byzantine. Farther south it is to find Byzantine influence combined with Mohammedan. This is the case in Sicily —as in the Eremitani and San Cattaldo at Palermo—and in Campania. 13ut throughout Calabria the churches are as purely Byzantine as in Greece, and other examples are scattered elsewhere, as the cathedral at Capri and San Germano at Monte Cassino. Even Germany (Aix-la-Chapelle, Paderborn) and France (whole of Pi.rigord. especially Saint Front at PC•ri gueux), were sporadically invaded. It was nat ural that the less civilized northern and east ern nations on the borders of the Byzantine dominion should receive its architecture. The Monuments of the countries in the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula are of this class. Ser via, nisnia. Bulgaria, all borrowed from Byzan tium, and it was the same even with the more powerful States.
The main classes of Byzantine architecture are ( 1) Churches: (2) pa mastic establishments: (3) palaces; (4) fortresses. So little remains of minor classes, such as private houses. hospitals, fountains, civil edifices, etc., that we can get only vague ideas as to their style. The imperial palace at Constantinople exists no longer except in the descriptions of its gorgeousness. The for tresses have frequently survived and serve to show that in Africa, Syria. and Asia Minor they served as models to the Mohammedans, and subse quently to the Crusaders, thus revolutionizing the military architecture of Europe, as well as the East. The monastic establishments are even more important for architectural history than the corresponding ones in the West (see Mors: ASTIC ART), because Byzantium always remained sub ject to monastic art, whereas Europe was so only for a short time. There were of course cer tain great centres of monastic architecture, such as the Mount Athos monasteries, those of Thes sal• (Meteo•a), the Stoudion near Constanti nople, and Saint Simeon Stylites in Syria; but the monastic influence was not concentrated, as in the West, in a few large establishments, nor did the monks, as there, shun the cities. Every
city was filled with them, and there were few churches that had no monastery attached to them. Among good examples are the monastery of the Eleventh Century on the island of Chios, that of Daphne, and Saint Luke on Mount Heli con in Greece, of the same period; but greatest of all is Mount Athos (q.v.). The Byzantine archi tects made but little use of concrete; building of brick, they were able to decrease the thickness of their walls. For their domes they used hollow conical bricks of very light clay, which fitted into each other. This gave a minimum of weight and a maximum of cohesion. Although they did not use any flying buttresses nor advertise their methods of construction as the Gothic architects did. they nevertheless invented a system of equi librium interacting thrusts and a con centration of thrusts upon given points, which, although not apparent, was none the less effect ive. At Saint Sophia there is a pyramidal pro gression, the thrust of the dome being received on two sides by semi-domes. on two others by ifnmense buttresses, and then transmitted to the gallery vaults over side aisles and narthex, until it dies away in the low walls of the exterior. But the mathematical knowledge required to carry out the principle successfully on so large a scale was not to survive Anthemins very long. No subsequent attempts equal Saint Sophia. The nearest approach, the palace church of Basil the Macedonian, ha,, been destroyed. In the decora tion of their interiors Byzantine architects loved color as much as did the Romans. and they car ried it out more thoroughly than the early Chris Han architects of the hasilieal style, for their system was an incrustation of marbles and mo saics far richer than that used in the West, whose architects were often satisfied with thin colored wall paintings. The entire system of Christian iconography was often given in mosaic pictures, and the lower walls covered with pat terns of opus seeti/e. The pavements also were of mosaics. This applies particularly to the cen tral and most strongly Hellenic parts of the Byzantine dominions and less so to frontier prov inces, such as Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. The classic orders were almost wholly discarded; capitals, friezes, cornices, and plaques wee deco rated in low relief. basket-work (undercut and openwork), and Itriental patterns, often bor rowed from stuffs, and heavy projections were avoided. Sculptural became more and more sub ordinated to color effects.