Architectural Character

The general architectural character depends on the development of the dome, induced by the adoption
of circular and polygonal plans for churches, tombs and baptisteries. This is in contrast with the
Romanesque style, which developed the vault in Western and Northern Europe.

A byzantine building consists generally of brick carcass or “shell,” constructed after the size of the
marble shafts had been assured. The walls of this shell were finally sheeted internally with marble, and
the vaults with colored mosaic on a golden background.

The dome, already referred to, is the prevailing motif or idea of Byzantine architecture, and had been a
traditional feature in the old architecture of the east.

Domes were now placed over square apartments, their bases being brought to a circle by means of
“pendentives”; whereas in Roman architecture these features were as arule placed over a circular
apartment.

Comparative analysis

Plans

Byzantine churches are all distinguished by a great central square space covered with a dome,
supported by means of means of pendentives. On each side extend short arms, forming a Greek cross,
which with the narthex and side galleries make the plan nearly square. The narthex was placed within
the main walls.

Difference between a byzantine church and an early Cristian basilica:

The leading thought in a Byzantine church is vertical, by the grouping of domes around a principal
central one, towards which the eye is drawn, while the Early Christian basilica is horizontal, by means of
the long perspective of columns, which direct the eye towards the apsidal termination.

Walls

These were often constructed of brick. Internally, all the oriental love of magnificence was developed,
marble casing and mosaic being applied to the walls; hence a flat treatment and absence of mouldings
prevailed. Externally the buildings were left comparatively plain, although the façade was sometimes
relieved by alternate walls of stone and brick, in various colors.

Openings

Doors and windows are semicircular headed, but segmental and horse-shoe arched openings are
sometimes seen.
The windows are small and grouped together. The universal employment of mosaic in Byzantine
churches, and the consequent exclusion of painted glass, rendered the use of such large windows as the
Gothic architects employed quite inadmissible, and in the bright climate very much smaller openongs
sufficed to admit the necessary light. Tracery was, in consequence, practically non-existent as a northern
architect would understand it. The churches depend largely for light on the ring of windows at the base
of the dome, or in the “drum,” or circular base no which the dome is sometimes raised, and on the
openings grouped in the gable ends. Such windows, grouped tiers within the semicircular arch beneath
the dome, are a great feature in the style.

Portions of the windows are occasionally filled with thin slabs of translucent marble.

Roof

The method of roofing these buildings was by a series of domes formed in brick, stone, or concrete, with
frequently no further external covering. In S. Sophia the vaults are covered with sheets of lead, a quarter
of an inch thick, fastened to wood laths, resting on the vaults without any wood roofing. Hollow
earthenware was used in order to reduce the thrust on the supporting walls.

The Byzantines introduced the dome placed over a square or octagonal plan by means of pendentives, a
type not found in Roman architecture.

In early examples the pendentives were part of one sphere. A good idea of this type is obtained by
halving an orange, cutting off four slices, each at right angles to the last, to represent the four arches,
and then scooping out the interior; the portion above the crown of these semicircles is the dome, and
the intervening triangles are the pendentives. The early domes were very flat; in later times they were
raised on a drum or cylinder.

Columns

In the early buildings, these were taken from ancient structures, which not being so numerous in the
east as in the neighborhood of Rome, the supply was sooner exhausted; and thus there was an incentive
to design fresh ones. Capitals sometimes took a form derived from the Roman Ionic or Corinthian types,
or consisted in the lower portion of the cube block with rounded corners, over which was placed a deep
abacus block, sometimes called a “dosseret”. This represented the disused Classic architrave, and aided
in supporting the springing of the arch, which was large in area than the shaft of the column.

Columns were used constructively, but were always subordinate features, and often only introduced to
support galleries, the massive piers alone supporting the superstructure.

Mouldings

These were unimportant, their place being taken by broad flat expances of wall surfaces. Internally the
decorative lining of marble and mosaic in panels was sometimes framed in billet mouldings, probably
derived from the classic dentils, and flat splays enriched by incised ornamentation were used. Externally,
the simple treatment of the elevation in flat expanses of brickwork, with occasional stone banded
courses, did not leave the same scope for mouldings as in other styles.

Ornament

The scheme of ornamentation was elaborate in the extreme, the walls being lined with costly marbles
with the veining carefully arranged so as to form patterns, and the vaults and the upper part of walls
with glass mosaic having symbolic figures, groups of saints and representation of the peacock (the
emblem of immortal life), the whole forming a striking contrast to the less permanent painted frescoes
usually adopted in the Western Romanesque churches.

Mosaic thus was used in a broad way as a complete lining to a rough structure, and architectural lines
were replaced by decorative bands in the mosaic.

Greek rather than Roman technique was followed in the carving, due the origin of the craftsmen. The
carving was mainly executed in low relief, and effect was frequently obtained by sinking portions of the
surfaces. A special character of the carving was due to the use of the drill instead of the chisel. The
acanthus leaf, deeply channeled, and of V-shape section, is adopted from Greek variety, but became
more conventional, with acute-pointed leaves, drilled at the several springing of the teeth with deep
holes.