Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
And though the Greeks invented the architectural orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian),
it was the Romans who employed them in bravura performances. Consider Rome's Colos-
seum, with its ground tier of Doric, middle tier of Ionic and penultimate tier of Corinthian
columns. The Romans were dab hands at temple architecture too. Just witness Rome's ex-
quisitely proportioned Pantheon, a temple whose huge but seemingly unsupported dome
showcases the Roman invention of concrete, an ingredient as essential to the modern con-
struction industry as Ferrari is to the F1 circuit.
Byzantine
After Constantine became Christianity's star convert, the empire's architects and builders
turned their talents to the design and construction of churches. The emperor commis-
sioned a number of such buildings in Rome, but he also expanded his sphere of influence
east, to Constantinople in Byzantium. His successors in Constantinople, most notably
Justinian and his wife Theodora, went on to build churches in the style that became
known as Byzantine. Brick buildings built on the Roman basilican plan but with domes,
they had sober exteriors that formed a stark contrast to their magnificent, mosaic-encrus-
ted interiors. Finding its way back to Italy in the mid-6th century, the style expressed itself
on a grand scale in Venice's Basilica di San Marco, as well as more modestly in buildings
like the Chiesa di San Pietro in Otranto, Puglia. The true stars of Italy's Byzantine scene,
however, are Ravenna's Basilica di San Vitale and Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe,
both built on a cruciform plan.
Click onto
www.exibart.com
(mostly in Italian) for up-to-date listings of art exhibitions
throughout Italy, as well as exhibition reviews, articles and interviews.
Romanesque
The next development in ecclesiastical architecture in Italy came from Europe. The
European Romanesque style became momentarily popular in four regional forms - the
Lombard, Pisan, Florentine and Sicilian Norman. All displayed an emphasis on width and
the horizontal lines of a building rather than height, and featured churches where the
cam-
panile
(bell tower) and baptistry were separate to the church.
The use of white and green marble alternatively defined the facades of the Florentine
and Pisan styles, as seen in iconic buildings like Florence's Basilica di Santa Maria
Novella and Duomo baptistry, as well as in Pisa's cathedral and baptistry.
