Identifier: monumentsofearly00lowr (find matches)
Title: Monuments of the early church
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lowrie, Walter, 1868-1959
Subjects: Christian antiquities Christian art and symbolism Church architecture Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company London, MacMillan & Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ee p. 176). Small window openings were sometimes closed only by shut-ters, as a protection against cold or rain. Ancient stoue shutters,moving upon hinges, are still preserved in Central Syria. But ingeneral the windows were closed by a latticework of metal,or by thin plates of stone — often translucent marble or ala- 114 ARCIIirECTUIiE baster — which were closely perforated with small aperturescomposing a more or less ornamental pattern (Figs. 42, 153). Awindow at Grado, which is here illustrated, exemplities amethod of making such plates at small expense, for, thoughapparently of stone, it is actually of cement, and was formedin a mould. The small apertures in the window plates weresometimes filled with glass, clear or colored; or with sometranslucent stone, as in the case of the early windows of S.Lorenzo, which are incorporated with the mosaic of the trium-phal arch (Fig. 130); but they were usually left open, allowingingress to air as well as light. The smallness of the aper-
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FiG. 83. — Basilica in Turmanin, Syria tures sufficed to protect the interior from rain, and they dividedthe broad shafts of light into scattered beams, which were par-ticularly favorable for the effect of the mosaics. The basilicas were very clearly lighted in comparison tomost of the Gothic churches; the obstruction to the lightwhich was offered by the stone window plates was compen-sated by the frequency of the windows, and still more by thereflection on all sides, from the polished surfaces of marble andfrom the bright glass mosaic, which at once increased and soft-ened the light of the building. The cathedral of Monrealenear Palermo, though a late medieval building, gives a moreperfect notion than does any other monument of the effect ofearly Christian decoration in marble and mosaic. In this THE BASILICA —Doors 115 church one cannot but recognize that the effect woukl be en-hanced if, for the broad windows of clear glass, there were sub-stituted perforated marble plates of t

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