ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

5 6 FRANCE AQUITAINE [CH. xixs. jean, bricks that are coursed with the stone and formed intoPoitierssimple geometrical figures.Roman The design of this baptismal church is distinctlyinfluenced by Roman and not by Byzantine examplewhich indeed does not seem to have made itself felt till aThe models that were followed in the earlierlater period.Merovingian times were the Roman remains of whichGaul contained so:many examples but the art even inthe 5th and 6th centuries had no doubt sunk into a verypoor resemblance to the models it aspiredto imitate.The ancient buildings served not only as models but alsoas quarries,for the practice of robbing old buildings tofurnish new ones was begun long before the Temple deS. Jean. Diocletian's temple at isSpalato decoratedwith ancient porphyry shafts cut short : Constantineadorned his triumphal arch with reliefs from that ofTrajan and the 70 columns of Bishop Namatius's church:at Clermont, and Bishop Perpetuus's 120 at Tours wereno doubt rifledfrom Roman temples and other buildingsof Imperial times, and would have been put togetherwith something of the artless simplicity of the Temple deS. Jean though perhaps with a somewhat nearer approachto classic regularity.Ovoid The influence of S. Front may, I think, be traced aspnnacies^ as pojt;erSj where the strange conical pyramids thatcupolassurmount the two flanking turrets of the west front of the. church of Notre Dame, bear a strong resemblance to thedomed top of the great campanile at P^rigueux, and theresemblance is even stronger in the quasi-cupola of thecentral tower (Plate C, p. 46). All three are coveredwith scaled masonry like the domes and tower of S. Front,and are very unlike anything farther east in France.The church itself is barrel- vaulted, with shallow transepts