ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

36 FRANCE AQUITAINE [CH. xixs. Front, doubt the architect had seen and measured the Italian^^ and fad ^{3 best to itreproduce on French soil.Not only in plan but in dimensions the two correspondand De Verneilh has observed that thevery nearly,differences of measurement are practically such as wouldarise from the difference between the Italian and Frenchfoot. There are certain variations in the constructionof the domes and pendentives which seem to show thatthe architect of S. Front was not a Greek himself thoughhe worked on a Greek model. The domes are nothemispheres but are raised to a point, and the pendentiveshave a curious winding surface instead of the Byzantinespherical form, and are for the most part built withhorizontal beds, instead of with beds radiating from thecentre and normal to the curve. The great arches thatcarry the dome, moreover, are slightly pointed. But inthe four great piers at the crossing, with the passagesthrough them at two levels, and in the great arches thatspring from them there is a manifest imitation of theconstruction at Venice (Plate XCV).The history of the church is this.Bishop Froterius(976-991) began the earlier, the Latin, church whichwas consecrated in 1047. This it is recorded was coveredwith wood, except the aisles, which seem to have hadbarrel vaults placed with their axis atnave.right angles to theIn 1 1 20 this church was consumed by a terrible firewhich even melted the bells in the campanile, the aislesalone escaping, thanks to their stone roofs 1 . It was inconsequence of this disaster that the re-buildingof the1Hoc tempore burgus Sancti Frontonis et monasterium cum suis ornamentisrepentino incendio, peccatis id prom erenti bus, conflagravit, atquesigna in clocario igne soluta sunt erat tune temporis monasterium ligneistabulis coopertum. Gallia Christiana^ vol. II.