This form of roof is first found in the West at Nocera dei Pfisfani (vol. i. p. 434), but the dome there is only half the diameter of this one, and of a very different form and construction. The dome of St. George's retains its internal decorations, which are among the earliest as well as the most interesting Christian mosaics in existence.[1] The architecture presented in them bears about the same relation to that in the Pompeiian frescoes which the Jacobaian does to classical architecture, and, mixed with Christian symbols and representations of Christian saints, makes up a most interesting example of early Christian decoration.
No inscriptions or historical indications exist from which the date of the church can be fixed. We are safe, however, in asserting that it was erected by Christians, for Christian purposes, subsequently to the age of Constantine. If we assume the year 400 as an approximate date we shall probably not err to any great extent, though the real date may be somewhat later.
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How early a true Byzantine form of arrangement may have been introduced we have no means of knowing; but as early as the year 285 — according to De Vogue — we have a little chapel at Kalybé (in Syria) which contains all the elements of the new style. It is square in plan, with a circular dome in its centre for a roof. The wing walls which extend the fa9ade are curious but not singular. One other
- ↑ These are all given in colors in this church Texier and Pullan's beautiful work on Byzantine architecture, from which all the particulars regarding are taken.
