The Shores of the Adriatic Part 19

La Colleggiata is the ancient church of S. Maria Infunara, which Andreacci Saracenis founded, but was rebuilt in 1221, during the Servian period. It has a nave two bays in length, the first cross-vaulted, and the second with a dome enclosed within an octagonal drum, and with a barrel-vaulted presbytery before the apse. An aisle to the north, continued to the tower as a sacristy, is later. The apse has shallow pilasters dividing the exterior surface into three, in the centre of which is a walled-up east window of two lights, with a cross within a circle in the tympanum beneath the enclosing arch. The arch of the south door is perhaps a fragment of the original building, and the west door also looks early. In the aisle is a Virgin and Child, with painted faces, and the hands and feet added in relief and painted. The draperies are silver and silver-gilt, patterned, and each figure has a nimbus formed of a gilded patterned roll. The background is of silver, with little angels supporting the Virgin's nimbus, and there is a curious frame of filigree arabesques of tinsel set in wire and standing free.

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. LUKA, CATTARO

_To face page 385_]

S. Luka, the Greek church, of nearly the same period and plan as the cathedral, was built in 1195 by Marco di Andrea Casa Franci, and Bona, daughter of Basilio, prior of Cattaro, The dome is pointed, and rests on four pointed Romanesque arches with rough pendentives. The apse is divided by pilaster strips into three portions externally, and in the central one is a two-light round-headed window with central colonnette.

The roof is continued over the chapel of S. Spiridion to the north (which has an apse, but no window, except the little rose over the external door), and this makes the church look square from the south-east. The west side has one clerestory window beneath a great unmoulded arch, and a circular-headed door below, the jambs of which are made of earlier fragments; the late belfry is of three arches, two and one; beneath is an unusual curved ornamentation, a curious presage of the "New Art" of a few years ago. The church appears to have been restored in the fourteenth century, since a consecration by Bishop Doimo II. is recorded in 1368; but it has been a Greek church since 1689, was enlarged in 1747, and the structure shows signs of considerable rebuilding. The iconostasis is of the seventeenth century; the paintings are covered with silver plates. There is a huge cross with wings at the base and paintings. Through the central arch the _arca_ and a little cross are seen. The chapel of S. Spiridion also has its iconostasis. At Easter time two processional crosses of silver and a Resurrection banner decorate the church outside the iconostasis. The Cattarine silversmiths have also executed work away from their own sh.o.r.es. It will be remembered that Stephen IV. of Servia gave a silver altar to the church of S. Nicola, Bari, in 1322, the work of Abrado of Cattaro.

There are a few interesting doors and windows in the town, of various periods. The Palazzo Drago, near the cathedral, has a pretty window of something the same style as the east window of the cathedral; the great doorway of the provincial tribunal has some fine heraldry in the tympanum (a helmeted lion, with another lion for the crest) and angels in the spandrils, while upon the caps beneath the lintel are other lions, with s.h.i.+elds flying from their necks. These are of the late Venetian period. The facade of the Nautical School, ill.u.s.trated, displays a bold and unusual treatment, and there is a well near the hotel with elaborate and ma.s.sive iron-work about the pump connected with it. The streets and alleys are all of the same width, and badly lighted, and it is a difficult place to find one's way about after dark. The only amus.e.m.e.nt available is usually the large cafe on the Riva, which appears to be open at all hours of the day and night--at least, we had coffee there before leaving by boat at 4.15 a.m. The gates are shut at 9 p.m., except the Porta Marina. Over this gate the Venetian lion still appears, a rather late example, but in refres.h.i.+ng contrast with the griffins supporting the Austrian arms above, a work of 1814. Outside are gigantic oleander-trees, and, to the right, the market, where many Montenegrins may be seen in their striking costumes. Beyond the Porta Gordicchio is the wood market, and one for horses and forage is outside the Porta Fiumara, where the barrack for belated Montenegrins stands, for they are not admitted within the walls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SCUOLA NAUTICA, CATTARO

_To face page 386_]

Just outside the Porta Marina we found a shooting-saloon established on our second visit, with a number of moving figures, which performed on the marksman hitting a certain point, the most diverting of which were an old woman with a kicking donkey, and two fighting goats. Several soldiers tried their hands, but with very indifferent success. Great excitement was evoked by an accident while the mails were being unloaded one afternoon; a post-van fell into the water, many large postal parcels being damaged, and part of the top of the van ripped off by the measures adopted for its recovery. This "Riva" was the scene of the murder of Danilo II. in 1860.

The walls, which are 28 ft. high, were built in 1667, after the older ones had been thrown down by an earthquake. These must have been strong, since the city was blockaded in vain by a Venetian fleet in 1378, and attacked by the Turks equally vainly in 1539, 1569, 1572, and 1657. The present walls zigzag up the mountain to the Fort S. Giovanni, which dominates the roads leading into Montenegro. From the fort one looks down upon the first house beyond the frontier. A little below the fort is a threatening ma.s.s of rock, which has been bound with iron to prevent it from falling upon the city below. The Montenegrin road climbs the mountain with no less than sixty-six zigzags.

At a little chapel with an early Renaissance facade some way outside the town, the Angelus bell hung outside just below the gable termination, without any visible means of being rung, and we wondered how this was done, until we happened one day to be within sight at the Angelus hour, when we saw a man bring out a ladder and ascend to within reach of a short cord hanging from the clapper, which he seized and agitated!

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CORNER OF THE WALLS, CATTARO]

The military are on the look-out for spies, and our camera occasioned two or three very searching inquiries. I congratulated myself upon having obtained authority to photograph from headquarters, without which we should certainly have been stopped. After taking the group of the Albanian horsedealers (who crossed with us to Bari with their merchandise) we wished to have a separate figure of the villain to the left; but the next man, who was master of the gang, thought time enough had been lost, and, taking the halter from a horse, twisted it round his neck by way of explaining that he was his servant, and that he objected to any further interruption to business. As we were walking between Perzagino and Mula an old man addressed us, asking if we were English, and, on our replying that we were, said he had been twenty times in London, and called our attention to his house, which he said had been inhabited by Prince Nikita during the troubles at Cattaro.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALBANIAN HORSE-DEALERS, CATTARO

_To face page 388_]

We saw very few English on our second trip. From the time we pa.s.sed Cologne to the time we arrived at Cattaro we did not hear a word of our own language, though the boat in which we travelled from Spalato to Cattaro was entirely of English make, with Liberty chintzes in the cabins, and panels of coloured plaster in the saloon. It had cost 70,000, the captain said, and was certainly extremely rapid and comfortable. In the early morning we saw the sardine boats coming in.

They carry on the bow an apparatus with a number of jets connected with an acetylene plant, producing at night a most vivid light. The Bocchese is a born seaman, beginning at the age of twelve, and often going on till he is seventy. In the Bocche scarcely a third of the land is fruitful, yet 40,000 people lived in the district, mainly, of course, by the sea. From their childhood the boys have always longed for the day when they might accompany their fathers into the world beyond the sea.

They were always ready to fight, and expected to have to do so, for, until the second half of the eighteenth century, it was unusual good fortune to make a sea or land trip to Albania without being attacked.

The ancient houses, with loopholes and little windows, still look more like citadels than convenient dwellings. The women had to protect their children and their own honour when the men were away, and this had its effect upon their character. In many villages it was the custom for a bride to go out some morning before she was married into a lonely place and sing the death-wail, so that she might know it if she became a widow!

The introduction of the steamboat has reduced the employment of sailing craft, and the Bocchesi have become poor, but they provided the best sailors for the Venetian fleet, and their seamans.h.i.+p has not decayed.

There were certain variations among the Bocchesi from the religious customs of the Morlacchi, which are perhaps worth noting. The great fast before Easter lasted for fifty days, and during that time even fish was allowed but twice to the sick, on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday.

During fasts the people do not sing, a custom observed strictly on the islands. Three days before Ascension Day the crosses are taken out of the churches and fastened to poles ten or twelve feet high, with fluttering banners; these days are therefore called "Cross" days. The village girls make garlands to hang from the ends of the crosses. They are then carried in procession round the village and over the fields; when a spring is reached it is surrounded, the priest reads the gospel, and blesses the water and the people with the cross. On Ascension Day, or the day before, a procession with the cross goes through the village, and every house is blessed. In the coast-strip, on the eve of "Cross Day," there is a frugal supper; on the day itself, a dinner. Before both, the master of the house cuts a piece of bread from the "Kreuzlaib"

(a large round loaf with a cross marked in the centre), and sticks in it a taper which he has lighted with a brand from the hearth. All pray before it for their dead, cross themselves, and sit down to table. Later in the meal the master rises with a gla.s.s of wine, soaks a bit of bread in it, and, with the traditional formula, "I to thee, bread and wine; thou to me, health and joy," extinguishes the taper with the morsel.

Then he drinks to all, and they to him. The great piece of bread, into which the taper was stuck, is given to the first beggar who comes by.

They provide much more than enough for the guests, as the custom is on those days to feed the poor in villages and towns. Unless the family is in mourning, drinking songs are sung suitable to the guests, of whatever position.

Fires are lighted on the eve of S. Stephen's Day, and also on New Year's Day and Epiphany, as well as on the morning of S. John the Baptist's Day, when the people jump over the midsummer fires and cry: "From one S.

Giovanni to another, may aching feet be far from me!" On New Year's Day the children get an apple or an orange from the mother, and go to the father, asking him to silver it; he sticks a ten-kreuzer piece or two into it, and they go on to friends and relations with the same request.

Every village has its church (some have three or even more), every hilltop has its sanctuary, and each island its holy place. In Cattaro, till the beginning of the nineteenth century, churches and convents occupied a third of the area within the walls, and each n.o.bleman had his private chapel in his villa. The Bocchesi were noted for their honourable fidelity to their word once given, and this probity is still recognised in their commercial dealings. The married sons usually live in the house till the father's death; then the property is divided, and each takes his own house. If the mother is alive she lives with the eldest son. The house master divides the food, giving sufficient to each one, so that he would sometimes go short himself if the girls and daughters-in-law were not always ready to offer him the best part of their portions. The country women of Montenegro always kiss the hand of a male acquaintance in greeting. On the road the man is met on mule-back smoking, the woman on foot with a load, and they neither of them would consent to change their position, and put the load on the mule and make the man walk. The men wear full breeches, a waistcoat and sash round the waist, and a thick whitish wool coat over it, which is sometimes girded with the sash, leggings, and the usual raw-hide shoes. On the head is a black silk cap with a magenta centre embroidered with gold thread. The women wear a coat of the same shape, but of lighter material, and sleeveless, over a kind of jacket, and on the head the same shaped cap with a handkerchief draped over it and hanging down at the back.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONTENEGRINS IN THE MARKET, CATTARO]

Cattaro has about 2,000 inhabitants, of whom scarcely ten families are old-established; all the old families are dead, or have emigrated. Part of the present population are Italian immigrants; part are Albanian and Montenegrin families (to which nationality many of the country people also belong), who, either for purposes of trade or craft, have settled in the town. From many towns in Austria come the sub-alterns, who have married and now live here. The usual language is Croat, but Italian is generally understood, and songs with the Venetian accent may be heard.

But all are much interested in the "Marinerezza," the finest festival of the Bocche, held on February 3. On January 27 the preliminaries commence. The marine officers arrange themselves on the seat before the cathedral at midday. As soon as the clock has struck the second stroke of 12 the "little sea director," a boy of nine or ten, comes out on the gallery above the door, armed and in national costume, and, in Croat, delivers a short speech announcing the beginning of the festival, and calling the citizens to take part in it. At the end he takes off his cap, waves it, and greets the standard of S. Trifone with three "Slava!"

At this moment the flag is unfurled, the music strikes up, the bells ring, and the people shout "Slava!" (which means "Glory!"). On the eve of the day the outside members are met and greeted with music by those of the town, parading before the cathedral. At 4 p.m. the sea director meets the bishop, who blesses the "Kolo" before Vespers. The whole piazza is thronged with people, and in the middle is the body of the "Marinerezza," with the "Kolo" leader and his company ready. The ancient costumes, golden knives, silver gypsires, gold pierced purses, &c., show the ancient riches of the Bocche. The music strikes up, and the "Marinerezza" begins the ancient "Kolo" dance, after which the bishop enters the church, where a solemn service begins, lasting late into the night. The next day the same dance is repeated before Ma.s.s, after which the relics of S. Trifone are carried in procession through the narrow streets. Then the Society feasts the poor of the town and neighbourhood in the court of the bishop's palace. In the evening there are fireworks, and other celebrations take place on the Sunday following.

The standard of S. Trifone bears his figure on a white ground, with the words "Fides et Honor" on a gold embroidered band.

Cattaro appears to have been a republic till the thirteenth century, when it came under the protection of Servia, and so continued till the extinction of the dynasty of the Nemagna. A doc.u.ment of 1351 of Stephen "per la Dio gratia Imperator de Servia et de Grezia" confirms all its privileges. It was one of the most important ports of the eastern coast of the Adriatic in the Middle Ages, and competed with Ragusa for the inland trade. In 1301 it was attacked by that city, and again in 1361.

After the death of Uros the Strong, in 1368, it sought the protection of Lewis of Hungary, at that time the most powerful prince in Europe, and thereby lost the friends.h.i.+p of Venice. In 1378 Victor Pisani ravaged the Bocche, sacked the city, and took away a foot of S. Trifone in a silver reliquary, which he placed in S. Fantino, Venice. Twenty years later Cattaro offered itself to Venice, but was not accepted till twenty more years had pa.s.sed. On July 25, 1420, Pietro Loredano, Captain of the Gulf, came to take formal possession. The ensigns of the commune and the keys of the city were brought in procession to the representative of the Republic, and the standard of S. Mark was hoisted on the cathedral. The oath of loyalty and devotion to the "Serenissima" was taken by Paolo Bucchia, count, Marius Bisanti and Luca Drago, judges, and the forty members of the greater council. The territory was then called Albania Veneta. The Bocchesi enrolled themselves voluntarily as sailors, and formed the finest portion of the _personnel_ of the Venetian navy.

Under the Byzantines the prior was first in the state, though there is mention of a Catapan in 1163. The t.i.tle of the supreme officer was changed to "Rector," and (in 1159) to "Count." Till 1398 he was elected annually; after that time he bore office for a month. He was required to be a native of a friendly Dalmatian city, and was elected by the "arengo" of the n.o.bles. His payment was partly in coin and partly in kind. No one could ask him to be G.o.dfather, nor could others of his family contract spiritual affinity with any citizen. Neither he nor his relations could receive gifts, nor go to banquets in or out of the city, except for marriages, and with permission of the greater council; nor could he sleep outside the city. He was always followed by a knight and six squires, clothed at his own expense; and, notwithstanding his grandeur and power, one would think must have been glad when his term of office was completed. The council of the "Pregati" consisted of fifteen members of the Senate, elected annually on S. George's Day. There were three judges selected by them from the lesser council, which was composed of six n.o.bles, also elected annually. Till the tenth century the bishop was elected by the chapter, from that time till the thirteenth by the clergy and people, after which period the appointment was made by the Pope. Thefts were punished by fine up to three times the value of the object stolen, and by prison, beating, branding, and maiming, following inability to pay. Similar punishments were enacted for offences against the person; but homicide of a citizen brought the criminal to the halter.

From Cattaro it is but a short distance to the southern boundary of the Austrian Empire on the Adriatic. A stone column between Spizza and Antivari marks the line. Two telegraphic wires are attached to this stone, one belonging to Austria, and one to Montenegro. The Bay of Antivari is said to be the most picturesque place on the Albanian coast, surrounded as it is by lofty mountains, with trees almost hiding the minarets of the town, while, to the north, Spizza is perched on red rocks rising steeply from the water. There is a great waterfall, which appears to fall sheer into the sea, with a mill just at its foot. Budua, which is fifteen miles from Cattaro, is something like Arbe in situation, crowning a projecting peninsula, and with grey mountains towering above it. It was a Roman fortress, known as Buta, and one of the keys to the interior. It was sacked by Saracen pirates in the ninth century, and in 1571 the Turks fell on it and burnt it. In 1687 it was defended against them by a Cornaro, but contains nothing of sufficient importance to repay the trouble of a visit.

XXV

THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCES OF THE TWO Sh.o.r.eS

Between the Eastern and Western sh.o.r.es of the Adriatic there has been constant communication, either peaceful or bellicose, from the earliest times, for the sea was a highway traversed with equal ease by the enterprising merchant or the daring pirate. While the resulting influence of one coast on the other was considerable, more distant lands from which the way was open by the same course can be shown to have also affected the progress of art and craft on either side of the sea--Byzantium, North Africa, and the countries between being the strongest factors. The occurrence of Syrian _motifs_ at Ravenna and Spalato is frequent, both in ornament and construction; peculiar expedients which were used in Tunis and other parts of North Africa appear in Lombard or Comacine work, while the influence of Alexandrian and Antiochene art on the styles which preceded and prepared the genesis of Romanesque ornament appears incontestable. The close relations between the two coasts at the period when they were governed from one centre, either Eastern or Western, make these influences probable.

Ecclesiastical controversies at times affected portions of both, while their common Christianity necessarily produced community of interests and sympathy for the woes which one side or the other suffered from the incursions of heathen and barbarous hordes. Nor must the commercial relations be forgotten, by which, in the earlier mediaeval period, objects of luxury, which served as models for the local artists, were spread to all points of the Mediterranean basin, and at the period of the Renaissance the manufacture of such objects as the plaquettes of bronze or lead which appear to have been produced in Italy especially, with the intention of serving as suggestions for craftsmen who were deficient in imagination or capacity. History records the a.s.sistance rendered by one sh.o.r.e to the other on many occasions, and the interference of the stronger and more civilised power in the affairs of the weaker. To those already cited in the body of the work a few may be added here. The Liburnians helped Octavius Augustus in the naval battle of Actium; and, when he became emperor, he did much for Dalmatia, in return for the a.s.sistance rendered. Yet the rebellions continued, mainly owing to the rapacity of the governors sent from Rome, as is proved by the answer of Batone to Tiberius, reported by Dion Ca.s.sius. He asked the reason for the frequent rebellions in town and country, and the implacable hatred which appeared to be nourished against the very name of Roman. Batone replied: "Because you sent neither shepherds nor dogs to guard your flock, but wolves." A better regime for the Dalmatians followed the peace which was made, and from that time onward Dalmatia furnished many distinguished men, who rose to high office in the empire, several, indeed, wearing the imperial purple. It is suggested that one of these, Decius the Illyrian, introduced the use of the dalmatic into Rome (the common dress in Dalmatia), which was frequently used by the n.o.bles of the court of Valerian. Lampridius notes that Commodus sometimes wore it at special solemnities. Clergy and laity wore the same dress at that time, except for a fringe which distinguished the sacerdotal vestment. S. Cyprian, who succeeded Donatus, bishop of Carthage, speaks of its use as an ancient thing, from which it may be concluded that in the second and third centuries it was accepted as the Eucharistic vestment in North Africa, or worn by bishops outside the church. S. Eutychian, Pope in 275, ordered the alternative use of the dalmatic for clothing the bodies of martyrs with the "colobium" (a long tunic of crimson silk), which had been in use before; an order reversed by S. Gregory. It was used at first by the celebrant, but, when the chasuble came into use in the Roman Church, it became the vestment of the deacons. S. Symmachus conceded to S. Caesarius, bishop of Orleans, in 508, as a favour, that his deacons might use the dalmatic, and S.

Gregory granted the same privilege to the archdeacon of the Franks. At a later period the use was granted to kings for their coronation.

The Byzantines used Istria as a base in the final operations against the Goths till 555, when they were conquered. This was the period when so many basilicas were built in that country, in grat.i.tude for the securing of freedom to the province from the yoke of the Arians, and for the re-establishment of the "Holy Republic," the inaccurate term which the Istrians used for the Byzantine Government. The exarchs ruled till 752.

During this period the bonds between Istria and Ravenna were close. It was a military district under a provincial _magister militum_, directly subordinate to the exarch of Ravenna, and appointed by him. He was also charged with the civil administration, and lived at Pola, which was the capital till the ninth century. Istrians rose to high ecclesiastical honours in Ravenna, Grado, and Torcello. Justinian granted an appeal from the provincial judge to the bishop, who had also jurisdiction over secular and regular clergy, except in criminal cases. The archbishop of Ravenna had the right of revising the decisions of the judges of Pola, a right which continued till 1331, when Pola gave herself to Venice, and probably commenced at the time of Maximian, who was appointed archbishop by Justinian in 546.

He was a native of Vistro, now Porto Vestre, between Rovigno and Pola, and must have been a man of resource and great personal influence. The story runs that he found a treasure when cultivating his field. He sewed together two skins of a goat into the form of boots, and filled them and the skin of an ox from the treasure, deciding to take the rest to the emperor at Constantinople, to whom treasure-trove legally belonged. When he presented this remainder he was asked how much he had kept for himself. He replied: "As much as a stomach and a pair of boots could absorb." The Emperor Justinian interpreted this as meaning that he had taken as much as he required for food and for the journey, and became attached to him. Amba.s.sadors arriving from Ravenna to announce the death of Archbishop Vittore (546), and to ask for the pallium for his successor, gave Justinian the opportunity of advancing Maximian, whom he sent to Ravenna with many gifts, including much of the "feudo di S.

Apollinare," lands at Pola, and in its vicinity, which belonged to that church for centuries. Pope Vigilius was at that time an exile in Bithynia, and therefore the Ravennese at first refused Maximian, but changed their minds on learning of his many virtues (among which the imperial gifts no doubt ranked). His architectural works in Istria were considerable; and in Ravenna he consecrated the two churches of S.

Vitale and S. Apollinare in Cla.s.se, built by Julian, the treasurer. In Istria he founded the monastery of S. Andrea, near Rovigno, and the church of S. Maria Formosa, or "in Canneto," at Pola (which had property in the exarchate of Ravenna), a magnificent church, which has been spoken of in the chapter on Pola. The "feud" consisted of a palace, with its dependencies, and three towers in the city of Pola, and a quant.i.ty of land in the district. The wood at Vistro where the treasure was found was also given to S. Apollinare by Maximian. In 1001 Otho II. gave S.

Maria and S. Andrea to the archbishop of Ravenna; afterwards they belonged to S. Mark's, Venice. A doc.u.ment of 1138 in Ravenna shows Abbot Paul, of the monastery of Pomposa, asking for himself and his successors for one hundred years the renting of certain lands from Martin, abbot of S. Maria in Canneto and of S. Andrea. In 1200 the feud consisted of many rights of jurisdiction, t.i.thes, and charges, both in the city of Pola, and in towns in its territory, some of the land having been sold, with Urban III.'s permission, between 1185 and 1187. There was a chapel of S.

Apollinare and a house with their belongings near the Porta del Duomo, and three towers, the country possessions being spread over eleven places. At this time Engelbert III., Count of Gorz, stole it, and held it for some time, notwithstanding an appeal to the Popes Celestine III.

and Innocent III. In 1213 the archbishop granted the feud to a certain Stefano Segnor, so he must have then regained it. Seven years later Simeon, archbishop of Ravenna, conceded his lands in Istria to Guido Michele and his successors, with the obligation to renew the contract every sixty years, and reserving the right of appeals. The Castropola bought the feud from the Giroldi about 1300 for 1,800 "lire piccioli."

Aquileia was the most prosperous city of the empire after Rome, having 600,000 inhabitants in the days of its prosperity. The fleet which kept the capital in communication with the eastern coast of the Adriatic, and so with Liburnia, Giapidia, Pannonia, and the Levant, had a station there. Trajan took the division which was called Aquileian or Venetian from the Pretorian fleet at Ravenna. It had charge of the Upper Adriatic from Ancona to Zara, and of the sh.o.r.e from the Adige to the Arsa. After the Greeks lost Ravenna to the Lombards the station of the fleet was moved to Zara. Shortly before, in 743, the exarchate included the Dalmatian islands, and also the cities of Zara, Trau, Spalato, and Ragusa. The Slavs occupied Dalmatia in 640-642. Paulus Diaconus says that they crossed to Siponto in 649 and sacked several places near. The annals of Bari (926) speak of the siege and capture of Siponto by a Slav king, Michael, possibly the husband of Queen Helena, who is named on his wife's sarcophagus found on the island in the Jader, near Salona, as described in the chapter on Spalato. In the ninth century the Narentans helped in driving the Saracens from Monte Gargano.

The bishop of Torcello had possessions in Cittanova and Muggia, which were confirmed to him in 1177 by Frederick Barbarossa. The see of Grado had rights and possessions on the islands, and in Istria, at Trieste, Capodistria, Pirano, Cittanova, Parenzo, Pola, and Castel S. Giorgio, but the actual power was in the hands of the patriarch of Aquileia, who several times settled matters with his adversaries by giving them things which really belonged to Grado. With the increase of the Venetian power to the point at which the coast-towns were practically forced to yield themselves to her supremacy, Istria and Dalmatia became p.a.w.ns in the political game which was played in Italy, and the reciprocal influences of the two sh.o.r.es became princ.i.p.ally artistic and individual, rather than corporate or national.

Artists of both sh.o.r.es worked indiscriminately on either side of the Adriatic, as may be divined from the similarity of style in many of the buildings and in much of the decorative work, even without the doc.u.mentary evidence which is often available. It is to be expected that between the early basilicas of Ravenna and of Pola there should be a great resemblance; but at Parenzo, also, there is a likeness to both those places, and it seems probable that the same school of artists worked upon the mosaics there and at S. Maria in Cosmedin, Ravenna. The decoration in _opus sectile_ also has resemblances, but these seem more probably due to direct Byzantine influence, since, both at S. Sophia, Constantinople, and S. Demetrius, Salonica, the same form of decoration occurs; and it is pretty well established that there was a regular export trade in carved capitals and columns from Constantinople, the same patterns occurring in many places far apart from each other.

Comacine work is frequently met with all down the eastern coast as far as Cattaro, as in Lombardy and the Venetian territory. The building at Ravenna known as the Palace of Theodoric resembles the Porta Aurea, Spalato, in its decoration of columned niches; and the material of his mausoleum, Istrian stone, inclines one to look across the sea for the inspiration of the design (which may possibly be a Gothic imitation of the mausoleum of Diocletian), though it must be remembered that Theodoric sent an architect to Rome to study the ancient buildings.

At a later period we have many names of artists who crossed the sea in one direction or the other. In 1319 Uros II. of Servia sent Abiado di Dessislavo from Cattaro to make the silver altar at S. Nicola, Bari.

Michelozzo of Florence was at Ragusa in 1463; George of Sebenico was at Ancona rather earlier; Onofrio de La Cava did work at Ragusa; before his time, George of Sebenico's friend, Giovanni Dalmatico, was working in Rome, in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. Bartolommeo da Mestre was _protomagister_ at Sebenico between 1517 and 1525, and many artists of different kinds bore the name "Schiavone" in Venice during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, where the chapel of the Illyrian colony, S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, was decorated by Vittore Carpaccio with subjects from the life of S. Jerome (a Dalmatian by birth), S.

George, patron of Dalmatia, and S. Trifone, venerated at Cattaro.

Sigismond Malatesta is credited with the design of part of the fortifications of Ragusa, where artists of many nationalities were employed, one of the bells bearing the names of two Dutchmen, Willem Corper Cornelis and Jacob Vocor. The building on the eastern sh.o.r.e which had the most effect upon the western, and indeed upon the whole of the Occident, is the Palace of Diocletian, in which, for the first time in Europe, the arch appears springing directly from the capital without the interposition of the entablature, a building which was almost certainly constructed by Syro-Greeks, probably brought by the emperor from Antioch. All the masons' marks are Greek letters, and many of the combinations of architectural forms are found in the dead cities of Central Syria, in buildings dating from the end of the second century.

The method of construction of the domes, the great bearing-arches which relieve the architrave, the exterior niches which decorate the walls, and the architrave turned into an archivolt over the tympana of the pediments all occur at about this period. At Laodicea, Baalbek, Palmyra, and Petra, _motifs_ which were in use till the end of the Byzantine period appear. Tesserae of mosaic have been found in one of the vaults at Spalato, showing that it played a part in the decoration, as might be expected in so magnificent a building. Dr. Stmygowski says: "What we have in Spalato grew in that corner of Central Syria which we call Hitt.i.te, and in the hinterland of Asia Minor, which communicated with the sea by way of Antioch." In Khorsabad a glazed brick frieze has been found in which the horizontal member became an arch over the door. The new thing was the putting it on pillars ranged before the facade, which he thinks was probably done at Seleucia on the Tigris. The plan of the palace at Spalato, with projecting towers, and the soldiers' quarters against the walls, is Syrian, of which examples may be cited at Kasr-el-Abjad and Deir-el-Khaf (which is dated 306). The colonnaded streets are a well-known Syrian town feature, and the plan resembles that of Antioch, as described by the rhetorician Libanios, scarcely fifty years after the death of Diocletian. Dr. Strzygowski concludes that the emperor had seen the palace at Antioch, which was commenced by Gallienus, and possibly was completed. He wished it copied, and therefore brought over Antiochenes to do it.

There are other Eastern characteristics both here and in other places on the coast, such as the sheet of lead upon which the bases of columns are set, as in Byzantine work; the free-standing apse, found at Salona in two places, and in the earlier church at Parenzo; the plan of S. Maria delle Grazie, Grado, with the apse in the centre, and the two chambers flanking it, an arrangement found in a temple of 192 A.D., at Is-Sanamen in the Northern Hauran, by Mr. H.C. Butler, while the former arrangement was seen by Miss Lowthian Bell in many ruins in Lycaonia, as has been already noted.

The Egyptian influence also appears to be made out. Upon heathen tomb monuments of the second and third centuries at Ghirza in Tripoli are columns supporting arches cut out of a thin slab, not constructional, an arrangement just like the Lombard ciborium tops. The connection appears clear. The ciborium was a tomb generally erected over a martyr's grave or the relics of a saint to whom the altar was dedicated, and the form of these tombs appears to have thus been perpetuated. That there were links between North Africa and the Adriatic towns is suggested by various facts. Coptic objects have been noted in the treasury at Spalato, and the patriarchal chair once at Grado has been described.