Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/476

460 BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. Part II. the hannony of proportion which reigns throughout. The exterior is also pleasing, though the absence of a cornice gives an unfinished ' look to the whole, and there is a want of sufficient connection betM'een the dome and the walls of the building to make them jiart of one composition. A more beautiful and more interesting example is the church known as the Catholicon or Cathedral at Athens (Woodcut No. 905). It is a cathedral, however, only in the Greek sense, certainly not as understood in the Latin Church, for its dimensions are only 40 ft. by 25 over all externally. It is almost impos- sible to judge of its age from its details, since they are partly borrowed from older classical buildings, or imitations of classical forms, so fashioned as to harmonize with parts which are old. But the tallness of ^^^' '^^scaL*ioo"ft^oVh!f^'"'■ i^^ ^^o""*^' ^^^ ^^'^^ "*" ^*s windows, and the internal arrangements, all point to a very modern date for its erection — as probably the 13th century as the 11th or 12th. 907. Churcli at Misitra. (From Cauchaud, ■' figlises Bystautiiies eii Grece.") Enlarged scale. The Church of the Virgin at Misitra in the Peloponnesus — the ancient Sparta — may be of about the same age as the Catholicon at