Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/492

476 BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. PAhT II. Out of Armenia it occurs in the clmrch at Kurtea el Argyi«cli in Wallacliia (Woodcut No. 951), and is found in Hungary and Styria, and no antiquary will probably fail to recognize it as the most usual and beautiful jiattern on Irish crosses and Scotch sculptured stones. On the other hand it occurs frequently in the UKniolithic deepdans or lamp- posts and in the temples on the Caua- rese or West Coast of India, and in all these instances with so little change of form that it is almost impossible that these examples should be inde- ])endent inventions. Still the gaps in the sequence are so great that it is very difficult to see how they could emanate from one centre. Few, how- ever, who know anything of the early architecture of Ireland can fancy that it did come from Rome across Great Britain, but that it must have had its origin further east, among some jjeople using groups of churches and small cells, instead of concjresfational basili- cas. So far, too, as we can yet see, it is to the East we must look for the original design of the mysterious round towers which form so charac- teristic a feature of Irish architecture, and were afterwards so conspicuous as minars in the East, and nowhere more so than in Armenia, Recent 934. Jamb of Doorway at Ish Khan Church, i.pcpqvpV,po tnn nvo TinL-iiio- it ninrp Armenia. (From a Photograph.) 'leseaiCUCS, tOO, ait makmg It niOie and more clear that Nestorian churches did exist all down the West Coast of India from a very early jieriod, so that it would not be impossible that from Persia and Armenia they introduced the favorite style of ornament. All this may seem idle speculation, and it may turn out that the similarities are accidental, but at present it certainly does not look as if they were, and if they do emanate from a common centre, tracing them back to their original may lead to such curious ethno- logical and historical conclusions, that it is at all events worth while pointing them out, in order that others may pursue the investigation to its leo;itimate conclusion. Taken altogether, Armenian architecture is far more remarkable for elegance than foi- grandeur, and possesses none of that greatness of