Note 10 — Chapter V · FROM VAN TO BITLIS

A work of the first quarter of the tenth century is disclosed in all the freshness of its original appearance.10 Some of the figures which project from the walls have suffered partial fracture; but the rich friezes are almost intact. Beginning at the base, we have first a broad space of plain masonry, enhancing the value of the sculptures above, from which it is separated by a band of deeply chiselled stone. This band, like the friezes, is both continuous round the building and in emphasised relief. It consists of a spiral geometrical pattern, representing the vine. Life-size human figures, interspersed with the forms of animals, compose a series of pictures rather than a procession, and rest upon the moulding just described. They are also in relief, and stare out at the visitor with all the naïveté of the early Middle Ages. Subjects from Bible history succeed one another, varied by the gaunt figures of Christian saints. Here you remark the colossal figure of Goliath, armed with club and shield (Fig. 141); there it is Adam and Eve, standing naked beside the tree of life, and, a little further, the serpent tempting Eve (Figs. 142 and 143). The treatment of the human form is primitive and almost barbarous, recalling the Romanesque. One is impressed with the combination of naturalism, nay of realism, subdued, and at times checked by hieratic convention. These sculptures pass over into a restful region of unworked stone, and are succeeded by a row of heads, the heads of animals and birds, jutting out at irregular intervals from the face of the building. Above them, again, you admire the freedom and extraordinary intricacy of the most elaborate of the friezes. Hunters and wild animals and strange birds are represented, woven together by branches of vine with clusters of grapes. Higher still another band is drawn along the eaves of the roofs, except on the north and south sides of the apse. Rampant animals are the principal subject; but on the north side of the western arm you observe a row of human heads. A somewhat similar frieze is seen below the roofing of the central tower or dome.