Editing Rose window (section)

=== Origin ===

The origin of the rose window may be found in the [[Roman architecture|Roman]] [[Oculus (architecture)|oculus]].  These large circular openings let in both light and air, the best known being that at the top of the dome of the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]]. Geometrical patterns similar to those in rose windows occur in [[Roman mosaic]]s. 

The German art historian Otto von Simson considered that the origin of the rose window lay in a window with the [[hexafoil|six-lobed]]<!---DON'T delete the hyphen. It will change the meaning.---> rosettes and [[octagon]] which adorned the external wall of the [[Umayyad]] palace [[Khirbat al-Mafjar]] built in Jordan between 740 and 750 CE.  This theory suggests that [[crusaders]] brought the design of this attractive window to Europe, introducing it to churches. But the decorative pattern for rose and, independently, the tracery, are very present in vestiges of the [[Early Christian art and architecture|early Christian architecture]], Byzantine architecture, and especially in [[Merovingian art]], and [[Visigothic art and architecture|Visigothic architecture]] before the Muslim conquest of Spain. But half roses are also known, as with the [[Church of San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato|church of San Juan Bautista]] in Baños de Cerrato. The scarcity and the brittleness of the vestiges of this time does not make it possible to say that complete rose window in tracery did not exist in early Middle Ages.

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File:PantheonOculus.jpg|The oculus of the [[Pantheon, Rome]]
File:0 Mosaïque de sol géometrique - Pal. Massimo - Rome.JPG|Roman mosaic. Rome
File:Cancell visigòtic de la cripta arqueològica de la presó de Sant Vicent Màrtir, València.JPG|Common [[Visigothic art|visigothic]] decoration. Archaeological crypt in [[Valencia Cathedral]], 6–7th century
File:Museo - Mezquita de Córdoba.jpg|Visigothic design of roses, preislamic, from [[Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba|basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins of Cordoba]], 6–7th century
File:Missale Gothicum - BAVat. - RegLat317 - f.169-170.jpg|[[Merovingian illumination]] in Missale Gothicum, towards 700. The two large roses are [[Hexafoil|six-lobed]] 
File:Basilica de S. Juan de Baños - Detalle de la Ventana.jpg|Visigothic window with stone tracery, of [[Church of San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato]], 7th century
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In [[Early Christian art|Early Christian]] and [[Byzantine architecture]], there are examples of the use of circular oculi. They usually occur either around the drum of a dome, as at the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], [[Jerusalem]], or high in the end of a gable of low-pitched Classical [[pediment]] form, as at [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura]], Rome, and [[Torcello Cathedral]].<ref>Banister Fletcher, ''History of Architecture on the Comparative Method''.</ref>

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File:Santa Maria Maggiore September 2015-1a.jpg|Oculus of [[Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore|Santa Maria Maggiore]], Rome, 5th century (decoration is later)
File:Baptistère Saint Jean - intérieur3.JPG|[[Baptistère Saint-Jean|Baptistery of St. John]] of [[Poitiers]], France, 6-7th century
File:Q17 Trieste - Basilica di Sant'Agnese 2.JPG|Oculi of [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura]]
File:Torcello Basilica di S. Maria Assunta.JPG|[[Torcello Cathedral]], Venice
File:Aquileia Basilica, esterno - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto edited.jpg|[[Aquileia]] Basilica, Italy, 11th century
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A window of the 8th century, now in [[Venice]], and carved from a single slab, has alternating tracery-like components of two tiers of four ''lancets'' separated by three oculi. Many semicircular windows with pierced tracery exist from the 6th to the 8th century, and later in [[Greece]].<ref name="Banister Fletcher">Banister Fletcher</ref>

Small circular windows such as that at S. Agnese and Torcello as well as unglazed decorative circular recesses continued to be used in churches in Italy, gaining increasing popularity in the later [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque period]].