Early Christian, Byzantine, and Romanesque Early Christian Design

encompasses the visual expressions of the Byzantine Empire Byzantine art encompasses the visual expressions of the Byzantine Empire from about 330 to 1450 CE. Constantinople : capital of Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire, was the center for much of artistic development of this period.

Much Byzantine art sought to capture themes of the “Christian faith” and was used to facilitate worship. Byzantine aesthetic can be found in the design of churches from that era, that includes: 1. religious iconography 2. paintings 3. decorative mosaics.

is the nineteenth century name for 11th. and 12th. century Romanesque is the nineteenth century name for 11th. and 12th. century architecture of Western Europe. Building skills in this region were lost with the fall of the Roman Empire.

The name reflects the perceived influence of the architecture of ancient Rome on new building efforts following AD 800 (after Charlemagne’s rule brought a degree of freedom from barbarian raids).

By 400 C.E. Roman world domination had declined significantly. The empire had split into separate eastern and western empires, each with its own capital and emperor.

In design history, a time of conflicting trends begins with the growth of European direction usually called Early Christian Design.

The work centering in the eastern empire called Byzantine and the emergence of the Romanesque style that came to dominate medieval Europe. These aspects of design history overlap, interrelate, and conflict, so that the period from the “fall” of Rome, dated at 476-1100 can seem disordered and confusing.

Early Christian Design

When Christianity was made an officially accepted religion by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 C.E., it became possible for Christians to abandon secret meetings in favor of a public and visible presence.

Earlier temples had not been intended to accommodate a public gathering, but a Christian church was an Auditorium where a congregation could assemble to participate in religious rites. Christians turned to the Earlier Roman Building Type that came closest to serving their needs.

The Basilica: a public meeting hall used by the Romans as a courtroom. The earlier Christian basilican church had a high central nave used for the gathering of congregation.

1) Propylaeum- the entrance building of a sacred precinct, whether church or imperial palace. 2) Atrium- in early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval architecture, the forecourt of a church; as a rule enveloped by four colonnaded porticoes. 3) Narthex- the entrance hall or porch proceeding the nave of a church.

4) Nave- the great central space in a church 4) Nave- the great central space in a church. In longitudinal churches, it extends from the entrance to the apse (or only to the crossing if the church has one) and is usually flanked by side aisles. It is higher than the aisles. Lighted by high windows. 5) Side Aisle- one of the corridors running parallel to the nave of a church and separated from it by an arcade or colonnade. 6) Crossing- the area in a church where the transept and the nave intersect.

7) Transept- in a cruciform church, the whole arm set at right angles to the nave. Transept appears infrequently in Early Christian churches. Old St. Peter's is one of the few example of a basilica with a transept from this period. The transept would not become a standard component of the Christian church until the Carolingian period.

8) Apse- a recess, sometimes rectangular but usually semicircular, in the wall at the end of a Roman basilica or Christian church. The apse in the Roman basilica frequently contained an image of the Emperor and was where the magistrate dispensed laws. In the Early Christian basilica, the apses contained the "cathedra" or throne of the bishop and the altar.

9) Nave elevation- term which refers to the division of the nave wall into various levels. In the Early Christian basilica the nave elevation usually is composed of a nave colonnade or arcade and clerestory. 10) Clerestory- a clearstory, i.e. a row of windows in the upper part of a wall. In churches, the clerestory windows above the roofs of the side aisles permit direct illumination of the nave.

The walls were constructed of masonry, the roofs spanned by large wooden members. The upper walls of the naves were supported by rows of closely spaced columns carrying lintels or arches. Floors were often paved with colored stones in geometric patterns and strong colors.

Columns were generally based on one of the Roman orders, sometimes Ionic, most often Corinthian, their material was stone, frequently marble of rich color.

Materials, even complete columns with their capitals, were often taken physically from earlier Roman temples and other buildings.

An alternative type of religious building used a round or octagonal plan to focus on a centrally placed baptismal font, alter, or tomb.

S. Costanza, Rome

a new center of development was created. Byzantine Design With the relocation of the Roman imperial capital to Byzantium (330 C.E), renamed Constantinople by the emperor Constantine, a new center of development was created.

The influence of Byzantine architecture and design developed in the east flowed back to Italy to blend with the early Christian work evolving there at the same time. In Byzantine work, the classical detail of Roman architecture faded in favor of limited and freer use of such basics as column and its capital.

Ravenna At Ravenna, the S. Apollinaire in Class is of Basilican type and uses extraordinary mosaic art that serves both as decoration and as didactic illustration of religious subjects.

The church of S. Vitale made use of an octagonal central plan with a domed roof built from hollow pottery units that reduced the weight of the structure.

The latter stylistic attribution can be supported by the richly decorative interior, with wall surfaces covered in colored marble in complex patterns together with mosaic images representing figures from religious texts.

Mosaic of Empress Theodora and attendance, S. vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

Constantinople Under the emperor Justinian, great underground cisterns (tank for storing water) were built to provide water supplies to Byzantine Roman palaces and other buildings. Their columned and vaulted structure demonstrates the engineering skills of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Hagia Sophia The vast striking interior space of this building is dependent on its daringly engineered structure

The problem of placing a domed roof on a space of any shape other than round had been studied by the Romans but never fully solved.

The Pendentive, a curving triangular wedge shaped to fill the space between two adjacent arches built are right angles to one another and curved so as to become a quarter circle at its top, is a device developed by Byzantine builders and used at Hagia Sophia to support the central, 107-foot diameter brick dome.

The geometry of the great mosque, in accordance with the Islamic prohibition on realistic representation in art

Secular Buildings Secular buildings contemporary with Christian and Byzantine churches survives in such limited fragments and ruins that study of the interiors is difficult.

Grate bathes and palaces were built by Eastern Roman Empire following earlier Roman practice, but almost nothing remains intact. Residential buildings of early monasteries have also largely disappeared or have been extensively reconstructed.

Early Medieval The Dark Ages A period of confusion followed the collapse of Roman authority Dated 476 C.E

The period from about 476 to 1100 suffered from the absence of any centralized government or authority and from the disappearance of the organized system of Roman law, roads and economy.

In this archaic period, the order came from the authority exercised by local strong men who were themselves a threat to order as they fought one another for territory and exploited the general population in any way they choose.

A feudal system نظام إقطاعي gradually emerged, in which power was established by force and apportioned, along with control for land, by a hierarchical, authoritarian system نظام إستبدادي