medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Chris:
>wherever it "comes from" (an interesting concept, in itself),
Risa:
As far as where it "comes from," please feel free to argue with archaeologists
and historians of architecture -- and the concrete evidence. The vault or arch
may have been inspired by corbeled beehive structures... but those were made
of stone, not mud bricks. The heavy winter rains would have brought mud brick
corbeled vaulting down on the occupant's heads right quick. The available
materials do play a rather important part both in architecture and writing.
Chris:
>i
>have to admit that i cannot envision this "high rounded arch atop a
>narrow column".
Risa:
Find yourself a picture of Hammurabi's stele.
Chris:
>nor "The precise shape of a narrow, straight-sided column topped by
>high round arch". a column "topped" by an arch?
Risa:
Sure you can visualize it: a tablet is a filled space between two outer
borders. For a niche, just visualize the shape of the tablets hollowed out
and holding a statue. Or, visualize a stained glass window with the shape
framing an apostle or a church portal, or church windows or colonnades or
cloisters or ...
As I already mentioned, the shape is drawn on, for example, Syriac, Gothic,
and Latin biblical texts. In the Amiatinus (Wearmouth-Jarrow) and the Syriac
codices, the text of the Gospels is written within the space between columns --
just as they are on tablets. On the Argenteus (Gothic), the 4 "tablets" run
across the bottom -- and have an Antiochian touch in the capital, and so on
and on and on. Capitals? Yep, all the early illustrations have the sides of
the tablets as columns with capitals holding up the high rounded arch.
Coincidence?
The Greek "tunnel" churches, now... Have you ever seen those small 3rd-4th
century, half-underground tunnel churches? When tourist buses kept stopping
at a most ordinary made-of-concrete-faced-with-stone pseudo-Byzantine church
across the street from our first apartment in Halandri, I decided to explore.
And there it was behind the 20th century CE church: a fourth-century half
underground tunnel church practically on my doorstep. Then there are those
tunnel churches out in the Cyclades where they vary from tiny 4-6 person
churches built on the ground in the middle of nowhere, to later, larger ones
with a wall added on one side to hold the bell tower -- still in the middle
of nowhere. There is one on Therasia that has a "modern" addition of a narrow
wall along one side to hold the bell tower. Doors and windows in tunnel
churches are rectangular. While houses in the round (and I do mean round)
early on in Greece, and half-round lustral areas also occurred in some ancient
temples, the tunnel church with its unadorned, straight walls, narrow roof
span, and round arch roof is not Greek or indigenous architecture. Why are the
windows and doors rectangular? Why "tunnel" church? Because the "tunnel"
churches themselves are architecturally the Sumero-Akkadian House of God.
From the front, they are the shape of the Mosaic tablets in white-plastered
stone.
[snip]
John:
>>it may be worth noting that the round-arched niche may be found
>even in Pickering:
>http://www.norman-world.
>com/angleterre/Patrimoine_architectural/Angleterre/Castles/pickering
>>/picker5.htm Not, as far, as I can tell, a _statuary_ niche,
Chris:
>however.
>we can't tell, from this page, just what purpose that blind arch
>served.
>we must imagine the whole wall as being (surely) painted,
>presumably with something of particular significance within the
>arch.
>the blind arches which are found throughout "romanesque" churches
>were frequently, to judge by the surviving painted examples,
>"frames" for saintly portraits or Holy Scenes
Risa:
Precisely. <G>
Chris:
>http://www.art-roman.net/berze19x.jpg
>the arch itself --especially as part of portals (including the
>choir- screen entrances)-- is evocative of Things Otherworldly and
>this evocation is enhanced by the addition of repetitive decorative
>motifs ("zig-zags", chevrons, etc.) along the span of the arch.
Risa:
Something like zig-zags are used around a Picenian grave stele (6th BCE)...
also as a space filler on the stele from Vetulonia... and the drawn columns
holding up the high round arch that frame the "tablet" on the Amiatinus are
filled with a zig-zag pattern; the Syriac columns use a spiraled zig-zag
design.
>i have seen very, very modest church portals and arches of the
>11th-early 12th century which attain a certain "monumentality"
>through the agency of these (relatively) simple decorative motifs.
>in many cases i am severely tempted to interpret these "portals" as.
>... well, "portals" --the interface between two levels of Reality,
>the edge of which interface naturally "vibrates".
>(the concept will be well known to those listmembers who have seen
>certain episodes of "Star Treck: The Next Generation", where such
>vibrant-edged "portals" occasionally make an appearance, linking
>two seperate *temporal* realities, which allows for an interesting
>story line.)
>in the case of church portals (and choir-screen entrances) it is
>obviously a case of the interface between the Profane/Mundane and
>the Sacred/Celestial.
>i can't really prove any of that, i suppose.
Actually, you probably can... I've even given you a start on where to look.
It can be tracked.
>which, of course, doesn't make it any less true.
Nope, it doesn't, does it.
Cheers,
Rochelle
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