medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
> http://www.liceoscientificosulmona.it/ROMANICO-ABRUZZESE/Schede-
edifici/S_PELINO_A_CORFINIO/FOTO_S_PELINO/ABSIDE.jpg
> This apse is undated; it is said to have been added "many decades"
(helpful, eh?) after the construction of the church in the eleventh
century.
it certainly *could* be post-11th c. --we'd have to look closely at the
details of the decorative elements (caps, reliefs, etc.).
and then know something about what the relative chronology of that kind of
stuff looks like in Italy generally and that region in particularly.
which i certainly don't.
just looking at it --from the perspective of French "romanesque" (which has
nothing to do with this Stylistic Sequence at all, of course-- it certainly
doesn't look *too* late to me. mid-12th c. might be pushing it a bit. i
certainly wouldn't think it to be 13th c.
> What always strikes me about is the "sandwich effect" of the divided
middle courses between the plain ones above and below.
i'm not sure what you mean.
http://www.liceoscientificosulmona.it/ROMANICO-ABRUZZESE/Schede-
edifici/S_PELINO_A_CORFINIO/FOTO_S_PELINO/ABSIDE.jpg
is (above the socle) a pretty complicated, five-part exterior elevation, each
part articulated by string courses and other elements :
--a (curiously) "blank", windowless lowest section ;
--a clearstory level, with decorative columns framing the windows ;
--a short ornamental level, with foliate panels alomost forming a frieze ;
--an arcade, not truely "blind", but with the columns being freestanding from
the apse wall, and yet with no access doorways at either end, being a purely
decorative feature, not a passage.
--a final "blank" section, decorated with a "lombard bands" arcade above.
in sum, there is at work, here, clearly an "iconography" of architecture: the
belief that the exterior of the Business End of a church should *look* a
certain way, and it is this "look" --rather than any structural
considerations-- which determine its appearance.
best,
c
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