Early Medieval Architecture as Bearer of Meaning by Bandmann Gunter; Wallis Kendall; Böker Hans

Author:Bandmann, Gunter; Wallis, Kendall; Böker, Hans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Architecture/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.22 Sichem, Church of Jacob’s Well. Floor plan. (From Bettini 1946:pl. 1)

Figure 3.23 Ephesus, St. John. Reconstruction of the floor plan in pre-Justinianic times. (From Bettini 1946:pl. 2)

Although the central shrine in Qal’at Si’man probably remained unroofed (Guyer 1934; Krencker 1939), so that its original character as a square with four streets leading into it might remain visible, the tomb of St. John became a true part of the church. The oldest remaining parts of the tomb of St. John stood as a square building in the center of a cruciform arrangement surrounded by the four inserted supports of the crossing. Only a small step was necessary for these slowly accumulating parts to be reflected within a unified whole, such as the cruciform church in Salona (Gerber 1911:120) and the basilicas of Nikopolis (Soteriou 1940:372) and Apollonia (Guyer 1950:91ff.). Here we are already dealing with buildings influenced by the concept of the cruciform church where the cupola-crowned centerpiece, resembling a baldachin, is set in the center of a basilica already shaped like a cross.

This tendency of the baldachin to centralize, to mark the focus of attention, and to gather potentially disparate elements together and unify them also had an effect on the continuous Roman transept. The decorated supports of the triumphal arch marking the entry into the throne hall (on the west side of the crossing) found a response in the arch of the apse facing it (on the east side of the crossing). The columns in San Paolo fuori le mura, St. John Lateran, and Sant’ Anastasia in Rome were still freestanding ones (Krautheimer 1942a:fig. 4B and O). Later they fused with the massive pillars to form engaged columns, the form what was henceforth to be found on all crossing pillars. The arches mark this area as one set apart, and the vault and tower give the whole a centered appearance like that of a baldachin. Particularly in French architecture, where the original arrangement was retained for so long, we find that the inserted architectural baldachin still appears in sharply delineated form in Romanesque times—for example, in Saint-Savin (Dehio and von Bezold 1884–1901:pl. 117, fig. 10), Fontevrault (Aubert 1941:55, fig. 58), and the church of Les Aix-d’Angillon (Deshoulières 1932:3) (figure 3.24). Perhaps we might imagine the Merovingian cruciform basilicas as being somewhat similar. The cruciform Basilica of Saint-Wandrille (Fontenelle) in the seventh century had a turris in media basilica (Miraculi S. Wandregesili 1887–1888:chap. 3; Paulus 1944:139).

While the shrine in the Church of St. John in Ephesus touched the corners of the surrounding church walls so that, as at Qal’at Si’man, the four arms of the layout appear separated and there is no allusion to the Roman transept in the ground plan, the layout created by the emperors Arcadius (395–408) and Zeno (474–491) at the tomb of St. Menas (Kaufmann 1910:61ff.) was of evident Hellenistic inspiration and was influenced by the Roman transept basilica (Baumstark 1907:9ff.) (figure 3.25). Here the prolonged side aisles penetrate into the great transept and thus annul any separation of nave and transept.

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