Renaissance Architecture by Anderson Christy;

Author:Anderson, Christy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2013-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

92 Diogo Boitaca and João de Castilho, S. Maria de Belém, Jerónimos Abbey, 1501–22, Belém, Portugal

Six octagonal piers support the vaulted roof that covers the nave and aisles of this hall church. The piers are the starting point for the rib vaulting system, emerging from the tops of the columns in a net-like system that gives the greatest unity to the space below. The smooth surface of the walls beneath the clerestory windows is only broken by the twelve doors of the confessionals that are embedded into the walls and entered by the priests from the cloister. In light of pre-Reformation ecclesiastical policy, a unified space would unite the congregation in their devotional practice. The large congregation, entering the church as individuals, would worship as one corporate body, awed by the grandeur of the space.

The Jerónimos Abbey is an extraordinary example of the combination of political and religious imagery, fused in the creation of an architectural complex for the benefit of a corporate group. The cloisters, the product of both Boitaca and Castilho, are rich in Manueline ornament (so called because it is associated with work completed during the reign of King Manuel I, Prince Henry’s successor) [93].

In some countries the power of religious communities rivalled that of the state, in their control of land and resources, and the architecture of large monasteries also rivalled palaces in their size and grandeur. In England, King Henry VIII dissolved all monastic communities in 1536 as part of his break with the Church of Rome and the establishment of the Church of England.22 The dissolution of hundreds of monastic houses changed the nature of communal religious practice and released a vast amount of buildings and building materials for private use. Henry VIII bestowed the monastic properties on his nobles in order to further ensure their loyalty. The monastic buildings then became like quarries for their recipients, disassembled to varying degrees and reused in the construction of some of the great country houses of the Tudor period.

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