Langobardia maior et minor: indagini sul legame tra la scultura altomedievale e i capitelli campani

Langobardia maior et minor: indagini sul legame tra la scultura altomedievale e i capitelli campani. Within the southern Italian city of Capua – in the 10th and 11th century ruler's residence of the Lombard principality of Benevento and capital of Langobardia minor – a group of early medieval capitals has survived, which can be divided into three closely related types. On the basis of type I, which is bound to the corinthian capital, an examination will be made regarding to what extent relationships can be verified with the architectural sculpture of the older Lombard kingdom in northern Italy, which was incorporated into the Frankish Empire by Charlemagne as early as 774. For this purpose, certain technical and stylistic characteristics can be used, which concern in particular the overlapping tips of the acanthus leaves. The thesis is that in the very specific forms of Capuan capitals a line of tradition can be traced that is also found in other contexts of early medieval art in Campania, possibly with origins in the north.

Cities and Their Churches

This chapter is about the churches in the cities of the region. In the introduction to the chapter, some common features of these cities are pointed out. The cities of Nisibis, Edessa, Amida, Dara, Constantia, and Martyropolis are dealt with under separate headings, while Batnae and Carrhae, for which we do not have much evidence, are discussed in the introduction to the chapter. Not much church architecture has remained in the cities. Yet, what has survived and what has been recorded in the past lets us see a wide variety of plan types (basilicas, variations of domed basilicas, an aisled-tetraconch, and an octagon), a distinctive architectural sculpture that is mostly classical in character, and strong imperial patronage. After each city, the churches and monasteries in the hinterland of these cities are discussed. Some rural areas, such as the Tektek Mountains, the region around Derik, and Kale-i Zerzevan near Amida, stand out for their surviving remains.

Epilogue

In this chapter, the material presented in the second and third chapters is contextualized further, and the evidence from urban and rural contexts is treated in combination. This chapter distinguishes between the two periods before and after the Arab conquest, and draws attention to the continuities and changes, in plan types, building materials and techniques, builders, patrons, and architectural sculpture. For the period before the Arab conquest, it discusses the similarities of the church architecture of the region with its counterparts elsewhere in the Empire and points out what is specific to it. It also assesses what we can tell about the identity of the churches in a region where churches were changing hands. The Section ‘After the Arab conquest’ is concerned with the changes in the cities and the rural ṬurʿAbdin. It explores whether, in this period, one could talk about a church architecture specific to the Syrian Orthodox.

Ṭur ʿAbdin

The introduction of the chapter analyses the topography of Ṭur ʿAbdin through comparisons and settlement relations. The material about church architecture is organized under the separate headings of ‘Villages’ and ‘Monasteries’, which constitute the main settlements in the region, together with some fortifications. The division of settlements into villages and monasteries also coincides with two distinct types of church plans: parish and monastic. In the section on villages, the main settlement features of a late antique village are discussed. After that, the village churches are examined through some of their distinct features, such as engaged arcades, masonry, brickwork, architectural sculpture, and outdoor oratories. The analysis shows that some of these churches underwent considerable rebuilding in the eighth century. Some sixth-century evidence points to their possible origins. Some small churches, built probably from scratch in the eighth century, show that in that period some architectural features were repeated faithfully. Monasteries are first examined as settlements, and spaces that constitute a monastery, other than the churches, such as walls, towers and beth qadishe, are discussed. Then both the main and secondary churches are examined in detail. Some churches of the monasteries stand out for their plan or decoration, such as the church of Mor Ḥananyo at Dayr al-Zaʿfarān and the main church of the monastery of Mor Gabriel. They are dealt with under separate headings. Although not a monastic church, the Church of Yoldath Aloho at Ḥāḥ is treated together with these churches because of some of its architectural features.

THE CARISBROOKE HAND: ANGLO-SAXON SCULPTURE AND THE HAND OF GOD?

This paper discusses the significance of a fragment of stone sculpture built into the north wall of the churchyard at Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight. The sculpture depicts an open right hand that is larger than life-sized and is probably of late Anglo-Saxon date. The size and character of the sculpture favours a manus dei (hand of God), forming the upper element of a large rood assemblage. The authors consider allied sculpture in which such a hand appears on Anglo-Saxon grave markers and in similar low relief depictions where Christ is figured on the Cross. At Carisbrooke, this architectural sculpture would have formed a significant feature of an Anglo-Saxon minster church that was rebuilt in the early Norman period. The siting of this building and the extent of its parochia is briefly considered. Supplementary material reviews the probable significance of the sculptural use of Quarr stone at Carisbrooke and elsewhere.

Monastic Art, Sacred Space, and the Mediation of Religious Experience

The chapter argues that between the ninth and thirteenth centuries medieval Benedictines understood art and architecture as a means of mediating religious experience. This perspective differs from that of the more ascetic strain of Western monasticism exemplified by Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian Order. The ninth-century Benedictine revival of sculpture was predicated on its insistent materiality and its capacity to engage the multiple senses of the devotee with the ritual settings of sacred space. Whether portable or architectural, sculpture was also used within ritual contexts to convey actual or implied movement in space, thus participating in a larger constellation of images, rituals, relics, liturgical objects, and architectural frames that fashioned sacred space both within and outside the cloister. Setting the multi-sensory approach to monastic art within a broader historiography, the chapter focuses particular attention on architectural sculpture, using the Pentecost portal of Vézelay as a primary case study.

Bouleuterion

The bouleuterion housed the boule or council of a Greek polis in the form of a roofed meeting space. Most, if not all, cities had one; the remains of more than fifty buildings are extant. Although there were also bouleuteria in large sanctuaries and federal capitals, the major examples are urban. Bouleuteria were almost always located near a city’s agora. Over time their architects designed increasingly unobstructed interior spaces. Construction of dedicated bouleuteria began in the late archaic period; earlier councils may have met in porticoes or other buildings. Councils were generally composed of 100–500 bouletai and required a capacious meeting place; the bouleuterion became one of a city’s largest secular buildings. In the 5th and 4th centuries bce, the usual form was a hypostyle hall with symmetrically spaced interior columns, level floors, and seating on benches, as at Argos and Athens. Sloping stone seating was introduced early in the Hellenistic era and became standard; both rectilinear and curvilinear versions are known, the latter much more common. Secondary meeting spaces for committees of prytaneis or probouloi were sometimes adjacent. From c. 250 bce the design of bouleuteria became increasingly ambitious. After adoption of the wooden roofing truss, interior supports could be more widely spaced, as at Priene and Miletus, and eventually eliminated. Often the product of Hellenistic and Roman euergetism, bouleuteria were constructed by private citizens and rulers; sculptures were often dedicated within their precincts. Rare architectural sculpture was limited to motifs symbolizing the council’s role as a defense against a city’s enemies. A majority of known bouleuteria are in Asia Minor, where Greek cities long retained their civic identity under Rome; membership in the council came to signify high status, in some places becoming hereditary. Many bouleuteria were built between the 2nd century bce and 2nd century ce, often incorporated, as at Ephesus and Aphrodisias, into large urban complexes. As multivalent roofed halls, bouleuteria provided useful settings for civic ceremonies and were often used for cultural activities including oratory and spectacle. Later examples became more like odeia or roofed theaters, with vast open interiors, a raised stage, and a two-storey scaenae frons that was separated from the cavea by parodoi and populated by sculptures of benefactors, deities, and emperors. When epigraphical evidence is lacking, identification of a later building as an odeion or bouleuterion can be uncertain; while some roofed halls may have served both functions, location on or near the agora points at least to political use. In Asia Minor some bouleuteria continued into the late antique period; the building at Nysa may have survived until the 10th or 11th century ce.