https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi en-us 2023-03-14 21:12:11 UTC 2026-03-25 02:18:06 UTC hello@padlet.com allanmizu1227 https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516762760 In 313, Christianity and Christian art and architecture took on a new form after Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, granting all individuals in the Roman Empire the freedom to worship whichever god they chose. As a result, the Christian community in Rome had particular architectural requirements, including a space for the entire community to come together for worship and areas designated for special activities like burials, personal devotions, and initiation. To fulfill these needs, the pagan basilica, characterized by its longitudinal plan(such as Santa Sabina), became the prototype for congregational churches, while the central plan (such as Santa Costanza) became the model for the baptistery and martyrs' shrines.

Bishop Peter of Illyria (a region of the Balkans), built Santa Sabina a century later in Rome between 422 and 432. The architecture inherited the plan (architectural outline) of the old St. Peter's. Because of its longitudinal plan, it is a rectangular, elongated building in the shape of a cross when viewed from above. Its interior has an aisle supported by columns on both sides toward a rounded apex. A splendid clerestory illuminates the nave and boasts a radiant glow. This is the prototype of early Christian basilicas. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state, the materials used inside the church are mainly marble. 24 fluted marble columns with Corinthian capitals support the round arches that form the nave arcade. The spandrels between the arches are covered with marble veneer and depict the chalices (wine cup) and paten (bread plate) that are essential to the Eucharistic rite performed at the altar. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state, The basilica is characterized by the loss of the upper wall decorations, the walls between the arcades, and the clerestory, and by the absence of paintings or mosaics depicting biblical scenes.

Santa Costanza was used as a model for churches and baptisteries dedicated to Christian tombs and martyrs' graves, so it is a Roman building with a vertical central axis using the Central plan. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state that one of the oldest surviving Christian buildings with a central axis. The mausoleum of Constantine's daughter Constantina was built outside the walls of Rome 350 years ago as her tomb and consecrated as a church dedicated to Santa Costanza in 1256. The building is a circular structure (rotunda), surrounded by a barrel vaulted ambulatory cloister. The arcade and dome are supported by a pair of columns with composite capitals and intricately molded entablature blocks. According to the course video titled Recording #16, the design emphasizes a vertical axis from the central altar to the dome, in contrast to the basilica, which leads people along a vertical axis from the entrance to the apse, which seems to be heavenward. The interior of the building is covered with fine marble veneers and mosaics, evoking a syncretic image, which is preserved in the vaulted ceiling around the perimeter. Constantina, who died in 354, was buried in a huge porphyry sarcophagus placed in a rectangular niche opposite the entrance on the other side of the outer sanctuary.

]]> 2023-03-14 21:31:07 UTC https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516762760 allanmizu1227 https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516763230 While the Eastern Roman Empire prospered during the 5th and 6th centuries, invasions and religious conflicts were constant on the Italian peninsula. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state that 6th century, during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and his wife Theodora (died 548), Byzantine political power, wealth, and culture reached its peak. This church is the embodiment of their power. According to the course video titled Module 4:Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, it was built in this location because of its proximity to the emperor's grand palace. This church replaced a church built in the 4th century, which was burned during the Nika urban revolt in 532, but was successfully put down. According to the course video titled Module 4: Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, The purpose for which this church was built was as a way to work and quit many people in the city who might otherwise have rioted, but also to allow him to express his power throughout the empire.
The Hagia Sophia is an innovation: a hybrid of vertical and central building plans. According to the course video titled Module 4:Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, the two previous churches here had wooden roofs. To differentiate from that architecture, instead of building a traditional basilica, the center plan space and the basilica space were built as one. A longitudinal nave extends outward from the central dome, with conches (half domes) on either side extending the central space, connected at one end to the narthex and at the other end to the half dome of the cathedral apse. In the center of this procession, called naos in Byzantine architecture, is a row of side aisles with galleries above them. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state that it is not possible to provide a masonry ring under the dome to support the surrounding area because of the unique architecture of the basilica and rotunda. The main dome of the Hagia Sophia rests on four pendentives (triangular curved vault sections), connecting the lower part of the dome with the massive columns at the four corners of the plaza area below. According to the textbook video 8.1 titled pendentives, not only can the dome be placed directly on top of the pendentive, but the dome can also be separated from the pendentive by a drum. Since this pendentive does not appear in the main space, but is submerged in the darkness of the passage, the dome appears to float in midair. This makes the visitor feel as if he or she is at the bottom of a huge canyon. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state that the architects of the Hagia Sophia stretched the building materials to their physical limits to design a steeply sloping dome that rises 20 feet at the top. The steep slope reduced lateral forces and allowed the weight to fall more vertically, but the enormous thrust made the building unstable. According to the course video titled Module 4:Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, The entire building is over 180 feet tall. Inside the hall, the walls seem to melt into the light, and the mysterious and intricate spaces fascinate the viewer. It is "as if it is suspended from the heavens," the audience is described. Forty windows are placed at the bottom of the dome, allowing light to shine under the dome. Light in Byzantine thought is associated with ideas such as perfection and God. The windows create rhythm, the walls are marble with rich veins and patterns that seem to move, and the gold and silver mosaics create a luxurious space. The floor is made of huge paving stones that look like wave patterns. According to the course video titled Module 4:Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, The transparent glass is original, but the red, yellow, purple, blue, and green marble was imported from his empire. The multicolored marble created this kaleidoscopic monument and energy. There are also Christian furnishings, relics, and regalia.]]> 2023-03-14 21:31:48 UTC https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516763230 allanmizu1227 https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516763461 During this period, the relic cult grew and Christians in Western Europe began to make pilgrimages to the Cathedral of St. James of Santiago de Compostela, which housed the body of St. James, the apostle to the Iberian Peninsula.
Authors Stokstad and Cothren state, the purpose of this church was to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims so that they could easily move from chapel to chapel to venerate the relic. Therefore, these chapels have small sanctuaries from apse to transept to house the relics, and the purpose of the entrances varies according to orientation.
The nave has an eastern chapel, which leads to an outer nave with radial chapels surrounding the apse. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state, with this extension of the Basilican plan, worshippers are free to move about the church, visit the chapels, venerate the relics, and no longer interrupt worship in the main space. The entire church has been designed with consideration for how pilgrims will be able to move within the church so that they can enter these chapels and be in touch with their souls, eyes, and hearts. The apses are located in the east because that is where the sun rises, a metaphor for the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his resurrection from the dead. The nave and wings are two stories high, with an arcade of arches and a cloister. According to the Module 6 course video titled Reading Guide for St. James, the nave of the basilica is flanked on both sides by aisles that continue around the arms of the transept, so that the side aisles for movement along the transept are called radial chapels, located away from the apse. The result was to enter the transept with the exact height and structure of the nave. The massive barrel arches are supported on composite piers with half columns attached on all sides, on which rhythmic transverse arches project vertically. These arches give sculptural form to the interior walls and also mark the individual arched bays with a clear and regular order, as in the ambulatory chapel of the choir. According to the Module 6 course video titled Reading Guide for St. James, they have three kinds of vaults; the nave is covered with horizontal barrel arches, the side naves with crotchet arches, and the cloisters with half-barrel arches, which strengthen the building against the outward thrust of the high nave arches and transmit to the exterior walls and buttresses. These are reminiscent of the Hagia Sophia. According to the Module 6 course video titled Reading Guide for St. James, the addition of these half-columns gives the building a kind of decorative elegance as well as strength. As times changed, they took on a decorative role as well as a supportive one. Due to the absence of a clerestory, the nave and transept are only indirectly lit through windows in the exterior walls of the aisles and upper cloister. Thus, light from the choir's clerestory and from the large windows of the octagonal lantern tower above the transept illuminate the main altar, which is adorned with gold and precious stones. I learned earlier that light is sacred and indispensable to the church, so I felt it all the more. I could see from this architecture how much trial and error went into making the most sacred apse look gorgeous. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state, Large, spacious, well-lit, and perfectly sized, its harmonious combination of width, length, and height attracted pilgrims. The cathedral had no doors to close and was open day and night so that pilgrims could come at any time.

]]> 2023-03-14 21:32:03 UTC https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516763461 allanmizu1227 https://padlet.com/allanmizu1227/430p859qbavhskvi/wish/2516763654 The church of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Denis, north of Paris, is widely considered to be the first Gothic building; it was built over the tomb of Saint Denis, an early Christian martyr who became the first bishop of Paris in the 5th century, and the French king who reigned from around 1000 until 1789, the French crown, the Because of its association with the relics of St. Denis, it became of royal importance: in the 1130s, Abbot Sugar directed the construction of a new church to replace the medieval structure. According to the Module 7 video titled: Abbot Suger and Saint Denis, Abbot Sugar was closely associated with the French royal family, and while he controlled the churches associated with his religion, he was also the highest political authority. Power needed to legitimize itself, so it made pomp and pageantry, such as distinguishing between the king and the peasants, making the king look like a god. He created the cradle of Gothic architecture and aimed for a major royal church. According to the Module 7 video titled: Abbot Suger and Saint Denis, his motives are bipolar. In the French style, it was developed in the Le De France region near Paris, the center of the French royal family. In the royal style, it was linked to the growing power of the French royal family (Capet monarchy). The light is religious and conveys the idea of divine light and divine right of kings.
Construction began with the installation of a conservative new western façade and narthex on the old church, but it is believed that the full Gothic architectural style first emerged with the new choir, completed between 1140 and 1144. Sugar argued that the old building was inadequate to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to worship the body of St. Denis and too modest to express the importance of the saint himself. According to the authors Stokstad and Cothren, He therefore designed a new monastery church, drawing on a text by Dionysius, a disciple of St. Paul, which states that "light is the physical manifestation of God." The renovation was motivated by the desire to more fully demonstrate its dual identity as a major royal church and a place of spiritual power. It is both royal and religious.
The theme of Gothic architecture was light. The Apse Lux Nova in Saint-Denis is a classic example. According to the Module 7 video titled: Abbot Suger and Saint Denis, believing that light is the door to Chirist, he worked with the divinity of light and masonry to create a design that allowed for a series of graceful and admirable circular chapels, with walls built around stained glass windows. The slender columns do not block the light, and the ribbed groins are brighter and higher. The church of the Abbey of Saint-Denis became the prototype for a new architecture of space and light, based on an adaptive framework of rib vaults supported by narrow pier ends, rather than the massive Romanesque walls reinforced by outer buttresses.
The plan retains the main features of the Romanesque pilgrimage plan, with the outer ring surrounding a semi-circular apse, around which seven uniformly sized chapels are radially arranged. The structural elements were already appearing in Romanesque architecture: pointed arches, ribbed groin vaults, and external buttresses to relieve stresses in the walls. Authors Stokstad and Cothren state that Sugar's achievement was to coordinate these features into an overall architecture that emphasizes open, flowing spaces enclosed by non-bearing walls with gleaming stained glass. Sugar believed that contemplation of light was a means of illuminating the soul and uniting it with God, and he provided an environment for prayer and meditation for the monks.

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