the christian basilica--9/3/24

03 Sep 2024

the christian basilica--9/3/24

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Today's selection--from The First Thousand Years by Robert Louis Wilken. Out of the Roman Empire’s extraordinary architecture, the type that best suited the needs of Christian worship was the basilica:

“Architecture is the most conspicuous of the arts. Unlike poetry or painting, it occupies and shapes public space as a tangible and inescapable object whose impact is felt by all who make their way about the city. This was particularly true in the Mediterranean world, where life was lived outside. Such quotidian activities as cutting hair, repairing a sandal, or teaching children their ABCs took place out of doors. In the fourth century the face of the cities was changing as Christian churches were constructed across the Mediterranean world, altering, for example, the location of streets and alleys and opening up space for religious processions as well as markets.

“One of Constantine's first gestures as emperor was to build a large church in the city of Rome, Saint John Lateran. In the decades that followed he commissioned churches in other cities, most notably in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and of course he built a new Christian city on the European side of the Bosporus at the site of the ancient city of Byzantium, naming it after himself, Constantinople, the city of Constantine. His reign began an intensive period of church building that lasted up to the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. The energy and exuberance displayed in the planning and construction of churches in these centuries is remarkable.

“Some of these buildings are still standing and in use, and from the remains of others we can imagine their architecture and design. On occasion, ancient authors will give us a first-hand description of buildings they had seen. Eusebius celebrated the ‘dazzling beauty’ of a new church in Tyre (Lebanon), ‘its unimaginable grandeur, its brilliant workmanship, its towering walls that reach to the sky and the costly Lebanese cedars that form the ceiling.’ The church was ‘utterly breathtaking, a marvel of beauty. The evidence of our eyes makes instruction through the ears unnecessary.’

“The principal religious building in the ancient world was the temple–the house of the god or goddess whose image it contained. It was usually a rectangular structure with a relatively modest interior space, or cella, fronted with a porch and a row of columns. The Roman temple stood on a raised platform and was reached by stairs leading up to the entrance at the rear of the porch. The statue was placed facing the door so that the god could see the sacrifice, which was roasted at a stone altar in front of the temple. The temple was not a place for people to assemble; the worshipers gathered outside in front in the open air where they could share in the meat of victims that had been sacrificed.

“Because the Roman temple was designed to house an image of the god, not to accommodate a large group of people, it was ill-suited for Christian worship. The Christian liturgy included the reading of the Scripture and an exposition of what was read (sermon), processions, including carrying the book of the gospel into the midst of the Church, responses to the prayers, the singing of psalms and hymns, and the eating and drinking of bread and wine that had been blessed. From an architectural perspective, Christian worship required a large interior space where people could gather, a podium, called an ambo, at which the Scriptures could be read, a table or altar, where the vessels holding the bread and wine could be placed, and ample space for movement of the clergy and people. There were no seats in the early churches, and people stood during worship.

“The building that best suited the needs of Christian worship was the basilica, a spacious multipurpose hall, often without interior columns or aisles, with a raised platform at one end. A basilica normally included a clerestory, large windows set up high on the side walls to provide light. Unlike the temple, which had a single purpose, the basilica could be used for different kinds of activities: legal affairs, buying and selling, a reception hall for civic gatherings. It was a place to transact business, hear the latest news, display objects for sale, change money, to see and be seen.

Remains of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Rome. The building's northern aisle is all that remains.

“In the fourth century, when Christians began to build churches, they took the basilica rather than the temple as their model. The Christian basilica usually had two rows of columns that created a large central area, the nave, and two side aisles, a slightly raised platform for the altar and a seat for the bishop (presbytery or chancel), a semicircular apse at the east end, and a timber roof, in some churches exposed, in others concealed by a flat ceiling. Most churches had a simple brick exterior without ornament. The people entered through a forecourt open to the sky, and in some cases it included a fountain for washing one's feet. It is likely that the early Christians worshiped unshod. The altar was a stone table set out from the wall, and the reading desk or ambo stood in the midst of the nave. Some churches were oriented so that the apse was on the east end and the congregation and priest faced east during the Eucharistic offering.

“Of course the actual plan of a Christian basilica varied from place to place depending on the physical constraints of the location, the resources of the local community, and the imagination of the architects and skill of the builders. But initially the basic outline was remarkably uniform, with differences in the kind of material used, the interior decorations, and the dimensions. In large cities, such as Rome or Milan, and at popular pilgrimage sites like the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem or the cave of the nativity in Bethlehem, churches had four rows of columns and four aisles instead of the more conventional two rows of columns and two aisles.

“A good example of a classical Christian basilica, still standing without radical alterations, is the church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill in Rome, constructed between A.D. 422 and 432. The building has a broad central nave flanked with two rows of columns and a semicircular apse. The columns, twenty-four in all, fluted and crowned with Corinthian capitals, were taken from an earlier building, but they were carefully chosen to complement one another and to enhance the finely proportioned interior. The columns support arches with marble inlay in the spandrels displaying chalices and patens, or liturgical vessels. The walls above the arches may at one time have held mosaics. The only mosaic that remains, however, is a dedicatory inscription in Latin on the rear wall. On either wall above the columns there are large windows that flood the interior with light. Unlike most other Christian basilicas, there are also three windows that open on the apse.

“Because it created a new kind of interior space that invited decoration, the Christian basilica offered new possibilities for artistic expression. Previously Christian art was confined to relatively private buildings, but in these new structures pictures could be displayed in large very public spaces. The focal point in the church was the apse, a deep semicircular space at the end of the building with a wide half dome beneath the arch where the altar was located. It gave the artist a large unified area in which to work, and the medium used most often was colored tesserae (cubes of stone or glass). Mosaics had been used for floor decorations, but Christian artists put them in the apse and on the walls, often using gold as a predominant color, especially for background. When the church was lit with oil lamps the tiles bathed everything in soft light.

“The earliest surviving decorated basilical apse is found in the church of Santa Pudenziana in Rome, built at the end of the fourth century, In the center of the mosaic sits Christ dressed in common Roman garb, a pallium, or cloak, over a tunic with a pair of light blue stripes, and wearing sandals. In his hand is an open book bearing an inscription, Dominus conservator ecclesiae Pudentianae (I am the Lord, the preserver of the church of Pudenziana). On either side sit the apostles, with two women standing behind them about to place a crown on the heads of Paul and Peter, who sit closest to Jesus. Above Christ is a large cross studded with precious stones, and below the cross are the stately buildings of the new Christian Jerusalem."