How to Study Architecture

by Charles H. Caffin

When the “Peace of the Church” had been proclaimed by Constantine and Christians were able to worship openly, the age of church-building commenced, the Emperor himself setting a lead. After the edict of Theodosius, making Christianity the State religion, many of the pagan temples were adapted to the purposes of the Christian ritual, or their columns and decorative features were appropriated for the building of new churches. The former practice accounts for the preservation of the Parthenon, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Theseus at Athens. An instance of the method of conversion is to be traced in the Cathedral of Syracuse, Sicily, which occupies the site of an ancient temple. Walls were built between the Doric columns of the peristyle, while the walls of the cella were pierced so as to communicate with the peristyle, which thus served as aisles. Another instance is that of a temple in Aphrodisias, in Caria, Asia Minor, where the walls of the cella were entirely removed, and walls were built outside the peristyle to form aisles, while to increase the length of the nave the front and rear portico columns were set in line with the others.

Basilican Plan.—These changes coincided with the general adoption of the basilica plan in the case of new buildings. For the early Christian churches show very little regard for the appearance of the exterior. Attention was concentrated on the interior, in fitting it for ritual worship and in beautifying it, and to both these objects the basilica plan most readily contributed.

The earliest example in Rome of a church so planned is that of St. John Lateran, which, however, has been completely remodelled by subsequent additions. The next in point of time was the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, erected near the spot in which the saint was martyred in the circus of Nero. It was torn down in 1506 to make room for the present cathedral commenced by Julius II; but the appearance of its principal façade is known from Raphael’s mural painting “Incendio del Borgo,” in the stanze of the Vatican, and there is a record of its plan. The latter shows that the basilica building was approached by an atrium, surrounded by either colonnades or arcades, enclosing a rectangular space, open to the sky and having a fountain in the centre. With the water the worshippers sprinkled themselves, a symbol of purification still preserved in the “holy-water” vessel, placed inside the entrance of Roman Catholic churches.

The end arcade, abutting on the church proper, was used by penitents and called the narthex. The body of the church was divided, as in the basilica halls, into central nave and side aisles—the latter sometimes double. Across the end of the nave extended the bema or sanctuary, corresponding to the space raised and enclosed for litigants and lawyers in the basilica. Its ends projected beyond the line of the main building, forming rudimentary transepts, which may have been used as sacristies for the robing of the clergy and the preservation of the sacred vessels and other ritual objects. The central part of the bema was elevated and occupied by the altar which was surmounted by a baldachino or canopy, supported on four columns. Behind the altar was the apse, lined with seats; those of the Roman assessors being now occupied by the presbyters, while the centre one of the quæster or praetor became the bishop’s throne. For the transference of the latter to the side of the choir was of later date.

The officiating priest stood behind the altar, facing the congregation and the east. For as yet the main façade was not the western, a fact of interest when we recall that while the Hellenic architects built facing the four points of the compass and made the chief entrance on the east, the Romans were indifferent to the matter of orientation.

In certain instances as that of S. Clemente, in Rome, the accommodation for the choir projected from the bema into the nave. It was enclosed with low screen walls called Cancelli (whence was derived the word chancel); the side walls projecting to afford space for two reading desks, or ambones; respectively, the Gospel ambo and the Epistle ambo.

Treatment of Columns.—There were two ways of treating the columns. In the earlier type of churches, the aisles were spanned by arches, while those of the nave supported an entablature. But this necessitated a narrow intercolumniation, considerably obstructing the view. Accordingly, the practice ensued of placing the columns further apart and surmounting them with arches. The first example of this use of arcades in a nave is believed to occur in the northern gallery of the Palace of Diocletian in Spalato, Dalmatia. Both methods continued to be employed and were sometimes combined in the same building. Over the entablature or arches, as the case might be, was a high stretch of wall, rising above the level of the aisle roof, pierced with a row of clerestory windows. The nave and aisles terminated in arches, that of the former, the principal entrance to the sanctuary, being called the Arch of Triumph. The roofs were of timber; that of the nave rising to a ridge and finishing at each end in a gable, while a slope from below the clerestory covered the side aisles. The construction work of the roofs was usually hidden in the interior by flat ceilings, beamed and coffered.

The decoration of the interior included the use of antique columns, which were sometimes adapted to their new place by cutting down or removing the bases. The walls above the nave arcading or entablature were adorned with mosaics, which also embellished the space above the Arch of Triumph and the semi-dome of the apse. The floors were covered with geometric patterns of marble sliced from columns and other antique fragments.

The principal examples of basilican churches, still existing in Rome, are St. Paul-without-the-walls, S. Clemente and S. Maria Maggiore. The first named is of modern construction, completed in 1854, but preserves the plan and dimensions of the older church which was destroyed by fire in 1823. It had been begun in 380 by Theodosius, on a plan closely following that of the old St. Peter’s, except that the transepts of the bema project less and the atrium was abandoned, leaving only the narthex. Its construction and embellishment were continued by other emperors and by many popes, the munificence of the latter being commemorated in a series of portrait medallions of the popes which extends in a band above the arcade-arches on each side of the nave. The wall space above them is veneered with rare marbles, enclosing panels filled with paintings representing incidents in the life of St. Paul. Amid the somewhat extreme sumptuousness of the interior a feeling of the older character of a basilican church is preserved in the mosaics of the fifth century which adorn the arch of triumph, and in those of the apse which date from the early part of the thirteenth century.

S. Maria Maggiore presents an original basilican plan of nave and single aisles, from each of which during the Renaissance was built out a square side chapel, surmounted by domes, giving the plan the form of a cross. But the interior of the nave dates from the time of Sixtus III in the fourth century and shows on each side a series of Ionic columns, supporting an entablature. Above this, as also over the arch of triumph, are mosaics of the fifth century.