Paleo-Christian & Byzantine Architecture

Question 1

What date marks the start of Byzantine?

Answer 1

• After 550AD at the latest, Christian art is classified as architecture
• Used Roman forms & styles

Question 2

What were the 3 main reasons behind the fall of the Western Roman Empire?

Answer 2

• the internal struggles for power
• the religious changes of the period
• the efficiency of the civil administration

Question 3

In what year was the seperation of the Western & Eastern parts of the Roman empire?

Answer 3

395 AD

Question 4

Where was the eastern part of the Roman Empire centred around?

Answer 4

Constantinople (Istanbul)

Question 5

Where was the western part of the Roman Empire centred around?

Answer 5

Mediolanum (Milan)

Question 6

What was significant about Constantinople as a new city?

Answer 6

New capital at Constantinople was to be an important centre - art & architecture of the city became known as BYZANTINE.

Question 7

What was the reason for the need of larger and grander public buildings in the 4th century?

Answer 7

the rapidly growing Christian population needed bigger, grander buildings for worship

Question 8

Who was Constantine the Great?

Answer 8

the emperor of Constantinople, founded the city

Question 9

What was the Basilica’s initial purpose?

Answer 9

• for public use
• served as a hall of assembly
• commerce
• reception
• lawmaking

Question 10

What meant that Christian church architecture was very open and light?

Answer 10

the high windows in the walls allowed for lots of light to get in

Question 11

Where did worship take place before Emperor Constantine legalised christianity?

Answer 11

• homes
• grave sites of saints and loved ones
• even outdoors

Question 12

What did Emperor Constantine do to support his new state religion?

Answer 12

Began an extensive building campaign, in looking for a structure to address the spatial needs of the developing Christina liturgy, he adapted the Roman basilica

Question 13

What does liturgy mean?

Answer 13

a form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted (worship)

Question 14

What was the Basilica of Maxentius & Constantine?

Answer 14

The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, sometimes known as the Basilica Nova ‐ meaning “new basilica” ‐ is an ancient building in the Roman Forum, Rome, Italy. It was the largest building in the Forum.

Question 15

What did the Basilica of Maxentius & Constantine consist of?

Answer 15

The building consisted of a central nave covered by 3 groin vaults suspended 39 meters above the floor on four large piers, ending in an apse at the western end containing a colossal statue of Constantine.

Question 16

What held up the lateral forces of the groin vaults?

Answer 16

the flanking aisles

Question 17

How may barrel vaults did the Basilica of Maxentius & Constantine have?

Answer 17

3 -The aisles were spanned by 3 semi‐circular barrel vaults perpendicular to the nave, and
narrow arcades ran parallel to the nave beneath the barrel vaults.

Question 18

What was significant about the Basilica of Maxentius & Constantine?

Answer 18

• used the most advanced engineering techniques known at that time
• unsurpassed example of the Romans’ structural understanding of the use of concrete

Question 19

Where and when was Old St. Peter’s Basilica created?

Answer 19

319 AD, Rome

Question 20

What was significant about Old St. Peter’s Basilica?

Answer 20

• The church gradually gained importance, eventually becoming a major place of pilgrimage in Rome.
• The design was a typical basilica form with the plan and elevation resembling those of Roman basilicas.

Question 21

What did Old St. Peter’s Basilica consist of?

Answer 21

• 4 aisles, a wide central nave and 2 smaller aisles to each side, which were each divided by marble columns
• It was built in the shape of a Latin cross, and had a gabled roof which was timbered on the interior and which stood at over 30 m at the centre
• An atrium, known as the “Garden of Paradise”, stood at the entrance and had 5 doors which led to the body of the church

Question 22

What does an apse help to differentiate between?

Answer 22

Separates a basilica from a normal parish church

Question 23

Why was the basilica adapted by Christians?

Answer 23

to increase to a larger capacity

Question 24

What was the capacity of Old St. Peter’s Basilica?

Answer 24

3,000-4,000 worshippers at one time

Question 25

What was the Basilica of Santa Sabina?

Answer 25

• 422 AD, Rome
• oldest surviving Roman basilica in Rome that preserves its original colonnaded rectangular plan and architectural style
• crossover from a roofed Roman forum to the churches of Christendom

Question 26

What was the Basilica of Santa Sabina?

Answer 26

• 422 AD, Rome
• oldest surviving Roman basilica in Rome that preserves its original colonnaded rectangular plan and architectural style
• crossover from a roofed Roman forum to the churches of Christendom

Question 27

What was the Basilica of Santa Maria?

Answer 27

• Cosmedin, Rome
• created in the 6th century during Byzantine rule of the city
• the current interior of S. Maria in Cosmedin has a nave with two aisles

Question 28

What is Cosmatesque/Cosmati and what basilica had this?

Answer 28

• Basilica of Santa Maria
• The church has a very fine Cosmatesque pavement. It is a style of geometric decorative inlay stonework typical of the architecture of Medieval Italy, and especially of Rome and its surroundings, and derived from that of the Byzantine
  Empire.
• It was used most extensively for the decoration of church floors.

Question 29

What type of worship occurred in Istanbuls longitudinal basilicas and centralised churches?

Answer 29

congregational worship

Question 30

What is a drum?

Answer 30

a circular or polygonal wall supporting a dome

Question 31

What was the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza?

Answer 31

• 350 AD, Rome
• Combination of a ring of double columns supporting a drum
• two spaces/world (light and dark), ambulatory and upper dome - the screens of the ambulatory and inner ring create a dark contrast to the bright upper space of the dome
• 12 pairs of granite columns decorated with composite capitals supports the drum below the dome and separates the area of the ambulatory
• barrel vault

Question 32

What was the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus?

Answer 32

• Istanbul, 527 AD
• Little Hagia Sophia Mosque
• Central dome plan erected by Justinian
• One of the most important early Byzantine buildings in Istanbul
• Exterior masonry
• Umbrella dome
• The central plan was consciously repeated in the basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna
• Served as a model for Mimar Sinan

Question 33

In the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, why did the roof stand on an octagonal base?

Answer 33

So that no great problems were involved in converting the angular ground plan to a circle on which the dome could rest. But in the others the dome stands above a square, and the transition from SQUARE to CIRCLE was complicated.

Question 34

What did the developed byzantine type of church look like?

Answer 34

the “domed basilica” (but there was an unresolved issue of the connection between a dome and a polygonal drum)

Question 35

What was the squinches solution to the dome-drum connection?

Answer 35

A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome.

Question 36

Where were squinches originally from?

Answer 36

The squinch may have been invented in Persia - It remained a feature of Islamic architecture, especially in Iran.

Question 37

What was the second solution to the dome-drum connection?

Answer 37

• using a pendentive
• technique by raising domes piers, permitting lighting and communication from 4 directions
• uses four pendentives to transition from a cubic base to a dome (see diagram)

Question 38

What was the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia?

Answer 38

• 425 AD, Ravenna
• The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia was listed with 7 other structures in Ravenna in the World Heritage List. The UNESCO experts describe it as “the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments, and at the same time one of the most artistically
  perfect”.

Question 39

What is special about the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia?

Answer 39

It is covered with rich Byzantine mosaics, and light enters through alabaster window panels. The inside is richer and more elaborate than the outside.

Question 40

What was the Basilica of San Vitale?

Answer 40

• 527 AD, Ravenna

- focused height with longitudinal path towards the apse

Question 41

What was the novelty of the Asan Vitale?

Answer 41

The novelty of San Vitale was to counteract the sense of * focused height with a strong longitudinal path toward the apse.

Question 42

What was the Hagia Sophia?

Answer 42

• 532 AD, Instanbul
• full devlopment of the form (pendatives) was achieved in the 6th century
• Eastern Roman Hagia Sophia at Constantinople
• Though Justinian’s domed basilicas are the models from which Byzantine architecture developed, Hagia Sophia remained unique, and no attempt was thereafter made by Byzantine builders to emulate it.

Question 43

Who was the Hagia Sophia dedicated to?

Answer 43

to Christ, as Holy Wisdom

Question 44

What was significant about the layout of the Hagia Sophia?

Answer 44

The layout of a congregational basilica was married to a vaulted superstructure, but neither was allowed to dominate - this made the Hagia Sophia unique.

Question 45

The Hagia Sophia contains curtain walls, what are these?

Answer 45

Above the galleries are CURTAIN WALLS (non‐load‐bearing exterior walls) at either side, pierced by windows, and there are more windows at the base of the dome. They are walls aren’t supportive/structural.

Question 46

How did the Byzantine mind create an image of the entire universe within their buildings?

Answer 46

• The visible universe was concretised in the Byzantine mind as a cube surmounted by dome. Hence, this structure can be read as the image of the ideal universe.
• Here, The scale is god‐centred and therefore diametrically opposed to the humanistic scale of Classical architecture. The user no longer feels the bldg. empathetically with his body but instead is taken up by it and elevated.

Question 47

What made Constantinople and its territory a romanised city (the 2nd Rome)?

Answer 47

It had the usual features of a Romanised city - a forum, theatre, circus (or hippodrome) for the chariot races, temples and shrines.

Question 48

In the 5th & 6th centuries, Christian architecture aimed to fuse the forms of….

Answer 48

congregational and occasional buildings

two experiments of this were the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna and Hagia Sophia