How did the Conditions of Patronage Affect these Structures - Literature review Example

How did the conditions of patronage affect these structures? Before the construction of the Old St. Peter’s Basilica, Christians gathered in private houses where there were specific rooms mainly meant for worship and performance of other Christian’s rituals such as baptism (Rogers 21). Prior to the construction of the church, there was no distinctive Christian architecture or structures exclusively for Christianity practices and other requirements. Until the 4Th century, paganism dominated the Roman Empire. They had many gods and goddesses such as Jupiter, Minerva, and Apollo whereby inhabitants performed an array of rituals and sacrifices. They believed such practices appeased their gods and ensured the prosperity of their Empire. It is during this period Constantine emerged whereby he altered this life and influenced them to convert to Christians by initiating the building of The Great Basilica of St. Peter. However, commencement of the exact construction delayed for a while until the victory of Christians over Maxentius (Rogers 21). Christianity’s popularity augmented during early 4Th Century. It is unfortunate that Christians had gotten accustomed to hiding their belief and worship practices because of the fear of being martyred. This activity was rampant despite the religion having existed for a couple of centuries. Constructing the basilica ended this. St. Denis Basilica was in remembrance of St. Denis. The excavators built the church on the burial site of the saint. Abbey Denis had gone for a mission to convert inhabitants in Paris to Christianity but he met a misfortune as three Romans beheaded him on the Montmartre hill. Denis picked up his head and carried it for 14 miles before he passed away and eventually found by King Dogbert. In the 12Th century, the abort of Denis called Suger was an influential political figure. He developed the early Gothic art besides rebuidling the old chapel structure using new architectural techniques such as using colored light, cross ribbed vault as well as the rose window. St. Louise also made improvement to the appearance of the Basilica during his reign (Auzias, & Jean-Paul, 65). The new commitment to construct the Basilica got momentum after the return of the papacy to Rome at the beginning of the 15Th century. Pope Nicholas V commissioned the drawing up plans for the reconstruction of certain parts of the Vatican. It was 1545 and by that time, Old St. Peter was about 1100 years old thus it had aged. Despite his initiation, he did not complete the entire construction. Pope Ulias II then combined architecture Bramante Donnas to rebuild ST. Peters to a new design. The Patrons, Goals, and Priorities The patron of old St. Peters Basilica was Constantine whereas he patron of St. Denis basilica encompassed Abort Suger. The old St. Peters basilica stood on the Vatican hillside built after demolishing a shrine, which was once a flourishing pagan cemetery (Jocelyn & Ward, 196). Constantine believed that by building the church, he was honoring the resting place of the remains if St. Peter. Constantine was the first Christian emperor whom he successfully legalized Christianity and ensured tolerance for all religions. This is because initially, Christians could not mix with people of other religions. Since, Christians constantly faced utter prosecutions because of their faith. However, Constantine made it possible for them to stop hiding and worship freely by constructing the first Christian churches in Rome. St. Peter served as the first pope who encountered prosecution by being crucified while facing upside down in Rome. Another goal for Constantine was to build the basilica on the site of St. Peter’s crucifixion. He believed that the church would become a pilgrimage that will attract the faithful Christians not only from the region but also from other far places as the Christianity continued to spread. As much as Constantine passed on before the completion of the church, he was the main founder for its consecration occurred before his demise (Jocelyn 197). The goals of building the church was to honor St. Peter as well as to provide a descent-worshiping place for the Christians. Just like Constantine, Abort Suger built St. Denis basilica to honor Denis who had encountered death just because of his strong faith in God (Brooke, 143). St Denis was a patron saint of France besides being the first Paris’ Bishop (Brooke 143). One similarity between the two churches is that the reason for their construction was to honor men of God who had faced prosecution because of their faith. The constructors built the church over what already existed in the site including the chapel built on top Saints’ grave during the 5Th century. It is a similarity that both churches stood on what used to be cemeteries of the pagan Roman Empire. All dead French kings lay on the same site. The Romans made sculptures from the 1ST to 16TH centuries and they kept becoming more extravagant over time. This fact has influenced the interior design of the basilica because inside there are sculptors made of marble designed to honour the dead. How did the goals and priorities shape the appearance of the architecture and decoration of the building? One of the goals or priorities of Constantine were to build a church, which was large enough to accommodate Christian masses as well as convenient place for worship. He first thought of the Roman Temple but realized it could not accommodate congregations for worship purpose. In addition, the Roma temple had served as a room for paganism practices. Constantine then decided to build the church from the ancient Rome the basilica. The basilica had no religious functions and was a secular building purposely for civic purposes. Unlike, the roman temple, it has no paganism roots hence was more convenient. The Rome basilica was also large enough to hold a large number of people. Building the church took quite some time because of numerous practical problems that surrounded the construction activities. The constructors had to build a flat floor surface in the church considering the level of the shrine that existed before. This way, they had to build a huge plat form. On one side, North and West, the platform stretched to the hillside whereas on the other side, South East. Hence, prompting constructors to raise the platform to a height of 35 feet above the ground level. Because of the height, the building required a massive foundation, which demanded using over a million cubic feet of earth. The interior of the church and the main lines demanded heavy foundation of concrete masonry. The church building was free standing, reinforced with bricks partly, as well as courses of tufa and brick alternatively (Jocelyn & Ward, 197). Some parts of the previous shrine did not correspond to the new line so were left standing to ensure the support of the earth upon which they built the platform in addition to carrying the heavy weight of the marble floor. One goal of the basilica was to act as the remebrance of past saints and attract more faithful christians. This is evident in the way; The art in the late third century such as the imagery of the sloar divinity Oriens depicted christ. The damaged mosaic located on the house close to the burial site depicted christ. The small shrine put up by christians in the later second century marking the supposed location of the burial of St. Peter’s also symbolised christ. The iconography of the mosaic was damaged when the constructors accidentaly forced their way through the room. It is of great importance in the sence that it combines the traditional imagery of the sun god in his horse chariot with elemets of christian symbolism such as the vine. Constatine chose christianity over the faith of his father and couls not confuse the two. He however aimed at reconciling the different religions which initially could associate together. By bringing traditional elements in the church, he succcesssfuly ensured reconciliaiton of the different religions. St. Denis had a similar aim with St. Peter of bringing together faithful Christians to a place of worship. The two basilicas acted as remembrance objects for the saints. Suger commanded the building of St. Denis basilica at the burial site of patron Denis. They believed Denis wanted his burial to be at that spot where he stopped carrying his head. The design of St. Denis basilica its basis adhered to the gothic theme (Williams 209). This is evident from the way biblical design of early creation account encompassed that “Let there be Lights”. In the church, which had unified space and many openings, light dominated the building. Because of the theme that directed the design of the church, it allowed for the use of stained glass windows with red and blue colours normally referred to as the rose window. This church, constructed under abbey Suger, influenced western architecture by employing the gothic art theme. It is however important to note that Romanesque such as the rose window, the statue depicting a dwarf man as well as the decorated portal that draw observers into the building were still evident in the basilica. Different objects and designs in the church symbolised varied aspects. At the entrance of this massive building, there were decorations at either side of the door thus depicting scenes from the last judgment. The shape of the cathedral from the inside modified a Christian cross. It is evident from the fact that there was a central vane with two lateral sides, which contribute to the arms of the cross. Generally, most things in the church gave the verticality impression that indicated going up towards heaven. The nave ceiling was 24 meters high, the gothic arcs and the columns all rose up. The basilica resembled a three storey elevation and the elements that were on top of the other included the archaic, the trefoil, and at top part of the church, the transepts. The transepts indicated choir of a church that contained windows to let in light. The light and he verticality impression employed gave a sense of direction of going up and it symbolised going from earth to heaven. Gothic architecture concentrated to objects such as pies and arcs and not on the wall (Williams 209). Work Cited Auzias, Dominique, and Jean-Paul Labourdette. Best of France: 2013: Sights, Hotels, And Restaurants. Paris: Nouvelles éditions de lUniversité, 2012. Print. Brooke, Anna E. Frommers Paris 2013. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Internet resource. Jocelyn, Toynbee & Ward, John. Constantine’s Church. Rogers, Collins. Early medieval Europe. 300-1000. New York: St. Martins Press, n.d. Print. Williams, Nicola. France. Footscray, Vic: Lonely Planet, 2010. Internet resource. Read More