Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/866

Rh 834 ROME [TOPOGRAPHY AND Typical The typical church was a simple rectangular building, with or plan. without aisles, haviiig a large apse at the west end, and at the east three doors opening from a cloister-like atrium ; J when space was limited three sides of the atrium were omitted, leaving only a long pillared narthex or porch which extended along the whole width of the nave. The apse or presbyteriuni, which was raised above the nave, contained a central marble throne for the celebrant and a long bench for the rest of the clergy. The high altar stood a little forward from the apse ; and over it was a square canopy or baldacchiuo supported on four marble columns ; each of the four arches of the canopy had a curtain, which was drawn close during the consecration of the elements ; at other times these curtains were twisted round the four columns of the baldacchino. The celebrant stood with his back to the apse, looking eastwards towards the people over the altar. 2 The high altar stood over the tomb of some saint or confessor, hence called the "confessio"; this was so arranged as to be at least partly visible, and usually was reached by a few steps descending from the nave. In later times the confessio became frequently a spacious crypt containing a small altar of its own. At this point cancelli or marble screens ran across the whole width of the church, both nave and aisles ; and hence the part thus railed off was called the "chancel." The choir occupied most of the western half of the nave, and was raised one step above it ; it was completely surrounded by a low marble wall or screen, along two sides of which a marble bench was fixed. On the right 3 was the gospel ambo, its marble book-rest usually distinguished by a sculptured eagle, and beside it the tall paschal candlestick. On the left was the epistle ambo. 4 The font was frequently an ancient marble or porphyry bath, as in the Lateran baptistery and that of S. Maria Maggiore ; but in early times an ordinary parish church had no font ; baptisms were only performed in one or two of the great basilicas, and then in a separate building, usually octagonal in shape. In the centre of the open atrium stood a fountain for ablutions performed before entering the church, as in an Oriental mosque. Con- The walls of these early churches were mostly built of concrete, stmction. faced with brick, left structurally quite plain, and decorated only with painted stucco or glass mosaics, especially (internal!}') in the apse and on the face of its arch, and (externally) on the east or entrance wall, the top of which was often built in an overhang- ing curve to keep off the rain. The windows were plain, with semicircular arches, and were filled with pierced marble screens, or in some cases with slabs of translucent alabaster ; the latter was the case at S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and examples of the former still exist in the very early church formed in the rooms of some themise on the Esquiline (possibly those of Trajan), below the 6th- century church of S. Martiuo ai Monti. Almost the only bit of external architectural ornament was the eaves cornice, frequently (as at the last-named church) formed of marble cornices stolen from earlier classical buildings. Internally the nave columns, with their capitals and bases, were usually taken from some classical building, and some churches are perfect museums of fine sculptured caps and rich marble shafts of every material and design. 5 At first the nave had no arches, the columns supporting a horizontal entablature, as at S. Clemente, S. Maria Maggiore, and S. Maria in Trastevere, but afterwards, in order to widen the intercolumniation, simple round arches of narrow span were introduced, thus requiring fewer i -i ilunuis. The roof was of the simple tie-beam and kingpost con- struction, left open, but decorated with painting or metal plates. The floor was paved either with coarse mosaic of large tesserae (as at S. Pudentiana) or with slabs of marble stripped from ancient buildings. A later development of this plan added a small apse containing an altar at the end of each aisle, as in S. Maria in Cos- medin and S. Pietro in Vincoli. 8 Circular The type of church above described was used as a model for by churches, far the majority of early churches not only in Rome but also in England, France, Germany, and other Western countries. Another form was, however, occasionally used in Rome, which appears to have been derived from the round temple of pagan times. This is a circular building usually domed and surrounded with one or more rings of pillared aisles. To this class belong the combined church and mausoleum of Costanza (see fig. 27) and that of SS. Marcellinus and Petrus, both built by Constantme, the former to hold the tomb of his daughters Constantia and Helena, the latter that of his mother Helena. The latter is on the Via Labicana, about 2 miles outside 1 The complete atrium or quadro-porticus now very rarely exists ; the churches of S. Prassede and 8. Cecilia in Trastevere still have it in a modernized form, and so has the church of the Quattro Santi Incoronati, which also pos- sesses the triforium galleries, like those of 8. Agnese fuori. 8 The custom (adopted some centuries later) of the celebrant standing between the altar and the people necessitated a reversal of orientation, and the high altar was then placed at the east end. 8 "Right" and "left" are here used of one facing the high altar. cathedrals, in which it occupies a great part of the nave. 8. Lorenzo and 8. Agnese fuori, 8. Maria in Trastevere, Ara Call, and numberless other churches are very rich in this respect. O. G. Scott (Church Architecture, London, 1881) gives a valuable account of the arrangements of early churches; see also Hubsch, Altchristlichen Kirchen, Carlsruhe, 1862. The three apses are common in Eastern churches. Rome; it is a circular domed building, now known as the Torre Pignattara, from the pignatte or amphora built into the concrete dome t> lighten it. The mausoleum of S. Cos- tauza, close by S. Agnese fuori, is also domed, with circular aisle, or rather ambulatory, the vault of the latter decorated with mosaic or classical style (see MOSAIC, vol. xvi. p. 852). The red porphyry sarcophagi, sculptured richly with reliefs, from these mausolea are now in the Vatican. On a much larger scale is the church of S. Stefauo Ro- tondo on the Ccelian, built by Pope Simplicius (468- 483), with a double ring of pillared aisles, the outer one of which was pulled down and a new enclosure wall built by " ' ' ' ' a Nicholas V. Other round Fl - 27. -Church and mamoleum of Crataan. i, i o rr i A. Recess for altar. B. Porphyry slab in floor churches are S. Teodoro where the tomb stood. C. Modern altar. D, (by the VlCUS Tuscus), of D. Slabs of white marble, part of ancient pav- the 8th century, and S. in S- E, E. Recesses with mosaics. F, F. Am- Bernardo, which is one of bulatory with mosaic vault the domed halls of Diocletian's therrna 1, consecrated as a church in 1598. Space will not allow any individual description of the very numerous and important churches in Rome which are built on the above-described plan. The principal examples are these: 7 S. Pudeu- tiana, traditionally the oldest in Rome, rebuilt by Adrian I. (772- 795) ; S. Sabina, 5th century ; S. Vitale, 5th century, founded by Innocent I. (402-417) ; S. Martino ai Monti, 500 ; S. Balbina, 6th century ; church of Ara Coeli, founded in 6th century as S. Maria in Capitolio ; S. Giorgio in Velabro, rebuilt by Leo II. (682- 683) ; S. Cesareo, 8th century ; S. Maria in Via Lata, built by Sergius I. (687-701) ; S. Crisogouo, rebuilt in 731 by Gregory III. ; S. Maria in Cosmedin and S. Giovanni ad Portani Latinam, both rebuilt c. 772 by Adrian I. ; S. Maria in Domuica, rebuilt by Paschal I. (817-824), who also rebuilt S. Cecilia in Trastevere c. 821 and S. Prassede in 822 ; S. Marco, rebuilt by Gregory IV. in 833 ; S. Maria Nuova, founded by Nicholas I. (858-867), now called S. Francesca Romana ; S. Anastasia, founded in the 4th, rebuilt in the 10th century ; S. Bartolomeo in Isola and the church of the Quattro Santi Incoronati, built by Paschal II. about 1113; and S. Maria in Trastevere, rebuilt by Innocent II. in 1139. 8 Though the apses and classical columns of the naves in these churches were built at the dates indicated, yet in many cases it is difficult to trace the existence of the ancient walls ; the alterations and additions of many centuries have frequently almost wholly concealed the original structure. With the exception of S. Clemente, the early choir, placed as shown in fig. 26, has invariably been destroyed ; the side walls have often been broken through by the addition of rows of chapels ; and the whole church, both within and without, has been overlaid with the most incongruous archi- tectural features in stucco or stone. The open roof is usually con- cealed either by a wooden panelled ceiling or by a stucco vault. The throne 9 and marble benches in the apse have usually given place to more modern wooden fittings, to suit the later position of the choir, which has always been transferred from the nave to the apse. In many cases the mosaics of the apse and the columns of the nave are the only visible remains of the once simple and stately original church. 10 2. Frmn 1200 to 1450 ; and the Papal Palaces. The 10th and llth centuries in Rome were extraordinarily barren Erao in the production of all branches of the fine ails, even that of archi- CO.SB tecture ; and it was not till the end of the 12th that any important revival began. The 13th century was, however, one of great artistic activity, when an immense number of beautiful works, especially in marble enriched with mosaic, were produced in Rome. This revival, though on different lines, was veiy similar to the rather later one which took place at Pisa (see PISANO), and, like that, was mainly due to the great artistic talents of one family, the 1 For the early church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, see above, lig. 19. 8 Tliis list does not include the great basilicas of Rome, for which see BASILICA, vol. iii. p. 412. 9 Some of these marble thrones which still exist are very interesting relics of Hellenic art, much resembling the existing seats in the theatre of Dionysius at Athens, whence probably some of those in Rome were brought in classical times. Examples of these Greek thrones exist at S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Stefano Rotondo, and in the Lateran cloister. 10 See Nesbitt, " Churches in Rome earlier than 1100," in Archieologia, vol. xl., 1806.
 * An analogous arrangement of the choir exists in most of the Spanish