Slike stranica
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

is the place called of Calvary,' where the wood of the Cross was found by Helena the blessed...and where was founded by the same Queen a Church of wondrous magnitude and workmanship, afterwards destroyed by perfidious Gentiles. The ruins which exist there attest the quality of the work'."

I have already stated my opinion, that the ruins alluded to by Sawulf and this anonymous writer, are those of the present chapel, which was merely restored and revaulted by the Crusaders. Expressions of magnitude must always be taken with caution, for all ancient writers exaggerate in this respect; and we have seen that the plan of the actual Basilica of Constantine was very different from that of the chapel in question which bore its name in the Middle Ages.

The Column of Flagellation, and the other places which follow in Sawulf's narrative, were probably in the open air; and even Calvary itself has no chapel given to it by Sawulf; but it is the first of the three oratories mentioned by William of Tyre, of which the second is the place where the Cross was found, and the third is the place of Anointing, which Sawulf describes as the church or chapel of S. Mary. On the whole, however, the general plan of the buildings was not very different

I subjoin part of the passage at length, "Paululùm remotior ab eodem, est locus dictus Calvariæ, ubi lignum Dominicum trecentesimo octogesimo sexto anno post Passionem Christi à beata Helena, Juda præmonstrante, inventum est; ubi etiam ab eadem Regina Ecclesia miræ magnitudinis et operis fundata, postea à perfidis Gentilibus destructa est; (ruinæ cujus adhuc existentes indicant qualenam opus fu

erit. Pars autem ligni preciosi in his locis à fidelibus retenta, diligenti veneratione adoratur et exaltatur.) Juxtà crucis inventionem à Meridie est Ecclesia Genetricis Dei quæ Latina nuncupatur, eò quòd a Latinis semper sit culta; ubi fertur eadem Virgo plorasse atque scidisse crines, cum vidisset Filium suum unigenitum patibulo affixum" (Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 573.)

from that which they had before the destruction, and it may be supposed that it had been intended to rebuild or repair the other oratories as well as the Round Church, had not the Crusaders conceived and carried out their magnificent plan of uniting the whole under one roof, which I have explained at length in the former part of the Architectural History.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.

NOTE A.

ON THE IMITATIONS OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Ir has been asserted by some writers that the Holy Sepulchre became the primitive type of all other churches of a circular form'. If my restoration of the Basilica of Constantine be correct, it is plain that their opinion is destroyed, because I have shewn that no Round Church at all was erected at first about the Holy Sepulchre, but that the Round Church on that spot originated with Modestus, about the year 629. It is true, that in all probability the external form of the Sepulchre was round. However, the Mausoleum of Helena, and that of Constantia at Rome, are sufficient to shew that the circular form of Church was adopted in the time of Constantine, and there is not the slightest reason to suppose that the imitation of the Sepulchre ever entered into the thoughts of the architects of these and similar buildings; for if it had, the fact would have been handed down to us by the ecclesiastical writers of old. One such instance is recorded; for Codinus relates that the Church of the Virgin at Constantinople, called of the Curator, apparently from the office of the person who superintended the building, was erected by Verina, the wife of Leo Macela, in the form of the Holy Sepulchre. But as the Church has disappeared, we cannot tell what the plan of it was; but from the expressions employed it must have been in imitation of the Sepulchre itself. In fact, the circular or polygonal form naturally occurs when a building is required for the preservation or enclosure of any single object, such as a tomb or a font; and accordingly baptisteries have been erected in this shape from the period of Constantine downwards. But in the case of the Holy Sepulchre the buildings had the double purpose of enclosing that monument, and of providing a separate house of prayer in its neighbourhood, and hence the more magnificent plan of placing it in the midst of an atrium surrounded by colonnades. In addition to which an opinion seems to have been entertained, that it would be irreverent to cover this monument with a roof. This opinion is constantly alluded to by the medieval writers; but I am unable to shew that it had an origin so early as Constantine, although

See Quarterly Review, March, 1845, p. 356.

· εἰς τὸ ὁμοιωμα τοῦ τάφοῦ τοῦ

Kupiov. (Codinus, p. 53, ex Originibus C. P. as quoted by Du Cange, Constantinopolis Christiana, p. 86.)

it is not improbable that that was the case. But, indeed, the external decoration of the Cave and its isolation, rendered it quite of sufficient importance to stand alone.

The opinion, that round churches were erected in imitation of the Sepulchre, seems to have originated in modern times from the known practice of the Templars, whose Order was founded nineteen years after the conquest of Jerusalem, and whose round churches therefore were constructed in imitation of the Rotunda erected by the Greek Emperors in the third period of the buildings. But the imitation went no farther than the mere circular plan, which was even sometimes made polygonal, and these Temple-churches had also large eastern chancels, in accordance with that which the Crusaders had added to the Church of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem; but not planned on so magnificent a scale, or with any attempt at exact reproduction. I do not mean, however, to deny that churches were erected in the Middle Ages with a more direct intention of copying the Holy Sepulchre than those of the Templars. One example of such a copy I have given, and another is to be found in the Church of S. Stefano at Bologna.

This Church of S. Stefano was founded, as they say1, by S. Petronio, in 430, in imitation of the churches of the Holy Sepulchre and of Calvary at Jerusalem; and, united to the Church of S. Peter which (founded in 330) was already there. The early existence of part of this tradition is testified by the bull of Celestine III. (1191–1198), in which he terms the Church of S. Stefano "the Jerusalem of Bologna, which Petronius erected and constructed in imitation of the Sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem."

The churches, however, which he built, were destroyed by the Hungarians in 903, and afterwards rebuilt. They also suffered by fire in 1210, and have been subsequently restored and modernised in various ways.

The present church or group of churches which goes by the general name of S. Stefano at Bologna, comprises six, which are packed together in so apparently irregular and unskilful a manner, that Agincourt, in his History of the Decadence of Art, has given a plan of them as an example of the total want of skill and symmetry in the buildings of that age. But if this plan be compared with that of the churches of the Sepulchre in their second period (Plate 1, Fig. 3), we must be convinced that the churches of S. Stefano were really laid out in imitation of the churches at Jerusalem, and therefore that the tradition is not without

Masini, Bologna Perlustrata, p.124. "Cùm itaque in templo gloriosi protomartyris Stephani, quod dicitur Hierusalem de Bononia, quod servus Dei Petronius, ejusdem civitatis episcopus, instar Sepulchri Domini nostri

Jesu Christi in Hierusalem erexit et construxit." (Acta Sanctorum, Oct. T. 11. p. 434.)

Agincourt, Plate 28. The work has been lately reprinted in this country, and can easily be referred to.

foundation, although the style of the remaining buildings shews that no part of them can be prior to the destruction of Bologna by the Hungarians in the tenth century.

In the first place, there is a round church supported on twelve piers in a rude Lombard style, surmounted by a clerestory and a dome1. In the middle is a sepulchre constructed, as Masini and the guide-books say, in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre. However, Gally Knight's view shews in this place a stone pulpit with a peculiar canopy having an altar over it. The church is only half the diameter of the Rotunda at Jerusalem, and the imitation is not to be supposed a very close one. The Round Church has an aisle, bounded, however, not by a concentric, but by a polygonal, wall of eight very irregular sides: this church is called S. Sepolcro. On the north side is a small Romanesque church with a centre and side-aisles, and three apses. This is called S. Pietro e Paolo, and occupies a similar position to the Chapel of the Apparition at Jerusalem; but this did not probably enter into the scheme of imitation; for this is the church said to have been founded before S. Petronius commenced his operations. On the east of S. Sepolcro is a square church, now roofed over, but which was evidently in its original state a cloistered court. It is called "Corte di Pilato," and corresponds to the open court in its Jerusalem prototype. On the south side of it, and partly of the church of S. Sepolcro, there stands an oblong church, the east end of which is raised upon a Romanesque crypt, called the crypt of S. Lorenzo. The body of the church extended much farther westward than the Round Church. This was the church of S. Stefano. It was rebuilt on a new plan, uniting two churches in one, in 1637, and was dedicated to the Crucifixion. Still it is plain that this crypt and its upper church were erected in imitation of the chapels of Adam and of Calvary. There is a sixth church at the east side of the cloister or "Corte di Pilato," which may possibly have been erected in imitation of the Basilica of Constantine; but there is no tradition to the effect that the imitation was carried so far as this. This church was dedicated to the Trinity.

On the whole, I am of opinion that the similarity of plan is quite sufficient to shew that these churches were partly contrived in imitation

A view of the interior is given by Gally Knight, Ecc. Arch. of Italy, Plate 20. The piers are not all of the same form; the seven eastern ones are double or compound, and the seven western are simple pillars; this is shewn in Agincourt's Plan. I visited the Church in 1832, but as my atten

tion was wholly directed at that time to the architectural details, I am unable to recall any particulars relating to the arrangement of the plan that would elucidate the present question.

5"Un Sepolcro simile à quello di Christo Signor nostro." Masini, p. 124.

« PrethodnaNastavi »