Baldachin
A baldachin, or baldaquin, is a canopy of state placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more called a ciborium when it is sufficiently architectural in form. A cloth of honour is a simpler cloth hanging vertically behind the throne continuing to form a canopy, it can be used for similar canopies in interior design, for example above beds, for processional canopies used in formal state ceremonies such as coronations, held up by four or more men with poles attached to the corners of the cloth. "Baldachin" was a luxurious type of cloth from Baghdad, from which name the word is derived, in English as "baudekin" and other spellings. Matthew Paris records that Henry III of England wore a robe "de preciosissimo baldekino" at a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1247; the word for the cloth became the word for the ceremonial canopies made from the cloth.
In the Middle Ages, a hieratic canopy of state, cloth of honour, or cloth of state was hung above the seat of a personage of sufficient standing, as a symbol of authority. The seat under such a canopy of state would be raised on a dais; the cloth above a seat continued vertically down to the ground behind the seat. Emperors and kings, reigning dukes and bishops were accorded this honour. In a 15th-century manuscript illumination the sovereign Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes sits in state to receive a presentation copy of the author's book, his seat is backed with a richly embroidered dosser. Under his feet is a cushion, such as protected the feet of the King of France when he presided at a lit de justice; the King of France was covered by a mobile canopy during his Coronation, held up on poles by several Peers of France. The Virgin Mary in particular, is often shown sitting under a cloth of honour in medieval and Renaissance paintings where she is shown enthroned with saints.
The cloth was simply a luxurious textile imported and with rich patterns, as in brocades, but might have heraldic elements. French kings are shown with blue cloths patterned with the gold fleur-de-lys. Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII in her portrait by an anonymous artist, c. 1500 prays under a canopy of estate. The coats-of-arms embroidered or woven into the tapestry are of England and the portcullis badge of the Beauforts. Sometimes, as in the presentation miniature Jean Wauquelin presenting his'Chroniques de Hainaut' to Philip the Good by Rogier van der Weyden, the cloth continues over the seat, to the floor. In the summer of 1520, a meeting was staged between Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, where the ostentatious display of wealth and power earned the meeting-place the name of The Field of Cloth of Gold; the canopy of estate may still be seen in most formal throne rooms. The state bed, intended for receiving important visitors and producing heirs before a select public, but not intended for sleeping in, evolved during the second half of the seventeenth century, developing the medieval tradition of receiving visitors in the bedroom, which had become the last and most private room of the standard suite of rooms in a Baroque apartment.
Louis XIV developed the rituals of receptions in his state bedchamber, the petit lever to which only a handful of his court élite might expect to be invited. The other monarchs of Europe soon imitated his practice; the state bed, a lit à la Duchesse—its canopy supported without visible posts— was delivered for the use of Queen Marie Leszczinska at Versailles, as the centrepiece of a new decor realized for the Queen in 1730–35. Its tester is recognizable as a baldachin, serving its time-honoured function; the queens of France spent a great deal of time in their chambre, where they received the ladies of the court at the morning lever and granted private audiences. By the time Marie Antoinette escaped the mob from this bedroom, such state beds, with the elaborate etiquette they embodied, were falling out of use. A state bed with a domed tester designed in 1775-76 by Robert Adam for Lady Child at Osterley Park and another domed state bed, delivered by Thomas Chippendale for Sir Edwin Lascelles at Harewood House, Yorkshire in 1773 are two of the last English state beds intended for a main floor State Bedroom in a non-royal residence.
Pope Urban VIII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to design and construct a large structure that would be placed over the main altar, believed to be above the tomb of Saint Peter, in the new St. Peter's Basilica; the canopy imitated cloth in bronze. This famous and spectacular feature is called the "Baldacchino", though it is a ciborium. Bernini's design for the Baldacchino incorporated giant solomonic columns inspired by columns that ringed the altar of the Old St. Peter's; these columns were donated by Constantine, a false tradition asserts they are the columns from the Temple of Jerusalem. The lowest parts of the four columns of Bernini's Baldachin have a helical groove, the middle and upper sections of the columns are covered in olive and bay branches, which are populated with a myriad of bees and small putti. Pope Urban VIII's family coat of arms, those of the
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from wood. Dendrochronology is useful for determining the precise age of samples those that are too recent for radiocarbon dating, which always produces a range rather than an exact date, to be accurate. However, for a precise date of the death of the tree a full sample to the edge is needed, which most trimmed timber will not provide, it gives data on the timing of events and rates of change in the environment and in wood found in archaeology or works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings. It is used as a check in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages. New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark. A tree's growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings.
Each ring marks a complete cycle of one year, in the tree's life. As of 2013, the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere are a floating sequence extending from about 12,580 to 13,900 years. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek: δένδρον, meaning "tree", χρόνος, meaning "time", -λογία, "the study of"; the Greek botanist Theophrastus first mentioned. In his Trattato della Pittura, Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually and that their thickness is determined by the conditions under which they grew. In 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings, they found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, which served as a reference for subsequent European naturalists. In the U. S. Alexander Catlin Twining suggested in 1833 that patterns among tree rings could be used to synchronize the dendrochronologies of various trees and thereby to reconstruct past climates across entire regions.
The English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or in geological strata. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the scientific study of tree rings and the application of dendrochronology began. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler used crossdating to examine oaks in order to study the record of climate in western Texas. In 1866, the German botanist and forester Julius Ratzeburg observed the effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was appearing in forestry textbooks. In the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Germany. In 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff-Gudent was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig, a German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy and ecology of tree rings. In 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891.
During the first half of the 20th century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Douglass sought to better understand cycles of sunspot activity and reasoned that changes in solar activity would affect climate patterns on earth, which would subsequently be recorded by tree-ring growth patterns. Horizontal cross sections cut through the trunk of a tree can reveal growth rings referred to as tree rings or annual rings. Growth rings result from new growth in the vascular cambium, a layer of cells near the bark that botanists classify as a lateral meristem. Visible rings result from the change in growth speed through the seasons of the year. Removal of the bark of the tree in a particular area may cause deformation of the rings as the plant overgrows the scar; the rings are more visible in trees which have grown in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a growth ring forms early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid and is known as "early wood".
Many trees in temperate zones produce one growth-ring each year, with the newest adjacent to the bark. Hence, for the entire period of a tree's life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern builds up that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew. Adequate moisture and a long growing season result in a wide ring, while a drought year may result in a narrow one. Direct reading of tree ring chronologies is a complex science, for several reasons. First, contrary to the single-ring-per-year paradigm, alternating poor and favorable conditions, such as mid-summer droughts, can result in several rings forming in a given year. In addition, particular tree-species may present "missing rings", this influences the selection of trees for study of long time-s
Jesus
Jesus referred to as Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Christ, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, is described as the most influential person in history. Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. All modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the historical Jesus. Jesus was a Galilean Jew, baptized by John the Baptist and began his own ministry, he preached orally and was referred to as "rabbi". Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables and gathered followers, he was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, the community they formed became the early Church.
The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on December 25th as Christmas. His crucifixion is honored on his resurrection on Easter; the used calendar era "AD", from the Latin anno Domini, the equivalent alternative "CE", are based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus. Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Most Christians believe; the Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity. A minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or as non-scriptural. Jesus figures in non-Christian religions and new religious movements.
In Islam, Jesus is considered one of the Messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin, but was not the son of God; the Quran states. Most Muslims do not believe that he was crucified, but that he was physically raised into Heaven by God. In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies, was neither divine nor resurrected. A typical Jew in Jesus' time had only one name, sometimes followed by the phrase "son of <father's name>", or the individual's hometown. Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth". Jesus' neighbors in Nazareth refer to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon", "the carpenter's son", or "Joseph's son". In John, the disciple Philip refers to him as "Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth"; the name Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς. The Greek form is a rendering of the Hebrew ישוע, a variant of the earlier name יהושע, or in English, "Joshua", meaning "Yah saves".
This was the name of Moses' successor and of a Jewish high priest. The name Yeshua appears to have been in use in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus; the 1st-century works of historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Koine Greek, the same language as that of the New Testament, refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus. The etymology of Jesus' name in the context of the New Testament is given as "Yahweh is salvation". Since early Christianity, Christians have referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ"; the word Christ was a office, not a given name. It derives from the Greek Χριστός, a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh meaning "anointed", is transliterated into English as "Messiah". In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture. Christians of the time designated Jesus as "the Christ" because they believed him to be the Messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
In postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name—one part of "Jesus Christ". The term "Christian" has been in use since the 1st century; the four canonical gospels are the foremost sources for the message of Jesus. However, other parts of the New Testament include references to key episodes in his life, such as the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23. Acts of the Apostles refers to the early ministry of its anticipation by John the Baptist. Acts 1:1 -- 11 says more about the Ascension of Jesus. In the undisputed Pauline letters, which were written earlier than the gospels, the words or instructions of Jesus are cited several times; some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of the life and teachings of Jesus that are not included in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel
Architectural style
An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable or identifiable. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, regional character. Most architecture can be classified within a chronology of styles which changes over time reflecting changing fashions and religions, or the emergence of new ideas, technology, or materials which make new styles possible. Styles therefore emerge from the history of a society, they are documented in the subject of architectural history. At any time several styles may be fashionable, when a style changes it does so as architects learn and adapt to new ideas; the new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style, such as post-modernism, which has in recent years found its own language and split into a number of styles which have acquired other names. Styles spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist.
For instance, Renaissance ideas emerged in Italy around 1425 and spread to all of Europe over the next 200 years, with the French, German and Spanish Renaissances showing recognisably the same style, but with unique characteristics. A style may spread through colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, or by settlers moving to a new land. One example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style. After a style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur. For instance, classicism found new life as neoclassicism; each time it is revived, it is different. The Spanish mission style was revived 100 years as the Mission Revival, that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival. Vernacular architecture is listed separately; as vernacular architecture is better understood as suggestive of culture, writ broadly, it technically can encompass every architectural style--or none at all.
In and of itself, vernacular architecture is not a style. Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and mostly German-speaking field of art history. Important writers on the broad theory of style including Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, Gottfried Semper, Alois Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl continued the debate into the 20th century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space; this type of art history is known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art. Semper, Wölfflin, Frankl, Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were coined to describe architectural styles, where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting.
Terms originated to describe architectural periods were subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, more still to music and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change follows, is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from the Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop, or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and the conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of Marxist art history. Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, a reaction against the emphasis on style developing.
According to James Elkins "In the 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more controlled". While many architectural styles explore harmonious ideals, Mannerism wants to take style a step further and explores the aesthetics of hyperbole and exaggeration. Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. Mannerism favours compositional instability rather than balance and clarity; the definition of Mannerism, the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians. An example of mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola in the rugged country side outside of Rome; the proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more than any previous styles. A center of Mannerist design was Antwerp during its 16th-century boom. Through Antwerp and Mannerist styles were introduced in England and northern and eastern Europe in general.
Dense with ornament of "Roman" detailing, the display doorway at Colditz Castle exemplifies this northern style, characteristically applie
Christian symbolism
Christian symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, artwork or events, by Christianity. It invests actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas; the symbolism of the early Church was characterized by being understood by initiates only, while after the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire during the 4th-century more recognizable symbols entered in use. Christianity has borrowed from the common stock of significant symbols known to most periods and to all regions of the world. Christianity has not practiced Aniconism, or the avoidance or prohibition of types of images if the early Jewish Christians sects, as well as some modern denominations, preferred to some extent not to use figures in their symbols, by invoking the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry; the shape of the cross, as represented by the letter T, came to be used as a "seal" or symbol of Early Christianity by the 2nd century. At the end of the 2nd century, it is mentioned in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, rejecting the claim by detractors that Christians worship the cross.
The cross in this period was represented by the letter T. Clement of Alexandria in the early 3rd century calls it τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον he repeats the idea, current as early as the Epistle of Barnabas, that the number 318 in Genesis 14:14 was a foreshadowing of the cross and of Jesus. Clement's contemporary Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are crucis religiosi, returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes. In his book De Corona, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was a tradition for Christians to trace on their foreheads the sign of the cross. While early Christians used the T-shape to represent the cross in writing and gesture, the use of the Greek cross and Latin cross, i.e. crosses with intersecting beams, appears in Christian art towards the end of Late Antiquity. An early example of the cruciform halo, used to identify Christ in paintings, is found in the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes mosaic of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.
Instances of the St Thomas cross, a Greek cross with clover leaf edges, popular in southern India, date to about the 6th century. The Patriarchal cross, a Latin cross with an additional horizontal bar, first appears in the 10th century; the Celtic cross, now characterized by the presence of the outline of a circle upon which a cross, stylized in a pre-Medieval Celtic fashion, appears superimposed. The Celtic cross bears strong resemblance to the Christian cross, it appears in the form of sculpted, vertically oriented, ancient monoliths which survive in the present day, in various locations on the island of Ireland. A few of the ancient monuments were evidently relocated to stand in some of Ireland's earliest churchyards between 400 CE and 600 CE, as Christianity was popularized throughout much of the island; the heavily-worn stone sculptures owe their continued survival to their sheer size and solid rock construction, which coordinate in scale, in composition, with Ireland's ancient megalith arrangements.
Unlike the Christian cross iconography associated with the shape of a crucifix, the Celtic cross' design origins are not clear. The Celtic cross has been repeated in statuary, as a dominant feature of the anthropogenic Irish landscape, for at least 5,000 years; the Celtic cross and the Christian cross are similar enough in shape, that the former was adopted by Irish Catholic culture, following the Christianization of Ireland. The Celtic cross is described as an ancient symbol of cultural significance in pre-Christian, Druidic Ireland, it is used as a symbolic icon of the interpretation of Christianity, unique to Irish culture in that pre-Christian Celtic tradition and Irish Druidic iconography are hybridized with Christian traditions and iconography. Although the cross was used as a symbol by early Christians, the crucifix, i.e. depictions of the crucifixion scene, were rare prior to the 5th century. The purported discovery of the True Cross by Constantine's mother and the development of Golgotha as a site for pilgrimage led to a change of attitude.
It was in Palestine that the image developed, many of the earliest depictions are on the Monza ampullae, small metal flasks for holy oil, that were pilgrim's souvenirs from the Holy Land, as well as 5th century ivory reliefs from Italy. In the early medieval period, the plain cross became depicted as the crux gemmata, covered with jewels, as many real early medieval processional crosses in goldsmith work were; the first depictions of crucifixion displaying suffering are believed to have arisen in Byzantine art, where the "S"-shaped slumped body type was developed. Early Western examples include the Gero Cross and the reverse of the Cross of Lothair, both from the end of the 10th century. Marie-Madeleine Davy described in great detail Romanesque Symbolism as it developed in the Midd
Iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification and the interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, other elements that are distinct from artistic style. The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών and γράφειν. A secondary meaning is the production of religious images, called "icons", in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. In art history, "an iconography" may mean a particular depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing and gestures; the term is used in many academic fields other than art history, for example semiotics and media studies, in general usage, for the content of images, the typical depiction in images of a subject, related senses. Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography, although the definitions, so the distinction made, varies; when referring to movies, genres are recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition.
Early Western writers who took special note of the content of images include Giorgio Vasari, whose Ragionamenti, interpreting the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, reassuringly demonstrates that such works were difficult to understand for well-informed contemporaries. Lesser known, though it had informed poets and sculptors for over two centuries after its 1593 publication, was Cesare Ripa's emblem book Iconologia. Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time and analyses, not always many works. Lessing's study of the classical figure Amor with an inverted torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in, rather than the other way round. Iconography as an academic art historical discipline developed in the nineteenth-century in the works of scholars such as Adolphe Napoleon Didron, Anton Heinrich Springer, Émile Mâle all specialists in Christian religious art, the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were prominent.
They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa and Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus's Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises as guides to understanding works of art, both religious and profane, in a more scientific manner than the popular aesthetic approach of the time. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias and other publications useful in identifying the content of art. Mâle's l'Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print. In the early-twentieth century Germany, Aby Warburg and his followers Fritz Saxl and Erwin Panofsky elaborated the practice of identification and classification of motifs in images to using iconography as a means to understanding meaning. Panofsky codified an influential approach to iconography in his 1939 Studies in Iconology, where he defined it as "the branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to form," although the distinction he and other scholars drew between particular definitions of "iconography" and "iconology", has not been accepted, though it is still used by some writers.
In the United States, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, Meyer Schapiro continued under his influence in the discipline. In an influential article of 1942, Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture", Richard Krautheimer, a specialist on early medieval churches and another German émigré, extended iconographical analysis to architectural forms; the period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was prominent in art history. Whereas most icongraphical scholarship remains dense and specialized, some analyses began to attract a much wider audience, for example Panofsky's theory that the writing on the rear wall in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck turned the painting into the record of a marriage contract. Holbein's The Ambassadors has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography, the best-sellers of Dan Brown include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by Leonardo da Vinci.
Technological advances allowed the building-up of huge collections of photographs, with an iconographic arrangement or index, which include those of the Warburg Institute and the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton. These are now being digitised and made available online on a restricted basis. With the arrival of computing, the Iconclass system, a complex way of classifying the content of images, with 28,000 classification types, 14,000 keywords, was developed in the Netherlands as a standard classification for recording collections, with the idea of assembling huge databases that will allow the retrieval of images featuring particular details, subjects or other common factors. For example, the Iconclass code "71H7131" is for the subject of "Bathsheba with David's letter", whereas "71" is th
Church (building)
A church building or church house simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities for Christian worship services. The term is used by Christians to refer to the physical buildings where they worship, but it is sometimes used to refer to buildings of other religions. In traditional Christian architecture, the church is arranged in the shape of a Christian cross; when viewed from plan view the longest part of a cross is represented by the aisle and the junction of the cross is located at the altar area. Towers or domes are added with the intention of directing the eye of the viewer towards the heavens and inspiring visitors. Modern church buildings have a variety of architectural layouts; the earliest identified Christian church building was a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th through the 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals and smaller parish churches were erected across Western Europe. A cathedral is a church building Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox, housing a cathedra, the formal name for the seat or throne of a presiding bishop.
In Greek, the adjective kyriak-ós/-ē/-ón means "belonging, or pertaining, to a Kyrios", the usage was adopted by early Christians of the Eastern Mediterranean with regard to anything pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ: hence "Kyriakós oíkos", "Kyriakē", or "Kyriakē proseukhē". In standard Greek usage, the older word "ecclesia" was retained to signify both a specific edifice of Christian worship, the overall community of the faithful; this usage was retained in Latin and the languages derived from Latin, as well as in the Celtic languages and in Turkish. In the Germanic and some Slavic languages, the word kyriak-ós/-ē/-ón was adopted instead and derivatives formed thereof. In Old English the sequence of derivation started as "cirice" Middle English "churche", "church" in its current pronunciation. German Kirche, Scots kirk, Russian церковь, etc. are all derived. According to the New Testament, the earliest Christians did not build church buildings. Instead, they synagogues; the earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church, the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 and 256.
In the second half of the 3rd century AD, the first purpose-built halls for Christian worship began to be constructed. Although many of these were destroyed early in the next century during the Diocletianic Persecution larger and more elaborate church buildings began to appear during the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great. From the 11th through the 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals and smaller parish churches occurred across Western Europe. In addition to being a place of worship, the cathedral or the parish church was used by the community in other ways, it could serve as a hall for banquets. Mystery plays were sometimes performed in cathedrals, cathedrals might be used for fairs; the church could be used as a place to store grain. Between 1000 and 1200 the romanesque style became popular across Europe. While the name of the romanesque era refers to the tradition of Roman architecture, it was a West- and Central European trend. Romanesque buildings appear rather compact.
Typical features are circular arches, octagonal towers and cushion capitals on the pillars. In the early romanesque era, coffering on the ceiling was fashionable, while in the same era, groined vault was more popular; the rooms became the motivs of sculptures became more epic. The Gothic style emerged around 1140 in spread through all of Europe; the gothic buildings were less compact than they had been in the romanesque era and contained symbolic and allegoric features. For the first time, pointed arches, rib vaults and buttresses were used, with the result that massive walls were not longer needed to stabilise the building. Due to that advantage, the area of the windows became bigger, which resulted in a brighter and more friendly atmosphere inside the church; the nave so did the pillars and the church steeple. The amibition to test out the limits of the architectural possibilities resulted in the collapse of several towers. In Germany and the Netherlands, but in Spain, it became popular to build hall churches, in which every vault has the same height.
Cathedrals were built in a lavish way, as in the romanesque era. Examples for that are the Notre-Dame de Paris and the Notre-Dame de Reims in France, but the San Francesco d’Assisi in Palermo, the Salisbury Cathedral and the Wool Church in Lavenham, England. Many gothic churches contain features from the romanesque era; some of the most well-known gothic churches stayed unfinished for hundreds of years, after the gothic style was not popular anymore. About half of the Cologne Cathedral was for example build in the 19th century. In the 15th and 16th century, the change in e
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