Antik och medeltid

Abstract

Summary The author discusses with keen appreciation L'Orange's view's on the expressive art of late imperial and early Christian times, on apotheosis in ancient portraiture and on late imperialand early Christian architecture (H. P. L'Orange, Fra antikk til mid‐delalder. Apotheosis in ancient portraiture. Instiluttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning. Oslo 1947). Criticising Shelley's famous words “one of the first efforts of Christian religion was to destroy the power of producing beauty in art,” he—following L'Orange and M. P. Nilsson (Grekisk religiositet. Stockholm 1946)—emphasizes that the Christians in that respect only shared the conversion, typical for all the world at the end of antiquity (fig. 1–4), from the classical predilection for beauty and classical standards of life. The world crisis of the third century had broken down the values of classical culture. New modes of expression were demanded. Among these new modes were the hieratic style of the late empire, expressive art (which strikingly represented the spirit of (the late empire) and also the ‘late imperial palace architecture. A last form of ancient culture arose, destined to have a dominating influence on medieval times. Christian art, architecture and ceremonies got their shape from this preponderant, late phase of ancient culture, though reinforcing it by new religious ideas. L'Orange traces the late expressive art back to the realism of late republican times. Though—at least seemingly— underrating “the grand tradition” of Roman classicistic art from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius (Hamberg, Studies in late imperial art. 1945), he very well in‐terprets the development to the high strung illu‐sionism of the third century portraits (fig. 5) and from them to the expressive art and its endeavours to depict spiritual values. L'Orange's analysis of apotheosis in royal and imperial portraiture follows the same lines. He defines the Hellenistic royal portraiture, with its gaze towards heaven, suggesting the kings’ close connections with the gods, its heroic arrangement of the hair etc. (from Alexander onwards). Caligula, Nero and Domitianus adopted that type of portraiture in obvious contrast to the civic portraits of Augustus, Vespasianus, Nerva and Trajanus. It was a part of their efforts to strengthen the imperial power after oriental models. After the crisis of the third century Diocletianus and Constantine needed new ways of expressing their power and divine inspiration; in the field of portraiture the expressive art of the time interpreted the might of the emperors who claimed divine authority for their title. Discussing L'Orange's chapter about late imperial and Christian architecture the author classifies the types of basilicas “court yard basilica” (Ardea, Bascilica Julia, Ulpia etc.) with tablinum and Roman axiality (Pompeji, Vitruvius V, 1. 6 ff.); “normal basilica” with nave and aisles and “basilica scoperta” with the nave under the open sky (fig. 6. Marusinac). E. Dyggve (in Ravennatum palatium sacrum. Copenhagen 1941) has revealed to us that the reception suites of the imperial palaces, comprising a basilica and a basilica scoperta, were a most important architectural type, created in close connection with the court ceremonies. The origin of this architectural unit should be traced back to the imperial pallaces of the first century A.D. as shown by the reception wing of the palace of Domitianus and the imperial vestibule at the Forum Romanum (St. Maria Antiqua, fig. 7). Dyggve (1. c; (D⊘dekult, keiserkult og basïlika. Copenhagen 1943) has also very well expounded the architectural demands and traditions of the Christian cult from its hidden life as a vast, outlaw movement. That is very important, but L'Orange seems to over‐rate the architectural importance of these traditions. They, no doubt, caused important modifications and also gave a new, inspiring meaning to both decorative motifs and architectural features such as for instance the axiality. But it is evident that monumental Christian architecture, when it began after 312 A.D., was characterized by the choosing from among the great architectural creations of late imperial Rome which suited the demands of the Christian cult. The basilicas of the age (with stern brickfaced exterior and wooden cellings r vaults), the lavacra (Sjöqvist, Acta instituti romani regni Sueciae XII, 1946, p. 99 ff.), circus‐shaped courtyards with surrounding porticoes (S. Sebastiane, cf. Dyggve, Gravekirken i Jerusalem, 1941, p. 19; Sta Agnese, cf. Deichmann, Rivista di archeologia cristiana 22 (1946),p. 213 ff.), the imperial reception suites (Magnaura, Ravenna, S.Pietro.S.Am‐brogio, cf. Dyggve, Ravennatum palatium sacrum) and other architectural types from the storehouse of late imperial Rome belonged to this age of early Christian expérimentation. As a result of this develop‐ment, which took place in various forms all over the empire, emerged the fixed types of Christian, monu‐mental architecture, in the west, especially the basilica, reshaped in conformity with its new Chris‐tian purpose.