Walls Of Church Research Articles

Subjects of the Medieval Pskov Churches’ Tiles in the Perception of their Contemporaries

The article is devoted to the consideration of the subjects and artistic features of the architectural tiles placed on the Pskov Region’s Orthodox churches built in the 14th—17th centuries. The relevance of the article is determined by the increased interest in the history of the Pskov architectural school, the insufficient study, at the regional level, of medieval religious architecture in general and tile art in particular, which necessitated its in-depth study. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the classification and analogues identification of the subjects of the architectural tiles preserved on the walls of the medieval Orthodox churches in the Pskov Region, which is one of the earliest ancient Russian centers for the production of tiles. The article provides a detailed description of previously unpublished images of tiles from Pskov churches and highlights the peculiarities of their perception. By the nature of the images on the tiles, there are distinguished the following groups: geometric, floristic and ornithomorphic ornament, subject compositions. The most widespread in Pskov was floristic ornament, which includes images of grapes, cornflowers (carnations), flower rosettes, flowerpots with various types of flowers, herbal curls, “Flourishing Heart” and “Tree of Life” patterns, as well as ornithomorphic ornaments with images of peacock, turkey, nightingale and other birds. There is a single geometric triangular ornament on the porch tiles of the narthex of the Theotokos-Nativity Cathedral of the Snetogorsky Monastery (the church of the 14th century is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the porch is of the 17th century), and a subject composition of a horseman on the walls of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Church of the former Sirotkin (Seredkin) Monastery of the 16th century. There are also unique tiles with a centaur on the Church of St. George from Vzvoz of the 15th century (included in the UNESCO World Heritage List). Made by Old Russian masters of tile art, the subjects reflect the Christian polysemous symbolism, the laconicism and generalization of the images, the harmonious composition and coloristics of the tiles. The visual perception of architectural tiles influences people, transmitting, in a symbolic form, the picture of the world, spiritual values and meanings of Russian culture from generation to generation.

BENTUK, FUNGSI, DAN MAKNA LUKISAN PADA INTERIOR ALTAR GEREJA ST. ANTONIUS KOTABARU YOGYAKARTA

This research is motivated by Catholics who come to church increasingly do not understand the meaning and message contained in the church building, even though the symbols and everything contained in the church building are made not only as decoration, but every part in the church has meaning. related to Catholic life. One church that has a message framed in the form of a painting in its interior is the Catholic Church of St. Antonius in Kotabaru, Yogyakarta. The paintings on the walls of this church have very interesting forms, functions, and meanings because they are related to the contents of the holy book of the Gospel of John. This study aims to determine the form, function, and meaning of the painting on the interior of the altar of the Catholic Church of St. Antonius Kotabaru, Yogyakarta. The results of the study are as follows, the form of painting on the church wall is a decorative painting. The function of painting is to beautify the interior of the church room, as an identity for the Catholic church that uses elements of regional inculturation in the interior of the room, and as a medium of da'wah in introducing the holy book of the Gospel of John to Christians. The form of the painting has a meaning, that a leader should know the needs of the community, just as Jesus knew the needs of his people.

Sailing across the Wall: Ship Graffiti on Cretan Church Wall Paintings

Sailing across the Wall: Ship Graffiti on Cretan Church Wall Paintings

Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West

Over a millennium ago, images began to appear in Christian church settings—as decorations of holy book covers, within the pages of books, and on church walls—of Jesus exorcizing a multitude of demons, named Legion, from a man into a herd of pigs who then rush into the sea and drown. In using this biblical story to frame the narrative of Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West, Jamie Kreiner makes clear the ambiguities of the pig as “both unholy and redemptive, both historically situated and universally relevant” (195). The pigs as Legion and a legion of pigs on farm and field are intertwined.Rather than approaching the history of the pig as only an issue of agricultural production, Kreiner examines it as “a history of the counterintuitive connections that developed between the micro-universes of pig husbandry and early medieval institutions and ideas on a wider scale” (4). She uses the pig as an entry point for thinking through how early medieval people thought about their environment. Her approach is to place the pig within wider social, cultural, and economic contexts of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, roughly AD 400 to 1000. While the evidence is focused on Western Europe, particularly the kingdoms of the Carolingians and Ottonians, which occupied large parts of what are today France, Germany, the Low Countries, and northern Italy, and kingdoms on the British Isles, Kreiner deftly weaves in sources from across Europe, stretching to the Islamic lands that were in continuous contact with their Christian counterparts.In her introduction, Kreiner stresses that the flexibility of pigs resulted in dynamic ecological systems in early medieval Europe. Human communities adapted their systems to accommodate pigs, who while potentially highly productive could also be highly unruly. This plays out in chapter 1, which underscores the distinctions medieval people drew between wild boar and domestic pig, the variability of landscapes that swine could be raised on, and attempts to control unwanted pig behaviors.The micro-universe of pig husbandry is then set within the much larger context of medieval philosophy in chapter 2. In this chapter, pigs scarcely appear—and yet the chapter puts the pig and its Christianization (which is discussed later) into the intellectual context of the age through a highly accessible explanation of medieval notions of environmental connectivity and complexity.Chapter 3 gets back to the pigs and their landscapes. Kreiner approaches swine husbandry as extracting value out of the landscape or, as she calls it, “salvaging.” Through their ability to turn found foods in the environment into food on human tables, pigs made the landscape productive for people. How they did this—by forest foraging, pasture grazing, or stall feeding—varied according to ecological and economic conditions. Kreiner brings together an impressive collection of sources to explain that variability.In chapter 4, the focus is on the assemblage of humans and pigs and the social groups that were created and modified by those relations. The section on swineherds in particular gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the economic and social status of those closest to pigs. She also shows how pork consumption was a Roman tradition, which had both ideological and practical implications, for example in the provisioning of soldiers with pork through taxes. Chapter 5 starts with the pig as Roman animal and then discusses how the pig became associated with Christians, both in symbolic and dietary forms. Kreiner stresses the counterintuitive connections here, as the pig takes on both diabolical natures and Christian conviction. The legions of pigs and Legion in pigs are co-constituted.Kreiner's book is written with non-medievalists in mind—she elucidates time-specific social and legal terms so that they are understandable without a background in the period. She finds just the right balance of using source materials to support her arguments without getting bogged down in details. Her writing style is a delight to read. This book demonstrates how medieval environmental and agricultural history can be written as a history of ideas and culture with wide appeal.

Books Briefly

Books Briefly

Пространство Слова: эпиграфика в интерьерах голландских церквей XVII века

The article deals with the problem of the relationships between the word and the image in the monuments of pictorial and graphic art, depicting the text, so-called text painting, «tekstschilderijen» in Dutch. Mostly anonymous, these monumental images of the Word were painted on boards, columns, and church walls throughout the Northern Netherlands during the first century after the Reformation. Formally, these images belong to the history of painting, since the same materials are used: paints on a board or on a stone in a decorative frame, but the way of depicting reminiscent of an enlarged page of Holy Scripture puts them on a par with the monuments of graphic art. The emergence of “verbal pictures”, texts that became ornaments and calligraphy, the scale and structure of which shifted their verbal content from the individual world of personal initiation into the fixed didactics of public space, corresponded to new doctrinal guidelines and radically changed the semantic structure of the Gothic cathedral. The Bible provided a new graphic language: text that was authoritative enough to become canonical and flexible at the same time to take many varieties of forms. “Verbal pictures” were the texts that became ornaments and calligraphy. The dialectical content unity, their design, interaction with the church space and viewing traditions of the text pictures help to reconstruct not only the author's intention as artistic ones, but also the cultural and historical context.

Reflections on ubuntu theology in a British urban context: Christian koinonia, kenosis and the ummah

]In a super-diverse city such as Birmingham in the United Kingdom, inner-city Anglican churches are frequently situated within a range of communities, holding different worldviews both within and without the church walls, impacting any subsequent understanding of relational life, or koinonia. This paper seeks to reflect on aspects of relational life in my own context, using Desmond Tutu’s ubuntu theology as a lens through which to critique shared, lived experience. I conclude that ubuntu theology may facilitate a rediscovery of ancient ways of thinking, that extends an invitation to the Anglican church in Western contexts to re-envision Trinitarian ecclesiologies.

Encountering God in “The Circle”: Examining the Grand Ole Opry as a Religious Experience through the Lens of Circular Theology

Although many religious experiences occur within the walls of churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. and the sacred spaces that surround them, many more are encountered in the secular spaces and experiences of our everyday lives. Working out of the critical correlative method of theological reflection and circular theology, this paper proposes that the community, pilgrimage, and storytelling aspects of the Grand Ole Opry offers poignant opportunities for religious meaning making or inspired paths in connecting people to the sacred, no matter their religious background or upbringing. It is out of this exploration that the Grand Ole Opry arises to be a religious experience.

Citing of Year in Old Rus 11th- to 17th-Century Graffiti on Church Walls: in a Search of a Regularity

Citing of Year in Old Rus 11th- to 17th-Century Graffiti on Church Walls: in a Search of a Regularity

Os Santos d’Afurada. Arte, devoção e comunidade. Dimensão artística, devocional e antropológica

This paper is a reflection on a set of ten images and a Via Sacra conceived by the sculptor Altino Maia (1911-1988), between 1955 and 1957, for the new parish church of São Pedro da Afurada (Vila Nova de Gaia). The study addresses the images in several dimensions: artistic and iconographic, including ordering processes and creation; the anthropological, detailing the community’s reception and reaction to these sculptures. Nine of the images were «hidden» in cabinets for long years, removed from the eyes of the faithful, received the popular and derogatory names of «Santos Pretos» or «Santos das Rodilhas» and were even victims of aggression attempts. The sculpture of the Crucified Christ was exhibited on the apse’s back wall until 2021 and the Via Sacra continues to be displayed on the north wall of the parish church of São Pedro da Afurada.Basedon the documentary and visual sources of the time and the testimony of some inhabitants of Afurada, this paper intends to analyze the circumstances of commissioning and artistic creation, developing an iconographic study of the images, contextualizing them in their time and to understand these object-images (in line with Jérôme Baschet) from an anthropological perspective

Reprezentarea sfintelor femei în bisericile pictate în timpul lui Ștefan cel Mare în Moldova. Două exemple

The aim of this paper is to present some results of my research regarding the representation of holy women in the Moldavian churches during the reign of Stephen the Great. Most frequently, these images are found in the narthex of the church, a space of lesser spiritual intensity. A general explanation for the depiction of holy women in the narthex is related to the actual presence of women in this space during the mass and to their role in the funerary ritual and the commemoration of the dead which take place here. My study focuses on the cases of Saints Mary of Egypt and Marina the Great Martyr, the two most depicted saints in the Moldavian churches. Firstly, they have a specific way of representation, in a narrative scene. Saint Mary of Egypt is depicted as an ascetic figure together with Saint Zosimas from whom she receives the Holy Eucharist, while Saint Marina wears a red maphorion and is depicted hammering a demon. Secondly, they both have a well-defined place on the church walls, as a result of the hagiography, playing a symbolic role in the economy of space and in the iconographic program. Saint Mary of Egypt has a place in the passageway areas, in interaction with the architecture. Her representation offers an example of repentance for the believers, reassuring them of the mercifulness of God. Saint Marina is placed close to the entrances of the church, may they be doors or windows, for her role in protecting the sacred places.

Investigation of the mortars and clay bricks of a luso-brazilian historic structure from XVIII century: The Nosso Senhor do Bonfim Church

Heritage constructions (HC) presents cultural, historical and architectural remarks of a community. This way, maintenance and rehabilitation of HC is an effort each time necessary for keep these structures in safety and in good state of conservation for the future generations. The materials characterization can be a key for that. To characterize the materials of a HC can allow to collect information to support the decision on what conservation strategy to follow, as well give information on the constructive techniques employed and its originality. This work has as the main aim to investigate the physical and chemical characteristic of the mortars and clay bricks samples of the Nosso Senhor do Bonfim Church, placed at Aracati downtown, in the Ceará State, Northeast of Brazil. The church was built in XVIII century and the main façade presents the so-called as “barroco sertanejo”, an architectonic style influenced by Portuguese baroque. A Portuguese heritage from the Brazil colonial period. The results showed the existence of two different mortars layers covering the church walls, where in the most superficial layer cement presence was detected. Information on the original mortar composition was collect, as well clay bricks physical and mechanical properties. This information can be useful for materials and strategy selection in future interventions on the Nosso Senhor do Bonfim Church and contributes to fill the gap of information on luso-brazilian historic construction.

Peace Cranes in a Sanctuary

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article On Mental Health, People, and PlacesFull AccessPeace Cranes in a SanctuaryEzra E. H. Griffith, M.D.Ezra E. H. GriffithSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:25 Oct 2021https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2021.11.19Whenever I am away from home on Sunday, I find it rejuvenating to attend a church service as a visitor. I enjoy observing the rituals and listening to a new preacher. I take note of the level of the music ministry and the lay members’ participation in their faith group. Most recently, I took the one-mile stroll from my lodging to St. John’s Scottish Episcopal Church in downtown Edinburgh. I decided to visit this branch of Protestantism because I had already attended a service at a Church of Scotland, with its philosophy and rituals closer to those of John Knox and the Calvinist Reformers. One glance at the day’s service program and my eyes landed on the claim that St. John’s “seeks to be an open community, walking in the way of Jesus, engaging with an ever-changing world, and living a faith that is timeless yet contemporary, thoughtful, and compassionate.” This declaration of modernity was in striking contrast with the greying mass of stone that characterized the external appearance of the building. The seeming contradiction would come up in my conversation after the service with the associate rector, the Rev. Rosie Addis.Everyone followed the public health rules and wore a mask. The choristers took off theirs while fulfilling their duties, as did the clergy when leading the prayers, preaching, and reading the liturgical texts. Clergy and congregation had found an operational middle ground, a way of functioning while wearing masks and respecting distance. No collection plate was circulated during the service. A member explained that the new method, forced by COVID-19, was for someone to stand at the church door after the service, with the collection plate in hand. I learned that the new method is called “retiral collection.”A mobile of cranes floats above the sanctuary in St. John’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh.Brigitte Griffith with permission of the Rev. Rosie AddisIt is hard to explain the Sunday morning peacefulness of an urban church, built almost 200 years ago. With the organ in the hands of an aficionado and the choir chanting the psalm expertly, the 16th-century motet by William Byrd was performed elegantly. The sacred sounds were bouncing lightly off the church walls accompanied by the sun’s rays dancing on the mobiles hanging from the ceiling and light fixtures around the church. The photograph shows an example of the extensive mobile made of thousands of peace cranes handcrafted from origami paper. I learned the cranes were part of an exhibition by artist Janis Hart intended to transform St. John’s Church into a bird sanctuary for peace. The idea was to provoke viewers into thoughts about the victims of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. That is complemented by the church’s work for inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life of the church and in society.The Rev. Addis explained the mission of this urban faith group, first by helping me understand better the morning’s sermon. It was about EFM, which stands for “Education for Ministry” or “Exploring Faith Ministry.” She pointed out that this movement is not intended for the education of clergy. It is to help church members explore religious matters and facilitate their theological reflection about what God is asking them to do in service to others. Hence, the mission’s orientation toward peace, abolition of nuclear weapons, and fellowship with nondominant groups such as Blacks, other minorities, and the LGBTQ community. Rev. Addis has also determined her pathway toward serving a unique group. She is an expert in British Sign Language and directs a monthly service for what she calls the “Messy Church.” This meeting is for those suffering the indignities and problems related to hearing disabilities.Several elements in the service collectively framed an ambience of togetherness and concern for others. The play area to one side of the sanctuary welcomed children. The tables and chairs at the rear invited attendees to socialize and enjoy tea and cake at the conclusion of the service. These ideas about caring for others, or for one another, reinforced the aesthetic and moral impact of the multicolored paper cranes fluttering in the air currents above us. The reminder of what we should do for neighbors was powerful. ■Ezra E. H. Griffith, M.D., is professor emeritus of psychiatry and African American Studies at Yale University. ISSUES NewArchived

Microbiological, Health and Comfort Aspects of Indoor Air Quality in a Romanian Historical Wooden Church.

Monitoring the indoor microclimate in old buildings of cultural heritage and significance is a practice of great importance because of the importance of their identity for local communities and national consciousness. Most aged heritage buildings, especially those made of wood, develop an indoor microclimate conducive to the development of microorganisms. This study aims to analyze one wooden church dating back to the 1710s in Romania from the microclimatic perspective, i.e., temperature and relative humidity and the fungal load of the air and surfaces. One further aim was to determine if the internal microclimate of the monument is favorable for the health of parishioners and visitors, as well as for the integrity of the church itself. The research methodology involved monitoring of the microclimate for a period of nine weeks (November 2020–January 2021) and evaluating the fungal load in indoor air as well as on the surfaces. The results show a very high contamination of air and surfaces (>2000 CFU/m3). In terms of fungal contamination, Aspergillus spp. (two different species), Alternaria spp., Cladosporium spp., Mucor spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Trichopyton spp. were the genera of fungi identified in the indoor wooden church air and Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Botrytis spp. on the surfaces (church walls and iconostasis). The results obtained reveal that the internal microclimate not only imposes a potential risk factor for the parishioners and visitors, but also for the preservation of the wooden church as a historical monument, which is facing a crisis of biodeterioration of its artwork.

The Lunette with St. Thomas Becket at the Sacro Speco in Subiaco: An Unexpected Presence?

The painting with St. Thomas Becket, St. Stephen and St. Nicholas of Bari that decorates one of the lunettes in the so-called lower church at the Sacro Speco in Subiaco is an enigma from an art-historical point of view, for two reasons. First, on an iconographical level, the lunette interrupts the flow of the story of Benedict’s life unfolding systematically on all the walls of the lower church. Second, from the formal point of view, the fresco clearly presents more archaic features than the surrounding Stories of St. Benedict, dating to the end of the thirteenth/beginning of the fourteenth century, and was therefore probably executed in a phase prior to the cycle of Benedict. In the paper, therefore, I will analyse the motivations that led to the preservation of this painting when the hall was renovated and later redecorated in the late thirteenth century, and discuss the hypotheses surrounding patronage. Both aspects will help to better contextualize the reasons for the presence of the image of St. Thomas Becket in a pre-eminent position in the sanctuary of Benedict in Subiaco, a papal bulwark on the borders of the Kingdom.

Archaeogeophysical exploration in Neuss‐Norf, Germany using electrical resistivity tomography and magnetic data

ABSTRACTA combination of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and magnetic gradiometry was selected to examine a hypothesis concerning the presence of remains of one of the oldest archaeological churches in the Rhineland, located in Neuss‐Norf, Germany. The gradiometer survey was carried out to measure the vertical gradient of the magnetic field using a proton precession magnetometer along several profiles. The magnetic data were reduced to the magnetic pole; then analytic signal and power spectrum techniques were applied. The ERT survey was based on the magnetic results, and both Wenner and dipole–dipole configurations were employed to collect the apparent resistivity data along 12 ERT profiles. The field ERT data from these two arrays were merged into one dataset to form a non‐conventional mixed array. The robust (blocky) inversion technique was applied to the resistivity data in order to derive the two‐dimensional resistivity distribution of the subsurface. Despite the noisy surroundings, the magnetic survey was able to give an indication of potential walls of the ancient church in addition to several subsurface magnetic sources. Moreover, highly resistivity anomalies were observed within the first 1–2 m of the subsurface soil and were interpreted as possible remains of man‐made structures. This depth range was also confirmed by the spectral analysis of the magnetic data. A strong consistency between the two methods was observed in some locations of the site. In addition, the ERT measurements confirm and complement most of the magnetic results. We successfully detected anomalous zones that could be associated with the walls of at least one ancient church building in addition to several possible archaeological structures in the survey area.

Pictorial Graffiti from the Ghazali Northern Church, Sudan: An Overview

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present pictorial graffiti executed on the walls of the Northern Church of the Ghazali Monastery located in what is today the Northern Province of Sudan. The graffiti were recorded during research by the Polish-Sudanese mission at the monastic complex. This paper explores the symbolic meanings of the graffiti as well as possible rationales behind their locations. Some of the depictions have overt religious meanings and may be interpreted as “graphic” prayers. This category of graffiti includes representations of Christ, angels, saints, female figures and horse riders. Other depictions seem to refer to daily life in Nubia – the graffiti abound in motifs such as camels, horses, boats and human beings.

Effects of Heat Transfer through the Walls of a Catholic Church in Semarang Indonesia Simulated with Psi-Therm Software and OTTV

Verifying the effects of heat transfer towards the rise of temperature in certain spaces which impact air control and conditioning. Climate change affects the rise of environmental temperatures, with the humid and tropical Indonesia not exempt from its effects. Many church buildings in Semarang, Indonesia, of which were previously partial to natural ventilation, have now opted to rely on Air Conditioning in order to cool their indoor temperatures. As a result, electrical consumption is now at an all-time-high, with the absence of proper adjustments needed to anticipate heat transfer from the outdoors from entering these buildings. Aside from skyrocketing expenses spent on electrical bills, the rise in energy consumption is also partial to uncontrollable energy waste. This research aims to provide a guide in designing the walls of church buildings, in order to reduce massive electrical consumption. Methods used in this research are calculations done through the software Psi-Therm as well as making considerations regarding Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) in order to provide the big picture of controllable thermal conductivity through church wall design. Research results entail a design model of heat transfer flow obstruction which will be beneficial for future church designs.

THE PECULIARITY OF THE BUILDING PROCESS OF ANCIENT KYYIVAN MONUMENTS

The author investigates the building process of ancient Kyyivan monuments. After the wall foundations were laid, the erection of ground volumes of the edifice began. Wooden scaffoldings were arranged at both sides of a wall. The remains of caffolding preserved in the brick fabric can be seen on the front walls of the Transfiguration Church at Berestove and St. Michael’s Church of Vydubytsky monastery. The height between scaffolding tiers as well as the height of masonry between them varies from 1.3 to 2.2 m in Kyyivan monuments. The situation of red schist cornices in ancient churches is dependent on the abovementioned height of masonry tiers. The cornices are placed at springs of arches and vaults, at the level of the choir gallery floor, at the spring of supporting arches and basement of central dome. The location of cornices hence marked the completion of a certain building period. Being put over brickwork at the end of building period in autumn those cornices protected construction from precipitation during winter season. That is why cornices within the Kyyivan St.Sophia Cathedral have “throats” – grooves which are cut along the underside of cornices as a stringcourses to prevent water from running back across them towards the wall.
 One can easily determine building periods of the St. Sophia Cathedral according to the cornice levels in it. As far as building period at the times of Old Rus` took approximately six to seven months (from late spring to early autumn), the erection of the St. Sophia Cathedral with its five naves and double galleries was continued through five or six years. Cross-domed churches with three naves were built during approximately three or four years. For example St.Michael’s Church at Vydubytsky Monastery was built to the height of choir gallery during the first year, then to the height of vaults’ and domes’ springing during the second year, after that vaults and domes were completed during the third year. The types of vaults used in ancient Kyyivan architecture were barrel vaults, domes on pendantives and domes on high drums. Widely spread in Byzantine architecture groined vaults were not in use in the Old Rus` building until the middle of the XII century.
 Also there was a certain consecutive order in erection of parts of a church: at first its central cross-domed volume, then apses, narthex, galleries etc. were built. In a year or two after the edifice was built its walls were covered with plaster and decorated with murals. Building methods applied in the ancient Kyyivan monuments of the XI-th century formed the basis of Old Rus` architecture developed during the following centuries.

Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim: Theological Reformer, Philosopher and Physician.

Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim (1493-1541), known as Paracelsus, was a German-Swiss Renaissance man. His interests included alchemy and medicine. During the early 1500s, he worked as a physician, introducing mineral-based therapies to treat ailments. He is credited with developing the first recipe for laudanum, a powerful opium-based pain medication. He had radical beliefs, claiming that supreme knowledge could be reached by observing nature, not by reading books. He expressed rebellious opinions on religious topics and, though devoted Christian, criticized the Catholic Church, preaching that the spirit of Christianity dwells in the human soul and not within the church walls. Paracelsus' efforts to "renovate" the expression of the Christian faith by limiting the ritual and augmenting the spirituality among believers are presented.