The Cathedral: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Construction.It is impossible not to see cathedrals through nineteenth-century eyes. A cathedral is the principal church of a diocese, containing the bishop's throne. The cathedra cathedra throne indicative of religious power. [Folklore: Jobes, 307] See : Authority is the bishop's seat of authority. Yet many today regard the cathedral as a large, detached building, usually in the Gothic style, and have vague, if elevating, notions of what it is, how it evolved and what happens in it. This is predominantly a northern European, post-Romantic, secularised view which originates in a period when the Middle Ages were rediscovered and Gothic was invested with religious significance as the quintessential quin·tes·sen·tial adj. Of, relating to, or having the nature of a quintessence; being the most typical: "Liszt was the quintessential romantic" Musical Heritage Review. expression of Christianity. The cathedral was mythologised as a collective artistic unity subservient sub·ser·vi·ent adj. 1. Subordinate in capacity or function. 2. Obsequious; servile. 3. Useful as a means or an instrument; serving to promote an end. to Gothic architecture Gothic architecture Architectural style in Europe that lasted from the mid 12th century to the 16th century, particularly a style of masonry building characterized by cavernous spaces with the expanse of walls broken up by overlaid tracery. which itself embodied spiritual values. The nineteenth-century rediscovery Noun 1. rediscovery - the act of discovering again discovery, find, uncovering - the act of discovering something rediscovery n → redescubrimiento of the cathedral bestowed upon it an imaginary status that isolated it from its immediate environment and gave it monumentality as a separate entity: self-sufficient, sublime and apart. Isolation was compounded by the restoration movement which preserved the cathedral at the expense of its setting. This disfigured dis·fig·ure tr.v. dis·fig·ured, dis·fig·ur·ing, dis·fig·ures To mar or spoil the appearance or shape of; deform. [Middle English disfiguren, from Old French desfigurer its real nature as the centre of an episcopally ordered holy town that became a powerful force in the development of the medieval city. Alain Erlande-Brandenburg reverses these Romantic myths. Taking France as his main focus - but including material on England, Germany, Italy, Spain and Bohemia - he sets the origin of the cathedral in the third- and fourth-century Gallic cities of late antiquity Late Antiquity is a rough periodization (c. AD 300 - 600) used by historians and other scholars to describe the interval between Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally between the decline of the western Roman Empire and in the developing function of the bishop and diocese. The bishop was vested with three-fold authority which oversaw administration, jurisdiction and education. His income was allocated to his residence (which he shared with his clergy), the building and maintenance of sacred buildings and charitable institutions. These elements developed into the holy town which was composed of the church, the bishop's palace Bishop's Palace may refer to the official residence of any bishop, such as those listed in the . Specific residences called Bishop's Palace include:
ANTHONY SYMONDSON |
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