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Italy,
Rome, St. Peter's Basilica | Symbolism
Professor Dale Kinney
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Italy,
Rome, Old St. Peter's
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Transept
basilicas are cross-shaped, and the cross is the fundamental
signifier of Christian belief, representing not the death of
Christ but his conquest of death by resurrection, and the promise
of similar salvation to his followers. Since St. Peter's is
the first known building to have a transept, it seems likely
that this Christian architectural symbolism was invented here.
Many years ago, Turpin Bannister demonstrated that the dimensions
of the plan and elevation were also loaded with symbolic reference.
Since the building no longer survives, some of its dimensions
are debatable, and Bannister's calculations were made before
the thorough review of the evidence presented in Krautheimer's
Corpus basilicarum. Some of Bannister's speculations are surely
wrong, but some may well be right; the matter is worth revisiting.
Among his questionable calculations is the determination that
the building was laid out in Ptolemaic feet (and their multiple,
Egyptian royal cubits), whereas Krautheimer determined that
the unit of measurement was the Roman foot.
On the basis of the presumed use of this unit Bannister postulated
an elaborate emulation of the dimensions of the King Solomon's
Temple (III
Kings 6) in Jerusalem, which are given in cubits in the
Old Testament. He also claimed to discover a parallel symbolism
encoded in gematria, a mystical form of interpretation based
on the numeric equivalents of the letters of significant words
in languages (like Hebrew, Greek, and Latin) in which letters
also function as numbers. For example, the letters of "Jesus"
in Greek add up to 888; the letters designating "Nero Caesar"
in Hebrew add up to 666, which is therefore the "number
of the beast". Many of Bannister's proposals seem farfetched,
but some of them are more plausible than others, and further
study may prove some.
Click to view Krautheimer, Corpus V p. 286, table of dimensions.
A
contemporary source gives evidence of how a fourth-century churchman
might have interpreted St. Peter's for his congregation. Constantine's
biographer, Bishop
Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, wrote a sermon for the
dedication of the cathedral at Tyre
in 315 The sermon moves back and forth among history, description,
and praise of Christ and of the builders. Similarly the metaphors
are fluid and easily exchangeable: the "church" is
both a building and a congregation of people; once a desert,
now a blossoming lily; once a widow, now a beauteous bride;
a temple and the Temple of Solomon. The realms of culture (houses,
cities, temples) and of nature (plants, beasts, women) are invoked
interchangeably. Eusebius' allegories could have been applied
to any church building regardless of design or shape, so long
as it was suitably outfitted with lavish ornament and liturgical
furniture. This kind of symbolism is not designed into a building
or even inspired by the building's intention, but is applied
to it in a rhetorical exercise independent of dimensions or
form. It remained a common way of "reading" buildings
in the middle ages.
Bibliography
Turpin C. Bannister, "The Constantinian Basilica of Saint
Peter at Rome," Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 27 (1968) 3–32.
Krautheimer, Richard, Corpus basilicarum christianarum Romae.
The early Christian basilicas of Rome. v. illus., double plates,
double plans. 38 cm. 1937–77.
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