Type and Archetype: Echoing Architectural Forms of the Church of Nea Moni

Marina Mihaljević

Jump to Content

Chapter 6 Type and Archetype: Echoing Architectural Forms of the Church of Nea Moni

In: Type and Archetype in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture

Author:

Marina Mihaljević

Marina Mihaljević
Search for other papers by Marina Mihaljević in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 163–188

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004537781_008

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

The architecture and unique layout of the famous church of Nea Moni, built by Constantine IX (1042–1055), have been much debated. It has been previously noted, for example, that its innovative structural system, a so-called domed-octagon, reveals certain incongruities between the church’s lower square naos and its upper vaulted octaconch structure. According to a 19th-century commentary, the plan of the church was a copy of the “plan of Holy Apostles the small, that is, the smaller Church of the Holy Apostles.” In that respect, a theory by Charalambos Bouras proposed that the church’s upper portion might have been a replication of the centrally planned mausoleum of Constantine the Great in the complex of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

The church itself displays a noticeable consistency of design elements in the interior and on the exterior of the building. The interior is adorned by a circle of double colonnettes, which unify the lower and the upper portions of the church. The reconstruction of the church’s dome to its original appearance revealed that the double marble colonnettes were incorporated in the corners of the drum, thus restating the interior design on the exterior of the church. The architecture of the church has been considered mainly through its interior arrangement, and the presence of the double colonnettes was discussed mainly within the context of the possible Armenian sources of Nea Moni’s domed-octagon plan. The design is conspicuously present in several other Middle Byzantine monuments, among them the katholikon of the Vatopedi monastery, the church of the Virgin Eleousa in Strumica, and most probably the Constantinopolitan church of the Virgin Mougliotissa.

This chapter examines the significance of this design beyond evolutionary typological considerations. It establishes its possible archetypes and the models of their application. While keeping in mind the medieval understanding of replication as expressed in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Maximus the Confessor, and others, I examine whether these examples can approximate the medieval understanding of type and their position within the framework of modern architectural discourse. This study clarifies that the Byzantine architects were capable of formally conceptualizing and embedding architectural forms with highly sophisticated theological and ontological ideas. The repeated conceptual similarity in various instances, despite their geographic, stylistic, and structural characteristics, certainly brings to mind the idea of ‘type.’ The potent role of architecture in the perpetuation of memoriae through physical presence radically changes the perception of type in Byzantine architecture as the synchronic, codified assembly of particular physical characteristics.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004537781/BP000016.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Type and Archetype in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture

Series: Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Volume: 19

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004537781

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 02 Feb 2023

Subjects

Front Matter

Back Matter

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	3008	685	70
Full Text Views	60	3	0
PDF Views & Downloads	32	0	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 6 Type and Archetype: Echoing Architectural Forms of the Church of Nea Moni

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Type and Archetype in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics