30 August
Collingwood
Scully
1997.08.30
the density of virtual participation
1999.08.30
universal uniqueness?
2000.08.30 12:21
EPICENTRAL
2001.08.30
development
2002.08.30
Re: FW Evolutionary theory and architecture
2003.08.30
Re: Is Bonsai an art?
2004.08.30 08:56
Re: the building as burkha
2004.08.30 11:01
Re: Architecture as Fragmentation
2004.08.30 19:18
Hi, Gorgeous. Haven't I Seen You Somewhere?
2005.08.30 10:36
Isms in architecture
2005.08.30 10:45
2005.08.30 11:25
universal uniqueness
2006.08.30 09:02
Re: the building as burkha
2006.08.30 09:12
Theory needed: contextualism/transparency
2008.08.30 10:23
2008.08.30 10:57
2008.08.30 11:27
2008.08.30 11:29
2008.08.30 11:49
2008.08.30 13:00
2008.08.30 23:06
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Re: FW Evolutionary theory and architecture
2003.08.30
How much does architectural history have to henceforth change/evolve because there are now known to be two Ichnographia Campi Martii? Certainly, Wilton-Ely's and Ficacci's "Complete" Piranesi publications are actually not complete. Likewise, what Tafuri, Allen, Bloomer, Aitkens, and Eisenman wrote about Piranesi's Ichnographia Campus Martius was done without knowledge of two Ichnographi--what good are theories if they are not based on correct history, i.e., reality?
You started this thread with the statement, "In my continuing research into the history of architecture I am continually surprised by the lack of an adequate theory of change to explain the shift from style to style." It was my ongoing research of Piranesi's Ichnographia Campi Martii that unexpectedly led me to Helena, and via Helena I found that architectural history so far lacked recognition of her predominant role in the empire-wide spread of Christian (church) architecture. Helena's 'building' activities coincided with Constantine's legalization of Christianity, and after Helena's death (24-25 July 326), Constantine began a selective, but ongoing, outlawing/destruction of Pagan cults/temples--here architectural 'style' changed because of a very intentional metabolic, i.e., simultaneous creative/destructive, process.
Aside from strictly religious (temple and church) architecture, the case can be made that classical Roman architecture, in general, reached its climax during the reign of Maxentius, and ended 28 October 312, when Maxentius lost his life in battle with Constantine at the Milvian Bridge--Maxentius became (usurpative) emperor of Italy and North Africa 28 October 306, and Constantine attributes his Christian conversion to events that occurred the eve of 28 October 312. The architecture built in Rome under Maxentius is of the utmost refinement, e.g., the Circus of Maxentius manifests the most precisely designed of all Roman circuses. [Incidentally, the Circus of Maxentius plays a key role in the manifestation of two Ichnographia Campi Martii.] Records indicate that it may have been only a month after Constantine's triumph at the Milvian Bridge that the first Christian Basilica in Rome, first named after Constantine and today St. John Lateran, began construction. The architecture of Rome executed under Constantine (312-330) further includes (at least), St. Peter's at the Vatican, separate Basilicas of St. Lawrence, Agnes, and Peter et Marcellius, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (which is all that remains today of Elegabalus' Sessorian Palace, where Helena took up subsequent residence in Rome), the Arch of Constantine (which reused pieces of the Arch of Trajan), the Baths of Constantine, the Baths of Helena, and the Mausoleum of Helena (whose ruins exhibit construction very similar to the ruins of the great Constantinian Bath of Treves (Trier, 306-312), which were the largest Roman Baths outside Rome).
It is important to remember that during Constantine's 31 years as first partial and then sole ruler of the Roman Empire, the amount of time he actually stayed in the city of Rome amounts to only several months. [I'll have to check, but it appears that, when Emperor, Constantine spent the most time at Constantinople, and the second most time at Treves.] Nonetheless, the architecture of Rome (the city) began to change dramatically under his rule, and this is due to Helena's sustained presence in Rome. Moreover, Constantine can be credited with beginning the Byzantine 'style' when he ultimately moved the capital of the Roman Empire to a whole new and Christian city, Constantinople (founded 324 and dedicated 330).
By the end of the 4th century, Paganism was completely outlawed under Theodosius, and thus Pagan temples were no longer to be built.
The 'paradigm shift' from Pagan architecture to Christian architecture does not need a "theory of change" for it to be "coherently" explained. What it requires is a full knowledge of the history of the time when the change occurred.
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