Development of Christian Church Architecture

Outline of a vast subject: The Development of Christian Church Architecture


For more, I recommend this lovely book, well worth tracking down (I came across it in the Deanery second-hand booksale: Principles and Elements of Medieval Church Architecture in Western Europe


Architecture is probably the hardest bit of art history to get into, because seeing a photo of a building and actually moving around in it are categorically different experiences, and there's all the technical vocab to get comfortable with. But I remember worthily crunching through Pevsner at about 16, then going into Winchester Cathedral and actually seeing it - not a mass of fancy stone, but a structure of arcades and transepts and aisles and all the rest of it. The jargon is tedious but it opens things up. Today we have naming of parts. And naming connects to vision. a botanist can see things in a garden that I, in the same sense, can't. Reading about a church building - the plan, the elevation, the whatnots and bits and pieces - can be maddening until, click, your mind has generated a 3-D space and you can actually feel something of it. Also, fear of flying is well known, although the science of jet planes is (I'm told) pretty sound. But I've never heard of anyone afraid of entering a medieval cathedral, standing right underneath hundreds of tons of stone vaulting, put up there by medieval masons who were really just working it out as they went along and hadn't a qualification between them. (Yet pretty darned advanced physics was in the system somewhere. I wonder how they spoke about lateral thrust in the twelfth century, or compression.) Then again, if they've stayed up that long, one might think, coming back to the vaults. After all, they don't look that heavy.  And cathedral smashes are a rare news event (no doubt because the powerful Church Lobby keeps them out of the media). Pevsner does not write about architecture in this way, which is why is famous and must be crunched through.

The 'Dark' Ages: some audio-visual resources

This is very much work in progress, intended for those studying this period.  And books remain the best resource! The most recent thorough survey of the period is Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome; but for an introduction it's advisable to read your way up to this kind of detail with an old-fashioned and readable textbook like Price and Howell, From Barbarism to Chivalry or Koenigsberger's volume on medieval Europe. But a proper bibliography should follow as a separate blog. Here are some audio-visual things, most of them online.


First off, there is an outstanding lecture course by Professor Paul Freedman, Yale Open Course History 210, available on iTunes and YouTube.
I'm also enjoying the podcast series by Joe Hogarty, Europe From its Origins


List of BBC In Our Time programmes listed under Dark Ages
On the art of the period, a good general introduction is SmartHistory, Medieval and Byzantine Art
The following are varied in quality and level of sophistication, but all reward our curiosity in some way.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
In Our Time: The Roman Empire's Decline and Fall
In Our Time: Rome and European Civilization - discussion of Rome's cultural heritage
Useful summary of different positions by Lancaster University
Oxford podcast interview with Bryan Ward-Perkins
Germanic Invasions.
History Tube series, The Barbarians: War Against the Roman Empire (2 episodes)
Series with lots of recreations, firmly committed to the violent invasion reading, with learned talking heads like Peter Heather. Episodes on Mongols, Huns, Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saxons, Franks: Barbarians
Dark Ages Art
Civilisation, Episode 1, The Skin of Our Teeth
Waldemar Janunsczak, The Dark Ages: An Age of Light
Christianity from 4th century
In Our Time: The Nicene Creed, The Pelagian Controversy
Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity
5th - 11th centuries: The Anglo-Saxons
Outstanding series of 15-minute talks on Radio 3 Essay (downloadable as podcast): Anglo-Saxon Portraits
Francis Pryor, The Anglo-Saxon Invasion (and see his Britain AD generally and the companion book), Simon Schama History of Britain.
Michael Wood. Two older series:  In Search of the Dark Ages (starts before this period; companion book), In Search of Alfred the Great. More recent: In Search of Beowulf; King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxons (very good, but pay per view!)
Anglo-Saxon English
Melvyn Bragg, episode 1 of History of English
In Our Time has episodes on Athelstan, Alfred, the Venerable Bede, The Lindisfarne Gospels
Anglo-Saxon art
Nina Ramirez, Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons
Celts
A History of Ireland, Part One
BBC 2-part docu, How the Celts Saved Britain
Book of Kells
Vikings
BBC Learning Documentary
Neil Oliver, Vikings - excellent recent series, archaeology-based, no reconstructions!
Charlemagne
Charming introduction on SmartHistory (a good site for exploring generally)
Two French-language programmes from the Arte channel:
Biopic, Charlemagne
Documentary, Au temps de Charlemagne
Byzantium and Byzantine Art
See (or rather hear) In Our Time, Byzantium
Superb TV  documentary series by Stephen Romer, Byzantium: The Lost Empire
SmartHistory discussion of Hagia Sophia
Series by Andrew Graham-Dixon,  Art of Eternity
Rise of Islam
PBS Docu, Islam: Empire of Faith
In Our Time, The Arab Conquests