ВОССТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ГРОБНИЦЫ БОГОРОДИЦЫ В ЭПОХУ КРЕСТОНОСЦЕВ: ПЕРЕУСТРОЙСТВО ИЛИ СОХРАНЕНИЕ КОНСТРУКЦИИ

Лаврентьева Е.С.

Аспирант, ФГБНИУ «Государственный институт искусствознания» при Министерстве культуры Российской Федерации, Москва

ВОССТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ГРОБНИЦЫ БОГОРОДИЦЫ В ЭПОХУ КРЕСТОНОСЦЕВ: ПЕРЕУСТРОЙСТВО ИЛИ СОХРАНЕНИЕ КОНСТРУКЦИИ?

Аннотация

В данной статье рассматриваются особенности восстановления Гробницы Богородицы в эпоху Крестовых походов и характерные черты архитектурного убранства, определяющие стиль крестоносцев. Оформление экстерьера кувуклии, внутри которой находится святой Гроб, было создано согласно определенной программе. Ее стены были оформлены слепой аркатурой. Арки имели слегка стрельчатую форму. Предположительно, на уровне капителей располагался скульптурный фриз. Стены завершались карнизом с растительным орнаментом. Кувуклия церкви Успения в Гефсимании восстанавливалась почти в одно время с кувуклией Храма Гроба Господня под покровительством латинского патриарха Иерусалима Арнульфа де Роола. Обе святыни являлись первыми объектами, восстановленными крестоносцами. Однако созданный в 12 веке облик кувуклии Богородицы, напоминавший миниатюрную церковь, в настоящее время почти утрачен. На базе сохранившихся фрагментов декоративного убранства была создана реконструкция кувуклии. Это позволило поставить вопрос о замысле восстановительных работ крестоносцев: заключался ли он в переустройстве, или же в сохранении конструкции.

Ключевые слова: Гроб Богородицы, кувуклия, церковь Успения в Гефсимании, Первый Крестовый поход, архитектура Иерусалима.

Lavrentyeva E.S.

Postgraduate student, The State Institute for Art Studies of the Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation, Moscow

RESTORATION OF THE TOMB OF THE VIRGIN MARY DURING CRUSADES: REARRANGEMENT OR PRESERVATION OF ITS CONSTRUCTION?

Abstract

In this article the crusader restoration features is under consideration in case of the architectural appearance of aedicule which contains the Tomb of the Virgin Mary. The walls of aedicule were surrounded with blind arcade in which two entrances were located from the north and west. The arches of this arcade had slightly-lowered pointed form. Presumably at the level of capitals there was a sculptural frieze; higher on the facade there was a limbum with inscription. The end of the façade was decorating with cornice. The aedicule of the Assumption church in Gethsemane and the aedicule of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were restored in one time together under the patronage of the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem Arnulf von Chocques. Both shrines were the first objects restored by crusaders. However the appearance of the Virgin aedicule created at the beginning of 12th century and reminded a church is almost lost now. Some architectural fragments of decoration were preserved. The reconstruction of crusader aedicule was created on the remained material. All of this can help in the definition of the main line of the crusader restoration works: rearrangement or preservation of the architectural construction.

Keywords: Tomb of the Virgin Mary, aedicule, the church of the Assumption in Gethsemane, First Crusade, the architecture of Jerusalem.

Introduction

The Crusades began at the end of the 11th century with the speech of the Pope Urban II who appealed to support the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos in his military campaign against the Seljuk Turks. This appeal arose to the First Crusade during which the Holy Jerusalem was conquered 15 July 1099 and was under the Latin rule until 2 October 1187 when it was surrendered to Salah ad-Din. Later the city was won back by Franks again and was held on till 1244.

As soon as Crusaders declared Jerusalem the capital of the new Christian state, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the great campaign of church restoration began which was lasted throughout the first half of the 12th century and led to new architectural style formation, "crusader style ". Restoration of the main shrines in Christian world, the Tomb of Jesus and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, was the most important purpose primarily realized.

The aim of this study is the analysis of the unique architectural appearance of aedicule which is contained the Tomb of the Virgin, and the definition of the main line of the crusader restoration works: rearrangement or preservation.

The Church of the Assumption in Gethsemane

In 12 century the first restoration works began with aedicule of the Tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and aedicule of the Tomb of the Virgin in the Church of the Assumption in Gethsemane. It was started in the 1110-s under the patronage of the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem Arnulf von Chocques [3, P. 60; 5, P. 63; 7, P. 289].

The church of the Assumption is located on the southern side of Mount of Olives and separated from the old City of Jerusalem with the Kidron Valley where there was a river which had dried up by the beginning of the 20th century. The architectural appearance of the church and its interior belongs to the Crusaders time. In the first half of the 12th century Benedictines built the abbey which was located on the aria of the church of the Assumption and to the West where now an olive garden is situated [3, P. 60; 6, P. 118].

In accordance with medieval plans of Jerusalem and written sources it is known that the church had a double structure: a crypt and the upper church. Nowadays there is only the crypt with beautiful entrance on south from which the great stairs leading down to the naos of the Church and aedicule.

The aedicule itself is located in the eastern part of a crypt and its glorious appearance assimilates by the whole church. Presumable date of its creation is the second half of the 5th century when the space of necropolis (kokhim) in the rock was transformed to the round church crypt with the purpose to select the funeral chamber with the Tomb of the Virgin. Due to the creation of centric space the adjacent burials were destroyed except one which is near of the aedicule, inside the northern rock wall [3, P. 20–30].

The aedicule of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary

The size of aedicule permits to get walk around it. It looks like the church inside the crypt. There are two small doorways: one is an entrance from the west, the second one is an entrance from the north. It seems that the second doorway was created shortly before the beginning of crusader restoration works for better pilgrim movement. There is a place for the liturgy and for the prayers of pilgrims inside the aedicule.

The aedicule has no foundation. Its modern basement (conserved from 12th century) concludes the remains of the rock walls which initially were full value walls. Over time the fragility of the rock occasioned for the walls building with block stones. During the crusader restoration a large amount of precious stone and metals were in use. The interior of the aedicule was faced with marble of ashy color that defined its local origin [7, P. 302].

Also there is no possibility to give an extant date of the beginning and ending of this restoration. But according to comparison of written sources created during the first half of 12th century one can see the approximate dates. One of the brightest descriptions of Tomb of the Virgin belongs to the Russian Abbot Daniel, "The Life and Pilgrimage of the Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land" (1106–1107). It is thought that he saw and described all shrines of Jerusalem before the Crusader restoration [1, P. 175].

From the letter of the Jerusalem patriarch Arnulf von Chocques it is known that restoration of the Tomb of the Virgin had been entrusted to Benedictine monks and by 1112 works had been begun already [2, P. 60]. At the same time the aedicule in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored and completed by 1119. Restoration of both aedicules was the events connected with activity of the patriarch Arnulf and was lasted from 1112 to 1118 or maybe less [3, P. 60 – 62; 7, P. 288–289].

After the restoration works by Franciscans in 1972–1974 a number of architectural and sculptural fragments of the 12th century were revealed [3, Plates 29–34]. Some of them decorate the aedicule exterior till nowadays, e.g. a sculptural lintel of the door of the northern façade. There are two decorative scrolls with fantastic animals, the most favorite motive of medieval sculptors, and a human figure in the middle of the lintel surface. Scholars thought the origin of this lintel referred to the 12th century. But according to stylistic and iconographic analysis it is clear that such relief can be referring to Early Christianity. It seems that the lintel was used as a spolia for decorating the aedicule during the restoration of the 12th century.

The walls are surrounded with remains of sixteen columns bases of early Crusaders time, diameter of the column – 17 cm. earlier there was a blind arcade continued on all four walls with intercolumniation – c. 46 cm.  The unique feature of this blind arcade is the odd number of columns on each wall of the aedicule which is constructed with the angular column belonging to both facades at the same time. Usually there is even number of columns on the Christian church façades.

In the pre-crusader text of the Abbot Daniel it is mentioned that in width aedicule had “four inches in both directions" [1, P. 175]. One inch is equal to c. 46 cm. One can see his words indicated to the length of space between columns, thus coincided with intercolumniation. For the reason that Abbot Daniel saw the Byzantine aedicule before the beginning of restoration works, his words indirectly demonstrates that restorers kept appearance of a shrine which became a traditional for the Christian world. At the same time crusaders added new architectural features such as slightly lowered pointed arches.

Possible reconstruction of the crusader aedicule

There were a lot of architectural fragments found in the northern arm of a crypt: cornices, abacuses, capitals, other decorative remains. Their small sizes were the reason to think that these fragments were a part of the decorative program of aedicule. According to M. Piccirillo pieces of small spiral columns could be used in the crusader ciborium construction which was on the top of aedicule by the analogy with the aedicule of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre [3, P. 77]. And the unique fragment of the arcade skewback demonstrated the connection of two arches into one arch shoe. Definitely that was a special feature of the crusader architecture. The sarcophagus with three round windows was also made by medieval masters of the first quarter of the 12th century [4, P. 145; 7, P. 302].

The only reconstruction of aedicule was offered by A. Prodomo [3, P. 74, Fig. 19; P. 59–82]. The following composition of the wall façade was consisted of blind arcade with slightly-pointed arches, sculptural frieze at the level of capitals, limbum (the cornice above the arches with inscriptions), and sculptural cornice completed the façade. On the top of the aedicule there was a ciborium stood above the oculus of the cupola. The dome of the ciborium was based upon six pair of spiral columns and completed with a small dome. One can find such reconstruction is rather apposite [7, P. 301–302].

Unfortunately the crusader aedicule couldn’t preserve its initial appearance. During next centuries in written sources it was described as a small chapel, square in the plan without any decorative program. No one can say precisely when the aedicule lost its beautiful decorations.

Conclusions

The architectural image of aedicule always had a huge value for Christian world. That is the cause why the restoration works during Crusaders time aimed to preserve the construction and its decorative program not to rearrange. The analysis of the remained fragments and reconstruction has shown that the previous shape of aedicule and decoration of its walls weren’t changed: all measurements used earlier were kept and formalized the appearance of crusader aedicule.

However there were some new architectural features in the appearance of the aedicule after restoration works, e.g. using the slightly lowered pointed arches of the blind arcade was a distinctive feature of crusader architecture. Therefore the restoration in 12th century showed there was only one prototype for aedicule recovery – the previous aedicule created by Byzantine architects. Such position of restoration program characterized crusaders builders as renovators but also as preservers of Holy Shrines.

Список литературы / References

1. Daniel the Abbot. ‘The life and journey of Daniel, abbot of the Russian land’ // Wilkinson J., Hill J., Ryan W. F. Jerusalem pilgrimage, 1099–1185 / J. Wilkinson, J. Hill, W. F. Ryan.– London: Hakluyt Society, 1988. – P. 120–176.
2. Letter from the Patriarch Arnulfus of Rohes (Arnulf von Chocques), 1112 // Bagatti B. New Discoveries at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane / B. Bagatti. – Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1975. – P. 60.
3. Bagatti B., Piccirillo M., Prodomo A. New Discoveries at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane / B. Bagatti. – Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1975. – 95 p.
4. Corbo V. C. Ricerche archeologiche al Monte degli Ulivi / V. C. Corbo. –Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1965. – 167 p.
5. Folda J. The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098–1187 / J. Folda. – New York: Cambridge University press, 1995. – 714 p.
6. Johns C. N. The Abbey of Saint Mary in the Valley of Jehoshaphat / C. N. Johns // The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine. –1939. –Vol. VIII. – P. 117–136
7. Pringle D. The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus. Vol. III: The City of Jerusalem / D. Pringle. – New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. – 506 p.