History of Interior Design

Semester - 3

Content: Christian and Byzantine

Romanesque
Gothic
Renaissance
Baroque and Rococo
Christian and Byzantine
In 313 Christianity was officially recognized by Constantine-I. By 326 it
became official religion of the Roman Empire. Its Capital was based in
Byzantium (renamed Constantinople). The empire stretched from Milan,
Cologne (west to Syria), south to Greece and Egypt. They adopted roman
characteristic: typology – Basilica (a rectangular assembly hall that could
serve as anything from market hall to law court)

1. Early Christian. (around 300-500)

2. Ravenna. (around 495-526)
3. Early Byzantine. (around 527-62)
4. Post-Justinian . (around 562-843)
5. Middle Byzantine. (around 843-1204)
6. Late Byzantine. (around 1216 -1453)
1. Early Christian. (around 300-500)
• Christian Funerary Architecture was directly influenced by centralized plans
of Roman Buildings.
• Types of building : Mausoleum and Baptistery (octagonal).
• Contrast to its exterior its interior were splendid with colors, light, precious
materials, on wall marble revetments and frescoes and mosaics. Floors
were covered with marble mosaics. Architraves, entablatures and screens
were of geometric and foliate patterns. Altar were in gold and silvers,
encrusted with jewels.
• Elements : Clerestory – The roof of the aisles were lower than that of the
nave.
Gallery – The aisles were sometimes surmounted by a second storey;or
gallery (designated for women).
Arcade – The nave and aisles were divided by rows of columns or piers,
surmounted either by arches to form an arcade.
Apse – at the end of the arcade, the apse, usually domed and articulated
with a triumphal arch, the shrine or high altar of the church was sheltered by
an elaborate canopy.
Windows – The windows of Early Christian basilicas added to their mystique,
providing and ethereal, opaque light, either through stone plaques perforated
with decorative holes, through colored glass.

Ambo – The ambo was a raised platform from which the epistle and the Gospel
were read. Usually made of stone, richly decorated with ornamental panels.

Liturgical Furniture – The sanctuary was sometimes raised on a platform,

reserved for the clergy. This was often separated from the nave by a low
parapet or high screen called an iconostasis.

Opus sectile – The walls and floors of many churches featured an ornate
surface decoration of opus sectile-marble stones cut to form geometric
patterns.
2. Ravenna. (around 495-526)
• In 395 the Roman Empire was again divided. While in the east the emerging
Byzantine Empire flourished,the West was subjected to constant invasion.
As a results Ravenna, on Italy’s east coast, assumed increasing
importance. Thus in 495-526 Court was set in Ravenna.
• It had eastern Characteristic Such as Narthex, two low towers projecting
sideways, an apse that is polygonal rather than hemispherical on the
exterior.
• It had Mosaics of Female Saints rather than scenes from Bible.
• Interior – The marble veneers and capitals in the “wind-blown” style.
• Campanile – It was built with thin bricks, typically used in Constantinople
rather than high bricks for construction.
• The Dome – is made not of brick or stone but of earthenware pots inserted
into each other. This western technique created a structure so light that no
buttresses or arches were required to support the dome. the whole covered
by a timber roof.
3. Early Byzantine. (around 527-62)

• The 6th century was the high point of the Byzantine Empire. Basilica was
predominant in the West while in East increasing tendency towards greater
complexity and, above all, toward centralization with square domed bays
being introduced into rectangular basilical plans.
• Pumpkin Dome – The dome, measuring 52ft in diameter, is a pumpkin
dome, with sixteen sides formed of scooped segments with ridges. Rather
than being hidden in a timber roof.
• Fold Capitals – The Capitals are folded with spiky tendrils that are deeply
undercut so that they stand out in strong relief from the dark ground.
• Pendentive – The introduction of the domed centralized plan was made
possible by the pendentive – a curved triangle spanning between arches.
• Best example of building in this period is “Hagia Sophia”.
4. Post-Justinian . (around 562-843)

• After Justinian’s death in562, the empire lost much of its territory,including
parts of Greece, Syria, Palestine, and north Africa.
• Believing the Byzantine empire’s troubles to be the result of divine wrath at
the worship of icons, LEO III instituted an iconoclastic movement in 726.
• Figural mosaics within churches were replaced by crosses, foliage and
geometric patterns.
• Due to this revolution churches became smaller and less daring.
• However centralization and the domed basilica and cross-domed church
were yet predominate.
• Its interior: if we compare cross-section to 6th century it reveals a greater
simplicity and solidity of form, walls and piers are heavy, the opening of
windows and arcades are small.
• Its exterior: little decoration but its proportions are more squats.above a
plain cube, a low drum pierced with windows conceals the dome.
5. Middle Byzantine. (around 843-1204)

• The period from the end of iconoclasm in843 to the Latin occupation of
Constantinople in 1204 is known as the Middle byzantine period.
• The first 180 year under the rule of Macedonian dynasty it was golden age.
There was emergence of many new typologies in church architecture.
• Around 1025 Macedonian dynasty was decline and the Comnene dynasty
came in power. It established an era of stability, reflected by a process of
consolidation in architecture.
• Its features : Squinch – its small arch or niche placed at the corners of a
square bay to form a base for a dome.
Domed octagon.
Cross-in-square.
Mid-Byzantine exteriors : it saw greater decorations, bricks were arranged
in patterns – herringbone, chevrons, meander. Blind niches, recessed
arched windows, colonnades, and pilasters.
6. Late Byzantine. (around 1216 -1453)
• In 1204 Constantinople was sacked by the Franks and the empire went into
decline, losing territory to surrounding tribes.
• In 1453 Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks and the empire
collapsed. Byzantine culture remained strong.
• No new form emerged, but variations of old typologies featured an even
greater elaboration of exteriors and increasingly steep proportions.
• Demand for separate areas for funeral monuments let to the attachment of
auxiliary spaces to exiting churches to create large, irregular complexes.
• Its features : Colorism – a new emphasis on color, as red brick alternates with
white ashlars. Colored stones were also introduced.
Holy Apostles
Silhouette- the tall, narrow drums of the five domes of the Holy Apostles
create a dramatic silhouette, the various parts of the church seeming to climb
ever higher. The tiled roofs of the domes flow over the arched windows of the
drums to create a rippling eaves line that was particularly popular in Greece.
Onion domes .
Romanesque
• The term “Romanessque” originated in the early 19th century in reference to
the architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries because it revived classical
precedents established by the Romans.
• Its basic characteristics :
Barrel Vaults, the round arch, vaults, exuberant surface decoration and
towers,
Organic quality of space, expressed in the clarity of building plans and in
clear-cut structural forms.
Obligatory system- its starting point is the square module of the span, which
is split in half in the lateral naves; this system also governs the proportions of
the body of the church and of the transept, narthexes and atrium. On the
basis of the square module, round arches can be used to connect a complex
system of alternating columns and pies.
• France and England.
• Italy, Spain and Germany.
The Romanesque Style in Europe
France and England
• France : Pilgrims journeyed from all over the Continent and aided the
promulgation of the emergent architectural styles. Due to this design of
churches adapted to accommodate both the clergy and large crowds.
• The planning of east end of churches was developed to follow either a
radiating or staggered plan.
• The staggered plan saw the introduction of chapels to the eastern sides of
the transepts. These developments in spatial organization enabled divisions
to be maintained between the worshippers and the clergy; and between the
altars of saints and the high altar of the church.
• England : in England it was known as Norman style and it flourished during
11th and 12th century.
• With the victory of William the Conqueror at Hastings, England welcomed a
new style. They were characterized by their vast scale, which surpassed
anything previously seen in England and vied with contemporary continental
models.
Italy, Spain and Germany.

• Italy : Italy as a whole was relatively conservative and did not witness the
scale of activity found in France , England and Spain. Italy’s rich stylistic
inheritance was exploited to the full by Romanesque architects, who
continued to use diverse features, such as cupolas on raised dome, the
basilical plan, separate campaniles and baptisteries, and marble facing of
exterior elevations.
• Spain : it was product of several distinct traditions. Spain’s long history of
occupation by the Moors had produced highly idiosyncratic Christian-Islamic
styles known as Mozarabic and of which were combined . This often
produced a hybrid style, based on French models but continuing earlier
tradition in the use of Islamic decoration.
• Germany : in the 11th and 12th centuries drew on the forms established
under Charlemagne and the Ottonian rule and adapted them to create some
of the first buildings in a truly Romanesque idiom. Germany is also credited
with introducing twin towers to the west façade of churches.
Gothic
• The cradle of Gothic architecture is generally acknowledged to be northern
France. The essential elements of gothic architecture had all been used in
Romanesque buildings, but not together.
• Basic characteristics: Pointed arch, much larger windows, less massive
piers, ribbed vault, flying buttresses, and rampant arch.
• The manner of decoration also changed, with figured and narrative
elements appearing not only on portal and capitals but also on ribbed vaults,
bundled piers, and pinnacles.
• The plan of the hall church- with three or five naves, called “stepped” when
the central nave is elevated –conveys the sense of a single great space lit
directly by light falling from the window in the lateral naves.
• Stylistic definitions : International Gothic- plurality of stylistic diffusion.
Courtly Gothic – underscores its ties to the courts.
Flamboyant Gothic – alludes to the sinuous lines of decoration, evocative of
twisting, darting flames; it also alludes to the abundant decorative motifs
inspired by foliage and flowers.
Rayonnant Gothic – refers specifically to the rays emanating from rose
windows.
• France , England. Spain and Portugal , Germany and Italy.
• France – gothic style served as a sort of calling card from the European world to
the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean.
• By the end of 12th century French architects and builders had so thoroughly
grasped the technical possibilities of the pointed arch as to create forms of
striking impact.
• The Flamboyant Gothic of the 15th century was distinguished by an exceptional
proliferation of ornamentation.
• England – influenced by France, England was to formulate a specific national
style with its own terminology.
• As a result around 13-14th century it developed “Decorative style” and
“Perpendicular style” ‘,featuring ribbing carved with grooves and double curves,
typified by daring vertical structures, combined with surprising formal inventions.
• Spain and Portugal – they were relatively slow to embrace the Gothic style,
introduced by the Cistercians in the 13th century. Manueli-no style, named after
king Manuel I
• Germany and Italy – first thirty years of 13th century showed the influence of
French Gothic. Architects during this period were Elisabethkirche, Cologne
Duomo and Parles.
• The most short – lived of all Gothic styles of Europe, Italian Gothic was also the
most hesitant. For secular buildings, the Gothic language was more
enthusiastically embraced, particularly for the numerous balconies and arcades
so suited to the benign Mediterranean climate.
Renaissance
• Renaissance architecture in Italy is characterized by harmony, clarity and
strength. The new style was fully bound up with Renaissance interest in
aspects of antiquity, such as Literature, philosophy, and mathematics, rulers
and patrons realized the importance of both architecture and urban planning
as means of promoting notions of an ordered society.
• The Early Renaissance – it was around 15th century and its salient features
are balance and harmony. One of its finest example is The Pazzi chaple in
florence, other Architects – Giuliano da Sangallo, Michelozzo.
• The high Renaissance – the course of Renaissance architecture in the 16th
century was distinguished by a supreme confidence in new means of
expression. The results was a greater dynamism and plasticity, as seen in
Bramante’s building Santa Maria delle Grazie. The ornamental “rowels” and
the great concave panels on the lower part of the apse bear witness to a
new spatial sensitivity.
• Late Renaissance – great attention was focused on a philological revival of
the ancient orders, on the other hand bold, scenographic effects were
increasingly emphasized. Interior decoration included much stucco work and
wood carving.
Baroque and Rococo
• Baroque architecture originated in17th century Rome, where it developed as an
expression of the newly triumphant Catholic church.
• Breaking with the somewhat static intellectual formulas of the Renaissance,
baroque architecture was first and foremost an art of persuasion.
• A new dynamic architectural vocabulary emerged, often based on the
repetition, breaking up, and distortion of Renaissance classical motifs. Broken
pediments , giant orders, and convex and concave walls were all used relatively
freely by Baroque architects leading to very personal styles.
• Typical of baroque style is a decorative exuberance that finds expression in bold
inventions and a progressive accentuations of plastic, dynamic masses. Curved
lines and elliptical floor plans were predominate.
• Domes grow increasingly bold and grand monumental structures offer surprising
theatrical effects.
• Rome was the radiating center of the baroque style.
• The Rococo style was essentially a decorative movement that developed in the
early 18th century in the town houses and hotels of the Parisian nobility.
• Nicolas Pineau, and germain Boffrand were among the designers who
succeeded in reflecting the more intimate scale and comfortable arrangement of
room by decorating them with light, frivolous and colorful schemes in which
panels and door frames dissolved and walls merged with the ceiling.