Giacobbe Giusti, Aphrodite

Giacobbe Giusti, Aphrodite

Aphrodite of the Syracuse type. Parian marble, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 4th century BC; neck, head and left arm are restorations by Antonio Canova. Found at Baiae, Southern Italy.

Giacobbe Giusti, Aphrodite

Giacobbe Giusti, Aphrodite

Venus pudica, Museo archeologico nazionale, Atene

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascita_di_Venere

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Piero della Francesca
Flagellation

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Titian Resurrection,

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Joos van Wassenhove
Institution of Eucharist,

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Paolo Uccello Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 2),

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Titian Last Supper,

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Luca Signorelli Crucifixion,

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

Paolo Uccello Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 4)

Ducal palace of Urbino
Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino
The Palace’s Façade.
General information
Status	now used as a museum, National Gallery
Type	Palace
Location	Urbino, Italy
Address	Piazza Duca Federico
Construction started	1454
Client	House of Montefeltro, House of Della Rovere
Website
Official site of the Ducal Palace
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Palazzo Ducale: Centro storico di Urbino
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv
Designated	1998 (30th session)
Reference no.	828
State Party	Italy
Region	Europe

The Ducal Palace (Italian: Palazzo Ducale) is a Renaissance building in the Italian city of Urbino in the Marche. One of the most important monuments in Italy, it is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998.^[1]

History

The arcaded courtyard

The construction of the Ducal Palace was begun for Duke Federico III da Montefeltro around the mid-fifteenth century by the Florentine Maso di Bartolomeo. The new construction included the pre-existing Palace of the Jole. The solid rock hillside salient was impregnable to siege but was problematic for carving out the foundation of a palace. Thus, a prominent fortress-builder, Luciano Laurana, from Dalmatia, was hired to build the substructure; but Laurana departed Urbino before the living quarters of the palace were begun. After Laurana, the designer or designers of the Ducal Palace are unknown with certainty.^[2] Leading High Renaissance architect Donato Bramante was a native of Urbino and may have worked on the completion of the palace.^[3]

The Ducal Palace is famous as the setting of the conversations which Baldassare Castiglione represents as having taken place in the Hall of Vigils in 1507 in his Book of the Courtier.

The palace continued in use as a government building into the 20th century, housing municipal archives and offices, and public collections of antique inscriptions and sculpture (the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, see below). Restorations completed in 1985 have reopened the extensive subterranean network to visitors.

Studiolo and twin chapels

The Ducal Palace featured several rooms that reflect Federico’s devotion to Classical and humanistic studies and served his daily routine, which included visiting the palace’s lararium and reading Greek literature. These learned and explicitly pagan touches were atypical of a medieval palazzo.^[4]

Studiolo

A central element in this plan is the studiolo (a small study or cabinet for contemplation), a room measuring just 3.60 x 3.35m and facing away from the city of Urbino and towards the Duke’s rural lands.^[5] Its beautifully executed intarsia work, surrounding the room’s occupant with trompe-l’oeil shelves, benches, and half-open latticework doors displaying symbolic objects representing the Liberal Arts, is the single most famous example of this Italian craft of inlay. The benches hold musical instruments, and the shelves contain representations of books and musical scores, scientific instruments (including an astrolabe and an armillary sphere), study furnishings (including a writing desk and an hourglass), weapons and armor, and various other objects (e.g. parrots in cages and a mazzocchio).^[6]

• 

  Intarsia paneling of the studiolo

• 

  Astronomical instruments and mazzocchio

• 

  A mechanical clock

The studiolo also features iconic representations of several persons, both contemporary and historical. On the intarsia panels are depicted statues of Federico in scholarly attire and of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Above the intarsia panels are portraits of great authors by Joos van Wassenhove (with reworking by Pedro Berruguete):^[7]

North wall
Plato	Aristotle	Ptolemy	Boethius
St. Gregory the Great	St. Jerome	St. Ambrose	St. Augustine
West wall		East wall
Pietro d’Abano	Petrarch	Moses	Cicero
Hippocrates	Dante	Solomon	Seneca
window		Aquinas	Homer
window		Duns Scotus	Virgil
South wall
Sixtus IV	Albertus Magnus	Bessarion	Pius II
Bartolus	Solon	Vittorino da Feltre	Euclid

The upper register (shown in the diagram’s outside rows and columns) presents Classical and humanistic writers, as opposed to the religious figures (broadly speaking) of the lower register (inside).^[8]

Chapel of Absolution and Temple of the Muses

Downstairs from the studiolo are a twinned pair of chapels, one Christian and one pagan. The vestibule leading to them emphasizes their complementarity with this inscribed elegiac couplet:

Bina vides parvo discrimine iuncta sacella: altera pars musis, altera sacra deo est.

You see a pair of chapels, joined together with a small separation: the one part is sacred to the Muses, the other sacred to God.

The Temple of the Muses, which may have been used as the personal studiolo of Federico’s son Guidobaldo, originally featured paintings of the Muses as “sober musicians” that are perhaps the work of Giovanni Santi.^[9]

Galleria Nazionale delle Marche

The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (National Gallery of the Marche), housed in the palace, is one of the most important collections of Renaissance art in the world. It includes important works by artists such as Raphael, Van Wassenhove (a Last Supper with portraits of the Montefeltro family and the court), Melozzo da Forlì, Piero della Francesca (with the famous Flagellation), Paolo Uccello, Timoteo Viti, and other 15th century artists, as well as a late Resurrection by Titian.

Selected highlights

• 

  Attributed to Piero della Francesca
  Ideal City, 60 x 200 cm

• 

  Raphael
  La Muta, 64 x 48 cm

• 

  Piero della Francesca
  Flagellation, 59 x 82 cm.

   

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ducal Palace, Urbino

• 

  Piero della Francesca
  Madonna of Senigallia, 61 x 53 cm.

   

 

• 

  Titian
  Resurrection, 163 x 104 cm

   

• 

  Joos van Wassenhove
  Institution of Eucharist, 331 x 335 cm.

   

• 

  Titian
  Last Supper, 163 x 104 cm.

   

• 

  Orazio Gentileschi
  Vision of St. Francesca Romana

   

• 

  Paolo Uccello
  Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 2), 43 x 58 cm

   

 

• 

  Luca Signorelli
  Crucifixion, 144 x 89 cm.

   

• 

  Paolo Uccello
  Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 4), 43 x 58 cm

   

• 

  Federico Barocci
  Virgin and Child with Saints, 283 x 190 cm.

   

• 

  Paolo Uccello
  Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 6), 43 x 58 cm

References

1. Jump up^ Lusiardi, Federica. “Ducal Palace of Urbino and Galleria Nazionale delle Marche”. Inexhibit. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
2. Jump up^ Clark, Kenneth, Civilization, Harper & Row (1969), p. 109.
3. Jump up^ Clark, p. 110.
4. Jump up^ Joscelyn Godwin, The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 2002), pp. 90-91.
5. Jump up^ Godwin, pp. 91 and 94.
6. Jump up^ Godwin, p. 92
7. Jump up^ Godwin, pp. 92-94.
8. Jump up^ See Cheles, p. 17.
9. Jump up^ Godwin, p. 91.

Sources

• Luciano Cheles, The Studiolo of Urbino: An Iconographic Investigation (Penn State Press, 1986)
• Robert Kirkbride, Architecture and Memory. The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro (Columbia University Press, 2008)

• Galleria Nazionale delle Marche – Official website
• Studiolo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducal_Palace,_Urbino

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Tabularium, ancient Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Tabularium, ancient Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Tabularium, ancient Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Tabularium, ancient Rome
Location	Regione VIII Forum Romanum
Built in	78 BC
Built by/for	M. Aemilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus
Type of structure	Basilica
Related	Roman Forum
Tabularium

The Tabularium, behind the corner columns of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus.

The Tabularium was the official records office of ancient Rome, and also housed the offices of many city officials. Situated within the Roman Forum,^[1] it was on the front slope of the Capitoline Hill, below the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, to the southeast of the Arx and Tarpeian Rock.^{[citation needed]}

Within the building were the remains of the temple of Veiovis. In front of it were the Temples of Vespasian & Concord, as well as the Rostra and the rest of the forum. Presently the Tabularium is only accessible from within the Capitoline Museum, although it still provides a panoramic view over the Forum.^{[citation needed]}

The Construction of the Tabularium was ordered around 78 BC by the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla.^[2] The building was completed by Quintus Lutatius Catulus, consul in 78 BC. This was part of a public works programme for the redevelopment of the Capitoline Hill, which had been damaged by a fire in in 83 BC.^[3] The construction by Catulus is not motioned in the ancient literature. It is known through an inscription (CIL 1).^[4]

Architecture

The building itself had a facade of peperinoand travertine blocks. The interior vaults are of concrete.^{[citation needed]}

Its great corridor, 67 m (220 ft) long, raised 15 m (49 ft) above the forum on a massive substructure, is still partly preserved. This corridor was lighted through a series of arches divided by semi-detached columns of the Doric order, the earliest example of this class of decoration, which is in the Theatre of Marcellus, the Colosseum, and all the great amphitheatres throughout the Roman empire constituted the decorative treatment of the wall surface and gave scale to the structure.^[1]

The facade faced the back of the Temple of Concord in the Forum and consisted of three levels. The first story was a large and tall fortified wall with a single door and only small windows near the top to light the interior, forum level rooms. The second story featured a Doric arcade (partially preserved) and the third, no longer extant story, had a high Corinthian order colonnade.^{[citation needed]} The upper floors of this structure was much changed in the 13th century, when the Palazzo dei Senatori was built.^[1]

Some scholars, such as Filippo Coarelli, in the past, have suggested that the ‘Tabularium’ itself is unattested to in any literary sources. Furthermore, its function and purpose has been the subject of debate. The unity of the main structure does however suggest that the building was at least initially conceived to serve a singular purpose. To illustrate the complexity of the building, Filippo Coarelli has stated that a particular annex of the Aerarium Saturni was constructed specifically to house metal ingots and minted Republican coins. Recent evidence, in the form of six military diplomas dated from AD 85 to 88, confirms the existence of the ‘Tabularium’ in its renowned form. Coarelli has suggested that the ‘Tabularium’ can be dated precisely to 78 BC, although construction began many years prior and almost certainly prior to the death of Sulla. The building itself is in many ways intrinsically tied to the politics of Sulla, especially in regard to the temple substructure. The structure was considered such an enduring masterpiece of late Republican architecture that a funerary inscription for the architect commissioned by Lutatius Catalus was created and preserved in a courtyard of the hospital of the Fatebenefatelli, on Tiber island. The inscription reads as follows: ‘Lucius Cornelius, son of Lucius, of the Voturia tribe, chief engineer to Q. Lucius Catulus when he was consul, architect (to him) when he was censor’.^[5]

Modern scholarship

Nicholas Purcell’s article Atrium Libertatis is aligned with the view of contemporary historians regarding the epigraphic evidence once present within the Tabularium. In his detailed analysis of the now-lost inscriptions Purcell makes clear that these inscriptions have compounded our misunderstanding of one of the largest, oldest and best-preserved buildings of the Roman Republic.^[6]

The generic terms ‘probatio’ of a ‘substructio’ and a ‘tabularium’ were recorded by an early Renaissance antiquarian in that order. It is arguable that the identification of the so-called ‘Tabularium’ is incorrect. Purcell draws our attention to the lack of archaeological and epigraphic knowledge on ‘tabularia’ suggesting that these inscriptions were not intended to be grandiose in scope, nor did they name the building^[7] which further reflects the prevailing credulity of the structure in question. Purcell’s reference to the archaeological research conducted by Theodor Mommsenaligns with his argument and likely indicates that historians must set aside such misunderstandings reflected in the literary sources. As Mommsen stated quite rightly that ‘tabularium’ is a term that may be applied any structure associated with administration.^[8] Therefore, it is likely that the ‘Tabularium’ in question, despite the sheer size fronting the Capitoline Hill, was one of many structures built for the purpose of holding records.

Purcell’s assessment of the epigraphic evidence once found within the structure in question reaffirms the following view long held by academics that the ‘Tabularium’ is insufficiently documented and the product of scholarly inertia. This unfortunately has further compounded our understanding of the Capitoline substructure, and as a result, we are no closer to identifying the extent of its function, let alone its name.

Tucci’s article radically changed the way historians and archaeologists alike would view the ‘Tabularium’, questioning the very identification of the structure and its function. Exploring the history of archaeology at the site, Tucci makes clear that the identification of the so-called ‘Tabularium’ is hinged solely upon an inscription long lost (CIL VI 1314, 31597), with no ancient evidence from the period directly correlating to the site. As such, it is arguable that the word tabularium itself has been incorrectly in modern scholarship with reference to the building. Instead, Tucci argues that the substructure, which provides the foundations for the entire building, was itself likely a tabularium, being one of many offices housed within Roman buildings and temples for the purpose of holding records. As such, Tucci disputes the idea that a sole Tabularium or mass-archive of Rome ever existed. In alignment with this argument, Tucci subsequently seeks to identify the structure in occupation of the space above the Tabularium substructure. In examining the architectural link between the rooms of the substructure and that of a south-western building, Tucci, in accordance with historians before him, could identify the remnants of an extension of the Aerarium, or treasury, which was housed in the Temple of Saturn. Subsequently, in correlation with the accounts of Livy (7.28.4-6), Ovid (Fasti 6.183-85) and Cicero (De domo 38.101) Tucci draws attention to a clear association between the location of this mint, and that of the Temple of Juno Moneta. With reference to the archaeological research of Giannelli and his identification of concrete remains in the Aracoeli Garden in the Forum, Tucci argues for the foundations of Giannelli’s supposed Temple of Juno Moneto to date back to the 4th century B.C, thus indicating a relocation. Tucci’s argument thus is fulfilled as he concludes that in circa 78 B.C., the Temple of Juno Moneto was rededicated atop the substructure of the Tabularium, in a complex which included the extended Aerarium, and that this relocation likely occurred after the fire of 83 B.C. As a result, Tucci called into question both the identification and function of the so-called ‘Tabularium’, in his attempt to overturn a theory that had been taken for historical fact since the 15th century A.D.^[9][10]

Fillipo Coarelli (2010) uses the arguments and findings of Nicholas Purcell (1993), Henner von Heserb (1995) and Pier Luigi Tucci (2005) to propose an alternative understanding of the function of the Tabularium. These works are characterised by their ability to provide alternative understandings when questioning the function of the “Tabularium.” It is important to note that prior these studies, research and scholarship of the “Tabularium” was primarily saturated by the Richard Delbruck’s Hellenistiche Bauten in Latium, published in 1875. It was Delbruck’s findings that rendered the conclusion that the Tabularium served as a house of public records. However, writing in 2010, Coarelli has had access to a wider range of both archaeological and written sources that probe a deeper inquest in to traditional discourses that cloud our conception of the function and meaning of the “Tabularium.”

Within Substructio et tabularium, Coarelli fundamentally purports that “the so-called tabularium is not the archive of the Roman state, known by this name’ and the rejection of this long held but incorrect hypothesis permits us to study the monument afresh.” He goes on to state that “[the tabularium] represents in fact the foundations (substructio) of a large temple of the Sullan period, restored by Domitian after the fire of 80AD.” Throughout his work, Coarelli uses the findings of Purcell, von Hesberg and Tucci as a roadmap that forms the basis of his argument. He begins with Purcell’s epigraphic discoveries that connotes the classification of the Tabularium as a records building: “Populi tabularia ubi publici continentur” (Populi Tabularia where the public documents are housed.). Moving to von Hesberg, Coarelli highlights the study of the dimensions of architectural pieces from the Tabularium that suggest “the second floor of the building must have been significantly wider than the arched lower floor”, proposing that there was a temple structure within the Tabularium (Fig. X.). Finally, Coarelli’s inclusion of Tucci’s findings builds upon von Hesberg’s assertion, serving as a sounding board for Coarelli’s initial thesis; that the “Tabularium” served as the basement of a proposed temple.

Coarelli tracks the structural changes that took place within the Tabularium, and ultimately concludes that it is challenging for historians to ascertain the absolute meaning of this structure due to the “complexity of [it].” He points out that only until recently have we been able to understand that the Tabularium actually existed due to the emergence of from six military diplomas, with dates ranging from AD85-88. Further, these diplomas refer the location of the Tabularium publicum to the Capitolium. Here, the location is extremely significant. Coarelli states that the tabularium “must have been situated in the immediate environs of the area Capitolina, where the military diplomas were displayed until AD90.” Thus, it is clear that the tabularium was a multifaceted building that pertained to the political and religious culture of the Roman empire.

Thus, by expanding upon the arguments of Purcell, von Hesberg and Tucci, Coarelli positions himself to further execute his overarching thesis with increased clarity. Fundamentally, by galvanising the “deep-rooted biases” that obfuscate the understanding of the Tabularium, Coarelli is able to suggest that the Tabularium is rather a multifaceted structure that pertained to the political and religious centre of the Roman world.

• Roman architecture
• List of Roman domes

Notes

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 341.
2. Jump up^ (eds.), Olivier Hekster/Richard Fowler (2005). Imaginary Kings royal images in the Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. [Stuttgart]: Steiner. ISBN 3515087656.
3. Jump up^ Musei Capitoloni, Rome.[1]
4. Jump up^ Oxford Classical dictionary, 2012
5. Jump up^ Filippo Coarelli, Substructio et Tabularium, Papers of the British School at Rome, Vol. 78 (2010), p. 123.
6. Jump up^ Nicholas Purcell, Atrium Libertatis, Papers of the British School at Rome, Vol. 61 (1993), p. 135
7. Jump up^ Nicholas Purcell, Atrium Libertatis, Papers of the British School at Rome, Vol. 61 (1993), p. 140
8. Jump up^ Atrium Libertatis
9. Jump up^ Tucci, P. L., 2005. ‘Where High Moneta leads her steps sublime. The “Tabularium” and the Temple of Juno Moneta’, Journal of Roman Archaeology vol. 18, 6-33
10. Jump up^ G. Giannelli, 1978. “La Leggenda dei ‘Mirabilia’ e l’antica topografia dell’Arce Capitolina”, StRom vol. 26, 60-71, as cited in P. L. Tucci (2005)

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). “Tabularium“. Encyclopædia Britannica. 26(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabularium

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Porte Caelimontane

Giacobbe Giusti, Porte Caelimontane

 

Porte Caelimontane Arc de Dolabella et SilanusGiacobbe Giusti, Porte Caelimontane
Porte Caelimontane reconstruite sous la forme d’un arc de triomphe, vue de l’extérieur
Lieu de construction	Mur Servien, voie Appienne
Date de construction	1. ive siècle av. J.-C. 2. 10 apr. J.-C.
Ordonné par	1. Sénat romain 2. Publius Cornelius Dolabella et Caius Junius Silanus
Type de bâtiment	1. Porte fortifiée 2. Arc de triomphe
Le plan de Rome ci-dessous est intemporel. Tracé du mur servien et localisation de la porte puis l’arc (en rouge)
Coordonnées	41° 53′ 04″ nord, 12° 29′ 39″ est
Liste des monuments de la Rome antique

La Porte Caelimontane (latin : Porta Caelimontana) est une des portes du mur servien, située entre la Porte Querquétulane et la Porte Capène. Elle est reconstruite au début du i^er siècle et prend la forme d’un arc de triomphe romain : l’arc de Dolabella et Silanus(en latin : Arcus Dolabellae et Silani).

Localisation

La porte se trouve sur le Caelius¹, au sommet du Clivus Scauri, à l’angle nord de la caserne des pérégrins², sur le tracé de l’aqueduc de l’Aqua Marcia, près de l’actuelle église de Santa Maria in Dominica³.

Histoire

En 10 ap. J.-C., la porte est reconstruite par les consuls Publius Cornelius Dolabella et Caius Junius Silanus^{2,a 1} sous la forme d’un arc de triomphe⁴. L’arc est probablement construit à l’occasion de la restauration du réseau d’aqueducs de la ville décidée par Auguste, comme l’arc de Lentulus et Crispinus, pour soutenir un tronçon de l’aqueduc de l’Aqua Marcia. Il est ensuite réutilisé par Néron lorsqu’il fait construire l’arcus Neroniani, branche de l’aqueduc de l’Aqua Claudia².

Description

L’arc à une baie est fait de travertin et soutient une branche de l’aqueduc de l’Aqua Marcia². Le passage voûté est large de 4 mètres et haut de 6,56 mètres. Des blocs de tuf de Grotta Oscura, typiques des matériaux utilisés pour l’enceinte servienne, ont été retrouvés sous le pilier nord. L’arc est décoré de deux corniches et l’attique porte une inscription donnant l’identité des commanditaires³.

Transcription de l’inscriptiona 1
P. CORNELIVS P.F. DOLABELLA C. IVNIVS C.F. SILANVS FLAMEN MARTIAL(IS) CO(N)S(VLES) EX S.C. FACIVNDVM CVRAVERVNT IDEMQVE PROBAVERVNT

• 

  Porte Caelimontane vue de l’intérieur.

• 

  L’arc de Dolabella et Silanus et arche de l’aqueduc sur une gravure du Piranèse.

Notes et références

• Sources modernes :

1. ↑ Platner et Ashby 1929, p. 405.
2. ↑ ^{a, b, c et d} Platner et Ashby 1929, p. 38.
3. ↑ ^a et b Parment et Varinlioğlu 2008.
4. ↑ Coarelli 1996, p. 325.

• Sources antiques :

1. ↑ ^a et b CIL VI, 1384 [archive]

Bibliographie

• (en) Samuel Ball Platner et Thomas Ashby, A topographical dictionary of Ancient Rome, Londres, Oxford University Press, 1929, 608 p.
• Eva Margareta Steinby (dir.), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, Edizioni Quasar, 1993-1996
  • (it) Filippo Coarelli, « Porta Caelimontana », dans LTUR III, 1996, p. 324
  • (it) M. Andreussi, « Murus Servii Tullii », dans LTUR III, 1996, p. 322
  • (it) Z. Mari, « Arcus Dolabellae et Silani », dans LTUR I, 1993, p. 91-92
• (en) Todd W. Parment et Günder Varinlioğlu, « Arcus Dolabellae et Silani », Digital Augustan Rome,‎ 2008 (lire en ligne [archive])

• Mur Servien
• Arcs de Rome
• Aqueduc de l’Aqua Marcia

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte_Caelimontane

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Mosaïque du vi^e siècle de la carte de Madaba, représentant l’église à pignon avec son double atrium et sa rotonde.

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church of the Holy Sepulchre – 1149

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Basic information
Location	Old City of Jerusalem[a]
Affiliation	Christianity
Rite	Byzantine, Latin, Alexandrian, Armenian, Syriac
Municipality	Jerusalem
Year consecrated	13 September 335
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Active
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos (1810 restoration)
Architectural type	Church, Basilica
Architectural style	Romanesque, Baroque
Founder	Constantine the Great
Completed	335 (demolished in 1009, rebuilt in 1048)
Specifications
Capacity	8,000
Dome(s)	3
Materials	Stone, wood

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre^[b](Arabic: كَنِيسَةُ ٱلْقِيَامَة‎ Kanīsatu al-Qiyāmah; Greek: Ναὸς τῆς ἈναστάσεωςNaos tes Anastaseos; Armenian: Սուրբ Հարության տաճարSurb Harut’yan tač̣ar; Latin: Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri; Hebrew: כנסיית הקבר‎, Knesiyat ha-Kever; also called the Church of the Resurrection or Church of the Anastasis by Orthodox Christians) is a church^[1] in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church contains, according to traditions dating back to at least the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified,^[2] at a place known as “Calvary” or “Golgotha”, and Jesus’s empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected.^[3]The tomb is enclosed by the 19th-century shrine, called the Aedicule (Edicule). The Status Quo, a 150-year-old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.^[4][5]

Within the church proper are the last four (or, by some definitions, five) Stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of Jesus’ Passion. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimagedestination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the Resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis.

Today, the wider complex accumulated during the centuries around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre also serves as the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the church itself is shared among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic, and to a lesser degree the Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox. Meanwhile, Protestants, including Anglicans, have no permanent presence in the Church. Some Protestants prefer The Garden Tomb, elsewhere in Jerusalem, as a more evocative site to commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Construction (4th century)

The second room of the aedicula, purportedly containing the tomb of Jesus

A diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre showing the traditional site of Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus

According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD built a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in order to bury the cave in which Jesus had been buried.^[6][7] The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, ordered in about 325/326 that the temple be replaced by a church.^[8] During the building of the Church, Constantine’s mother, Helena, is believed to have rediscovered the tomb (although there are some discrepancies among authors).^[6]Socrates Scholasticus(born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History,gives a full description of the discovery.^[9]

Traditional site of Golgotha

Constantine’s church was built as two connected churches over the two different holy sites, including a great basilica (the Martyrium visited by Egeria in the 380s), an enclosed colonnadedatrium (the Triportico) with the traditional site of Golgotha in one corner, and a rotunda, called the Anastasis(“Resurrection” in Greek), which contained the remains of a rock-cut room that Helenaand Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus.^{[citation needed]}

According to tradition, Constantine arranged for the rockface to be removed from around the tomb, without harming it, in order to isolate the tomb; in the centre of the rotunda is a small building called the Kouvouklion in Greek^[10] or the Aedicula in Latin,^[c] which encloses this tomb. The remains are completely enveloped by a marble sheath placed some 500 years before^[when?] to protect the ledge from Ottoman attacks. However, there are several thick window wells extending through the marble sheath, from the interior to the exterior that are not marble clad. They appear to reveal an underlying limestone rock, which may be part of the original living rock of the tomb.

The church was built starting in 325/326, and was consecrated on 13 September 335. From pilgrim reports it seems that the chapel housing the tomb of Jesus was freestanding at first, and that the Rotunda was only erected around the chapel in the 380s.^{[citation needed]}

Each year, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) on 13 September.^[11]

Damage and destruction (614–1009)

This building was damaged by fire in May of 614 when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius restored it and rebuilt the church after recapturing the city. After Jerusalem came under Arab rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the city’s Christian sites. A story reports that the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony; but at the time of prayer, he turned away from the church and prayed outside. He feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius added that Umar wrote a decree prohibiting Muslims from praying at this location. The building suffered severe damage due to an earthquake in 746.^[12]

Early in the ninth century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas. In the year 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Orthodox Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent to the Church. In 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, a riot broke out, which was followed by reprisals. The basilica was burned again. The doors and roof were burnt, and the Patriarch John VII was murdered.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliphAl-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt.^[13] The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining.^[14] Christian Europe reacted with shock and expulsions of Jews (for example, CluniacmonkRodulfus Glaber blamed the Jews, with the result that Jews were expelled from Limoges and other French towns^{[citation needed]}) and an impetus to later Crusades.^[15][16]

Reconstruction (11th century)

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

View of Holy Sepulchre courtyard also showing the Immovable Ladder

In wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Byzantine Empire in 1027–28, an agreement was reached whereby the new Caliph Ali az-Zahir (Al-Hakim’s son) agreed to allow the rebuilding and redecoration of the Church.^[17] The rebuilding was finally completed with the financing at a huge expense by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople in 1048.^[18] As a concession, the mosque in Constantinoplewas re-opened and the khutba sermons were to be pronounced in az-Zahir’s name.^[17] Muslim sources say a by-product of the agreement was the recanting of Islam by many Christians who had been forced to convert under Al-Hakim’s persecutions. In addition, the Byzantines, while releasing 5,000 Muslim prisoners, made demands for the restoration of other churches destroyed by Al-Hakim and the re-establishment of a Patriarch in Jerusalem. Contemporary sources credit the emperor with spending vast sums in an effort to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after this agreement was made.^[17] Despite the Byzantines spending vast sums on the project, “a total replacement was far beyond available resources. The new construction was concentrated on the rotunda and its surrounding buildings: the great basilica remained in ruins.”^[14] The rebuilt church site consisted of “a court open to the sky, with five small chapels attached to it.”^[19] The chapels were to the east of the court of resurrection, where the wall of the great church had been. They commemorated scenes from the passion, such as the location of the prison of Christ and of his flagellation, and presumably were so placed because of the difficulties of free movement among shrines in the streets of the city. The dedication of these chapels indicates the importance of the pilgrims’ devotion to the suffering of Christ. They have been described as ‘a sort of Via Dolorosa in miniature’… since little or no rebuilding took place on the site of the great basilica. Western pilgrims to Jerusalem during the eleventh century found much of the sacred site in ruins.”^[14] Control of Jerusalem, and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, continued to change hands several times between the Fatimids and the Seljuk Turks (loyal to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad) until the arrival of the Crusaders in 1099.^[20]

Crusader period (1099–1244)

Coat of arms of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre

Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II, when calling for the First Crusade, was the threat to Constantinople from the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor in response to the appeal of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Historians agree that the fate of Jerusalem and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was of concern if not the immediate goal of papal policy in 1095. The idea of taking Jerusalem gained more focus as the Crusade was underway. The rebuilt church site was taken from the Fatimids (who had recently taken it from the Abassids) by the knights of the First Crusade on 15 July 1099.^[14]

Painting by Émile Signol (1804–1892) of the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders on 15 July 1099
1. The Holy Sepulchre
2. The Dome of the Rock
3. Ramparts

The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. Crusader Prince Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first crusader monarch of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title “king”during his lifetime, and declared himself “Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri” (“Protector [or Defender] of the Holy Sepulchre”). By the crusader period, a cistern under the former basilica was rumoured to have been the location where Helena had found the True Cross, and began to be venerated as such; although the cistern later became the “Chapel of the Invention of the Cross,” there is no evidence of the rumour before the 11th century, and modern archaeological investigation has now dated the cistern to 11th century repairs by Monomachos.^{[citation needed]}

Crusader graffiti in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

According to the German clergyman and orient pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim, the keys of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre were in hands of the “ancient Georgians” and the food, alms, candles and oil for lamps were given them by the pilgrims in the south door of the church.^[21]

William of Tyre, chronicler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, reports on the renovation of the Church in the mid-12th century. The crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian’s temple enclosure; they decided to transform this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena (the Chapel of Saint Helena), widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase. The crusaders began to refurnish the church in a Romanesque style and added a bell tower.^[22] These renovations unified the small chapels on the site and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149, placing all the Holy places under one roof for the first time. The church became the seat of the first Latin Patriarchs, and was also the site of the kingdom’s scriptorium. The church was lost to Saladin,^[22] along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed for Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century while he himself was under a ban of excommunication, with the curious consequence that the holiest church in Christianity was laid under interdict. The church seems to have been largely in Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athanasius II of Jerusalem‘s hands, c. 1231–47, during the Latin control of Jerusalem.^[23] Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244.^[22]

Ottoman and later periods

Top view of the church and surrounding areas, detailed descriptions in Greek, 1807

Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1885). Its appearance has essentially not changed since the 12th century.

The Franciscan friars renovated it further in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. The Franciscans rebuilt the Aedicule, extending the structure to create an ante-chamber.^[24]After the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable “firman” from the “Sublime Porte” at a particular time, often through outright bribery, and violent clashes were not uncommon. There was no agreement about this question, although it was discussed at the negotiations to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699.^[25] In 1767, weary of the squabbling, the “Porte” issued a “firman” that divided the church among the claimants.

A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the Rotunda to collapse and smashing the Aedicule’s exterior decoration. The Rotunda and the Aedicule’s exterior were rebuilt in 1809–1810 by architect Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos of Mytilene in the then current Ottoman Baroque style. The fire did not reach the interior of the Aedicule, and the marble decoration of the Tomb dates mainly to the 1555 restoration, although the interior of the ante-chamber, now known as the “Chapel of the Angel,” was partly rebuilt to a square ground-plan, in place of the previously semi-circular western end. Another decree in 1853 from the sultan solidified the existing territorial division among the communities and set a “status quo” for arrangements to “remain forever,” causing differences of opinion about upkeep and even minor changes,^[26] including disagreement on the removal of the “Immovable Ladder“, an exterior ladder under one of the windows; this ladder has remained in the same position since then.

The church after its 1808 restoration

The cladding of red marble applied to the Aedicule by Komnenos has deteriorated badly and is detaching from the underlying structure; since 1947 it has been held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British authorities. A careful renovation is undergoing, funded by a $4 million gift from King Abdullah II of Jordan and a $1.3-million gift from Mica Ertegun.^[27]

The current dome dates from 1870, although it was restored between 1994–1997, as part of extensive modern renovations to the church which have been ongoing since 1959. During the 1970–1978 restoration works and excavations inside the building, and under the nearby Muristan, it was found that the area was originally a quarry, from which white melekelimestone was struck.^[28] To the east of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a 2nd-century drawing of a Roman ship, two low walls which supported the platform of Hadrian’s 2nd-century temple, and a higher 4th-century wall built to support Constantine’s basilica.^[24][29]After the excavations of the early 1970s, the Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new Chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of Saint Helena.^[29]

In 2016, restoration works were performed in the Aedicule. For the first time since at least 1555, marble cladding which protected the estimated burial bed of Jesus from vandalism and souvenir takers^[30] was removed.^[31][32] When the cladding was first removed on October 26, an initial inspection by the National Technical University of Athens team showed only a layer of fill material underneath. By the night of October 28, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact. This suggested that the tomb location has not changed through time and confirmed the existence of the original limestone cave walls within the Aedicule. The tomb was resealed shortly thereafter.^[31]

Description

Parvis (courtyard)

The courtyard facing the entrance to the church is known as the parvis.

Located around the parvis are a few smaller structures.^{[citation needed]}

South of the parvis, opposite the church:

• Broken columns—once forming part of an arcade—stand opposite the church, at the top of a short descending staircase stretching over the entire breadth of the parvis. In the 13th century, the tops of the columns were removed and sent to Mecca by the Khwarezmids.
• The Gethsemane Metochion, a small Greek Orthodox monastery.

On the eastern side of the parvis, south to north:

• The Monastery of St Abraham (Greek Orthodox)
• The Chapel of St John (Armenian Orthodox)
• The Chapel of St Michael (Coptic/Ethiopian Orthodox), giving access to the roof of the Chapel of St Helen and the Ethiopian monastery.

North of the parvis, in front of the church façade or against it:

• Chapel of the Franks—a blue-domed Roman Catholic Crusader chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which once provided exclusive access to Calvary. The chapel marks the 10th Station of the Cross (the stripping of Jesus’ garments).
• A Greek Orthodoxoratory and chapel, just beneath the Chapel of the Franks, dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt.
• The tomb of Philip d’Aubigny (Phillipe Daubeney, d. 1236)—a knight, tutor, and royal councilor to King Henry III of England and signer of the Magna Carta—is placed in front of, and between, the two original entrance doors of the church, of which the eastern one is walled-up. It is one of the few tombs of crusaders and other Europeans not removed from the Church after the Muslim recapture of Jerusalem in the 12th century. A stone marker was placed on his tomb in 1925, sheltered by a wooden trapdoor which hides it from view.^{[citation needed]}

A group of three chapels is bordering the parvis on its west side. They originally formed the baptistery complex of the Constantinian church. The southernmost chapel was the vestibule, the middle chapel the actual baptistery, and the north chapel the chamber in which the patriarch chrismated the newly baptized before leading them into the rotunda north of this complex.^{[citation needed]} Now they are dedicated as (from south to north)

• The Chapel of St. James the Just (Greek Orthodox),
• The Chapel of St. John the Baptist (Greek Orthodox),
• The Chapel of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Greek Orthodox; at the base of the bell tower).

Bell tower

The church’s bell tower is located to the left of the façade. It is currently almost half its original size.^[33]

Façade and entrance

See also: Immovable Ladder

The entrance to the church, a single door in the south transept—through the crusader façade—is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa, by way of a local souq in the Muristan. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death.^[34]

The “Immovable Ladder“, in its latest incarnation, stands beneath a window on the façade.

Historically, two large, arched doors allowed access to the church. However, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right door has long since been bricked up. These entrances are located in the parvis of a larger courtyard, or plaza.^{[citation needed]}

The Stone of Anointing, where Jesus’ body is said to have been anointed before burial

A mosaic depiction of Christ’s body being prepared after his death, opposite the Stone of Anointing

Calvary (Golgotha)

Calvary

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Altar of the Crucifixion

 Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Rock of Calvary as seen in the Chapel of Adam

Just inside the church is a stairway climbing to Calvary (Golgotha), traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The exit is via another stairway opposite the first, leading down to the ambulatory. The Golgotha and its chapels are just south of the main altar of the Catholicon.

On the ground floor, underneath the Golgotha chapel proper, are the Chapel of Adam and the Treasury of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, holding many relics including an alleged fragment of the Holy Cross.

The raised Chapel of the Calvary, or Golgotha Chapel, contains the apex of the Rock of Calvary (12th Station of the Cross). It is split into two halves, one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic, each one with its own altar. The northern half with the main altar belongs to the Greek Orthodox. The rock can be seen under glass on both sides of the altar, and beneath the altar there is a hole in the rock, said to be the place where the cross was raised. Due to the significance of this, it is the most visited site in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre along with the Tomb of Jesus. The Roman Catholic (Franciscan) Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross (11th Station of the Cross) stretches south of it. Between the Catholic and the Orthodox altar, there is a statue of Mary, believed by some to be miraculous. It marks the 13th Station of the Cross, where Jesus’ body was removed from the cross and given to his family and disciples.^{[citation needed]}

Beneath the Calvary and the two chapels there, on the main floor, there is the Chapel of Adam. According to tradition, Jesus was crucified over the place where Adam’s skull was buried. According to some, at the crucifixion, the blood of Christ ran down the cross and through the rocks to fill the skull of Adam.^[35] The Rock of Calvary appears cracked through a window on the altar wall, with the crack traditionally claimed to be caused by the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died on the cross, while some scholars claim it to be the result of quarrying against a natural flaw in the rock.^[36]

Stone of Anointing

Just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing (also Stone of the Anointing or Stone of Unction), which tradition believes to be the spot where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition is only attested since the crusader era (notably by the Italian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in 1288), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.^[24]

The wall behind the stone is defined by its striking blue balconies and tau cross-bearing red banners (depicting the insignia of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre), and is decorated with lamps. The modern three-part mosaic along the wall depicts the anointing of Jesus’ body, preceded on the right by the Descent from the Cross, and succeeded on the left by the Burial of Jesus.^{[citation needed]}

The wall was a temporary addition to support the arch above it, which had been weakened after the damage in the 1808 fire; it blocks the view of the rotunda, separates the entrance from the Catholicon, sits on top of the now-empty and desecrated graves of four 12th-century crusader kings—including Godfrey of Bouillonand Baldwin I of Jerusalem—and is no longer structurally necessary. There is a difference of opinion as to whether it is to be seen as the 13th Station of the Cross, which others identify as the lowering of Jesus from the cross and locate between the 11th and 12th stations on Calvary.^{[citation needed]}

The lamps that hang over the Stone of Unction, adorned with cross-bearing chain links, are contributed by Armenians, Copts, Greeks and Latins.^{[citation needed]}

Immediately to the left of the entrance is a bench that has traditionally been used by the church’s Muslim doorkeepers, along with some Christian clergy, as well as electrical wiring. To the right of the entrance is a wall along the ambulatory containing, to the very right, the staircase leading to Golgotha. Further along the same wall is the entrance to the Chapel of Adam.^{[citation needed]}

Rotunda and Aedicule

The Aedicule

The Rotunda is located in the centre of the Anastasis, beneath the larger of the church’s two domes. In the center of the Rotunda is the chapel called the Aedicule, which contains the Holy Sepulchre itself. The Aedicule has two rooms, the first holding the Angel’s Stone, which is believed to be a fragment of the large stone that sealed the tomb; the second is the tomb itself. Possibly due to the fact that pilgrims laid their hands on the tomb and/or to prevent eager pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs, a marble plaque was placed in the fourteenth century on the tomb to prevent further damage to the tomb.^[37]

Under the status quo, the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb, and all three communities celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Holy Mass there daily. It is also used for other ceremonies on special occasions, such as the Holy Saturday ceremony of the Holy Fire led by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch (with the participation of the Coptic and Armenian patriarchs).^[38] To its rear, in a chapel constructed of iron latticeworkupon a stone base semicircular in plan, lies the altar used by the Coptic Orthodox.^{[citation needed]} Historically, the Georgians also retained the key to the Aedicule.^[39][40][41]

From May 2016 to March 2017, the Aedicule underwent restoration and repairs after the Israel Antiquities Authority declared the structure unsafe. Much of the $3 million project was funded by the World Monuments Fund.^[42]

West of the Aedicule, to the rear of the Rotunda, is a chapel (see “Syriac Chapel with Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea“) located in a Constantinian apse and containing an opening to a rock-cut ancient Jewish tomb. This chapel is where the Syriac Orthodoxcelebrate their Liturgy on Sundays.

To the right of the Sepulchre on the northwestern edge of the Rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition, which is reserved for Roman Catholic use (see “Franciscan area north of the Aedicule“).^[43]

Catholicon

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The “Christ Pantocrator” mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Cross over the Catholicon

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The omphalos and the north wall of the Catholicon

• The Catholicon – On the east side opposite the Rotunda is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. The second, smaller dome sits directly over the centre of the transept crossingof the choir where the compas, an omphalos once thought to be the center of the world (associated to the site of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection), is situated. Since 1996 this dome is topped by the monumental Golgotha Crucifix which the Greek Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem consecrated. It was at the initiative of Gustav Kühnel to erect a new crucifix at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that would not only be worthy of the singularity of the site, but that would also become a symbol of the efforts of unity in the community of Christian faith.^[44]

East of this is a large iconostasis demarcating the Orthodox sanctuary before which is set the throne of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem on the south side facing the throne of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch on the north side.^{[citation needed]}

Ambulatory

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

The “Holy Prison”, or Prison of Christ

• Prison of Christ – In the north-east side of the complex there is The Prison of Christ, alleged by the Franciscans to be where Jesus was held. The Greek Orthodox allege that the real place that Jesus was held was the similarly named Prison of Christ, in their Monastery of the Praetorium, located near the Church of Ecce Homo, between the Second and Third Stations of the Via Dolorosa. The Armenians regard a recess in the Monastery of the Flagellation at the Second Station of the Via Dolorosa, as the Prison of Christ. A cistern among the ruins beneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion is also alleged to have been the Prison of Christ. To reconcile the traditions, some allege that Jesus was held in the Mount Zion cell in connection with his trial by the Jewish High Priest, at the Praetorium in connection with his trial by the Roman governor Pilate, and near the Golgotha before crucifixion.^{[citation needed]}

Further to the east in the ambulatory are three chapels (from south to north):^{[citation needed]}

• Greek Chapel of Saint Longinus – The Orthodox Greek chapel is dedicated to Saint Longinus.
• Armenian Chapel of Division of Robes
• Greek Chapel of the Derision – the southernmost chapel in the ambulatory.

Chapel of Saint Helena

 

Chapel of Saint Helena, Jerusalem, called by the Armenians “St. Gregory the Illuminator”

• Chapel of Saint Helena – between the first two chapels are stairs descending to the Chapel of Saint Helena.^{[citation needed]}
• Chapel of Vartan (or Vardan) Mamikonian – on the north side of the Chapel of Saint Helena is an ornate wrought iron door, beyond which a raised artificial platform affords views of the quarry, and which leads to the Chapel of Saint Vartan. The latter chapel contains archaeological remains from Hadrian’s temple and Constantine’s basilica. These areas are open only on request.^[45]
• Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross– another set of 22 stairs from the Chapel of Saint Helena leads down to the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross, believed to be the place where the True Cross was found.

Franciscan area north of the Aedicule

• The Franciscan Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene – The chapel indicates the place where Mary Magdalene met Jesus after his resurrection.^[46]
• The Franciscan Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (or Chapel of the Apparition) – in memory of Jesus’ meeting with his mother after the Resurrection.^[46]

Syriac Chapel with Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea

• The Syriac Orthodox Chapel of Saint Joseph of Arimathea and Saint Nicodemus. On Sundays and feast days it is furnished for the celebration of Mass.^{[citation needed]}

It is accessed from the Rotunda, by a door west of the Aedicule. On the far side of the chapel is the low entrance to an almost complete 1st-century Jewish tomb, initially holding six kokh-type funeral shafts radiating from a central chamber, of which two are still exposed. Although this space was discovered recently^[when?] and contains no identifying marks, many Christians believe^[vague] that Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were buried here.

Since Jews always buried their dead outside the city, the presence of this tomb proves that the Holy Sepulchre site was outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion.

Armenian monastery south of the Aedicule

South of the Aedicule is the “Place of the Three Marys”, marked by a stone canopy and a large modern wall mosaic. From here one can enter the Armenian monastery which stretches over the ground and first upper floor of the church’s southeastern part.

Status quo

Giacobbe Giusti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The “Immovable Ladder“. Detail from photograph of main entrance above the façade.

The Sultan’s firman (decree) of 1853, known as the “status quo“, pinned down the now permanent statutes of property and the regulations concerning the roles of the different denominations and other custodians.^[47]

The primary custodians are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Roman Catholic Churches, with the Greek Orthodox Church having the lion’s share. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures in and around the building. Times and places of worship for each community are strictly regulated in common areas.^{[citation needed]} The Greek Orthodox act through the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as well as through the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. The Roman Catholics act through the FranciscanCustody of the Holy Land.

The establishment of the 1853 status quo did not halt controversy and sometimes violence, which continues to break out occasionally. On a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas.^[48]

In another incident in 2004, during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.^[49]

Franciscans during the procession on The Calvary, 2006

On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers.^[50] On Sunday, 9 November 2008, a clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks during celebrations for the Feast of the Cross.^[51][52]

A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church’s entrance. A wooden ladder was placed there at some time before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. This ladder, the “Immovable Ladder”, in its latest incarnation, remains to this day, in almost exactly the same position it occupied in century-old photographs and engravings,^[53][54] as it must be replaced whenever it falls apart. An engraving by David Roberts in 1839 also shows the same ladder in the same position.^[55]

No one controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned door-keeping responsibilities to the Muslim Nuseibeh family. The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved doors.^[56] The Joudeh Al-Goudia family were entrusted as custodian to the keys of the Holy Sepulchre by Saladin in 1187.^[57]

Despite occasional disagreements, the religious services take place in the Church with regularity and coexistence is generally peaceful. An example of concord between the Church custodians is the recent (2016–17) full restoration of the Aedicule.

2018 Tax/Land affair

In late February 2018 after a tax dispute over 152 million euros of uncollected taxes on church properties the Church had closed until further notice. The city hall stressed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and all other churches are exempt from the taxes, with the changes only affecting establishments like “hotels, halls and businesses” owned by the churches.^[58]NPR had reported that the Greek Orthodox Church calls itself the second-largest landowner in Israel, after the Israeli government.^[59]

There was a lock in protest against an Israeli legislative proposal which would expropriate church lands that had been sold to private companies since 2010, a measure which church leaders assert constitutes a serious violation of their property rights and the status quo. In a joint official statement the church authorities protested what they considered to be the peak of a systematic campaign in

‘a discriminatory and racist bill that targets solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land,’ adding, ‘This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.’^[60]

The 2018 Taxation affair does not cover any church buildings or religious related facilities (because they are exempt by law)^[61], but commercial facilities such as the Notre Dame Hotel which was not paying the arnona tax, and any land which is owned and used as a commercial land.^[61] The church hold the rights to land where private homes have been constructed, and some of the disagreement had been raised after the Knesset had proposed a bill that will make it harder for a private company not to extend a lease for land used by homeowners.^[62] According to the JPost

‘The stated aim of the bill is to protect homeowners against the possibility that private companies will not extend their leases of land on which their houses or apartments stand.’

The church leaders have said that such a bill will make it harder for them to sell church owned lands.^[62]

Connection to temple of Venus

Jerusalem after being rebuilt by Hadrian. Two main east-west roads were built rather than the typical one, due to the awkward location of the Temple Mount, blocking the central east-west route.

The site of the Church had been a temple of Venus before Constantine’s edifice was built. Hadrian’s temple had actually been located there because it was the junction of the main north-south road with one of the two main east-west roads and directly adjacent to the forum (which is now the location of the (smaller) Muristan); the forum itself had been placed, as is traditional in Roman towns, at the junction of the main north-south road with the (other) main east-west road (which is now El-Bazar/David Street). The temple and forum together took up the entire space between the two main east-west roads (a few above-ground remains of the east end of the temple precinct still survive in the Alexander Nevsky Church complex of the Russian Mission in Exile).“Church of the Holy Sepulcher”. Generation Word. Retrieved May 31, 2018.

From the archaeological excavations in the 1970s, it is clear that construction took over most of the site of the earlier temple enclosure and that the Triportico and Rotunda roughly overlapped with the temple building itself; the excavations indicate that the temple extended at least as far back as the Aedicule, and the temple enclosure would have reached back slightly further. Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, who was present at the excavations, estimated from the archaeological evidence that the western retaining wall of the temple itself would have passed extremely close to the east side of the supposed tomb; if the wall had been any further west any tomb would have been crushed under the weight of the wall (which would be immediately above it) if it had not already been destroyed when foundations for the wall were made.^[63]

Other archaeologists have criticized Corbo’s reconstructions. Dan Bahat, the former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, regards them as unsatisfactory, as there is no known temple of Aphrodite matching Corbo’s design, and no archaeological evidence for Corbo’s suggestion that the temple building was on a platform raised high enough to avoid including anything sited where the Aedicule is now; indeed Bahat notes that many temples to Aphrodite have a rotunda-like design, and argues that there is no archaeological reason to assume that the present rotunda was not based on a rotunda in the temple previously on the site.^[64]

Location

Tourists and pilgrims at one of the two access gates to the Holy Sepulchre courtyard, photo by Bonfils, 1870s

The New Testament describes Jesus’s tomb as being outside the city wall,^[65] as was normal for burials across the ancient world, which were regarded as unclean.^[66] Today, the site of the Church is within the current walls of the old city of Jerusalem. It has been well documented by archaeologists that in the time of Jesus, the walled city was smaller and the wall then was to the east of the current site of the Church.^{[citation needed]} In other words, the city had been much narrower in Jesus’ time, with the site then having been outside the walls; since Herod Agrippa (41–44) is recorded by history as extending the city to the north (beyond the present northern walls), the required repositioning of the western wall is traditionally attributed to him as well.^{[citation needed]}

The area immediately to the south and east of the sepulchre was a quarry and outside the city during the early 1st century as excavations under the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer across the street demonstrated.^[67]

The church is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage SiteOld City of Jerusalem.

The Christian Quarter and the (also Christian) Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem are both located in the northwestern and western part of the Old City, due to the fact that the Holy Sepulchre is located close to the northwestern corner of the walled city. The adjacent neighbourhood within the Christian Quarter is called the Muristan, a term derived from the Persian word for hospital—Christian pilgrim hospices have been maintained in this area near the Holy Sepulchre since at least the time of Charlemagne.

Influence

From the 9th century, the construction of churches inspired in the Anastasis was extended across Europe.^[68] One example is Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, an agglomeration of seven churches recreating shrines of Jerusalem.^{[citation needed]}

Several churches and monasteries in Europe, for instance, in Germany and Russia, and at least one church in the United States have been modeled on the Church of the Resurrection, some even reproducing other holy places for the benefit of pilgrims who could not travel to the Holy Land. They include the Heiliges Grab of Görlitz, constructed between 1481 and 1504, the New Jerusalem Monastery in Moscow Oblast, constructed by Patriarch Nikon between 1656 and 1666, and Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery built by the Franciscans in Washington, DC in 1898.^{[citation needed]}

• Catholicism portal
• Eastern Christianity portal
• Oriental Orthodoxy portal
• Jerusalem portal

• Art of the Crusades
• Burial places of founders of world religions
• Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre
• Constantine I and Christianity
• Christianity in Israel
• Early Christian art and architecture
• Fathers of the Holy Sepulchre
• Garden Tomb
• Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites
• History of the Orthodox Church
• History of Roman and Byzantine domes
• List of oldest church buildings
• Monza ampullae
• Palestinian Christians
• Talpiot Tomb

Notes

1. Jump up^ The walled Old City area is contested by the State of Palestine, but the power over the region is de facto exercised by the State of Israel since conquering it from Jordan in 1967.
2. Jump up^ In American English also spelled Sepulcher. Also called the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.
3. Jump up^ English aedicule or edicule, the Latin diminutive of aedes, “house”, meaning “small house” or “shrine”

References

1. Jump up^ “Complete compendium of Church of the Holy Sepulchre”. Madain Project. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
2. Jump up^  McMahon, Arthur L. (1913). “Holy Sepulchre“. In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
3. Jump up^ “Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem”. Jerusalem: Sacred-destinations.com. 21 February 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
4. Jump up^ UN Conciliation Commission (1949). United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine Working Paper on the Holy Places.
5. Jump up^ Cust, L. G. A. (1929). The Status Quo in the Holy Places. H.M.S.O. for the High Commissioner of the Government of Palestine.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 13 July 2005. Retrieved 2014-09-19. Though Eusebius’s account makes no mention of Helena’s presence at the excavation, nor of the finding of the cross but only the tomb. According to Eusebius, the tomb exhibited “a clear and visible proof” that it was the tomb of Jesus.
7. Jump up^ Pringle, Denys (2007). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0521390361. Retrieved 2014-09-19. (Subscription required (help)).
8. Jump up^ The Pilgrim of Bordeaux reports in 333: “There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica, that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty”. Itinerarium Burdigalense, p. 594
9. Jump up^ “NPNF2-02. Socrates and Sozomenus Ecclesiastical Histories”. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 13 July 2005. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
10. Jump up^ Kουβούκλιον; Modern Greek for small compartment
11. Jump up^ “Commemoration of the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) at Jerusalem”. Orthodox Church in America. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
12. Jump up^ Kroesen, Justin (2000). The Sepulchrum Domini Through the Ages: Its Form and Function. Leuven. p. 11. ISBN 9789042909526 – via WorldCat, Google Books.
13. Jump up^ Adémar de Chabannes recorded that the church of Saint George at Lydda ‘with many other churches of the saints’ had been attacked, and the ‘basilica of the Lord’s Sepulchre destroyed down to the ground’. …The Christian writer Yahya ibn Sa’id reported that everything was razed ‘except those parts which were impossible to destroy or would have been too difficult to carry away’.” Morris 2005
14. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Morris 2005
15. Jump up^ Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Doubleday. p. 155. ISBN 0-385-50584-1.
16. Jump up^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2009-09-24). A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9780141957951.
17. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Lev, Yaacov (July 1991). State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill. p. 40. ISBN 978-90-04-09344-7. (Subscription required (help)).
18. Jump up^ Foakes-Jackson, Frederick John (1921). An Introduction to the History of Christianity, A.D. 590–1314. London: Macmillan.
19. Jump up^ Fergusson, James (1865). A History of Architecture in All Countries. London: J. Murray.
20. Jump up^ Gold, Dore (29 January 2007). The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. ASIN 159698029X. ISBN 1-59698-029-X.
21. Jump up^ Venetian Adventurer: The Life and Times of Marco Polo, p. 88
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Pilgrimages and Pilgrim shrines in Palestine and Syria after 1095, Henry L. Savage, A History of the Crusades: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States, Volume IV, ed. Kenneth M. Setton and Harry W. Hazard, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 37.
23. Jump up^ Pringle, Denys (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: Volume 3, The City of Jerusalem: A Corpus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-521-39038-5.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome (February 1998). The Holy Land. Oxford University Press. pp. 56, 59. ISBN 978-0191528675. (Subscription required (help)).
25. Jump up^ Mailáth, János Nepomuk Jozsef (1848). Geschichte der europäischen Staaten, Geschichte des östreichischen Kaiserstaates [History of the European states, history of Austrian Imperial State]. 4. Hamburg: F. Perthes. p. 262.
26. Jump up^ Cohen, Raymond (May 2009). “The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: A Work in Progress”. The Bible and Interpretation. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
27. Jump up^ Kristin Romey (26 October 2016). “Exclusive: Christ’s Burial Place Exposed for First Time in Centuries”. National Geographic. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
28. Jump up^ Hesemann, Michael (1999). Die Jesus-Tafel (in German). Freiburg. p. 170. ISBN 3-451-27092-7.
29. ^ Jump up to:^a b Lancaster, James E. (1998). “Finding the Keys to the Chapel of St. Vartan”. Jim Lancaster’s Web Space. Retrieved 2 March 2012. the height difference can be easily seen; the yellowish wall on the left is the 4th century wall, the pinkish wall on the right is the 2nd century wall.
30. Jump up^ Metaxas, Eric (18 November 2016). “History Revealed? Jesus’s Tomb Discovered in Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Empty”. CNSNews.com.
31. ^ Jump up to:^a b Romey, Kristin (31 October 2016). “Unsealing of Christ’s Reputed Tomb Turns Up New Revelations”. National Geographic. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
32. Jump up^ Pappas, Stephanie (31 October 2016). “Original Bedrock of Jesus’ Tomb Revealed in New Images”. Live Science. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
33. Jump up^ “Parvis and Entry”. Gerusalemme San Salvatore Convento Francescano St. Saviour’s Monastery. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
34. Jump up^ LoLordo, Ann (28 June 1999). “Trouble in a holy place”. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
35. Jump up^ William R. Cook of State University of New York, lecture series
36. Jump up^ “The Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher”. Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 24 May 2008. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
37. Jump up^ Romey, Kristin (31 October 2016). “Jesus’ Burial Tomb Uncovered: Here’s What Scientists Saw Inside”. National Geographic. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
38. Jump up^ “Miracle of Holy Fire which happens every year”. Holyfire.org. Retrieved 2 March2012.
39. Jump up^ Janin, Raymond (1913). Échos d’Orient [Echos of the Orient]. 16. Institut français d’études byzantines. p. 35.
40. Jump up^ DeSandoli, Sabino (1986). The Church of Holy Sepulchre: Keys, Doors, Doorkeepers. Franciscian Press. p. 47.
41. Jump up^ Jeffery, George (1919). A Brief Description of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem and Other Christian Churches in the Holy City: With Some Account of the Medieval Copies of the Holy Sepulchre Surviving in Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 69. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
42. Jump up^ Goldman, Russell (22 March 2017). “Tomb of Jesus Reopens to Public After $3 Million Restoration”. The New York Times. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
43. Jump up^ “Catholic Chapel of the Apparition”. See The Holy Land.net. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
44. Jump up^ “The Cross of Golgotha”. Michael Hammers. 24 June 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
45. Jump up^ “Chapel of St. Helena”. http://www.holysepulchre.custodia.org. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
46. ^ Jump up to:^a b “The Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre”. The Franciscans of the Holy Land. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
47. Jump up^ Michael., Dumper,; E., Stanley, Bruce (2007-01-01). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa : a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576079195. OCLC 80014324.
48. Jump up^ Armstrong, Chris (1 July 2002). “Christian History Corner: Divvying up the Most Sacred Place”. Christianity Today. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
49. Jump up^ Fisher-Ilan, Allyn (28 September 2004). “Punch-up at tomb of Jesus”. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
50. Jump up^ El Deeb, Sarah (21 April 2008). “Christians brawl at Jesus’ tomb”. San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
51. Jump up^ “Riot police called as monks clash in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”. The Times. London. 10 November 2008. Retrieved 2014-09-19. (Subscription required (help)).
52. Jump up^ O’Laughlin, Toni (10 November 2008). “The monks who keep coming to blows in Jerusalem”. The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
53. Jump up^ “Holy Sepulchre Ladder”. Coastdaylight.com. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
54. Jump up^ “Who moved thy ladder?”. Danny the Digger. 2010. Retrieved 2014-09-19. An unusual and rare location of the ladder was documented by an Israeli tour guide in February 2009
55. Jump up^ “Entrance to the holy sepulchre; title page, vol. 1”. Library of Congress. 1842. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
56. Jump up^ William R. Cook of University of New York, lecture series
57. Jump up^ Sherwood, Harriet (21 March 2017). “Jesus’s tomb unveiled after $4m restoration”. The Guardian. Manchester. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
58. Jump up^ “Church at Jesus’s burial site closed for second day after tax dispute”. i24NEWS. 26 February 2018.
59. Jump up^ Estrin, Daniel (2 December 2017). “Greek Orthodox Church Sells Land In Israel, Worrying Both Israelis And Palestinians”. Weekend Edition.
60. Jump up^ Jonathan Lis and Nir Hasson,  Jerusalem churches warn of Israel’s ‘systematic’ erosion of Christian presence in Holy Land Haaretz 25 February 2018
61. ^ Jump up to:^a b Token, Benny (27 February 2018). “בעיריית ירושלים לא מתרגשים מהכנסייה” [The Jerusalem Municipality is not moved by the church]. Arutz Sheva (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2 July 2018.
62. ^ Jump up to:^a b “WATCH: Pilgrims Face Closed Doors at Church of the Holy Sepulchre”. The Jerusalem Post. Reuters. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
63. Jump up^ Corbo, Virgilio (1981). Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme [The Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem] (in Italian). Franciscan Press.
64. Jump up^ Bahat, Dan (May–June 1986). “Does the Holy Sepulchre Church Mark the Burial of Jesus?”. Biblical Archaeology Review. Retrieved 2014-09-19. (Subscription required (help)).
65. Jump up^ for example, Hebrews 13:12
66. Jump up^ Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Death and Burial in the Roman World, pp. 48–49, JHU Press. 1996. ISBN 0-8018-5507-1. An exception in the Classical World were the Lycians of Anatolia. There are also the Egyptian mortuary-temples, where the object of worship was the deified royal person entombed, but Egyptian temples to the major gods contained no burials.
67. Jump up^ Trainor, Terry (21 May 2012). Bedlam. St. Mary of Bethlehem. Trainor, Terry. ISBN 9781471714283.
68. Jump up^ Monastero di Santo Stefano: Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano: Storia, Bologna.

Further reading

• Biddle, Martin (25 February 1999). The Tomb of Christ. Scarborough: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1926-4.
• Biddle, Martin; Seligman, Jon; Tamar, Winter & Avni, Gideon (7 July 2000). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. New York: Rizzoli in cooperation with Israel Antiquities Authority, distributed by St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0-8478-2282-6.
• Coüasnon, Charles (1974). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy. ISBN 0-19-725938-3.
• Gibson, Shimon; Taylor, Joan E. (1994). Beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem: The archaeology and early history of traditional Golgotha. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. ISBN 0-903526-53-0.
• bCohen, Raymond (10 March 2008). Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue Their Holiest Shrine. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-518966-3. (Subscription required (help)).
• Bowman, Glenn (16 September 2011). “”In Dubious Battle on the Plains of Heav’n”: The Politics of Possession in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre”. University of Kent.
• Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. (1979). Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0870991790.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Venus (Capitoline Museums)

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

Antonine copy of a late Hellenistic variant of Praxiteles‘ Cnidian Venus (4th century BC).

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Venus (Capitoline Museums).

The Capitoline Venus is a type of statue of Venus, specifically one of several Venus Pudica (modest Venus) types (others include the Venus de’ Medici type), of which several examples exist. The type ultimately derives from the Aphrodite of Cnidus. The Capitoline Venus and her variants are recognisable from the position of the arms—standing after a bath, Venus begins to cover her breasts with her right hand, and her groin with her left hand.

This original of this type (from which the following copies derive) is thought to be a lost 3rd- or 2nd-century BCE variation on Praxiteles’ work from Asia Minor, which modifies the Praxitelean tradition by a carnal and voluptuous treatment of the subject and the goddess’s modest gesture with both hands—rather than only one over the groin, in Praxiteles’s original.

Principal example

The Capitoline Venus is a slightly over lifesize^[1] marble statue of Venus. It is an Antonine copy of a late Hellenistic sculpture that ultimately derives from Praxiteles(Helbig 1972:128–30).

It was found on the Viminal Hill during the pontificate of Clement X (1670–76) in the gardens belonging to the Stazi near San Vitale.^[2]Pope Benedict XIV purchased it from the Stazi family in 1752 and gave it to the Capitoline Museums,^[3] where it is housed in a niche of its own—called “the cabinet of Venus”—on the first floor of the Palazzo Nuovo on the Campidoglio.

The statue was on loan to the United States and was shown in the rotunda of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from June 8 to September 18, 2011.^[4]

Its reputation vis-a-vis the Venus de’ Medici in Florence grew only slowly, according to Haskell and Penny, fueled in part as a negative sensitivity to extensive restorations began to undermine the Florentine Venus. It was triumphantly removed to Paris by Napoleon under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino; the Emperor commissioned a marble replica from Joseph Chinard, now at the Château de Compiègne. When the original was returned to the Capitoline Museums in 1816,^[5]the plaster cast that had replaced it during the Napoleonic era was shipped to Britain, where John Flaxman praised it to his students (Haskell and Penny 1981:319).

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

• 

  Campo Iemini Venus(British Museum)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

• 

  Aphrodite of Menophantos(Museo Nazionale Romano)

Other copies

External video

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

 

Capitoline Venus, Smarthistory[6]

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitoline Venus, Capitoline Museums

A 2nd-century copy of a 4th-century BCE original by Praxiteles, at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.^[7]

About 50 copies of Venus Pudica are extant, with most of them displayed in Europe.^[6]

• The Aphrodite of Menophantos was found at the Camaldolese monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. It bears the signature^[8] of Menophantos, a Greek sculptor, apparently of the 1st century BCE, of whom nothing more is known. The Camaldolese coenobites occupy the ancient church and monastery of S. Gregorii in Clivo Scauri founded by Pope Gregory the Great on his own family property, on the slope (clivus) of the Caelian Hill about 580. His foundation was dedicated in honor of the apostle Andrew. By the 10th century Gregory’s name was appended to that of the apostle, whom he eventually supplanted.^[9] The sculpture came into the possession of prince Chigi. Johann Joachim Winckelmann described this sculpture in his Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (vol V, ch. II).^[10]
• The Campo Iemini Venus, another sculpture of the same model, was unearthed in the spring of 1792 among other sculptures in the excavation of a Roman villa at Campo Iemini, near Torvaianica, in Lazio. The dig was directed by the English dealer in Roman antiquities Robert Fagan(1761–1816) under the patronage of Prince Augustus, the Duke of Sussexin partnership with Sir Corbet Corbet of the British Museum. At the time of its discovery the English in particular found it superior to the Capitoline Venus. After restoration in Rome it was shipped to London, where Prince Augustus gave it to his brother the Prince Regent, who set it up at Carlton House. After his death, when Carlton House was replaced by a terrace of houses, William IV donated it to the British Museum.
• A 2nd-century Roman copy of Parian marble was found at Baiae.
• A version of Venus Pudica was also found in Hadrian Baths at Leptis Magna. The Hadrianic Baths were excavated in the 1920s, and the Lepcitanian copy of the Capitoline Venus was taken away to Europe by Benito Mussolini, who gave it to the Nazi-leaderHermann Göring. The statue graced the bedroom of his country estate near Berlin, Carinhall. It was returned to Libya in 1999. and today, it is in the National Archaeological Museum in Tripoli.
• Another armless copy of Capitoline Venus, kept at Jamahiriya Museum, Tripoli, Libya.
• One variant is kept at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg,^[11] as well as the similar Venus Tauride.^[12][13]
• The Venus Landolina at the Syracuse Archeological Museum, Sicily. It is a headless Imperial Roman copy of a 2nd-century, similar to the Aphrodite Syracuse kept in Athens.
• A 3rd century copy was found during archaeological excavations at Skupi, an ancient Roman town in Macedonia.
• A 2nd to 3rd century Italian marble copy of Capitoline Venus is the result of connecting the lower part of an ancient body, a torso from the 16th century and an ancient face and the top of head. It was previously in the Borghese collection, and now kept at Louvre Museum, Paris. Inv No. MR. 279 (Usual No Ma 369).
• A copy of Capitoline Venus is held at Galleria degli Uffizi. It entered the Medici collections after a purchase from the Colonna family. The statue lacked arms, head and right leg. The Medici had it integrated by sculptor Silla in 1584 and the statue thus acquired its present aspect as a faithful reproduction of the Capitoline Venus.
• A 2nd century copy of Capitoline Venus is held by the National Museum in Warsaw.
• A headless statue of Capitoline Venus made in the 2nd-3rd century is held at the Naples Archaeological Museum.
• A headless painted Roman period marble copy of Capitoline Venus of the 2nd century from Aphrodias, Asia Minor, was excavated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (H: 159 cm; W: 60 cm).
• A damaged ancient copy of Capitoline Venus is kept at Antalya Archaeological Museum.
• A torso from white marble, 2nd century, unknown provenance at Museo Nazionale Romano: Terme di Diocleziano, inv. 2000656, Rome, Italy.
• TA head from white marble, dated to the last quarter of the 1st century BCE — beginning of the 1st century CE, at Cremona, San Lorenzo Archaeological Museum. Origin: Cremona, p-zza Marconi.
• A Roman period marble torso, similar to the Aphrodite Syracuse, held at the Cyprus Museum.

Notes

1. Jump up^ 1.93 m (6 ft. 3 ¾ in.).
2. Jump up^ According to the memoirs of the antiquarian Pietro Santi Bartoli noted in Haskell and Penny 1981:318).
3. Jump up^ Accession number MC 0409
4. Jump up^ National Gallery of Art. “A Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome: The Capitoline Venus”
5. Jump up^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond (11 May 2015). Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Routledge. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-1-134-26854-2.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b “Capitoline Venus”. Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
7. Jump up^ Illustration, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, gift of M. Embeirikos, 1924, acc. no. 3524; it is sometimes confused with a version of Antonio Canova‘s Venere Italica completed by Canova on behalf of the British connoisseur Thomas Hope (1769–1831), whose heirs sold it in 1917; Hope’s Venus is conserved at the Leeds Art Gallery (Hugh Honour, “Canova’s Statues of Venus”, The Burlington Magazine, 114 No. 835 (October 1972), pp. 658-671, esp. p. 667).
8. Jump up^ “Apo tis en troadi afroditis minofantos epoiei”
9. Jump up^ Christian Hülsen, Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo: S. Gregorii in Clivo Scauri
10. Jump up^ William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, (1870) vol. II.1044.
11. Jump up^ Atsma, Aaron.Of Type Capitoline Venus Theoi Project. Retrieved on May 13, 2008.
12. Jump up^ Atsma, Aaron. “Tauride Venus“. Theoi Project. Retrieved on May 13, 2008.
13. Jump up^ “Aphrodite: Tauride Venus“. State Hermitage Museum. Retrieved on May 13, 2008.

References

• Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny, 1981. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900. Yale University Press. Cat. no. 84.
• Helbig, Wolfgang. Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rome. 4th edition, 1963–72, vol. II.
• Wilton, A. and I. Bignamini (editors.). Grand Tour: the lure of Italy in the eighteenth century London, Tate Gallery Publishing, 1996. no. 228, pp. 269–270. (the Campo Iemini Venus).

Capitoline Venus (Musei Capitolini, Rome).

• British Museum: Campo Iemini Venus
• “Aphrodite of Menophantus”

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Venus

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Venere Landolina

Giacobbe Giusti, Venere Landolina

Aphrodite of the Syracuse type. Parian marble, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 4th century BC; neck, head and left arm are restorations by Antonio Canova. Found at Baiae, Southern Italy.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Venere Landolina

La Venus Pudica del Museo archeologico regionale di Siracusa, nota col nome di Venere Landolina dal nome dell’archeologo Saverio Landolina che la scoprì nel 1804. Si tratta di una copia romana del secolo II d.C. da un originale ellenistico.

Giacobbe Giusti, Venere Landolina
Autore	sconosciuto
Data	copia romana di un originale greco della prima metà del II secolo d.C.
Materiale	marmo
Ubicazione	Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi, Siracusa

La Venere Landolina è una scultura marmorea, copia romana di un originale greco della prima metà del I secolo a.C., conservata nel Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi di Siracusa.

Storia e descrizione

La Venere Landolina di Siracusa venne rinvenuta in un ninfeo negli Orti Bonavia poi Giardino Spagna da Saverio Landolina Nava, nel 1804. Bernabò Brea la lodò “per l’eccellenza del modellato, lo squisito trattamento del nudo, di incredibile vivezza e morbidità“.^{[senza fonte]}

La statua, una Venus pudica, si ispira, come le altre varianti del tema, all’Afrodite cnidia di Prassitele, con particolari similitudini con la Venere capitolina e la Venere de’ Medici (solo quest’ultima è un originale greco).

Del tipo landolino si conoscono varie copie, tra cui una completa della testa, ma di fattura più tarda, al Museo archeologico nazionale di Atene, che presenta un’acconciatura uguale a quella della Venere capitolina.

L’opera ritrae Venere al bagno, nella posizione pudica o, più probabilmente, una Venere Anadiomene, cioè nascente. Essa infatti si copre con la destra il seno, ruotando elegantemente la testa, e con la sinistra regge un panno calato sui fianchi (come la Venere di Milo), che si apre teatralmente gonfiato dal vento, rivelando le gambe della dea.

Evidente è la ricerca di una resa naturalistica e idealizzata del corpo femminile nudo, che all’epoca aveva messo in secondo piano i significati sacrali legati alla figura della dea nelle rappresentazioni anteriori.

Giacobbe Giusti, Venere Landolina

La versione del Museo archeologico nazionale di Atene

Maupassant e la Venere Landolina

Nel 1885 Guy de Maupassant effettuò un tour della Sicilia, passando anche da Siracusa dove visitò la Venere Landolina da poco ritrovata. Nel suo Viaggio in Sicilia^[1] descrive la statua con commenti entusiasmanti:

« Penetrando nel museo, la scorsi subito in fondo ad una sala, e bella proprio come l’avevo immaginata. Non ha la testa, le manca un braccio; mai tuttavia la forma umana mi è parsa più meravigliosa e più seducente. Non è la donna vista dal poeta, la donna idealizzata, la donna divina o maestosa, come la Venere di Milo, è la donna così com’è, così come la si ama, come la si desidera, come la si vuole stringere. È robusta, col petto colmo, l’anca possente e la gamba un po’ forte, è una Venere carnale che si immagina coricata quando la si vede in piedi. Il braccio caduto nascondeva i seni; con la mano rimasta, solleva un drappeggio col quale copre, con gesto adorabile, i fascini più misteriosi. Tutto il corpo è fatto, concepito, inclinato per questo movimento, tutte le linee vi si concentrano, tutto il pensiero vi confluisce. Questo gesto semplice e naturale, pieno di pudore e di impudicizia, che nasconde e mostra, che vela e rivela, che attrae e che fugge, sembra definire tutto l’atteggiamento della donna sulla terra. Ed il marmo è vivo. Lo si vorrebbe palpeggiare, con la certezza che cederà sotto la mano, come la carne. Le reni soprattutto sono indicibilmente animate e belle. Si segue, in tutto il suo fascino, la linea morbida e grassa della schiena femminile che va dalla nuca ai talloni, e che, nel contorno delle spalle, nelle rotondità decrescenti delle cosce e nella leggera curva del polpaccio assottigliato fino alle caviglie, rivela tutte le modulazioni della grazia umana. Un’opera d’arte appare superiore soltanto se è, nello stesso tempo, il simbolo e l’esatta espressione di una realtà. La Venere di Siracusa è una donna, ed è anche il simbolo della carne. Dinnanzi al volto della Gioconda, ci si sente ossessionati da non so quale tentazione di amore snervante e mistico. Esistono anche donne viventi i cui occhi ci infondono quel sogno di tenerezza irrealizzabile e misteriosa. Si cerca in esse qualcos’altro dietro le apparenze, perché sembrano contenere ed esprimere un po’ di quell’ideale inafferrabile. Noi lo inseguiamo senza mai raggiungerlo, dietro tutte le sorprese della bellezza che pare contenere un pensiero, nell’infinito dello sguardo il quale è semplicemente una sfumatura dell’iride, nel fascino del sorriso nato da una piega delle labbra e da un lampo di smalto, nella grazia del movimento fortuito e dell’armonia delle forme. Così i poeti, impotenti staccatori di stelle, sono sempre stati tormentati da una sete di amore mistico. L’esaltazione naturale di un animo poetico, esasperato dall’eccitazione artistica, spinge quegli esseri scelti a concepire una specie di amore nebuloso, perdutamente tenero, estatico, mai sazio, sensuale senza essere carnale, talmente delicato che un nonnulla lo fa svanire, irrealizzabile sovrumano. E questi poeti sono, forse, i soli uomini che non abbiano mai amato una donna, una vera donna in carne ossa, con le sue qualità di donna, i suoi difetti di donna, la sua mente di donna, ristretta ed affascinante, i suoi nervi di donna e la sua sconcertante femminilità. Qualsiasi creatura davanti a cui si esalta il loro sogno diventa il simbolo di un essere misterioso, ma fantastico: l’essere celebrato da quei cantori di illusioni. E la creatura vivente da loro adorata è qualcosa come la statua dipinta, immagine di un dio di fronte al quale il popolo cade in ginocchio. Ma dov’è questo dio? Qual è questo dio? In quale parte del cielo abita la sconosciuta che quei pazzi, dal primo sognatore fino all’ultimo, hanno tutti idolatrata? Non appena essi toccano una mano che risponde alla stretta, la loro anima vola via nell’invisibile sogno, lontano dalla realtà della carne. La donna che stringono, essi la trasformano, la completano, la sfigurano con la loro arte poetica. Non sono le sue labbra che baciano, bensì le labbra sognate. Non è in fondo agli occhi di lei, azzurri o neri, che si perde così il loro sguardo esaltato, è in qualcosa di sconosciuto e di inconoscibile. L’occhio della loro dea non è altro che un vetro attraverso cui essi cercano di vedere il paradiso dell’amore ideale. Se tuttavia alcune donne seducenti possono dare alle nostre anime una così rara illusione, altri non fanno che eccitare nelle nostre vene l’amore impetuoso che perpetua la razza. La Venere di Siracusa è la perfetta espressione della bellezza possente, sana e semplice. Questo busto stupendo, di marmo di Paros, è – dicono – La Venere Callipigia descritta da Ateneo e Lampridio, data da Eliogabalo ai siracusani. Non ha testa! E che importa? Il simbolo non è diventato più completo. È un corpo di donna che esprime tutta l’autentica poesia della carezza. Schopenhauer scrisse che la natura, volendo perpetuare la specie, ha fatto della riproduzione una trappola. La forma di marmo, vista a Siracusa, è proprio l’umana trappola intuita dall’artista antico, la donna che nasconde rivela l’incredibile mistero della vita. È una trappola? Che importa! Essa chiama la bocca, attira la mano, offre ai baci la tangibile realtà della carne stupenda, della carne soffice bianca, tonda e soda e deliziosa da stringere. È divina, non perché esprima un pensiero, bensì semplicemente perché è bella. »

Note

1. ^ pagg. 127-129-131-133

Bibliografia

• Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell’arte, volume 1, Bompiani, Milano 1999. ISBN 88-451-7107-8
• Guy de Maupassant, Viaggio in Sicilia, Sigma edizioni.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venere_Landolina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Sitting bull Louvre

Giacobbe Giusti, Sitting bull Louvre

Giacobbe Giusti, Sitting bull Louvre

Size of this preview: 800 × 516 pixels. Other resolutions: 320 × 206 pixels | 640 × 413 pixels | 1,024 × 661 pixels | 1,280 × 826 pixels | 2,790 × 1,800 pixels.

Original file ‎(2,790 × 1,800 pixels, file size: 2.59 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg); ZoomViewer: flash/no flash

Open in Media ViewerConfiguration

Summary

Artist	Unknown
Description	English: Sitting bull. Black marble (formerly inlaid), found in Warka (ancient city of Uruk), Djemdet-Nasr period (ca. 3000 BC). Français : Statuette de taureau couché. Marbre noir originellement incrusté, découvert à Warka (ancienne cité d’Uruk), période de Djemdet-Nasr (v. 3000 av. J.-C.).
Dimensions	H. 12.7 cm (5 in.), L. 22.2 cm (8 ½ in.), W. 8.6 cm (3 ¼ in.)
Current location	Louvre Museum    (Inventory)
	Department of Oriental Antiquities, Richelieu wing, ground floor, room 1a

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com