Subtle Messages of Architecture and Art

Disclaimer: Will add pictures at a later date

Professor Kathy told us that one of the objectives of this course is to develop our ability to read into architecture and artifacts of the past.

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Archaeology

We did an archaeology study in the House of Dragons, a heritage medieval house preserved in Cluny.

An archaeologist conducts his digs in the house. Pictured above is the different layer of floors as the dig goes further down. The lowest layer is the oldest layer of the floor dating back to about 800AD. As the centuries past, the house was built over the older layer. The top most layer dates back to the 1700s.

The house was probably inhabited by a well-to-do family because of the beautiful windows. The windows were a sign of wealth in the past. The house was three stories high. The ground floor was used as a shop, most likely a blacksmithing shop. The second floor housed the kitchen and families. The families most likely stayed in a single room. The house was connected to its neighbor by a common door arch which is presently sealed. I can see a strong sense of community lifestyle based on the architecture of the house, albeit it disappears as time goes by (as shown by the sealed door arch to the neighbor’s house).

As we were analyzing the architecture of houses around the Macon region, we found that some houses had portions of rocks that seemed out of place (different color or texture from the rest of the building). The rocks looked exactly like the ones from the remains of the Abbey, which suggests that the villagers took part of the rocks of the Abbey for the construction of their houses.

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Analyzing a Church Mural

We visited the Berze-la-Ville chapel where the Abbot of Cluny would visit to obtain his peace and solitude. Here, a painting of “Christ the Magnificent” can be found in the walls of the chapel. The exact same painting was found in the walls of the Cluny Abbey as well.

The Byzantine-style painting, pictured above (accidentally snapped before I actually realized that photography was not permitted), pictured Christ in his glory. The eleven apostles and St Paul were on his sides with another four unidentified individuals – probably important members of the Catholic Church. Six holy maidens were painted on the pillars. There were also two scenes of martyrdom by a saint from the West and a saint from Asia Minor. The bottom walls also portrayed six saints – both from the West and the East. 

Dr Reinert concurred that the painting tried to appeal to a wider audience who may come from different nationalities by portraying individuals representing different regions. The painting attempts to give Cluny a form of legitimacy in the eyes of individuals from all over the world who are well versed in their Christian teachings and history.

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Musings on Stone Carvings

Back to the Cluny Abbey, if you look at the stone carvings, you will notice that they look totally different from Renaissance stone carvings. They seem more rudimentary, lacking the details and dimension of the ones from the Renaissance era. To put it simply, they seem like a drawing from a 10 year old child.

These were beasts that were unfamiliar from western cultures (as far as I know). Typically, stone carvings in the West usually feature mythical creatures from the Bible, Greek/Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even Egyptian mythology. But these creatures pictured here (and many others that were not pictured due to time constraint) did not seem like any from those sources. It made me wonder: could these creatures are mythical creatures from some mythology of a local tribe?

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Moral of the story: Take in every detail that you see.


Memorable Quotes

"Trivia question. If Kathy were to be back in the Byzantine era, she would be a Queen. Why is that?" (Dr Reinert, pointing to Professor Kathy's red shoes)