APSE

This is the APSE, where the clergy sat + where   the altar was 
       We know from a written source that 
          the altar was made of silver + covered w/ gold + 400 gems 
    This altar was not meant to be ostentatious,
       but was part of decor that was meant to 
           be an earthly representation of God's house in Paradaise  

 We know that the apse had a mosaic in its dome 
     (a mosaic is a picture made of small pieces of any material, such as stone or glass)
The apse had a mosaic was of Christ, 
    W/ St Peter on one side, + St Paul on his other

This was a Christian adaptation of a pagan Roman practice: 
   In the law courts of the pagan Roman basilicas
     there was in the apse an image of the
        Roman emperor to serve as a symbol of the Emperor's presence:
        It was illegal to conduct business in the court w/ out the image being there 
     So that pagan custom was an example of an image standing in for the reality
It makes sense, then, to have Christ's image 
     in the apse of the early Christian basilica: 
        The Emperor's image was in the apse of the
            Pagan Roman basilica 
     And the image of Christ, "the King of Kings" 
       was in the apse of the early Christian basilica 

The flat wall around the apse of an early Christian basilica is called a triumphal arch

The Triumphal arch is of course a Roman invention  
   Here, we looked at a slide of the Arch of Constantine
       which was set up to commemorate the victory
            that brought him in to power as Emperor 

An important point here is that the ancient Romans were very adept at using images to 
    convey an idea, to the point of using art as propaganda
The early Christians came out of this culture, and so
    it came naturally to them to borrow an image that was familiar in the surrounding culture
       and apply it to their religion.  We'll see more of these transplanted symbols
          when we study iconography

The Triumphal arch is of course a Roman invention  
   Here, we looked at a slide of the Arch of Constantine
       which was set up to commemorate the victory
            that brought him in to power as Emperor 

An important point here is that the ancient Romans were very adept at using images to 
    convey an idea, to the point of using art as propaganda
The early Christians came out of this culture, and so
    it came naturally to them to borrow an image that was familiar in the surrounding culture
       and apply it to their religion.  We'll see more of these transplanted symbols
          when we study iconography

We used the Church of St. Apollinare in Classe, 
     which we'll study carefully when we get to iconography
         as a still-standing example of an early Christian basilica
              that has an ornamented triumphal arch