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Before and After the
End of Time: Architecture and the Year 1000
Christine Smith, with James Ackerman, Hunter Ford Tura, Marco Steinberg, and Marjorie B. Cohn GSD in association with George Braziller, Publisher |
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The end of the world -- and of time -- was expected by many to occur in the year 1000. This was based on references in the Bible, which also described in considerable detail the Heavenly City of Jerusalem that was to come.
The essays in this book look at the contrast between the heavenly architecture of prophecy and the Romanesque architecture that did appear. At the turn of the first millennium, spiritual and historical notions of time were held simultaneously. The powerful imagery of an ideal, translucent kindgom of heaven permeated the European imagination at the same time as the massive style of Romaesque architecture began to flourish.
The essay "The Human Architect..." serves as an excellent introduction to Romanesque architecture with its revival of cut-stone masonry and the technological revolution it began. It traces its links to classical antiquity and points out its innovations.
Other essays focus on references to God as the divine architect, on the precious stones from which the Heavely City will be built, architectural photography, and the influences of both Romanesque architecture and the imagery of the ideal city on architects and scholars. They bring to life some of the most enduring ideas in the western European cultural tradition.
The essays are illustrated throughout. Numerous photographs, drawings, and plans illustrate the exteriors, interiors, and sculptural details of Romanesque architecture. A noted group of lithographs from Odilon Redon's Apocalypse series evokes the Medieval imagination.
This book will appeal both to scholars with its unique viewpoint and to the general reader as a window onto an important moment in architectural history.
Contents
Preface
Jorge Silvetti
Introduction
Marjorie B. Cohn and Christine Smith
Acknowledgments and list of lenders
Checklist of works exhibited
Essays
Before and After the End of Time
by Christine Smith
The Human Architect and Architecture Made by Human Hands
by Christine Smith
The Divine Architect and the Heavenly Jerusalem
by Christine Smith
The Stones of the Heavenly Jerusalem
by Hunter Ford Tura
Observations on Architectural Photography
by James Ackerman
The Installation: A Question of Meaning and Representation
by Marco Steinberg
On the Study of Early Medieval Art at Harvard
by James Ackerman
Publication Title:
Before and After the End of Time: Architecture and the Year 1000
Year Published:
2000, GSD in association with George Braziller, Publisher
Authors:
Christine Smith, with James Ackerman, Hunter Ford Tura, Marco Steinberg,
and Marjorie B. Cohn
Format:
106 pages, paperback.
In the Frances Loeb Library:
NA390 .B445 2000
Special Collections Rare NA390 .B445 2000
.