初期キリスト教ローマ帝国の集中形式宗教建築における内部立面構成の造形理念

抄録

In the previous article, the architectural idea emphasized surface appearance in centralized ecclesiastical buildings of the Early Christian Period, indicating a sophisticated transformation from an "active [objective]" to a "passive [subjective]" architectural disposition of interior space. If the architectural idea reinforces the aesthetic principle in contemporary society, such interior composition should be a rational expression of man's apriori perception of beauty and holiness. This article, by examining the aesthetic principle accepted in ecclesiastical and building circles, clarifies both the concept and the structure of the aesthetic principle and, furthermore, the mutual relationship between the aesthetic principle and the architectural idea. In the Early Christian Period, the ecclesiastical body borrowed the logic of neoplatonism for integrating its theology. The representative philosopher was Plotinus. Compilations of his thought were held in many libraries of the empire in the fourth century. Therefore, the mexanikos must have learned Plotinus at an early stage, for rhetoric was necessarily taught as a part of fundamental education. Accordingly, Plotinus would be a point of contact for both the church and its builders, encouraged as a source of pragmatic philosophy for builders as well as priests, the composer and the interpreter. It follows that both employed Plotinus' aesthetic as a standard of architectural beauty. In the aesthetic principle of Plotinus, color is set above form as an aesthetic objective. The principle of interior composition as surface shown in the examination of ecclesiastical architecture of the period confirms this to be the case. Subordination of form to color is suggested by the appearance of reused elements and frequent divergence from regular composition in rebuilding operations even in ecclesiastical architecture where national prestige was significantly involved. Observation of surviving structures and remains allow us to assume that the plastic beauty discussed by Vitruvius had changed subtly in quality to a pictorial beauty. Moreover, reflection on Plotinus' thought must have caused, the architectural idea involved in construction to emerge from the "space", so to say, between architectural surfaces and the viewer. The aesthetic principle, which includes knowledge, "engineering" and the handling of light etc. in Plotinus thus functions as a mediator between man and his objective. Therefore, strictly speaking, the architectural idea makes its appearance in the architectural space, not on the architectural surface. This means, builder and priest transform the quantity of a space defined by a structural frame into a quality. That is, man in the Early Christian Period first recognized the ecclesiastical interior as an overflowing of color in space, and not as something restricted to the surface. In this sense, the aesthetic principle and architectural idea cause "space" in architecture to emerge in the Early Christian Period, a process in which the "idea" is reborn in the world of the holy. Likewise, the architectural idea changed from a consideration of proportion derived from Greek architecture to embrace a pictorialized beauty in the course of this period, from the fourth to the sixth centuries.