Ciborium (architecture)
Encyclopedia
In ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium ("ciborion": κιβωριου in Greek) is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary
, that stands over and covers the altar
in a basilica
or other church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin
, though ciborium is often considered more correct for examples in churches. Early ciboria had curtains hanging from rods between the columns, so that the altar could be concealed from the congregation at points in the liturgy
. Smaller examples may cover other objects in a church. A ciborium is also a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist
.
In a very large church a ciborium is an effective way of visually highlighting the altar, and emphasizing its importance. The altar and ciborium are often set upon a dais
to raise it above the floor of the sanctuary.
("little house"), which term is reserved in modern architectural usage to a niche-like structure attached to a wall, but was originally used more widely. Examples can be seen on many coins, the Missorium of Theodosius I
, the Chronography of 354
, and other Late Antique works. The Holy of holies
of the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, a room whose entrance was covered by the parochet
, a curtain or "veil", was certainly regarded as a precedent by the church; the naos
containing the cult image
in an Egyptian temple
is perhaps a comparable structure.
The free-standing domed ciborium-like structure that stood over what was thought to be the site of Jesus's tomb within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem was called the aedicula (or "edicule"), and was a key sight for pilgrims, often shown in art, for example in the Monza Ampullae
. This structure, erected under Constantine the Great, may itself have been important in spreading the idea of ciboria over altars. The later structure now in its place is far larger, with solid stone walls; the silver plaques covering the old structure were apparently used to make coins to pay the army defending Jerusalem against Saladin
in the desperate days of 1187. Ciboria were placed over the shrines of martyr
s, which then had churches built over them, with the altar over the spot believed to be the site of the burial. They also served to shelter the altar from dust and the like from high ceilings that could only rarely be reached.
Possibly the earliest important example over an altar was in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, also donated by Constantine, looted by the Visigoths in the 5th century and now replaced by a large Gothic structure (see below). This is described as a fastigium in the earliest sources, but was probably a ciborium. Like most major early examples it was "of silver", whose weight is given, presumably meaning that decorated silver plaques were fixed to a wood or stone framework. Unsurprisingly no early examples in precious metal have survived, but many are recorded in important churches. Possibly the earliest ciborium to survive largely complete is one in Sant'Apollinare in Classe
in Ravenna
(not over the main altar), which is dated to 806-810, though the columns of the example at Sant'Ambrogio appear to date from the original 4th century church.
The ciborium commissioned by Justinian the Great for Hagia Sophia
in Constantinople
and described by Paulus Silentarius is now lost. It was also of silver, niello
ed, surmounted by "a globe of pure gold weighing 118 pounds, and golden lilies weighing 4 pounds [each], and above these a golden cross with precious and rare stones
, which cross weighed 80 pounds of gold". The roof had eight panels rising to the globe and cross.
The Early Medieval Eastern Orthodox church "directed that the eucharist
be celebrated at an altar with a ciborium, from which hung the vessel in which the consecrated host was kept", the vessel sometimes being in the form of a dove. Early depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art
, showing the Communion of the Apostles, show them queueing to receive the bread and wine from Christ, who stands under or beside a ciborium, presumably reflecting contemporary liturgical practice. An example of this type is in mosaic
in the apse
of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
, under a very large standing Virgin.
According to the 8th century saint and Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople: "The ciborium represents here the place where Christ was crucified; for the place where He was buried was nearby and raised on a base. It is placed in the church in order to represent concisely the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It similarly corresponds to the ark of the covenant of the Lord in which, it is written, is His Holy of Holies and His holy place. Next to it God commanded that two wrought Cherubim be placed on either side (cf Ex 25:18) —for KIB is the ark, and OURIN is the effulgence, or the light, of God."(Τὸ κιβώριόν ἐστι ἀντὶ τοῦ τόπου ἔνθα ἐσταυρώθη ὁ Χριστός· ἐγγὺς γὰρ ἦν ὁ τόπος καὶ ὑπόβαθρος ἔνθα ἐτάφη· ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἐν συντομίᾳ ἐκφέρεσθαι τὴν σταύρωσιν, τὴν ταφὴν καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ τέτακται. Ἔστι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν κιβωτὸν τῆς διαθήκης Κυρίου, ἐν ᾗ λέγεται Ἅγια Ἁγίων καὶ ἁγίασμα αὐτοῦ· ἐν ᾗ προσέταξεν ὁ Θεὸς γενέσθαι δύο χερουβὶμ ἑκατέρωθεν τορευτά· τὸ γὰρ ΚΙΒ ἐστὶ κιβωτός, τὸ δὲ ΟΥΡΙΝ φωτισμὸς Θεοῦ, ἢ φῶς Θεοῦ.)
Examples in Orthodox manuscripts mostly show rounded dome roofs, but surviving early examples in the West often placed a circular canopy over four columns, with tiers of little columns supporting two or more stages rising to a central finial
, giving a very open appearance, and allowing candles to be placed along the beams between the columns. The example by the Cosmati
in the gallery is similar to another 12th century Italian ciborium now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, and that in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari
. By the Romanesque
, gabled forms, as at Sant'Ambrogio, or ones with a flat top, as at the Euphrasian Basilica
(illustrated) or St Mark's, Venice, are more typical.
In Gothic architecture
the gabled form already used at Sant'Ambrogio returns, now with an elaborate spire-like pinnacle. Probably the most elaborate is the one in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio
and later painted by Barna da Siena
. The columns here and at San Paolo Fuori le Mura are still re-used classical ones, in porphyry
at San Paolo and Sant'Ambrogio (Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has its porphry columns, with no canopy surviving). Most of the surviving early examples are in stone in basilica churches, especially in Rome and other parts of Italy; it is unclear how common examples, perhaps in wood, once were in smaller churches.
Images and documentary mentions of early examples often have curtains called tetravela hung between the columns; these altar-curtains were used to cover and then reveal the view of the altar by the congregation at points during services — exactly which points varied, and is often unclear. Altar-curtains survived the decline of the ciborium in both East and West, and in English are often called "riddels" (from French rideau, a word once also used for ordinary domestic curtains). A few churches have "riddle posts" or "riddel posts" around the altar, which supported the curtain-rails, and perhaps a cloth stretched above. Such an arrangement, open above, can be seen in folio 199v of the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry
. Late medieval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by angels, and the posts, but not the curtains, were revived in some new or refitted Anglo-Catholic churches by Ninian Comper
and others around 1900. In earlier periods the curtains were closed at the most solemn part of the Mass
, a practice that continues to the present day in the Coptic and Armenia
n churches. A comparison to the biblical Veil of the Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with red curtains, that are often shown near the writing saint in early Evangelist portrait
s, especially in the East, represent a ciborium, as do the structures surrounding many manuscript portraits of medieval rulers.
and retable
. The typical Gothic form of canopied niche to enclose a statue may be regarded as a "reduced form of ciborium".
A very famous ciborium that apparently did not stand over an altar was one that apparently functioned as a quasi-reliquary shrine or symbolic tomb for the missing remains of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki in Hagios Demetrios, the large and important church erected in Thessaloniki
over the mass grave in which he was traditionally buried. This appears, from various accounts of miracles associated with it, and depictions in mosaic
, to have been a free-standing roofed structure inside the church, at one side of the nave, with doors or walls in precious metal all around it. It was hexagonal and made of or covered with silver; inside there was a couch or bed. The roof had flat triangular panels rising shallowly to a central point. It was rebuilt at least once. A medium-sized 13th century ciborium in a corner of San Marco, Venice, known as the capitello ("little chapel"), was used for the display of important icons and relics in the Middle Ages.
in the East and rood screen
and pulpitum
in the West, meant that they would be little seen, and smaller examples often conflicted with the large altarpiece
s that came into fashion in the later Middle Ages. They enjoyed something of a revival after the Renaissance once again opened up the view of the sanctuary, but never again became usual even in large churches. Bernini's enormous ciborium
in Saint Peter's, Rome is a famous exception; it is the largest in existence, and always called a baldachin. Many other elaborate aedicular Baroque
altar surrounds that project from, but remain attached to, the wall behind, and have pairs of columns on each side, may be thought of as hinting at the ciborium without exactly using its form.
The Gothic Revival saw the true free-standing ciborium return to some popularity: the Votive Church, Vienna has a large Gothic example designed in 1856, and Ninian Comper built a number, including one for Pusey House. Peterborough Cathedral
has a neo-Gothic example, and Derby Cathedral
one with the Romanesque small columns below a neo-classical
architrave
and pediment
. Westminster Cathedral
, a neo-Byzantine building, has a splayed version of 1894, with extra flanking columns, which within that context is "resolutely modernistic". The Gothic style of ciborium was also borrowed for some public monuments like the Albert Memorial
in London, as it had been in the Middle Ages for the outdoor Scaliger Tombs
in Verona
. For other post-Renaissance versions, many variations of the basic square four-column plan, see the next section.
, the Catholic Encyclopedia
and other sources are somewhat dubious about this etymology, which goes back to at least the Late Antique period. An alternative is to derive the word from cibes ("food"). Both senses of the word were in use in classical times. The word "baldachin" derives from a luxurious type of cloth from Baghdad
, from which name the word is derived, in English as "baudekin" and other spellings. Matthew Paris
records that Henry III of England
wore a robe "de preciosissimo baldekino" at a ceremony at Westminster Abbey
in 1247. The word for the cloth became the word for the ceremonial canopies made from the cloth.
Bernini's St. Peter's baldachin
imitates in bronze a cloth canopy above, and thus has some claim to be called a "baldachin", as it always is. A number of other Baroque ciboria, and secular architectural canopies, copied this conceit, for example Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The volute
d top of the Bernini baldachin was also copied by a number of French architects, often producing structures around an altar with no actual canopy or roof, just columns arrayed in an approximate curve (a "rotunda altar"), with only an architrave and volutes above. Examples are at the churches at Val-de-Grâce
(François Mansart
and Jacques Lemercier
, 1660s) and Les Invalides
(Jules Hardouin Mansart
, 1706) in Paris, Angers Cathedral, Verdun Cathedral
, Notre-Dame de Mouzon in Mouzon
, Saint-Sauveur in Rennes
, and the Saint-Sauveur Basilica in Dinan
. These are usually called baldachins (not at Angers), and many have certainly departed from the traditional form of the ciborium. There is a Rococo
German example at Worms Cathedral
; many German Rococo churches used similar styles that were engaged with the apse
wall, or partly so. In addition, according to the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia
articles on "Baldachin" and "Ciborium", the Catholic Church opted, apparently in the 19th century, to use officially "ciborium" only for the vessel and "baldachin" for all architectural forms. Architectural historians generally prefer to use "ciborium" at the least for all square four-column roofed forms.
Sanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
, that stands over and covers the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
in a basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
or other church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin
Baldachin
A baldachin, or baldaquin , is a canopy of state over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is...
, though ciborium is often considered more correct for examples in churches. Early ciboria had curtains hanging from rods between the columns, so that the altar could be concealed from the congregation at points in the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
. Smaller examples may cover other objects in a church. A ciborium is also a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
.
In a very large church a ciborium is an effective way of visually highlighting the altar, and emphasizing its importance. The altar and ciborium are often set upon a dais
Dais
Dais is any raised platform located either in or outside of a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary....
to raise it above the floor of the sanctuary.
History
The ciborium arose in the context of a wide range of canopies, both honorific and practical, used in the ancient world to cover both important persons and religious images or objects. Some of these were temporary and portable, including those using poles and textiles, and others permanent structures. Roman emperors are often shown underneath such a structure, often called an aediculaAedicula
In religion in ancient Rome, an aedicula is a small shrine. The word aedicula is the diminutive of the Latin aedes, a temple building or house....
("little house"), which term is reserved in modern architectural usage to a niche-like structure attached to a wall, but was originally used more widely. Examples can be seen on many coins, the Missorium of Theodosius I
Missorium of Theodosius I
The Missorium of Theodosius I is a large ceremonial silver dish preserved in the Real Academia de la Historia, in Madrid, Spain. It was probably made in Constantinople for the tenth anniversary in 388 of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius I, the last Emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western...
, the Chronography of 354
Chronography of 354
The Chronography of 354, also known as the Calendar of 354, was a 4th century illuminated manuscript, which was produced in 354 AD for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus. It is the earliest dated codex to have full page illustrations. None of the original has survived...
, and other Late Antique works. The Holy of holies
Holy of Holies
The Holy of Holies is a term in the Hebrew Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the First Temple, which could be entered only by the High Priest on Yom Kippur...
of the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, a room whose entrance was covered by the parochet
Parochet
Parochet is the curtain on the front of the Aron Kodesh in a synagogue that covers the Sifrei Torah...
, a curtain or "veil", was certainly regarded as a precedent by the church; the naos
Naos (shrine)
A naos was the sanctuary, the innermost chamber, of a Greek temple, in Latin referred to as cella.The Apostle Paul in the New Testament uses this word in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 2 Corinthians 6:16 to denote that the bodies of the Christians are the Most Holy Places of the Living God as He indwells...
containing the cult image
Cult image
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents...
in an Egyptian temple
Egyptian temple
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and commemoration of pharaohs in Ancient Egypt and in regions under Egyptian control. These temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated...
is perhaps a comparable structure.
The free-standing domed ciborium-like structure that stood over what was thought to be the site of Jesus's tomb within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
in Jerusalem was called the aedicula (or "edicule"), and was a key sight for pilgrims, often shown in art, for example in the Monza Ampullae
Monza ampullae
The Monza ampullae form the largest collection of a specific type of Early Medieval pilgrimage ampullae or small flasks designed to hold holy oil from pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land related to the life of Jesus, that were made in Palestine, probably in the fifth to early seventh centuries...
. This structure, erected under Constantine the Great, may itself have been important in spreading the idea of ciboria over altars. The later structure now in its place is far larger, with solid stone walls; the silver plaques covering the old structure were apparently used to make coins to pay the army defending Jerusalem against Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
in the desperate days of 1187. Ciboria were placed over the shrines of martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s, which then had churches built over them, with the altar over the spot believed to be the site of the burial. They also served to shelter the altar from dust and the like from high ceilings that could only rarely be reached.
Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
The Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe is an important monument of Byzantine art near Ravenna, Italy. When the UNESCO inscribed eight Ravenna sites on the World Heritage List, it cited this basilica as "an outstanding example of the early Christian basilica in its purity and simplicity of its...
in Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
(not over the main altar), which is dated to 806-810, though the columns of the example at Sant'Ambrogio appear to date from the original 4th century church.
The ciborium commissioned by Justinian the Great for Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and described by Paulus Silentarius is now lost. It was also of silver, niello
Niello
Niello is a black mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal...
ed, surmounted by "a globe of pure gold weighing 118 pounds, and golden lilies weighing 4 pounds [each], and above these a golden cross with precious and rare stones
Crux Gemmata
A crux gemmata is a form of cross typical of Early Christian and Early Medieval art, where the cross, or at least its front side, is principally decorated with jewels...
, which cross weighed 80 pounds of gold". The roof had eight panels rising to the globe and cross.
The Early Medieval Eastern Orthodox church "directed that the eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
be celebrated at an altar with a ciborium, from which hung the vessel in which the consecrated host was kept", the vessel sometimes being in the form of a dove. Early depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art
Last Supper in Christian art
The Last Supper of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles has been a popular subject in Christian art, often as part of a cycle showing the Life of Christ. Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art date back to early Christianity and can be seen in the Catacombs of Rome.The Last Supper was depicted...
, showing the Communion of the Apostles, show them queueing to receive the bread and wine from Christ, who stands under or beside a ciborium, presumably reflecting contemporary liturgical practice. An example of this type is in mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
in the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kiev Cave Monastery complex...
, under a very large standing Virgin.
According to the 8th century saint and Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople: "The ciborium represents here the place where Christ was crucified; for the place where He was buried was nearby and raised on a base. It is placed in the church in order to represent concisely the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It similarly corresponds to the ark of the covenant of the Lord in which, it is written, is His Holy of Holies and His holy place. Next to it God commanded that two wrought Cherubim be placed on either side (cf Ex 25:18) —for KIB is the ark, and OURIN is the effulgence, or the light, of God."(Τὸ κιβώριόν ἐστι ἀντὶ τοῦ τόπου ἔνθα ἐσταυρώθη ὁ Χριστός· ἐγγὺς γὰρ ἦν ὁ τόπος καὶ ὑπόβαθρος ἔνθα ἐτάφη· ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἐν συντομίᾳ ἐκφέρεσθαι τὴν σταύρωσιν, τὴν ταφὴν καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ τέτακται. Ἔστι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν κιβωτὸν τῆς διαθήκης Κυρίου, ἐν ᾗ λέγεται Ἅγια Ἁγίων καὶ ἁγίασμα αὐτοῦ· ἐν ᾗ προσέταξεν ὁ Θεὸς γενέσθαι δύο χερουβὶμ ἑκατέρωθεν τορευτά· τὸ γὰρ ΚΙΒ ἐστὶ κιβωτός, τὸ δὲ ΟΥΡΙΝ φωτισμὸς Θεοῦ, ἢ φῶς Θεοῦ.)
Examples in Orthodox manuscripts mostly show rounded dome roofs, but surviving early examples in the West often placed a circular canopy over four columns, with tiers of little columns supporting two or more stages rising to a central finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
, giving a very open appearance, and allowing candles to be placed along the beams between the columns. The example by the Cosmati
Cosmati
The Cosmati were a Roman family, seven members of which, for four generations, were skilful architects, sculptors and workers in decorative geometric mosaic, mostly for church floors...
in the gallery is similar to another 12th century Italian ciborium now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, and that in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
. By the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
, gabled forms, as at Sant'Ambrogio, or ones with a flat top, as at the Euphrasian Basilica
Euphrasian Basilica
The Euphrasian Basilica is a basilica in Poreč, Croatia. The episcopal complex, including, apart the basilica itself, a sacristy, a baptistery and the bell tower of the nearby archbishop's palace, is one of the best examples of early Byzantine architecture in the Mediterranean region.The...
(illustrated) or St Mark's, Venice, are more typical.
In Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
the gabled form already used at Sant'Ambrogio returns, now with an elaborate spire-like pinnacle. Probably the most elaborate is the one in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio
Arnolfo di Cambio
Arnolfo di Cambio was an Italian architect and sculptor.-Biography:Arnolfo was born in Colle Val d'Elsa, Tuscany....
and later painted by Barna da Siena
Barna da Siena
Barna da Siena, also known as Barna di Siena, was a Sienese painter active from about 1330 to 1350, and was the painter in Siena during this period. He learned his trade from Simone Martini...
. The columns here and at San Paolo Fuori le Mura are still re-used classical ones, in porphyry
Porphyry (geology)
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
at San Paolo and Sant'Ambrogio (Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has its porphry columns, with no canopy surviving). Most of the surviving early examples are in stone in basilica churches, especially in Rome and other parts of Italy; it is unclear how common examples, perhaps in wood, once were in smaller churches.
Altar curtains
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410...
. Late medieval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by angels, and the posts, but not the curtains, were revived in some new or refitted Anglo-Catholic churches by Ninian Comper
Ninian Comper
Sir John Ninian Comper was a Scottish-born architect. He was one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects, noted for his churches and their furnishings...
and others around 1900. In earlier periods the curtains were closed at the most solemn part of the Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
, a practice that continues to the present day in the Coptic and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n churches. A comparison to the biblical Veil of the Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with red curtains, that are often shown near the writing saint in early Evangelist portrait
Evangelist portrait
Evangelist portraits are a specific type of miniature included in ancient and mediæval illuminated manuscript Gospel Books, and later in Bibles and other books, as well as other media. Each Gospel of the Four Evangelists, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, may be prefaced by a portrait of...
s, especially in the East, represent a ciborium, as do the structures surrounding many manuscript portraits of medieval rulers.
Other uses
Ciboria, often much smaller, were sometimes also erected to cover particular objects, especially icons and reliquaries, and smaller ciboria that stood on, rather than over, the altar are also found. The word may also be used of some large sculptural structures that stand behind an altar, often offering no canopy or covering as such, for example at Siena Cathedral. These may be free-standing, or built against a wall, and usage here overlaps with the terms tabernacleChurch tabernacle
A tabernacle is the fixed, locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is "reserved" . A less obvious container, set into the wall, is called an aumbry....
and retable
Retable
A retable is a framed altarpiece, raised slightly above the back of the altar or communion table, on which are placed the cross, ceremonial candlesticks and other ornaments....
. The typical Gothic form of canopied niche to enclose a statue may be regarded as a "reduced form of ciborium".
A very famous ciborium that apparently did not stand over an altar was one that apparently functioned as a quasi-reliquary shrine or symbolic tomb for the missing remains of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki in Hagios Demetrios, the large and important church erected in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
over the mass grave in which he was traditionally buried. This appears, from various accounts of miracles associated with it, and depictions in mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
, to have been a free-standing roofed structure inside the church, at one side of the nave, with doors or walls in precious metal all around it. It was hexagonal and made of or covered with silver; inside there was a couch or bed. The roof had flat triangular panels rising shallowly to a central point. It was rebuilt at least once. A medium-sized 13th century ciborium in a corner of San Marco, Venice, known as the capitello ("little chapel"), was used for the display of important icons and relics in the Middle Ages.
Decline and revival
Ciboria are now much rarer in churches in both East and West, as the introduction of other structures that screened the altar, such as the iconostasisIconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
in the East and rood screen
Rood screen
The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron...
and pulpitum
Pulpitum
The pulpitum is a common feature in medieval cathedral and monastic architecture in Europe. It is a massive screen, most often constructed of stone, or occasionally timber, that divides the choir from the nave and ambulatory The pulpitum is a common feature in medieval cathedral and monastic...
in the West, meant that they would be little seen, and smaller examples often conflicted with the large altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s that came into fashion in the later Middle Ages. They enjoyed something of a revival after the Renaissance once again opened up the view of the sanctuary, but never again became usual even in large churches. Bernini's enormous ciborium
St. Peter's baldachin
Saint Peter's baldachin is a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium or baldachin, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome...
in Saint Peter's, Rome is a famous exception; it is the largest in existence, and always called a baldachin. Many other elaborate aedicular Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
altar surrounds that project from, but remain attached to, the wall behind, and have pairs of columns on each side, may be thought of as hinting at the ciborium without exactly using its form.
The Gothic Revival saw the true free-standing ciborium return to some popularity: the Votive Church, Vienna has a large Gothic example designed in 1856, and Ninian Comper built a number, including one for Pusey House. Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the...
has a neo-Gothic example, and Derby Cathedral
Derby Cathedral
The Cathedral of All Saints , is a cathedral church in the City of Derby, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Derby, and with an area of around is the smallest Anglican cathedral in England.-History:...
one with the Romanesque small columns below a neo-classical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
and pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
. Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...
, a neo-Byzantine building, has a splayed version of 1894, with extra flanking columns, which within that context is "resolutely modernistic". The Gothic style of ciborium was also borrowed for some public monuments like the Albert Memorial
Albert Memorial
The Albert Memorial is situated in Kensington Gardens, London, England, directly to the north of the Royal Albert Hall. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the...
in London, as it had been in the Middle Ages for the outdoor Scaliger Tombs
Scaliger Tombs
The Scaliger Tombs is a group of five Gothic funerary monuments in Verona, Italy, celebrating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century....
in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
. For other post-Renaissance versions, many variations of the basic square four-column plan, see the next section.
Terms: ciborium or baldachin?
The word "ciborium", in both senses, is said to derive from the cup-shaped seed vessel of the Egyptian water-lily nelumbium speciosum, which is supposed to have been used as a cup itself, and to resemble both the metal cup shape and, when inverted, the dome of the architectural feature, though the Grove Dictionary of ArtGrove Dictionary of Art
Grove Art Online, formerly The Dictionary of Art but usually known as The Grove Dictionary of Art, is a large encyclopedia of art, now part of the online reference publications of Oxford University Press, and previously a 34-volume printed encyclopedia when last published on paper in 1996...
, the Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
and other sources are somewhat dubious about this etymology, which goes back to at least the Late Antique period. An alternative is to derive the word from cibes ("food"). Both senses of the word were in use in classical times. The word "baldachin" derives from a luxurious type of cloth from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, from which name the word is derived, in English as "baudekin" and other spellings. Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris was a Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire...
records that Henry III of England
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
wore a robe "de preciosissimo baldekino" at a ceremony at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in 1247. The word for the cloth became the word for the ceremonial canopies made from the cloth.
Bernini's St. Peter's baldachin
St. Peter's baldachin
Saint Peter's baldachin is a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium or baldachin, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome...
imitates in bronze a cloth canopy above, and thus has some claim to be called a "baldachin", as it always is. A number of other Baroque ciboria, and secular architectural canopies, copied this conceit, for example Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The volute
Volute
A volute is a spiral scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals...
d top of the Bernini baldachin was also copied by a number of French architects, often producing structures around an altar with no actual canopy or roof, just columns arrayed in an approximate curve (a "rotunda altar"), with only an architrave and volutes above. Examples are at the churches at Val-de-Grâce
Val-de-Grâce
This article describes the hospital and former abbey. For the main article on Mansart and Lemercier's central church, see Church of the Val-de-Grâce....
(François Mansart
François Mansart
François Mansart was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France...
and Jacques Lemercier
Jacques Lemercier
Jacques Lemercier was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawing from French traditions of the previous century and current Roman practice the fresh, essentially French...
, 1660s) and Les Invalides
Les Invalides
Les Invalides , officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides , is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's...
(Jules Hardouin Mansart
Jules Hardouin Mansart
Jules Hardouin-Mansart was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex of French Baroque architecture, representing the power and grandeur of Louis XIV...
, 1706) in Paris, Angers Cathedral, Verdun Cathedral
Verdun Cathedral
Verdun Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, and national monument of France, in Verdun in Lorraine.It is the seat of the Bishop of Verdun.-History:...
, Notre-Dame de Mouzon in Mouzon
Mouzon, Ardennes
Mouzon is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France.-Population:...
, Saint-Sauveur in Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, and the Saint-Sauveur Basilica in Dinan
Dinan
Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France.-Geography:Its geographical setting is exceptional. Instead of nestling on the valley floor like Morlaix, most urban development has been on the hillside, overlooking the river Rance...
. These are usually called baldachins (not at Angers), and many have certainly departed from the traditional form of the ciborium. There is a Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
German example at Worms Cathedral
Worms Cathedral
Cathedral of St Peter is a church in Worms, southern Germany. It was the seat of the Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Worms until its extinction in 1800.It is a basilica with four round towers, two large domes, and a choir at each end...
; many German Rococo churches used similar styles that were engaged with the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
wall, or partly so. In addition, according to the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
articles on "Baldachin" and "Ciborium", the Catholic Church opted, apparently in the 19th century, to use officially "ciborium" only for the vessel and "baldachin" for all architectural forms. Architectural historians generally prefer to use "ciborium" at the least for all square four-column roofed forms.
External links
- Marcantonio Architects blog: "Parts of the church building: the ciborium