Brian, I thought well of your contributions to 'crossology'
(as you now put it) last night. I thought how you're very
much adding 'modern' data to the record. I also like Pat's
annexations. Crossology is a vast territory, and it's
somewhat amazing what and how certain paths cross here at
design-l.
1 April 1999 is when I first learned of St. Helena as the
mother of Constantine and of her activity as builder of
highly significant/original Christian basilicas. Five years
ago it was Holy Thursday, and ten years ago 1 April was Good
Friday, when (a close friend) R. David Schmitt died right in
the middle of the afternoon.
"Calendrical Coincidence"
Interesting how this stuff happened in Philadelphia, where
Broad St. and Market St. manifest the largest cardo and
decumanus in the world--a planned and then 'concrete'
crossing of two main urban street.
Initially, it was data, actually the absence of data within
Piranesi's Ichnographia Campi Martii that led me to look for
the 'architect' of Rome's Constantinian Basilicas, buildings
which should be present within the Ichnographia, but are
not--Rome's Pagan edifices are present, but not the
(contemporaneous) Christian ones.
Much of my focus over the last five years has concentrated
on the time between 28 October 312 (when Constantine
'converted' from leading his troops into battle under a
Pagan guise/symbol to leading his troops into battle under a
Christian guise/symbol) to sometime late 328/early 329 (when
(I believe) Eutropia died). This period in time is when
Christian church building was, as we say now, 'booming'
throughout the Roman Empire for the first time, and it was
Helena and Eutropia that were mostly responsible for all
this (architectural) activity. From the very start, it
thrills me that women, and not men, played this important
historical role--and not just any women, but 'twin
basilissas'.
Not too long ago, countable days actually, I first learned
of Melania the Younger, and how her (enormously expensive)
family estate just outside the walls of Rome at the Salarian
Gate, was one of the great properties (along with the
Gardens of Sallust) that were plundered when Alaric and his
Visigoths broke into (at the Salarian Gate) and sacked Rome
for the first time. The Visigoths initially camped for many
months outside the walls of Rome (near the Salarian Gate)
thereby starving the city by disrupting all deliveries of
grain from Africa to the city. The Salarian Gate, the
Gardens of Sallust, and the Gardens Valeriani (Melania's
inheritance) are all delineated within Piranesi's
Ichnographia Campi Martii right where they are supposed to
be. Interesting, right next to this complex of
buildings/structures, Piranesi also delineates a Porticus
Neronianae, a completely fictitious building in the shape of
a large cross within a circle (a composition,
coincidentally, that follows the circle/square juncture
pattern similar to the Timepiece gauge of the theory of
chronosomatics). Within a day of assimilating all this new
(to me) data, I came to see how the inner circle of the
Porticus Neronianiae matches circle of the compass/north
arrow that Piranesi also delineated within the Ichnographia,
and I came to see how if you rotate the cross of the
Porticus Neronianae 45 degrees, its four points then
correspond exactly to the four cardinal points of global
direction. (Just like you wrote today, Brian, I realized
that) the Porticus Neronianae of Piranesi's Ichnographia
Campi Martii is the X that marks the spot where the first
attacking Visigoths camped. [There are even more 'symbols'
to interpret here, like 'shifting winds' and Nero as
anti-Christ precursor, but more on that latter.]
I'm still thrilled, mostly because the thrill is still
capable of being there.
Today, I'm probably going to make a quick visit to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, specifically to look again at
the LIFE OF CONSTANTINE tapestries designed by Rubens in the
Great Hall (here I can see figural representations of Helena
and Eutropia, among many others), then the campy nude
portrait of Cosimo de Medici, then the period room from
Southern Bavaria that Napoleon once slept in, then
PROMETHEUS BOUND, then the gifts of Eva Stotesbury in memory
of her husband Ned, then the portrait of Franklin looking at
his electrical via lightening bell ringing invention, then
the Duchamp Gallery, and finally (outside) Jennewien's
polychrome mythology filling one of the museum pediments.
yours truly,
a Horace Trumbauer architecture fan
ps
I spent most of yesterday preparing two letters with
pictures that my mother is sending to Johannes von Ow and
Monika von Ow. One of the last things my mother physically
did with these people was huddling in a baron's basement
while Munich was being bombed in Spring 1944.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html
(as you now put it) last night. I thought how you're very
much adding 'modern' data to the record. I also like Pat's
annexations. Crossology is a vast territory, and it's
somewhat amazing what and how certain paths cross here at
design-l.
1 April 1999 is when I first learned of St. Helena as the
mother of Constantine and of her activity as builder of
highly significant/original Christian basilicas. Five years
ago it was Holy Thursday, and ten years ago 1 April was Good
Friday, when (a close friend) R. David Schmitt died right in
the middle of the afternoon.
"Calendrical Coincidence"
Interesting how this stuff happened in Philadelphia, where
Broad St. and Market St. manifest the largest cardo and
decumanus in the world--a planned and then 'concrete'
crossing of two main urban street.
Initially, it was data, actually the absence of data within
Piranesi's Ichnographia Campi Martii that led me to look for
the 'architect' of Rome's Constantinian Basilicas, buildings
which should be present within the Ichnographia, but are
not--Rome's Pagan edifices are present, but not the
(contemporaneous) Christian ones.
Much of my focus over the last five years has concentrated
on the time between 28 October 312 (when Constantine
'converted' from leading his troops into battle under a
Pagan guise/symbol to leading his troops into battle under a
Christian guise/symbol) to sometime late 328/early 329 (when
(I believe) Eutropia died). This period in time is when
Christian church building was, as we say now, 'booming'
throughout the Roman Empire for the first time, and it was
Helena and Eutropia that were mostly responsible for all
this (architectural) activity. From the very start, it
thrills me that women, and not men, played this important
historical role--and not just any women, but 'twin
basilissas'.
Not too long ago, countable days actually, I first learned
of Melania the Younger, and how her (enormously expensive)
family estate just outside the walls of Rome at the Salarian
Gate, was one of the great properties (along with the
Gardens of Sallust) that were plundered when Alaric and his
Visigoths broke into (at the Salarian Gate) and sacked Rome
for the first time. The Visigoths initially camped for many
months outside the walls of Rome (near the Salarian Gate)
thereby starving the city by disrupting all deliveries of
grain from Africa to the city. The Salarian Gate, the
Gardens of Sallust, and the Gardens Valeriani (Melania's
inheritance) are all delineated within Piranesi's
Ichnographia Campi Martii right where they are supposed to
be. Interesting, right next to this complex of
buildings/structures, Piranesi also delineates a Porticus
Neronianae, a completely fictitious building in the shape of
a large cross within a circle (a composition,
coincidentally, that follows the circle/square juncture
pattern similar to the Timepiece gauge of the theory of
chronosomatics). Within a day of assimilating all this new
(to me) data, I came to see how the inner circle of the
Porticus Neronianiae matches circle of the compass/north
arrow that Piranesi also delineated within the Ichnographia,
and I came to see how if you rotate the cross of the
Porticus Neronianae 45 degrees, its four points then
correspond exactly to the four cardinal points of global
direction. (Just like you wrote today, Brian, I realized
that) the Porticus Neronianae of Piranesi's Ichnographia
Campi Martii is the X that marks the spot where the first
attacking Visigoths camped. [There are even more 'symbols'
to interpret here, like 'shifting winds' and Nero as
anti-Christ precursor, but more on that latter.]
I'm still thrilled, mostly because the thrill is still
capable of being there.
Today, I'm probably going to make a quick visit to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, specifically to look again at
the LIFE OF CONSTANTINE tapestries designed by Rubens in the
Great Hall (here I can see figural representations of Helena
and Eutropia, among many others), then the campy nude
portrait of Cosimo de Medici, then the period room from
Southern Bavaria that Napoleon once slept in, then
PROMETHEUS BOUND, then the gifts of Eva Stotesbury in memory
of her husband Ned, then the portrait of Franklin looking at
his electrical via lightening bell ringing invention, then
the Duchamp Gallery, and finally (outside) Jennewien's
polychrome mythology filling one of the museum pediments.
yours truly,
a Horace Trumbauer architecture fan
ps
I spent most of yesterday preparing two letters with
pictures that my mother is sending to Johannes von Ow and
Monika von Ow. One of the last things my mother physically
did with these people was huddling in a baron's basement
while Munich was being bombed in Spring 1944.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html