SPOLIA AND THE SEARCH FOR IDEOLOGY SANDRA ABABIO-DANSO BE1152 w12032331
SPOLIA AND THE SEARCH FOR IDEOLOGY 1 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Constantine 4 Spalato (Split in former Yugoslavia) 5 The Seljuks 6 Soane’s pastiche and the new Gibellina 7 the Russian and Austria Hungarian pavilion 8 Conclusion 9 Bibliography
1 Abstract What is the role of spolia in architecture? Is it sacrilege or does it preserve the past? The practice of spolia is an ancient form of architectural reuse. This ancient practice consisted of reusing earlier building material by incorporating them into new monuments or architecture. According to Brenk (Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne,1987.p103-109),after a conquest the Romans used spoils taken the conquered cities to construct architecture that communicated their new identity as victors. The concept of reuse wasn’t exclusive to architecture. In the medieval times, the scarcity of paper brought about the practice of palimpsest, which was a practice of scraping an inscribed surface to remove the existing text so that the surface could be reused. The concept of reuse is not a contemporary development but what is the ideology behind this practice? The aim of my essay is to investigate if there are ideologies behind this practice and discuss the ideologies and/or the lack of ideologies behind the reusing of materials, particularly spolia in architecture. My investigation will be carried out looking at materials from architectural theorists, academics, scholars and critics.
2 Introduction ‘The scene was changed into magnificent buildings composed of several selected pieces of architecture’ T.J Spencer, Inigo Jones and William Davenant, Salmacida Spolia(1640).
The practise of re use is intrinsic to humans. This practise is neither new nor exclusive to architecture. The practise of re using and thus re purposing is prevalent throughout civilisation. In Building, Dwelling, Thinking, Heidegger talks about how even language is reused. For example Heidegger explains that the old high German word buan, which means to build, now means to remain and to stay in place. Thus even though the word is still in existence, its essence has changed to give a new meaning to the word. Likewise,the practise of reuse was not only used in architecture and language but also in art. In Spolia. Damnatio and Renovatio Memoriae Kinney brings to light the extensive use of spoilia. An example is a portrait sculpted from an anta capital.
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The earliest form of reuse that we are aware of is classified as spolia. Spolia was an ancient form of power play. The strongest takes, the weakest is left with less. It was also used to capture and preserve significant moments such as conquests in the Constantine era. Spolia can be found in the Byzantine era and the middles ages; but mainly as a form of recycling old cities. Spolia can also be from the same place, architecture transferred from one region to another as opposed to from one nation to another, example the transfer of fragments from the old town Gibellina to the new town of Gibellina. Although spolia can be found in almost all establishments in civilisation, I will be looking specifically at spolia in Architecture with the aim of investigating and discovering why Spolia is practised and what ideologies, if any, are behind the practice. My investigations will be focusing mainly on the spolia from the era of Constantine, Spalato (Split in former Yugoslavia), the Seljuks, Sir John Soane and the Sicilian town Gibellina.
3 Constantine The Arch of Constantine consecrated in 315, was commissioned to commemorate the Roman emperor Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian bridge. The arch is a fragmented patchwork of spolia from older monuments which are of Trajanic, Hadrianic and Aurelian origin and new pieces created to supplement the spolia.
‘Spolia was first used extensively in the era of Constantine. The most important early examples are the Arch of Constantine, the Lateran Church and St. Peter’s in Rome. All three buildings are closely connected with Constantine and we have to assume that the extensive use of spolia in theses three buildings may have occurred on his or his court architect’s strict orders… A noted artist transformed the original portraits of the spolia relief into those of Constantine … the spolia reliefs, which were not selected without some deliberation, since the portraits would not have otherwise have been re-adapted to represent Constantine’ Brent, Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne: Aesthetics versus Ideology (1987, p.103-109)
Constantine’s alteration to the faces of the spolia can be interpreted that the use of spolia fragments was not an act of necessity but rather a declaration of his conquests and an agency through which he left his mark on the Roman civilisation which had already been greatly impacted by his predecessors. The arch’s amalgamation of history and the present, is often the underlying ideology of contemporary reuse. In contemporary architecture, the building material that is spolia is employed as a visual narrator of history and of societal progression through time. Today, the intentional act of forging a new structure made entirely of fragments from various locations and eras is unlikely however Graves’s perspective that ‘an existing building can be thought of as a fragment of a larger edifice’, Graves, cited in Robert (1989 p 6-11) advocates for the modern outlook that buildings do not last for eternity and the fragments of old buildings should be reused and not mummified or discarded. fig.3
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4 Spalato (Split in former Yugoslavia) ‘The process of spoliation identifies the unexplored panoply of material and architectural narratives that produce convincing variations of space in relation to the contingent placement of these spoils with new meaning’ Condello, Architectural Spoils (no date) cited in Menin (2003, p.287)
The practise of spolia does offer an ‘unexplored panoply of material’ . In contemporary built environment almost every material, from paper to foam, has been explored. Thus modern building material need not come from spolia. Contemporary architecture is rather built in the existing fabric as opposed to being built from the existing fabric. With the technology available to the building industry, almost all materials can and have been studied and understood even down to their molecular structure. Thus existing architecture is not seen as foraging grounds for materials to erect something different. Rather contemporary architecture uses technology to replicate the existing to harmonious;y continue the life of the existing fabric. But in antiquity, construction material were not readily available, thus spolia offered a panoply of building materials and played an important role if the architectural narrative of antiquity. Spoils such as columns, sarcophagi etc from ruins of great architecture were reused and given new meaning. For example, the removed spolia from the cathedral St Domnus’ bell tower during its renovation in 1890-1908 was scattered in the gardens of the arch bishop as seating and trellis. The town of Spalato (Spilt in former Yugoslavia) is built reusing the spoils from the palace of the abdicated emperor, Diocletian.
‘The Roman emperor Diocletian spent his declining years in an enormous palace that he had build near his birthplace, Aspalthos in Dalmati. The palace represents the most valuable example of Roman architecture on the eastern coast of the Adriatic.’ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/97
The spolia from late Antiquity is dispersed all across the town in the Croatian Adriatic coast and its most known example of spoliation is the cathedral St Domnus. The church is constructed within and from the emperor’s mausoleum. The installation of the church in the ruins of Diocletian’s mausoleum was a symbolic act to identify the mausoleum to the tomb of Christ. The use of spolia for ideological reasons and not aesthetics. Symbolic and strategic use of spolia to appropriate the sacrosanct tomb of Christ is entirely noble. But is appropriation received in contemporary architecture?. The synonyms of appropriation are plagiarising, steal, infringe, bootleg etc but Anette Condello dismisses this negative connotation associated with the word and argues that architectural spolia is positive appropriation. Appropriation is a modern concept,which did not exist in Late Antiquity when spoilia was heavily used. Thus one should neither view this structure from a modern perspective nor judge it with the modern idea of appropriation.
But is it fair to classify an attempt to reproduce a religious site appropriation?. Attempts to capture and recreate an atmosphere is because humans find comfort in what they can identify with. This ideology has been termed as varietas by Brenk which is a term coined by him to describe infusing reused material with a new Christian ideology. This ideology is also found in contemporary designs with reuse, which endeavours to capture and recreate the familiar genus loci, so the new architecture isn’t criticised as a superficial construct. Although the church was constructed with spolia, it also occupies the place of the mausoleum. If a palimpsest is defined as to erase the existing message to rewrite a new message then this qualifies as a palimpsest. It also fits Rodolfo Machado’s explanation of palimpsest. In his article Old buildings as Palimpsest he explains that the origins of palimpsest was:
‘A piece of stretched suede or vellum used by the Romans as a substitute for paper. It was inscribed with the point of a metal stylus, and once the message was conveyed, the surface could be scraped back and a new message written. As the palimpsest wore, traces of previous messages would remain.’ Machado(1976), cited in Scott (2008 p. 39)
The church of St Domnus qualifies as palimpsest as well as having fragments of spolia. The comparison of architecture and vellum is appropriate. I believe that a ‘buildings are cultural texts’, Frascari, cited from Menin (2003 p.288) throughout the life of a building, it collects layers from the environment, the economic, political and religious construct of the times and thus acts a vellum showing ‘traces of previous massage’.
5 The Seljuks ‘ The use of spolia is disintegration of artistic capability, confirmation of pathetic efforts due to not having anything better’ G. Vasari ‘Proemio delle Vite’ (1967) cited from Frascari (2011 p. 74)
Vasari’s view of reuse in particular, spolia is caustic. It is similar to the Neoclassic critics who rejected spolia as ‘a culture of disembodied fragments’, cited from Menin (2003 p.292). To critics the use of spolia lacks the obligatory foundation that is an ideology. The lack of ideology behind reuse makes it a vain practice. But I debate that the practise of spolia was not created to satisfy scholarly curiosity but was born out of need and necessity thus an ideology isn’t a requirement. Vasari’s view on the practise of reuse is that of one accustomed to the 20th century, where a variety of construction materials in readily available and affordable. In certain parts of the world, that act of spoliation was done out of a need for quality construction materials and the lack of financial means to procure quality materials. The use of spolia due to not having anything better might often be the case but i disagree that practices of spolia is born out of disintegration of artistic capability. The Turkish town of the Seljuks, had a large deposit of spolia acquired from the near by ancient cities of Roman and Greek occupation. It has been argued by scholars that the reuse of spolia by the Seljuks was done in attempt to conjure up Roman glory and I would like to add that the reuse was also due to not having any aesthetically pleasing materials of their own and he proximity of the ancient ruins to their land. The reuse was of necessity and availability. One of the prominent structures of the Seljuks where blocks of spolia was used is the city walls built by the Alaeddin Kuykubad I(1221). The fortification reuses figural sculpture, inscriptions and sculptured stone from Hellenistic and Roman structures. Although the ancient city walls are no more, it is described by Kinnear as containing many ‘broken columns,capitals,pedestals, bas reliefs and other pieces of sculpture. Loop holes were formed by pillar pedestals, some with Greek inscriptions; the north walls displayed an excellent Roman bas-relief and a colossal statue of Hercules’ Kinnear,Journey,cited(no-date p.33) . Looking at examples of spolia use, Vasari’s frustration with the practice becomes clear. It is the opposite of what modern architecture is. As Boudon observed, modern architecture desires for ‘authenticity and truth of the function’ cited from unchanging architecture and the case for alteration by Scott F.(p.4), which is what often the use of spoilia isn’t; there is no authenticity (although I believe the successful use of fragmented pieces in creating a new building is inventive and artistic and thus qualifies as authentic). But if one assumes that authenticity means lack of ideology, then spolia can often, but not always, defined to lack authenticity.
6 Soane’s Pastiche and the new Gibellina ‘The people of the dark ages imagined that the buildings of antiquity had been built by giants, and that the bronze images of gods and emperors that adorned them were the habitations of demons. They believed that the fragments they stole would lend the creations to which they affixed something of the authority of a lost past’ Hollis,E. (2009, page 39)
Preserving or owning architecture that one believes has been infused with the spirit of the past. The renowned British architect Sir John Soane erected a pastiche in his private residence in London. The 30 ft monument was made reusing spolia from great architectural ruins Soane collected from across Europe. His monument reused ‘a circular altar like base from Lord Burlington’s villa at Chiswick; an Islamic capital taken from the Alhambra; a neoclassical fragment probably from a house by Henry Holland; the Corinthian capital, a copy of those used by Soane on the Bank of England; a Norman capital, perhaps from Rochester cathedral; an Ionic pedestal and topping them all, a cast-iron Soanean fragment.’ , Giles Worsley(2004) Soane’s pastiche was an attempt to create a monument that represents architecture, with of course his own work on top. This wasn’t a superficial reuse of spolia, rather it a creation based on the belief that the glory of Antiquity is infused into their structures and thus a piece of their former glory and majesty can be had. It is a mystery why Soane created a monument from these pieces as opposed to displaying them individually like he did his other fragments of spolia but as Kafka(1980) put it, ‘logic cannot withstand a man who wants to live’ Can one then assume that the desire to be connected to something greater than we are, the desire to have a fragment infused with the spirit of the past can also be the driving force behind the reuse of spolia?
Similarly in Sicily, an attempt has been made to infuse the spirit of the past into the new building through interweaving it with spolia. The Sicilian town, Gibellina, had to be relocated. This was due to an earthquake in 1968 that completely demolished the entire town. The new town was planned about 20 kilometres away from the old location and was constructed with the spoils from the demolished town. In reconstructing the new Gibellina, the architect Francesco Venezia was commissioned to design the Gibellina Museum. Anette Condelo(2003) writes that ‘ the construction of Venezia’s Gibellina museum called for the transferral of the northern facade of the San Lorenzo Palace, a building that had been destroyed by the earthquake, to the new Gibellina town. The facade is subdivided into two opposing segments, and Venezia reconstructed some of the lost symmetry. He mounted the fragment on the internal facade and extended the use of spoils to the fools, reusing the stones from the central region of Sicily’. Venezia’s reuse of the fragments from the razed palace is very much rooted on the ideology of preserving the genus loci. The reconstruction of what had been in existence for centuries without reusing fragments would be an offence to the culture, memory and experiences that had been created over time and had shaped the people of Gibellina. Venezia’s reuse of spolia is a design approach of forming the new without disregarding the old and through which a permanent association with the past will be maintained.
In ‘Spolia - building material or bearer of meaning?’ ,Thomas Raff criticises the use of spolia from the palace in the reconstruction of the new museum. He states that it is ‘a strangely superficial conception of the historic monument [preserving] only part of an older building, often the facade, while the rest is demolished and replaced by a new structure’, however despite his criticism of spolia, he also considers the Gibellina Museum to be a secular architectural relic. Raff ’s criticism is warped because I assume he viewed Venezia’s reuse of spolia from the perspective of preservation. But Venezia didn’t set about to preserve what was destroyed , but to create a new infused with the spirit of the past. Thus Raff ’s statement is an unfair denunciation of architectural reuse. Irrespective of Raff ’s judgement, the concept of spoliation as an agency of preserving the spirit of place, the genus loci, should be explored. According to Norberg-Schulz in Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, there are two psychological functions involved in architecture, which he calls orientation and identification. He states ‘to gain an existential foothold man has to be able to orientate himself; he has to know where he is. But he also has to identify himself with the environment, that is, he has to know how he is a certain place. Venezia’s concept of using spolia helps create orientation and identification in the sense that the destroyed town isn’t gone completely, that the memories and familiarity still remains.
7 The Russian and Austria-Hungarian Pavilion ‘Modern concept of spolia refers to the reused parts of architectural constructions that are taken from a demolished building’ B. Brenk(1987 ,pp103)
The world exposition of 1889 was a world fair to celebrate the French technical and scientific progress. One of its most popular showcase is the Eiffel Tower. Another great building for the exhibition was the Dome Central by architect Joseph Antoine Bouvard. This was the central hall was a 30 meter gallery that housed the Palais des Industries Divers. Upon the end of this international celebration of innovation an invention, the pavilions were dismantled and reused to build Gare du Sud in Nice. The reuse was done in the Belle Epoque era which dated from 1871 and ended in 1914. This era is named beautiful era in retrospect as it was characterised by peace, progress in the arts and scientific and engineering discoveries. Architect Prosper Bobin was commissioned to design of the Gare du Sud in Nice, and the end product was a monumental structure that celebrated the prosperity and opulence of France. The design is of two high façades topped with a glazed canopy roof which came from the 1889 pavilion of the Russians and Austria-Hungarians . It would seem that integration was not Bobin’s main concern, but rather the creation of a tangible proclamation of the era. And reusing the pavilion from the exposition made that concept a realisation. Bobin’s use of spolia in his monumental building falls under Brenk’s definition of modern spolia. In Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne, Brenk defines modern spolia as a concept that refers to the reused parts of architectural constructions that are taken from a demolished building. But one can also argue that, the reuse of architectural construction is not exclusive to contemporary architecture. Ancient spoliation relied on large reusable fragments of spolia which is comparable to the modern reuse carried out by Bobin. Perhaps Brenk’s definition originated from the modern misconception that ancient reuse only used small fragments such as blocks which was either knitted together to form a facade or dispersed through out the building.
8 Conclusion
‘Buildings become desolate through changes in the patterns of use which can no longer be accommodated’ Scott(2008, pp5)
In conclusion, the practise of spolia is often critiqued harshly by modern scholars. It is referred to as superficial, illegal removing, undignified manipulation and on the other hand it is seen as a means of preserving and transferring the spirit of the past into the present as well as offering an unexplored panoply of construction materials. Building are not infinite because the human rituals that they serve aren’t infinite. Unchanging rituals affirm and preserve architecture, and architectural desolation at a point in time is inevitable due to the ever changing patterns of the society it serves. The practise of spolia successfully seeks to interrupt the desolation of architecture under the aegis of giving it a new purpose. For if the old is at odds with the rituals of the new, what use is there for it?
9 Bibliography REFERENCES: Graeme Brooker, Sally Stone(2012) From Organisation to Decoration: An Interiors Reader. Routledge Publication. Condello, A.(2003) Architectural Spoils. Edited by Menin,S. Routledge Publications Fred Scott(2008). On Altering Architecture. Oxon:Routledge Quoted in T.J Spencer, ‘Inigo Jones and William Davenant, Salmacida Spolia(1640). song IV (lines 436-437) in A Book of Masques(1967) Beat Brenk(1987). ‘Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne: Aesthetic versus Ideology’ in Studies on Art and Archeology in Honor of Ernst Kitzinger. Dumbarton Oaks,Trustees for Harvard University,pp 103-109. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291549 Susan Scott (1996). ‘The Art of Interpreting’ in Papers in Art History . Pennsylvania State University Publisher Christian Norberg-Schulz (1980), Genuis Loci:Towards A Phenomenology Of Architecture. New York:Rizzoli Dr Lex Bosman, review of ‘Reuse Value. Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine’, (review no. 1313) Available at: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1313 Date accessed: November, 2014 Dale Kinney(1997), ‘Spolia.Dalmatio and Renovatio Memoriae’ in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol.42,pp 117-148. Published by: American Academy in Rome. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4238749 Edward Hollis (2010). The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories. Portobello Books Ltd Publishing Dale Kinney(1995)’Rape or Restitution of the Past? Interpreting Spolia’ in The Art of Interpreting. Edited by S.C. Scott, pp52-67. Penn state University Press Phillipe Robert(1991). Adaptations: new uses for old buildings, pp6-11. Princeton Architectural Press. Marco Frascari(1990). Monsters of Architecture: Anthropomorphism in Architectural Theory. Rowan & Littlefield ILLUSTRATIONS: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42858885@N00/3391745533 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spolia http://klimtlover.wordpress.com/7-the-roman-empire/193-337-ce-late-empire-art/