allegorical space
representation | churches by mark baechler
dura-europos theology modernity
speaking walls
iconicity churches
Archives store and protect knowledge. Contemporary architecture contains but often neglects its ability to be read as knowledge and information in and of itself. During the twentieth century, architec- ture along with other creative arts moved toward abstraction; walls adorned with imagery and text were abandoned for flat planes with a universal connotation. What architecture lost in this transformation was its legitimacy as a culturally specific object – its value as an his- toric artefact. The diminished ability of architecture to retain cultural expression is made evident when one looks at allegorical space in early Christian architecture.
Allegorical space synthesises architectural building material and painted images. This fusion of quantifiable material depth and imaginative projective depth creates a powerful repository for ideas and information which resides in an ambiguous territory between architecture and theory. The clearest examples of allegorical space can be found in early Jewish and Christian architecture where theol- ogy is simultaneously read in the material space of the wall itself and the imagery upon the wall .
above: 1, Dura-Europos Synagogue: plan, section and imagery opposite top left: 2, Giovanni Michelucci’s Church of the Autostrada. Florence, Italy, 1960-1964 opposite top right: 3, Massimiliano Fuksas’ San Giacomo Parish Complex in Foligno, Italy, 2004-2008
1 Dura-Europos Synagogue The synagogue in Dura-Europos, Syria is an early remnant of Rab- binic Judaism; discovered in 1932, its heavy stone walls are covered on the interior with allegorical imagery. Built (between 150-200) in an unstable period in Jewish history following the destruction of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, the allegorical images on the synagogue’s Torah niche communicate an important moment in Judaism’s development. 1 Above the Torah niche is a painting of a flat-roofed building with a columned façade and an arched doorway (1, above). It is thought by several scholars 2 that the image represents the temple in Jerusalem 3 , and because the painted building is surrounded by other symbolic images (menorah, citrus fruit, palm branch and the narrative of Abraham sacrificing Isaac) it has the authority of the Jerusalem temple. However, the theory of allegorical space suggests that the painted building and its surrounding iconography is integral to
the stone Torah niche and cannot be understood apart from it. Through this lens, the painting appears to depict not the Jerusa- lem temple but the Dura-Europos synagogue itself — the image on the Torah niche is self-referential—the diaspora synagogue presents the authority of the Jerusalem temple in its absence. 4 The space of the Dura-Europos synagogue is a form of theologi- cal representation; it creates a distinction between the quantifiable material world and the allegorical realm of the invisible Abra- hamic God. Adjacent to the synagogue, the Dura-Europos House Church (232) 5 is an extremely early Christian building. Its frescoed walls are evidence that the Jewish technique of fusing architecture and imagery was adopted by early Christians.
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On Site review 20: archives and museums
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