Inecclesiastical architecture, aciborium (Greek: κιβώριον;lit. 'ciborion') is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in thesanctuary, that stands over and covers thealtar in achurch. It may also be known by the more general term ofbaldachin, thoughciborium is often considered more correct for examples in churches. A baldachin (originally an exotic type of silk from Baghdad) should have a textile covering, or, as atSaint Peter’s in Rome, imitate one.[2][3] There are exceptions;Bernini's structure in Saint Peter's, Rome is always called the baldachin.[4]
Early ciboria had curtains hanging from rods between the columns, so that the altar could be concealed from the congregation at points in theliturgy. Smaller examples may cover other objects in a church. 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 adais to raise it above the floor of the sanctuary.
Aciborium is also a covered,chalice-shaped container forEucharistichosts. In Italian the word is often used for thetabernacle on the altar, which is not the case in English.
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.[5] 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 anaedicula ("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, theMissorium of Theodosius I, theChronography of 354, and otherLate Antique works. TheHoly of holies of the JewishTemple of Jerusalem, a room whose entrance was covered by theparochet, a curtain or "veil", was certainly regarded as a precedent by the church;[6] thenaos containing thecult image in anEgyptian 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 theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre inJerusalem was called theaedicula (or edicule), and was a key sight for pilgrims, often shown in art, for example in theMonza Ampullae.[7] This structure, erected underConstantine the Great, may itself have been important in spreading the idea of ciboria over altars.[8] 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 againstSaladin in the desperate days of 1187.[9] Ciboria were placed over the shrines ofmartyrs, which then had churches built over them, with the altar over the spot believed to be the site of the burial.[10] They also served to shelter the altar from dust and the like from high ceilings that could only rarely be reached.[11]
Possibly the earliest important example over an altar was in theBasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, also donated by Constantine, looted by theVisigoths in the 5th century and now replaced by a large Gothic structure (see below). This is described as afastigium 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. No early examples in precious metal have survived, but many are recorded in important churches.[12] Possibly the earliest ciborium to survive largely complete is one inSant'Apollinare in Classe inRavenna (not over the main altar), which is dated to 806-810,[13] though the columns of the example atSant'Ambrogio appear to date from the original 4th-century church.
The ciborium commissioned byJustinian the Great forHagia Sophia inConstantinople and described byPaulus Silentarius is now lost. It was also of silver,nielloed, surmounted by "a globe of pure gold weighing 118 pounds, and golden lilies weighing 4 pounds [each], and above these agolden cross with precious and rare stones, which cross weighed 80 pounds of gold". The roof had eight panels rising to the globe and cross.[14]
The Early MedievalEastern Orthodox church "directed that theeucharist be celebrated at an altar with a ciborium, from which hung the vessel in which the consecrated host was kept",[15] the vessel sometimes being in the form of a dove. Early depictions of theLast Supper in Christian art, showing theCommunion 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 inmosaic in theapse of theSaint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, under a very large standing Virgin.[16]
According to the 8th-century saint andPatriarch 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.)[17]
Examples inOrthodox 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 centralfinial, giving a very open appearance, and allowing candles to be placed along the beams between the columns.[18] The example by theCosmati in the gallery is similar to another 12th-century Italian ciborium now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York,[19] and that in theBasilica di San Nicola inBari. By theRomanesque, gabled forms, as atSant'Ambrogio, or ones with a flat top, as at theEuphrasian Basilica (illustrated) orSt Mark's, Venice, are more typical.
InGothic 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 theBasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, designed byArnolfo di Cambio and later painted byBarna da Siena. The columns here and atSan Paolo Fuori le Mura are still re-used classical ones, inporphyry at San Paolo and Sant'Ambrogio (Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has its porphyry 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.[20]
Images and documentary mentions of early examples often have curtains calledtetravela 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.[21] Altar-curtains survived the decline of the ciborium in both East and West, and in English are often calledriddels (from Frenchrideau, 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.[22] Such an arrangement, open above, can be seen in folio 199v of theTrès Riches Heures du duc de Berry.[23] Late medieval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by angels, and the posts, but not the curtains, were revived in some new or refittedAnglo-Catholic churches byNinian Comper and others around 1900.
In earlier periods the curtains were closed at the most solemn part of theMass, a practice that continues to the present day in theCoptic andArmenian churches.[24] A comparison to the biblicalVeil of the Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with red curtains, that are often shown near the writing saint in earlyEvangelist portraits, especially in the East, represent a ciborium,[25] as do the structures surrounding many manuscript portraits of medieval rulers.[26]
A single curtain hung, usually on a wall, behind an altar, is called adossal.
Ciboria, often much smaller, were sometimes also erected to cover particular objects, especiallyicons andreliquaries,[27] 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 atSiena Cathedral. These may be free-standing, or built against a wall, and usage here overlaps with the termstabernacle andretable.[11] The typical Gothic form of canopied niche to enclose a statue may be regarded as a "reduced form of ciborium".[28]
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 StDemetrius of Thessaloniki inHagios Demetrios, the large and important church erected inThessaloniki over the mass grave in which he was traditionally buried. This appears, from various accounts of miracles associated with it, and depictions inmosaic, 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 washexagonal 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.[29] A medium-sized 13th-century ciborium in a corner ofSan Marco, Venice, known as thecapitello ('little chapel'), was used for the display of important icons and relics in the Middle Ages.[30]
Ciboria are now much rarer in churches in both East and West, as the introduction of other structures that screened the altar, such as theiconostasis in the East androod screen andpulpitum in the West, meant that they would be little seen, and smaller examples often conflicted with the largealtarpieces that came into fashion in the later Middle Ages.[31] 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'senormous ciborium inSaint Peter's, Rome is a famous exception; it is the largest in existence, and always called a baldachin.[32] Many other elaborate aedicularBaroque 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.
TheGothic Revival saw the true free-standing ciborium return to some popularity: theVotive Church, Vienna has a largeGothic example designed in 1856, and Ninian Comper built a number, including one forPusey House.Peterborough Cathedral has a neo-Gothic example, andDerby Cathedral one with the Romanesque small columns below aneo-classicalarchitrave andpediment.Westminster Cathedral, a neo-Byzantine building, has a splayed version of 1894, with extra flanking columns, which within that context is "resolutely modernistic".[33] The Gothic style of ciborium was also borrowed for some public monuments like theAlbert Memorial in London,[34] as it had been in the Middle Ages for the outdoorScaliger Tombs inVerona. For other post-Renaissance versions, many variations of the basic square four-column plan, see the next section.
The wordciborium, in both senses, is said to derive from the cup-shaped seed vessel of the Egyptian water-lilynelumbium 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 theGrove Dictionary of Art, theCatholic 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 fromcibes ('food').[35] Both senses of the word were in use in classical times. The wordbaldachin derives from a luxurious type of cloth fromBaghdad, from which name the word is derived, in English asbaudekin and other spellings.Matthew Paris records thatHenry III of England wore a robe "de preciosissimo baldekino" at a ceremony atWestminster Abbey in 1247.[36] The word for the cloth became the word for the ceremonial canopies made from the cloth.
Bernini'sSt. 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 exampleSanta Maria Maggiore in Rome. Thevoluted 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 atVal-de-Grâce (François Mansart andJacques Lemercier, 1660s) andSaint-Louis-des-Invalides Cathedral (Jules Hardouin Mansart, 1706) in Paris,Angers Cathedral,Verdun Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Mouzon inMouzon, Saint-Sauveur inRennes, and the Saint-Sauveur Basilica inDinan.[37] These are usually called baldachins (not at Angers), and many have certainly departed from the traditional form of the ciborium. There is aRococo German example atWorms Cathedral; many German Rococo churches used similar styles that were engaged with theapse wall, or partly so. In addition, according to the 1913Catholic Encyclopedia articles on "Baldachin" and "Ciborium", the Catholic Church opted, apparently in the 20th century, to use officiallyciborium only for the vessel andbaldachin for all architectural forms.[38] Architectural historians generally prefer to useciborium at the least for all square four-column roofed forms.
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