0:02
Constantine so Constantine completed this gateway but he also
completed the palace that had been begun by his father.
Constantius Chlorus had begun a palace in Trier.
The palace had a very large and impressive bath building as a piece of it.
And it also had this building that is usually
referred to today as the Aula Palatina or the Basilica.
The Aula Palatina or the Basilica,
we're not exactly sure how it was used in the palace.
But, possibly in the same way that the Basilica was
in the palace of Domitian, Domitian on the Palatine Hill.
As a place where he could sit and try cases himself.
It may have been used in the same fashion here.
And I can show you it's extremely well preserved.
It dates to 300 to 310 AD, again part of the palace of
Constantius Chlorus, completed by Constantine.
We see a plan and a restored view from
Ward-Perkins now on the screen, and if you look at
the plan you will see that in the main,
it follows the Basilican plan we've become so accustomed to.
A great open rectangular space with an apse on
one end and with all attention drawn toward that apse.
1:17
So in that sense,
again, one foot in the pagan past.
It looks back to basilicas of an earlier date, be they the
one in Domitian's Palace, or or, or the Forum of Trajan in Rome.
But there are some differences here.
One of them is the fact that you can see there are no columns inside the cella.
That's interesting, and it is in keeping
with the tetrarchic aesthetic that we've already described,
for the chorea, for example, with that box-like a box-like open space, inside,
without any columnar decoration at all. No columns in here.
Stark, geometric, abstract in the tetrarchic manner.
But they have placed columns on the outside of the basilica in
a kind of courtyard on either side of columns that you can see here.
Which is a
very interesting and unusual and in fact unique approach.
You can also see there's a transverse corridor over here.
And that - a transverse -a vestibule, transverse vestibule, entrance vestibule.
Which is unusual, and which we don't
see in Roman, in typical Roman Basilican architecture.
We call that an narthex, and this addition
of the narthex here, this, this transverse vestibule is interesting because it is
going to become the basis for most
church architecture, both from the time, Basilican
church architecture, in the time of
Constantine, because Constantine does found old, it
does build Old St. Peters and other churches in Rome, and others follow suit.
So this, those, so again, one foot in the pagan past, one in the Christian future.
On the left-hand side of the screen, the restored view of the exterior, it shows
not only those low-lying columnar courtyards, but
also that there were railings on two stories.
It does show you as well, that the building is made out of solid brick.
It does show you as well, the rounded
windows, the arched windows which we have seen.
The round topped windows which we have
seen have become customary for tetrarchic architecture.
As well as a very interesting use of, projecting elements that are very simple.
They look almost like pilasters but they're not pilasters.
They're a simplified, abstract version of pilasters.
So this, this paring down of the elements
that is so consistent with the tetrarchic ethos.
Here's the view of the Aula Palatina as it looks today.
Again, it is extremely well preserved, as you
can see.
But it does, no longer has its outer courtyard, and
it no longer has its railings but the rest is there.
You can see these wonderful round headed windows and how large they are.
We've talked about the ability of architects
to dematerialize the wall at this point in
time and the way in which they have opened it up with very large windows.
And you can see what I was describing just before, these molded elements
that project out into our space, they, they kind of look like they're made to,
conjure up pilasters, but they don't have
any capitals and they don't have any bases.
They're, in my mind, a kind of abstract version of what, of a pilaster, and
they're very effective, I think, in terms
of the, aesthetic appeal of this particular building.
4:40
While the Basilica at
the, palace at Trier, the palace of Constantius Chlorus at
Trier is so clearly based on earlier Roman Basilican architecture.
It looks to the future and we, if we look around Rome, in, in, in, the
years following the construction of buildings like the
Aula Palatina, we see lots of early churches.
I show you the church of Santa Sabina, Santa Sabina
in Rome, which dates to 425 A.D., so the fifth century A.D. And I think you can
see how similar it is to the to the Aula Palatina.
The basilican form, the apse at the end, the very large
rounded, round-topped, windows that we see in the Basilica at Trier.
The interior of the Aula Palatina is also very well preserved.
You see
a view of it here.
It has been transformed, not surprisingly, into a church in later times.
It's a perfect space for that.
And I, I think it's well worth comparing it to the interior of the Chorea
that we looked at last time, because again, it shows a, a vision
of, the Tetrarchy, a vision that is consistent from Rome to the provinces,
this whole idea of paring things down to their basics, of creating a box-like
shape, no columnar architecture whatsoever, a very sparsely decorated,
rectangular space with a flat ceiling and with round-headed windows.
We see the same concept here.
Here, they've placed the round-headed windows
on two stories, which has opened the
building up even more, and create an allowed light to flow into it.
No columnar decoration whatsoever. The scheme of two rows of,
6:43
Once again, one foot in the pagan past, one in the Christian future.
I show you a restored view, we've looked at it before,
of the Basilica Ulpia in Rome, part of the Forum of Trajan.
It's that kind of thing, that kind of
Basililcan plan that lies behind the design of
the Basilica at the Palace of Constantius Chlorus
in Trier, but it also looks forward to others.
I show you here the interior Santa Sabina.
This might have not been the best to choose, because you can
see the columns have been reintroduced in the interior of Santa Sabina.
But if you think those columns away and just look at the
way in which the apse is designed with the round-headed windows, the
same round-headed windows in the upper story up here, I think that
you can see how much it owes to buildings like the Aula Palatina.
Diana E.E. KleinerDunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University
