Early Christian

One of the longest empire; Early Christian ( 330 - 800 C.E.)

Contrast to the Roman empire, Early christian was the one of the longest empire of all time.  Roman empire was very well-known for the size of their empire.  The reason of why those two are usually compared, because the completely new religion was started. The people from Early Christian era still shared same style of dress, painting, sculpture, and furniture as Romans.  Most significantly, their architectural style continued to incorporate the Roman style; straightforward basilica and the luxuriant, centrally planned domed space, except they made new change to the basilica by adding "transept", which made basilica itself a shape of cross, the representation of cross that Jesus was crucified.



Early Christian furniture;

Furniture style like stools were remained as Roman style, but Storage was the most important furniture during this period.



Design style; folding stool is similar to past design styles from other era but detail work is incompatible to others.

The detail work on storage is also breath-taken.  It gives hard time to believe that they were made by human hands.


Decorative arts;

Decorative arts are paintings, murals, and frescos.  I was familiar with Early Christian motif; cross, dove, fish...etc but I did not know where the fish came from.  It comes from people meet each other and draw one arc, the other person draw arc and it becomes fish.  It was the way to differentiate who's christian and who's not. 


Church;

Most well-known Early Christian church is the Sant' Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.  The interior has series of columns, dividing main hall and aisles in both sides.  Also timber roof structures let voices echoes in space.



Current Application;



Early Christian basilica usually used series of column to create repetition to draw people's eyes towards front.  In modern design, they incorporate other shapes to mimic the past style, still creating repetition to draw people's eyes. (Sanaksenaho Architects)



The roof design mimicking the roof design of Sant' Apollinare.  Series of rectangle shapes leads your eyes to further back.  The rectangle shapes allows visitors to see the repetition of shapes at any angle. (I.M. Pei)