Original scientific paper
AISLELESS CHURCHES WITH A PAIR OF CHAPELS IN THE 17TH AND THE 18TH CENTURY IN ISTRIA
Vladimir Marković
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Abstract
The author has examined all aisleless churches with cruciform ground plan formed by a pair of chapels symmetrically added to the nave, from the 17th and the 18th centuries in Istria. They fall in two categories. In the first type, the chapels are placed at the end of the nave, by the chancel. They are relatively large, receiving light through openings in their walls and together with the nave they form a Latin cross, with a "dwarf" transept as the chapels are lower in height than the nave. The chapels are vaulted, while the nave has a flat ceiling or an open roof structure. Chapels were often built later than the nave: in Boljun (1640) and Brseč (1640-1654?), Gologorica (1740) and Kostanjica (1747-770). In the oldest Istrian example of that type, the late Renaissance Church of St.Mary of Carmel in Vodnjan (1620-1664), the nave and the chapels were built simultaneously. The same is true of the last churches of that type, St. Roc at Sv.Petar u Šumi (1737) and the church in Zarečje (second half of the 18th century). The fact that the chapels were built simultaneously with the nave in both the earliest and last instances of the Latin cross plan with a dwarf transept indicates that the churches whose chapels were later additions can be grouped in the same category. In the Latin cross plan churches with a dwarf transept, there is no sculptural decoration anywhere in the nave. The second category includes a small number of examples, all from the second half of the 18th century; characteristic is the church in Frata. The chapels are placed at each end of the central transverse axis of the nave, but are shallow and have no illumination of their own. The walls are articulated by pilasters that support the entablature under the domical vault. The domical vault, shallow chapels without illumination and the use of pilasters indicate that the church derives from the late Palladian type, with reduced number of chapels and with only one pilaster used to articulate the wall instead of pairs of pilasters (On late Palladian churches in Istria see: V. Marković: Neopalladian aisleless churches of the 18th century in the North Adriatic region of Croatia, Prijateljev zbornik II Prilozi povijesti umjetnosti u Dalmaciji, 33, Split 1992). The author continues his discussion of Istrian derivations from late Palladian architecture with an analysis of churches with two pairs of chapels: parish church in Kostanjica (with a domical vault similar to that in the Pauline church in the nearby village of Sv. Petar u Šumi), and churches which are reduced to basic structural forms of late Palladian architecture (domical vault, chapels without windows) and lack architectural decoration, thus omitting essential elements of classicist architecture. The author lists three churches with later added chapels as outstanding examples of the type. In the parish church of Krnjica, the walls were articulated with pilasters (1774). The church nave is not vaulted and receives light from the chapels. It shares articulation of the nave walls with the derivations from the late Palladian architecture, and the illumination of the chapels and the absence of nave vault with the Latin cross type. The rebuilt church in Rakalj combines elements of both categories in the similar way. The parish church in Šumber has a Latin cross plan with a dwarf transept, but the pair of chapels is placed next to the church entrance rather than the chancel. This results from the fact that the main facade was extended in 1744 and the chapels were built at the same time. The barrel vault in the 17th century nave continues in the part added later.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
165693
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1993.
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