The Decline and Afterlife of the Roman Entablature

The Collection of the Archaeological Museum Istanbul and other Byzantine Epistyles and Cornices from Constantinople

Abstract

Entablatures became exceedingly rare after the end of the Roman period. Most Byzantine buildings employed arcades with built arches instead of colonnades with monolithic architraves. The only major exception was the capital city of Constantinople where entablatures continued to be newly carved from Proconnesian marble throughout the fifth and sixth centuries. This paper unites the known specimens for the first time, including numerous hitherto unpublished entablature blocks in the collection of the Archaeological Museum Istanbul. A considerable number of externally dated entablatures serve as corner stones of a typology and reveal how the formal repertoire developed over time. The earlier fourth century was characterized by new and varied types of acanthus leaves that emerged at Docimium in Phrygia, the most important marble quarry and workshop on the central Anatolian high plateau. When Theodosius I initiated a new building boom at Constantinople in the late fourth century, the focus shifted to the nearby quarry island of Proconnesus. The ensuing mass production led to simplifi cations of the formal repertoire and reductions in quality, and the fifth-century developments may be described in terms of decline. The last remnants of the Roman tradition were finally shed and lost around 500 AD. Thus freed of restraining conventions, the sixth century and in particular the prosperous Justinianic period came up with novel forms and established a stylistic repertoire of its own. It harked back at the Roman tradition in ways that confi rmed both its death and how it continued to inform the formal development in afterlife.