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THE APOPHATIC GOD: A PHENOMENOLOGY OF LIGHT IN THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH

R. Manoliu

Abstract

Following the Carolingian reform and until the first true Gothic, churches remained predominantly introverted structures with thick walls, looking unto their inner life, the liturgical event. The stone skin delimited the mundane from the divine and created the space to experience the Light of Christ and the sense of the presence of God, unknowable through reason alone, Deus absconditus. The interior space of the church was a hidden jewel that came alive under the light, be it natural or artificial, with its columns and piers painted in bright colours, and crypts and reliquaries glittering of precious gems and metals. The question of light in the medieval religious architecture is tripartite like the Trinity itself. Light, shadow and darkness, each played a role in the religious experience. Structurals innovations aside, the Romanesque church remained rather dark. Artificial light served the liturgy and helped shape its spectacle, as well as those of the grand ceremonies, of the Easter vigil, of the prestigious funerals, while also enshrining the relics in clothes of shining glory. Natural light belonged to the building, to architecture. Daylight passing through the clerestories enlivened the painted walls and columns and created lighted and shadowy ambiances suited for contemplation, prayer and devotion. In the architectural scenography of the ecclesia, light, shadow and darkness played - and still plays - a role in the distinction between the spectacle of religion, between religion as a way of life, and between personal devotion. While there are no specific medieval literary references about shade and darkness in religious architecture, there is a vast collection of philosophical, theological and aesthetic studies on light starting from the first centuries of Christianity. Drawing from such medieval theories, as well as Christian religious poetry, this paper proposes a phenomenological re-enactment of the mystical journey of the soul from mundane to the ineffable, unnamable and unknowable by means of architecture bathed in light and shrouded in shade and darkness.

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