Aedicula

 ( Ancient Roman Temples ) 

In ancient Roman religion, an aedicula (: aediculae) is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of and typically framing a statue."aedicula, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/3077. Accessed 29 September 2020."aedicule, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/3079. Accessed 29 September 2020 The early Christian ones sometimes contained funeral urns. Aediculae are also represented in art as a form of ornamentation.

The word aedicula is the diminutive of the Latin aedes, a temple building or dwelling place. The Latin word has been anglicised as aedicule and as edicule. Describing post-antique architecture, especially Renaissance architecture, aedicular forms may be described using the word tabernacle, as in tabernacle window.

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Classical aediculae Many aediculae were household ( lararia) that held small or statues of the Lares and Di Penates. The Lares were Roman deities protecting the house and the family household gods. The Penates were originally Tutelary deity (really genii) of the storeroom, later becoming household gods guarding the entire house.

Other aediculae were small shrines within larger , usually set on a base, surmounted by a pediment and surrounded by columns. In ancient Roman architecture the aedicula has this representative function in the society. They are installed in public buildings like the triumphal arch, city gate, and thermae. The Library of Celsus in Ephesus ( AD) is a good example.

From the 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire onwards such shrines, or the framework enclosing them, are often called by the Biblical term tabernacle, which becomes extended to any elaborated framework for a niche, window or picture. File:Pantheon11111.jpg| Aediculae in the Pantheon, Rome File:Wall painting - Athena in aedicula and snake at altar - Gragnano Carmiano (villa A) - Pompeii PAAnt 63688 - 01.jpg| Aedicula containing a painted Athena and Agathodaemon File:Montemartini - tempio di Apollo Sosiano edicola 1030469.JPG|1st century BC interior aedicula from the Temple of Apollo Sosianus, Rome

File:Herculaneum-Palestra.jpg|Painted aediculae in a fresco from the palaestra of Herculaneum File:DSC00097 - Edicola funebre greco-punica da Marsala - Foto G. Dall'Orto.jpg|Graeco-Punic funerary aedicula from Marsala, with signs of Tanit and caduceus File:Painted stucco relief - architecture with aedicula and pictures - Pompeii (VI 9 2) - Napoli MAN 9596.jpg| Aediculae and figures painted on stucco from Pompeii

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Gothic aediculae In Gothic architecture, too, an aedicula or tabernacle is a structural framing device that gives importance to its contents, whether an inscribed plaque, a Cult image, a bust or the like, by assuming the tectonic vocabulary of a little building that sets it apart from the wall against which it is placed. A tabernacle frame on a wall serves similar hieratic functions as a free-standing, three-dimensional architectural Baldachin or a ciborium over an altar.

In Late Gothic settings, and Cult image were customarily crowned with and canopies supported by clustered-column piers, echoing in small the architecture of Gothic churches. Painted aediculae frame figures from sacred history in initial letters of illuminated manuscripts.

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Renaissance aediculae Classicizing architectonic structure and décor all'antica, in the "ancient Roman mode", became a fashionable way to frame a painted or bas-relief portrait, or protect an expensive and precious mirror Metropolitan Museum: tabernacle frame, Florence, ca 1510 during the High Renaissance; Italian precedents were imitated in France, then in Spain, England and Germany during the later 16th century.

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Post-Renaissance classicism Aedicular door surrounds that are architecturally treated, with or columns flanking the doorway and an entablature even with a pediment over it came into use with the 16th century. In the neo-Palladian revival in Britain, architectonic aedicular or tabernacle frames, carved and gilded, are favourite schemes for English Palladian mirror frames of the late 1720s through the 1740s, by such designers as William Kent.

Aediculae feature prominently in the arrangement of the Saint Peter's tomb with statues by Bernini; a small aedicula directly underneath it, dated ca. 160 AD,O'Callaghan, Roger T. "Vatican Excavations and the Tomb of Peter." The Biblical Archaeologist 16.4 (1953): 70-87. was discovered in 1940.

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Other aediculae Similar small shrines, called naiskos, are found in Greek religion, but their use was strictly religious.

Aediculae exist today in Roman Cemetery as a part of funeral architecture.

Presently the most famous aediculae is situated inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in city of Jerusalem.

Contemporary American architect Charles Moore (1925–1993) used the concept of aediculae in his work to create spaces within spaces and to evoke the spiritual significance of the home.

Edwin Lutyens provided aediculae in the fence around the Viceroy's House, New Delhi to provide shade for mounted cavalry guards.

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See also

• Portico
• Similar, but free-standing structures:
• Ciborium
• Baldachin
• Monopteros
• Gazebo

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Notes

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Bibliography

• Adkins, Lesley & Adkins, Roy A. (1996). Dictionary of Roman Religion. Facts on File, inc. .
• (1998). 9780198602163, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780198602163

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External links

• Conservation glossary

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