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The Quilted Church |
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written
by pev42 / 10.24.2005 |
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Assignment |
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The Church of Santa Prassede is like a worn patchwork quilt, passed down through generations to give warmth and comfort. Its entrance is gentle and comes in several sections, leading me up through covered stairs, out through a doorframe with delicate vines reaching down, into a walkway lined with carefully potted plants, before finally coming to the simple church doors. Inside, its soft colors, creaky wooden pews, and fresh floral smell welcome me in. The decorative marble beams supported by the pillars that run the full length of the church are discontinuous in pattern, reflecting the fact that much of the material for this church came from recycled pagan temples and monuments. The elaborate patterns on the marble floor were made from pieces carefully cut from old colored columns. The different styles of artwork in the naves on either side add to the patchwork theme of the space. Mosaics on the apse and a small side chapel send simple messages about Christ’s divinity and teaching. These intricate works of art are pieced together from small bits of tile, making them the ideal medium for the stories of this church. An uncountable number of pieces have been quilted together to form this church’s art and structure. When the congregation meets here, they form the body of Christ’s Church in its walls. Each person counts in the spirituality of the space.
I went to St. Peter’s Piazza with the crowds during the day and saw the Pope from a distance. I went again at night and saw the large, double rows of columns in the curving arms illuminated by cold white light. Then I climbed under the fence surrounding the chairs set up for the Papal masses in order to see how the perfect columns lined up from a special vantage point. The basilica was still very far away. It felt unreachable, a frozen white castle in this foreign land that I didn’t belong in. The pieces matched and fit together elegantly in perfect symmetry and proportions. It was beautiful, but I felt like it was built for the Pope and the display of his power, not for the people and their worship.
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