let's resume our conversation about the Carolingian period the time of Charlemagne remind ourselves of where we are in Aachen Germany the center of the Holy Roman Empire the idea of the plan of the palentine palace chapel area is important so we have the palace on the Left we have a long processional walkway interior space called a gallery and then it is attached to the chapel itself we've got the central plan Chapel okay and there is a apse at the far end we enter through the area flanked by the spiral staircase we spent some time talking about plan view elevation isometric view and section view and that'll be an important part of the conversation going forward recall that it is in San Vitale in Rome just one of the many Byzantine churches that Charlemagne was familiar with that was designed in this central plan so you'll walk in the door you don't see the altar you make a turn and you go tada and you see everything it's a big visual surprise very different than the basilican planned Church so one of our issues of course is today the church is sort of buried by other later buildings that come right up next to it and so it's helpful for us to take a look here here is the Octagon with the dome on drum construction there's the palace down there the gallery and then the the apse and the altar okay let's see if I can same thing here so remember that all those X shapes you see are referring to what's going on in the ceiling okay and so here is the entrance here is the apse and the altar so apse an altar the long straight nave long straight nave and then the circular central plan environment remember everything where the black is is where the structure isn't everything that is one of these little white squares is where there are windows and such and so Charlemagne really spared no expense in the interior decoration of this space and it is very familiar to us who have taken a good long time to looking at Byzantine domes so we've got a dome mosaic and if you look over to the right here you can see there is the seated Christ enthroned and he is surrounded by a man an eagle an ox and a lion and you know who those are he then has different Saints and apostles who are dressed in greco-roman robes all carrying laurel wreaths of victory dropping down then we have the clerestory windows cles clerestory right remember the importance of lifting up the center of the room and allowing light in this case to come into the space so that is a design element that Western Europeans have been dragging along for a very very long time one thing that should jump out at you is the use of this articulated or variegated stone so they are alternating a traditional marble with a black stone this would have been a visual influence that they got from there from the Near East something you'd see in the in the Middle East maybe in an Islamic worship space but this is also a one-percent traditional Roman arch with kings key stones and voice swath and impost blocks and then right in the center you notice we've got some good old Corinthian capitals so Charlemagne here is really going for a sort of a universal influence playbook he's taking things that he has run into in the Byzantine world of Italy at the same time he is adding Islamic influences and he of course is going to stress the significance of looking like the Roman Empire at its peak remember this was one of his goals was to have the holy roman world which of course is much more Eastern and what we know of is western Europe today he wanted them to all have the kind of art and and literature and cultural life that they had during ancient Rome so let's take a look over here on the left the photographer is standing in what we would call a gallery and so this is the walking space let's go back and look alright so this is a three-story structure you can walk on the ground level you can walk on the second level you can walk on the third level so the first thing we're looking at then is this walking space and it's right here so there's the first floor that chain you see is the length the light fixture that's dropping from the center of the light fixture there and we've got a good shot at a set of windows that come much later in the design scheme and then you see how they've got these supporting elements that serve both a structural and a decorative purpose so one two three Roman arches at one giant Roman arch corinthian column corinthian column and the same thing replicated up above if the extension to the building didn't continue on we wouldn't have that great light source that you see there and so one of the I guess you could call it an innovation that Charlemagne comes up with along with odo of Metz who is the architect so you have an attribution is to create a space that is strictly for Charlemagne to sit in and worship from so on the left here you see his throne a stone thrown isn't that elegant my guess is there was some big cushy cushion on there for old Charlemagne to sit on and this is located in the center of the gallery on the second floor the idea being that Charlemagne can come to worship he can participate in mass he can see the others and the others can see him but he doesn't have to have any interaction with them and that suits him just fine so he can literally walk from one more one more walk from the palace walk down the gallery walk up the stairs and enter into his private space on the second floor to observe the worship that's happening down below and this is an idea that will be carried forward as we move along in in the history of art and especially during this Carolingian and leading into the Romanesque period now this was of course a private chapel space so he could have just gone there for his own personal prayers he could have just met with a priest to have to have some kind of small ceremony he could have had twenty fifty whatever amount of people there if he'd wanted to but he did not have to visually or physically be down on the same space and so this is sending a double message okay yes you can see me Here I am as your ruler as your leader and Here I am in church you can see me but you're not necessarily going to be in direct contact with me the window of appearance seeing and being seen this church sets up a link between antiquity the Romanesque of the Gothic period all in this one very small little space so as we are going to go on and look at some of the innovations that Charlemagne is responsible for we got to take a look at Charlemagne so what I want you to do is pause the recording flip over and back of your notes and I want you to write down everything that you can think of about style technique iconography about the way this object was made about how it stacks up with other equestrian portraits and I'll check back in with you how'd you do I always like to make a joke about this sculpture and say that Charlemagne looks like an inflatable pool toy to me here the horse is pretty good you know many of us struggle with the ability to render a horse is one of the toughest things in the world to draw and I think the artist does quite well here with the the head and the upper body this leg is not good but that's alright we're gonna yeah but he sure looks a lot better and more accurate than than Charlemagne does so if we value realistic depiction then this is sort of like a b-minus work it looks sort of like a very early attempt and so we're looking here at a bronze cast sculpture cast in multiple pieces and then mounted on to a marble base if you go back in time and consider the extremely accurate and lifelike equestrian portraiture from the ancient Roman period I'm thinking of Marcus Aurelius some plate somebody like that you can see that this is definitely not as sophisticated that has everything to do with the lack of emphasis on human form and everything to do with thinking about the heavenly realm the godly world you notice he has the implements of rule one of which remains you see here this orb and the other hand he would have had a scepter so keep in mind now we've got a guy who is ruling by divine right God wants me to be king and that's what we're seeing here in a very very clear statement