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Peristyle

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Reconstruction of a Roman peristyle surrounding a courtyard inPompeii,Italy

In ancientGreek[1]andRoman architecture,[2]aperistyle(/ˈpɛrɪstaɪl/;fromGreekπερίστυλον)[3][4]is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard.Tetrastoön(τετράστῳον or τετράστοον,'four arcades')[5]is a rarely used archaic term for this feature.[6]The peristyle in a Greek temple is aperistasis(περίστασις).[7]In the Christianecclesiastical architecturethat developed from the Romanbasilica,a courtyard peristyle and its garden came to be known as acloister.

Etymology[edit]

The Greek word περίστυλονperístylonis composed of περίperi,"around" or "surrounded", and στῦλοςstylos,"column" or "pillar", together meaning "surrounded by columns/pillars". It was Latinised into synonymsperistylumandperistylium.

In Roman architecture[edit]

Split, Croatia's center at Peristyle inDiocletian's Palace

In rural settings, a wealthy Roman could surround avillawithterraced gardensbut often included a peristyle with the design; in adomusin the city, Romans often used a peristyle to create a garden or open space within the house. The columns or square pillars surrounding the garden supported a shady roofedporticowhose inner walls were often embellished with elaborate wall paintings of landscapes andtrompe-l'œilarchitecture. Sometimes thelararium,a shrine for theLares,the gods of the household, was located in this portico, or it might be found in theatrium.[8]

The courtyard might contain flowers and shrubs, fountains, benches, sculptures and even fish ponds.[9]Romans devoted as large a space to the peristyle as site constraints permitted. In the grandest development of the urban peristyle house, as it evolved inRoman North Africa,often one part of theporticowas eliminated for a larger open space.[10]

The end of the Romandomusis one mark of the extinction oflate antiquity.Simon P. Ellis wrote in theAmerican Journal of Archaeologythat it represented "the disappearance of the Roman peristyle house marks the end of the ancient world and its way of life."[11]"No new peristyle houses were built after A.D. 550." Noting that as houses and villas were increasingly abandoned in the fifth century, a few palatial structures were expanded and enriched, as power and classical culture became concentrated in a narrowing class, and public life withdrew to thebasilica,or audience chamber, of the magnate.[12]

In theEastern Roman empire,late antiquity lingered longer: Ellis identified the latest-known peristyle house built from scratch as the Villa of the Falconer atArgos, Peloponnese,dating from the style of its floormosaicsto about 530–550.[13]Existing houses in many cases were subdivided to accommodate a larger and less elite population in a warren of small spaces, and columned porticoes were enclosed in small cubicles, as at the House of Hesychius atCyrene.[14]

Other uses[edit]

Althoughancient Egyptian architecturepredates Greek and Roman architecture, historians frequently use the Greek termperistyleto describe similar, earlier structures inancient Egyptianpalace architecture and inLevantinehouses known asliwan houses.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^J.A. Dickmann. "The peristyle and the transformation of domestic space in Hellenistic Pompeii",Journal of Roman Archeology1997.
  2. ^A. Frazer, "Modes of European Courtyard Design before the Medieval Cloister"Gesta,1973; K.E. Meyer, "Axial peristyle houses in the western empire",Journal of Roman Archaeology,1999; S. Hales,The Roman House and Social Identity2003.
  3. ^Harper, Douglas."peristyle".Online Etymology Dictionary.
  4. ^περίστυλον.Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert;A Greek–English Lexiconat thePerseus Project.
  5. ^τετράστοονinLiddellandScott.
  6. ^"Tetrastoön".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 671.
  7. ^περίστασιςinLiddellandScott.
  8. ^E.B. MacDougall, W.M.F. Jashemski, eds.,Ancient Roman Gardens: Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture,1979.
  9. ^E.B. MacDougall, W.M.F. Jashemski, eds.,Ancient Roman Gardens: Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture,1979.
  10. ^Yvon Thébert,"Private life and domestic architecture in Roman Africa", inPaul Veyne,ed.A History of Private Life,I:From Pagan Rome to Byzantium(1985,Arthur Goldhammer,tr., 1987) esp. "The peristyle", pp 357-64.
  11. ^Simon P. Ellis, "The End of the Roman House"American Journal of Archaeology92.4 (October 1988:565–576) opened the article's abstract with these words.
  12. ^Ellis notes G. Akerström-Hougen,The Calendar and Hunting Mosaics of the Falconer in Argos,Stockholm, 1974; a somewhat later peristyle house, at Hermione in the Peloponnesus, of the end of the 6th century, was not initiated at this late date but a partial reconstruction of an earlier elite dwelling (Ellis 1988:565).
  13. ^Ellis notes G. Akerström-Hougen,The Calendar and Hunting Mosaics of the Falconer in Argos,Stockholm, 1974; a somewhat later peristyle house, at Hermione in the Peloponnesus, of the end of the 6th century, was not initiated at this late date but a partial reconstruction of an earlier elite dwelling (Ellis 1988:565).
  14. ^Noted by Ellis p. 567.

External links[edit]

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