APSE (from Greek ἀφίς "Joint" and later also "Arch, Vault"), or Exedra. - It is a semicircular structure with a hemispherical vault, in use in Roman architecture, both in public buildings (cella of temples, basilicas, libraries, baths, etc.) and private ones (halls or porticoes of palaces and villas, nymphaea, tombs). Besides buildings with a single apse, there are those with two facing each other, and also with three (trichorum), four (tetrachorum), five (pentachorum), six (hexachorum), seven (heptachorum), eight (actachorum).
1. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
The apse is employed in Christian basilicas as the terminal part of the central nave, opposite the entrance, and often also in buildings with a central plan. Besides the main nave, the two smaller side naves may also have their respective apses, called conchulae by Paulinus of Nola (Ep. 32, 13), commonly used for the storage (diaconicon) and the preparation (prothesis) of what was needed for worship. If the apses were above the level of the church and therefore provided with steps, they were called gradatae (St. Augustine, Ep. 203). The semicircular form varies at times from region to region. In general the name of apse is also used when the terminal part has a square or polygonal form. In certain basilicas the building ends with an ambulatory with open arches, as in Rome in the Basilica Apostolorum in Catacumbas, and in the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, or at Nola (v.) in St. Felix.
In the Christian basilicas of Rome the apse is semicircular, often without windows, prominent from the back wall of the nave. In certain buildings of Eastern influence, such as St. Peter in Chains, St. Stephen on the Via Latina, St. John at the Latin Gate, or those officiated by Easterners, such as St. Mary in Cosmedin, St. Mary in Domnica and St. Sabas, the two side apses are also found. The apses are decorated on the inside with mosaic or fresco.
In the Christian basilicas of the region of Ravenna and of the Adriatic coast, the apse is very deep, generally with large windows and adorned with rich mosaic decoration, polygonal on the outside and flanked by the diaconicon and the prothesis. In the basilicas of Gaul and Spain there is either an isolated apse or three deep apses with a polygonal exterior. In Greece and at Constantinople the semicircular type is found, either inscribed in the back wall or supported by buttresses. Greater variety is found in North Africa, where there are isolated semicircular apses, square apses, and buildings with two apses facing each other at the two ends, in which case the two spaces may be of large dimensions and extend beyond the line of the outer wall; at times the entire building is inserted within the perimeter rectangle: on the inside the apse may be adorned with niches and small columns. In Syria there is generally the system of the central apse flanked by the diaconicon and the prothesis, but often it does not project beyond the perimeter wall: at times the exterior is decorated with pilasters and half-columns. Asia Minor presents various types: semicircular apse, horseshoe-shaped, polygonal, either projecting or inserted in the back wall, often with the diaconicon and the prothesis.
Apses decorated with mosaics or frescoes are also found in baptisteries and in Christian tombs, both above ground and underground; for the former the forms derive from bath or nymphaeum settings, for the latter from pagan sepulchral mausoleums.
Bibliography7 works
Enrico Josi
2. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN ART
In the Romanesque churches of Italy the apse generally continues the form it had in the basilicas; it is often flanked by two smaller apses, which repeat the structure of the central one. The church of St. Fedele in Como presents a large triapsidal body, which recalls the great halls terminated by a triconch (a square space open on three sides by semicircular apses), which are seen in classical buildings. Some Rhenish constructions (St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne) imitate this type, which was taken up again in St. Mary of the Flower and in St. Peter's in the Vatican.
Some buildings present a single apse: more often there are three apses; in the cathedral of Acqui there were five apses, although the building had only three naves; the Cistercian church of Chiaravalle della Colomba has seven. Apses also arose at the ends of the transept, as in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Milan and in the cathedral of Parma. There were also opposite apses, as in St. Peter in Civate and in St. George of Valpolicella.
In the buildings with a central plan, circular or polygonal, of northern Italy one sees a principal apse, which may be replaced by a large niche, and apses alternating with niches along the polygonal perimeter (St. Ponso Canavese; baptistery of the cathedral of Novara).
In a few churches there appears a disposition due to foreign influences: in the church of St. Antimo in Tuscany, in St. Mary at the foot of the Chienti (Marche), in the Most Holy Trinity of Venosa and in the cathedral of Acerenza there is around the apse the ambulatory, a motif limited among us to these examples, and a few others such as the cathedral of Aversa, where the ambulatory presents ribbed vaults, different therefore from those of the other ambulatories, covered by cross vaults. Such a motif would have in the Gothic age a very vast application.
Externally the decoration of the apse appears similar to that of the other parts of the church, and presents small loggias, hanging arches, pilaster strips and other motifs proper to the local schools. Let us recall, among the many, the trilobate central apse with external small loggia of the church of the Sagra di S. Michele in Val di Susa; the three finely decorated apses of St. Secondo of Cortazzone (Piedmont); the apse of the cathedral of Verona, divided for its entire height into rectangular zones formed by pilasters running parallel to one another; that of S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, opened by closely spaced arcades that contain the windows and at the top adorned by an elegant gallery; that of the cathedral of Murano, decorated in the first order with Byzantine-style niches and in the second opened by Lombard loggias. In Sicily the cathedral of Monreale has three apses that display a very rich and lively polychrome decoration. In Rome the only surviving example is given by the apse with a small loggia of the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
On the inside the apse continued to be adorned with mosaics and paintings; we may recall the fresco in the apse of the church of S. Elia near Nepi (11th century); the mosaic in the apse of S. Maria Nova in Rome (12th century); that in the apse of S. Clemente in Rome (13th century); those in the apses of S. Maria in Trastevere (13th century), of S. Maria Maggiore, of S. Giovanni in Laterano (13th century), likewise in Rome. And also the apse mosaics in the Byzantine manner of Cefalù and Monreale, those of the cathedral of Trieste (12th century), the frescoes of the apse of S. Vincenzo at Galliano (11th century), the mosaic of S. Miniato in Florence (13th century), the frescoes of S. Silvestro at Tivoli (13th century).
Gothic architecture develops further the motifs employed by the Romanesque, and the sanctuary in the major churches acquires great amplitude. Nor are churches lacking that have no apse and end simply in a flat wall. The ambulatory around the apse, with or without chapels, becomes very common. A square apse flanked by chapels is characteristic of Cistercian churches. In Italy, where the Gothic took on particular forms answering to the genius of the race, the arrangements of foreign buildings are not often found, not even in the apse. The cathedral of Milan, S. Francesco in Bologna (with nine radiating chapels), S. Antonio in Padua and S. Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples (both with radiating chapels) have an ambulatory.
From the Renaissance onward, once the Romanesque and Gothic forms had disappeared, apses offer characteristics that are essentially those of the ancient Christian basilicas, but with a greater development of forms and, often, with rich interior decoration (e.g. S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan), in harmony with the remaining parts of the building. The church of S. Carlo al Corso in Rome, of the Baroque age, presents a singular example of an ambulatory.
The apse, especially when it takes on a notable architectural development, is a most important part of the aesthetics of the building: often characteristic and imposing are the apse terminations of churches provided with an ambulatory with radiating chapels. Even in the Renaissance the Bramantesque apses of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and those of S. Pietro in the Vatican, achieve grandiose effects; in the Baroque age noteworthy is the apse of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, in which there is a most beautiful example of an apse facade.
Bibliography
Vincenzo Golzio
