Matroneum

MATRONEUM. - The part reserved for women in the early Christian churches (generally the right nave or the right transept), separated from the rest of the church by railings or curtains. In architecture this name is given to the interior gallery that rises above the side naves, originally intended precisely for that purpose. According to Rivoira, this structure would be of Syrian origin and would derive from the civil basilicas with a double order (the churches of Qanawāt and of Tafhah, of the 4th and 5th century).

The m. is adopted in Byzantine architecture in basilical churches (St. Demetrius of Thessalonica [5th cent.], in which the gallery continues above the entrance part so that the two sides are joined) and above all in buildings with a central plan: Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, where the ancient closure with ornamental panels is still preserved, Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, in which the m. develop around the central ambulatory. Similar to this last church, also in this particular constructional feature, is San Vitale of Ravenna (6th cent.) and San Lorenzo of Milan, generally held to be of the 6th cent. No examples of the m. remain in the basilical-plan churches of the Exarchate, while in Rome it is found in the oldest part of San Lorenzo fuori le mura (6th cent.), in Sant'Agnese on the Via Nomentana (7th cent.), and later in the rebuilt church of the Santi Quattro Coronati (12th cent.), which is the only example of a m. in Roman churches of the Romanesque age, when it is instead one of the characteristic elements of Lombard architecture, where the model of Sant'Ambrogio, with a deep m., lit by single-light windows and opening onto the central nave with arcades of the same width as those below, is faithfully imitated in San Michele of Pavia. It is found, with great variety of aspects, in northern Italy: with loggias with two-light windows (San Donato of Genoa); with four-light windows (the cathedral of Parma); with two-light or three-light or four-light windows united by a blind arch aligned with the arch of the nave, with an elegant characteristic solution (the cathedral of Modena and contemporary Apulian cathedrals). Sometimes, however (for example, in the cathedral of Modena), these m. are only apparent and not usable, they do not serve to receive the faithful, but are determined by aesthetic reasons and by the constructional necessity of lightening the upper part of the wall and of supporting the thrusts of the vault. Outside the influence of Lombard architecture, mention should be made of the particular solution of the basilica of San Marco in Venice, in which the upper level of the small naves opens onto the interior of the church with simple railings, like a balcony. The m. is almost exceptional in Tuscan Romanesque architecture, where that of the cathedral of Pisa, which also runs around the transept, reveals Oriental influences.

Beyond the Alps the m. is very frequent in the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque age, and it is found as far as Scandinavia. Mention is made in the 11th cent., in Germany: St. Ursula of Cologne; in France: the abbey churches of Cérisy-la-Forêt, of Mont-St-Michel, and of Jumièges, Saint-Remi of Reims, Saint-Étienne of Nevers; in England: the cathedrals of St. Albans, of Winchester, of Ely. Its use continued in Gothic architecture, to which it is suited because of the accentuated upward thrust of the naves and the reduction of the walls to the load-bearing structure; we find it in fact already in Notre-Dame of Paris and then in the other major French cathedrals, at Reims and Amiens. In Italy, on the other hand, it is quite rare in the 14th century; it is found in San Martino of Lucca. An exceptional example of the end of the 15th century is that of the cathedral of Pavia, in which, however, the m. is transformed into a gallery with Renaissance proportions and relationships. No longer used in the following centuries, the m. is sometimes adopted at present for the purpose of increasing the space destined for the faithful, in churches of Romanesque imitation (Santa Maria Addolorata in Rome), or modernly reworked (San Giuseppe in Hindemburg).

Mario Zocca