Furnishings and religious objects

In Byzantium

The numerous surviving inventories of goods of churches and monasteries are an essential source for addressing the various categories of Byzantine furnishings and religious objects of which they provide a detailed enumeration. In most cases, religious objects constituted donations to churches made in gratitude for a miraculous recovery, deliverance from danger or to ensure the posthumous commemoration of the donor’s soul. When they were not being used in the church, the sacred vessels and other religious objects were kept in a sacristy, the skeuophylakeion. There are three main types of object: devotional objects, liturgical objects and lighting devices.

Devotional objects

Byzantine churches contained icons in profusion, only some of which were hung on the templon or iconostasis of the church, which separated the nave from the sanctuary. The festival icons were usually placed on the entablature, while those of the titular saint of the church were hung in the intercolumniation of the templon, which also contained the icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary. On feast days, icons depicting the saint or event celebrated in the liturgical calendar were placed for veneration on a lectern (proskynetarion) inside the church. Double-sided icons attached to poles were carried in procession. In addition to icons painted in encaustic on wooden panels, which were sometime also given a silver cover, there were icons made out of other materials, such as mosaic, metal, ivory and steatite. The conjunction of the worship of images and of relics, which intensified tremendously throughout the Middle Byzantine period, favoured the production of gold and silver reliquaries richly decorated with representations of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints. The most precious reliquaries, such as the Limburg True Cross reliquary dating from the tenth century, are gold or silver caskets containing a cross-shaped cavity meant to hold a wooden cross inlaid with fragments of the True Cross. The principal relic is usually surrounded by multiple reliquary compartments with covers decorated with figural representations and inscriptions signalling the nature of the relics contained. On feast days, such as that of the Exaltation of the True Cross on 14 September, the relics were exhibited for veneration by the congregation. Icons and reliquaries, particularly small ones meant to be worn on the chest, were also venerated in the private sphere. The same was true for the different types of cross made out of various materials ranging from simple wood to base and precious metals, ivory, steatite or other hard stones such as rock crystal. Devotional objects for both private and ecclesiastical use also included thuribles suspended from three chains and footed ones meant to be placed on a flat surface. Incense burners were usually hemispherical or cylindrical in form. Sometimes incense burners had openwork lids, whose perforations allowed the smoke to escape. There are also examples of more elaborate forms, such as that of a domed building. The fragrance and the smoke that escaped the thuribles were believed to chase away evil spirits and carry the prayers of the faithful to God.

Liturgical objects

Large gold or silver processional crosses on poles were part of the standard furnishings of Byzantine churches. When a cross was not being carried in procession, it was placed in the centre of the altar table, where it joined the artophorion, a box in which are placed the Eucharistic species reserved for special occasions, and flanked with liturgical fans or rhipidia. During the celebration of the Eucharist, the liturgical fans carried by the deacons were used during the solemn processions of the Little Entrance and the Great Entrance, which marked the two phases of the Eucharistic liturgy. The Little Entrance that opens the Liturgy of the Word was the entrance of the Gospel, which was often covered with a precious gold or silver binding; the Great Entrance was that of the transfer of the oblations from the sacristy where they were prepared to the altar. A minimum set of Eucharistic vessels comprises the chalice and the paten. The principal constituents of the Byzantine chalice are a hemispherical bowl attached to a truncated cone-shaped foot with a knob and a circular base. Nevertheless, the pronounced taste for classical antiquity favoured the production of double-handled chalices in the period that followed Iconoclasm. The inventories of goods referred to them as kraters in reference to the wine of ancient banquets. The most precious specimens, some of which are kept in the treasury of Saint Mark’s in Venice, were carved out of hard stones such as agate, sardonyx, serpentine and jasper embellished with gold or silver mountings. The same was true for patens made up of a plate or shallow bowl with a rim that grew wider during the Middle Byzantine period and was decorated with gold or silver. The paten is endowed with an asterisk, made of two curved metal stems forming a rounded stand meant to support the Eucharistic veil. The other Eucharistic accessories that accompany the chalice and paten are the spoon used for distributing Holy Communion, the liturgical strainer, a metal object used to strain the Eucharistic wine in order to remove impurities that might fall into the bread, and the spear, a small liturgical knife used to cut out the bread of the offering, the prosphoron – the part to be consecrated. The lists of metal liturgical objects also include the ewer and basin set – the cherniboxeston – used for the priest’s ablutions.

Lighting devices

Considered the symbol of divinity, light played a primordial role in the Byzantine form of worship. Lighting devices were intended to honour the place of worship and the sacred figures and enhance their splendour. The polycandela were openwork disks pierced with holes that held glass jars filled with oil as well as spikes for candles. Suspended from chains, these chandeliers formed multiple sources of light in churches and made the mosaics, icons with covers and liturgical vessels shine. We learn from written sources, particularly the foundation charters of monasteries (typika), that candles or oil lamps (kandelia) were placed in front of the icons, above the reliquaries and above the tombs located in churches. Oil lamps and candles were also hung on the entablature of the iconostasis in front of which stood large candleholders (manoualia), while smaller candleholders were carried in procession.

B. P.

In Islam

One of the particularities of Islam from the beginning has been the use of very little furniture in places of worship and the extremely small number of items necessary for worship. The great simplicity of most of the mosque prayer rooms, pushed to the extreme in some branches of Islam such as the Ibadi movement, goes back to the model of the original mosque of the Prophet in Medina. To pray, the believer simply needs a prayer rug, which delineates a sacred space, and can even do without it in certain conditions. These carpets are often the only furniture in neighbourhood oratories, or masjid, covering the ground in preparation for the prostration, or sujūd, central to the Muslim prayer ritual.
There is an important distinction between simple oratories for daily prayers and mosques for congregations where the Friday common prayer must be performed. This centres on a moveable element, the minbar, so much so that the term “minbar mosque” has been used to describe the great mosques. The origin of the minbar is the throne on which the Prophet sat when he dispensed justice or addressed the community to communicate his decisions. This seat, made of tamarisk wood, is accessed by two steps and was in the mosque in Medina. It was also used as a throne by the Prophet’s first successors, who made it an attribute of their sovereignty. During the Umayyad era (661–750), however, the minbar became more common in the great mosques of the Muslim empire. They gradually ceased to be a symbol of sovereignty, serving as a chair for the preacher. At the same time, instead of being a moveable object which could be placed in different parts of the mosque, the minbar became a fixed element, next to the qibla wall, usually to the right of the mihrab. The oldest preserved example dates from the mid-ninth century and is located in the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Within a few centuries, the minbar went from being a seat with two steps to a chair which usually consists of a staircase with railings leading to a platform often topped by a canopy. The staircase is accessed through a two-panel door. While the first minbars were made of wood, the use of new materials such as bricks, stone and marble – typical of Mamluk and Ottoman mosques – slowly turned that element of the mosque from a piece of furniture into one of the main architectural components of the building. During the Friday prayer, the preacher climbs the first steps of the pulpit to address the faithful and to give the sermon, or khutba, but he never rises to the top of the platform. That position is left empty in memory of Muhammad who occupied it. The Prophet is imitated through the standing position – which is that of the preacher – as well as through the object the preacher holds in his right hand, one of the few objects in the Muslim religion, which, according to the different legal schools of Islam, can be a sword or a stick with which he strikes the steps he has climbed.
Some items, such as lighting, soon became essential in the mosques light was used to stress the sacredness of the place. It seems that the space in front of the mihrab, the most sacred space in the mosque, was the best lit of all: it was lit by natural light provided by the bays of the cupola that topped it, and especially by means of lamps, candelabras and chandeliers. It was undoubtedly in Egypt and Syria in the late Ayyubid period (late twelfth to mid-thirteenth century), but above all under the Mamluk sultans (1250–1517) that the art of lighting flourished. The enamelled glass lamps, candelabras and monumental bronze ceiling lights covered with epigraphic decorations and sometimes bearing the coat of arms of donors helped give a special atmosphere to that sacred place.
Other items of furniture in the mosque are largely associated with the multiple functions played by the building from the start including its role as a place of power. While the minbar became largely the domain of religious men, rulers have continued to occupy the mosque in a prominent place embodied by the maqsurah, a space reserved for them in front of the mihrab. This item of furniture is usually in the form of an openwork wooden grille. One of the oldest copies from the Zirid period (eleventh century) is still visible in the Great Mosque of Kairouan.
Most of the items of furniture are linked to the function of the mosque as a place of transmission and recitation of sacred texts and a favourite space for teaching religious sciences. Most buildings housed libraries containing sacred books, including precious copies of the Qur’an, such as the monumental Qur’an of Amajur (876) given as a waqf to the city of Sur, Lebanon. Special pieces of furniture linked to this practice are also found in most mosques, either in static form – for instance the dikka, a raised platform where recitations of the Qur’an are held – or in mobile form, for example, wooden lecterns with straight or intersected legs.
Most of these pieces of furniture and objects were either maintained or renewed by donations from wealthy patrons who wanted their piety recognised by their city or neighbourhood community, or else by religious foundations, known as waqf, which were often formed at the time of construction of new buildings to ensure their operation and maintenance. For example, some revenues were allocated for the renewal of prayer rugs or for the supply of oil and wicks for lamps.
More unusual objects, relics, flourished from the twelfth century in places of worship and even led to the foundation of buildings that were to serve as reliquaries. A number of items belonging to the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an or Muhammad or Muslim saints became objects of veneration which were believed to bring luck. These include one of Muhammad’s sandals, long kept in the al-Mujāhidiya funerary madrassa in Damascus, or multiple copies of the so-called Uthmān Qur’an of which the mosques of Cordoba, Damascus and Cairo all have claimed to hold the original copy.
A special place must be given to the Kaaba, the religious centre of Islam, which has seen donations flowing in from the whole Muslim world since its beginnings. Some are institutional and regular – for instance the veil of silk, or kiswa, which covers the building and is replaced each year – or the keys of finely worked bronze, donated by rulers holding the rank of “protector of holy places”. However, the majority of donations was casual and expressed the piety of the donor. They accumulated inside the Kaaba which was regularly emptied at times of political change or when the number of donations became excessive.

Y. P.

In Western Europe

Liturgical spaces

In churches, liturgical spaces were divided into separate areas: one part was reserved for the officiating clergy, around the altar, and another for the laity. From Late Antiquity until the twelfth century, these separations (the chancels) were made up of stone panels that came to waist height. The altar and the clerical seats were placed in the eastern portion of the church, which constituted the presbyterium, while the worshippers occupied the nave on the western side (the quadratum populi). Between the two, one or two ambons—pulpits facing the congregation—were positioned for reading and preaching. In addition, during the High Middle Ages, the rood beam (trabes) marked the entrance arch of the choir and bore a crucifix. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a new system appeared—the rood screen—whose name derived from the Latin solicitation that the reader would pronounce from an elevated position: Jube Domine benedicere. At the time, a wall closed off the area for the altar (the sanctuary) and the choir (containing the canons’ and monks’ stalls), and the rood screen was several metres high, facing into the nave. Readings, preaching, and songs were done from the top of the rood screen; the first organs were also placed above (it couldn’t, therefore, be likened to the Byzantine iconostasis, which was a real door to the divine world where icons were venerated). The doors were only opened during services, to reveal the altar (most often placed behind the choir); the rest of the time they were kept shut, which meant that liturgical books and other valuable objects could be safely left in the choir. The rood screens were decorated with carvings that generally represented the Passion, the source of the Redemption that brought salvation, as evoked by the altar. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) decreed the suppression of rood screens to encourage greater participation by the congregation in the services. Rood screens gradually disappeared, apart from a few surviving examples, like the fifteenth-century jube in Albi Cathedral, France.

The sanctuary and the altar

In the sanctuary, the altar was the table on which the Eucharistic sacrifice—the commemoration of Christ’s Last Supper with the apostles—took place, during which the bread and wine were consecrated. In Late Antiquity, these tables were often semicircular, but several councils decided that a rectangular version would differentiate it from pagan temple altar tables. In the Middle Ages, a canopy or baldachin (ciborium) was erected over the high altar, which contained relics sealed in a cavity. The altar was consecrated by the bishop and covered with cloths, of which the upper one, used for the Eucharist, was the called the ‘corporal’, a name that originated from the body of Christ: this is where the chalice stood, the cup containing a mixture of wine and water (in the era of Christ, pure wine wasn’t drunk in Mediterranean countries), as well as the paten, a small dish on which the host was placed—the consecrated bread (unlike the Greeks, for the Romans this was unleavened). A vessel contained the hosts for the communion of the worshippers. These holy vases were made of precious materials and consecrated, because they contained the body and blood of Christ. A console or credence (for arranging other religious objects) was set against the apse wall, along with a hollow lavabo, with two small separate basins—one to contain the purifying water before the Eucharist, and the other to rinse out the vases after the ceremony (as this water was likely to contain holy fragments, it had to run into the foundations).

Initially, a large lamp illuminated the altar, symbolizing divine radiance: lamps, ‘crowns of light’ (polycandela) hung above the altar, attached to the baldachin. Chandeliers appeared later. In the thirteenth century, the altar was furnished with a cross and two chandeliers. A cushion provided protection for the bindings of liturgical books. The altar’s pedestal was covered with a hanging, the antependium (the tenth-century example held in the museum of Cluny came from Basel Cathedral and is made from gold and precious stones, whilst the twelfth-century examples from Catalonia are in painted wood). Behind the altar, the retable (retro tabula altaris), the Italian pala appeared around the end of the eleventh century, initially in the form of hangings, then in carved panels, and finally, at the end of the Middle Ages, as large painted ensembles. After the fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, when it was decided to generalize the Eucharist in churches to signal the presence of God, Eucharistic reserves were then suspended above the altar (for example, hollow Eucharistic doves). At the end of the Middle Ages, small, richly decorated niches, the tabernacles, served the same purpose. As altars became more widespread in the Carolingian period a diverse range of objects were introduced: the high altar, in the centre of the apse, was surrounded by many more decorative elements than the small altars of annexing chapels …

The choir and the stalls

The choir designated the area where the canons (in the cathedrals and colleges) or the monks (in the abbeys) sat. Indeed, this area was reserved for the stalls, where each cleric had a place set aside for the services, a place attributed according to their position in the community; the dignitaries, the dean, the chanter, or in the monasteries the abbot and the prior had special places there, with pride of place at the extremities of the ensemble. Large, carved-wood units gradually replaced the stone benches from the twelfth to thirteenth century. When the hinged seats were raised as the congregation stood, the worshippers could rest against a small carved ledge under the lid (the miserere). Large dais stood in each place, at least for the top row, which was the most important, as the assisting staff was confined to the lower row. In the centre, large manuscripts could be placed on a lectern and hence seen from afar; this was also where the list of the stallholders was kept. The Episcopal throne, where present, was placed in various locations depending on the situation. For example, in Puglia, in Italy, it stood at the end of the sanctuary, behind the altar. More often it stood at the extremity of the stalls on the northern side, between the choir and the sanctuary.

Devotional objects

Devotional objects in churches took two forms: reliquaries and statues. From the Carolingian period, a revival in the cult of relics resulted in their permanent presentation to the worshippers, in the reliquaries exposed for veneration. The latter could be dressed in many ways, the most impressive probably being the reliquary statue, like St Foy de Conques (tenth century, with antique elements and many later modifications). ‘Speaking’ or shaped reliquaries showed by their form the part of the body conserved, like St André’s foot in Trèves Cathedral (tenth century) or reliquaries in shaped like heads or arms, which were very common at the end of the Middle Ages. There were also glass cylinders, sometimes carried by two angels. The most important type of reliquary was the shrine, in the shape of a small church. At the end of the Middle Ages, reliquary cupboards, near the altars, provided a storage area for all the reliquaries.

The veneration of statues was specific to the Latin Church, and was somewhat comparable to the Eastern icons. The Church in Late Antiquity had forbidden them because they were too evocative of the pagan idols. During the High Middle Ages, holy representations were painted, made from mosaics or carved in low relief, but in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, statues became increasingly widespread, from the first Virgins in Majesty in the Auvergne to the many statues of saints—in painted wood, polychromic stone, and precious metals—that stood in churches at the end of the Middle Ages. However, the Church, fearing any form of worship that resembled superstition, periodically reminded worshippers that the statues weren’t to be the object of the prayers, but merely a vehicle to pray to the represented saint. Some statues that were believed to be miraculous gave rise to many ex-voto, personal objects, jewels, pictures, and inscriptions that recalled traditions that came from the distant past.

At the end of the Middle Ages, the widespread use of the Stations of the Cross for Good Friday gave rise to a series of representations of the Passion in churches: processions lead from one church to another to mark each of the stations of Jesus’ final hours, from his condemnation to death to his burial in the tomb, after the crucifixion. The success of the Stations of the Cross can be attributed to the emotional spirituality of the times.

Lastly, there were many tombs throughout church buildings. Certain funerary chapels were exclusively reserved for families, and housed monuments that recalled the presence of the sepulchres. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the memory of important people was perpetuated with recumbent statues that solicited the prayers of the living.

The treasure and the sacristy

Medieval church treasures were locked away in small rooms—often on the first storey, above a chapel—with barred windows and a door fitted with several locks, for which at least two people possessed different keys. They contained all the valuable objects and archives that needed to be protected. The treasure specifically comprised the ornamenta, used for the building’s decorations or for veneration, and the apparata, used during the ceremonies. This room contained, for example, reliquaries, altar covers, holy vases, processional crosses, chandeliers, incense burners, liturgical clothing, and valuable manuscripts.

In the thirteenth century, sacristies became more widespread. These housed less valuable objects for ordinary ceremonies, along with liturgical clothing, which was put on there to avoid having to change near the altar, as seems to have often been the case previously. The use of liturgical clothing in the Church went back to Late Antiquity, and derived from that worn by imperial dignitaries and officers. The cope, or pluviale, fastened by a clasp, and the chasuble, were embroidered (the finest examples) in silk and gold, and were worn by the celebrant, while the deacon wore the sleeved dalmatic (originally Dalmatian and woollen). There were also albs, large white tunics worn under these clothes, with the amice, a rectangle of white canvas bearing a cross, worn around the neck. Those not involved in the celebration, wore a white, ample surplice that was bound with a cordon. The stole, a long embroidered strip embroidered like the chasuble, was reserved for certain services. The colours of the ornamenta varied according to the liturgical year and the festivals. Lastly, certain clothes were related to rank, like the pontificalia, worn by bishops (mitre, pastoral staff and cross, liturgical stockings and sandals, gloves, and comb). The pall (pallium), a narrow band of white wool with black crosses, was worn by archbishops and originated from the Roman cloak.

Th.S.