Art and Ritual Life

Innumerable symbolic features are associated with worship; a few are basic to identifying a building or site associated with a specific belief system. We quickly recognize and identify the distinctive implications of a steeple (church tower and spire) or a minaret, or the form of a stupa or pagoda, and we can sometimes discern how these and other expressions came into use and accrued significance. (Figures 10.9 and 10.10)

The Islamic minaret was developed as a tower associated with a mosque that was used primarily to issue the call to prayer (and to help ventilate the building).  In the past, the imam, or prayer leader, charged with the ritual task would climb to its summit and intone the adhan five times each day, making the call in all directions so that the surrounding community would be notified; now, electronic speaker systems achieve this function. But the minaret has other implications and uses, as well. (Figure 10.11)

It has become a striking visual symbol of the very presence of the mosque and of Islam's presence in the community; over time, many mosque complex designs have incorporated multiple minarets, most often four, with one at each corner of the main structure. The visual significance may have been further accentuated to rival the Christian presence of a nearby steeple or bell tower.

The bell tower has been used similarly to announce the onset of Christian services by ringing at specific times. Public clocks are sometimes added, with the function of noting the time, ringing or chiming a tune on the hour, the half-hour, or the quarter-hour. Because churches were often community centers, the bells could also give public notice of celebration, mourning, or warnings of emergencies like fire.

In the Middle Ages, controlling the bell ringing could be a political issue, especially as urban communities developed governments and sought independence from local churches in certain ways. At Tournai, Belgium, such struggles notably led to visual combat of towers on the town skyline. The city's civic leaders there were granted the right to control the bell ringing for community notices and built a separate tower away from the church located on the town square. The Church countered by renovating the church building to include four bell towers, thereby asserting its own rights to identify with the task. (Figure 10.12)

The steeple or bell tower visually implies a Christian presence and is generally part of the church building, usually on the façade. Over time, builders have added multiple towers, as they did at Tournai and elsewhere. Doing so emphasized the width of the façade, or other parts of the building, such as the transept, the "arms" in a Latin cross plan church, or the crossing, where the "arms" meet.

For example, at Lincoln Cathedral in England, towers are placed on either side of the façade, and another marks the crossing. (Figure 10.13) Some steeples and towers associated with Christian use, however, have been erected independently of other buildings. For example, the Campanile, or bell tower, by Giotto in Florence follows the Italian tradition of erecting the tower adjacent to the church. (Figure 10.14)

More specific features of the church and stupa structures, among others, include space within or outside for circumambulating and walking around a sacred object. In medieval churches that featured a display of relics and accommodated pilgrim visitation, the ambulatory might be altered to allow visitors to walk around a ring or succession of chapels at the end of the church where the apse was located. (Figure 10.15)

At the Sanchi Stupa, provisions were made for the devotee to walk around the fence surrounding the stupa, then enter one of the gateways and circumambulate the mound on the ground level, then climb the stairs and circumambulate again on a walkway attached to its exterior surface. Since the stupa is an earthen mound faced with masonry, it has no interior space accessible to the practitioner, and all rituals are accomplished outside.

The provisions for making an offering of animals ritually slain for the deity can be seen in the ruins of the Anu or White Temple in Uruk (c. 3,000 BCE), today Iraq, which stood atop the ziggurat there. The sanctuary chamber included a large altar table with channels along a sloped ditch to carry away the blood and other fluids resulting from the ritual sacrifice. Other types of sacrificial altars were provided for fire rituals that involved offerings to a deity of an animal, grain, oil, or other substances, as can be seen in this Roman relief depiction of the sacrifice of a bull. (Figure 10.16) Some of these altars were part of temple complexes, while others were found in homes and used for private devotions. Larger ritual fires are also part of the practices among some sects and are still in use; bonfires are a related practice.

Ritual ablutions, or cleansings, also have artistic accommodations in the forms of fountains and pools, which were once a standard part of Christian atrium courtyards that marked the entryways to churches and are frequently provided in courtyards for mosques. Vestiges are found in holy water fonts that still stand at portals to Catholic churches, where the practitioner dips the fingers and makes the sign of the cross. Also related are baptismal fonts or tanks used for the ritual cleansing, which, along with other ceremonial rites, signifies entry into some faiths. (Figure. 10.17)

Another type of symbolic liturgical furniture that appears in many worship contexts and is given considerable artistic attention is the pulpit, or minbar, as it is called in Islamic centers. It is the site of preaching, reading scriptures, and other addresses to congregations and is, sometimes, very elaborately adorned. (Figures 10.18 and 10.19)