Locus AmoenusA Pleasant Place

Locus Amoenus• Garden• Pastoral landscape• Idyllic islands

• “From the time of Homer onwards, poets described a land of music, dancing, sunny meadows, flowers and sweet refreshment and repose in shady groves, a land in which death and disease have no dominion and no-one lacks anything….”

• “The motif often blends realistic and unrealistic elements: nymphs and muses in habit such places as well as humanity”

Locus Amoenus• Lucretius : A place for philosophy, which

symbolises the goals of Epicureanism• Vergil and Arcadia: “the discovery of a realer and

more intense reality than life can offer, and its very timelessness and placelessness accommodate all time, past, present, and future, and all place.” (Marinelli, 1971, p.43)

Locus Amoenus• Horace: Country Farm- a philosophical retreat which gives otium- it embodies philosophical ideals

• Statius: The Rustic Villa - A place of calm away from urban hurly-burly- But manufactured equivalents replace natural

features- Luxury symbolises simplicity

Locus Amoenus• Four key features:

-mixture of real and unreal elements

-Elements desirable for life

-potential for encounter between the human and the mythical or divine

-Eschatological or teleogical function (the place where hopes, needs and expectations are fulfilled)

The Book of Revelation 21:1-22:5

Greek and Roman “readers” might not know Jewish scriptures-They might well know the locus amoenus from literature (if educated)- Or from architecture.- Locus imagery was fashionable at the time

Public Architecture• Ara Pacis Augustae

Domestic Architecture• Garden fresco- Villa of Livia

Domestic Architecture• Villa of Poppaea

Revelation: Real and Unreal• “New” – heaven, earth, Jerusalem

• Unreal structure (21:16-17)• Luxurious manufacture (21:18-21)

• Like Statius- a mixture of nature (light, water, foliage) and technology

• Look how even the natural elements vary from normal earthly patterns ( no day/night; tree always in fruit etc)

Revelation: Desirable Elements• Holy

• Free of undesirable elements, emotions, experiences

• Water OF LIFE• Quality of light• Secure (despite unreal architecture)• Guarded by angels and God• Kings go there to give glory….

Revelation: Encountering the Divine• Holy• Permanent relationship promised with God• Sonship via adoption ( better than any usual

patron-client relationship)• High Quality relationship: Known to God by NAME• High Quality relationship: See God FACE to FACE• Lack of Temple: no place of mediation needed• Light comes from God

Revelation: Teleological & Eschatological• The end/ climax of the Book. This is where it all

ends….• Comparisons with the earthly churches ( Chapters

1-3- promises there are fulfilled here) and the earthly Jerusalem (e.g., Chapter 17)

• Scale of city, composition and guards all represent the fulfilment of hopes expressed in the OT prophets ( a bridge to Jewish Scriptures for Greeks and Romans)

• Throne, river, tree of life all indicate a return to Eden?

• No temple? But the design of the whole city functions as the temple and so it is the place where God dwells. No separate Temple needed….

LA imagery in Church Architecture• Sant Apollinare in Classe . Italy 6th C. Mosaic

• San Clemente Basilica (Rome)

San Clemente Basilica Rome

Abbey Church , Bath (UK)

For Reflection 1• How does language of place still figure within our

communities?

• How can we use imagery of place to embody our Christian hopes?

• How can we use the common imagery to share our faith with those unfamiliar with our traditions.

For Reflection 2:Hungercloth – Jacques Chèry [Haiti]