HENRIK GABRIEL PORTHAN PROTESTANTTISEN KIRKKOIDEAALIN VÄLITTÄJÄNÄ. (Finnish)

The professor of classical rhetoric and poetics Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1739–1804) taught archaeology at Turku Academy from 1780 to 1801. His lectures on the phenomena of antique culture were thought to be the first academic art history lecture series in Finland. In his lectures, published between 1796 and 1801, Porthan examined church architecture. &is article is based on analysis of the historical ideologies in Porthan’s lectures, which open up the ideological and social context of churches. In his lectures, Porthan gave students more theoretical background on church architecture. On churches, Porthan broke away from the authority he followed in his archaeological lectures, Johan August Ernest’s (1707–1781) in Archaeologia litteraria. Porthan made a point of differentiating between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches by analysing architectural decisions and aspects of interior design. He gave practical instructions on preferred and undesirable choices for both structural form and decoration. Porthan was critical of the architectural traditions of long and cross-shaped Evangelical Lutheran churches. Instead, he thought churches should be oval or based on a round $oor plan, and the pulpit should be placed above the altar, in correspondence with Protestant theology. The professor had strong opinions about contemporary church architecture and the best national examples of his time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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