Church History: Notable Artists and their Art and Architects and their Architecture (inc. Churches, Paintings, Sculptures, Icons, etc.)

Church Art (All Facts)

• Most artists in Middle Ages Europe worked for the Church

• Most artwork focused on religious themes

• Religious artwork provided images to help illiterate serfs understand the Bible

225 - Main Events (All Facts)

• Year in which the first Christian paintings appear in Rome, adorning the catacombs

324 - Archbasilica of St. John Lateran (All Facts)

• Catholic Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome in the city of Rome 

• It serves as the seat of the Pope 

• It was consecrated as a church during the reign of Constantine the Great (date displayed)

• It hosted the Council of Arles

St. Agnes Church “Outside the Walls” (All Facts)

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

St. Sebastian Church “Outside the Walls” (All Facts) 

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

• The church was built over the catacombs of the namesake saint 

Papal Basilica of St. Paul “Outside the Walls” (All Facts) 

• Church constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

• The church was built over the burial place of of the namesake saint

330 - Church of the Holy Apostles (All Facts)

• Constructed and consecrated during the reign of Constantine the Great 

335 - Church of the Holy Sepulchre (All Facts)

• Holiest site in Christianity

• It has been an important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century

• Contains both the site where Jesus was crucified at Golgotha and the location of Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected

  • Christ’s tomb on Golgotha was discovered to be on the site of an old temple to Aphrodite 

• Constructed and consecrated during the reign of Constantine the Great 

  • Christians from every corner of the Roman Empire were expected to flock to Jerusalem to see this shrine, the greatest in Christianity 

• Also contained an attached basilica with five aisles and a large atrium 

360 - Old St. Peter’s Basilica (All Facts)

• Located on the Vatican Hill 

• Church that was constructed during the reign of Constantine the Great 

  • It was built over the site of the Circus of Nero 

  • Completed on the date displayed 

  • Demolished in 1505 

Mar Saba (All Facts) 

• Holy Larva (Monastery) founded by St. Sabbas the Sanctified in the 400s

• It is considered one of the world's oldest (almost) continuously inhabited monasteries, and it maintains many of its ancient traditions

548 - 565 - St. Catherine’s Monastery (All Facts)

• Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt

• It was built by Justinian of the Byzantine Empire

• It enclosed what is claimed to be the area where Moses saw the Burning Bush

• It is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery

• It was built nearly 5,000 feet above sea level at the foot of Mt. Sinai 

• It was fortified 

• It was decorated with mosaics of the Transfiguration and painted icons 

• Became an anchorage point of Christianity 

360 - 1453 - Hagia Sophia (All Facts)

• Reconstructed and consecrated by Justinian of the Byzantine Empire in 537

• Designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus

• Became the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome

• It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture"

• Procopius, a Greek Historian under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, once remarked that the effects of light and space inside the church made it an “ineffable beauty” and he said it seemed as if “radiance is generated within, so great an abundance of light bathes this shrine all around”

Basilica of San Vitale / Church of St. Vitalis (All Facts) 

• Church in Ravenna whose construction begun under Ostrogothic rule by a rich banker

• Its interior was decorated with beautiful mosaics made from thousands of colored glass cubes, which reflected the light and bathed the church in their rich colors, mainly green and gold

• Church which Justinian and Theodora of the Byzantine Empire had stared down from the chancel

Basilica of St. Apollinaris (All Facts)

Vivarium (All Facts)

• Monastery founded by Cassiodorus in southern Italy around 544, which had a biblical studies center and library attached to it

• It became a place where Roman scholars worked on preserving Greek and Latin classical literature

683 - Jarrow Library (All Facts)

685 - Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (All Facts)

Illuminated Manuscript (All Facts)

• Formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations

• Were often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and courtly literature

Abbey of Echternach (All Facts)

• Founded by St. Willibrord

Lindisfarne Monastery (All Facts)

Noirmoutier Abbey (All Facts)

• Sacked by the Vikings in 842

Mandylion (All Facts)

Romanesque (All Facts)

• Roman-inspired style of architecture that came to dominate Christian Europe by 1100

• Style that was derived from the round Roman arch, which it repeats in series to divide church naves and abbey cloisters into bays and in which half-columns were built against flat wall surfaces, with capitals which no longer were in classical Roman styles

• Style characterized by its carved capitals, which appeared on church columns and around the arches of churches throughout England and Europe

  • The carved capitals took the form of demons, dragons, and fabulous monsters such as centaurs (symbolizing drunken lechery, or the basilisk, a mixture of rooster and serpent

1094 - St. Mark’s Basilica (All Facts)

1098 - Citeaux Abbey (All Facts)

• Abbey that was the original home of the Cistercian Order of Catholic monks and nuns in France

• Abbey founded on the same day as the feast of St. Benedict, which was appropriate since the 21 monks that founded it saw themselves renewing the Benedictine Rule

  • It also happened to be Palm Sunday

  • It was founded in a desolate swamp some 14 miles from the town of Dijon

1114 - Pontigny Abbey (All Facts)

• Cistercian Abbey in France

1116 - Clairvaux Abbey (All Facts)

• Third daughter monastery of the Citeaux Abbey of the Cistercian Order of Catholic monks and nuns in France

• Served as an archetype for Cistercian monasteries

1118 - Abbey of Fontenay (All Facts)

• Cistercian Abbey in France

Stained-Glass Windows (All Facts)

• By the 1100s, they demonstrated the high-level glass technology found throughout Europe

• Their creation was made possible by the coloring of glass by the addition of particular metal salts including

  • Copper for Green

  • Copper or Gold Chloride for Red

  • Iron or Silver

1135 - Basilica of Saint Denis (All Facts)

• Built outside Paris by Abbot Suger

• Its choir and westwork was rebuilt by Suger

• It was the first example of mature Gothic, with it slender pillars and pointed arches which allowed big lancet windows with stained glass in the apse chapels, with statues having adorned the porch

1163 - Notre Dame Cathedral (All Facts)

• Catholic Cathedral in Paris

• Its external flying buttresses enabled clerestory as well as ground floor windows to be treated as a frame, with a thin web of stone and glass between

• It was known for its rose windows

1185 - Lincoln Cathedral (All Facts)

• Exemplary of High Gothic architecture, in which new construction techniques were used to varied aesthetic ends and structures themselves were made ornamental

1196 - Chartres Cathedral (All Facts)

• Exemplary of High Gothic architecture, in which new construction techniques were used to varied aesthetic ends and structures themselves were made ornamental

• Its two great spires were raised by Bishop Regnault, and could be seen 20 miles in any direction

• Its 160 windows were filled with stained glass, including its great rose window, which bathes its interior in blue light

• Its portals were decorated with holy statues

1196 - Bourges Cathedral (All Facts)

• Exemplary of High Gothic architecture, in which new construction techniques were used to varied aesthetic ends and structures themselves were made ornamental

1211 - Reims Cathedral (All Facts)

• Cathedral where French Kings were crowned

• It was rebuilt with 550 statues known as “the smiling angels”

1220 - Amiens Cathedral (All Facts)

1220 - Salisbury Cathedral (All Facts)

1239 - Wells Cathedral (All Facts)