Unit 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200–1750 CE

Jesus Christ

He founded Christianity in the first century C.E.

Church Peace

began with Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312 C.E.

Catacomb

an underground passageway used for burial

The Annunciation

The Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the virgin mother of Jesus.

The Visitation

Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth to tell her the news that she is pregnant with Jesus.

Christmas or the Nativity

The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

Adoration of the Magi

Traditionally, three kings, who are also astrologers, are attracted by a star that shines over Jesus’s manger.

Massacre of the Innocents

After Jesus is born, King Herod issues an order to execute all male infants in the hope of killing him.

Baptism of Jesus

John the Baptist, Jesus’s cousin, baptizes him in the Jordan River.

Calling of the Apostles

Jesus gathers his followers, including Saint Matthew and Saint Peter, as his ministry moves forward.

Miracles

To prove his divinity, Jesus performs a number of miracles, like multiplying loaves and fishes, resurrecting the deceased Lazarus, and changing water into wine at the Wedding at Cana.

Giving the Keys

Sensing his own death, Jesus gives Saint Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven, in effect installing him as the leader when he is gone, and therefore the first pope.

Transfiguration

Jesus transfigures himself into God before the eyes of his apostles; this is the high point of his ministry.

Palm Sunday

Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, greeted by throngs with palm branches.

Last Supper

Before Jesus is arrested, he has a final meal with his disciples in which he institutes the Eucharist—that is, his body and blood in the form of bread and wine; at this meal he reveals that he knows that one of his apostles, Judas, has betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver.

Crucifixion

After a brief series of trials, Jesus is sentenced to death for sedition.

Deposition

The taking down of Jesus’s dead body from the cross

Lamentation

Jesus being mourned by his family and friends after his crucifixion and descent from the Cross.

Entombment

The burial of Jesus

Pieta

The lamentation of Jesus’s death

Resurrection

On Easter Sunday, three days later, Jesus rises from the dead.

New Testament

Also important are four author portraits of the Evangelists, who are the writers of the principal books, or gospels, of the \____.

Gospels

the first four books of the New Testament that chronicle the life of Jesus

Catacomb paintings

show a sensitivity toward artistic programs rather than random images.

Lunette

a crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a doorway, that contains sculpture or painting

Orant figure

a figure with its hands raised in prayer

Greek Chapel

Named for two Greek inscriptions painted on the right niche.Three niches for sarcophagi.

Orant fresco

Fresco over a tomb niche set over an arched wall; cemetery of a family vault.

Good Shepherd fresco

Restrained portrait of Christ a pastoral motif in ancient art going back to the Greeks.

Loculi

openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead

Cubicula

small underground rooms in catacombs serving as mortuary chapels

Transept

an aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave, where the clergy originally stood

Basilicas

with their large, groin-vaulted interiors and impressive naves, were meeting places for the influential under the watchful gaze of the emperor’s statue.

Transept

an aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave, where the clergy originally stood

Nave

the main aisle of a church

Narthex/vestibule

was positioned as a transitional zone in the front of the church.

Atrium

was constructed in front of the building, framing the façade.

catechumens

Atria also housed the \____, those who expressed a desire to convert to Christianity but had not yet gone through the initiation rites.

Spolia

in art history, the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in buildings generally different from their original contexts

Apse

the endpoint of a church where the altar is located

Clerestory

the third, or window, story of a church

Coffer

in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling

Ambulatory

a passageway around the apse or altar of a church

Central plan

a church having a circular plan with the altar in the middle

Axial Plan

a church with a long nave whose focus is the apse; so-called because it is designed along an axis

Spolia

tall slender columns taken from the Temple of Juno in Rome, erected on this site; a statement about the triumph of Christianity over paganism.

Catacomb of Priscilla

passageways beneath Rome that extend for about 100 miles and contain the tombs of 4 million dead. Has some 40,000 burials. Called in that name because she was the donor of the land for her family’s burial.

Santa Sabina

Early Christian parish church. As in the Jewish tradition, men and women stood separately; the men stood in the main aisle, the women in the side aisles with a partial view. Founded by Pope Celestine I (422–432).

Iconoclastic controversy

the destruction of religious images in the Byzantine Empire during the eighth and ninth centuries

Squinch

the polygonal base of a dome that makes a transition from the round dome to a flat wall

pendentive

supports the dome on four corner piers.

Iconostasis

a screen decorated with icons, which separates the apse from the transept of a church

Cathedral

the principal church of a diocese, where a bishop sits

Icon

a devotional panel depicting a sacred image

Arcade decoration

walls and capitals are flat and thin and richly ornamented

Cornice

a projecting ledge over a wall

Dome

the first building to have a dome supported by pendentives

Spolia

bricks taken from ruined Roman buildings reused here

Martyrium design

circular plan in an octagonal format

Martyrium

a shrine built over a place of martyrdom or a grave of a martyred Christian saint

Theotokos

the Virgin Mary in her role as the Mother of God

Paten

a plate, dish, or bowl used to hold the Eucharist at a Christian ceremony

Eucharist

the bread sanctified by the priest at the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper

XP or Chi Rho

the Christian monogram made up of the Greek letters khi and rho, the first two letters of Khristos, the Greek form of Christs name

Chalice

a cup containing wine, used during a Christian service

Genesis

first book of the Bible that details Creation, the Flood, Rebecca at the Well, and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, among other episodes

Illuminated manuscript

a manuscript that is hand decorated with painted initials, marginal illustrations, and larger images that add a pictorial element to the written text

Encaustic

a type of painting in which colors are added to hot wax to affix to a surface

Roman Emperor Constantine the Great

The eastern half, founded by \______ at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), flourished for one-thousand years beyond the collapse of its western counterparts.

trading center

Constantinople was the \_____ of early medieval Europe, directing traffic in the Mediterranean and controlling the shipment of goods nearly ­everywhere.

iconoclasm

This meant that every church and monastery had to be redecorated, causing a burst of creative energy throughout Byzantium.

Medieval Crusaders

some more interested in the spoils of war than the restoration of the Holy Land, conquered Constantinople in 1204, setting up a Latin kingdom in the east.

figures

Perspective is unimportant because \_____ occupy a timeless space, marked by golden backgrounds and heavily highlighted halos.

pagan association

Nudity also had a \____, connected with the mythological religions of ancient Greece and Rome.

great precision

The manuscript painter had to possess a fine eye for detail, and so was trained to work with \____, rendering minute details carefully.

Purple

the color usually reserved for Byzantine royalty, can be seen in the mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.

Hagia Sophia

Originally a Christian church. Built on the site of another church that was destroyed during the Nike Revolt in 532.Patrons were Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. Converted into a museum in 1935; reconverted into a mosque in 2020.

San Vitale

A Christian Church. Mysterious space symbolically connects with the mystic elements of religion. Banker Julianus Argentarius financed the building.

Justinian Panel

The Emperor, as the central image, dominates all; emperor’s rank indicated by his centrality, halo, fibula, and crown. Dressed in royal purple and gold. Divine authority symbolized by the halo

Archbishop Maximianus

patron of San Vitale

Theodora Panel

The Empress stands in an architectural framework holding a chalice for the Mass and is about to go behind the curtain. Slight displacement of absolute symmetry with the Empress. She is simultaneously frontal and moving to our left. Figures are flattened and weightless

Vienna Genesis

First surviving illustrations of the stories from Genesis. Genesis stories are done in continuous narrative with genre details. Written in Greek. Perhaps done in a royal workshop

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well

Genesis 24: 15–61.She was shown twice, emerges from the city of Nahor with a jar on her shoulder to go down to the spring. She quenches the thirst of a camel driver, Eliezer, and his camels. Colonnaded road leads to the spring. Roman water goddess personifies the spring.

Jacob Wrestling the Angel

Genesis 32: 22–31.Jacob takes his two wives, two maids, and eleven children and crosses a river; the number of children is abbreviated. At night Jacob wrestles an angel. The angel strikes Jacob on the hip socket.

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George

Pre–Iconoclastic Controversy icon. Virgin and Child centrally placed; firmly modeled..Saints Theodore and George flank Virgin and Child. Angels in background look toward heaven.

Vikings from Scandinavia

The \_____, in their speedy boats, flew across the North Sea and invaded the British Isles and colonized parts of France.

Attila the Hun

This was the age of mass migrations sweeping across Europe, an age epitomized by the fifth-century king, \____, whose hordes were famous for despoiling all before them.

Dark Ages

So desperate was this era that historians named it the “\_____,” a term that more reflects our knowledge of the times than the times themselves.

Charlemagne

However, stability in Europe was reached at the end of the eighth century when a group of Frankish kings, most notably \______, built an impressive empire whose capital was centered in Aachen, Germany.

Scribes

These copied the Bible and medical treatises, not modern literature or folk stories.

Scriptorium

a place in a monastery where monks wrote manuscripts

vellum

A codex was made of resilient antelope or calf hide

parchment

sheep or goat hide

Merovingians

A dynasty of Frankish kings who, according to tradition, descended from Merovech, chief of the Salian Franks.

Chasing

to ornament metal by indenting into a surface with a hammer

Cloissonné

enamelwork in which colored areas are separated by thin bands of metal, usually gold or bronze

Zoomorphic

having elements of animal shapes

Fibula

a pin or brooch used to fasten garments; showed the prestige of the wearer.

Hiberno Saxon art

The art of the British Isles in the Early Medieval period.

Hibernia

the ancient name for Ireland.