09/27/24

Context and such

• Pictures tell stories and convey messages to people (illiterate, children)

  • Used to convert people, show traditions (mostly after Constantine)

• Christianity offers salvation: different to Roman beliefs

48 - Catacomb of the Priscilla, Rome, Italy. 200-400 CE. Tufa & fresco (Greek Chapel, Orant, Good Shepherd)

• North of Rome, underground spaces for worship. No lighting.

• Tufa is a special material- strong but destroyable

• Chambers where people were buried underground (Roman tradition was cremation). Carved out the tufa, shrouded them, brick and plaster over.

• Cubicula: Underground mausoleum with fresco painitngs

• Iconography on the vaulting/roof of the catacombs

  • Still looks nice because Roman practices are still familiar

• Roundel with an image of Jesus; “The Good Shepard”

  • No beard, not enthroned, looks like a common person. Not glorified

  • Caring for his flock (follower metaphor), connected to nature, humble

  • A small amount of contrapposto - still following Classical traiditions

• Woman married, nursing, praying. Shadowing on her face.

  • People used to pray with their hands out.

• Sacrifice of Issac: From Old Testament, typology- incorporating past beliefs into your own to explain events and reinforce religious values (still finding identity)

• Developing the icons of Christianity: the Miracle of Loafs and Fish

49 — Santa Sabina. Rome, Italy. 425 CE. Brick & stone

• No hierarchy in past religions, in Christianity there are

• Large communal space, shared worship. Roman Basillica.

• 50 years before St. Peter’s, closest in time period and building style

• Plan: thinner lines may not be part of the original plan. (looked at other spot)

  • Apses: where altars were and where ceremonies take place.

  • Nave: where people sit

  • Aisles: how people get to where they’re going. When they go around in a loop it is known as the ambulatory

  • Transceptor:

  • Narthex: entrance to church, doors “portals”

  • Crossing: intersection between nave and transept, often vaulted

• Interior not much to look at, austere

• Marbling on the floor from later on, glass was originally gypsum?

• Bays: span in between the columns, divides the nave and the aisle

  • Bays not so wide, not too huge (no weight, they don’t need to be huge). Wood vaulting ceiling, dangerous because flammable

  • Overall very similar to the Greek and Roman culture

  • Corinthian column from the Greeks, similar symbols (eucharist was very important back in the day “rebranded”)

Vocab / early context

• Monotheism: the belief in one god.

  • Constantine stopped the Roman persecution of religions, and built the Church of St. Peters (no longer exists)

• Atheism: the belief in no gods

• Agnosticism: some faith, undecided

• Pagan: Someone not of the main religion of an area or a polytheist

• Faith: Without or without proof, trust/belief in something

• Torah [Similar to the Old Testament, 5 Books of Moses]

  • Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

• Bible - 2 Books, Old and New Testament

  • 4 Gospels (Life and Stories of Jesus) and 27 Books

• Evangelists: “good angels” - lived during and after the age of Jesus, wrote of him.

• 2nd Commandment: “No graven images / representations or idols” since it could be mocked, it could be worshipped over the existence of god. No icon for gods occur in Jewish faith, only Christianity.

  • Christians made art, Jewish and Muslims follow 2nd but Cs don’t (loose)

• Loculi - ??

• Roundel - Circle in art

• Lunet - Almost a roundel, little arching thing?

• Eucharist - “thanks giving”. Taking the Eucharist divides religions to this day

09/30

Medieval: Middle Ages
Dark Ages: Negative connotation since people knew less?
austere: pretty plain and simple
parchment: stretched out animal skins (leather, also “paper”
— Vella: Baby cow skin, highest quality of parchment (VERY IMPORTANT)
Illuminate: to shed light on something (to give imagery to something)
— Usually paired up with scripts. illuminated manuscript: ALL by hand. Printing process came around the 1500s
How become saint? Miracle, life’s work or becoming a martyr

The Vienna Genesis. Early Byzantine, 525 CE. Tempera & gold on purple vellum
(Rebecca & Eliezer at the Well, Jacob Wrestling the Angel)

• Only very wealthy and prominent people could see this, not all are literate

  • Many pages, dyed purple, vella, illuminated manuscript:

• 2 stories: narrative; tells a story. Characters wear the same clothes,

  • Jacob wresttling an angel

    • Bent stage, most important narrative in middle (bottom), then a post-battle scene, then people seem to be leaving (Jacob 4 times). Distort reality to create a story

    • Roman bridge: useless columns and arches, wrong perspective (symbolic representation makes image easier to understand)

    • Human body gets covered due to “shame”: The original sin was very important, after eating apple Adam and Eve are aware of their nudity and cover their parts (nudity now shows shame)

      • Human body is covered, people lose ability to paint. General movements of clothes, but no shape underneath.

    • Jacob’s understanding of faith: Crosses bridge and gets disoriented, fights a guy, displaces Jacob’s hip and Jacob realizes he fought an Angel, apologizes, blessed by Angel and becomes Isreal. then the people go away.

  • 2nd story

    • Basic storytelling element: city in the background, they are in the country/

    • Isaac is looking for a bride, Abraham sends servant for water for the camels and to search for a bride. Rebecca helps, Eliazer finds the perfect bride for Isaac.

    • Danupe: personification of the water spring (naked lady) (Roman)

10/04

Messiah - The anointed one
Christ - the way Messiah is said in Greek, idea existed before Jesus was born.
Important greek symbols - Chi Rho Iota, Eucharist, Cross
Exodus - exit
Illuminated manuscripts - Handwritten with drawings to explain stuff (not for commonfolk)
- Made by the Evangelists

Matthew - Angel. Mark - Lion. Luke - Ox. John - Eagle MA ML LO JE
Mathew angry, Mark lies, Luke organizes, John eats

Byzantine Empire - After the fall of the Roman Empire, Eastern Roman took over everything from before. Before the city was called Constantinople, it was called Byzantinople

Romans who spoke Greek, they were Christian

Eastern Orthodox: sticking to the books, “by the book”.

Justinian: Ruler, emperor, theocratic (divine connection) despa (complete control)

San Vitale. Ravenna, Italy. Early Byzantine, 535 CE. (Church, Justinian, Theodora)

• Central plan church, like the influnential Pantheon. Octagonal.

• Windows get bigger, the “bones” get smaller

  • The more we understand architecture, the less structure we need.

• Buttresses - corners of a building that “bump” out, help to support the weight of the building

• Central plans are awkward for Christian worship, so an apse is made in a semi-circle shape for the altars and such, makes seating strange to us.

• Narthex oddly placed in building, ambulatory aisle?

• Large mosaics in the interior,

  • Intended to show wealth, power and to share Christianity: mosaic used. Apse cieling has figures that people seated down would look at.

  • Guy has the church in his hands, Jesus on the center on top of the world

  • Transition to Jesus being seen as the master of the universe, compared to previous hidden status of Christianity.

  • Gold all over the place, mosaics take a very long time to make

  • Representing something unrepresentable: Heaven.

  • Grapes growing everywhere (wine), some wheat (bread)

  • Very dependent on the lighting (AP image looks drab)

• Gallery

• Piers: Pilasters, Heavier than columns; large columns (structural support)

• Tighter feeling of the building (contrasts to Santa Sabina)

Mosaics that are similar:

• Justinian is depicted very similar to Jesus.

• 12 people surrounding the emperor to mirror the 12 Apostoles. He has the Church and the State beside him, holding a basket with bread

• Maximanus: name written on top, gold on robe, leader of San Vitale.

• No bodily form; body is hidden but also using mosaic makes art hard

  • “The Standard of Ur lived forever”- Symbollic representation, hierarchy with color and height + people stepping on others.

general info

• Mosaic 2: Thedora, Justinian’s wife, in charge of the military under Justinian

  • Archway that makes a bit of a halo. Baptism (connected to women)

• Jesus + sheep (followers), iconic representation of Christianity.

• Pantocrator: all mighty, all powerful. Judges morality, holding New Testament

• Crucifixion scene: Gold area. Lamentation: after the death on the cross, his mother (the Virgin Mary) sees him.

Hagia Sophia. Constantinople, Turkey. Anthemius & Isidorus. 535 CE. Brick, stone & mosaic LINK

• Commissioned by Justinian

• People are unemployed, hungry, disillusioned: Justinian made them build churches

• 4 pillars were added on later, “turrets/minaret”, Ottoman Empire. Used as mosque

• A need to outperform the old Romans made the people want to create the tallest vaulted structure in the world dangerous.

• Central plan, but still rectangular/longitudinal

• Transversal arches: move from one side to another, forms a “box” it sits in.

• Diagonal, triangle, “archy” shapes: Transitional element between a circle and square

• Pendentive: very complex shape, tricky to render and conceive, arches many ways

• ring of 40 windows with “skin” beside on top of dome, silhouttes other areas and can make it so bright it looks like a halo.

• Theotokos: The birth of a god, the designation of Mary as the mother of God

10/07

Key stuff

Bystantine Empire

• Roman empires split, Eastern thrives. Check information

Hagia Sophia name meaning - Holy wisdom

Iconoclasm - not making images of an idea, goes against the making of icons. White-washing: painting over art to remove the icon. Things were covered to make a mosque. Self-inflicted

• Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, but not a central figure. Unrelated to iconoclasm

• Domes everywhere, becomes influential in Islam and Orthodox architecture

Merovingian looped fibulae. Medieval Europe. 550 CE. Silver gilt, filigree, and inlays
(NOT IMPORTANT, THERE IS A LOT OF THESE AROUND THE WORLD)

Fibulae: Functional broach that holds clothes together, form created fashion

• Romans thought of everybody as “barbarians”—

• __ were very goo at metallurgy, was integrated with Christianity and they wanted to add Christian symbols into what they’ve already done.

• A lot of organic, twisted “interlays”, Transitions into inconography

• Closinné: Making a piece or box of metal and putting it over another metal,

• Solder: putting a metal on top of another, creates a little chamber of space. Very low melting points

• Fillagre, little details huh ???

• Eagle head on top referencing Ancient Rome, fish († symbols)

Some other stuff I suppose

• Monastery: A place where monks live and practice. Very rural and hidden

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George. Early Byzantine, 600 CE. Encaustic/wood

• Paint + wax = encaustic- cakey, thick material, hard to work with, “carries paint further”

• People bought them and used them as mini-altars,

• Plates behind heads: Halo, physical manifestation of something, hard to make light colors, so they take a more physical form

• Everyone is shoved into each other to fit everyone, unrealistic space. Hints of dimension in a background, “in a world we don’t exist in”, iconic

• Central, frontal, obvious what is happening. Easier to worship

• Still some dimension and form, but in a plain look like Justinian, Theodora

• 160 years later, not much time has changed.

• Virgin Mary becomes increasingly more important

Church of Sainte-Foy. Conques, France. Romanesque, 1050 CE. (Church, Last Judgment, Reliquary)

• Check slide notes for this one (First presentation)

10/10

Continued slide presentation for Church of Sainte-Foy. Other notes here

• Pilgrimage route: Making a journey with a religious purpose, usually on foot. Happens for many different faiths

• Frieze: Being good leaves you on the right of Jesus

  • Right and correct are often connected

  • Sinister: Left, Right, correct. Embedded in modern language

  • Expansion of Christianity

• A lot of fear around the year 1000- Fear

• Portal: entering a holy space, transition in spaces, welcomes you with judgement

Lindisfarne Gospels. Hiberno Saxon Europe. 700 CE. Ink, pigment, & gold on vellum
(St. Matthew cross-carpet page, St. Luke portrait, St. Luke incipit page) (slides presented in class) Other notes:

• Abbey church: Church that has a study to it, monastery + church. “more for the church than for the people”

• Guy in the side is some creeper, maybe a saint (unknown)

• Codex amiarinus??? Something like that?

• Colfun- the ending part of the book

  • “Talking” “end“, page explaining how the book was made and by who

  • Takes a long time to make manuscripts so people were very proud of it, although Christianity goes against pride

Bayeux Tapestry. Romanesque (English/Norman), 1070 CE. Embroidery on linen
This presentation kind of sucked so I need to go over alone. Bonus notes:

• Battle of Hastings

• Very long continuous story, from the Norman point of view (Normandy)

• Important characters in the story are labelled. Words are in Latin.

  • Latin was a universal language, these people probably spoke a French-Latin. years of France being the ruling class in England.

  • Major events that brought French culture forward

• Cavlary scene

  • Cavalry could attack and retreat quickly, important for invasions

• Edward the Confessor ???

• Similar to the Standard of Ur: Registers, slight hierarchy

• Like 4 colors used, explaining an event with minimal tools

• Like Column of Trajan: Flexes the preparation taken for the invasions

• King of Normandy hears of the death of an important figure and prepares his army to invade land he believes is his

• Norse Viking dude too, side story?

• William the Conqueror

• Tapestry: Nothing pre-exsists, Embroidery something does.

• Someone is trying to tell history right after it happens: Dangerous idea

  • A story in a plain format explaining an event, unlike potrayals with gods

• Similar to the gospel art, same kinds of minimal symbolic representation

10/11

Chartres Cathedral. Chartres, France. Gothic, 1150 CE. Limestone & Stained glass (presented in class, MID…) **
IMPORTANT

• Erroneously named after the Visigoths

• Aka Notre Dame?

• Gothic architecture: flying buttresses? Lancet windows?

  • Early Gothic?

  • High Gothic

• Who are the angels beside Jesus in the tympanum?

• Define facade

• 4 symbols of the Evangelists

• Interior:

  • Big nave compared to EG cathedrals, vaulted stone?

  • Floor plan was like a cross, copy of a Roman basilica

  • Saint Anne: maternal grandmother of Jesus

  • Stained glass, Mary is seen as a point of wisdom (IMPORTANT FIGURE AT THE TIME, CONSIDERED THE CHURCH)

  • Fire of 1194, piece of clothing believed to be worn by the Virgin Mary- saved from fire, miracle inspired people to builder the church higher

• Recap from teacher

  • Flying buttress: Support that goes away from the structure. IMPORTANT

  • Portals on 3 spots, transept and narthex. Each one installed, diff times

    • Not good continuity because of this

  • Cathedral is bigger than a church (mansion vs house)

  • Lancet windows: Long, narrow vertical windows, point or round at end

  • Bar tracery: lines are in between the windows (look in the room bars)

    • Plate tracery: similar, but with BIG structure

  • People forgot how to make concrete: All quarried and cut stones

    • Masons: They made everything, since concrete was not used

  • Visigoths, audigoths: groups that Romans saw as “The goths” term

    • Not dark, people lit candles in the room

  • Integration of church and state in the glass windows: Fleur De Lis

    • Symbol of the state

Bibles moralisées. Gothic, 1235 CE. Ink, pigment, & gold on vellum

• French, Spanish

• Illuminated manuscript in the context of the time

• Commentary on ideas of the Bible

  • Xenophobia, antisemitism, racism

• Last page on slide?? Gold. Remember the vocab word for this

  • No writing, uses pictures

  • Everything is in pairs, even in this page

  • Pairs in interaction and in actions done

  • Person who paid for stained windows of Chartes paid for this too, region queen. White veil means you’re a virgin or a widow, similar to Mary

  • Louis IX, becomes sainted. Jesus and Mary parallels, fibulae

    • They look Bysantine, there is influence. Commissioned for son and gifted to him once he became king

  • Scholar reading bible and telling the artisan how things should be.

• Book

  • Roundels show stories and interpretations of the Bible NOT THE BIBLE

  • Guide on how to live and understand the Bible. Hand drawn

  • Pushing the metal onto the vellum: What word?

  • Hundreds of pairs of

  • Gloss on the left

  • People shoved into the jaws of hell, racial differences

  • Missed an image in class?

Röttgen Pietà. Late medieval, 1320 CE. Painted wood

• Isolated Mary and Jesus, rare

• Pietàs have a bunch, Lamentation sculpture

  • Pietà: Pity (empathy) + Piety (faith/belief)

• Compared to Michelangelo, less gore and less ideal of a body

  • emotional responses are different based on form, unknown if the artist is capable of Michelangelo’s art could be replicated but emotional left is good

  • Medieval summed up: Sacrificing different things to provide a strong message, raw and simple things as they are. Less can be more

10/15

St. Mark's Cathedral. Venice, Italy. Venetian, 1063 CE

• Two shrines of worship came before this one

• Venetian ambition, display of power, desire for comparison to Constantinople

• Byzantine style (mosaics): Flat, elongated figures with gold backgrounds: Heavenly backgrounds used to display Biblical moments

• People were in hell before the teachings of Jesus and their salvation

  • Functions of hell?

• Pendentive:

  • Byzantine architectural innovation; ciruclar dome on a square base. weight distrubution is even and makes domes look light.

• Gems of Pala d’Oro

  • Gems used?

  • Bibles made of gems: Value of the bible and the teachings of Christ

  • Various Christian scenes are depicted, such as the Crucifixtion

• 4 Bronze Horses

  • Likely from the age of Alexander the Great, stolen by Nero, then Constantine and Venetians

  • Symbols of Apollo, idealistic making of them shows Greek influence. Movement and energy, stolen during 4th crusade

  • Venice’s wealth + status in the mediterranean at the time

• Later architectural influences

  • Houses the Portrait for the Tetrarchs

• Influence

  • Represents the political, intellectual and economic glory of Venice

  • State ceremonial site

• Bonus stuff

  • Greek cross: cruciform but shorter, central plan unlike normal Christians

  • Venice floods regularly,

    • now Italian locations were very independent, less interaction

    • Venetian empire was once very large;

  • Doge: leadership and government

  • Christianity has a lot of divisions, right

    • Controversial event; Limbo is more eastern, orthodox

Golden Haggadah. Late medieval Spain, 1320 CE. Ink, pigment, & gold on vellum
(Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, Preparation for Passover)

• The story of Passover

• God killed the firstborn of each Egyptian family, but “passed over” the houses of jewish families

• Haggadah: Book used to tell the story of Passover around the Seder table

• Illuminated manuscript

• Decorated with Islamic motifs (Miriam’s timbrel- tambourine)

• Similar to Christian Gothic

• Seen as education rather than religion; exempt from aniconic rules

• Jewish people were expelled from Spain in 1492 by the Reconquest

• Other stuff

  • Connect to Bible with the 4 figures

  • A lot of leaders, making himself look like Jesus

  • Anachronistic (def): symbols understood today used for the past

    • Ancient Egypt did not have lancet windows or multi-story houses

Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel. Padua, Italy. Giotto di Bondone. 1305 CE. Brick & fresco (Chapel, Frescoes, & Lamentation)

• Scrovengi family?

• Need to recall definition of fresco

• God is inserted in a different way than the frescos around

• Trompe l’oiel: Trick of the eye (like First Style of Pompeii House)

• Ministry?

• The Passion: the arrest of death of Jesus?

• Usury: charged interest, sinning family that made the chapel to atone

• Enrico put himself in the side of heaven in a fresco

• The elected: people who are blessed, going to heaven?

• People sinning for usury were hung with money bags

• Judas hanging, he killed himself after betraying Jesus

• Lamentation

  • To lament: To grieve

  • Mary mourning the death of her son by crucifixion

  • Dead tree is an analogy for Christ’s future ressurection

  • Naturalism: Backs of characters, rare during the time (less message)

  • individuality: people in the art show varying emotions

  • Christ is off-center.

  • Moving towards the Renaissance

• Bonus notes after presentation

  • Giotto: Influential person in what would start the Renaissance

  • A lot of icons and altar pieces

  • Schools that develop art begin to put perspective, proportion and depth

    • more realistic architectural structures/space, background+people

  • Lamentation is the key artwork of the artwork, composition matters

    • Re-evolution of understanding of the human form

    • Giotto was a stage crew dude; experience in creating depth

  • Jesus, heaven and hell stuff

    • Goes against Indulgences

    • Doing good can make up for

    • Not many went here, no services, just to pay back for sins

    • Chapels can exist by themselves or radiating

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece). Robert Campin. 1430 CE. Oil on wood

• Might have been made by a student of Robert, unclear

• Annunciation: Archangel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her she will deliver Jesus

  • set in a flemish home to make it more relatable for the owners

  • Incarnation: When God takes human form, heads towards Mary

  • Maintains interest by leading the viewer from physical objects to spritual ideas to evoke Christian ideas

    • More complex than simple church paintings

• Made of 3 parts: side wings and a central part

• Flemish city in the background of left wing, has a guard

• Right wing shows Joseph, foster father of Jesus

• “The cross of the Lord was the devil’s mousetrap”

• Double shadows- 2 sources of light

• Before linear perspective, brings painting closer to viewer

Extra notes

• Littered with symbolism, meanings in a lot of small details

• Devotional pieces that are not very detailed, portable altar piece

  • Has hinges to move around and stand on

• New ideas: Donors, watching the scene. Anachronistic features

• Skills and tools develop seperately:

  • No perspective skills or knowledge of the body’s anatomy, but there is good detail in the fabric

• Little baby God looks so silly, but shows the Holy Spirit zipping through

  • Diptych - 2 panels that can move, fold, 3 is the same thing. poly-

The Arnolfini Portrait. Jan van Eyck. 1434 CE. Oil on wood

• The depiction of the events in the image is unclear

  • Memorial, wedding, pregnancy, married couple

  • Shoes can symbolize a sacred event

  • Contradictory: Winter clothing, oranges outside, symbol of wealth?

• Visitors in a mirror

  • positions where people would be if they looked at the portrait

  • Northern Renaissance

  • Roundels: Scenes from the Passion of the Christ

    • Passion of the Christ: 10 stages towards the end of Jesus’ life

Teacher notes

• Changes in identity for a long time; might have gained it fame. The ideas of the artwork. You interpret history with history we have and the views we have

• Advancements in oil painting

  • Artist worked with his brother very often

  • Artists do “speck” artwork: comissioned by people or a church to do work, or they do art to maybe sell or practice

  • Workshops: Artists handle more work, take partners and apprentices, work

  • REMEBER: x- tych pattern, the amount of panels somewhere

  • Each roundel is smaller than a quarter, great detail (we see a potentially more detailed image? something like that?)

  • Oil paintings hold transparency and can make changes (dries slow)

  • Fido - Fidelity

  • Going back a bit, they like gold to show richness. Light and shadow details due to oil paint, patronage and constant practice

  • People sign their artwors

Notes on MY SLIDE

• Albrecht was a well-known artist who is still seen as an important artist

• THE person who make print making popular

• The surface being cut into affects the detail of the art

• Etching, entaglio, scratch into a sheet of metal to make little indentions

• One thing about the parrots

10/21

• Will need to go over their slide notes for sure

• Ergotism: Skin disease

• Johns (Evangelitst, Baptist) and Mary(s) (Mother of Jesus, Magdelene)

  • Mary looks almost dead while being comforted by John

  • Message > form: John’s arm is very long

  • Mary M was depicted with very long, red hair. Ointment. praying

• Total suffering of Jesus is extrene compared to other works

• Sacrificial Lamb: carries cross, lesion in chest (stabbed by spear), blood drips into chalice mirroring the blood of Christ

• Saint Sebastian, arrows in chest, martyr - martyrdom

• Saint Anthony, temptation, taller than Seb, hierarchy of scale

• Lamentation: Mary is pale like last view, but does not need support from John E

• Altar opens on holy days to show second facade.

  • Enunciation

  • Angel Choir: scene of the universe activating due to Christ’s birth

    • The salvation of mankind against Lucifer

  • Nativity

    • Out of scale, God is depicted as a person

  • Overall

    • Displays power, status of Jesus in Christianity.

    • Night time, light is produced towards us. Light seems off

• 2nd opened altar section: paintings and sculptures

  • St. Augustine, Anthony and Jerome in the center as sculptures

    • Oldest part of art piece, put into the altar

    • Anthony is a key figure, enthroned. Grief, torture of temptation of St. Anthony as he questions his faith because of ergotism. God icon

      • Ergotism: St. Anthony’s Fire

  • St. Anthony and Paul: Story of humility

Teacher Notes

• Renaissance and middle ages stuff?

• Many layers, the 4 Humors are talked about in this

  • Morality ≠ health, but in the day was unknown

  • Bless someone who sneezes

  • If you are sick, understand that Jesus suffered for you, avoid all of the temptations of life to stay healthy and avoid ergotism (the fire)

Anyway.. time for early Islamic art

• Muhammed was an orphan, would begin receiving mesages from Gabriel

• Fight goes on over Mecca, Muhammed’s followers win

  • Hijra: Start of calendar in 622 CE, followers go to Medina. Night journey to Jerusalem

  • in 621 CE, Muhammed Mi’raj

    • Night journey to Jerusalem

    • Muhammed ascends and sees the prophets in Heaven and Jerusalem, then comes back and heads to Medina

      • Qu’ran: The word of Allah, from Gabriel to Muhammed

  • Qu’ran

    • Recited.

    • Hadith: stories of the life of Muhammed, can be read

    • Schisms (religion): Divisions due to religions beliefs from an umbrella religion (Sunni vs. Shi’ite)

  • Muhammed died in 631. Ali: died in 661

    • Ali - Shia - believe the blood line of Ali

  • Timeline summarized. Muhammed kicked out of Mecca, heads to Medina, in the meantime goes to Jerusalem and returns, then goes to retake Mecca.

The Kaaba. Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Rededicated in 631 CE. Granite covered with silk

• Built by Abraham and Ishmael (not other son, Isaac)

  • A is a key figure in J, C, I. Originally made of wood

    • All mosques must pray towards the Kaaba.

  • Place of worship for A and I, then local polytheistic tribes filled with icons

  • When the Kaaba was reclaimed, all idols were taken out.

  • The Kaaba is an empty box, intentionally.

  • Decorated inside

    • Exclusive to few people to clean. Important religious piece

    • 4 corners: Iraq, Syria,

    • Stone.

  • Door is pure gold

  • Circumambulating: walking, around something. Part of Hajj is to circumambulate the Kaaba during the pilgramage.

• Area around the Kaaba: Misjira Haram

  • Was not planned, simply happened.

  • Circled around the area of the Kaaba a bit, to face it.

  • Hypostyle halls. Colonnades people enter through

  • One very voluminous building, normal architecture “blown up”

Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem. 690 CE. Stone & Gold dome

• Made to stand out.

• Sits on an elevated place. Sacrifice of Isaac happened here.

• People like the idea of salvation, and Islam would spread with military as well

• (685-690). Within 50ish years, a new religion overtook a large space

• 100 years after Bysantine Empire inspirations

  • San Vitale and Hagia Sophia influenced the Dome of the Rock

  • Show the glory of this place: Muhammed ascended here

• Interior

  • Not a mosque, just marks a sacred place. Not a place for prayer or worship. No sacred wall facing the Kaaba, no discounting the event

  • Alternating pattern in the archway.

  • Intricate. A lot of repetition. Calligraphy, Koran text on the walls

  • Rock is exposed. Gallery.

• Exterior

  • Bold colors to stand out

  • Very secured in the modern day, few people can enter the area.

(***) Great Mosque. Damascus, Syria. Umayyad, 710 CE. Stone

• Has been a lot of things before, used by Romans, Christians/Bysantines

• “Starter layout” - traditional. Great Friday (= Sat/Sun J/C)

• Large capacity for important events

• Minarets: Call to prayer tower. Not here yet. Adject: off-center

• Al = the in Arabic. Algebra: using current information to find new info. al-jabr

• H + B + D = M: Hypostyle + Basilica + Dome = Mosque.

  • Hypostyle: whole lot of columns. Colonnades.

  • Basilica: things were centered, ??

• Ablution: Habitual cleaning. Cleaning needs to be done before people can enter.

• Yahya: John the Baptist. Pilgramages were made here

• No specifics in imagery, nondescript architecture mosaics. The bounty of heaven

  • Christian mosaics: Gold, trees, concept of heaven, background.

  • Corinthian columns shown in the mosaic.

10/24

Recap of Damascus Great Mosque.

• I might have added some of the stuff from THIS great mosque onto the other, or may confuse them with the other things we’ve learned. FIGURE IT OUT

• Idea of a paradise:

• Pointed arch, pattern of light and dark that is a staple of Islamic architecrire

  • Artistic choice: also, point to the top of the done.

  • Skull of John the Baptist in the little building

• Repetitive patterns and tile work, mosaic work . . . not iconic, repetitive

  • Beauty is seen in repetition

• Structure and layout in slides

Great Mosque. Córdoba, Spain. Umayyad, 785 CE. Stone (Mosque, Arches, Plan)

• Romans called Spain Hispania

  • Iberian Peninsula: area now covered by Portugal and Spain

  • Andalusia: Southern region of Spain (I. Penn), controlled by many religious groups. Reconquest, the Inquisition

    • Al-Andalus: name of the area of the time

• Much of Spain’s “area” was in Muslim control until the Reconquest.

• Inquisition: people who did not follow Catholicism would be kicked out of Spain

• Sevilla, largest city.

Artwork time (for slide above)

• Abulution, faces Mecca, Qi’bla wall at one end

  • Like the idea of the pilgramage, a large journey. Tower.

• Big weird part was built after the Reconquest, directly in middle of the Mosque and is very different compared to the other part (it is a cathedral)

  • Cathedral not studied much

• Hypostyle hall back at it again

• Double arch; Roman conventions, acanthus growing on the columns.

  • One arch on top of the other, aesthetic for repetitions and raising roof

  • Creates long channels, “tunnel”, Light all from the Sun, feeling of God.

• Later addition: Weird shaped arch-like thing.

• Fun fact: Faces south (wrong way to Mecca), faces river and Damascus because the builders “missed” their home?

• Longer plan, tiny square?

Pyxis of al-Mughira. Umayyad, 970 CE. Ivory

• Like the fibulae. Art of the era that is not completely religiously based?

• North African piece (Muslims were in control of the area). Kinda small

• Ivory: gotten from elephant tusks. Tusks are small, most things are small.

  • Carve-able, somewhat soft but holds its own. Treasured

  • Made for a prince: functional, small metal containers that would be pulled out for scents and makeup. Gift for the caliph’s son on 16th birthday

    • Gifts would be given for control and power

    • Made for a prince’s prince? ??

• Beyond religion, some reasons of art exist at this time (control, power, showing off)

• People move geographical locations; 2 people on horses pulling dates off of a tree

  • Dates are grown more in the middle east, reminiscing and talking about history

  • Humans (not seen much in Islamic religious art), animals and birds?

  • 8 lobes, called foils? containers?

• Shows connections, stuff, stuff

  • Representation of different people (look up) and their unity as groups.

  • “Abbasid”