3.1

#48 Catacomb of Priscilla

Title: Catacomb of Priscilla

Date of Creation: c. 200-400 CE 

Culture of Origin: Rome, Italy (Christian)

Materials/Media: Excavated Tuda and fresco

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Burial

• Catacomb: underground cemetery

• Many bodies gone due to robbers (early Christians considered martyrs)

• First known Christian art is found here; start of iconography (Mary and baby Jesus)

• Depiction of woman buried; 3 images of the same person (simultaneous narrative)

  • Getting married, Resurrected, Having a child

• The reason for the lack of early Christian artworks might be that early Christians avoided making religious images to distinguish themselves from members of other religions, such as Roman paganism, where the depiction of gods and other religious imagery was common

#49 Basilica of Santa Sabina

Title: Basilica of Santa Sabina

Date of Creation: c. 422-432 CE

Culture of Origin: Rome, Italy (Christian)

Materials/Media: Brick and stone; wooden roof

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• Axial plan: one apse, one focus

• Clerestory: windows near the top, representing divine light

• Interior has mosaics or frescoes

Byzantine Art

Emperor Justinian

• Christianity is the only legal religion

• Reconquest of the West

• Commissioned San Vitale and Hagia Sophia

#51 San Vitale

Title: San Vitale

Date of Creation: c. 526-547 CE

Culture of Origin: Ravenna, Italy (Byzantine)

Materials/Media: Brick, marble, and stone; mosaic

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• Central plan: octagon

• Ambulatory: covered walkway

• Choir: central space

• Apse: semicircle at eastern end containing altar (worship directed here)

  • Above: depiction of Jesus in royal purple flanked by angels

  • Sides: Justinian Mosaic asserts authority through rich dress, halo, and entourage. Humble offering of bread. Empress Theodora Mosaic directly across.

    • Eucharist: Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper with bread and wine

• Exedra: rooms that stick out

• Tesserae: small stone, tile, glass, etc. used in the construction of a mosaic

• More arches, height, windows, light

• Buttresses: support system outside

#52 Hagia Sophia

Title: Hagia Sophia

Date of Creation: c. 532-537 CE

Culture of Origin: Constantinople (Byzantine)

Materials/Media: Brick and ceramic elements with stone and mosaic veneer

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• 4 minarets added in the 15th century when it became a mosque

• Domed basilica: circle resting on a square

• Pendentive: transition for a dome on a square

• Squinch: transition for a dome on a circle/semi-circle

• Dome almost hovers due to the ring of windows → represents Holy Spirit

• Interior: mix of original Christian and later Islamic elements

• Icon: painting of a holy figure used for religious purposes

• Iconoclasm: destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons

  • Example: Hagia Sophia’s images being destroyed and replaced by crosses

• After the original dome of Hagia Sophia collapsed in 558 C.E., its architects responded by increasing the height of the dome and adding buttresses

#52a Theotokos Mosaic

Title: Theotokos Mosaic

Date of Creation: c. 867 CE

Culture of Origin: Constantinople (Byzantine)

Materials/Media: Mosaic

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Reaffirmation of power post iconoclasm

• Apse of the Hagia Sophia

• Post iconoclasm

• “The images which the imposters had cast down here pious emperors have again set up”

#52b Deesis Mosaic

Title: Theotokos Mosaic

Date of Creation: c. 1261 CE

Culture of Origin: Constantinople (Byzantine)

Materials/Media: Mosaic

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Connection between earthly empire and heaven

• Western wall of the Hagia Sophia

Romanesque Architecture

• Roman-like

• Rise of feudal Europe and spread of Christianity around Europe

• Fundamentals of Romanesque style

  • Arches, Barrel Vaults, Piers, Brick, Brick/stone roofs

#58 Church of Sainte-Foy 

Title: Church of Sainte-Foy

Date of Creation: c. 1050-1130 CE

Culture of Origin: France

Materials/Media: Stone (architecture); stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood (reliquary)

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• Sainte Foy was a 12 year old Christian convert who was tortured to death for her refusal to make a sacrifice to pagan gods

  • She is depicted on the tympanum kneeling before the outstretched hand of God in order to inspire pilgrims

• Relic: part of a dead holy person’s body/religiously significant object

  • Tourists traveled to pray for relics. Their donations helped the church continue operations.

• Reliquary: container holding the remains of a saint or holy person

• Tympanum: space above doors (like a pediment to Greek temples)

  • Depicted Last Judgment (separating the saved and the damned)

  • Meant as a threat to those who entered and education of Christian doctrine

  • Classical influence but still less naturalism

• Transept: forms arms of the cross shape

Gothic Art

#60 Chartres Cathedral

Title: Chartres Cathedral

Date of Creation: c. 1145-1155 CE; reconstructed c.1194-1220 CE

Culture of Origin: Chartres, France (Roman Catholic)

Materials/Media: Limestone, stained glass

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• Holds relic Virgin Mary’s tunic

• 4-part ribbed groin vault

• Pointed arches

• Stained glass

• Western facade: Early Gothic (c. 1145)

  • More point than romanesque

  • Central door depicts Jesus before birth (left) → Birth of Jesus (right)→ Resurrection (middle)

  • Right door depicts the annunciation (birth of Jesus)

  • Horizontal registers, hieratic scale, simultaneous narration, sculptural program over entrance, bas relief, symbolism

• Southern facade: High Gothic (c. 1200)

  • Increased naturalism of figures: volume, feet bearing weight (contrapposto), engaged but closer to free-standing

• 3-part elevation: arcade, triforium, clerestory

• Early gothic windows had more solid space, high gothic had more glass

Islamic Art in Early Europe

Essentials of Islamic Art

• Portrays essense of things: the spiritual representation of objects/beings

• Geometric forms thought to reflect languages of the universe and help believer to reflect on life and creation

• Circle = infinite, like Allah

• Arabesques: geometric plant motifs

• Calligraphy, crafts, and decorative arts considered high art

#56 Great Mosque of Cordoba 

Title: Great Mosque

Date of Creation: c. 785-786 CE

Culture of Origin: Cordoba, Spain (Islamic Spain)

Materials/Media: Stone masonry

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship

• Mosque: a place of worship or prayer

• Courtyard with fountain in the middle and grove of orange trees

• Colonnade circling courtyard

• Later additions: minirate encased in a square tower, church in middle

• Horseshoe arch at the South entrance

  • Specific to Islamic Spain

• Interior: a large hypostyle prayer fall

• Two-tiered, symmetrical arches (stone and red brick)

• Mihrab: prayer niche (identifies wall that faces Mecca)

  • Tesserae: small pieces of glass with gold and color backing mosaic

#65 The Alhambra 

Title: The Alhambra

Date of Creation: c.1354-1391 CE

Culture of Origin: Granada, Spain (Islamic Spain)

Materials/Media: Whitebased adobe stucco, wood, tile, paint, gliding

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Worship, barracks, housing

• Red Fort: built by last Muslim dynasty to rule Spain

• Only 4 entrances

• Holds palaces, gardens, housing, workspaces, etc.

• Carved stucco (plaster-like material) on inside of complex

• Palace of the Lions: carved stucco carvings on slender columns

• Walls lined with words written in calligraphy (poetry, building documentation, religious text)

• Muqarna: small niche-like component usually stacked and used in multiples (honeycomb vaulting)

• Outside: shaded walkways, gardens, fountains; heat relief, quiet, oasis

• Inspired Irvine Spectrum

#84 Mosque of Selim II 

Title: Mosque of Selim II

Date of Creation: 1568-1575 CE 

Culture of Origin: Edirne, Turkey (Islamic)

Materials/Media: Brick and stone

Artist: Sinan (architect)

Purpose: Worship; protection

• Squinches: architectural support that transitions dome to piers

• Muqarnas: decoration (honeycomb vaulting)

• Piers: weight-bearing columns

• 2 Madrassas: schools

• Exterior buttresses hold most of the weight

• Original decoration: polychrome iznik tiles

Illuminated Manuscripts

• Tempera: painting with pigment in egg yolk

• Vellum: animal skin

• Marginalia: doodles around the edges of the pages

#50 Vienna Genesis

Title: Vienna Genesis (Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well; Jacob Wrestling the Angel)

Date of Creation: Early 6th century CE

Culture of Origin: Early Byzantine Europe (Early Christian)

Materials/Media: Tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Luxury item intended for display and storytelling

• Style: roman naturalism and nudity

• Iconography indicates the location is signaled by river gods

• Simultaneous narration

#55 The Lindisfarne Gospels

Title: The Lindisfarne Gospels (St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page)

Date of Creation: c. 700 CE

Culture of Origin: Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe

Materials/Media: Ink, pigments, and gold on vellum

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: Promote and celebrate Christianity

• In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

• Full page portrait of each evangelist

• Ornamental “cross-carpet” page

  • Illustrates continuity and change through the use of indigenous styles to express new religious meaning

• Gospels introduced by a historiated initial

• Influence of older northern European traditions

  • complex and carefully organized patterns of interlaced animal forms, reflects artistic traditions that are typical for migration era and early medieval art of western and northern Europe

  • Adapted designs from local metalworking and woodworking traditions to use in illuminated manuscripts

#61 Saint Louis Bible

Title: Saint Louis Bible (Dedication page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France; Scenes from the Apocalypse)

Date of Creation: c. 1225-1245 CE

Culture of Origin: Gothic Europe (France)

Materials/Media: Ink, tempera, and gold lead on vellum

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: To teach lessons

• Each page had 8 circles with an illustration about a moral from the bible

• Made expressly for French royals

#64 The Golden Haggadah

Title: The Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt; Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover)

Date of Creation: c. 1320 CE

Culture of Origin: Late medieval Spain

Materials/Media: pigments and gold lead on vellum

Artist: Unknown

Purpose: To tell the story of Passover

• Passover commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery