Early Christian, Jewish, and Byzantine Art Chapter 7 Goal

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Early Christian, Jewish, and Byzantine Art

• Chapter 7

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Goals

• Be able to distinguish and list characteristics
  of Jewish, Christian, and Byzantine art
• Be able to identify specific examples of each
  cultures art
• Be able to list common symbols used through this
  time period
• Be able to define and utilize key vocabulary
  words (I will let you know which words)

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3 religions arise from Near East

• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• Traditional Jews believe God made a pact with
  ancestors as chosen people, await the Messiah.
• Traditional Christians believe that Jesus was
  that Messiah. God took human form, preached,
  suffered, and then rose to heaven
• Muslims believe in Hebrew prophets and Jesus, but
  believe that Muhammad was Gods last prophet.

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All of them are

• Monotheistic
• religions of the book
• Hebrew scriptures, Old and New Testaments, Koran
• Abrahamic descendants from Abraham, the first
  Hebrew patriarch

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Early Jewish Art

• Not much remains
• Repressed, Nomadic, and more importantly Jewish
  law forbade the making of idols, idolatry
  (specifically sculpture in the round)
• Iconoclasts Philo of Alexandria, Hebrew
  theologian, saw God as universal perfectionwhat
  does that have to do with prohibition of images?

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Early Christian Art

• Almost no examples before 3rd C.
• Drew imagery and style from Jewish and Classical
  traditions. What is the combination of styles
  called?
• Orant can be pagan, Christian, or Jewish,
  depending on context
• Most important of these syncretic images is the
  Good Shepherd.
• Pagans saw him as Hermes or Orpheus, Christians
  and Jews saw him as Jesus

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What images or stories can you make out?
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• Good shepherd, Orants, and Story of Jonah. Rome,
  4c.
• Ceiling of catacombs
• Jonah thrown from boat, left
• Jonah spewed from monster, 3 days later
• Jonah relaxes, symbol of paradise
• Christians reinterpret as a parable of Christs
  death and resurrection
• Where is the Good Shepherd?
• Medallion round ornament

• Lunette semicircular areas framed with an arch

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Christian Symbols

• Read page 294 with your group.
• Take notes, sketch them out
• Extra attention to the 4 evangelists
• 6.3 minutes before we move on
• Look at the sculptures on 295make a mental note!

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Finding of the baby Moses. 3rd C. Detail from
wall painting

• Pharaoh's decree that all Jewish, male, infants
  be put to death
• Sends him afloat on Nile.
• Pharaohs daughter finds him and claims him as
  her own.
• Continuous narrative. Hands him to her nurse,
  actual mother.

• How would you describe this style?
• Flat or round
• 2D or 3D
• Static or moving
• Full frontal, strong outlines, solid colors

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Imperial Christian Architecture and Art

• 313. Edict of Milan-grants all people in Roman
  Empire freedom to worship as they see fit.
• New version of bible in 404. translated from
  Greek, Hebrew, and Latin versions into
  Latinlanguage of the Western Church.
• Vulgate official bible. Derives from Latin word
  for Vulgar, meaning common or popular

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Parting of Lot andAbraham. 432ce

• Lot and his daughters move to Jordan
• Abraham stays in Canaan
• Abraham is ancestor of Jesus
• Irreversible separation
• Hint of perspective, where?

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Harvesting of Grapes

• Mosaic in Ambulatory, church of Santa Coza
• How might this be both Christian and Pagan
• What is a Putti?
• Naked males, live with birds, harvest grapes.

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Research!

• Look at page 298
• Read elements of architecture, be able to list
  the difference between a basilica-plan church and
  a central-plan church

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• Santa Costanza, Rome 338
• View through ambulatory
• What type of columns?
• Composite
• Barrel vault passage
• Altar
• Clerestory
• Rotunda

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Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Italy
425c. Cruciform in shape Blind Arcading Would you
say this is a decorative exterior?
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• Very decorative on the inside, why?
• Compare to Romans
• What vocab can you apply here?
• What gesture and symbolism?
• Whats a pendentive?

• the good shepherd
• Halo, purple robe, cross
• Plants at regular intervals
• Attempt at shading

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• Baptistry of the Orthodox, Ravenna, Italy. 450c.
• Marble, stucco, mosaic
• Gold of paradise, background
• Clerestory, dome, pediments, blind arcading,
  altar, niches
• Concentric circles draw eyes upward to tondo
• Fantastic architecture, empty throne Jesus
  second coming
• Apostles hold crown, reward of martyrdom

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• Resurrection and Angel with two Marys at the
  Tomb, 400c, Ivory
• Diptych panels hinged together
• Top register, Christs resurrection
• Bottom Mary Magdalen is told of the empty grave
• Panels on door are of Lazarus resurrection
• Intricate frameclassical
• Imagerychristian
• Luke and Matthew

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Byzantine

• Early Byzantine 5th c 726. Emperor Justinian 1
  (527-565)
• Iconoclasm 726 Emperor Leo 3rd
  (Syrian/Byzantine) decreed all religious images
  should be destroyed
• Misrepresents human nature and divine nature as
  one- should not be shown in human form

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• Emperor Justinian and his attendants, mosaic,
  church of San Vitale 547 CE
• How do you know who is who?
• What symbols do you see?
• Bible, cross, chi rho

• Justinian purple shroud and halo
• Maximianus archbishop, gold shroud and gold
  cross
• Censer contains incense for altar purification

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Perspectives

• Romans as if looking out a window. Parallel
  lines converge off into distance
• Byzantine parallel lines diverge as they go off
  in the distance. Invisible line connecting our
  eye to the picture plane, objects come toward us,
  not off into the distance.
• Reverse Perspective

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Page with The Crucifixion

• Byzantine elite sponsor professional document
  writing
• Codex manuscripts bound together
• Detailed picture of Christs death and
  resurrection
• On the cross purple, halo
• 1 soldiers pierces him, the other gives him
  vinegar

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• Mary
• Holy women
• Soldiers roll dice for clothing
• Lower register, Jesus resurrection
• Sleeping guards
• Angel assures women
• Right Jesus appears to Mary

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• Archangel Michael, Ivory, early 6th c
• Diptych missing other piece
• Greek inscription across top
• What is odd about the space in this piece?
• Classicized drapery, framing
• Staff of authority on left and sphere of worldly
  power on right.
• messenger

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Middle Byzantine

• Iconoclasts that ruled more than a century lost
  power in 843.
• Eastern Empire revitalized, extended into Russia,
  Ukraine, and Venice
• Few middle Byzantine churches survived intact,
  Constantinople
• Many central-plan domed churches survived beyond
  the imperial capital, Ukraine

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• Cathedral of Santa Sophia
• Ukraine 1017
• Originally had a 9 bay, cross in square
• Expanded to have double sided aisles, 5 apses, 1
  central dome and 12 smaller domes
• Multiplicity of Geometric forms
• Vertical stress, lavish interior, elaborate
  paintings disguise purpose of piers

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Virgin of Vladimir, 12th c.

• Tempera on panel
• Learned art from copying and recopying art from
  Constantinople
• Virgin of compassion, pressing cheeks together,
  gazing
• More personal religion
• Protect people where it resided

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Christ Pantokrator (ruler of the Universe),
mosaic in central dome, c. 1080-1100

• 11th c mosaicists view composition in
  intellectual form
• Keep only essential forms to convey mood and
  message
• Long, thin fingers. Holds bible.
• IC (Jesus) XC (Christos)
• Dominates scene, powerful, judge and savior.
• Punishment for bad and reward for good.

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OUCH!
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Crucifixion, mosaic, late 11th c.

• No longer wearing a robe ( 6 c.)
• Blood and water, refer to Eucharist
• Simply anchored by flowers, resurrection
• Mary and young apostle John, emotional
• Skull Golgotha, place where Adam is burried
• Christ is new Adam
• For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ
  shall all be brought to life. 1 Cor. 1522

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2nd Byzantine Golden Age

• Artists with great ability and aesthetic value
  produce small luxury items for court and church
  use.

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Archangel Michael, icon, silver gilt with enamel,
late 10th c.

• Protector of the chosen, defends people from
  Satan and conducts souls to God.
• Shared with Jewish, Christian, and Islamic
  scriptures
• Blesses petitioners with upraised hand, mediates
  between God and humans.
• Presence is felt, not seen, body is immaterial,
  forms from Gold background
• Cloisonne process where enamel is adhered to
  picture, leaving areas for tiny stones to be
  placed.

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Icon

• Icon Think of it as a computer Icon. The W
  stands as an icon for Word Perfect. The E
  represents internet explorer.
• For us the computer Icons are intuitive, we are
  use to seeing them daily, like another language
• Back then, the Icons we are looking at would have
  been just as intuitive to the contemporaries.

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• Page with David the Psalmist
• Refrigerator Art
• Look at page 336
• What artistic conventions are being used
• Foreshortening, atmospheric perspective

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Late Byzantine Art

• Began in 1261 after Byzantines expelled the
  Christian Crusaders
• Renewed church building
• New ambulatory aisles, narthexes, and side
  chapels were added to many small existing churches

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Funerary Chapel, Church of the Monastery of
Christ in Chora

• Istanbul, 1315

• Funerary Chapel is entirely painted with
  appropriate themes
• Last Judgment, Anastasis
• Sarcophagi and portraits of the deceased
• Trompe loeil, to trick or fool the eye, marble
  panelingor is it?

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• Anastasis, Christs last decent into limbo to
  rescue Adam and Eve and other virtuous people

• Trampled doors of hell, tied Satan, and shattered
  locks
• Moving so fast, mandorla is off set and Adam and
  Eve are airborne

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Andrey Rublyov. The Old Testament Trinity 1410

• 3 angels visiting Abraham
• One God in 3 beings, chose to depict them as
  identical people
• Artistic Monk, used mathematical proportions for
  figures
• Late Byzantine create ideal geometry and depict
  forms according to it. Uniform works

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Barma and Postnik. Cathedral of Saint Basil, 1555

• Originally painted white with gilded domes, like
  most mid 16th c. churches. Colors added later
• Shatter steeply, tent-like roof, why?
• Moscow 3rd Rome. Heirs of Caesar, Czar
• 1st Russian Czar, Ivan the terrible
• 1453, Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad 2, overran the
  capital, Eastern Empire became part of Islamic
  World

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• Goals for today
• Background of the 3 religions
• Good Shepherd, what is it/he
• Church plans with Vocab
• Homework read 305-328
• What are characteristics of Byzantine Art?
• Choose one piece that you think best exemplifies
  these characteristics and talk about it
• How does art and church plans change by region