Sumerian: ca. 3000 BC

Akkadian: ca. 2000 BC

Babylonian: ca. 1700 BC

Assyrian: ca. 700 BC

Late Babylonian: ca. 600 BC

Persian: ca. 500 BC

Predynastic: c. 3000 BC

Old Kingdom: c. 2500 BC

Middle Kingdom: c. 2000 BC

New Kingdom: c. 1500 BC

Amarna Style: c. 1350 BC

2601–2528 BCE, Giza (Old Kingdom)

Connects earthly with heavenly

Bronze=copper with tin

Piece-mold—not lost wax method

Seams; cast in molds that could be reused; pieces soldered together

290 characters—major development in bronze age

Gift from the king to a court official; found in a temple

Bronze-expensive

Weight-400 pounds

Ritual function-must have authority to perform rituals

Writing-shows elite owner (gift from king to elite official)

Han Dynasty (2nd  imperial dynasty); among earliest pictorial art

Images of heaven and the underworld

Moon and sun=supernatural realm above the human world

Underworld: water and earth (fish, snake, pair of blue goats)

First Emperor’s burial complex (underground), meant to replicate his life on earth

ascended to the throne of the Qin state at age of 13 and immediately began to plan his burial, and more importantly, his underground palace

Over 7,000 terracotta warriors

Emperor Qin Shihuang unified China; standardized measurements, currency, writing

During his reign, he introduced the standardization of currency, writing, measurements and more. He connected cities and states with advanced systems of roads and canals.  

Lined his burial complex with a treasury of riches and piles of precious gemstones said to represent the stars, sun and moon. He was deeply concerned with the universe and looked to the cosmos as a guide for crossing over to an immortal existence.

Unification of China is, without question, the greatest symbol of the Qin dynasty’s power and influence

Found in a tomb

Perfectly balanced on a flying swallow or other bird; seems to outrun the wind

Iconic emblem of China; one of 64 works forbidden to be sent for exhibition outside of China

represents courage, integrity, diligence and power

Tang dynasty (618–907)

Handscroll; ink on paper

A leading horse painter of the Tang dynasty, Han Gan was known for capturing not only the likeness of a horse but also its spirit. This painting, the most famous work attributed to the artist, is a portrait of a charger of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–56). With its burning eye, flaring nostrils, and dancing hoofs, the fiery-tempered horse epitomizes Chinese myths about Central Asian "celestial steeds" that "sweated blood" and were actually dragons in disguise. The seals and inscriptions added to the painting and its borders by later owners and appreciators are a distinctive feature of Chinese collecting and connoisseurship. The addition of more than one thousand years of seals and comments offers a vivid testimony of the work's transmission and its impact on later generations.
 

11 ½ “ in length

Skill in metalwork (gold; also copper, iron, silver)

Bottom portion covered by 55 gold ducks

Upper: lions (look Near Eastern—suggest familiarity with; also objects imported from the ancient Near East were buried in tombs of this time)

Contemporary with Orientalizing stage of Greek art

Catacombs in Rome: underground burial places made of  tufa stone—

Niches for dead bodies (often looted)

350 miles of catacombs under Rome

Never used for meetings; dark, stinky

Wealthy families would create rooms with niches and painted ceilings to show status

Center: Christ the Good Shepherd (lamb over shoulders); gentle, young man, no beard; after pagan symbol of charity (ancient sculptures of men carrying sacrificial animals on their shoulders)

“orant” positions: prayer

3 scenes of Jonah: boat, being spit out, and reclining with withering plant (pose of Endymion in Roman art: perpetual sleep, never aged); Jonah a type of Christ: 3 days in belly of whale, 3 days in tomb; unites OT and NT

Reflects Roman murals in style; Christ figure, pose of Endymion, division into linear sections (lunettes)

Unites people from different backgrounds: Roman, Jewish, and Christian

Sketchy? Only used for burials (not a church); also dark; lit by oil lamps (niches in walls)

Moved away from life-sized statues (idols worshiped in pagan temples)

Sarcophagi: stone coffins; familiar themes

L-R: Jonah with ship, sea monster, woman praying (orant), man with scroll=prophets/Christ as teacher, Christ the Good Shepherd, baptism of Christ (dove, water)

Small: book suggests fear of making idolatrous image

Blank faces: to be filled in with dead person and spouse? Strong marker, made in advance

Adaptation of Greek tradition: character from Homer’s Iliad named Chalchas

Studies the liver of a sacrificial animal for omens; read signs in flight of birds, etc.: purely Etruscan

Seneca (Roman philosopher and statesman): “This is the difference between us and the Etruscans: Since they attribute everything to divine agency, they are of the opinion that things do not reveal the future because they have occurred, but that they occur because they are meant to reveal the future.”

Mirrors also revealed the future

Shows how influenced by other cultures but remained distinct

Everything deceased might want in the afterlife stuccoed onto walls (or cut out of stone): weapons, domestic animals, tools (similar to Egyptian practices)

Correlates with Archaic period of Greek art; anatomy and drapery show Greek influence

Subject—like Minoan (dolphins) and Egyptian (hunting scenes)

Hanging garlands probably used for funerary rituals (servant makes them above; other servant draws wine from large krater)

Banquet scene above common; shows reclining man and woman (unlike Greek parties/symposia)

Athletic games and musicians and dancers also common: everyday activities they enjoyed or funeral rituals? Romans described as highly religious but we don’t know belief system

Sarcophagus=Smarthistory: Sarcophagus of the Spouses (4:16)

Now sarcophagus represents whole bodies of a married couple

Held something in their hands: maybe cups or perfume or symbol of eternity (egg or pomegranate)

Terra cotta masters; would have been fired in separate pieces;

Banquet scenes common in Etruscan art; sarcophagus would have held ashes of the deceased couple

Reclining couch for eating

at Etruscan banquets, men and women reclined and ate together (different from Greeks and other Mediterranean cultures) across a wide chronological range Upper class Etruscan women actively participated in public life—attending banquets, riding in carriages and being spectators at (and participants in) public events. 

Also marital intimacy rarely seen in Greek art; no hieratic scale

Greek influence (archaic smiles, almond-shaped eyes) but liveliness, angularity, limbs sticking out Etruscan; lively, convivial

Similar pose in Louvre is still painted

Rest on pillows of wineskins; shows their enjoyment of wine 

Gloomier because of Roman conquest of Etruscan cities?

Probably influenced by temples in Greece around 600 B.C. but built with materials that didn’t survive (wood, mud brick); only stone foundations survive

Non-Greek: pediment empty; columns not fluted (made of wood); columns don’t go all the way around; frontal entry (steps only in the front)

The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius wrote about Etruscan temples in his book De architectura in the late first century B.C.E. In his treatise on ancient architecture, Vitruvius described the key elements of Etruscan temples and it was his description that inspired Renaissance architects to return to the roots of Tuscan design and allows archaeologists and art historians today to recreate the appearance of these buildings.

Chimera (lion, goat, serpent) slayed by Bellerophon (wound on goat’s head) (Greek myth)

Inscription to Etruscan god Tinia

Stylized mane; tensed for attack: combination of naturalism and stylization

Babies added later by Renaissance artist: Romulus and Remus (roman legend: twin brothers abandoned as babies and nourished by a wolf; founders of Rome); Roman coins had images of wolf nursing the babies

In 2006, the Italian art historian Anna Maria Carruba and the Etruscologist Adriano La Regina contested the traditional dating of the wolf on the basis of an analysis of the casting technique. Carruba had been given the task of restoring the sculpture in 1997, enabling her to examine how it had been made. She observed that the statue had been cast in a single piece using a variation of the lost-wax casting technique that was not used in ancient times; ancient Greek and Roman bronzes were typically constructed from multiple pieces, a method that facilitated high quality castings with less risk than would be involved in casting the entire sculpture at once. Single-piece casting was, however, widely used in medieval times to mould bronze items that needed a high level of rigidity, such as bells and cannon. Carruba argues, like Braun, that the damage to the wolf's paw had resulted from an error in the moulding process. In addition, La Regina, who is the state superintendent of Rome's cultural heritage, argues that the sculpture's artistic style is more akin to Carolingian and Romanesque art than that of the ancient world.[8]

Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating was carried out at the University of Salento in February 2007 to resolve the question. The results revealed with an accuracy of 95.4 percent that the sculpture was crafted between the 11th and 12th century AD.

Smarthistory: Capitoline Brutus (3:50)

2 governing bodies: Senate and People 

Honored political or military figures by putting their statues on public display (often in the Roman Forum—civic heart of the city)

Many bronze—later melted down for coinage or weaponry

Fragment of a full-length figure

Named in Renaissance “Brutus” (founder and first consul of the Republic)

Slightly over life size

Powerful image but not classically ideal; more individual

What’s not ideal (wrinkles, sags) record a life of work, engagement

What is ideal? Looks intelligent, wise, thoughtful, resolute

Verism: showed every wrinkle, sagging skin, etc.; demonstrated that they had given their lives in service of the republic and had the values of hard work, wisdom, and community service

Artists played up distinguishing marks rather than leaving them out: heightens noble Republican ideals associated with age—wisdom, experience, hard work

Also deep respect for family, tradition, and ancestry

Veil=priest?

Veristic=true to life

Different ideals than Greeks: seniority=responsibility and experience

To run for office you had to be a certain age; an image marked by age showed proper qualifications

Why portrait likenesses? Pedigree chart? Came from practice of storing ancestral masks in the home? Good pedigree important in this society

Ancient historian Polybius wrote that before burying a family member, living relatives would wear ancestral masks in a funerary procession, parading the family’s history in front of bystanders

Augustus=Smarthistory: Augustus of Primaporta, 1st Century CE (4:52)

6’ 8” (one of many copies); arm raised in oration

Changed government as first emperor; king in all but name

Became emperor at a young age—about 36; veristic portrait style of Republic wouldn’t serve him; looked to Greek style

Emperor for 42 years (but always young in portraits)

Found in house of his wife Livia at Primaporta

Strengthens claim to authority (visual propaganda) (see next slide)

Putto riding dolphin: Claimed he descended from Venus (also served as a strut to strengthen the marble)

Also refers to sea—naval victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC

Divinely ordained power; elevates office of emperor

Breast plate: scene of Parthians bringing flag back (after they stole) to Rome; also puts on cosmic plane (shows god of sky and goddess of earth)

Ara=smarthistory: Ara Pacis Augustae, 10:40 Section 1: Deidre Wilson, Mary McLaughlin, 

Altar of Peace to commemorate Augustus’ return from successful military campaigns in what is now Spain and France (Gaul) and bringing peace to the empire after decades of civil war

Public art: commemorative, propagandist; end of civil war, beginning of empire Caesar Augustus first emperor

Augustus wanted to be remembered for ending war

Colosseum=The Colosseum, Rome, 70-80 CE (8:34)

Donut shape: inside ring concrete; outside ring concrete faced with travertine

Advantages of concrete (cement+aggregate): didn’t take specialized workers; much less expensive; could make shapes never before used (Greeks made theaters on a hillside—let landscape shape building; Romans shaped the landscape with their buildings

Arch=Smarthistory: Relief from the Arch of Titus, Showing the Spoils of Jerusalem being brought into Rome (6:34)

Started in Republic period to build commemorative arches to celebrate victories or as monument to dead; whole reason was to convey message (not to enclose space or people); earliest surviving free-standing arch in Rome

Also commemorative; Titus was son of Vespasian; built by Titus’ brother Domition at his death and becoming a god

Celebrating what? Probably apotheosis (divinization) of Titus: inscription and small relief panel describe Titus as a god (see next slide)

Main relief panel under bay (inside of arch)

Situated at the highest point of the Sacra Via, the Arch of Titus (Arcus Titi) was erected by Domitian sometime after the death of his brother in AD 81, commemorating the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in AD 70.

"The Roman Senate and People (dedicate this) to the divine Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian."

 

best preserved piece of Roman architecture (because it became a church in 7th century AD) and most remarkable; built under Trajan’s reign, finished under Hadrian’s rule; Hadrian left Agrippa’s name in the inscription (first builder)

First Pantheon (temple to all the gods) built by Augustus’ right-hand man Agrippa; fire destroyed. Then Domition built one, which was struck by lightning

Used to sit above the street on podium; now below (over centuries, the street level rose)

Spared from being melted down in medieval period because Christians thought it was Constantine the Great, champion of Christianity

Gesture of mercy; raised leg of horse once rested on a conquered barbarian; horse animated, but rider has perfect control

Bearded (like Hadrian); interested in philosophy 

Wrote “Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”—wrote during wars: What is left worth living for? Justice

Dreamy-eyed

Last of the 5 good emperors

4th style=combination of the first 3 styles:

1.) imitation marble paneling

2.) fantastic architectural vistas receding into space

3.) mythological scenes resembling panel pictures set into the wall 

Tetrarchs=Smarthistory: Portraits of the four Tetrarchs, c. 305 CE (6:07)

Many civil wars in Rome in 3rd century: borders overstretched, hard to govern;

Emperor Diocletian divided empire into two parts: east and west; 4  tetrarchs were joint rulers

Two groups; originally thought to have been atop columns;  shows unity between east and west (all look the same)

Now in St. Mark’s in Venice (taken from Constantinople?)

Military dress; caps represent powerful officer class (meant to show strength in time of uncertainty)? one has beard, one clean shaven (bearded to show senior member); otherwise, indistinguishable—not individualized

Made of porphyry—hard stone from Egypt: long used for imperial sculpture

Proportions? Squat, not naturalistic; abstracted or stylized (authority resides in the office, not in the individual who holds the office;)

sameness underlines equality; embrace emphasizes unity

Bird-handled swords or hilts

Figure 7.68 (Section 1: Mariya Amato, Merik Nielson; Section 2: Haven Young

Colossus of Constantine

Huge statue in his basilica; head is 8 ½ ‘ tall; was part of seated sculpture in basilica of Constantine (formerly Maxentius)

More portrait of office of emperor than what he looked like

What do you notice most? Eyes are disproportionately large and deeply carved

“Stiff frontality?” Looks straight ahead

Design: what do spirals remind you of? Fish/ boat

Found in graves (face up); mostly female

Many sizes but same proportions—like Egyptian canon

Function? Can’t stand; didn’t exaggerate fertility

  idols or worship figures focusing on mother goddess 

  surrogates for servants/human sacrifices

Problem: lack of context; many on market without provenance or documentation of findspot

Beginning of tradition in Greece of making figure sculptures from local marble

Appeal to 20th –century artists: abstract, angular, clean lines; but evidence of painted eyes, hair, jewelry, body markings like tattoos

Clumps of algae between tentacles

Dynamic, emphasizes round shape of pot; curvy tentacles repeat shapes of handles

Beneath spout, tentacle forms circle the size of the opening at top as well as the openings under handle

Tomb for elite

Entrance lined with stone-walled pathway

Dug into sloping ground; supported by corbel vault

Excavation of Grave Circle A: Heinrich Schliemann discovered five death masks of hammered gold covering the faces of dead males

Individualized details (i.e. facial hair on some, not on others)

“I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon”

Trojan War (if it happened) would have been 1300-1200 BC, earlier than this mask; but could be a king

Used as funerary markers over burials; holes in base for liquid offerings which would filter down to dead buried below (used amphora shape for women; krater shape for men)

Careful joining of parts (over 5 feet tall) and proportions: width=half the height, neck =half the body

Meander pattern; deer pattern echoes geometric patterns

Deceased woman lies on a bier with checkerboard shroud; mourners (professional mourners because important to have a lavish display; showed importance/status)—no reference to afterlife! 

Figures appear toward 800 BCE; (also look like geometric shapes); same time as alphabet introduced and same time as Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey

Dipylon=2 gates

“Horror vacui”=fear of vacuum (empty spaces)

 

Kore (korai) female youth; kouros (korai) male youth

Literary sources say that Greeks created wooden sculptures of their gods for worship in the eighth century, but none survive since wood deteriorates

About 650 B.C., sculptors (like architects) began to work in stone

Greeks exposed to Egyptian art; geometric designs, similar proportions, frontal stance, single block of stone apparent (compare)

Small—about two feet

Life size; called New York Kouros because it is at the MET

Compare with Menkaure:

Also rigid, frontal like Egyptian sculptures; from a block of marble (very cubic); also one foot forward like Menkaure, slim and broad-shouldered, arms by sides with fists; stylized hair

Different: free-standing (without block behind) (earliest large stone figural sculpture that can stand on their own); empty spaces; face more stylized; also musculature less modeled; nude

Egyptians forced nudity on slaves; Greeks considered public nudity acceptable for males, but not for females

Kouros figures were used as grave markers and votive offerings: same pose, one foot in front of the other, equal weight on both feet

Not a portrait but an idealized representation of virtues of the deceased: beauty, athleticism, aristocratic bearing (only wealthy could afford; showed status)

Black=Launchpad: Ancient Greece Vase Production and the Black Figure Technique (4:16)

Figured=Smarthistory: Exekias, Dionysos kylix (3:52)

Archaic period was the golden age of Greek pottery

Exekias was the potter and the painter—master of black-figure pottery

Curve of backs echo shape of pot; spears form V

Relaxation but filled with tension; foreshadows tragic deaths of both (Achilles dies in battle; Ajax carries his body back to camp and kills himself in despair)

Black-figure process:   painted figures with slip; engraved details

  fired with vents open (everything turns red)

  closed vents (everything turns black)

  opened vents again, pot cools; pot turns red, figures remain black

Found in ruins after Persian sack of Athens (dated to shortly before attack)

What is new? One foot still forward but shift in weight: not perfectly even at hips and shoulders, right knee lower (contrapposto—Renaissance word=counterpoise); stands at ease

When one part of the body is engaged in a task, the rest of the body responds; suggests motion, life, impermanence; encourages viewer to see from all sides

Suggests bones and muscles inside

Polished marble=softer, more fleshlike

No Archaic smile! Turn of head; in own world of thought

In the act of throwing: probably Zeus casting a thunderbolt or Poseidon throwing trident; awe-inspiring power (arms longer than in nature)

Understanding of body in motion; expert in bronze casting—unusual to have an original Greek bronze statue (often melted down to reuse for weapons because expensive materials—copper and tin); discovered underwater 1928 (probably from a ship that sank on its voyage to Italy)

Bronze allows for spatially freer forms than marble

Takes up a lot of space (suggested space); pushes off with one foot, steadies with the other; dramatically breaks out of kouros tradition of being closed; all-around views

Doryphoros=Smarthistory: Doryphoros (5:07)

Doryphoros means spear-bearer; Polykleitos called “canon” (ideal of proportion) (Egyptians also had a canon)

Known to us through several Roman copies; one of the most copied by the Romans for wealthy villas; this one found intact in Pompeii (Greeks didn’t use tree trunks)

Balance: relaxed limb balances working limb on both halves

Part relates to part and all parts to the whole: whole body responds 

Belief that harmony in all things (music, etc) could be expressed mathematically

Contemplation of beauty and harmonious proportions could be equated with the contemplation of virtue

Polykleitos: “Beauty consists in the proportions, not of the elements, but of the parts, that is to say, of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist, and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and of all the other parts to each other.”

Famous in its own time (originally bronze); we know only through Roman copy

Suggests sequence of movements: spring (coiled figure) in perfect balance

The head has been improperly restored and should be turned to look toward the discus. (?) Can pose be replicated?

Parthenon dominant temple on the Akoropolis; dominates city and surrounding countryside

Perikles took money from Delian league (allies against Persians) to build it

Sophisticated integration of parts; harmony; architecture and sculpture intertwined (see next slide for comparison with Temple of Hera II)

Wide—8 columns across; enormous 40+ foot statue of Athena (made of ivory and gold) inside U-shaped inner colonnade (we only know through descriptions)

Ratio 9:4 or 2x + 1=y (golden mean) 

8 columns wide, 17 columns deep; also ratio of spacing between each column at lowest point also 9:4

Deliberate attempt to produce harmony through numerical relationships but with intentional departures—no strict geometric regularity

So looks like a living thing

Columns not vertical: lean in toward cella

Space between corner column and next column is smaller than the rest of the spacing

Platform bows up in center (about 4 inches higher than corners)

Each column capital slightly distorted to compensate bowed architrave; intentional distortions

Corrections of optical illusions: from a distance, straight horizontals appear to sag; when seen close up, a long straight line seems to curve

Gives it energy, life

On parapet; would have been seen from below on the way to Akropolis; Procession like Parthenon frieze, but not Athenians but winged Nikai (personificatons of Victory—Nike)

Pheidian style; Pheidias was chief overseer of all artistic projects sponsored by Perikles; none of his works survives, but we assume the other works are in his style

“wet cloth” style

Unbalanced pose, but has balance, grace; Nike takes off sandals to approach holy ground

Rare original bronze; lost wax casting, hollow

Athletic figure, but not ideal: older, defeated, wounded, broken nose, hashes, ear swollen

Posture collapsing; shows exhaustion

Pathos: evokes pity or sadness, emotional

Laocoon was a Trojan priest who tried to warn the Trojans that the gift from the Greeks was a trick (wooden horse)

Apollo sent serpent to try to stop him (Athena also angry and caused an earthquake around Laocoon and blinded him)

Pliny wrote about a sculpture of Laocoon

Similar in style to altar of Pergamon; serpentine twisting

Important influence on Michelangelo

Tension in sculpture and tension for the viewer between pain and beauty

Moved away from life-sized statues (idols worshiped in pagan temples)

Sarcophagi: stone coffins; familiar themes

L-R: Jonah with ship, sea monster, woman praying (orant), man with scroll=prophets/Christ as teacher, Christ the Good Shepherd, baptism of Christ (dove, water)

Small: book suggests fear of making idolatrous image

Blank faces: to be filled in with dead person and spouse? Strong marker, made in advance

wooden trusses for roof

marked by a shrine covered with a canopy called a baldacchino

Precedence in Ravenna for central plan and plain exterior; Façade looks like Galla Placidia (next slide)

Not Roman basilica plan; central plan with dome dominated Eastern empire (Eastern Orthodox Church)

2 Mosaics over altar in apse (chancel)

Justinian emperor of eastern empire

Called “emperor who never sleeps” : ambition to rebuild Rome, built 30 churches

How is Justinian compared to Christ?

Nimbus over head, purple robe, holds bread for Eucharist

Surrounded by 12 (symbolic of 12 apostles)

Shield: chi ro (monogram of Christ)

References to Christ shows political and spiritual authority: “divine kingship” (emperor, church, state (soldiers)

Style: very different from short, squat figures of Junius Bassus sarcophagus; weightless, feet dangle, tall, thin, flat, huge eyes: BYZANTINE

Static; no sign of movement; gold background suggests heaven; green ground suggests earth: belong to both

Have a mysterious presence, just like interior curving spaces

Shield with Christ’s monogram reminds us of Constantine vision and triumph; Justinian is an heir to Constantine, founder of Constantinople

Hagia=Smarthistory: Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (11:03)* to 6:00

Symbol of Byzantium

Also under Justinian’s reign: this one in Constantinople (where Justinian ruled)

Hagia Sophia=holy wisdom

Original church there commissioned by Constantine; destroyed by rioters who tried to overthrow Justinian; he immediately rebuilt; wanted to make greatest church in Christian world; took 5 years to build (532-537)

Dome—184’tall 

(4 minarets were added when it was made a mosque after Turkish conquest in 1453))

Icon=image of sacred person (usually Christ, Mary, or saints) used for personal and public veneration; belief that spirit of the person resided in them and that they could intercede for the person, offer protection

Veneration or worship? If you worship image what does it become? (Idol worship)

Tension between two beliefs

Supporters? images help you to have faith by visualization; help you to feel something; claim that Christ had appeared with the Virgin to St. Luke and permitted him to paint their portrait together; miraculous images had appeared (models for icons)

Iconoclasts (image destroyers): no graven images 

Most icons destroyed during period of iconoclasm (edict by Byzantine emperor Leo III in 726; lasted about 100 years); many of the surviving examples come from Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai in Egypt (where God spoke to Moses in burning bush (desert, isolated; too far away from Constantinople)

Monasteries began in Egypt in 2nd and 3rd centuries; withdrawal from worldly temptations to devote oneself to prayer and contemplation

Christ: full frontal, large eyes; similar to Christ Pantocrator but more modeling

Also from Monastery of St. Catherine in Mount Sinai

Encaustic (pigment in hot wax); like Roman portraits

Byzantine qualities?

Long, thin, flattened ( a little knee)

Surface decoration; large heads; frontal; haloes

Hand of God at top

Classical? Modeling, a little knee sticking out, angels above

Dome in center like Hagia Sophia

Christ Pantocrator=ruler and judge of universe; nimbus with cross; over-sized, awesome image (higher up, higher degree of holiness)

IC XC abbreviation for Jesus Christ

Holds book—word of God (he is the Word)

Thumb touching finger=blessing gesture

Royal: Purple robe, gold, huge; intimidating?

large rock in the center– believed to be the location where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. Today, Muslims believe that the Rock commemorates the night journey of Muhammad. One night the Angel Gabriel came to Muhammad while he slept near the Kaaba in Mecca and took him to Jerusalem. From the Rock, Muhammad journeyed to heaven, where he met other prophets, such as Moses and Christ, witnessed paradise and hell and finally saw God enthroned and circumambulated by angels.

Dome? Symbol for the vault of heaven; on octagonal base

Mount Moriah: site of Solomon’s Temple and the 2nd temple, Herod’s Temple (proclaimed that Jerusalem was under control of Islam)

 

Southern Spain (Andalusia)

Hypostyle hall (means filled with columns) now forest of columns (500 columns)

Horseshoe arches, one on top of another; red and white voussoirs (horseshoe columns came from Visigoths who had taken over the area after the fall of Rome

Large like Hagia Sophia or Old St.Peter’s but no centralized space

(creates illusion of limitless space)

Repetition in columns, arches, and voussoirs reflect the timelessness of prayer