CHRISTIAN ART

EARLY CHRISTIAN ART (200-250 C.E.)

Art works in catacombs

Artists imitated Roman works, sometimes in a sketchy and unsophisticated manner

Sprang open only when Christianity became recognized

Avoidance of large scale sculptures of Jesus and his apostles

Ivories and marbles carved on a more personal scale

Sculpted in the late Roman style: short figures with uniform height and squat proportions

Focuses more on the spiritual message and powerful narratives that Bible stories inspire

Architecture

Adapted Roman elements

Centrally planned

Santa Costanza inspired by the Pantheon

Axially planned

Old St. Peter’s

Painting

Christ as good shepherd; pastoral motif; Calf Bearer

With orant figures appearing between lunettes

Jonah’s regurgitation from the mouth of a big fish is seen as prefiguring Christ’s resurrection

Roman influence: sketchy painterly brushstrokes evoke Pompeian painting

Figures framed in lunettes or niches

In mosaics

Christ on imperial imagery

Robe in purple and gold

Golden cross (Christ’s victory over death)

Halo (sun-king) (later phase of Early Christian art)

Rich landscape

Balanced group of sheep

Images

Christ as the Sun, detail of a mosaic under Saint Peter’s necropolis, Rome. Mid-3rd century.

Icon with the Crucifixion. Byzantine. C. 100. Tempera on wood, The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine,
Sinai, Egypt.

BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

Not known for its size

Plain exteriors made of bricks and concrete (550-72) turned into richly articulated exteriors with
various colors of brick, stone, and marble

With contrasting vertical and horizontal elements

Smaller domes but more, sometimes forming a cross shape

Interiors

Extensive use of variously colored marbles on the lower floors

With mosaics and frescoes in the elevated portions

Domes low, not soaring

With windows around the base of a dome

With arches seem to reach the space

Clouded by half-lights and shimmering mosaics

With iconostasis (wall of icons)

Small space but with strong vertical emphasis

Images

Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) , 532-537,
Istanbul

NNOVATIONS IN/CHARACTERISTICS OF BYZANTINE PAINTING

Most characteristic work: icon (portable, hanging; at home, religious institution)

Applies varnish

Paraded or exhibited in city walls

Jewel-like treatment of manuscript painting

Avoids nudity

Known for fresco and mosaic (gold, colored stones, glass)

Ensembles arranged in hierarchical order

Reflects court customs

Shows significance of purple

Combination of classical tradition and medieval formalism

Frontal poses, symmetry, almost weightless bodies

Emphasized drapery

Facial types standardized

Eyes (large and wide open; nose- long and thin; mouths – short and closed)

Christ child = little man child (wisdom and majesty)

Flattened backgrounds

CHARACTERISTICS OF BYZANTINE SCULPTURE

Large scale avoided

In ivory plaques (diptychs)

Uses other precious metals

Images

Icon with the Crucifixion. Byzantine. C. 100. Tempera on wood, The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine,
Sinai, Egypt.

Pantocrator, 1180-1190, mosaic, Cathedral, Monreale, Sicily

ustinian and Attendants, c. 547, mosaic from San Vitale, Ravenna

archangel Michael, in Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy, is an example of ancient enamel art.
During the Byzantine era artists often used precious stones for ornamentation

Saint Michael the Archangel, early 6th century, ivory, British Museum, London
* one leaf of ivory diptych
*Roman coiffure
subtle relief folds
*imperial imagery in the orb and the scepter
*winged, hovers in front of arch
 *spatial ambiguity
*body articulated beneath drapery

Harbaville Triptych, c. 950, ivory, Louvre, Paris

Key Terms

Iconostasis – screen decorated with icons separating the apse and the transept of the church

Pantocrator – literally “ruler of the world”

Pendentive – construction shaped like a triangle that transitions the space between square walls
and the base of a round dome

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

Triptych – three-paneled painting or sculpture

EARLY MEDIEVAL ART (Hiberno-Saxon, Viking, Carolingian, and Ottonian; 500-10150)

Patronage and artistic life

Monasteries – center of learning

Artists who could both read and draw prized in the creation of manuscripts

Novelty not introduced; instead, scribes relied on copying

Wording – original

Illustration – important scenes; traditional and creative

INNOVATIONS

Codices – decoration of manuscript books

Made of vellum, calf hide or parchment, sheep or goat hide

In quires, or 8 pages

Wrote in scriptoria, writing places with no heat or light to prevent fires; with vows of silence

Illuminations painted by monks and nuns

A team worked on one book (scribe, illustrators, and painters)

Manuscript of sacred quality

Covered with binding of wood or leather

Gold leaf lavished on the surfaces

Precious gems inset on the cover

Characteristics (hiberno-saxon)

Illuminated manuscript: main artistic expression

Complicated interlace patterns

Frenzy of horror vacui

Animals in stylized combat patterns (animal style)

Opens with huge initials that are rich fields of ornamentation

Exceptional color (cloisonné) and form

Brilliant transference of polychrome technique

Images

SAINT MATTHEW FROM THE BOOK OF LINDISFARNE, C. 700, TEMPERA ON VELLUM, BRITISH LIBRARY,
LONDON
painted and inscribed by bishop Eadfrith of Lindisfarne

CHI-RHO-IOTA PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF KELLS, C. 800, INK ON VELLUM, TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY,
LONDON

Characteristics of Viking Art

Animal Head Post from the Oseberg Ship Burial, 834, wood, University of Oslo, Norway

INSPIRED BY Prehistoric models(animals)

Spirals in interlacing patterns

Applied; engraved or incised in functional objects

Animal style

Horror vacui

Images

Purse cover from Sutton hoo ship burial, 600-650, gold, garnet, enamels, british museum, london

Characteristics (Carolingian)

Art of Charlemagne and his times

First revival of Classical art (coins to architecture)

Churches –elaborate westworks

Sometimes accompanied by monastic buildings

Centralized entrance beneath a second story chapel

Flanked by impressive towers

With cloister (open-air courtyard) adjacent to the church

With murals and mosaics; manuscript painting; iconography

Images

Odo of Metz, Palatine Chapel, 792-805, Aachen, Germany

Built for Charlemagne

Characteristics (Ottonian art)

Influenced by Rome and Early Christian

Large stone monuments

Bronze doors

Common theme: interior arches and windows do not line up one atop the other

Images

Lorsch Gatehouse, c. 760, Lorsch, Germany

Three arched openings

Engaged columns

Fluted pilasters

Patternings on the wall

With chapel

Stood in an atrium

With turrets

Key ideas

Featured portable works in the animal style

Characterized by horror vacui and interlacing patterns

Art at the court of Charlemagne begins the first of many western European revivals of ancient Rome

Ottonian art revives large scale sculpture and architecture

Key Terms

Animal style – animals depicted in a stylized often complicated pattern, usually seen fighting with one
another

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

Codex(codices, pl.) – manuscript book

Horror vacui (“fear of empty spaces”) type of artwork in which the entire surface is filled with objects,
people, designs, and ornaments in crowded, sometimes congested way

Scriptorium (scriptoria, pl.)- place in a monastery where monks wrote manuscripts

Westwork – monumental entrance to a Carolingian church in which two towers flank a lower central
entrance