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| Greek, the “writing of images.” The term refers both to the content, or subject, of an artwork and to the study of content in art. It also includes the study of the symbolic, often religious, meaning of objects, persons, or events depicted in works of art. |
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| Islam’s sacred book, composed of surahs (chapters) divided into verses. |
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| Greek, “beautiful writing.” Handwriting or penmanship, especially elegant writing as a decorative art. |
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| A hall with a roof supported by columns. |
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| A portrait or image; especially in Byzantine art, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration. In the visual arts, a painting, a piece of sculpture, or even a building regarded as an object of veneration. |
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| An almond-shapednimbus surrounding the figure of Christ or other sacred figure. |
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| The destruction of images. In Byzantium, the period from 726 to 843 when there was an imperial ban on images. The destroyers of images were known as iconoclasts. Those who opposed such a ban were known as iconophiles or iconodules. |
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| A concave, triangular section of a hemisphere, four of which provide the transition from a square area to the circular base of a covering dome. Although pendentives appear to be hanging (pendant) from the dome, they in fact support it. |
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| An architectural device used as a transition from a square to a polygonal or circular base for a dome. It may be composed of lintels, corbels, or arches. |
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| In Roman architecture, a civic building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan with an entrance usually on a long side. In Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman basilica, usually entered from one end and with an apse at the other. |
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| In Early Christian art, the depiction of Old Testament persons and events as prophetic forerunners of Christ and New Testament events. |
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| Calfskin prepared as a surface for writing or painting. |
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| Lambskin prepared as a surface for painting or writing. |
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| Greek, “double theater.” A Roman building type resembling two Greek theaters put together. The Roman amphitheater featured a continuous elliptical cavea around a central arena. |
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| Subterranean networks of rock-cut galleries and chambers designed as cemeteries for the burial of the dead. |
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| A painting technique in which pigment is mixed with wax and applied to the surface while hot. |
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| The public square of an ancient Roman city. |
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| True to natural appearance. |
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| A building material invented by the Romans and consisting of various proportions of lime mortar, volcanic sand, water, and small stones. |
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| Separate pages of vellum or parchment bound together at one side; the predecessor of the modern book. The codex superseded the rotulus. In Mesoamerica, a painted and inscribed book on long sheets of bark paper or deerskin coated with fine white plaster and folded into accordion-like pleats. |
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| Designed the brass basin from Egypt inlaid with gold and silver, ca. 1300. |
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| one of the earliest forms of christogram. |
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| one of the earliest forms of christogram. Although not technically a Christian cross, the Chi-Rho invokes the crucifixion of Jesus, as well as symbolizing his status as the Christ. The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; |
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| (in the Orthodox Church) The passing of the Virgin Mary from earthly life |
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| Visual illusion in art, esp. as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object |
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| the roman social class that included small farmers, merchants, and freed slaves. Well, a similar undercurrent of street art existed in Rome also, evident in minor works such as tombstones or small clay works and eventually in the growing number of wall paintings in catacombs and in the Christian art of the early middle ages. not the highest quality or taste |
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| An ancient Roman professional fighter, usually a slave, who competed in an amphitheater |
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| (aerial) creates illusion of distance by the greater diminution of color intensity, the shift in color toward an almost neutral blue, and the blurring of contours as the intended distance between eye and object increases |
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| the parts of the structure are of of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center of a city or town |
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| reddish/purple style; expensive rare. not individualized, hugging and holding hands. |
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| built these to carry water from mountain sources to their city. (Pont-du-Gard) , water flow from gravity, which required channels built with continuous gradual decline over entire route |
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Arringatore (Aule Metele), Cortona, Republic
-Etruscan portrait (in name only)
-raising arm to address assembly
-bronze
-proves Etruscan artists continued to be experts at bronze-casting long after their prosperity
-name, and name of father and mother inscribed on hem of toga
-head, closed cropped hair and signs of age resembles portraits produced in Rome at same time |
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Sanctuary of Fortuna, Palestrina, Republic
-most impressive and innovated use of concrete during republic era
-goddess of good fortune
-spread out over several terraces leading up the hillside to a tholos at the peak of an ascending triangle
-tholos temple crowned complex
-the layout reflects the new republican familiarity with the terraced sanctuaries of the Hellenistic East
-used concrete barrel vaults to support terrace |
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Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Republic
-Second Style (did not aim to create illusion of an elegant marble wall, dissolve a room’s confining walls and replaced with illusion of an imagery 3D world)
-this chamber used to celebrate, in private, the rites of the Greek god Dionysos
-Dionysos, focus of unofficial mystery religion popular among women
-backdrop : life size figures is a serious of painted panels imitating marble revetment
-illusion of shallow ledge where humans move around room |
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House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Early Empire
-late Fourth Style: garished colored, crowded, and confused compositions with a mixture of architectural views framed mythological panels, and first and third style motifs
-4th style: are the fragmentary architectural vistas of the central and upper zones of the walls. They are unrelated to one another, do not constitute a unified cityscape beyond the wall, and the figures depicted would tumble into the room if they took a single step forward
-many art historians believe the lost Greek panel paintings were the models for the many mythological paintings on Third and Fourth Style walls |
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Augustus, Primaporta, Early Empire
-depicts him as a never-aging god
-presents the emperor in armor in his role as general
-details of the statue carry political messages
-reliefs on on his cuirass advertise an important diplomatic victory-the return of the Roman military standards the Parthians had captured from a Republican general-and the Cupid at Augustus’s feet proclaims his divine his divine decent |
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Ara Pacis of Augustus, Rome, Early Empire
-monument celebrating the most signficant achievement - establishment of peace
-4 panels on east and west ends depict carefully selected mythological subjects, including a relief of Aeneas making a sacrifice.
-the connection between the emperor and Aeneas was a key element of Augustus’s political ideology for his new Golden Age. |
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Golden House of Nero, Rome, Early Empire
-architects illuminated this octagonal room by placing an oculus in its concrete dome, and ingeniously lit the rooms around it by leaving spaces between their vaults and the dome’s exterior
-rooms with frescos in 4th style
-earliest known groin vaults
-1st time architects appear to have though of the walls and vaults not as limiting space but as shaping it |
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“Colosseum”/ Flavian Amphitheater, Rome, Early Empire
-One of Vespasian’s first undertakings after becoming emperor
-provided Romans with the largest arena for gladiatorial combats and other lavish spectacles ever constructed.
-built with concrete
-barrel vaulted corridors
-waiting rooms for gladiators, animals and humans
-Mix of Roman arches and Greek Columns |
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Arch of Titus, Rome, Early Empire
-Domitian built this arch on the road leading into the Roman Forum to honor his brother, the emperor Titus, who became a god after his death. Victories fill the spandrels of the arcuated (curved or arched opening) passageway
-capitals : combination of Ionic volutes and Corinthian acanthus leaves
-reliefs depicting personified Victories fill the spandrels (the area between the arch’s curve and the framing columns and entablature) |
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Column of Trajan, Rome, High Empire
-128ft column once had a nude statue of the emperor at the top
-tall pedestal, decorated with captured Dacian arms and armor served as trajan’s tomb
-625-foot band of winding around the column to illustrate a scroll - recounting Trajan’s two successful campaigns against the Dacians in more than 150 episodes - widens as reaches top to make easier to see
-not chronological of the Dacian wars
-depicted Trajan addressing his troops, sacrificing to the gods and so on-filled most of frieze |
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Pantheon of Hadrian, Rome, High Empire
-temple of all gods, one of the best preserved buildings of antiquity
-been one of the most influential designs in architectural history
-used varied composition of concrete for the dome level by level
-use of coffers (sunken decorative panels) lessened the dome’s weight without weakening its structure
-feeling of enclosement without imprisoning people |
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Base of Antoninus Pius, Rome High Empire
-This representation of the joint apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and Faustina is firmly in the Classical tradition with its elegant, well-proportioned figures, personifications, and single ground line
-On adjacent side are two identical representations of the decursio or ritual circling of the imperial funerary pyre. The ground is the whole surface of the relief, and the figures stand on floating patches of earth.
-memorial column |
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Marcus Aurelius, Rome, High Empire
-body is bigger than normal in relation to the horse
-armed stretched out in a gesture of clemency
-rare example of imperial equestrian, portrait
-expresses the roman emperor’s majesty and authority
-first of statues in which roman emperor appeared weary, saddened, and even worried |
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Mummy Portrait, Faiyum, Egypt, High Empire
-Egyptians continued to bury their dead in mummy cases, but painted portraits replaced the traditional masks. The painting medium in encaustic-colors mixed with hot wax
-curly hair and beard closely emulate the Antonine fashion in Rome, but the corkscrew curls of the hair on the forehead are distinctive to images of Serapis and his followers. |
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Severan Family, Faiyum, Egypt, Late Empire
-only known painted portrait of an emperor shows Septimus Severus with gray hair. With him are his wike, Julia Domna, and their two sons, but Geta’s head was removed after his damnatio memoriae
-erasure of Geta’s face
-When Caracala succeeded his father as emperor, he had his younger brother murdered and ordered the Senate to damn Geta’s memory
-testimony to the long arm of Roman authority, which reached all the way to Egypt |
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Caracalla, Late Empire
-more remarkable is the moving characterization of Caracalla’s personality, a further development from groundbreaking introspection of the portraits of Marcus Aurelius
-brow knotted, and abruptly turns head over his shoulder
-suggest to show energy and strength, but appears to viewer he suspects danger behind |
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Tetrarchs, Venice, Late Empire
-sought to represent the nature of the tetrarchy itself, portray the four equal partners in power
-in the two pairs of porphyry (purple marble) tetrarchic portraits, it is impossible to name the rulers
-each of the 4 emperors has lost his identity as an individual and been subsumed into the larger entity of the tetrarchy
-all identical in cuirass and cloak, and grasp a sheathed sword in his left hand
-right arms they embrace one another in an overt display of concord
-drapery is schematic, bodies shapeless, and faces are emotionless masks, distinguished only by beards of the two of the tetrarchs
-iconic terms |
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Arch of Constantine, Rome Late Empire
-a lot of reused sculptures from the architectural elements date to an earlier era
-were carefully selected to associate Constantine with the “good emperors” of the second century
-much came from the monuments of Hajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius
-recut the heads of the earlier emperors to substitute Constantine’s features |
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Colossus of Constantine, Rome, Late Empire
-portrait revive the Augustan image of an eternally youthful ruler. This colossal head is one fragment of an ethroned Jupiter-like statue of the emperor holding the orb of the world (symboling global power)
-8 1/2 ft tall head
-official portraits broke with tetrarchic tradition as well with the style of the soldier emperors
-frontal mask with enormous eyes set into the broad and simple planes of the head
-personality is lost in this immense image of eternal authority
-symbol of absolute ruler |
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Catacomb of Saint Peter and Marcellinus, Rome Early Christian
-this ceiling in a Roman catacomb is similar in format to the painted vaults of some Ostian apartment houses, but the subjects come from the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament
-contain key episodes from the biblical story of Jonah
-sailors throw him from ship and emerges on the right from the “whale” (sea dragon)
-jonah contemplates the miracle of his salvation and the mercy of God
-honored him as a prefiguration (prophet forerunner) of Christ
-a man woman and child occupy the compartments between the Jonah lunettes making up a cross-section of the Christian family seeking a heavenly afterlife |
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Santa Costanza, Rome, Constantine, Early Christian
-central-plan building: the parts are of equal are almost equal dimensions around the center
-possibly the mausoleum for Constantina
-mausoleum later converted to a church
-architect modified the interior design of those Roman buildings to accommodate and ambulatory- ringlike barrel-vaulted corridor separated from the central domed cylinder by a dozen pairs of columns
-interior: richly adorned mosaics-old and new testament themed |
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Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Honorius, Early Christian
-Jesus sits among his flock, haloed and robed in gold and purple. The landscape and the figures, with their cast shadows, are the work of a mosaicist still rooted in the naturalistic classical tradition
-Christ as a good shepherd, arrangement loose and informal |
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Rebecca at the Well, Vienna Genesis, Early Christian
-the oldest well preserved painted manuscript containing biblical scenes
-pages are fine calfskin dyed with rich purple
-leaves city of Nahor to fetch water from the well
-in a illuminated book (very expensive) |
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Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Justinian, Early Byzantine
-Justinian’s reign was the first golden age of Byzantine art and architecture
-was most magnificent of the more 30 churches Justinian built or restored in Constantinople alone
-succeeded in fusing two previously independent architectural traditions: the vertically oriented central-plan and the longitudinally oriented basilica
-pendentive construction made it possible for lofty dome, which seems to ride on a halo of light “golden chain of heaven”
-grandest buildings and one of the supreme accomplishments of world architecture |
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San Vitale, Ravenna, Justinian, Early Byzantine
-greatest shrine
-not a basilica
-centrally planned
-features a dome-covered clerestory-lit central space defined by piers alternating with curved, columned exedrae, creating an intricate eight-leafed plan
-off angle narthex
-octogonal dome
-apse vault -christ seated on the orb of the world of second coming
-the most distinctive elements of the mosaic program of san vitale are the facing panels in the choir depicting Justinian and Theodora |
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Transfiguration, Mt. Sinai, Justinian, Early Byzantine
-swept away all traces of landscape for a depthless field of gold.
-the prophets and disciples cast no shadows even though bathed in divine light
-stresses the intense whiteness of Jesus’ transfigured, spiritualized form, frmo which rays stream down
-world of mystical vision
-sutracted all substance that might suggest the passage of time or motion through physical space |
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Virgin and Child icon, Mt Sinai, Justinian, Early Byzantine
-icon: play important role in monastic religious life
-representation of theotokos
-encaustic on wood
-byzantine icons are the heirs to the roman tradition of portrait painting on small wood panels, but their christian subjects and function as devotional objects broke sharply from classical models
-small portable paintings depicting christ, the virgin, or saints
-not universally accepted
-purpose was only to evoke the presence of the holy figures addressed in prayer |
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Church of the Dormition, Daphni, Middle Byzantine
-latin for “sleep” referring to the ascension of Mary into heaven at the moment of her death
-daphni dome rests on an octagon formed by squinches
-creates a mystery out of space, surface, light, and dark
-high and narrow forces eyes to move up
-aimed for the creation of complex interior spaces with dramatically shifting perspective
-daphni Crucifiction is a subtle blend of hellenistic and the more abstract Byzantine manner. The Virgin mary and saint jon point on the cross as if to a devotional object |
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Harrowing of Hell, Church of Christ in Chora, Istanbul, Late Byzantine
-portraying the themes of human mortality and redemption of Christ and of the intercession of the Virgin
-christ trampling satan and all the locks and keys of his prison house of hell
-Christ reaches out to adam and eve out of their tombs as john the baptist and kings david and solomon look on
-drew images from a persistent and conventionalized vision of a spiritual world unsusceptible to change |
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dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Islamic
-first great islamic building
-architectural tribute to the triumph of Islam
-marked the coming of the new religion to the city that had been sacred to Jews and Christians
-the shrine takes the form of an octagon with a towering dome
-site acquired additional significance as the the spot where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac |
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Great Mosque, Cordoba, Islamic
-capital of the Spanish Umayyad dynasty
-hypostyle prayer hall, 36 piers and 514 columns support and unique series of double-tiered horseshoe-shaped arches
-lower arches contribute to the light and airy effect of the Cordoba mosques interior
-dome: rests on an octogonal based of arcuated squinches. Criss crossing ribs for an intricate decorative pattern |
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Lion Court, Alhambra palace, Granada, Islamic
-takes name from fountain in courtyard, a rare islamic ex of a stone sculpture
-interwoven abstract ornamentation and arabic calligraphy cover the stucco walls
-12 marble lions carrying water basins on their backs
-unusual instance of freestanding stone sculpture in the islamic world
-many multilobed pointed arches and lavish stuccoed walls
-conjured image of paradise |
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