ARTH 101 Final Exam ID
Sutton Hoo Ship Burial /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
(England, Anglo-Saxon), ca. 600-650: Shoulder clasp (one of a pair), gold with granulation and with inlays of garnet and (imported) millefiore checkerboard glass. L. 12.7 cm. (British Museum url, Notes.) Stokstad fig. 15.4. The garnet and glass cells of inlay are laid over gold foil. Stylized boars decorate the clasp ends. (Khan Academy url, Notes.)
Nicholas of Verdun and atelier, Reliquary of the Three Kings, Cologne Cathedral (Germany) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
(Germany), c.1190-c. 1205/1210. 1.73 x 1.83 x 1.12 m. Silver and gilded bronze with enamel and gemstones. Stokstad fig. 17.32. The Three Magi and Virgin, at Bethlehem, are on the lower front, and the Baptism of Christ, with Christ in majesty above; prophets (below) and apostles above) fill the side arcades. Nicholas was one of the leading metalworkers of N. Europe ca. 1200, with other works in Austria and France that have signatures. This is the largest extant Medieval shrine. It held relics of the Three Kings. King Otto III (r. 1298-1218), as benefactor, follows the Three Kings. The back end is slightly later than the front
Ebbo Gospels, St. Matthew the Evangelist, opening the Gospel of Matthew /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
(`author page'), ca. 825-850 (Carolingian). 26 x 22.2 cm. Stokstad fig. 15.21. (URL for the scanned manuscript, Notes.)
Incense burner in the form of a mountain (boshanlu), Tomb of Prince Liu Sheng / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
(d. 113 BCE) at Mancheng, Hand Dynasty, ht 26 cm. Bronze with gold inlay. Stokstad fig. 11.8. It is the most elaborate such incense burner extant. The hills of the lid raise from ocean waves that swirl around the bowl and foot, seamed by deep ravines; animals climb or peer from the rocky forms, in which are concealed the apertures for incense smoke to emerge like mountain clouds. The burner evokes the mountain of immortality in Taoist belief, at the mythical, and much sought-for, Isles of Penglai off the east coast, paradise for special soulds halfway to the stars.
Santiago de Compostela, Church of St. James / ROMANESQUE
1078-1122: pilgrimage routes. Marked are Spanish sites we study. Interior view of the nave to the choir, and cross-shaped plan, Stokstad fig. 16.4-5. The spectacular choir and apse installations you see at the back are many centuries later, as is the current exterior west façade. It is the largest Romanesque church in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.
Chalice of Abbot Suger of Sant Denis / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
1137-1140 mounting for an ancient Roman sardonyx cup, The mounting was silver gilt, set with gems and pearls (those you see are modern replacements). Ht. 18.4 cm. One of the base's discs survives intact, showing a Byzantine Christ Pantokrator type, with Alpha and Omega. Modern work altered the foot profile too. (National Gallery of Art url, Notes.) Suger wrote about it, praising the patterned stone (`the sard's red hue, by varying its property, so keenly vies with the blackness of the onyx that one property seems to be bent on trespassing on the other'. ) The chalice shape, and mix of stone and metal, are influenced by Byzantine prototypes. Compare Abbot Suger's fascination with accounts of the liturigical vessels of Hagia Sophia and other churches in Constantinople, in your primary text handout, told to him by French travelers who came to Byzantium in connection with the First Crusade in 1096 and after.
Ajanta Caves, wall-paintings of Cave 1 showing a Bodhisattva / SOUTH ASIA
All of the caves at Ajanta fall into the category of Vihara (monasteries with residence halls), or Chaitya-grihas (sanctuaries/stupa monument halls). Cave 1 is a monastery cave (vihara). Your detail helps frame the portal with its view to the rock-cut seated Buddha at the back. It is a detail of a tale from the Jataka (life of Buddha) You see on plan the main hall surrounded by 4 aisles behind rock-cut pillars, with small cubicles opening off the 4 aisles. The twenty painted and carved pillars are surmounted by reliefs with tales from the life of the Buddha (Jataka). The ceiling panels are also carved and painted. Your detail comes from a large crowded set of episodes of one tale, distinguished by schematic spatial arrangements and hierarchical scale, using architectural settings.
Reims Cathedral of Notre-Dame view of the west façade / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
Begun 1211, with work far into the 13th c. under five successive master masons, and additions into the 15th c. Observe how façade work proceeded in stages, moving upwards. Rebuilding starts 1211, with façade to the height of the rose window executed c. 1225-1260, and the upper portion with gallery of the kings of France finished for a coronation in 1286; towers left unfinished 1311; additions, 15th c. Architectural innovations included `bar tracery', in which thin stone bars (mullions) were inserted into the wall to make a lacy framework for the stained glass, permitting larger areas of stained glass relative to the walls by contrast to the old system (Chartres) of plate tracery.
Modena Cathedral / ROMANESQUE
Building begun ca. 1099: the portal reliefs by Wiligelmo date to this phase. An inscription reads, over the date of the foundation, `How greatly you are respected among sculptors, Wiligelmo, shows in your work.' These are the first extant large-scale stone sculptures in Italy in the post-Roman period. The arrow marks Stokstad fig. 16.20, the Creation and Fall of Humans (Genesis). Below is the tabula where two Old Testament prophets hold the inscription.
Margrave Ekkehard and his wife Uta, Naumburg (Germany) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
Cathedral (Germany) west chapel, c. 1245-1260. ht ca. 1.88 m (lifesized), painted stone. Stokstad fig. 17.34. > Two of a set of 12 ancestors put up by Bishop Dietrich II of Wettin for this family funerary chapel.
Chartes Chathedral (Notre-Dame) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
Chartres Cathedral (Notre-Dame),c. 1134-1260, west façade, begun c. 1134, with Royal Portal. (The north tower, left, is 16th c.) Stokstad fig. 17.4, and plan 17.8.
The Abbey Church of St. Denis / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
Choir, 1140-44, Abbot Suger's additions to the church, along with a new west front: plan, and view of choir, Stokstad fig. 17.2.
Gospels of Otto III /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
Christ washing the feet of his disciples, ca. 1000 CE, made at a Benedictine monastery. (fol. 27r; 33.5 x 24.2 cm) Stokstad fig. 15.29. (Khan Academy url, Notes.) (Otto III: 980-1002, accession in 983, under his mother's regency)
Basilica of San Clemente, Rome / ROMANESQUE
Consecrated in 1128 on the site of an older church, int. view to apse, Stokstad fig, 16.11: you see the spoliated Roman Ionic columns, and the choir fenced with re-used 9th-c. panels, now inlaid. The lavish inlays are in the style and technique called `Cosmatesque' inlay. The marble veneers of the lower apse are Romanesque too . Ceiling and upper wall ornaments are much later; the painted saints in the lower apse are later as well. The apse mosaics were the first great apse mosaics at Rome in ca. 200 years,
Taull, Church of St. Climent (Catalunya, Spain) / ROMANESQUE
Consectated in 1123, painted apse, detail: Christ in majesty. (Now removed to a museum). Stokstad fig. 16.15. Angels frame him: the symbols of the 4 Evangelists rise at his feet; saints pray on the lower wall in an arcade. Alpha and Omega flank him; his open book proclaims `I am the light of the world'.
Ummayad Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Cordoba (Spain), the Ummayad Great Mosque: the city was the capital of the transplanted Ummayad dynasty in Iberia, 756-1031. The Great Mosque was begun in 785 on the site of a Visigothic Christian church, and three times expanded. After the Spanish Christian Reconquista 1236, it was reconsecrated as a cathedral; you can see the Renaissance later church from above in this aerial shot.
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 1000 CE, Chandella Dynasty One of a cluster of 80 temples in a very large sanctuary complex at the royal sanctuary, built under royal patronage * Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, relief det. 'Erotic Scenes' Date: 1000 CE Framed by images of gods, set in the juncture of walls at the innermost mandapa and the garbhagriha (inner sanctum)
Han Dynasty: the tomb of the emperor's son Prince Liu Sheng / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 113 BCE Location: Mancheng Beside the tomb of his consort, containing over 2700 burial objects, including silk, jade, bronze and precious metals, etc, as well as pottery vessels and bronze vessels (the world of the banquet and ritual); real chariots and horses were also included. This cutaway shows you the layout of the tomb chambers, which included a pavilion with two thrones, for the deceased couple. The sarcophagus contained his body in its jade suit (used for royal Han burials and noted in Han texts). The object we study is a boshanlu, a bronze mountain-ornamented incense burner, of a type found in other Han Dynasty tombs. This one stood in a recess in the inner burial chamber. A similar but less ornate one accompanied Liu Sheng's wife in the neighboring tomb.
Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 11th c. CE Location: South India, Chola dynasty The ring of fire and the tongue of flame he holds in his left hand refer to the destruction of the universe, samsara and maya; the drum in his raised right hand refers to the relentless beat of time and rhythms of being/ not-being, as it cycles forward. His lower right hand, held up with the palm facing out, signals to his devotees not to be afraid of the impending destruction; they can be liberated from the cycles of birth and death through devotion to him With every step in his dance, he lands on a dwarfish figure personifying ignorance or becoming. The front right arm and raised foot gesture to liberation. Royal devotion to the Shiva cult, with Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi as a major donor of temple building and bronze casting, associated with this type of Shiva image. Portable, it can have been meant to be carried in religious procession, clothed and garlanded with flowers, and candles lit for devotions.
Shang bronze ritual covered vessel, a guang for pouring wine (with tiger-owl decor) / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 13th c. BCE During the late Shang period (14th-11th century BCE), animal-shaped vessels began to be cast, perhaps in response to zoomorphic bronzes introduced from southern China. The guang wine vessel displayed here is a magnificent example — it cleverly incorporates a tiger at the front of the vessel and an owl at the back handle; the animals' heads are represented on the lid and their more subtly rendered bodies are on the vessel.
Korea, Goryeo Dynasty hanging scroll: Seated Willow-Branch Guanse'eum Bosal (the Chinese Guanyin, the Boddhisattva Avalokiteshvara of Compassion). Also called the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara. / TANG CHINA
Date: 14th century (Goryeo Dynasty 918-1392) Ink, color and gold pigment on silk. Pigment was applied both to the back and the front of the silk for enhanced luminosity. The Boddhisattva sits on her rocky islet, by the sea, foot on a lotus, with a tiny boy-pilgrim, Sudhana (Korean: Seonjae dongja) at lower left; his encounter with this deity, as recounted in the Avatamsaka (Flower Adornment) Sutra, provides the textual source for the scroll. The Water-moon Avalokiteshvara (Korean: Suwol gwaneum) is an iconographic type that was popular in Korea during the Goryeo period. Shown in a nimbus of the moon's light, contemplating its reflection, she was worshipped for her ability to prevent calamities and diseases and to safeguard travelers on their journey.
The Houmwu Fang Ding / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 16th-11 c. BCE Location: Northeast China The largest Shang ding extant, weighing ca 2000 lbs (832.84 kg), from the royal tombs near Yin, Anfang. From the largest tomb in the complex, which contained over 400 bronzes, commissioned by a king for his mother, a royal consort (inscription inside names her, `Queen Mother Wu'). The top and bottom of the body bears an animal face design with a coiled tail; there are animal faces and one-legged dragon designs on the four edges with a base design of clouds and thunder. The design on the outer part of the handles shows two facing tigers with a human head in their mouths, with fish on the edges. The upper part of the feet bear an animal face, with a three-cord design below.
tomb model of a house and tower, painted ceramic / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 1st-mid 2nd c. CE. Note the garden motifs (landscape with birds and trees) painted on the lowest story. During the Han dynasty, the aristocracy lived on great estates centered on palatial mansions incorporating multi-story wooden towers. The towers were both defensive-many of the models include archers- and also designed to impress as prestigious architecture, with tiled roofs and overhanging eaves supported by elaborate brackets often mentioned in poems of the period. Beautifully painted designs on the doors and sides of this house suggest that perhaps real houses of this time were also similarly decorated. A figure seated on this tower probably represents the owner. Han tomb architectural models: many different types of buildings were created for Han tombs, and great variety occurs among the walled compounds with gates, watchtowers, storage buildings, living spaces. and inner courtyards.'
Chaitya Hall, Karle Caves / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 1st. BCE-CE Rock Cut sanctuary: lion pillar and shrine entrance
Lion Pillar of Maurya Emperor Ashoka / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 279-232 BCE Location: Kutagarasala Vihara, Buddhist monastery near Vaishali The Kutagarasala Vihara monastery was visited by Gautama Buddha, set a few kilometers from the ancient city of Vaishali where he trained, was active, and preached his last sermon before his death in 483 BCE
Lion Capital, from pillar monument of Ashoka / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 279-232 BCE Location: Sarnath Four lions on a drum carved with wheel motifs and pacing animals at the cardinal points (bull, elephant, horse lion), atop a reverse-bell lotus capital. Polished red sandstone. It may have been crowned by a symbolic wheel: Buddha's sermon as 'wheel or law'; the 'wheel of Samsara': the chariot wheels of a universal king. Cf. Buddha's teaching as 'The lion's roar'.
King Kanishka, head of the Kushan Empire, from the area of Uttar Pradesh, sandstone portrait clasping sword and club / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 2nd-3rd CE Now headless, the image was life-sized. The stylized posture with out-turned feet and rigidly flared tunic and belted robe is a real or expressionistic posture of the Kushan kings known from their coinage. The image is inscribed across the robe: 'great king, king of kings'. Pearls edge his robe. Ruler portrait statues, and ruler portrait coins, were taken up by the Kushan kings from Iranian (Parthian) and Roman practices.
Standing Buddha, Gandhara / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 2nd-3rd CE, Pakistan (Kushan Period) Buddha appears fully draped in priestly robes, gesturing 'have no fear' as a preaching monk, on a base with rosettes, the upper relief background broken away.
Sanchi, Stupa 1 ('Great Stupa') / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 3rd c. BCE (Ashokan) The very early stupas contained some of the ashes of Buddha's cremated remains, and early extant Buddhist texts say he gave directions his ashes in stupa. Ashoka, the first Buddhist king, built stupas all over his empire, to assist (as Buddha directed for multiplying stupas) the faithful everywhere to worship even if they could not reach the famous sites associated with the Buddha's life and death. * Sachi, Great Stupa, east torana gate 'The Great Departure' relief * Sanchi, Great Stupa, east torana gate
Sigiriya, palatial citadel, remains of the 5th c. phase / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 477 - 495 CE (during King Kassapa's reign) Location: Sri Lanka Sigiriya was developed into a complex city and fortress .) Much of the western face of the rock was painted, especially with female beings. Detail, Stokstad fig. 10.22, identifying them as apsaras, `heavenly maidens'. They are shown amidst drifting clouds bringing blossoms on a ritual or festal occasion. See lower left for an expanded detail showing their setting among groups of more female beings, assembling and conversing, and bringing flowers, disposed over the ground of the wall. In Hindu and Buddhist art and belief, apsaras are countless spirits of water and cloud who inhabit the heavenly court as celestial singers and dancers for gods and heroes, described eg in Hindu scriptural texts and ancient drama and epic, often named
'Vishnu on the Cosmic Waters' / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 530 CE Resting after the creation of the world, tended and accompanied by other deities, shaded by a seven-headed serpent of infinity, dreaming the world into being; time and space (Brahma) arises from the lotus springing from his navel.. Stokstad fig. 10.17. Below the epiphanic vista is a row of five male and one female protagonists of the epic Mahabharata OR Vishnu's four attributes facing off against demonic forces.
Temple of Vishnu at Deoghar / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 530 CE, Gupta Dynasty The shrine shikhara had on each side of the lower story a large relief panel. Each drew an important myth in the theology of Vishnu. A pilgrim could enter the precinct on all four sides. This is one of the earliest extant Hindu stone temples. At each corner of its platform upon a projection rose a subsidiary shrine. The temple faces west, with a slight deviation to the south calculated to let the setting sun fall upon the idol within. The shikhara is symbolically a mountain, the chamber within it, a sacred cave; the site is patterned on a mandala.
Altar to Amitabha Buddha, bronze / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 593 CE, Sui Dynasty Boddhisattvas, disciples beside them, flank the Buddha in meditation gesturing `have no fear,' haloed by flame, who rises from a lotus, under a leafy tree with jeweled clusters, adorned with pearls, atop whose foliage sit 7 celestial beings. This is an image of the Western Pure Land paradise, into which Pure Land sect followers could be reborn. Lions and bodhisattvas flank the miniature incense burner at front. The worshippers bring offerings and chant from a scroll.
Bamiyan, standing colossal rock-cut Buddha / SOUTH ASIA
Date: 5th c. CE Location: Afghanistan Inner stairs gave entry to a path of circumambulation at the Buddha's head. The Bamiyan Buddhas are noted in a Chinese pilgrim text of the 7th c CE. This image was destroyed by the Taliban as a false idol inimical to Islam. Stokstad fig. 10.20. You see Buddhist cave-chamber openings.
`Admonitions of the Imperial Instructress to Court Ladies,' handscroll attributed to Gu Kaizhi / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: 5th-8th CE replica, Six Dynasties Period or after Ink and colors on silk. Detail: Lady Feng and the bear, from which (38 BCE) she defends her consort the emperor (rt), when it escapes from a cage during entertainment by a wild beast show. Two other harem ladies run in shock behind him; guards lunge with spears beside Lady Feng. Poem: When a black bear climbed out of its cage, Lady Feng rushed forward.How could she have been without fear? She knew she might be killed, yet she did not care. The scroll was painted to illustrate a poetic text of 292 CE by a court poet (Zhang Hua, 232-300) for presentation to a scandalous empress, aimed at the ladies of the court. It remained a later imperial possession (you see owner seals). We now believe it a 5th-8th c. CE object that might be a copy of an older original painted by Gu Kaizhi (c. 345-406) painted 1 or more centuries prior. It is one of the earliest extant Chinese handscrolls.
Imperial warhorse reliefs from the Mausoleum (`Zhao Mausoleum') of Emperor Taizong at Mount Jiuzong, which site he selected in 626 CE. / TANG CHINA
Date: 636-49 CE He ordered images of his sic favorite warhorses carved in stone, with his laudatory poems for each one. Six stone reliefs were removed in the early 20th c.: 4 are in China, two in the Penn Museum. Here they are: note how they are shown bravely sustaining wounds. They framed a `spirit path' to the tomb. C 395, above Saluzi, meaning 'Autumn Dew' or 'Whirlwind Victory,' was ridden by Tang Taizong before he became emperor, during the siege of the eastern capital Luoyang in 621CE. At a critical moment, when Taizong alone was pursued by the enemy, Saluzi was pierced by an arrow in the chest. General Qiu Xinggong came to rescue Taizong out of peril and gave him his own horse. Recalling this event when it came time to build his mausoleum, Emperor Taizong, ordered the scene of the General pulling the arrow out of Saluzi to be rendered in stone. The horse is shown stoically bearing the pain before expiring. The only one of the six reliefs with a human, Saluzi was originally placed first on the west side of the "spirit path," leader of the other five horse reliefs. C 396, below Quanmaoqua, or "saffron-yellow horse with a wavy coat of hair," sometimes translated "Curly," was ridden by Tang Taizong before he became emperor in the battle against a contender in Hebei Province in 622 CE. The horse is shown walking briskly with good spirit, despite grievous wounds sustained from nine arrows, six in front and three in back.
Tang Dynasty Buddhist temple / TANG CHINA
Date: 652 CE 5 stories, rammed earth with brick facings, rebuilt in 704, with 5 extra stories added after it collapsed. After further damage from earthquake (1556) it was reduced to the current 7 stories. .It is part of a large temple compound, and was built to house what monk-pilgrim Xuanzang, now abbot, brought back from India - sutras (sacred texts, in Sanskrit) and Buddha relics and images.His team of translators then produced translations on an enormous scale. Surfaces are treated to translate the elements of wooden architecture.
Tang Dynasty, ceramic tomb sculptures / TANG CHINA
Date: 700-750 CE With mold-made elements, and cold-painted pigment on white ground: two equestrian figures, one male in a lofty headdress (left, ht 37 cm) and one female (right).
Tang Dynasty, Dunhuang, Mogao Caves, detail of wall-paintings in Cave 217 / TANG CHINA
Date: 750 CE The Western Paradise of Amitabha Buddha. This is just one wall of a completely painted shrine set up by an elite family from Dunhuang. Portraits of two of them were painted at the cave. This is a detail of the North wall.
Tang Dynasty: Nanchan Temple, Wutaishan / TANG CHINA
Date: 782 CE The Buddhist temple is the oldest wooden building extant in China, renovated in the 11th century. The three-bay, nearly square hall is supported by 12 pillars set into the brick foundation, with elaborate brackets supporting the external eaves of the tiled roof. Curvilinear ridgepole elements on the roof complement its gentle curve.
Tang Dynasty, ceramic tomb sculpture with sancai (three-color) glazes, from near Xi'an / TANG CHINA
Date: 8th century CE Sogdian musical performers atop a camel, perched on a fine large rug. Their dress is readily identifiable. Sogdian merchants dominated the Silk Road trade in this period and there were merchant communities within Chinese cities; they also supplied admired entertainers, who played, sang and danced. The tomb was for a general, in the Chang'an suburb, dated 723. The mold-made figurine was constructed in several sections, with a hollow body to reduce weight. This sancai figure actually has 4 colors: the cobalt blue was a very expensive pigment, high-status.
Yungang Buddhist caves, Datong: seated Buddha, Cave 20. / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: Northern Wei Dynasty, ca. 460 CE. Rock-cut cave and reliefs, of Buddha in meditation, attended by a smaller Buddha, and miniature Buddhas and Bodhisattvas flying around him; the cave mouth is partly broken away. Datong (Pinjeng) was a capital for the Northern Wei dynasts. The cave site has 51 major caves, and tens of thousands of minor caves, cut into the cliffs in the 5th-6th c. This cave is in the first 5th-c. phase, with royal patronage of the cave shrines.
Banner from the Tomb of the Marquess Dai, at Mawangdui / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: c. 160 BCE, Han Dynasty Lady Dai was buried in nested coffins at the base of a deep tomb shaft; her tomb was beside that of her husband and their son, a family assemblage. The banner was laid like a robe over the topmost coffin. Its function like that of other tomb `banners' is debated - it could be a `name banner', with its image of Lady Dai, used to identify the dead in mourning ceremonies, or a shroud intended to aid the soul in its passage to the afterlife (Kh.Ac.) The silk is painted in multiple registers, and expresses Taoist beliefs in the passage of the soul, aided by ritual, from the underworld to a heave.
The Mausoleum of Emperor Shihuangdi at Lintong / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: c. 210 BCE (begun in 246), founder of the Qin Dynasty: its terracotta armies. The thousands of warriors wear precisely delineated costumes corresponding to rank and military role. In the subterranean vast funerary chamber complex they were arranged in rows like armies assembled for parade or for battle. After chance discovery revealed the presence of the tomb statues, excavations uncovered three burial pits of over 200, 000 square m, with nearly 8,000 terracotta statues. This museum display musters selected representative figures. The statues were made in modules using molds, with clay applied to the surfaces after assemblage so sculptors could model faces and coiffures by hand. Over 80 stamped and engraved workshop or craftsmen's names hint at a large number of workshops. Bright paint was applied after firing in pigment over lacquer.
Wu Family Shrines at Jiaxiang, Han Dynasty, pictorial stones: rubbing of relief with palace scenes, procession, fable, and scholarly conversation / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: ca. 150 CE. Below, horse-drawn carriages and riders with banners process right to left; center, much of the scene is set at a palace wherr courtier-officials do homage to a seated emperor, and in a second story or other room the empress sits with her ladies; center-left = the legend of Archer Yi shooting the sun-birds in the mulberry tree (world-tree) to create our world that has only one sun; top left, scholars converse with one another, the host at right holding an open scroll; on the palace roof, two phoenixes face one another on axis with the rulers below them.
Fan Kuan, `Travelers among mountains and streams' / TANG CHINA
Date: early 11th c., Northern Song Dynasty, Hanging scroll with ink and colors on silk. The clusters of vegetation at the top of the tall mountain here are actually distant forests clinging to precarious perches. Running along the central axis of the scroll, the central mountain dominates the scene in a classic example of Northern Song monumental landscape painting. The rooftops of a building complex stand out in the right middle-ground. By the cluster of rocks in the right foreground is a path on which a mule train makes its way. A cascade as slender as silk falls from the heights above, culminating in the stream rushing down in eddies towards the foreground. From near to far, Fan Kuan has described with realistic detail the solemn grandeur of a majestic landscape. Fan Kuan rendered the mountains and slopes with jagged outline strokes and filled them with brush dabs like raindrops - techniques that highlight the monumental and eternal features of the mountains. To the right of the mule train, among the leaves, is the signature of Fan Kuan, a final touch by an artist to epitomize the insignificance of humans (including himself) compared to Nature.
Zhang Zeduan, `Peace reigns along the river' / TANG CHINA
Date: late 11th-early 12th c., Northern Song Dynasty Handscroll with ink and colors on silk, section. 24.8 x 2.28 m. Stokstad fig. 11.24. (Notes: url for the wiki source of the entire scroll image (`Along the River during the Qingming Festival'?).) The scene winds (right to left) from a rural riverine landscape into the heart of a thriving city. The bird's-eye point of view has a long, rich tradition in Chinese vistas of natural and man-made environments.
Kushan Empire: 'Mathura Style' Buddha and Attendants in the forest, Keshavdev, Mathura (India) / SOUTH ASIA
Date: late 1st-2nd CE Created with red sandstone. Buddha, Buddha, in his ring of light, sits on an inscribed lion-supported throne; votaries and honoring spirits flank him below and above, amidst leafy vegetation of the tree under which he meditated. The gesture (mudra) says `have no fear'.
The Reliquary of St. Foy, a child martyr, abbey church of Conques (south France) / ROMANESQUE
Date: late 9th-10th c. Object of pilgrimage: stolen by the monks of Conques from Agen in the 9th c., her relics were cased in a begemmed statue of sheet gold on a wood armature, seated on a throne with crystal finials, its crowned head, holding the saint's skull perhaps spoliated from a Late Roman portrait or face-helmet. Many of the gems and cameos were also Roman, some added gradually into the 10th c. Stokstad fig. 16.6, ht 85 cm. Some additions are post-Romanesque. The hands may have once held a model of the grid on which she was killed. At times of crisis (famine, epidemic, and more) the reliquary was paraded by the monks out into the local area.
Calligraphy: Wang Xizhi / ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINA
Date: mid-4th c. CE, Six Dynasties Period. Ink on paper. The scroll includes three letters from Wang Xizhi, the great model for subsequent calligraphy, in 3 diverse calligraphic styles. You see the seals of subsequent admiring owners, including emperors and officials, up to the 19th c. By the 6th century, treatises on the theory and aesthetics of art - and so of writing - were being written. Fundamental was qi, spirit consonance and universal energy; the painter's qi infused life in his work. And the brushstroke was the fundamental unit both of images and calligraphy.
Pisa, Cathedral of St. Mary / ROMANESQUE
Designed by architect Busketos, begun in 1063 after the defeat of a Muslim force, making it a victory church; the baptistry started in 1153, the campanile (which now leans) in 1174. Stokstad fig. 16.10. (Khan Academy url, Notes.) The Pisan polychrome style can also be seen elsewhere in Tuscany and at sites in Pisan maritime territory
Epigraphic Ware Plate / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Epigraphic Ware plate made in Islamic Central Asia, Khurasan (Iran), decorated in Kufic script, 10th-12th c. CE. Earthenware with white and black slip and lead glaze. Diam. 33.8 cm. Stokstad fig. 9.12. (Louvre web essay url, Notes.) These plates had popular aphorisms on them in Arabic: this one says "Knowledge/ magnanimity: the beginning of it is bitter to taste, but the end is sweeter than honey. Good Health!" (Transl. Stokstad/ Louvre)
(Marcus Aurelius, thought to be Constantine in the Middle Ages, Rome, 2nd c. CE) /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
Equestrian bronze portrait of Carolingian Ruler (Charles the Bald?), 9th c. CE, holding an orb. Statuette ht 24.4 cm. Stokstad fig. 15.16. (Louvre url, for web essay and images, Notes.) It was cast in 3 parts (horse, rider's body and saddle, and head), a different alloy for each; the horse may have been re-used. It is sometimes identified as Charlemagne, sometimes as his grandson Charles the Bald. It was recorded in the treasury of the Cathedral of Metz by the late Middle Ages, and may have been a royal gift to Metz cathedral at outset.
Gospels of Otto III /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
Frontispiece of Otto III as Holy Roman Emperor in his palace, holding an orb with the cross, flanked by warrior nobles and by clergy, receiving the homage and tribute of personified parts of his empire (Scandinavia, Gaul, Germania, Rome), after classical prototypes. (Fol. 23v-24r)
Guan ware vessel / TANG CHINA
Guan ware vessel Date: 13th century, Southern Song Dynasty A ware made especially for imperial use: gray stoneware with crackled gray-blue glaze.
WOOD SCULPTURE: a rich tradition going back centuries / TANG CHINA
Liao Dynasty, on the borders of the Northern Song kingdom: Guanyin Bodhisattva, seated on rocks by the sea Date: 11th-12th c Wood with paint and gilding. The Boddhisattva of Infinite Compassion sets one foot on a lotus that rises from the ocean. The rockery is the island Potalaka in the Southern Sea, Guanyin's home, where she sits in a posture of royal ease; the rocks probably originally continued up and around the figure. All but the right arm were carved from one large trunk. Scientific tests showed the original exposed skin was indeed flesh-colored.
Bronze Shaka Triad of Buddha with Bodhisattvas by Tori Busshi / BUDDHISM AND NARA
Located in Horyuji Buddhist complex Waterfall drapery pouring down over Buddha's support; pointed tails of drapery on the Bodhisattva; aspects depend on Chinese Wei kingdoms prototypes
Lustreware Jar from Iraq / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Lustreware Jar from Iraq, 10th c., ht 28.2 cm, Stokstad fig. 9.13. (Freer Gallery of Art url, Notes.) Hooded figure holding beaded strand, and two birds; foliate and `peacock's eye' motifs.
Korean celadon ware, pale blue-green glaze on grey stoneware / TANG CHINA
Maebyong bottle with bamboo and blossoming plum tree at waterside, geese and butterflies Date: llate 12th-early 13th c., Goryeo Dynasty. The pictorial decoration was incised lightly into the clay, then filled in black and white slip, to create underglaze designs - here, bamboo and flowering plum growing entwined by a lake, as swimming geese convey, with butterflies overhead. (No landscape paintings from the Goryeo Dynasty period survive; what is celebrated today is the very rich landscape painting tradition, first inspired by masters like Xia Gui, of the Joson Dynasty, 15th century and after.)
Mina'i ware bowl / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Mina'i ware bowl with the story of king Bahram Gur hunting and his concubine Azada, with her harp/ trampled below, and bordered by horsemen, one with polo stick, made in Iran, 12th-13th c. Diam. 21.6 cm. Stokstad fig. 9.14. The story is from the Persian Shahnama (`Book of King', predating its earliest extant manuscripts). (Metropolitan Mus. url, with story, Notes.) Benedictory inscriptions are written on the outside in Kufic. The story appears on several mina'i bowls, and on decorative metalwork. This is one of the more complex ones.
Minbar from the Kutibiya Mosque, Marrakesh (Morocco) / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Minbar from the Kutibiya Mosque, Marrakesh (Morocco), 1137. Made originally for the Booksellers' Mosque. Wood and ivory, 3.86 x 3.46 x .87 m. Stokstad fig. 9.10. Decorated with wood marquetry patterns in several kinds of wood (colors) and carving, and ivory inlay; said by one noted 14th-c. preacher to be one of the two finest he knew. (Url for its Met. M. publication, Notes.) Wheels allowed it to be wheeled from its closet by the mihrab. The inscription dates it and says it was begun in 1137 in Cordoba (Spain), 500 miles away, in the reign of the Almoravid dynasts who had taken over Muslim Spain, and some Christian Spain, from their original seat in North Africa. It was transferred in pieces. The preacher at Friday prayers does not sit in the seat, which is reserved for Muhammad; he stands several stairs below, and his sermon would gave invoked the current ruler. The arcade motifs borrow from mosque architecture, like that of the Great Mosque at Cordoba, where this was made.
Muhammad ibn al-Zain, basin, so-called `Baptistery of St. Louis' / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Muhammad ibn al-Zain, basin, so-called `Baptistery of St. Louis', Syria or Egypt. C. 1300. Brass inlaid with silver and gold and niello. 22.2 x 50.2 cm. Stokstad fig. 9.17. (Louvre and Smart History urls, Notes. Aquired by the French before 1400, used for royal baptisms. This is one of several extant such inlaid basins from the Mamluk court workshops; at least one was made for a Frankish royal patron of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and others may have been exported to Europe. The body and the inner rim show hunts, battles, and courtly banquet; soldiers have traits of Mongol, Turkish and `Frankish' accoutrements and features. There are also many servitors and officials of a Mamluk court entourage. Animals run on the rim, and in friezes that frame the body. The basin floor imitates fish-crowded water. Some cartouches, later filled with French coats of arms, were left blank.
Otto I presents Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ: one of the 17 Magdeburg Ivories /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
Otto I presents Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ: one of the 17 Magdeburg Ivories, plaques of 962-68 CE, possibly made at Milan. The rest of the series shows scenes from the Gospels. Here, the warrior martyr saint Maurice, a Roman commande prominently venerated by Otto I, presents the king, as St. Peter, holding his keys, gestures at right. Christ, who touches the basilica in blessing, sits on a rainbow with his book, atop a triumphal crown of laurel. 12.7 x 11.4 cm. Stokstad fig. 15.24. (Metropolitan Mus. url, Notes.)
Qu'ran frontispiece / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Qu'ran frontispiece, made at Cairo, c. 1368, donated in 1369 by Sultan Shaban to a madrasa established by his mother. Stokstad fig. 9.19. 61 x 45.7 cm.
Qu'ran made in Syria / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Qu'ran made in Syria, 9th c., page in Kufic script with added gold and red. Stokstad fig. 9.11. 21.8 x 29.2 cm. (Metropolitan Mus. of Art url, Notes.) (Surah 2.286, and, illuminated, the title of Sura 3.)
Zhang Xuan, `Ladies preparing newly woven silk', Tang Dynasty lost original in 12th-c. replica, attributed to Emperor Huizong (who did paint scrolls), detail; handscroll with ink and colors on silk. / TANG CHINA
Stages in silk prep (pounding, preparing thread and sewing) read left to right, ending in your scene of ironing. The painting shows groups of well-dressed women working on silk making in `palace sericulture', perhaps even the symbolic annual imperial rite carried out by the empress and her palace ladies, making silk for costumes for the emperor or for sacrificial purposes . It belongs to the genre of `shinu hua', `paintings of elite women'. They can often evoke the tropes of erotic poetry, and that's been ascribed to this painting's scenes of pounding, sewing and ironing by some scholars, who see in it court ladies, ie imperial concubines, and not just the staff of professional women at the palace. Silk-work was classed as virtuous womanly work in Confucian and moralizing texts, but the sounds and actions of rhythmically pounding silk, for instance, figure in erotic and love poetry too. Here his women's desire for the absent emperor could be a political allegory also, of how a subject should feel for ruler.
Sultan Hasan Madrasa-Mausoleum-Mosque Complex / ISLAMIC WORLDS
Sultan Hasan Madrasa-Mausoleum-Mosque Complex, Cairo, 1356-1363 CE, quibla wall with mihrab and minbar, Stokstad fig. 9.16: Mamluk poluchrome marble ablaq masonry panels and arch with columns, voussoirs in joggled masonry; overhead runs a text in Kufix script in stucco against vine ornament (paradisal motifs).
The Mantle of Roger II of Sicily and Italy / ISLAMIC WORLDS
The Mantle of Roger II of Sicily and Italy (founder of Norman dynasty with its capital at Palermo), c. 1134; red silk, with gold and silk thread embroidery, and bejeweled with glass, pearls and gems. Made in Palermo by Arab(ized) craftspeople: inscribed in Kufic Arabic on the border with an Islamic Hegira date, after the fashion of royal Islamic textiles, `"This belongs to the articles worked in the royal workshop, (which has) flourished with fortune and honour, with industry and perfection, with might and merit, with (his) sanction and (his) prosperity, with magnanimity and majesty, with renown and beauty and the felicitous days and nights without cease or change, with honour and solicitude, with protection and defence, with success and certainty, with triumph and industry. In the (capital) city of Sicily in the year 528." (Urls from your assignment, Notes.) The heraldic design shows lions savaging bridled camels on either side of a fruited date-palm; it is a clear emblem of Roger II's successful conquests of Arab territory in North Africa.` But Muslims were not persecuted in Roger's domain, which included Normans, Greeks, Lombards, Italians, Arabs, and craftsmen were valued.
Female being with fly-whisk, from Didargani / SOUTH ASIA
The Maurya Empire: Date: 250 CE With naked torso, she wears a long shawl and wrap skirt, heavy anklets and bracelets, necklace and earrings, and an elaborate belt of beaded strands; the lowered or extended left arm is missing
Reims Cathedral of Notre-Dame west façade, central portal jambs / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
The figures were put up in stages, many think (and Stokstad) - the right pair first, c. 1230, the left pair figures in two later steps, c. 1240 and c. 1250. Left is the Annunciation (Mary and angel); right is the Visitation (the pregnant Mary visits her pregnant relative Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.) What you see are moments of fateful speech from the Gospel of Luke, utterances at the heart of Medieval Christian prayer and liturgy.
The ivory pyxis of al-Mughira, 968 CE / ISLAMIC WORLDS
The ivory pyxis of al-Mughira, 968 CE, carved ivory with traces of jade (Louvre). 16.8 x 11.8 cm. (Khan Academy url, and Louvre image dossier url, Notes). This is one of the best surviving royal ivories of Al-Andalus, probably made in Madinat al-Zahra. The first ivory caskets in Al-Andalus seem to start under Caliph Abd al-Rahman III (r. 929-61 CE). Al-Mughira was his son, 18 when the gift was given him. 4 8-lobed medallions in the interlace are surrounded by real and fabulous beasts and birds, and people who would serve or entertain a prince, like falconers and wrestlers; the medallions themselves contain scenes of princely ease. The imagery echoes panegyric and lyric poetry. Some may be highly politically coded, like the image of men at date-palms, plants of the lost lands of N. Africa and the Middle East. The Arabic blessing inscription in Kufic script at the base of the lid: `God's blessing, favors, joy, beatitude to al-Mughira son of the Commander of the faiuthful, may God have mercy on him, in the year 357'.
Aachen (Germany), Palace Chapel of Charlemagne, 792-805: view of interior, and cutaway. /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
The polychrome stone facings and building blocks in this view from the galleries are Carolingian; the mosaics you see are much later additions. Stokstad fig. 17. (Khan Academy urls, Notes.) Aachen was Charlemagne's capital now. The plan and elevation may have imitated Constantine's Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. You see the royal throne of marble in the second-floor gallery (center), perhaps originally on the floor. It connected to Charlemagne's palace, laid out on an older Frankish palace site by Odo of Metz (url, Notes).
Renier of Huy, bronze baptismal font, Liège / ROMANESQUE
The ring of 12 oxen (two now lost) refer to the `molten sea ... on 12 oxen' cast in bronze for the Temple of Solomon, as a prefiguration of Christian baptismal fonts. Here John the Baptist baptizes the young Christ in the waters of the Jordan River, God the Father and the Holy Spirit (as a dove) above, radiating light. Angels hold Christ's clothing (not in the Gospel.).
Pope Leo III Church /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
This plan shows the original walls in solid black, and later, Gothic additions to the chapel in grey. (The original portal is at the bottom of this plan.) It was dedicated by Pope Leo III in 805, 5 years after he crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor. Materials included columns and colored stones and marbles which the king procured from Rome and Ravenna with papal permission. The octagonal central-plan form is unique among Carolingian chapels. Charlemagne was buried here; it was used for coronations for the next seven centuries.
Todaiji complex at Nara / BUDDHISM AND NARA
Todaiji complex at Nara, and the role of Ganjin and Emperor Shomu, with the great wood temple (largest wooden temple in Japan), and the colossal bronze Buddha (which as it exists today replaces the original, after two medieval fires): slides 16-26 and 33. Grasp the significance of the magnitude of the manufacture process (see Prof. Davis' slides of the casting process). Buddhism as protector of the state; building of Tôdaiji as manifestation of state power * Shosoin Imperial Repository (from Todaiji complex at Nara)
Virgin and Child / ROMANESQUE
Virgin and Child, Auvergne region (France), late 12th c., wood and pigment, ht 78.7 cm (Metropolitan Mus. url, Notes). Stokstad fig. 16.27. The theme is the `Throne of Wisdom', Mary seated on a throne-like bench symbolizing Solomon's throne; as incarnate Wisdom the child would have held a book in his left hand, and raised his right in blessing. The scale, a portable image, hints at its role in religious procession and ceremonies. Two cavities in the sculpture held relics, making this an `inspirited' image. It could be carried in processions and moved to altars.
Yahya Ibn al-Wasiti (scribe and painter), The Maqamat of al-Hariri / ISLAMIC WORLDS
`Al-Maqamat is the title of a book written by Abu Muhammad al Qasim ibn Ali al-Hariri (1054-1122) containing fifty relatively short stories (maquamat = "settings" or "sessions"), each one identified by the name of a city in the Muslim world of the time. The stories tell of adventures and especially the verbal pronouncements in verse or in prose of a roguish and peripatetic hero, Abu Zayd from Saruj, a town in northern Syria, as told by al-Harith, a sober and slightly gullible merchant travelling from place to place.' Here Abu Zayd plays the part of a preacher in a congregational mosque.
`Bayeux Tapestry' / ROMANESQUE
`Bayeux Tapestry', or Bayeux Embroidery, perhaps from Canterbury (England), c. 1066-1082 CE, ht 50.8 cm, almost 200 feet long, linen with wool embroidery: it tells the story of the events leading to William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) beating the Anglo-Saxon armies of king Harold of England in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and taking over that kingdom. The missing end showed William's coronation. The artisans may have been Anglo-Saxon; the commission celebrates the Norman conquest. 75 episodes survive, heavily inscribed in Latin. Made for domestic display, it was eventually given to Bayeux Cathedral in Normandy, probably by Bishop Odo (who appears in the tapestry and may have commissioned it), William's half-brother. (Urls, Notes.)
Tree of Jesse / ROMANESQUE
`Tree of Jesse' pages, c. 1125, made at the Cistercian Abbey of Cîteaux for St. Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah, ink and tempera, 38 x 12 cm. Stokstad fig. 16.36, with view of the facing page as well. (Dijon Bib. Municipale folios url, Notes.). Isaiah holds a scroll with the prophecies for the Tree of Jesse images (`and there shall come forth a rod (virga) from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of his root') as well as `A virgin shall conceive and bear a son'.) A dove in halo, the Holy Spirit, sits on Mary's halo; gift-bearing angels (with a church and a crown) flank her; she holds a flowering sprig as her child kisses her. From Jesse, in brown ink, a vine springs from his loins; she she stands on it.
Moissac, Saint-Pierre, south portal, trumeau / ROMANESQUE
an Old Testamen prophet (probably Isaiah) and beasts (lions). On the other side of the trumeau was the New Testament figure of the Apostle Paul. Juxtaposing the Old and New Testament was a classic device in Christian churches, symbolizing the fulfilment of the Mosaic Law in the New Law. The scalloped feature under the saint's feet may be an echo of Spanish Islamic architecture.
Priory Church of Saint-Pierre, south portal tympanum / ROMANESQUE
c. 1115: Christ in majesty. Stokstad fig. 16.21-22. (Below, angle view of the trumeau, the post centered under the portal lintel.) The tympanum image of Christ in Majesty is a very literal depiction of a passage in the Book of Revelation (4:2-7), Christ's apparition in the Second Coming, which is narrated by John the Evangelist in the first person: `I saw ...'. This is one of the most elaborate portals in 12th-c. France, at a site along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela (Spain).
The `Worcester Chronicle' / ROMANESQUE
c. 1140 CE, the earliest extant western Medieval illustrated history book, by historian John of Worcester: the nightmares of the king Henry I, from whom his subjects (farmers, knights, monks and clergy) on 3 successive nights demand relief from oppressive taxes, and the king in a storm at sea promising God to rescind the tax increase for 7 years, make a pilgrimage, and restore good government if his life is spared. Stokstad fig. 16.30. John tells us the king's own physician shared the royal dreams with him. The terrified king related the dreams to the physician on waking from each nightmare; that doctor sits beside each account as narrator and interpreter.
Chartres Cathedral, Royal Portal. West (front) façade / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
c. 1145-1155, Stokstad fig. 17.5. (Left tympanon: Christ and angels. Central tympanon: Christ enthroned in mandorla with the symbols of the Evangelists, apostles and elders at the end of time (Revelations, as at Moissac). Right tympanon: Mary and the infant Christ with angels
Chartres, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, stained glass rose window and lancets (north transept) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
c. 1230-35. Stokstad fig. 17.11. The rose window shows David and his royal line, and angels and doves, around the Virgin Mary and her child; the lancets show King David and Solomon, and two Old Testament priestly figures, around St. Ann holding her daughter Mary. Royal art: Paid for by King Louis IX (r. 1126-1270): the royal arms, the fleur-de-lys, appear under th central lancet, and fleur-de-lys pattern the upper glass too. The arms of his Spanish mother Blanche of Castile (gold castles on red ground) also manifest
St. Maurice, Magdeburg Cathedral (Germany) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
c. 1240-1250; dark sandstone with paint. Warrior-saint martyr Maurice of Egypt, his relics here since the 10th c., patron saint of the city, revered by the Ottonian emperors (Otto I was buried here), wears contemporary armor. This is the first example of the saint with black African features, and others followed here and at other German sites, coming to an end in the 16th century.
Hiberno-Saxon: Lindisfarne Gospel Book, St. Matthew the Evangelist writing his gospel, opening (`author page') to it, and `carpet page' /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
c. 715-720 CE, Anglo-Saxon England (Lindisfarne). Stokstad fig. 15.5-6. 15.8. 34 x 24 cm. (British Library url, Notes: gallery of illuminated pages; object entry.) St. Matthew's angel companion blows a trumpet overhead. (Smart History url, Notes.) His name is prefaced with `Hagios', Greek for `holy', as in Byzaontine sacred art. The scribe was Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne. The composition is based on Roman author-portraits in painting and books.
Carolingian: the Utrecht Psalter /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
c. 816-35, page: Psalm 22 / 33 x 25 cm. Stokstad fig. 15.22. (Fol. 13r. Utrecht University Library digitized ms. url, and Khan Academy url, Notes). It comes from Hautvilliers near Reims (France).
Carolingian: Lindau Gospels, golden cover with gems, Crucifixion with mourners and angels /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
c. 870-880 CE.32 x 25.3 cm
Cardona, Church of St. Vicenç (Spain) / ROMANESQUE
ca. 1019-1040, set within a ducal castle. The body of the church is over 19 m tall. The masonry forms and techniques show influence from Lombard N. Italy. Interior view, Stokstad fig. 16.3, left; detail of side aisle, right, showing the lower, original paving exposed. Strip buttresses on the piers run up into transverse arcade walls, dividing the church into three bays; lowering the side aisles as in a Roman basilica permitted clerestory lighting by windows high on the walls of the central nave. Earlier stone churches in this area had timber, not stone roofs.
Abbey cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos / ROMANESQUE
ca. 1100, with relief-decorated piers at the 4 corners of the ambulatory, each with two tall panels on the walkway faces. They show symbolic Christian motifs and details of the events about Christ and his followers after his resurrection. Stokstad fig. 16.1 is the panel, figures nearly lifesized, showing Christ and two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Notes). Christ wears a contemporary pilgrim satchel with the scallop-shell badge of St. James of Santiago de Compostela and carries a pilgrim's staff. The figure style is close to painted manuscripts and to relief at Moissac.
Chartres, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, stained glass Good Samaritan window / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
ca. 1200-1210, det. - scenes from the Creation cycle, in the Book of Genesis. Stokstad fig. 17.1 and 17.10, view of whole window. The upper 2/3 of the window move from the Creation to the story of Cain and Abel. Christ's parable of the Good Samaritan fills the lower 3rd. At the bottom are `signature panels' about the guild of shoemakers who donated this window: shoemakers at work, and a group presenting a model of the window. At the bottom are `signature panels' about the guild of shoemakers who donated this window: shoemakers at work, and a group, their profession labeled, presenting a model of the window.
Merovingian: Jewelry of Queen Arnegunde, from her tomb, burial /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
ca. 580-90 CE, at the site of the Abbey of St.-Denis, Paris, where these dynasts were buried. You see belt clasps, long pin (l. 26,4 cm), fibulae, other pins, earrings, and a ring inscribed with her title in Latin. Gold, silver, garnet and glass inlays. Stokstad fig. 15.2
Matthew of Paris, History of the English, made in St. Albans (England) / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
det.: page with Virgin and Child and labeled self portrait (he was both scribe and illustrator of the manuscript). 1250-1259. The text before his face, around his `speaking hands'. is his salute to the holy pair. (British Library url, Notes.) 35.8 x 25 cm. Stokstad fig. 17.23.
The Lion Gate., Sigirya palace citadel / SOUTH ASIA
entered after crossing royal gardens and a moat
Book of Kells, Chi Rho Iota page (`Christus') /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
late 8th-early 9th c., probably made at Iona off the coast of Scotland, a 6th-c. monastery. 32.5 x 24 cm. Stokstad fig. 15,1. (Trinity Library url, Notes.) Three separate artists worked on its painting. This page starts the Gospel of Matthew.
Picture Bible / MEDIEVAL GOTHIC ARTS
made in Paris, 1240s (`Morgan Picture Bible', also called the Crusader Bible), Genesis page: Stokstad fig. 17.7 with detail of upper right corner (building of the Tower of Babel). (Morgan Library url, Notes.) 6 artists worked on it. It may have been owned by King Louis IX. Originally it had only pictures, set in micro-architectural frames; its texts in Latin, Persian and Judeo-Persian are 14th-18th c. - On this page: Noah in his cups; the people of Babel build a tower to reach to heaven, God and angels watching from heaven; the sacrifice of his son Isaac by Abraham; the family of Lot, Abraham's nephew, taken captive. Observe how the medley of stories ranges widely around the book of Genesis, and how the figures look contemporary (13th c.). Stokstad's detail of masons at work interests for Gothic architecture.
Descent of the Ganges River / SOUTH ASIA
rock cut relief, Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu) Date: 650 CE, Pallava Dynasty This enormous relief depicting an important Hindu myth about the origin and meaning of the sacred Ganges spans two boulder faces, with the central cleft, down which water could trickle, symbolizing the fall of the river from heaven as a gift of the gods to a prayerful king to obtain rest for his ancestors (at shrine, left-center) and all living beings. The coastal site and its region preserve more than 100 carved granite boulders; this may be an allegory of royal rule, visible from the shore.
the appearance of Haley's Comet, in England / ROMANESQUE
spectators cry out ("They marvel at the star"), and faithless king Harold in his palace receiving the terrifying news, the fleet beneath his feet indicating his vision of the Norman fleet sailing for his shores, the comet over his head a portent. (This image is fuller than Stokstad's.) He had sworn allegiance to William of Normandy, promising to help him secure the throne of England, then reneged; in Norman narrative, God gives William the victory over a perjurer.
Bronze doors of Hildesheim Cathedral, started ca. 1015, commissioned by Bishop Bernward /MEDIEVAL (POST ROMAN)
tuto of Otto III, whom he visited in Rome. Ht 16'6" = ca. 5 m. (Khan Academy video url, Notes.) The scenes are from early in the Book of Genesis (about Adam and Eve, and the story of Cain and Abel), on the left moving from top to bottom, and, on the right moving from bottom to top, about the life, death and resurrection of Christ (starting with the Annunciation to Mary). Each was cast as a separate piece, doorknobs includes ca 1.85 tons each. We date them by the inscription across the middle bar, after Bernward's death: `In the 1015th year of the incarnation of the Lord, Bishop Bernward (richly remembered) had these cast doors hung at the front of the angelic temple to his own memory.
