Art Appreciation Chapter 16

Contrapposto

Italian for "counterpoise"; the counterpositioning of parts of the human figure about a central vertical axis, as when the weight is placed on one foot causing the hip and shoulder lines to counterbalance each other-often in a graceful S-curve ; the Greeks and Romans used this pose to give a lifelike quality to figures at rest

Pantocrator

Literally, "ruler of the world," a term that alludes to a figure of Christ placed above the altar or in the center of a dome in a Byzantine church

What is one factor that distinguishes Archaic Greek sculpture from Egyptian sculpture?

Many Greek male figures were nude

What is one characteristic that distinguishes Roman figural sculpture from Greek figural sculpture?

Roman figures had a higher degree of individuality

In CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES, Christ is depicted as a

Roman senator

Hellinistic

Style of the later phase of ancient Greek art (300-100 bce), characterized by emotion, drama, and interaction of sculptural forms with the surrounding space ; mediterranian art

Romanesque

a style of architecture prevalent from the ninth to the twelfth centuries with round arches and barrel vaults

flamboyant

a style of flamelike decorations used in late Gothic architecture

What was the Pantheon?

a temple dedicated to all gods

What was the initial source of subjects and models for Romanesque sculpture?

miniatures in illuminated texts

What about the HEAD OF CONSTANTINE best demonstrates the shift toward an inner spiritual life in late Roman sculpture?

the large eyes

nave

the tall central space of a church or cathedral, usually flanked by side aisles

Where are the best examples of Roman wall painting found?

the villas of Pompeii and herculaneum

catacombs

underground burial places in ancient Rome

apse

A semicircular end to an aisle in a basilica or a Christian church. In Christian churches an apse is usually placed at the eastern end of the central aisle.

portico

A porch attached to a building, supported with columns. Usually surmounted by a triangular pediment under a gable roof.

metopes

A square panel, often decorated with relief sculpture, placed at regular intervals above the colonnade of a classical Greek building.

THE COLOSSEUM

An excellent example of a Roman public works project is the Colosseum (FIG. 16.10). Built by the aristocratic Flavian family between 70 and 80 ce, it was originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater. The foundation of the Colosseum is an elliptical ring of concrete over 44 feet high. Brick, stone, and marble blocks complete the structure. The exterior is a three-story round-arch colonnade, with each level a different architectural order; each round arch on the lower floors opens to a concrete barrel vault. The principal use of the building was for amusements such as gladiatorial matches and wild game hunts. Its capacity was between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators, about as many as today's sports stadiums (a more accurate guess is impossible because much of the exterior marble was carried off during the Middle Ages). The Flavian family likely built the Colosseum to improve its public image and thus its legitimacy as rulers.

icons

An image or symbolic representation, often with sacred significance.

Why are flattened forms and stylized features characteristic to Byzantine images of Christ such as this example?

Artists diverged from naturalistic form to suggest an otherwordly being

CHRIST AS PANTOCRATOR WITH MARY AND SAINTS

As the controversy subsided, the inside of the dome of Hagia Sophia was adorned with a new kind of image, Christ as ruler of the universe, or Pantocrator. This mosaic (now destroyed) became the inspiration for similar portrayals in smaller Byzantine churches such as the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, where the mosaic of Christ as Pantocrator with Mary and Saints (FIG. 16.18) shows the typical Byzantine style employing hierarchic scale to express the greater magnitude of Christ relative to Mary, the saints, and angels portrayed in rows below him.

Giovanni Paolo Panini, THE INTERIOR OF THE PANTHEON, ROME

Because the interior of the Pantheon is dimly lit and difficult to photograph, we see it here in a famous 1734 painting (FIG. 16.12).

OLD ST. PETER'S BASILICA

Besides granting Christianity official recognition, Constantine also sponsored an extensive building program. Thus, in the late Roman and early Byzantine empires, we find the first flowering of Christian art and architecture. For example, Christians adapted the Roman basilica, or assembly hall, for use in public worship. The original Roman basilica was a long hall flanked by columns with a semicircular apse at each end where government bodies and law courts met. One of the earliest Christian churches was Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (FIG. 16.16a). Its long central aisle, now called the nave, ends in an apse, as in a Roman building. Here, Christians placed an altar (FIG. 16.16b).

What similarity of the SPEAR BEARER (DORYPHOROS) and the {arthenon exemplifies the Greek classical mindset?

Both have forms based on a system of proportions

PANTHEON

By developing the structural use of concrete combined with semicircular arch and vault construction, the Romans were also able to enclose large indoor spaces. They erected many domed and vaulted buildings to provide spacious accommodation for large numbers of people. In the Pantheon (FIG. 16.11a), a major temple dedicated to all the gods, Roman builders created a domed interior space of immense scale. The building is essentially a cylinder, capped by a hemispherical dome, with a single entrance framed by a columned porch, or portico.

HEAD OF CONSTANTINE

By the time Emperor Constantine acknowledged Christianity in 313, Roman attitudes had changed considerably. The grandeur of Rome was rapidly declining. As confidence in the stability of the material world fell, more people turned toward the spiritual values that Christianity offered. To reflect this change in orientation, Constantine pioneered a new type of imperial portrait, as we see in the Head of Constantine (FIG. 16.15). Once part of an immense figure, the head is an image of imperial majesty, yet the large eyes and stiff features express an inner spiritual life. The late Roman style of the facial features, particularly the eyes, is very different from the naturalism of earlier Roman portraits, and Constantine's otherworldly gaze contrasts markedly with the realistic squint of the Bust of Emperor Vespasian (see FIG. 16.9).

CHRIST OF THE PENTECOST

Deviation from standard human proportions enabled sculptors to give appropriately symbolic form to figures such as Christ of the Pentecost (FIG. 16.23). The mystical energy and compassion of Christ are expressed in this relief carving above the doorway of the Church of Saint Madeleine at Vézelay, France. As worshipers enter the nave, the image above them depicts Christ at the time he asked the apostles and all Christians to take his message to the world. The image of Christ is larger in scale than the other figures, showing his relative importance. The sculptor achieved a monumental quality by making the head smaller than normal and by elongating the entire figure. Swirling folds of drapery are indicated with precise curves, and spirals show an imaginative linear energy. Surrounding Christ and the apostles are depictions of the peoples of the world; in the round medallions we see the signs of the zodiac and the monthly tasks associated with each.

Which theological question greatly influenced the development of early Christian and Byzantine art?

Did Christian art encourage worshipping images or tell holy stories?

VENUS DE' MEDICI

During the latter part of the Classical period (the late fourth century BCE), Greek sculpture took a turn away from the noble and serious idealism of the Spear Bearer toward a more sensuous vision. Venus de' Medici (FIG. 16.7) is a Roman copy of a fourth-century BCE Greek original by Praxiteles, the best-known sculptor of this time. Nude goddesses were unknown in previous periods of Greek art. Its refined profile and modest pose are features of the Greek idealization of human figures. This figure came to represent a feminine ideal, and has strongly influenced many artworks since that time, down to the feminists of the twentieth century who rebelled against it.

INSPIRED BY HEAVENLY FIRE, THE 43-YEAR-OLD NUN BEGINS TO WRITE DOWN HER VISIONS

Elected leader of her monastery in 1136, Hildegard went on to found two others in western Germany. The most distinctive of these was the one established in 1150 in Rupertsberg. Here Hildegard and the nuns under her direction produced many books, among them Scivias (Know the Ways), a record of her visions. She was at first reluctant to share or publicize her spiritual experiences, until the Pope learned of them in 1147 and granted her permission to do so. In this illustration (FIG. 16.24), we see Hildegard receiving a vision from above, which she transcribes on a tablet as she dictates it to an assistant. She sits in a round-arched structure with a high ceiling and scant exterior windows, all characteristics of Romanesque architecture. (The original version of Scivias was lost during World War II. These pages are from a copy made in the early twentieth century.)

Andrei Rublev, ICON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TRINITY

Even within the relatively tight stylistic confines of the Orthodox style, occasionally an artist is able to make icons that not only have the required easy readability but also communicate powerful feeling. Such an artist was Andrei Rublev, one of the most highly regarded painters in Russian history. His Icon of the Old Testament Trinity (FIG. 16.19) depicts a story in which Jewish patriarch Abraham entertained three strangers who later turned out to be angels: Christians have seen this story as foreshadowing their doctrine of the Trinity. Rublev gave the scene a sweetness and tenderness through subtle facial expressions and elongation of bodies. The bright colors add intensity to the work, even in its present poor state of preservation.

Which architectural style is characterized by the pointed arch and flying buttress?

Gothic

NOTRE-DAME DE CHARTRES

Gothic cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Chartres (Our Lady of Chartres; FIG. 16.26a) were the center of community life. In many cases they were the only indoor space that could hold all the townspeople at once; thus they were used for meetings, concerts, and religious plays. But, most of all, they were places of worship and pilgrimage. Above the town of Chartres the cathedral rises, its spires visible for miles around.

PURSE COVER

Nomadic metalwork often exhibits exceptional skill. Because of frequent migrations and the durability and value of portable art objects, the style was diffused over large geographic areas. The gold and enamel purse cover (FIG. 16.20) found in a grave at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, belonged to a seventh-century East Anglian king. The distinct variations of its motifs indicate that they are derived from several sources. The motif of a man standing between confronting animals likely came to East Anglia via nomadic cultures.

WEST FAÇADE

One of the first cathedrals based on the full Gothic system of pointed arches and flying buttresses, it helped to set the standard for Gothic architecture in Europe. In its west façade (FIG. 16.26c), Chartres reveals the transition between the early and late phases of Gothic architecture. The massive lower walls and round-arch portals were built in the mid-twelfth century. The north tower (on the left) was rebuilt with the intricate flamelike curves of the late Gothic style early in the sixteenth century, after the original tower collapsed in 1506. These flamelike decorations in the upper tower influenced late Gothic architecture elsewhere in Europe, so that the style was called flamboyant, or flaming. The word has other meanings nowadays.

Hildegard of Bingen, THE COSMOS

One of the most remarkable visions in Scivias illustrates Hildegard's vision of the cosmos as a whole (FIG. 16.25). It is egg-shaped with an outer layer of flame. Near the top we see the red star of the sun with three planets above, which to her symbolized God and the Christian Trinity. Just inside this outer ring is another of hail and lightning.

Gothic

Primarily an architectural style that prevailed in Western Europe from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries; characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses

ARCHITECTURAL ORDERS

Surviving Greek buildings are mostly religious, symmetrical, and based on a post-and-beam system, like the Egyptian buildings that influenced them (see FIG. 14.4). However, Greek architects worked with a great deal more refinement to create more human-scaled structures. The Greeks developed three architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian (FIG. 16.5). Each order comprises a set of architectural elements and proportions. The most telling details for identification of the orders are the three types of capital used at the tops of columns. Doric is simple, geometric, and sturdy; Ionic is taller and more decorative than Doric; Corinthian is complex and organic. The Parthenon is in the Doric order, the first of the three to be developed.

EUPHRONIOS KRATER

The Euphronios Krater (FIG. 16.2) shows the level of achievement of Greek potters and painters. It is in the Archaic "red-figure" style and depicts a scene from Homer's Odyssey: The dead Trojan warrior Sarpedon, wounds gushing blood, is carried off to eternity by the gods of Sleep and Death. The painter Euphronios signed the work; the word krater refers to the vessel's handled shape, traditionally used for mixing ceremonial beverages.

KOUROS

The Greeks honored individual achievement by creating numerous life-size, freestanding statues of nude male and clothed female figures. The Archaic-style kouros (FIG. 16.3) has a rigid frontal position that is an adaptation from Egyptian sculpture. (Kouros is Greek for male youth; kore is the word for female youth.) The Egyptian figure of Menkaura (see FIG. 15.20) and the kouros both stand with arms held straight at the sides, fingers drawn up, and left leg forward with the weight evenly distributed on both feet as the figures stare off into space.

THE LAOCOÖN GROUP

The Laocoön Group (FIG. 16.8) is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic work. In Greek mythology, Laocoön was the Trojan priest who warned against bringing the huge wooden horse into Troy during the Trojan War. He suspected that the horse, a gift from the Greeks, was a trick, as indeed it was: Greek soldiers emerged from it and opened the gates to let their compatriots in and attack. Later, Laocoön and his sons were attacked by serpents, an act the Trojans interpreted as a sign of the gods' disapproval of Laocoön's prophecy. Laocoön is shown in hierarchic proportion to his sons.

BUST OF EMPEROR VESPASIAN

The Romans were practical and less idealistic than the Greeks, and their art reflects these characteristics. Roman portraiture, such as the Bust of Emperor Vespasian (FIG. 16.9), achieved a high degree of individuality rarely found in Greek sculpture. The emperor's wrinkled brow and forehead show that portraiture rather than idealization was the goal of the sculptor who made this work. The warts-and-all style probably grew out of the Roman custom of making wax death masks of ancestors for the family shrine or altar. Later, these images were re-created in marble to make them more durable. Roman sculptors observed and carefully recorded those physical details and imperfections that give character to each person's face. Even Roman civic monuments to its heroes were relatively realistic portraits.

APSE MOSAIC

The apse mosaic in the interior of San Vitale (FIG. 16.17d) shows Christ dressed in royal purple and seated on an orb that symbolizes the universe. He is beardless, in the fashion of Classical gods. With his right hand, he passes a crown to San Vitale, who stands in a depiction of the biblical paradise along with other saints and angels. The appearance of all these figures owes something to Roman art, but, in keeping with Byzantine style, they stand motionless and stare straight ahead. In their heavenly majesty, they seem to soar above human concerns.

Ictinus and Callicrates, PARTHENON

The city-state of Athens was the artistic and philosophical center of Classical Greek civilization. Above the city, on a large rock outcropping called the Acropolis, the Athenians constructed the Parthenon (FIG. 16.6a), one of the world's most admired structures. The largest of several sacred buildings on this site, the Parthenon was designed and built as a gift to Athena Parthenos, goddess of wisdom and prudent warfare, and protector of the Athenian navy. Even in its current ruined state, the temple continues to express the ideals of the people who created it;When Ictinus and Callicrates designed the Parthenon (FIG. 16.6b), they were following Egyptian tradition of temple design. Rites were performed on altars placed in front of the eastern entrance; the interior space held a 40-foot statue of Athena. The axis of the building was carefully calculated so that on Athena's birthday the rising sun coming through the east doorway would fully illuminate the towering (now lost) gold-covered statue. The entire exterior with its sculpture was originally painted in bright colors, which have worn off over time.

CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES

The earliest Christian art was a simplified interpretation of Roman figure painting, with a new emphasis on storytelling through images of Christ and other biblical figures, as well as through symbols. Christ and the Apostles (FIG. 16.14) shows a beardless Christ, dressed like a Roman senator, only slightly larger than the faithful who surround him.

What was one outgrowth that developed from sculpture on Gothic cathedrals?

The emergence of freestanding figural sculptures

PLAN BASED ON LATIN CROSS

The entire community cooperated in the building of Notre-Dame de Chartres, although those who began its construction never saw its final form. The cathedral continued to grow and change for more than 300 years. Although the basic plan is symmetrical and logically organized (FIG. 16.26b), the architecture of Chartres has a rich, enigmatic complexity that is quite different from the easily grasped totality of the classical Parthenon.

What new sculptural development occurred in the late Classical period?

The female nude

EMPRESS THEODORA (detail)

The glittering mosaic compositions that cover most of the interior surfaces depict the figures of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora (FIG. 16.17c) in addition to religious figures and events. In a blending of religious and political authority, Justinian and Theodora are shown with halos, analogous to Christ and Mary, yet both are royally attired and bejeweled; The elongated, abstracted figures provide symbolic rather than naturalistic depictions of the Christian and royal figures. Emphasis on the eyes is a Byzantine refinement of the stylized focus seen in the Head of Constantine (see FIG. 16.15). Figures are depicted with heavy outline and stylized shading. The only suggestion of space has been made by overlap. Background and figures retain a flat, decorative richness typical of Byzantine art.

CHI-RHO MONOGRAM (XP)

The initial letters in these manuscripts were increasingly embellished over time, moving first into the margin and then onto a separate page. This splendid initial page is the opening of Saint Matthew's account of the Nativity in the Book of Kells (FIG. 16.21), which contains the four Gospels in Latin. It is known as the "Chi-Rho monogram" because it is composed of the first two letters of Christ in Greek (XP) and is used to represent Christ or Christianity. Except for XP and two Latin words beginning the story of Christ's birth, most of the page is filled with a rich complexity of spirals and tiny interlacings. If we look closely at the knots and scrolls, we see angels to the left of the X, a man's head in the P, and cats and mice at the base.

SAN VITALE

The most important sixth-century Byzantine church is San Vitale in Ravenna (FIG. 16.17a). The octagonal plan below its round dome (FIG. 16.17b) signals that this church lies over the tomb of a martyr, San Vitale. The exterior is plain, making the interior like an ornate jewel box.

"ROSE DE FRANCE" WINDOW

The principal goal of the Gothic structural advances was to fill churches with light, a metaphor for the presence of God. Stained-glass windows fulfill this transcendent function in a specifically Christian fashion, in imagery that transforms the nave with showers of color, changing hour by hour. At Chartres, the brilliant north rose window (FIG. 16.26d), known as the "Rose de France," is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who sits in majesty, surrounded by doves, angels, and royal figures of the celestial hierarchy. Placing Mary and the infant Jesus in such a central and prominent place would help to instruct the illiterate about the importance of Mary for this church and for Christianity in general.

Polykleitos of Argos, SPEAR BEARER (DORYPHOROS

The statue known as the Spear Bearer (Doryphoros) (FIG. 16.4) is an excellent example of Greek classicism. Its sculptor, Polykleitos of Argos, wrote a treatise on the perfect proportions of the human form and created this statue as an example. Neither the book nor the original statue survives, but both are known from documents and later copies. Polykleitos envisioned the human body as a harmonious set of divinely inspired ratios. By studying numerous models and measuring key ratios such as the size of the head to the size of the body, he arrived at what he thought were the ideal proportions for a human. Hence the Spear Bearer combines actual observations with mathematical calculation.

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET, KINGS, AND QUEEN

The statues of the Old Testament prophet, kings, and queen (FIG. 16.26e) to the right of the central doorway at the west entrance of Chartres are among the most impressive remaining examples of early Gothic sculpture. The kings and queen suggest Christ's royal heritage and also honor French monarchs of the time. The prophet on the left depicts Christ's mission as an apostle of God. In contrast to active, emotional Romanesque sculpture, these figures are passive and serene. Their elongated forms allow them to blend readily with the vertical emphasis of the architecture. Although they are part of the total scheme, the figures stand out from the columns behind them. Their draped bodies, and especially their heads, reveal a developing interest in portraying human features. Such interest eventually led again to full portraiture and freestanding figures.

THE BATTLE OF THE LAPITHS AND CENTAURS

The theme of the metopes is the Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs (FIG. 16.6c): In an ancient myth, the Lapiths were ruled by reason, and the Centaurs were violent and unpredictable; when the Centaurs kidnapped the Queen of the Lapiths, the Lapiths went to war and defeated the Centaurs in battle. Just as order and reason triumphed in that ancient conflict, the democratic Greeks had defeated the despotic Persians. Thus, recent events confirmed the ultimate triumph of the Greek worldview

MAJESTY OF SAINTE FOY, STATUE RELIQUARY IN GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES

Visual artists aided pilgrimages by decorating churches and by creating splendid reliquaries to hold the sacred objects. One of the latter is the reliquary of Sainte Foy (FIG. 16.22). The subject is a young Christian girl of the late third century who refused on penalty of torture to recant her faith. Her relics, reportedly including her skull and several bones, are housed in this portrait statue. The artist hammered gold sheets over a hollow wood sculpture before encrusting the exterior with precious stones. The head itself is not modeled on the saint, but rather on a late Roman portrait. The saint's remains arrived at Conques in southern France in the ninth century; his reliquary was created soon afterward, with later additions.

ROMAN PAINTINGS

Wall paintings show the Roman love of luxury. The majority of surviving Roman paintings come from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other towns buried—and thus preserved—by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 ce. In the first century, Roman artists continued the late Greek tradition of portraying depth in paintings of landscapes and urban views. The Roman painting from a villa near Naples (FIG. 16.13) presents a complex urban scene painted with a form of perspective inherited from Hellenistic murals. As is typical of Roman painting, the receding lines are not systematically related to one another to create a sense of common space, nor is there controlled use of the effect of diminishing size relative to distance. (In other words, neither one-point perspective nor recession in space was practiced.) Perhaps the artist intended viewers simply to enjoy the pleasing inter-woven shapes, patterns, colors, and varied scale. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, representation of the third dimension ceased to be of interest, and the knowledge was forgotten until it was rediscovered and developed as a scientific system during the Renaissance, about 1,000 years later.

The cathedral expresses an idea of Abbot Suger, who is generally credited with starting the Gothic style. At the abbey church of St. Denis, where Suger first united pointed arches and flying buttresses into the Gothic style, he had an inscription placed on the entrance door stating his idea of the church's spiritual purpose:

Whoever you may be, if you are minded to praise this door, Wonder not at the gold, nor at the cost, but at the work. The work shines in its nobility; by shining nobly, May it illumine the spirit, so that, through its trusty lights, The spirit may reach the true Light in which Christ is the Door. The golden door proclaims the nature of the Inward: Through sensible things, the heavy spirit is raised to the truth; From the depths, it rises to the light.88

basilica

a Roman town hall, with three aisles and an apse at one or both ends; Christians appropriated this form for their churches

reliquary

a container for holy relics

one-point perspective

a perspective system in which all parallel lines converge at a single vanishing point

tesserae

a piece of colored glass, ceramic tile, or stone used in a mosaic

entasis

a slight swelling or bulge in the center of a column, which corrects the illusion of concave tapering produced by parallel straight lines

What architectural feature helps support the great dome of the Pantheon?

a stone and concrete wall

What did the Greeks create as the basis for the architectural features and proportions used in buildings?

architectural orders

Before 313 CE, most early Christian painting was found in

catacombs

Which term best characterize the Hellenistic style of this work?

dynamism and expression

Reliquaries are made for

holding bones from a saint;s body

iconoclast

in Byzantine art, one who opposes the creation of images of holy persons, believing that they promote idolatry

coffers

in architecture, a decorative sunken panel on the underside of a ceiling

capital

in architecture, the top part or head of a column or pile

krater

in classical Greek art, a wide-mouthed vessel with handles, used for mixing wine and water for ceremonial drinking

What was the advantage to using entasis on the Parthenon columns?

it caused them to appear straighter

What distinguishes a painting as a Byzantine icon?

its function as a holy image that inspires devotion

Romanesque church architecture was largely a response to what cultural practice?

pilgrimages

Why do Early Christian and Byzantine churches have plain exteriors?

plain exteriors were meant to contrast with the spiritual realm inside

Roman wall painting continued what Greek painting tradition?

portraying depth

The Colosseum functioned principally as a site for

public amusements

The LAPITH AND CENTAR metopes represent the Greek belief in the triumph of

reason over emotion

What architectural elements identified the Romanesque style?

stone construction, round arches, and barrel vaults

Which church is considered the first example of a Gothic building?

the abbey church of St. Denis

What shared feature in HEAD OF CONSTANTINE and EMPRESS THEODORA suggests that late roman art influenced christian art of the Byzantine period?

the abstracted facial features

Classical art

the art of ancient Greece and Rome, particularly the style of Greek art that flourished during the fifth-century bce; emphasizes rational simplicity, order, and restrained emotion

Archaic period

the art of ancient Greece from the late seventh to the early fifth centuries bce that assimilated influences from egypt and the near east

What cultural belief gave rise to the idealized and harmonious forms characterizing Greek art?

the belief in human potential and accomplishment

What detail helps date this sculpture to the classical phase of Greek art?

the figure is in a contrapposto pose

The BUST OF EMPEROR VESPASIAN typifies Roman portraiture traditions in

the individualized facial features