Unit 3 - Early European Flashcards
1
Q
Catacomb of Priscilla: Identifiers
A
Style: Late Antique Europe
Location: Rome, Italy
Date: 200-400
2
Q
Catacomb of Priscilla: Form/Function
A
- excavated tufa and fresco
- catacombs are passageways beneath Rome that extend for 100 miles and contain tombs of 4 million dead
- they contain and the tombs of seven popes and many early Christian martyrs
- priscilla catacomb has some 40,000 burials
3
Q
Catacomb of Priscilla: Context
A
- called priscilla because she was the donor of the land for her family’s burial, then opened to christians
- greek chapel: named for 2 greek inscriptions painted on the right niche. 3 niches for sarcophagi. lower portions done in the first Pompeian style of painting with imitation marble paneling enriching surface
- upper portions decorated with painting in later Pompeian styles: sketch painterly brushstrokes
- contains scenes of Old and New testament stories
4
Q
Orant Fresco
A
- fresco over tomb niche set over an arched wall; cemetery of a family vault
- central figure stands with arms outstretched in prayer; perhaps the same woman 3 times
- prays for salvation in heaven
- left: painting of a teacher with children, or image of a couple being married with a bishop
- right: mother and child, Mary with Christ or the Church
5
Q
Good Shepherd Fresco
A
- parallels between Old and New testament stories feature prominently in Early Christian art; Christians see this as a fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures; shows Christian interest in adapting aspects of the Hebrew scriptures in their own context
- restrained portrait of Christ as a good shepherd, a pastoral motif in ancient art going back to the Greeks
- peacocks in lunettes symbolize eternal life; quails symbolize earthly life; christ as a bridge between worlds
6
Q
Santa Sabina: Identifiers
A
Style: Early Christian
Artist: Peter the Illyrian
Location: Rome
Date: 425 CE
7
Q
Santa Sabina: Form
A
- 3 aisled basilica culminating in an apse; no transept
- long, tall, broad nave, axial plan
- windows not made of glass, but selenite, type of transparent and colorless gypsum
- flat wooden roof; coffered ceiling; thin walls support a light roo
- brick, stone, and wooden roof
8
Q
Santa Sabina: Function
A
- early Christian parish church
- as in the Jewish tradition, men and women stood separately; men stood in the main aisle, women in the side aisles with partial view
9
Q
Santa Sabina: Context
A
- spolia: tall slender columns taken from the Temple of Juno in Rome, erected on this sti; a statement about the triumph of Christianity over paganism
- bare exterior, sensitvely decorated interior- represents Christian whose exterior may be gross, but whose interior soul is beautiful
- built of Peter of Illyria
10
Q
Hagia Sophia: Identifiers
A
Style: Early Byzantine Structure
Artist: Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus
Location: Constantinople
Date: 535
11
Q
Hagia Sophia: Form
A
- exterior plan: plain and massive with little decoration
- interior: combination of centrally and axially planned church
- arcade decoration: walls and capitals are flat and thin and richly ornamented
- capitals diminish classical allusions; surfaces contain deeply cut acanthus leaves
- cornice unifies space
- large filed for masic decoration
- many windows take up wall space
- dome: first building to have a dome supported by pendentives
- altar at the end of nave, emphasis placed over area covered by dome
- large central dome: 40 windows at base act as halo
12
Q
Hagia Sophia: Function
A
- originally a christian church “holy wisdom”
- built on the site of another church that was destroyed during the Nike Revolt in 532
- converted to a mosque in the fifteenth century: minarets added in the Islamic period
- converted into a museum in 1935, reconverted back into a mosque in 2020
13
Q
Hagia Sophia: Context
A
- marble columns appropriated from Rome, Ephesus and other Greek sites
- patrons were Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, who commissioned the work after the burning of the original building in the Nike Revolt
14
Q
San Vitale: Identifiers
A
Style: Early Byzantine Architecture
Location: Ravenna, Italy
Date: 525 CE
15
Q
San Vitale: Form
A
- 8 sided church
- plain exterior porch added in Renaissance
- large windows for illuminating interior designs
- interior has thin columns and open arched spaces
- dematerialization of the mass of the structure
- combination of axial and central plans
- spolia: bricks taken from ruined Roman buildings reused here
- martyrium design: circular plan in an octagonal format
16
Q
San Vitale: Function
A
christian church
17
Q
San Vitale: Context
A
- mysterious space symbolically connects with mystic elements of religion
- baker Julianus Argentarius financed the building of San Vitale
18
Q
San Vitale Mosaic Justinian Panel: Content
A
- centered and frontal
- halo - shows authority and divinity
- purple robes - color associated with the throne
- 3 centers of power: church, emperor, military
- holds a bowl of the eucharist: holding in the direction of Christ above the center windows in the church (not pictured). bread sanctified by the priest at the Christian ceremony commemorating last supper
19
Q
San Vitale Mosaic Theodora Panel: Content
A
- off center
- halo and purple robes
- theodora was her husband’s most trust advisor: champion of women’s rights, with women of the court, holds chalice for the mass
20
Q
Vienna Genesis: Identifiers
A
Style: Byzantine Manuscript Painting
Location: Rome
Date: 525 CE
