Essay about Medieval Art in a Modern World

Gorgeously. Striking. Grace. The golden painting is taking up by the two most iconic symbols of Christianity: Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. Christ gently placing a golden grown on the inclined head of the Virgin Mary, who is sitting on the right side of Jesus; her hands crossed over her chest symbolist of humble, reverent and loyalty. This position was purposely set by Fabriano. In Christianity art, position is significant in dividing between good manners and malefactors. For instance, in The Last Judgment by Giotto di Bondone in 1305, heaven was placed on right of Christ, and hell was on the left. This ideology was clearly stated in the bible “...before him shall be gathered all nations:

However, the artist used Christian meaning in symbols to celebrate their religion. Such symbols were a piece of garland meant victory over death, a tendril was the Eucharist, a nude figure is Christmas, a peacock is immortality, and a flying bird is a soul flying to heaven.

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

“Hieronymus Bosch was one of the most fascinating and puzzling artists in history- a unique artistic personality who nonetheless typifies the Renaissance era in the emergence of distinctive personal styles”, in the words of Fred S. Kleiner (257). The painting I chose do my term paper on is titled, The Arrest of Christ. Painted in the year 1515, by the artist Hieronymous Bosch, in oil and tempera on a panel. It currently hangs in the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. The Arrest of Christ painting depicts Christ’s peace transcending his circumstances and the balance between good and evil. In the first part of this paper I will give a formal analysis of the painting

The halo looks to have been carved into the wood and then painted with a little bit of sun gold to heighten its appearance. The lesser portion of the painting has a dark brown color which might have being painted or made from a different type of wood. The base on which the painting stands is painted in dark brown and looks very firm. On the left and right of the arch there are blue colors meant to depict the skies filled with yellow stars. This depiction of the skies is said to be where God the Father resides. In the painting, there are three life like images that are clearly visible. The first one as illustrated in order of importance is God the Father who sits on his thrown that of a chair made from gold. His hair is long down to his shoulders; and he his fully garbed in a mixture of red, white and black being the dominant color. His garments are lined with gold colors and matches his long beard. God the Father hands are partially extended in front of him holding up a wooden cross which displays God the Son.

The Ceiling of the Mausoleum of Galla shows Christ as the Good Shepherd taking care of his sheep’s. This picture show Christ with a golden halo (Gold color represents power and wealthy). He is wearing a loyal purple mantle to show that he is a king and god. He is also holding a Christian cross.

Every soul will be judged and the good will go to heaven and the damned will go to hell. The sculpture vividly expresses the emotional intensity of what the afterlife will look like. On the left-side the sculpture shows “heaven” the figures show that they are at peace because they know their souls have been saved. The children are laughing and the angels are blowing their trumpets with joy in anticipation of Christs’ return. As for the right-side it tells of what “Hell” maybe like, demons are weighing the souls and claiming them. It shows people suffering, crying and realizing that they’re going to hell for

Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South and Madonna Enthroned are very similar images that were produced by very different cultures. Both images were produced during the 13th Century. The image of Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South was produced in Tibet during an interesting period of the country’s religious history. The branch of Tibetan Buddhism is led by a religious and sometimes political leader called the Dalai Lama. It was during the 13th Century during the reign of Kublai Khan, around the time of the production of this painting, that Tibet experienced the first incarnation of the Dalai Lama. One has to wonder if this painting is somehow related to that occurrence. According to

Fredericks was commissioned to sculpt a 6-foot-tall crucifix, but instead designed this 28-foot full-scale model, for a bronze to be placed at the Indian River Catholic Shrine in Indian River, Michigan. The sculpture reminds me of church because it represents the crucifixion of Jesus. It had a facial expression that reveals apparent emotions of pain and sadness. The size and placing of the sculpture up on the wall is a dominant settling force for the eye, and it contrasts well with other sculptures around it. The white plaster on the sculpture establishes a powerful element as a visual

Not only is this statue a beautiful piece of art for visitors to look upon when entering the center, but it also reminds us of the reasons Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of us no matter what our faith, age, race, or gender may be. This is invaluable to every human being. This statue is something any visitor to the center can appreciate and agree with.

For being over eight hundred years, the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists remained in remarkable condition. However, pieces of the original piece, which originated in the Catalan chapel in Spain, have faded. Portions, especially along the bottom, have disappeared over time. Even though historians moved it to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, it has not been fully restored. The artist identified each of the apostles in the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists, but the writing has grown fainter and this creates a difficulty for art historians. Another key factor in the overall story represented has faded--one of the lamps or incense holders beneath Christ.

Vittore Carpaccio’s symmetrical input truly served it’s purpose. Focusing on the center third of the painting, there’s a mere perfect symmetrical contrast of life and death top to bottom. Most impacting is the symmetrical division of the malnourished and tortured body of Jesus Christ, The left side of his body is in a lively sitting posture on the throne. While his right side is the embodiment of death, his punctured ribs and dangling arm. From the ground up, Carpaccio illustrates the contrast of life and death with minimal details in the painting. The supporting stones of the throne, directly below the arm rests, are divided by breakage, the left stone is cracked and falling apart, while the opposing stone appears to be intact. Vittore Carpaccio managed to capture the cycle of life with many elements one wouldn’t think of comparing life and death with. The top left portion of the throne is a half broken, followed by Jesus’s deadly posture to the falling apart ground stone of the throne, Death is captured in a very recognizable minimalistic form.

Art during the Italian Renaissance differed from art during the Middle Ages. The two have contrasting characteristics and concepts. To the people in the medieval world, religion was their life. Everything in daily life focused around the church and God (Modern World 164). Medieval culture influenced the arts; this was evident in the religious themes. During the Italian Renaissance, painters and other artists focused on the portrayal of a more humanistic way of life. Renaissance artists’ work portrayed realism with “lifelike human figures in their paintings” (Modern World 164). Renaissance artists wanted to express ancient Greek and Roman cultures in their work (Modern World 162). Italian Renaissance

St. Peter Claver was a humble looking church, without the towering spires or detailed architecture that some churches possess in order to fill you with worshipful awe. In fact, it would have been almost unrecognizable as a church if it were not for the relatively small silver cross that hung above the door, not even raised above the line of the roof. Walking into the church did not change the sense of humility that the outside professed. Dark wood lined the walls and floor, and made up the pews. It felt almost like stepping into a cabin that had been built in the 1970’s. Along the walls there were small portrait sized depictions of the fourteen stations of the cross. Unlike St. Agnes’s eye catching and baroque decorations, St. Peter Claver’s artwork almost blended into the background, and was not immediately visible. It appeared that the artwork mirrored the nature of the building itself, almost as if the church wanted to dispense with frivolity and maintain its focus on the practice of its faith.

When the new upper class movement, Renaissance, occurred in Italy around the 14th century, a revival of the classical forms originally developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, an intensified concern with secular life, and interest in humanism and assertion of the importance of the individual began. Thus, artists such as Mosaccio and Giotto depicted art that unlike the Middle Ages, showed emotions, feelings, and bright colors, thus demonstrating the deep concern for naturalism in the society. Other artists during the Italian Renaissance period such as Giovanni Bellini began to express their art through secular and religious themes and ideas that were exhibited through landscapes and portraits. As new styles of