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The Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists Essay

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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. The positions of the stories in the apse show…show more content…
The Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists uses an interesting technique in its apse, compared to previous Byzantine decorations in apses. It incorporates the technique of fresco painting, where artists painted pigments into the plaster and wood on the walls so the paint would become one with the walls similar to methods used in ancient Greece, compared to exercising mosaics as decorations in apses. The artist mostly employed primary pigments in the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists to make the figures stand out. A repetition occurs in the pigments with red, gold-like yellow, and blue with the occasional purple and the hair colors vary with tones of brown and grayish white. The style portrayed in the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists follows previous rules with the representation of divine figures in churches. The proportions of the piece utilizes the hierarchy scale with the most important figure--Christ. The figure of Christ is the largest image shown in the apse, and other figures such as the apostles, the four symbols of the evangelists, and the scenes from the New Testament are roughly the same size. The smallest figures appear in the windows--the sacrifice scenes with Cain and Abel. The artist employed a more decorative aspect to the drapery of the figures than a naturalistic
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