The Design Of The Antioch Mosaics

On the lower half is an organization of geometric forms. However, the most important mosaic is the representation of Emperor Justinian and Emprise Theodora. Justinian is presented holding a bowl of Eucharistic bread as Theodora carries a chalice or vessel of Eucharistic wine. Due to the orientation of these figures and the ones that surrounds them, it could be suggested that they represent bringing Eucharistic elements into the church. Perhaps even as an offering to christ which is reinforced by the three magi bearing gifts on Theodora's rob.

Martin Robertson and Mary Beard’s manuscript, Adopting an Approach, focuses on the study of Athenian pottery. The manuscript begins, by describing Sir John Beazley and his revolutionary method of studying Greek vases. The Beazley Method focuses on the technical conventions of Greek Vases such as naming the artist, dating the pieces and then grouping them based off of similar characteristics. Beazley “provided for the first time a comprehensive framework of analysis for Athenian painting, and a way of dating and classifying.” (Pg. 16) However, what Beard’s main argument suggests is that it is not the artists that help us understand the importance of the vases because even if a vase is assigned to a specific time period or artist, there is

Duccio’s Maestà towered over six feet and consisted of fifty-five framed panels painted with egg-based tempera. Madonna Enthroned, the largest section of the entire structure, dominated the front plane of the altarpiece. The same side was comprised of scenes of the life of Mary from Annunciation to her death (fig. 4). The reverse side compiled the life of Christ into 42 separate panels from the Baptism of Christ to events occurring after Resurrection (fig. 5).

Various pieces of art found thousands of years ago depict characters based on certain events and legends. I will be analyzing two works of art: The Sound Box of the Great Lyre, a wooden music box (33 x 11 cm) found in present-day Iraq c. 2600-2500 BCE, and Lapith Fighting a Centaur, a high metope relief (1.42 m) on the side of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece c. 447-432 BCE. The former represents a bull with a low relief under its head, depicting animals mimicking the lifestyle of humans. The latter exemplifies a nude man struggling against a mythical creature that is half-man half-horse2. Although these works are from across the world with completely different cultures, they both have similar

Early Christian and Byzantine art started after Jesusí death in the first century ranging and ending to the fourth century AD. The art produced during this period was secretive because Christianity was not a formal religion but as a cult; the Romans and rest of Europe persecuted Christians so the artist disguised their work with symbols and hints of Christian aspects. Christianity was the first cult to not involve rituals of sacrifice of animals and refused to worship an Emperor causing the Roman Empire to make Christianity illegal. Byzantine art excelled in the Justinian period in the east during 520-540 AD. The art was produced in Ravenna, Byzantine, Venice, Sicily, Greece, and Russia. The

The presentations of glass objects as well as pieces of furniture are the next stop in the exhibition. We view a couple of lamps which have exquisite detail. The Lamp Bearing Youth (see Fig. 3) which was utilized as a home decoration seems to be more of an artifact. A young and fit man, presumably Apollo, stands in the now prominent cross balance posture. We then see objects such as the two Table Supporters and the Four Flasks. The two table supporters are very intricate objects, for they portray an almost devilish animal with a lion’s leg. On the other hand, the four flasks express the beauty of glass blowing with the exquisite colors and movements of lines. At the end of this room we are taken to The Moregine Triclinium which is a beautiful room with an empowering color of red. The room has what seems to be the second

However, the result of the Vyses concentration expended on the production of the stoneware vessels and attendant ash-glazes culminated in the re-working of the figure group Morning Ride. Even so, it is difficult to understand the reasoning why Vyse found it expedient to remodel this figure rather than devising an additional composition, and Marsh, in his Walker’s article, does not mention it. Indeed, this present model is occasionally mistaken for the 1925 original (Fig. 62). Furthermore, the 1929 model should not be viewed as a previous model bearing a similar title. In sculptural terms, this edition is a pointed up version of the original. Doubtless, Vyse expended much the same industry in the as he had done when modelling the smaller 1925 version. The present version, thought by collectors to be the suitable of the two, and possibly justification for the time

At first glance, Giovanni Paolo Pannini’s Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome (1757) reveals very little past the outsider-looking-in perspective we are given from Pannini’s perspective. In the center is the Duc de Choiseul surrounded by detailed views of Roman architecture including buildings, fountains, and monuments and several infamous sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries. While looking at the painting, it is hard to pinpoint one focal point within the composition when the walls of the gallery are filled with paintings from the floor to the ceiling. The focus becomes about the space Pannini has created and it does not focus on one specific object or figure. Each view of Rome seen in the imagined gallery adds to the illusion of Rome as an ideal city and to the idea of its beauty. By showing a space that reflects this beauty through the numerous paintings, sculptures, and architecture Pannini’s painting transforms into an allegory. Even though this painting was commissioned to commemorate Rome, he is able to portray the city and its architecture through a well respected and scholarly environment uncharacteristic of any known space or time. These characteristics cause the which allows it by creating a fictitious These allegorical characteristics do not become known unless you take a closer look at Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome (1757).

With the adoption of Christianity as the official religion, art was able, so to speak, to come above ground in the old pagan city of Rome, and painting, instead of being restricted to the decoration of the walls of the Catacombs or of small chambers and chapels, came into use on a large scale in the new churches that were at once set up. At the same time patronage moved from the hands of the poorer classes to the richer, and artists of outstanding quality came to be employed as well as those of obscurer character, who would work for small fees (www.religion-online.org). To wall painting was added the more luxurious art of mosaic; numerous sculptures were done, and minor objects, often in expensive materials, were in addition produced in the service of the Church, so that art production became at the same time both more extensive and more luxurious (www.religion-online.org ).

The traditional view of the Parthenon Frieze, based off the work of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, is that it depicts the panathenaic procession which occurred every four years and was part of the Panathenaea festival to commemorate the birth of Athena. This view is based off of the seeming procession and sacrificial animals included in it as well as the Greek gods either side of the giving of the Peplos where a statue of Athena would be draped with a shroud. (5) However we believed the Frieze depicted a different story as there were several inconsistencies with the depiction of the giving of the Peplos. For

statues display their own set of artistic conventions in their strict symmetry, basic forms, and

This piece of art depicted the interaction between Dionysus and Pan in a form of sculpture. The sculpture was created from beautiful marble in A.D. 50 – 150. The work is three

The British Museum in London holds many ancient pieces of art. There are so many galleries and exhibits inside the museum that several pieces do not get the attention they deserve. One such piece resides in the Assyrian exhibit inside the museum. It is a collection of three alabaster panels that act as registers of a narrative story. The expertly carved reliefs illustrate the great lion hunt performed by an Assyrian king in an arena. So much emotion is portrayed in the brutal imagery of the lion hunt. These great alabaster slabs once resided in an Assyrian palace in present day Nineveh. The reliefs were excavated in the 1840’s by Hormuzd Rassam, employed by Austen Henry Layard of the British Museum. Rassum found the palace by secretly digging at night because the site was originally claimed by French archeologist Victor Place. Since the excavation, the lion hunt reliefs have been displayed in the British Museum. The lion hunt reliefs features so many qualities ranging from historical to artistic. In this report the topic of why the reliefs were made, how they represented the king, the symbolism of the lion, and artistic prowess of the piece will be exposed.

On the wall under Theology is the Disputà, representing a group discussing the mystery of the Trinity. The famous School of Athens, on the wall beneath Philosophy, portrays an open architectural space in which Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers are engaged in discourse. On the wall under Poetry is the Parnassus, in which the Greek god Apollo appears surrounded by the Muses and the great poets. (Paoletti, 347) Others describe the frescoes in the Stanze as “related to three fundamental ideas of Christian Platonism, The True, The Good and The Beautiful. The Disputa corresponds to theological or revealed truth, and the School of Athens to philosophical or rational truth; the frescoes of the Virtues, canon law and civil law correspond to the Good; and the Parnassus to the Beautiful.” (Daley, 114)

First, we visit St. Peter’s Basilica and Adjoining Piazza in Rome. The beautiful structure still used today, initially was brought to fruition by Donato Bramante as a temple shaped like a Greek cross. Quickly Pope Paul V rejected the design, deeming the Greek cross to be pagan-like. He commissioned Carlo Maderno to make some changes to the floor plan, adjusting the look into a Latin cross. The florid baroque styles are seen entering the Apse and Alter, which “symbolized the power and richness of the church” (392). The sculptures throughout, specifically in the Apse, are dramatic and real, shunning classical styles.