Ceramics 1
Ceramics 1
Unity-Principle of Design
Unity-Principle of Design
Unity-Principle of Design
Unity-Principle of Design
Unity-Principle of Design
Unity-Principle of Design
Line- Element of Art
Line- Element of Art
Classwork & assignments
Presentation slideshow
Presentation slideshow
Classwork & assignments
Classwork & assignments
Lines are everywhere. You can see lines in the grain of a piece of wood or in the cracks on a sidewalk.
In art, Line is an element of art that is the path of a moving point through space.
Lines are used to:
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Create boundaries between shapes
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Create boundaries between colors, textures or values
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Lead the eye from one space to another
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Create textures
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Suggest emotional qualities
Lines are everywhere. You can see lines in the grain of a piece of wood or in the cracks on a sidewalk.
In art, Line is an element of art that is the path of a moving point through space.
Lines are used to:
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Create boundaries between shapes
-
Create boundaries between colors, textures or values
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Lead the eye from one space to another
-
Create textures
-
Suggest emotional qualities
Classwork & assignments
Grid drawing is a very old technique of transferring images (from sketches to a full size canvas or fresco, etc...)
Always make sure that the number of squares on the original picture and your working area are exactly the same (even if the size of the squares are bigger on the paper). This is because no matter how many times bigger (or smaller) you make the drawing, the proportions and dimensions can only stay the same if the number of boxes (squares) matches exactly.
Make sure you follow all steps below.
2.3.2 The Van Eycks and Rogier van der Weyden
Early Medieval Painting
Although most of the empire's glory occurred during the Classical period, ancient Rome continued several hundred years into the Middle Ages. However, the art being produced by the Roman Empire began to shift around the 4th century AD.
Gradually, Greek and Roman gods and heroes disappeared from painting. In their place emerged the Christian figures who dominated art for the next thousand years.
In the Middle Ages, the Christian world reigned over the secular (earthly) world, which can be seen in almost all surviving examples of art.
Left, a 1st century BC Roman fresco showing the gods Io and Isis; right, a 4th century AD Roman painting of Jesus Christ
Complete the questions on your study guide as you work through this activity. Reviewing your notes before quizzes and tests will help you succeed. You'll be able to check your answers once you've completed the study activity.
The area known as the Byzantine Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire, shown in red in this map from AD 1035, was centered around the city of Constantinople.
Eastern Medieval Painting
Before you can learn about the next period of art history, you need a quick history lesson to better understand it.
The Split of Rome
At one point, the Roman Empire became so large and unmanageable that the emperor Diocletian split ancient Rome in AD 293. When people talk about the fall of Rome in 476, they're talking about the fall of the Western Empire, since it encompassed the capital city of Rome.
The Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire, on the other hand, did not fall with its neighbor and brother. It had its own capital, Constantinople, which the emperor Constantine I renamed after himself. It was originally called Byzantium.
The Eastern Roman Empire endured almost 1,000 years longer than the Western Empire. It didn't fall until the death of emperor Constantine XI in AD 1453. By this time, the Middle Ages were coming to a close, and the Renaissance was gearing up.
The Byzantine Empire had the same Greek influences as the Western Empire. But since most of this empire's historical context overlaps with the influence of Christianity, there is a mixing of styles similar to what was seen in the rest of medieval Europe.
On the Web...
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The history of Constantinople is long and complex. To get more information on each emperor and major events, click the link above.
Byzantine Style
Byzantine art was usually religious in nature and was generally found in places of worship.
An illuminated manuscript was a way to communicate Christian ideas through art, and Byzantine artists created impressive examples of these.
Also, more examples of mosaic art are found from this era than paintings. Most surviving art from the Byzantine Empire is full of bright colors, especially reds, blues, and golds.
An interesting legacy of the Byzantine style is its foray into the abstract. It was the first recorded culture to experiment with nonrepresentational or abstract art, which you will study later on.
Interestingly, the Byzantines did not consider their art abstract. This is a modern label given to it by modern viewers.
Based on the image on this page, you might not think it's abstract either. It's definitely more realistic than modern Abstract Expressionism paintings. So, what made it abstract?
Note the heavy use of gold and primary colors in this page from the Rabula Gospels, an illuminated manuscript dated circa AD 550. Bright colors are a typical feature of the Byzantine style.
Symbolism in Art
The art from the Byzantine style is considered partially abstract or nonrepresentational because of its heavy use of symbolism.
The mythological gods of ancient Greece and ancient Rome were considered to have distinct personalities and were portrayed in art with specific features. In contrast, the Christian God is abstract. So, artists used symbols to portray this concept.
This wasn't the only use of symbolism. When Christianity was still very new, Christians had to worship in secret or else be persecuted or punished by those still worshiping the mythological gods.
Common Symbols
Early Christian art was filled with nonreligious images that became symbols for Christian ideology. For example, three common symbols were a dove, a hand, and a cross to symbolize the trinity of the Holy Spirit, God, and Jesus Christ.
The art also used religious images from Greco-Roman art to symbolize the Christian religion. Most common is the golden halo found around the heads of Jesus Christ, his apostles or followers, and other holy figures, such as angels.
Abstract Icons
An icon is a religious image used to represent someone or something, usually from the Bible.
The majority of Bzyantine art featured religious themes and was found in places of worship. Under the emperors Constantine and later Justinian, religious art and the iconic, or symbolic, representation of characters, such as Christ flourished.
The glowing majesty of these figures, bright primary colors against a glittering backdrop of gold, and the placement of figures inside architectural spaces are all elements of this early Byzantine style.
However, the representation of religious figures as icons was not to last. In the 7th century, debate began over the appropriateness of portraying figures such as Christ and Biblical characters such as the Virgin Mary as icons to be worshipped. But why?
This 12th-century mosaic of Christ is found in the Hagia Sofia in what is now Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, the center of the Byzantine Empire. The image is a classic example of how the Byzantines chose to represent religious figures as icons.
Image Breakers
In the Bible, the Second Commandment prohibits the creation or worship of idols. Beginning in the 7th century, iconoclasts (from the Greek for "image breakers") in the Byzantine Empire argued that religious art interfered with the purity of Christian worship because it was too much like the creation of idols.
Some argue that the turning point came when emperor Justinian II put the face of Christ on gold coins. It was just too much for people already opposed to so much religious art, and they started to rebel.
So, what did these image breakers do? They destroyed all the sculptures and paintings of Christ that they could get their hands on. The iconoclasts had a lot of support in the Byzantine Empire, and many people, including church officials and priests, agreed with them.
It's a wonder anything survived.
An early piece of Christian art from a 4th-century catacomb depicts Jesus with the two apostles Peter and Paul on either side. The faces of the three men are particularly well defined.
Check Your Understanding
From the split of the empire to the destruction of the iconoclasts, check your understanding before moving on.
A simple painting found on the west wall of the Dura Europos Synagogue features Moses and the Burning Bush, circa AD 244. Notice the muted colors, typical of western European art at the time.
Western Medieval Painting
Remember, Emperor Diocletian divided ancient Rome into two halves in AD 285. You just studied the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. You will now focus on the western half after the fall of Rome in AD 496.
Although divided and destined to follow very different paths, their art was quite similar.
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They were both influenced by Greco-Roman styles.
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They both focused on religion.
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The illuminated manuscript, mosaic, and fresco were common in both the Byzantine Empire and the areas once encompassed by the Western Roman Empire.
The biggest difference between these art styles is in the color. While the Byzantine style was characterized by bright golds and primary colors, the western artists tended to use much more flat, dull colors.
The Church Rises to Power
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 293, much of Europe was left in chaos. There was no structured government, and the Catholic Church stepped in as the primary organized institution that governed the lands.
The church assumed great political power, and its influences were more similar to a modern-day government than to the modern-day Catholic Church. This, of course, had a huge effect on European medieval art.
In general, the portrayal of Christian themes began to dominate the art of this period, and the use of techniques such as perspective was generally abandoned. However, earlier influences and techniques were not forgotten.
This illustration is typical of the basic, unrefined art created during the Middle Ages. But it shows Greco-Roman influences nonetheless. Can you see them?
An illustration from the Codex Washingtonianus, an illuminated manuscript of the four biblical gospels, believed to be created in the 4th or 5th century AD
Focus on the Soul
More and more, the purpose of art became to portray the spiritual world. There was no longer any interest in showing three-dimensional figures.
The new Christian philosophy rejected a focus on the material body and encouraged its followers to focus on the soul. Painting mirrored this ideology.
Without any real precedent for painting the Christian religion, early medieval artists borrowed motifs from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome.
From Egyptian art, painters used the size of figures and primary colors to indicate their importance. Often, figures wear Egyptian clothes. Intense eyes and brows, both noticeable in Egyptian funerary portraits, become common features to express piety or faithfulness.
The paintings clearly copy styles from Greco-Roman art, too. Greek and Roman poses are adopted. Priests generally wear togas, and important buildings are almost always shown as Greek temples.
This panel drawing by an unknown artist shows the halo copied from the Greco-Roman style into early medieval art.
This 4th-century wall painting of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child clearly illustrates elements of both Greco-Roman and early Christian art.
Focus on the Soul
More and more, the purpose of art became to portray the spiritual world. There was no longer any interest in showing three-dimensional figures.
The new Christian philosophy rejected a focus on the material body and encouraged its followers to focus on the soul. Painting mirrored this ideology.
Without any real precedent for painting the Christian religion, early medieval artists borrowed motifs from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome.
From Egyptian art, painters used the size of figures and primary colors to indicate their importance. Often, figures wear Egyptian clothes. Intense eyes and brows, both noticeable in Egyptian funerary portraits, become common features to express piety or faithfulness.
The paintings clearly copy styles from Greco-Roman art, too. Greek and Roman poses are adopted. Priests generally wear togas, and important buildings are almost always shown as Greek temples.
Spreading Christianity Through Art
Painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who can read.
— Pope Gregory the Great, 6th century AD
As Christianity became the official religion of the Byzantine Empire, Christian art from Europe spread to the far reaches of the Empire.
By the 5th century, the Christian popes were sending envoys out into pagan, or non-Christian, Europe carrying illuminated manuscripts.
Meant to spread Christian teachings and promote order, each illuminated manuscript was a sacred text and carefully guarded work of art.
A page from the St. Augustine Gospels, painted in the 6th century AD. It features 12 scenes from the life of Christ, including The Last Supper (top middle) and the Betrayal of Christ (second row, right).
This image from the Book of Kells demonstrates the intense spirituality of art in the early Middle Ages. Christ is featured on a golden throne, surrounded by richly colored birds and angels.
The Book of Kells
Artists of the Middle Ages were not famous masters. In fact, very little is known about most of them. They were first and foremost monks and craftsmen whose work was valued not for its artistry but for its spirituality.
The Irish monks were the most skillful in teaching the Gospels through images in their illuminated manuscripts. Their paintings were as spiritual as the texts.
The famous Book of Kells and Book of Durrow of the 7th and 8th centuries combined complex patterns from the local Celtic culture with the symbolism of Christianity.
Most surviving examples are painted with bright and varied colors. Colors were used to separate holy and other important figures from the rest of humanity. Saints were embedded in gold, and bold reds and blues surrounded kings.
Art increasingly focused on the supernatural, asserting complete independence from the material world. While the paintings lacked any depth or three-dimensional effects, they were rich in symbolic meaning.
Romanesque Architecture
Europe started to gain political stability around AD 1000. The Crusades, a war staged by the Christian army to take the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims, took place from 1095 to 1200.
This created a revived interest in Greco-Roman art and the Byzantine style.
Around this time, European Christians began to make pilgrimages, or treks, to the Holy Land. The combination of the treks with the new interest in ancient styles proved to be a fascinating combination for architecture of the time.
On the pilgrimage route, churches were built in astounding numbers (estimated at 25,000!) in order to give the pilgrims a place to rest and worship.
Due to the new interest in old styles, they were mostly built in a Romanesque, or "Roman-like," style.
These churches are most notable for being massive, strong structures with large arches and vaulted ceilings.
Interior of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Reims, France, built in the 13th century
Art in Architecture
Since most people could not read, these churches were covered with art for the education of illiterate pilgrims.
Again, much of this art was heavily influenced by ancient art styles, which included frieze-style art in various ranges of relief, as well as fresco-style paintings.
The Speyer Cathedral in Germany was built in the Romanesque style in the 11th century.
Check Your Understanding
Radiant colors, suspended angels, penetrating eyes, and intricate symbols were the prevailing motifs used to represent the supernatural world throughout the early Middle Ages.
But the rules were changing. The heavenly figures of medieval art would soon come off their golden thrones and be put back into an earthly setting.
In Review
Before moving on, review what you have learned in the study. Go over the notes you wrote on the study sheet. Ask your teacher any questions you might have.
If you have not filled out your study sheet, do it now before moving on to the next activity.
Study sheets are a very useful tool to help you study for quizzes and tests.
What Did You Learn?
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The Roman Empire split in 293, at which time the Byzantine Empire formed.
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The Byzantine (or eastern medieval) style was influenced by Greek and Roman styles and employed vibrant colors such as red, blue, and gold.
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Illuminated manuscripts and mosaics were popular mediums; religion was the main subject matter.
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Artists experimented more with abstract representations as part of their embrace of symbolism.
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Believing that imagery interfered with worship, iconoclasts advocated the destruction of religious artwork.
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Western medieval painters used duller and flatter colors than their Byzantine counterparts, but the mediums of illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, and frescoes were still dominant.
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The Catholic Church stepped in during a time of political turmoil and became responsible for governing and bringing order to Europe. Religion remained the dominant theme of art.
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There were no attempts at perspective or three-dimensionality in medieval art. Artists were far more concerned with symbolic meaning.
Take this opportunity to check your work.