A DELICACY FOR THE EYES

          Christian art, unlike art from the other eras, took a long time to flourish. This is mainly because Christianity simply wasn't accepted during the reign of the Romans. The Romans, who were emperor-centered, saw the Christians as mad cult members who refused to acknowledge their emperor or any other Roman gods. Christians were under a period of persecution for a long time.

Early Christian catacomb artwork

This lead them to worship in secret, using underground burial places called Catacombs. Even though they had difficulty in hiding their religious activities, the Christians were faithful and continued with the knowledge of risking their lives. Catacombs, though underground, have thousands of decorations. Some of these include inscriptions, paintings, statues, ornaments and other items placed in the graves. Most of these decorations were used to identify, immortalize and show respect to the dead.

          Only after emperor Constantine's proclamation (Edict of Milan)were the Christians finally able to be recognized. They did no longer need to hide and worship in secret. They quickly moved above ground level and that's when numerous churches were erected. The construction of churches was based on Basilicas - since Roman architecture was what they already knew. These newly erected

A magnificent view of the former basilica Hagia Sophia.

churches were very intricate in design. The churches included various versions of towers (piers, minarets, twin bell towers, etc.), mihrabs, pendentives, rib vaults, triforiums, flying buttresses and such. The Christian architecture was commonly incorporated with various sculptures, tapestries, mosaics, frescos and stained glass. The sculptures are mostly high/ raised reliefs. The notable artworks of this are the Bernward doors and the Last Judgement tympanum. A famous tapestry is that of the Bayeux tapestry which contains the detail of the Battle of Hastings. The stained glasses are my personal favorite. They seem so brilliant and so full of life, it has that effect of making people see new wonders in the world. Stained glass windows were created to illustrate the teachings of the bible such a nifty idea.

The Bernward doors. Such small sculptures
would require lots of patience and effort.

    

Stained glass window depicting Episcopal baptism.

     

          Christian art, for me, is the most splendid out of all. I never really realized until now but it's something about the delicate shapes and lines, and the light but bold colors. Every single detail, every single effort that the creators exerted are very essential. These made the Christian art of quality workmanship. 








*all photos taken from google

Tall and Mighty

          Classical art is very much related to royalty, in a sense that it's subject were mostly humans. Most of the artworks in this era were either sculptures or architecture. It is said that the most important concepts in classical art are humanity, reason and culture. During this era, the evident styles depicted were humanism, naturalism and idealism. Classical art is divided into 2 parts: the Greek and the Roman art. 

          First off - Greek art. For the Greeks, there was an evident style of idealism, naturalism, realism and humanism. They're common mediums were stones, marble and bronze. The Greek art mainly had humans, Gods, athletes and warriors as their subject matters. Greek art is divided into 4 periods: Geometric, Archaic, Classical & Hellenistic. As early as the geometric period, people already began

The Dipylon Vase

attempts at perspective (but they weren't so successful). An example of this is the horse drawing on the Dipylon vase. They intented to draw the horses using perspective in hopes of letting the viewer see realistic images. Instead, the horses looked like one horse with 12 legs on it, which is freakishly weird if you'd actually see one in real life. 
The archaic period had the so-called 'Archaic smile' which was a trademark in their artworks. An example of this would be 'The Dying Warrior' which, oddly enough, still has a faint smile on his face even though he is suffering. The classical period is notable for the creation of the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena. Hellenistic on the other hand, expressed more emotions.

The Dying (but smiling) Warrior

          Roman art is most known for being imitators of the Greek art. If you would notice, Greek and Roman art are almost similar, except that Roman art is better and was much more exclusively planned and detailed. They focused on realism and idealism, and the common mediums were bronze and terracotta. The Roman empire had 3 periods: The Republican period, The early empire and the Late empire. The Roman art started when Julius Caesar improved Rome under

Pont du Gard

his rule. He adopted the religion and artistic style of the Greeks. The early empire was where the beautiful works of Arch started. The 'Pont du Gard' is a famous example of the Arch built. Another one is the 'Colosseum/ Flavian Ampitheatre'. Later in the empire, they battled over who would rule over the empire. They were divided into the Eastern and Western empire. Constantine tried to reunite the two empires but failed so he divided the empire into his sons.

The Colosseum (Flavian Ampitheatre)

          I think Greece and Rome are truly gifted, considering that there are a lot of breathtaking sites to explore. Classical art is everywhere. The power it emits is enough to make it stand out among the rest. Bold lines, poses and angles all make up for the lack of color (for some artworks). 

THE ORIGIN OF OUR PASSION

          I'm sure everyone's asking the same thing about everything: "How did it start?". This question applies to EVERYTHING! May it be dancing, singing, the latest trends or even how we were created. EVERY POSSIBLE THING - YOU NAME IT! This too goes for the art enthusiasts. How exactly did art start? What happened for such beauty to exist? Let me tell you, it all began way back (more than you can imagine) during the ancient era. I'm gonna have to apologize in advance because my brain has somehow reached full capacity and I am literally crying internally for having to deal with this blog entry. Please do bear with this messy thread. 

          Bold outlines, bland colors, recording, rituals, deities,  depiction - that's what ancient art is all about! Ancient art mostly depicted living things. Animal subjects were dominant during the prehistoric era. The ancient art started around 2,500,000 BCE ago. I suppose everyone's familiar with the popular film 'Ice Age'. As freezing as the words seem, that's how it actually was during the ice age era, maybe even worse. Due to the cold weather, people retreated to the warmth of caves and that's where the first attempt at art occurred. The great wall paintings were said to be "accidentally" discovered when two men followed their dog who chased a ball all the way down a hole. 

The famous "Hall of Bulls" in Lascaux, France.

They saw various paintings of animals that seem to be stampeding in different directions. The first and main unproven reason as to why their subjects were animals (mostly) and humans is to record. The cave paintings served as a form of recording their daily lives and some believed that "capturing" the animals in the painting would help them catch animals in real life. 

          Humans, however, were the more common subjects in the succeeding eras such as the art of near east cities (Sumer, Babylon, Akkad, etc.), Egyptian art, Aegean art.

An artwork dedicated to King "Tut" Tutankhamun

They were mostly deities or the people that they praised and the artworks were created mostly in their favor to appease them. These artworks' face profiles are exclusively detailed. If not based on humans, the artworks were architectural but still served as a vessel to pray to their gods (temples, etc.) Art in Jerusalem was more profound of buildings/ architectural art - referring to mosques and churches. These were often barricaded with walls to separate people of different religion. 

Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

These are the primary things that has helped art to reach where it is now. Without the discovery of these, art would never had existed. There would be no splash of colors, a hint of lines, and a dash of beauty in our lives.




(All photos taken from google. Credits to the owners.)