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- Synagogue at Dura-Europos
- Era: Judaism, 245-256
- Location: Syria
- Techniques:
- extensive mural paintings of Biblical themes
- stylized gestures
- figures have expressionless featrues
- lack body volume and shadow
- figures standing in frontal rows
- disembodied spiritual presences, not enough feet for people
- Old Testament themes
- used to be a private house with central courtyard but then it was converted in the 2nd century to a synagogue
- defies 2nd commandment
- didn't worship idols
- paint walls and manuscripts
- representation of god as a hand that comes from the top of a framed panel YHWH (god)
- niche housed sacred Jewish Torra
- most are narrative theme
- no action
- Samuel, prohpet, anointing David, future king of Isreal
- David's 6 older brothers watching
- Samuel is larger than all the rest - not really higherarchy of scale
- no realism, stylized
- David is wearing a purple toga - purple is royalty, toga is roman emperor
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- Catacomb of Callixtus
- Era: Early Christian, 2nd century
- Location: Rome
- Techniques:
- dug out of tufa bedrock
- dug in staircases
- loculi were rectangular holes cut into to the wall where they placed bodies
- 60-90 miles
- 4 million bodies
- 2nd to 4th centuries
- cemeteries for burying the Christian dead
- less elaborate then Etruscan tombs but more extensive
- hollow passage ways
- buried outside city walls on private property, bought by an association of Christian families
- 3 to 4 feet wide
- rectangular holes called loculi, shells attach name of dead on wall outside
- bodies inside like a morgue
- several bodies in each loculi
- cubicula, mortuary chapels, built for a specific family or group to worship
- right angles
- sometimes as deep as five levels
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- Good Shepard
- Era: Early Christian, 4th century
- Location: Catacomb of Ss. Pietro &Maracelion, Rome
- Techniques:
- slightly domed ceiling
- figures between semicircles with their arms out - iconographic sign of praying - they are orants
- carrying a lost sheep that he has saved, saving a sinner
- cricles linked, kinda represents a cross
- circle is Heaven
- story of Jonah from the Old Testament in each of the semicircles around the circle of Heaven
- whale spitting him out is a miracle, prefiguration of Christ, resurrection
- Christ is surrounded by sheep, his followers
- Christ as a shepard, also a teacher
- a man, a woman, and at least one child are the orants
- make a cross section of a Christian family seeking the heavenly afterlife
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- Old St. Peter's Basilica
- Era: Early Christian, 333
- Location: Rome
- Techniques:
- brick austere walls
- frescos and mosaics and marble columns and chandeliers in side and silver and gold
- no exterior sculpture
- clerestory windows, added light (lifted center portion of roof)
- street alignment, axial alignment
- high podium
- timber roof interior that burned down
- built on the outskirts of Rome by Constantine
- believed to be the burial site of Peter, the first apostle
- could hold 3000-4000 worshipers
- propalium and then main atrium
- narthex is entrance into basilica from main atrium
- triumphal arch between the nave
- nave is 300 ft long and flanked with aisles and the transept
- transepct is not very long
- eventually represents the cross
- transept holds the relics, belongings of saint or Christ, or even a body part
- apse has high altar
- entrance on short side
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- Santa Costanza
- Era: Early Christian, 337-351
- Location: Rome
- Techniques:
- ammulatory - open hallway infront of and around the outside of the apsehigh altar in center of church
- ammulatory is a whole circle with a barrel vaulted ceiling, around the apse in this case
- 12 pairs of columns that surround apse and separate it from the ammulatory
- dome with high windows allow the divine light of Heaven to shine on the high altar
- ring of high windows in ammulatory
- entire ceiling is a mosaic
- central plan building
- circlular or square room
- round or polyginal
- usually adjacent to the main basilica
- possibly named for Constantie's daughter, Constantina
- round style come from tholos
- also descended from the Panthenon
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- Detail of Mosaic in Santa Costanza
- Era: Early Christian, 337-351
- Location: Santa Costanza, Rome
- Techniques:
- portrait bust in Roman style (could be Constantina)
- putti, precursors for tiny angels are harvesting grapes - alluding to the Ucerist and symbolically represent the blood of Christ
- similar to sarcophagai sculpture - dense and pushed to the surface
- surrounded by circling vines
- looks like a medallion off the Roman triumphal arches
- scroll vines, grape vines
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- Christ Enthroned in Majesty with Saints
- Era: Early Christian, 402-417
- Location: Sta. Prudenziana, Rome
- Techniques:
- all mosaic, tiny glass tiles filled with pigment and gold leaf for shine
- actual architectural arch with mosaic on the half dome
- Christ entrhoned wearing golden robes
- flanked by 12 apostles, dressed as Roman senators
- 2 female personifications flanking him - one is the Old Testament of the Jewish, other is the New Testament of the Gentiles
- little mountain behind Christ with a jeweled cross is where Constantine erected his first Christian cross
- jewelded cross represents Constantine
- 4 evangelist is in symbolic, winged form
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- Parting of Lot and Abraham
- Era: Early Christian, 432-440
- Location: Sta. Maria Maggiore, Rome
- Techniques:
- small space between the two main figures
- cluster technique - two full bodies and lots of head
- sharp dialogue of glances and gestures
- wide, forcibly turned eyes
- large gestures emphasized by large hands
- silent but dramatic action that is taking place
- simplified motion, common of late antiquity narrative art
- figures are solid and massive
- cast shadows and modeled in dark and light giving it a 3D appearance
- shadows show volume in the garments
- sunlight highlights the robes
- Content:
- first major church in the west dedicated to the Virgin Mary
- built one year after she was designated as Mother of God, Theotokos in Greek
- Lot taking his followers to Sodom, a city (path of evil) - Abraham taking his followers to Canan, a Christian church (path of good)
- Lot's two daughters are instruments of evil
- Isssac is the prefiguration of Christ
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- Good Shepard Sarcphagus
- Era: Early Christian Art, late 4th century
- Location: Catacomb of Praetextatus
- Techniques:
- shortened figures
- less naturalistic
- flattened space
- dense, pushed to the surface, very busy
- Christ placed on a pedestal - like a sculpture - influence of Roman emperor statues
- dense vines and putti in background
- high to medium relief
- putti are Christian little angles
- lamb around his shoulders, saving a sinner
- bearded Christ, unusual, beard is usually mature Christ
- wearing a Roman toga
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- Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
- Era: Early Christian, 425-450
- Location: Ravenna, Italy
- Techniques:
- barrel vaulted arms
- central plan structure
- exterior is simple brick, no ornamentation - entering into magical place
- walls covered in mosaics
- Greek cross but plan reads as a Latin cross
- crucifix structure
- connected to narthex of a Basilica usually
- focus on square
- center is crossing tower
- fusion of two late antique plans, basilica and central
- tower had a large golden cross in a star studded sky
- give the faithful that idea that outside is earth and inside is a piece of Heaven
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- Christ the Good Shepard
- Era: Early Christian, 425-450
- Location: Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy
- Technique:
- sheep that are evenly spaced in groups of three - alluding the the Holy Trinity possible
- arranged loosely
- fully occupy landscape - ground to blue sky of heaven
- recession into space with foreground, middle-ground, and background
- cast shadows
- Greco-Roman illusionistic devices
- sheeps' fluffy coats - bulk and texture
- kind of stylized, arrow shapes to create texture on sheep
- angular folds of robes
- less formal portrayal of Christ
- lunette above the entrance
- no calf on shoulder
- Christ has a halo
- gold and purple robes
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- Nave of St. Apollinare Nuovo
- Era: Early Christian, dedicated in 504
- Location: Ravenna, Italy
- Techniques:
- colonnade on the bottom row
- row of mosaics underneath clerestories and then mosaics in between the clerestories, and then another row of mosaics on top of the clerestories
- flat coffered ceiling
- contains relics to Saint Apollinare
- 3 aisle basilica
- clerestories
- upper 2 mosaics are older, patriarch and prophets from the old testament and above them are pictures of Christ
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- Miracle fo the Loaves and the Fishes
- Era: Early Christian, 504
- Location: St. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy
- Techniques:
- jeweled cross in his halo, nimbus, signifies his divinity
- fully frontal
- types not individuals
- stylized drapery
- figures aligned laterally
- pushed to the foreground
- inside shallow picture box
- gold screen pushes them forward
- rocks and green grass denote that the setting is earth not heaven (since the sky is gold) and to close off the scene
- remnants of Roman illusinism
- cast shadow
- play of light and shadow on drapery
- ground is sliding off toward us - takes away from true perspective and naturalism of piece
- purple and gold robes
- beardless
- Roman senatorial robes
- expressionless Christ with large almond shaped eyes
- each figure has the same face but different hair
- directing decipals to give out the miraculously produced bread and fish
- emphasis on holy character
- performing act by the power of his own divinity
- not a detailed narrative - more explicit meaning because of less people
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- Junius Bassus Sarcophagus
- Era: Early Christian, 359
- Location: Grottes of Saint Peter, Vatican, Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- made of marble
- 2 registers divided by columns into shallow spaces of equal width
- entablature of top columns has the inscription "newly baptized"
- on the bottom register, columns support alternating triangular and arched gables
- furniture and foliage denote it as an earthly scene
- putti are carved onto the columns are are making wine
- various depictions of Christ throughout the piece
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