The Beautiful Byzantine Empire

Why hello all! I have not written in a while, due to Christmas break and the starting of second semester. But I am back and at it, and I am so excited for these next couple of months with you :) As you can tell, this post is about the Byzantine Empire and their beautiful art and architecture!

Constantine died in 337, causing Rome to split. The West declined, while the East prospered and became known as Byzantium. Emperor Justinian was the ruler, and this time is known for its great churches. This style of architecture began near and in Constantinople, and spread throughout Europe during the 5th and 6th centuries. The Byzantine tradition expanded for well over 100 years.

The first piece of architecture we are going to look at is the Hagia Sophia (pronounced aya sophia). This means Church of Holy Wisdom. It was built in Turkey between 532-537 AD.

This building contains a dome on a rectangle. This was done by using triangular pendentives in the four columns to make a circle. That is seen below.

The towers seen above are called minarets. These are the prayer towers for the Muslims that remind them to pray 5 times a day. 

The next piece of architecture I will discuss is St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. St. Mark's is considered the largest and grandest church of the 2nd Golden Age. It was built for Mark, obviously, believing that his body is in a pillar built there. 

Outside of St. Mark's are 2,143 grand marble pillars. I personally think St. Mark's is gorgeous from what I have seen. I would love to go there someday, just not in the summer when I have to wear winter clothes in the hot, humid, weather! In the building, women must be covering most of their body. No shoulders, and long skirts are recommended. :)

Next up is St. Basil's! This church is awesome, it reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How could it not?! 

The little onion domes have the best names ever as well. They are called kokoshniki's. Such a fun name for such a fun cathedral. 

Next up is the Alhambra in Spain. It is a giant fortress that looks like a ginormous palace!

This palace is most famous for its beautiful gardens.

The last building is the Dome of the Rock. It is in Jerusalem, and is a famous mosque built to Mark where Mohammad ascended, and where Abraham almost killed his son. It is Byzantine style. The dome is built in wood but covered in gold leaf. The exterior was once covered in mosaics, but is now covered in tile. 

The famous rock.

So there are no more buildings to discuss, but there is painting! The Byzantines had their own style of painting that was very far from realism. 

Some characteristics of Byzantine paintings are the bright colors to evoke emotion, elongated fingers and bodies, the use of gold leaf, using halos, and long noses. They strove for beauty and essence, not realism. 

During this time, Islam became more popular and spread. That is where we got our Arabic numerals from! 

                                       

That's all for this post, there will hopefully be more beautiful art and architecture coming soon!

-lauren 

Ancient Rome!

Time for some Ancient Rome Art History! This is definitely my favorite that we have learned about so far. I think that it is so interesting to learn about the Romans and how smart they were with architecture and art. It is also interesting that we get many of our ideas today from them! So let's dive in and see what is so great about these Romans and their art :)


The time period of the Roman's achievements was in 8th century BC. They excelled in art and architecture, specializing in arch, vault, and concrete. The Romans assimilated all other cultures.

This is an example of a Roman vault. 

Vault: A roof in the form of an arch or a series of arches, typical of churches and other large, formal buildings.

This is an example of Roman arches.

Arch: A curved symmetrical structure spanning an opening and typically supporting the weight of a bridge, roof, or wall above it.

This is the Arch of Constantine. It is a Triumphal Arch and it celebrates the victory for Constantine's assumption of power.

This is the Forum Romanum. It was a place of meeting and discussing. Other things that were here were a political meeting house, a discussion hall, a towns square, political/religious center, and as a shopping place. 

This is the Colosseum. This was a place for entertainment such as duels to the death, fake naval wars, and gladiator races. It is a 16 story building that stands 144 feet tall. It is made with concrete (which the Romans invented) and had decorative plaster and marble on its surface. It held 50,000 people. In order to get in people needed tickets, like we do today when we go to an event such as a concert. In the Colosseum were niches, which held statues that were most likely copied from the Greeks. The Colosseum was an example of the Standard Roman Sequence which was the style of architecture. From bottom to top it was Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. 

When it rained in Rome, a tarp called a valarium was pulled over the Colosseum to make sure water did not flood it. It took over 1,000 men to pull this tarp over. 

This is called the Pantheon, and it was a temple to worship all the gods. The columns are Corinthian. The walls were 20 feet thick, the floors were 144 feet in diameter,and the dome is 144 feet from the floor. With the dome, it is more thick at the base. The ceiling is coffered. 

The eye of the dome is called the oculus, and is 30 feet wide. Below the oculus was a drainage system for when it would rain. 

The doors of the Pantheon were covered in gold but were pilfered. 

This is the Roman Baths. These were used for bathing, and however many times you went depended on your wealth. The rich would go 1-2 times a day. You would go through 3 pools of 3 different temperatures. The Romans believed this was healthy for you. 

This is an ancient Roman house. All the rooms in these houses had a certain purpose. That was a new idea then, but still remains with us today!

This is the Head of Augustus, which is located currently at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California. This is an example of the glass eyes used with statues.

This is a statue of Constantine the Great. He was an emperor who legalized Christianity. His mother is responsible for holy spots being established, such as the path Jesus walked on his way to being crucified. The statue of 30 feet tall, with just the head remaining. The features are exaggerated in the eyes to show that the eyes are the gateway to the soul and so that the iris and pupil could be seen. 

This is an example of an equestrian statue. It is of Marcus Aurelius. It was the only equestrian bronze to survive from Greece. Michelangelo did a copy but was not pleased with it so he placed it on a simple pedestal. The original is in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. 

This is the Aqueducts. The use is to get water to the city, and is done with the force of gravity. It is made with concrete and it expands and contracts with the temperature. They do repairs on it between April 1 and November 1 because of the weather. Rome has 77 aqueducts supplying 350 million gallons of water a day. 

This is the Column of Trajan, which holds Trajan's ashes inside! 

The drawings on the outside represent a record of Trajan's conquests and victories. This is called Bas Relief. 

This is an ancient Roman fresco. Fresco's were paintings in wet plaster. The paintings were used for decoration of homes, and had family portraits and fake landscapes painted.

This is an ancient Roman mosaic. Each piece of a mosaic was half a centimeter. Some of the smaller stones were 150 tiles per 1 square centimeter. That's crazy insane! These were created when the New Testament was being written. 

These 3 pictures are bodies that became preserved like that from being covered in ash. This is from the city of Pompeii. A volcano erupted and the ash covered the city of Pompeii within a short amount of time and killed everyone. This is such a big deal because of the way everything is so well preserved.

I hope you all enjoyed this post as much as I did! I am thankful for the Romans and their intelligence they had to create the systems we may take for granted in today's times! 

Beauty of Ancient Greece

The ancient Greek people had many accomplishments in architecture & sculpture from 600-200 BC. Here's a few gnarly things that they did! :)

Statue of a Youth 

ca. 590–580 B.C.; Archaic

This represents Apollo or an idealized athletic body. 

Krittios Boy

480 BC

Example of contrapposto, which is an asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts with while balancing those of the hips and legs. The style of this sculpture is Archaic. It is also considered the precursor to the later classical sculptures of athletes. 

3 Goddesses

435 BC

Originally located on the east pediment at the Parthenon but is now located at the British Museum. The artist of this sculpture had the models wear wet clothing so that their body was more distinguished. The detail in this is incredible, like the shapes of the knees and legs. I wish people made sculptures like this today. They're beautiful. The style of this is classical.

The Dying Gaul

230-220 BC

The statue is a second-century AD Roman copy of a third-century BC Hellenistic bronze statue. It is believed that these people had the most athletic and best looking bodies so they would go into battle naked. Let's just say they were defeated very easily because they had no armor! The style of this is Hellenistic.

Nike of Somathrace

200 BC

originally stood on the marble bow of a sculpted warship, a monument that commemorated a naval victory. She is designed to look like she is landing on the bow of the ship. Her arms are originally supposed to be at her mouth while she calls out "victory!". This statue resides at the Louvre in France. She was discovered in 1863 and is of the Hellenistic style.

Caryatids

421-405 BC

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or pillar. These belong to the Erectheum located in Athens. They are categorized as classical architecture.

The Parthenon 

448-432 BC

Located in Acropolis, Athens. Celebrated the birth of Athena Parthenos. Built during the Classical time period. The columns were 30 feet tall with the order of architecture being Doric. The dimensions are 100 ft wide X 228 ft long! Made up of 70,000 different pieces, and was made without blue prints. That is incredible for how fantastic this building is. The base of the building is not flat, but bows to make it look flat. It is an example of an optical illusion used in architecture. Much disaster has come upon the Parthenon, hence the condition it is in today. It was even blown apart by Napoleon Bonaparte! A cannon ball hit the building. 

Amphora

530 BC

Jar for carrying liquid with 2 handles. One of the first works of art where the artists actually signed their work.

3 Orders of Architecture

Doric                            Ionic                   Corinthian 

Greek Key

Decorative border that represents unity.

Pre-Historic Beauty.

               

Hello, all. :) Here is a post about pre-historic art all over the world. Enjoy!
                 

                                                                   The Serpent Mound

The Serpent Mound is found in Ohio, USA and is a form of aesthetics (philosohy art/beauty). Dated back to 1070 CE.

Venus of Willendorf

Known as the fertility goddess, originated in Austria, dated back to 25,000 BC. 

Smaller than it appears :) it is 11.1 cm!

Lascaux Caves, France

These are cave paintings in France dated back to 1500 BC. Each bull is about 16 feet long, and since there is no way they could have taken these bulls inside and painted them, that means it is all from memory! Crazy how realistic these are.

Stonehenge, England

This post and lintel construction is still a mystery to this day. Dated back to 2800-1500 BC. Nobody knows how they got here or how it was constructed. Possible explanations are aliens, druid ritual sites, a giant sundial, or magic conjured by Merlin.

Step Pyramid

Built in 6 stages for Djaser, dated back to 2650-2575 BC.

That's all for now, hope to have another post soon about this beautiful subject of art history.

Hey all! :) Welcome to my blog all about art history. I'm excited to go on this journey and learn all about art and its history with you following me along the way. This is for a project for school, but I'm hoping to get more out of it then it being just another school project. 
so excited to dive in! :)

                                                            
                                                                    Here's one of my favorites. "Arnolfini Wedding"
                                                                                             by Jan van Eyck.
                                                                              The detail in this is incredible.