Bryce Medinger

[kelnken-blog]

Week 12

Early Christian and Byzantine Art/The Eastern Mediterranean and Syria, 1-500 A.D.

This time period is the time that Christianity was most developed.  Jesus Christ died in about A.D. 33 leading to the establishment of the Christian religion, whose impact on Western art after the fall of Rome cannot be overestimated.  Christians were different than other Eastern religions because they refused to worship the emperor as the embodiment of the state and they also did not go along with the Roman and Greek pantheons and the Near Eastern and Egyptian gods.  This instantly set them at odds with the imperial Roman establishments and made its followers subject to persecution by Rome.  Because of this, it mainly appealed to the lower-class society and remained underground for the first 300 hundred years of existence.  Once Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance to all religions in the year A.D. 313 Rome became safe for Christians.  Early Christian art depicts many of the Old and New Testament scenes that combine Roman with Christian meaning.  One is shown in our book of a marble sarcophagus in the Church of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome.  It depicts Jonah and the Whale, a poet and a muse, the Good Shepard, and John the Baptist baptizing a child.   Most Christians had to worship in private in the early stages.  This is how catacombs were developed.  These were underground cemeteries and burial grounds were sacrosanct, so the Romans rarely pursued Christians into the catacombs and this where some of the earlies forms of Christian art can be found.  Christ as the Good Shepard was found in one of these catacombs.  But once Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, they were free to construct places of worship.  Basilicas were developed during this time.  Unlike Greek and Roman temples whose sole purpose was to house the statue of a god, Christian churches were built so that crowds of believers could gather together for worship.  Mosaics and marble can be found in some of these churches and were mostly used to decorate these churches.  A lot of the images of Christ that we have come from these mosaics.  One of the most regarded mosaic of this time is Christ from the thirteenth century from Hagia Sophia.  Although created in Eastern Empire, it contains Pre-Christian, Hellenistic, and Roman styles which developed the Byzantine elements.   I chose the Eastern Mediterranean and Syria, 1-500 A.D. because it developed more into the chapter that we studied this week.  This is the time period where Christianity became legal and officially declared the sole official religion of the empire.  During this time St. Paul was instrumental in establishing Christian communities on Cyprus and in Syria, Anatolia, and Greece.  He is arrested in Jerusalem and deported to Rome, where tradition says he was executed.  This is also a time where the realm became divided and the Jews and Christians were torn apart.  Many people were killed for their beliefs, which is amazing to me, we don’t know how fortunate we are to be able to live the life we want and worship how we want all because of those who fought for it before us.   Helena, empress and mother of Emperor Constantine I, embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and she founded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension in Jerusalem.  Tradition says that while in the holy land, she located the True Cross on which Christ was crucified as well as his empty tomb and the rock of Golgotha.  Holy shrines are established during this time.   In the end, this was a time of great conflict and of great coming together.  So many Christians developed pilgrimages during this time which continue today.   And so many beliefs, and artistry’s remain intact in today’s Christian world.  It was an interesting time to study in more detail.

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Nice post! I really agree with you in regards to how mindblowing it is that people who were Christians in Rome for about the first 300 years after Christianity was developed could be persecuted for their beliefs. We are so fortunate today to be able to live as independent individuals and worship and live how we see fit to our lives!  

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Week 12 Early Christian and Byzantine Art

In this weeks reading Early Christan and Byzantine Art, I had originally thought that these were two different styles of art in different time periods. However, Early Christian simply refers to the era of art and Byzantine is the style. In this chapter, I was also surprised to find that artists during this time often combined influences of Christian and Roman cultures. 

In the first century after Christ was when Christianity developed. Christianity was prominent in the Mediterranean and Rome, though before 313 A.D. Rome is not safe for Christians.  One popular form of Early Christian Art was Sarcophagi, the book references on in specific in the Church of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome. This Sarcophagus is made of marble and has many influences from the old and new testament and many figures with meaning to Christians and Romans. Some ideas that are seen in this sarcophagus would be idealized bodies of those depicted in it, salvation, and possibly scenes that suggest the resurrection of Christ. Other Christian influences seen in this sarcophagus would be references to the holy spirit, baptism which goes kind of hand in hand with salvation, and the presence of good/evil and dark/light. 

After 313 A.D. it was deemed that Christians did have the right to have their own respective places of worship, this is when it was decided that they could not be persecuted for their Christianity, soon after this is when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. As the Roman Empire declared Christianity as their official religion, this caused the religion to grow quite rapidly which in turn, resulted in many Christian churches being built so that all of these new worships could come and worship together. When these new places of worship started to be constructed they were then called and are still referred to today as Basilicas due to the time period they were built and the specific layout of the buildings having to do with their religious affiliations. 

Similar to the Basilicas, during this time period another Christian structure being build was the Centrally Planned Churches. The focal point of these buildings being the center and the dome on top. These buildings were used primarily for performing baptisms or were also used as tombs as well.   

During the fifth century, there was lots of controversy in parts of the Roman Empire with parts of it being overrun by different tribes and then being recaptured. Around 540 A.D. the Byzantine Emperor is Justinina, who build one of the most important churches during this time in Ravenna called San Vitale, which is Italian for Saint Vitalis, the saint after who the church is dedicated to. The building of this Centrally Planned Church was an attempt to restore peace to Christendom. 

[kelnken-blog]

Ancient Egypt

Blog Week 6 In this week’s review of Chapter 5, we will be studying about Ancient Egypt.  According to our textbook, Egypt was the home of the one of the most powerful and longest lasting civilizations of the ancient world.  Egypt was defined by it’s most important geographical feature, the Nile, which is also the world’s longest river.  Egyptian artwork had a huge influence on Western art culture.  It also has made a huge impact on a lot of artists throughout history, even contemporary ones.  Most of the Ancient Egyptian artwork was made of the gods or for the deceased.   Egypt was ruled by pharaohs or kings and these kings and pharaohs had absolute control over the people and the land in their kingdom.  The way to become a king was truly only to be a male son born unto the king.  The pharaoh simply had to get the queen pregnant with a son.  Who the queen was honestly varied and they had no issues with incest.  Whatever was the best for them, they married and had children with.  They felt as if they were better than the general population and therefor modeled much of their behavior based on if they were gods.   They set themselves apart from the general population.  The way the saw themselves is depicted in the Palette of Narmer.  King Narmer is very large compared to the other people on the palette.  The way he is standing over the others in dominance and looking down on them also shows his power.  Every picture of him shows that he is more powerful than anyone else in the sketch.  It shows how he destroys the enemy and the entire city.  Most of the art that was drawn, painted or carved during this time depicts people at a profile with the eyes and feet facing forward.   They also did sculptures during this time, again starting out with the side profile and eyes facing forward, eventually some were done facing forward.  The larger the sculpture was of the person the more important they were. Another one of the huge impacts from the Ancient Egyptian art period is the pyramid.  According to our textbook, they started out as mud and brick and later were faced with cut stones.  Pyramids were built for the kings burial.  These were amazing structures that held various chambers throughout, thought to be for the queen or possibly organs of the deceased and worldly good for the journey to the afterlife.  There were many mazes throughout the pyramids, some leading to dead ends which were thought to detour grave robbers.  Egyptians also mummified the bodies of the deceased, which was a seventy two day process.  It amazes me that they knew to do this whole procedure and the details that they spent during the process.   They moved to eventually using a coffin to help preserve the mummies.  One noted was the Tutankhamon’s Tomb or more commonly know as King Tut.  His body was preserved inside three different coffins and his mummy wore a solid gold portrait mask.  The two outer coffins were made of wood and the innermost third coffin was solid gold.  This time period was very influential to the art world.  

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

I was surprised to find out the impact ancient Egyptian art had artists of recent times! I agree that the pharaohs did seem to believe themselves to be of godly status such as the gods they were to be communicating with for the people who they ruled over. I found it interesting that the pyramids had other chambers inside for organs or possibly for people also of godly status or queens due to the fact that if they thought of themselves so highly why would these pharaohs want to be buried with anyone else?

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Week 6 Ancient Egypt

This week's reading about ancient Egypt really heald alot of information as well as so much insight to the lives of the people during this time. One of the first things I noticed is that you mostly learned about the pharaohs or Kings during this time and how much of the art created then was to use in some sort of ritual. Weather it was for protection, to appease the gods, or to show power, ritual through art seems to be a strong theme in this chapter. I thought it was really interesting how it was believed that the Pharaohs were the communication between earthly people and the gods, secondly I was thinking a little that the pharaohs were kinda vain, depicting themselves in so many different pieces of art such as The Palette of Narmer, or the Great Sphinx. The Palette of Narmer shows Narmer as the largest character on the front with a white crown, and with his legs, upper limbs and his head being situated so that they would have a sort of profile view while his eye and torso were situated towards the front or viewer of the palette. In the palette it shows several enemies of the pharaoh who are both deceased and one who is soon to be, at the hands of Narmer, with a god above holding a severed head on a rope. To me this I feel like this represents the approval of the gods and their acknowledgment of Narmer’s power as he has defeated the enemy. I also feel as though this piece really speaks true to the fact that the art during this time held significant value to the people of this culture and to their pharaohs so that they may show their power and their ability to please the gods. I also found the pyramids interesting for the fact that they held value to the culture in their beliefs of what they afterlife holds, burying their rulers with earthly possessions as well as reminders of their daily lives as they did believe in material existence after death as well as a continuation of their current existence in the after life. I found three particular pyramids to be especially intriguing those being the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Khufu, who was the father of Khafre, and Khafre, who was the father of Menkaure. Each of their pyramids lied on the banks of the Nile river in their own respective valley and all facing west to symbolize death as these were the burial places for the rulers during this time, some even containing mazes and dead ends in their passages so to foil grave robbers. The process of mummification also proved to be longer than I had expected it would be at 72 days. Starting with the embalming of the body where all organs were removed except for the heard as it held significant value, believed to be the seat of understanding. Once the body was finished being embalmed, it was treated with other oils, and ointments and then was bandaged up into as many as twenty layers of linen.

[resident-artoast]

Week 4 Blog Post

This weeks chapter is all about the Ancient Near East. This area housed many accomplishments in human history. It also brought about many ancient art forms. The Neolithic settlement of Jericho is one of the worlds oldest fortified sites. The protective walls surrounded the city’s people, and their dead. The people of Jericho buried their ancestors in their homes. The Jericho skulls were sculptures of the deceased faces. It is believed the skulls were meant to preserve the memory of the dead. When looking at the skull pictured in our book, all I can think about is how we now keep photos of our loved ones. I think the skulls were similar to our use of photographs now.

The Uruk Period followed the Neolithic period and is sometimes referred to as protoliturate because this is when the earliest known writing was developed. An interesting vase found at Uruk, the city, is made of alabaster and is believed to depict the goddess Inanna. The vase depicts a goddess, men, rams and ewes, and barley stalks and date palms. It is believed the vase was associated with agricultural festivals of renewal and rebirth. This time period was interesting because you start to see a worshiping of gods and goddesses. Besides the vase found in Uruk, there were also Ziggurats built to honor the gods. A ziggurat is a man made mountain like structure meant to be a platform for the gods. This period also saw the use of cylinder seals as a way to mark an object as your own. These seals helped in the development of writing.

The early Dynastic Period saw the creation of cult figures like the ones found in Tell Asmar. These figures are believed to represent worshipers of different status. They are all different sizes but all are holding a cup. Another prominent find from this Era was discovered in Ur. Chris Woolley found the “royal cemetery”. In the cemetery archaeologists found an array of gold products. The most notable was a Lyre sound box. The lyre is crafted to look like a bull with what is thought to be a human beard. The mixing of two animals was common in this era. The lyre showed that the people of this era enjoyed music. I think it just goes to show you how important music is to humans, even in ancient times.

Each dynasty and era brought their own rulers and art works. Many times, the significant art from the era was in the likeness of or created because of the king or gods of the time. Steles are upright stone markers that were made to memorialize important events. Many kings had statues and sculptures made of them to preserve their likeness. The Babylon dynasty was long and had a wide range of people within it. It started with the old Babylonian period with Hammurabi and his law codes that he inscribed on steles. Next was the Hittites who kept records on clay tablets that they stored similarly to a library. They also constructed huge walls that they decorated with lion sculptures. I believe this was likely to protect them symbolically. The lower sections of wall was also decorated with smaller sculptures which I believe shows the significance of art in the Hittites life. Each period in the Babylon dynasty showed a different, intricately designed art work, Many of these art works depicted animals in some way.

The last periods in the Ancient Near East discussed in this chapter were the Scythians and the Achaemenid Persia. The Scythians were influenced by early Iranian art. The Scythians created art that was mobile because they were nomadic. The Achaemenid created elaborate palaces. They also were wonderful metalworks and made a beautiful golden vessel with an intricate lion on it.

Every Era in the Ancient Near East was unique in its own way. They continuously developed their art forms to fit their lives. Each era I spoke about highlighted an important part of human history and how we have grown to become the civilization that we are today. Whether it was the creation of the first written language or the significance of record keeping and architecture, humans have come a long way for the cave dwelling people we once were.

Adams, L. S. (2011). A history of western art (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

I also noticed in this chapter that during this period of time was when people during the time started to acknowledge and worship a god which to mee seemed to be the reason behind many of their rituals and who they had began to make art for. I really enjoyed your post!

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

At the beginning of chapter 4, I found it extremely interesting how the during this era in the Ancient Near East there were civilizations that were first of all, just beginning to write and keep documents and write poetry as some of the first forms of concrete written art. I also found it very interesting how the chapter talks about people during this time shifting from a more nomadic way of life to beginning to settle in one area by using two social structures in particularly organized labor, and by stabilizing political power within their community. It sounds to me that during this time there was so much changing in politics, religion and how it was being viewed and its religious structures, as well as social groups, forming. As usual, art is always changing with the rest of all of the constants in life but during this time it some of their art seems to be somewhat similar to the last chapter, centering around rituals and fertility except now people are starting to acknowledge some presence of a God that they are also making the art for. To all of us in the present day and age so much of this art history may sound somewhat silly or as though the people then were just not quite advanced or doing things for the right reason but this chapter leads me to believe that they were smarter than many of us would expect. On page 34, under the section Catal Huyuk the author talks about the rebuilding of this town and now it seems to be designed without streets. To us this really makes no sense because it is the norm now, there are roads all over the country giving people the ability to travel where you want. In this section, you read that though there are no streets in this town they are connected in a completely different way than a person would normally assume, the ground levels of each structure in this town were all connected. Not only was each structure connected to the rest but there was also a ventilation system allowing smoke to escape from ovens and woodburning stoves in homes in addition to that these homes also included furniture that was already built into the home. This is something still seen today in buildings that are often constructed entirely out of cement, I was just surprised to read this knowing this is something contractors still practice today when building new structures.  I also noticed during this chapter that mythology seems to play a fairly significant role in their lives and art and really enjoyed reading about the significance of pottery during this time and all of the different meanings they may have, rituals they may have a part in and how they were made by the people during that time. 

[kelnken-blog]

Week 3: The Venus Figurines

The Venus Figurines of the European Paleolithic Era are a mystery to many archeologists, just as many artifacts that are found from the past.  Archeologists can only guess or try to tie things together to understand their meaning.   The pieces range from 1-½ to 9.8” in height and they are made of many different materials ranging from soft stone to bone, ivory, or clay.  

One of the largest mysteries is that these are obviously pieces of women, but the women of that day and age would not have looked like the statues.  The time that the statues were made, Europe would’ve been in the midst of severe ice age and it’s unlikely that there was any obesity.  The carvings, however, have curvaceous bodies with large breasts, bottoms, abdomen, hips and thighs.  The heads, if they have one, are usually small and show no detail, they don’t have hands or feet either.  Some of the pieces appear to be pregnant and others show no sign of that.   There is some belief that these pieces symbolized hope for survival, abundance and longevity.  Some other theories are self-portraits, stone age dolls, religious icons, a mother goddess, and possibly pornographic imagery.  One of the strangest theories that I saw was that they were possibly figurines of life-sized animal brain-images.  See the picture below:

I believe that they are images of fertility, life and hope for abundance.  They appear to me to be a woman who is healthy and fertile.  In later years you see that they are adorned with “jewelry” or more art is shown on the figurine itself.  I think these figures brought hope to the people and showed the beauty of a woman.

http://missioningition.net/bethe/venus_turtles.php https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/venus-figurines-european-paleolithic-era-001548

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

It was really interesting to hear the many different materials that these sculptures were made out of, I was especially shocked by bone. I agree that they see to be sculptures of fertility, but I find it interesting that these sculptures were eventually adorned with jewelry like you said or being more detailed in later years, maybe that just goes to show how people have advanced over time that they had started paying more attention to detail?

[sarahowearthistory-blog]

Week Three: Venus Figurines

Holloway, April. “23,000-Year-Old Statuette Found in France Adds to Mysterious Collection of Venus Figurines.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/23000-year-old-statuette-france-mysterious-collection-venus-020116.

One mystery archeologists have been trying to solve for many years is “Why were the Venus figurines created” These figurines have been found all over Europe and surrounding areas. Some  have been made close to 30,000 years apart. The archeologists have formed many theories about these figurines,  but they can’t be sure that they are correct. Some of these theories include; fertility, an icon or god, dolls, portraits, ideal beauty standards, or possibly even paleolithic pornograpgy. The theory most widely accepted is the theory that the figures represented fertility and femininity. I agree with this theory because of the rather accentuated breasts, stomach, and pubic area. These particular features are specific to the female gender hence why this theory would make sense. At the time these figures were being made the women would have been lean and muscular due to the evolution of natural selection, hence it is rather odd that these pieces are voluptuous. These pieces also seem to either lack a head arms and legs or they are extremely downplayed. This is also rather perplexing. When archaeologists discovered the  “Venus of Laussel”  they noticed remains of red ochre, which was most likely to symbolize blood or in this case menstruation. Another clue that leads to this belief is the fact that she was holding a horn with thirteen line carved into it. Archeologists believe that these lines may represent either the menstruation or lunar cycle. There are many indications that these figures were meant to be some sort of representation of the female anatomy or female fertility. The question is did they serve a purpose or were they just for decoration. As mentioned last week in “The Pleasure of Making” people in prehistoric times would make art that served a purpose. It would seem abnormal that these pieces were just for show. They had to have had some sort of purpose. Some of them were found with apertures in them so they could be strung into jewelry. One theory suggests that they may have been worn by pregnant women in order to aid as some sort of protection. Another suggests they were used for worshipping. This also seems probable due to the fact that they were made in an rather abstract or idealized fashion. I would assume that they represented fertility whether that be a fertility god or if they simply served to keep pregnant women safe. The true meaning behind these mysterious figures may never be certain but archeologist can keep forming theories to bring us closer to understanding more about the life of paleolithic people.

References:

Liew, Jessica. “Venus Figurine.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Feb. 2019, www.ancient.eu/Venus_Figurine/.

“Venus Figurines.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines.

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Hey Sarah, I totally agree with you that I also think that the statues were a used for fertility especially because of the exaggerated hips and breasts. I also thought it was very interesting how many of these sculptures have been found and many of them dating thousands of years apart yet they all look very much alike with the same features.

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Week Three Discussion 

From this weeks reading, the paintings and cave drawings of Chauvet Cave really got my attention, I think mostly because I found it really interesting how this is a form of art that can be found in more than one area of the world much like all other forms of art as well as the Venus sculptures. It just kind of goes to show that humanity is always evolving at the same rate and no matter where someone may be geologically we are all somewhat in the same place spiritually to some extent as well as intellectually. During this time many of these cave paintings and drawings featured animals that would be common around the region of the cave and much less frequently featuring people. I think this someone speaks to the self-awareness of the people living during this time which were clearly much less self-obsessed than the people of today are. I would like to say that these paintings were primarily created to bring joy, to tell a story, to share memories and things like that. During that time there was no cameras, or books or even writing so that also leads me to believe that a person language would be limited as well which is why they would have paintings and pictures like this.

 One website I found for the Bradshaw Foundation had information about Chauvet Cave as well as several other historic sites and caves. On this website, it was said that this art may be interpreted by the viewer today in many different ways such as a persons gender, status, age, ect. In one part of this article, it is talked about that the art is possibly a way of people back then marking boundaries or territories for other people that may be coming through the area. This I think is a very reasonable assumption. As I said before if these people were unable to write it just makes you begin to wonder what their extent of language or communication was so this would be an effective way to communicate that the area was part of a certain property or territory. On the other hand it is also said on this website with art dating this far in the past it is almost impossible to find the meaning behind these paintings and drawings without simply making a story up due to the fact that there really is no way to tell what could have been the purpose for creating these pieces as life was so different. I honestly do agree with this, I do think that no matter how long ago this was the human brain has probably stayed relatively the same so there’s most likely always been that pleasure center of your brain wanting you to feel joy which could have been one of the purposes behind the art as well as the art being used to mark a territory like I mentioned above but otherwise I think it truly is hard to say

[lucasosty-blog]

Trevi Fountain Art |history week 1

My favorite piece of art would have to be the Trevi fountain. I enjoy the simplicity of it and how clean and amazing it looks.

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

I also really enjoy this piece, Lucas! I’ve never heard of it but wow, all of those sculptures are amazing and must have taken some serious work to complete. I also like how this features water with all the stone and sculptures. 

[brycelorinmed15-blog]

Hi guys, 

My name is Bryce, I’m 21 years old and I’m from Bellevue, Iowa which is where I live now, however, I did live in Iowa City for a few years and during my time there I studied nursing at Kirkwood Community College. I really enjoy traveling and many cities I’ve visited have large murals such as the one I’ve posted above. This one I wouldn’t say is my favorite but I love the color and life murals bring to the cities that have them. This one I believe is outside the New Pioneer Cowap in downtown Iowa City, in the downtown area of Iowa City they have many large murals like this outside of local businesses and this is something I’ve seen popping up kind of all over! Even Dubuque is starting to get some in the Millwork district and in the downtown area off of Main Street! I do really like all of the colors this mural has and I love how the artists can really do whatever with them and they still look great!