Karely's Art History Blog: October 2015

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Christ as Sol

Late third century

Christ in the guise of Sol Invictus

The invincible sun drives his chariot across the heavens

Crucifixion

Santa Sabina, Rome

Ca 432

Original carved wood doors

Orthodox

Baptistery, Ravenna

Early Christian mosaic

Woman sacrificing at altar

Ivory plaque

Carried on classical artistic style

Produced in Rome around 400

Miracle of Loaves and Fishes

Mosaic from top register of the nave wall

Above clerestory windows

Ca 504

Ravenna, Italy

With his extended arms he directs his disciples to distribute to crowd the supply of bread and fish he has produced

Santa Sabina

Interior of Santa Sabina

Rome, Italy

422-432

Looking northeast

Timber-roofed

Illuminated by clerestory windows

Corinthian columns

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

Rome, Italy

Marble

Junius Bassus was baptized into Christianity just before his death in 359

Christian Community House

Restored cutaway view of the Christian Community House

Looking southwest

Dura-Europos, Syria

240-256 ca

1) former courtyard of private house

2) meeting hall

3) baptistery

Could accommodate only about 70 people

Christ Seated

350-375 ca

Early Christian sculpture

Traditional value of Greco-Roman world

Santa Costanza

Interior of Santa Coatanza

Looking southwest

Rome, Italy

337-351 ca

Later became a church

It's central plan became preferred form for Byzantine churches

Menander

Seated portrait of Greek poet Menander

Detail of 4th style mural painting

House of Menander, Pompey

62-79 CE

Most famous portrait

"the first to write New Comedy"

Pompey

Pompey the Great

55-50 BCE

Likened himself to Alexander the Great

Mummy portrait

Mummy portrait of priest Serapis

Hawara, Egypt

140-160 CE

Encaustic on wood

Curly hair and beard closely emulate the Antonine fashion in Rome

Markets of Trajan

Rome, Italy

100-112 CE

Looking northeast

On the Quirinal Hill overlooking forum

Housed shops and administrative offices

Concrete made possible natural slope into multilevel complex

Livia

Portrait bust of Livia

Arsinoe, Egypt

Early first century

Marble

Derive from images of Greek goddesses

Never aged in her portraits

Second Style

Gardenscape

From Villa of Livia

Primaporta, Italy

30-20 BCE

Fresco

Arch of Constantine

Rome, Italy

312-315 CE

Decoration of arch came from monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius

Arch was largest erected in Rome since end of Second Dynasty

Procession of the Imperial Family

Ara Pacis Agustae

Rome, Italy

Marble

Important dignitaries

Baths of Diocletian

Rome, Italy

Remodeled by Michelangelo Buonarroti

Gives idea of the lavish adornment of imperial Roman baths

298-306 ca

Temple of Venus

Plan and restored view of the Temple of Venus

Baalbek, Lebanon

Third Century

Made of stone

Critique of the concrete Pantheon

Al-Khazneh

Petra, Jordan

Second Century

The "Treasury"

Cut into the sheer rock faces of the local rose-colored mountains

Monday, October 26, 2015

Tumuli

Tumuli in the Banditaccia

Cerveteri, Italy

7th-2nd centuries BCE

Etruscans buried several generations of families in multichambered Rock-cut underground tombs covered by great earthen mounds (Tumuli)

Sarcophagus with reclining couple

Cerveteri, Italy

520 BCE

Painted terracotta

Comes from a tomb, contained ashes of husband or wife, or both

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Aerial view of the Temple of Apollo

Temple of Apollo

One of the most ambitious projects of the Hellenistic period

Didyma, Turkey

Begun 300 BCE

Replaced the Archaic temple at the site the Persians burned in 494 BCE

2 Architects: Paionios of Ephesos and Daphnis of Miletos

Work continued off and on for 500 years and was still never completed

Caryatids

Caryatids of the south porch of the Erechtheoin

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

421-405 BCE

plaster casts of marble statues

Erechtheoin's most striking and famous feature is the south porch where the architect replaced ionic columns with caryatids

3 Goddesses

Hestia, Dione, Aphrodite

From east Prediment of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

438-432 BCE

Marble

Athena Parthenos

In the cella of the Parthenon

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

438 BCE

Model of the lost chryselephantine statue

38 ft tall

Depicting the battle of the Greeks and Amazons

Temple of Zeus

Chariot race of Pelops and Oinomaos

East Prediment

Temple of Zeus

Olympia, Greece

470-456 BCE

Marble

Chariot race from Olympia to Corinth

Telling a story

Guillaume-Abel Blouet

Restored view 1828

500-490 BCE

Restored view suggests how colorful Greek temples were

Filled both prediments, in contrast to the high reliefs characteristic of most Archaic temple prediments

Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game

540-530 BCE

Vulci, Italy

Found in Etruscan tomb

Kouros

600 BCE

From Attica, possibly Anavysos, Greece

Marble

One of the earliest Greek examples of life size statuary

Emulates the stance of Egyptian statues

Funerary function; stood over a grave in the countryside of Attica

Replaced vases of Geometric times as the preferred grave marker

Corinthian Amphora

Typifies the new Greek fascination with the Orient

625-600 BCE

Recalling the organization of bands recalling the organization of Geometeic painted vases, animals such as the native boar appear beside exotic lions and Panthers and composite creatures inspired by Eastern monsters

Tomb of the Triclinium

480-470 BCE

Landscape is a few trees and shrubs placed between the figures and behind the banqueting couches

Natural environment was the painter's chief interest

Etruscan painter

Engraved bronze mirrors

Popular gifts for both living and dead

400-375 BCE

Chalchas examining a liver

Artist: Novios Plautios

Workshop in Rome

Sarcophagus of Ramtha Visnai and Arnth Tetnies

350-300 BCE

Later Etruscan sarcophagi

Porta Marzia

Perugia, Italy

2nd century BCE

One of the gates in Perugia's walls

In the 3rd century BCE the Etruscans of Perugia formed an alliance with Rome and were spared the destruction that Veii, Cervereri, and other Etruscan cities suffered. This is one of the walls that still stands

Interior of the tomb of the Shields and Chairs

Cerveteri, Italy

550-500 BCE

Terracotta statues of the deceased probably "sat" in the chairs cut out of the bedrock

Apulu

From the roof of the Portonaccio temple

Veii, Italy

510-500 BCE

Part of a group depicting a Greek myth

Painted terracotta

Displays the energy and excitement that characterize Archaic Etruscan art

Model of a typical Etruscan Temple

Model of a typical Etruscan temple

6th Century BCE

Model based off of Vitruvius's account

Front of building made of stone

Columns of Etruscan temples were usually always in front

Wood columns

Tile-covered timber roof

Walls are sun-dried mud brick

Gold Fibula

Found in Regolini- Galassi's tomb

650-640 BCE

Cerveteri, Italy

Gold

Work of an Etruscan artist

The 5 lions striding across its surface are motifs originating in the Orient

Capitoline Wolf

Rome, Italy

500-480 BCE

Bronze

Best-known Etruscan statue of the classical period

One of the most memorable portrayals of an animal in the history of art

According to the legend, this is the she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus when they were abandoned as infants

Aule Metele

Aule Metele (Arringatore)

Cortona, Italy

Early 1st Century BCE

Bronze

Produced for an Etruscan patron

Portraying the magistrate Aule Metele raising his arm to address an assembly

Achilles killing Penthesilea

Achilles killing Penthesilea (Queen of the Amazons)

540-530 BCE

Made by an Athenian named Exekias

Achilles was the mightiest Greek soldier in the war against Troy

Found in an Etruscan tomb at Vulci which Exekias signed as both painter and potter

Dying Gaul

Epigonos, Dying Gaul

Roman copy of a bronze statue

3rd Gaul from group

230-220 BCE

Marble

Barbarian with bushy hair, mustaches, and neck bands who were noble foes who fought to their death

Gaul who collapses on his large oval shield as blood pours from the gash in his chest

Victory of Attalos I

Museo Capitolino, Rome

Tomb of the Diver

480-470 BCE

Cover slab of the Tomb of the Diver

Paestum, Italy

Scene most likely symbolizes the plunge from this life to the next

Covering the 4 walls of small, coffin-like tomb

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Erechtheion

Was made to replace the Archaic Temple that the Persians had destroyed

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

421-405 BCE

Multiple shrine

Kritios Boy

From Acropolis, Athens, Greece

480 BCE

Marble

First statue to show how a person naturally stands

Geometric Krater

Krater

Marked the grave of a man buried around 740 BCE in the Dipylon cemetery of Athens

Athens, Greece

Testaments to both the potter's skill and to the wealth and position of the deceased family in the community

François Vase

Named after the excavator who discovered it

Found in hundreds of pieces in an Etruscan tomb at Chiusi, Italy

570 BCE

Greek mythology focusing on the exploits of Peleus and his son Achilles

Battle between the Lapiths and centaurs after a wedding celebration at which the man-beasts got drunk and attempted to abduct the Lapith maidens and young boys

Peplos Kore

From Acropolis, Athens, Greece

530 BCE

Marble

She is wearing 4 different garments, 1 of which only goddesses wore