In this essay, we are going to analyze how the decoration of the cathedral of Saint Sophia has evolved through the ages. We are only going to look at the mosaics producing during the Byzantine empire years, that is from 330 to 1453. Due to the word limit, we are going to look only to four of the many mosaics that are inside St Sophia. Those are the mosaic of the Virgin and the Child located at the apse of the Church, the Imperial Gate mosaic, the mosaic of the Empress Zoe located in the southern gallery, and the mosaic of the Deesis located in one of the upper galleries. The conclusion of the analysis is that the mosaic decoration in Saint Sophia changes considerably through time, starting with the representation of non-figural images to one …show more content…
In the first two ones, Christ is wearing light colored clothes, which make him stand out of the rest of the mosaic. In both cases, he has a background object, a throne, or a person, the Virgin Mary, to provoke the contrast. However, in the Zoe mosaic, he is wearing deep dark blue clothing. This has a different effect, it makes the eyes of the viewer focus on him, who stands out by contrast with the golden background. In my opinion, this makes that the image is not as balanced as the other two, where the eyes can travel effortlessly around the …show more content…
The Deesis is the iconic representation of Christ in a throne, holding a book, surrounded by Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. It dates from after the 1261 . It is situated in the upper gallery of the building. It represents Jesus in the middle of the mosaic. It has a soft and detailed style. It is considered the pioneer of the entrance of the Byzantine art in the Renaissance period . All the mosaic is done in a beautiful and careful manner. The attention to detail has no comparison with the rest of the mosaics in Hagia Sophia. It is located next to a window, as it was in the Byzantine tradition from after the 10th century for mosaics to be lighted by sunlight . It is an organic and natural composition that which contrasts with the others we have seen before. Even when the figures are non-dimensional, the figures are not rigid, and they look more human. We can see this tendency from the 10th century onwards . Jesus is looking at the viewer, in the same position as in the mosaic of Leo VI. The gaze in the three figures is very intense, almost melancholic. As Mango points out, the tesserae at the background are arranged in a pattern , which is surprising as this kind of patterned backgrounds were abandoned in the Byzantine period. It might be due to Western
The top portion shows Jesus be crucified along with who I believe are the two these the gospels mention Jesus be crucified with. The top portion of the panel doesn 't show much detail in the background. This brings the attention forward to Jesus and then the two thieves. Jesus is the only one that facing the viewer straight forward everyone else is turned away at an angle. The bottom shows two clusters of people.
Synod of 754 During the eight century, there is a lot of controversy about worshipping of images. There are two sides of this argument those who support the worshipping of images that are commonly referred to as iconophile or iconodule, and those who do not support the worshipping of images. In the Synod of 754, Leo III, who was a Byzantine emperor, and his son Constantine V, who was the current ruler of the Byzantine emperor at this time, called a church council to ban the worshipping of images, which is often mentioned as iconoclasm or iconoclast. This council, which was held in Constantinople, consisted of three hundred and thirty-eight bishops.
Abraham’s bottom clothing now has lines of texture. The boy who has his arm around the horse clothing now changed color. Because the image is a lot darker, there are more shadows and it appears to be more contrast. The two men on the bottom right now are more muscular, including the bread man but that may be because of the new shadows the image has. The lightest place in the composition is in the middle of Abraham and Melchizedek.
If the image was pulled back to show his whole body, it may have had a different effect on people, as well as the words war is hell, wouldn 't have been so prominent and important, thus leaving the possibility that the image may not have been iconic if positioned any other way. The most eye catching part of this image is his “smile”. Is it a smile? We will probably never know. However, it has a resemblance to the “Mona Lisa” and her smile.
Many buildings in the earlier days were built for the same reasons and by similar people, meaning the Hagia Sophia and Charlemagne’s Chapel don’t differ much in terms of being built. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was originally built under Constantine the Great until it was demolished and rebuilt between 532 and 537 under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (Hagia Sophia, Istanbul 1). Justinian’s Basilica is considered the perfect example of the Byzantine culture and the structures produced during its
The Byzantine tradition often involved the figures being stacked unnaturally on the sides of the throne
The beautiful mosaics of the virgin mary and the fourteenth century florentine gothic structures of the duomo are enough to make anyone stop and stare. The people who constructed the Cathedral created a lot of mosaics, bas reliefs, frescoes and many other forms of pictures for pilgrims who were not able to read or were not familiar to the religion. These helped them to be able to understand the stories of the bible, the saints and other important religious stories ( see image 5).The interior of the duomo ( see image 6) contains chapels to the Virgin Mary with frescoes and mosaics of her life. It also includes a chapel for the miracle of Bolsena which hosts the blood stained cloth (see image 7).
Two visual artefacts made over a century apart and in very different climates, Gerhaert’s Virgin in the north and Martini’s panel in the south of Europe. Although both visual artefacts differ in type, time and place they share many formal similarities. Simone Martini’s Blessed Agostino Novello and scenes of his Miracles (1), painted around 1320 in Siena, is a sequence of four narrative scenes surrounding a central scene in the form of a triptych with five main picture spaces in three inner rounded-arch frames. Two small roundels fill the space between the arches. The two outside inner frames are slightly smaller in height and width than the central space and are divided horizontally into two separate smaller picture spaces by a thin board.
For example comfort could be an impression that people get because people are comfortable with the idea of Crucifix and all that represents. Another impression that people could get is curiosity because just looking at the picture people do not know what the crucifix is submerged into. Sothe photograph leaves people with a bunch of different questions. This photograph as
The title of the painting is 125th Anniversary Mural, created by artist Steve Penley using paint on canvas. Steve Penley was born into a talented family, as he was born into a family of musicians. Steve Penley was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee but to Georgia. Penley studied art at The School of Visual Arts in New York and at the University of Georgia. Penley’s talent was recognized by an attorney and art enthusiast, who helped Penley connect with clients and grow his business.
In this paper we will discuss the symbolism of the church in the medieval time period; this will include the setup of the church, their artwork, and the most famous symbols
Leonardo believed that, the integration of the musical harmonies would bring symbiosis to the optical space of the painting and to the one viewing the painting. Leonardo clearly understood how single point perspective could control how the viewer perceived his painting. He employed this technique to draw our attention to Christ’s face which is at the center of the composition. Likewise Christ’s gaze is directed to his left hand whereby he is reaching for the ‘bread’.
“Christ is sitting on a rich and jeweled throne in the scene which is over the entrance door opening to the central hall. Metokhites kneels down before him holding a model of the church”. The design of the mosaics’ position gives the Byzantine tradition of putting the donor image above the entrance to the nave. Metokhites was drawn traditionally without any references to his real physique. Christ looks familiar in his image, but Metokhites wears a dress like a ‘kaftan’, and a fashionable hat which brings to mind a ‘turban’.
Leonardo Da Vinci 's The Last supper is a popular work of art that is Da Vinci 's rendition of the last supper as told in the bible. This paper will include an in depth visual analysis of the painting as it appeared on the original canvas. The paper will also address the cultural and religious significance of this work of art in that time period. I chose to do the analysis on The Last Supper because it is an artwork that i have seen many times in my life, but oddly enough do not know a lot about. In this paper i plan to not only inform you , but inform myself on the many aspects of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.
One good example that can be compared to it is the “South German or Rhenish Pietà”, I375-1400 that is made of painted wood. In this sculpture, Mary is shown holding her son too, but here, she is not shown for the worshippers with horrifying and desperate expressions. Jesus in the sculpture does not have blood on his body and there are no obvious and terrifying scars, but the way he is placed on his mother’s lap and portraying her leaning forward her son shows the amount of sadness she is keeping inside her without relying on the striking details to evoke the audience’s emotions. Mary here looks more youthful and the Christ is depicted smaller than her to focus on her reaction and suffering more than the incident itself. Another reason may be reflecting what Mary remembered when she held her son on her lap, Jesus as a little baby.