Friday, November 30, 2007
Chartres Cathedral
Click on the names in the diagram for a detailed overview of the window. You can also click on the image of the window for a super detailed image (these are beautiful!) with narrative.
Comments due by Monday 12-3.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Memorials/Ritual/Commemoration
Taken from How Art Made the World:
What is a memorial?
What is it expected to represent about memory, death, loss and time? Is it a lesson from the past, or a warning in the present? A memorial can serve a national purpose, like the Washington DC Vietnam memorial, or a very personal one as with cemetery tombstones and roadside shrines for the victims of auto accidents. It can be deeply sad, or openly political, endorsing differing views of past history. The design of a memorial may incorporate both abstract visual symbols and literal representations of people and events. It can use its formal design to direct emotions and responses, or leave them largely to the immediate experiences of visitors. It can directly express goals and beliefs about war, heroism, or justice, or it can simply create a space where people can contemplate their own sense of events.
What examples of public or personal memorials have you seen? What did you think about their designs and intentions; what did the memorials communicate to you? How?
Consider, as well, the implications and design of currently controversial projects like the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York City. What does the present design propose about the immediate events and the lessons we are to learn from them? How is it meant to serve the many different visitors—families of victims, New Yorkers, politicians, visitors from around the US and the rest if the world? To answer these questions students will need to research and find images of proposed designs, intentions. One useful website is the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
Art21 on ritual and commemoration: Kiki Smith and Maya Lin
Comments due by Monday 12-3.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Bayeux Tapestry
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Take a virtual tour
Comments due by Monday 11-19
Friday, November 9, 2007
Ravenna Mosaics(6th - 7th century)
LATE CLASSICAL AND EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOK ILLUMINATIONS
Comments due by Monday 11-12
Monday, November 5, 2007
San Vitale
Justinian, who is considered a saint amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians, reigned as emperor between 527 and 565, but saw himself as an inheritor of the Roman Imperial authority. This is evident in his massive building plan, which links him to other great imperial builders such as Augustus. There had always been strong ties between Roman Emperors and their religion, which manifested itself in the construction of altars and temples throughout the empire. Justinian clearly continued this tradition, creating a very strong link between himself and his ancestors. In addition, Justinian, who was also known as the “emperor who never sleeps,” is responsible for rewriting the Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is still the basis of civil law in some modern states. He considered it his duty to restore the Roman Empire to its ancient boundaries. Seeing himself as a defender of the orthodox faith, his multiple military campaigns to regain these territories were motivated by the Ostrogoths’ conversion to Arian Christianity, which was seen as a heretical form faith.
“Central to Justinian's conception of the political and religious order was that he as Emperor was anointed by God as the chosen leader of the Empire. Von Simson in Sacred Fortress writes: "Imperial policy conceived political and religious issues as inextricably entwined. Orthodox doctrine spearheaded the moves of political, as well as of military, strategy; and nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the great campaign to wrest the western parts of the Empire from their Arian conquerors (p. 3)." The conception of the Emperor's authority is identified as Caesaropapism, in that the Emperor is understood to combine the functions of the Caesar of the Roman imperial tradition and of the Pope of the Roman Church. Justinian saw himself as the defender of both political order and religious Orthodoxy. Justinian's ambition was thus to restore the old Empire under a central political and religious authority.” Source
The mosaic program at San Vitale serves as a record or a manifesto of Justinian’s political and religious ideals.