chapter The Age of Faith - University of Phoenixmyresource.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/ART101R4/A_World_of_Art… · Lord, meaning the year of his birth). Today, usage has changed

430

18The Age of Faith

chapter

Our study of the ancient world—fromancient fertility statues, to the Egyptianka, to the rise of Buddhism—shows howpowerful religion can be in setting the

course of culture, and the advent of Christianity in theWestern world makes this abundantly clear. So power-ful was the Christian story that in the West the com-mon calendar changed. From the sixth century on,time was recorded in terms of years “BC” (beforeChrist) and years “AD” (anno Domini, the year of OurLord, meaning the year of his birth). Today, usage haschanged somewhat—the preferred terms, as we haveused them in this text, are BCE (before the commonera) and CE (the common era)—but the West’s calen-dar remains Christian.

In the East, Buddhism exerted the same power tostir the human imagination as Christianity did in theWest. And as in the West images of Christ became acentral feature of art, so too did images of Buddha inthe East. In early Buddhist art, Buddha was nevershown in figural form. It was believed to be impossibleto represent Buddha, since he had already passed tonirvana. But by the fourth century, during the reign ofthe Gupta rulers in India, Buddha was commonly rep-resented in human form (Fig. 585). Typically his headis oval, framed by a halo. Atop his head is a mound,symbolic of his spiritual wisdom. His demeanor is gen-tle, reposed, and meditative. His elongated ears refer tohis royal origins. And his hands are set in one of severalsymbolic gestures, the mudra discussed in the section

Fig. 585 Colossal Buddha, Cave 20, Yungang, Shanxi, late fifth century.Stone, height 45 ft.Corbis, NY. Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler.

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A World of Art, Sixth Edition, by Henry M. Sayre. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc.

on iconology in Chapter 2. The seated Buddha illus-trated here employs the Dhyana mudra, a gesture ofmeditation and balance. The lower hand representsthe physical world of illusion, the upper nirvana andenlightenment. Together they symbolize the path toenlightenment. The bodhisattva—a person of very neartotal enlightenment who has vowed to help othersachieve it (see Fig. 284)—standing next to himemploys the Abhaya mudra, a gesture of reassurance,blessing, and protection.

Other long-standing religions continued to exertenormous influence throughout the first millenniumCE and beyond—the Hindu faith in India and Shintoin Japan. Judaism, the oldest continuing religion inthe West, continued to be practiced, despite the factthat ever since the Babylonians had destroyed theTemple of Solomon in Jerusalem and deported theHebrew people to Babylon in the sixth century BCE,the Jewish people had been scattered across theMediterranean and Europe, a people without a home-land. Even so, Judaism remained the philosophicaland historical foundation of both Christianity andthe new Islamic faith, based on the teachings ofMuhammad, which arose on the Arabian penin-sula in the seventh century CE and rapidly spreadthroughout the Middle East, North Africa, andSpain at a rate far higher than the spread of eitherChristianity or Buddhism. The powerful influenceof all these religions throughout the first millen-nium and well into the second gave rise to an ageof faith, which is the subject of this chapter.

EARLY CHRISTIAN AND

BYZANTINE ART

Christianity spread through the Roman world at avery rapid pace, in large part due to the missionaryzeal of St. Paul. By 250 CE, fully 60 percent of AsiaMinor had converted to the religion, and whenthe Roman Emperor Constantine legalized

Christianity in the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, Christianart became imperial art. The classical art of Greeceand Rome emphasized the humanity of its figures,their corporeal reality. But the Christian God was notmortal and could not even be comfortably representedin human terms. Though His Son, Jesus, was humanenough, the mystery of both Jesus’s Virgin Birth andhis rising from the dead most interested earlyChristian believers. The world that the Romans hadcelebrated on their walls in fresco—a world of stilllifes and landscapes—was of little interest toChristians, who were more concerned with the spiri-tual and the heavenly than with their material sur-roundings.

Constantine chose to make early Christianplaces of worship as unlike classical temples as possi-ble. The building type that he preferred was the rec-tangular basilica, which the Romans had used forpublic buildings, especially courthouses. The originalSt. Peter’s in Rome, constructed around 333–390 CE

but destroyed in the sixteenth century to make wayfor the present building, was a basilica (see Fig. 477).Equally important for the future of Christian reli-gious architecture was Santa Costanza (Fig. 586),the small mausoleum built around 354 CE for the

Fig. 586 Santa Costanza, Rome, c. 354 CE. Interior view.Scala / Art Resource, NY.

Chapter 18 The Age of Faith 431

400 CE

Camels first used for trans-Saharan transport

c. 200

c. 300End of the Olmec

civilization in Mexico

Augustine writes The City of God

426

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432 Part 4 The Visual Record

tomb of Constantine’s daughter, Constantia.Circular in shape and topped with a dome supportedby a barrel vault, the building defines the points ofthe traditional Greek cross, which has four equalarms. Surrounding the circular space is a passagewayknown as an ambulatory that was used for ceremo-nial processions.

The circular form of Santa Costanza appearsoften in later Byzantine architecture. By the year500, most of the western empire, traditionallyCatholic, had been overrun by barbarian forces fromthe north. When the Emperor Justinian assumed thethrone in Constantinople in 527, he dreamed ofrestoring the lost empire. His armies quickly recap-tured the Mediterranean world, and he began a mas-sive program of public works. At Ravenna, Italy, atone time the imperial capital, Justinian built SanVitale (Fig. 587), a new church modeled on thechurches of Constantinople. Although the exterior isoctagonal, the interior space is essentially circular,like Santa Costanza before it. Only in the altar andthe apse, which lie to the right of the central domedarea in the floor plan, is there any reference to thebasilica structure that dominates western churcharchitecture. Considering that Sant’ Apollinare wasbuilt at virtually the same time and in virtually the

same place, there is some reason to believe that SanVitale was conceived as a political and religiousstatement, an attempt to persuade the people of theItalian peninsula to give up their Catholic ways andto adopt the Orthodox point of view—that is, toreject the leadership of the Church by the Pope.

Sant’ Apollinare and San Vitale share one impor-tant feature: The facades of both are very plain, moreor less unadorned, local brick. Inside, however, bothchurches are elaborately decorated with marble andglittering mosaics. At San Vitale, two elaboratemosaics—small pieces of stone, glass, or tile arrangedin a pattern or image—face each other on the sidewalls of the apse, one depicting Theodora, the wife ofJustinian (Fig. 588), and the other Justinian himself(Fig. 589). Theodora had at one time been a circusperformer, but she became one of the emperor’s mosttrusted advisors, sharing with him a vision of aChristian Roman Empire. In the mosaic, she carries agolden cup of wine, and Justinian, on the oppositewall, carries a bowl containing bread. Together theyare bringing to the Church an offering of bread andwine for the celebration of the Eucharist. The haloedJustinian is to be identified with Christ, surrounded ashe is by 12 advisors, like the 12 Apostles. And thehaloed Theodora, with the three Magi bearing gifts to

the Virgin and newborn Christ embroideredon the hem of her skirt, is to be understood asa figure for Mary. In this image, Church andstate become one and the same.

These mosaics bear no relation to thenaturalism that dominated Greek andRoman culture. Here, the human figures aredepicted wearing long robes that hide themusculature and cause a loss of individualidentity. Although each face has uniquefeatures—some of Justinian’s attendants, forexample, are bearded, while others are not,and the hairstyles vary—all have identicalwide-open eyes, curved brows, and longnoses. The feet of the figures turn outward,as if to flatten the space in which theystand. They are disproportionately long and

Fig. 587 San Vitale, Ravenna, 526–47 CE. Exterior view.Canali Photobank.

400

Last Roman emperor dethroned

476

c. 400–500Germanic tribes

invade Rome

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Fig. 588 Theodora and Her Attendants,c. 547. Mosaic, sidewall of the apse, SanVitale.Canali Photobank.

Fig. 589 San Vitale, interior view, looking into the apse at Justinian and HisAttendants, c. 547.Canali Photobank.

thin, a fact that lends them aheavenly lightness. And theyare motionless, standingbefore us without gesture, asif eternally still. The Greekideal of sculpture in theround, with its sense of thebody caught in an intenselypersonal, even privatemoment—Nike taking off hersandal, for instance, orLaocoön caught in the inten-sity of his torment—is gone.All sense of drama has beenremoved from the idea of representation.

Mosaics are made of small pieces of stone calledtesserae, from the Greek word tesseres, meaning“square.” In ancient Rome, they were a favorite deco-rative element, used because of their durability, espe-cially to embellish villa floors. But the Romans rarelyused mosaic on their walls, where they preferred themore refined and naturalistic effects that were possiblewith fresco. For no matter how skilled the mosaicartist, the naturalism of the original drawing wouldinevitably be lost when the small stones were set incement.

The Byzantine mosaic artists, however, had littleinterest in naturalism. Their intention was to create asymbolic, mystical art, something for which themosaic medium was perfectly suited. Gold tesseraewere made by sandwiching gold leaf between twosmall squares of glass, and polished glass was also used.By setting the tesserae unevenly, at slight angles, ashimmering and transcendent effect was realized,which was heightened by the light from the church’swindows.

550529

Justinian’s law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis

Founding of Benedictine Order

529

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Justinian attached enormous importance to archi-tecture, believing that nothing better served to under-score the power of the emperor. The church of HagiaSophia, meaning “Holy Wisdom,” was his imperialplace of worship in Constantinople (Figs. 590 and591). The huge interior, crowned by a dome, is reminis-cent of the circular, central plan of Ravenna’s SanVitale, but this dome is abutted at either end by half-domes that extend the central core of the church alonga longitudinal axis reminiscent of the basilica, with theapse extending in another smaller half-dome out oneend of the axis. These half-domes culminate in archesthat are repeated on the two sides of the dome as well.The architectural scheme is, in fact, relatively simple—a dome supported by four pendentives, the curved,inverted triangular shapes that rise up to the rim of thedome between the four arches themselves. This dome-on-pendentive design was so enthusiastically receivedthat it became the standard for Byzantine churchdesign.

Many of the original mosaics that decoratedHagia Sofia were later destroyed or covered over.During the eighth and ninth centuries, iconoclasts,meaning “image-breakers,” who believed literally inthe Bible’s commandment against the worship of“graven” images, destroyed much Byzantine art.Forced to migrate westward, Byzantine artists discov-ered Hellenistic naturalism and incorporated it intolater Byzantine design. The mosaic of Christ fromHagia Sophia (Fig. 592) is representative of that latersynthesis.

Though only a few of the original mosaics havebeen restored, and later mosaics were few, the light inthe interior is still almost transcendental in feeling,and one can only imagine the heavenly aura when

Fig. 591 Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, Hagia Sophia,Istanbul, 532–37. Interior view.Photo: Walter B. Denny

Fig. 590 Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, Hagia Sophia,Istanbul, and plan, 532–37.Photo © Achim Bednorz, Koln.

Angles, Saxons, and Jutesinvade England

c. 450400Death of St. Patrick

in Ireland461

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gold and glass reflected the light that entered the navethrough the many windows that surround it. InJustinian’s own words: “The sun’s light and its shiningrays fill the temple. One would say that the space isnot lit by the sun without, but that the source of lightis to be found within, such is the abundance oflight. . . . The scintillations of the light forbid the spec-tator’s gaze to linger on the details; each one attractsthe eye and leads it on to the next. The circular motionof one’s gaze reproduces itself to infinity. . . . The spiritrises toward God and floats in the air.”

Justinian’s reign marked the apex of the earlyChristian and Byzantine era. By the seventh century,barbarian invaders had taken control of the westernempire, and the new Muslim empire had begun to

expand to the east. Reduced in area to theBalkans and Greece, the Byzantine empirenevertheless held on until 1453 when theTurks finally captured Constantinople andrenamed it Istanbul, converting Hagia Sophiainto a mosque.

THE RISE OF ISLAM

Born in Mecca on the Arabian peninsula inabout 570 to a prominent family, Muhammad,the founder of the Islamic faith, was orphanedat age six and received little formal education.He worked in the caravan trade in theArabian desert, first as a camel driver for hisuncle, and then, after marrying a wealthywidow 15 years his senior at age 25, as head ofhis wife’s flourishing caravan firm. But at theage of 40, in 610, he heard a voice in Arabic—the Archangel Gabriel’s, as the story goes—urging him, “Recite!” He responded “Whatshall I recite?” And for the next 22 years, heclaimed to receive messages, or “recitations,”from God through the agency of Gabriel.These he memorized and dictated to scribes,who collected them to form the scriptures ofIslam, the Qur’an (or Koran), which means“recitations.” Muhammad also claimed thatGabriel commanded him to declare himselfthe “Seal of the Prophets,” that is, the messen-ger of the one and only Allah (the Arab wordfor God) and the final prophet in a series of

God’s prophets on earth, extending from Abrahamand Moses to Jesus.

At the core of Muhammad’s revelations is theconcept of submission to God—the word Islam, infact, means “submission” or “surrender.” God, orAllah, is all—all-powerful, all-seeing, all-merciful.Because the universe is his creation, it is necessarilygood and beautiful, and the natural world reflectsAllah’s own goodness and beauty. To immerse oneselfin nature is thus to be at one with God. But the mostbeautiful creation of Allah is humankind, which Godmade in his own image. As in Christianity, Muslimsbelieve that human beings possess immortal souls andthat they can live eternally in heaven if they surrenderto Allah and accept him as the one and only God.

Fig. 592 Christ, from Deësis mosaic, thirteenth century.Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY.

600597

St. Augustine in England

Visigoths in Spain adoptWestern Christianity

589

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In 622, Muhammad was forced to flee Meccawhen its polytheistic leadership became irritated at hisinsistence on the worship of only one God. In a jour-ney known as the hijra (or hegira, “emigration”), heand his followers fled to the oasis of Yathrib, 200 milesnorth, which they renamed al-Medina, meaning “thecity of the Prophet.” There, Muhammad created acommunity based not on kinship, the traditional basisof Arab society, but on common submission to the willof God.

At Medina, Muhammad also built a house thatsurrounded a large open courtyard, which served as acommunity gathering place, on the model of theRoman forum. There the men of the communitywould gather on Fridays to pray and listen to a sermondelivered by Muhammad. It thus became known asthe masjid, the Arabic word for mosque, or “place ofprostration.” On the north and south ends of thecourtyard, covered porches were erected, supported bypalm tree trunks and roofed by thatched palm fronds,which protected the community from the hot Arabiansun. This many-columned covered area, known as ahypostyle space (from the Greek hupostulos, “restingupon pillars”), would later become a required feature

of all Muslim mosques. Another required feature wasthe qibla, a wall that indicated the direction of Mecca.On this wall were both the minbar, or stepped pulpitfor the preacher, and the mihrab, a niche commemo-rating the spot at Medina where Muhammad plantedhis lance to indicate the direction in which peopleshould pray.

The Prophet’s Mosque in Medina has beenrebuilt so many times that its original character haslong since been lost. But when, at Damascus in 705,the Muslim community had grown so large that radi-cal steps had to be taken to accommodate it, aByzantine church was torn down, leaving a large

Fig. 593 Courtyard of the Great Mosque of Damascus, 705–16.Christopher Rennie, Robert Harding World Imagery.

Fig. 594 Tile mosaic mihrab, from the Madrasa Imami, Isfahan, Persia (Iran), c. 1354 (restored). Glazed and cut ceramic, 11 ft. 3 in. ×7 ft. 6 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Harris BrisbaneDick Fund (19.20).Photograph © 1982 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

First Muslim invasion of India

c. 710 600644–56

Koran text established

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courtyard (Fig. 593), the compound walls of whichwere transformed into the walls of a new mosque. Alarge prayer hall was constructed against the qiblawall and decorated with an elaborate mosaic facade,some of which is visible in the illustration, facinginto the courtyard, while the street side of themosque was left relatively plain.

As we saw in Chapter 2, one of the most importantcharacteristics of Islamic culture is its emphasis on calligraphy (see Fig. 28), and the art of calligraphy wasincorporated into Islamic architecture from the begin-ning. By the mid-ninth century, the walls of palaces andmosques were covered by it, and throughout the follow-ing centuries, the decoration became more and moreelaborate. The mosaic mihrab originally from a madrasa,or teaching college, in Iran contains three differentinscriptions from the Qur’an (Fig. 594). The outerframe is a description of the duties of true believers andthe heavenly rewards in store for those who buildmosques. The next contains the Five Pillars of Islam,the duties every believer must perform, including, at

500 km

500 miles

FRANKISH

EMPIRE

ASIA MINOR

SYR IA

EGYPT

LIBYA

A R A B I A

YEMEN

PERSIA

ITALY

GIBRALTAR

PALESTINE

MOROCCO

B Y Z A N T I N E E M P I R E

HEJAZ

IND

IA

FERGHANA

Rome

Tripoli

Cairo

Carthage

Granada

Tangier

Cordoba

Toulouse

Tours

Poitiers

Constantinople

Baghdad

Persepolis

Samarkand

Herat

Kabul

Tabriz

Derbent

Expansion of Islam under Muhammad

Expansion of Islam to 644

Expansion of Islam to 661

Expansion of Islam to c.850

Damascus

Mecca

Medina

Jerusalem

Pyrénées

Indu

s

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

Black Sea

Arabian

Sea

AralSea

Nile

Euphrates

Tigris

Re

dS

e

a

Danube

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Pers i an G u l f

C a s p i a nS

ea

O M A N

Crete

Sicily

Sardinia

Corsica

CyprusRhodes

The Expansion of Islam to 850 CE.

least once in a lifetime, a pilgrimage to Mecca. And,finally, in the center of the inner wall, the reminder:“The mosque is the house of every pious person.” All ofthis is contained in a beautifully balanced and symmet-rical design.

Since the Prophet Muhammad fled Mecca forMedina in 622, the Muslim empire had expanded rapidly(see the map showing the expansion of Islam, above).By 640, Muhammad’s successors, the Caliphs, had con-quered Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. Two years later, theydefeated the army of Byzantium at Alexandria, and, by710, they had captured all of northern Africa and hadmoved into Spain. They advanced north until 732, whenCharles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, defeatedthem at Poitiers, France. But the Caliphs’ foothold inEurope remained strong, and they did not leave Spainuntil 1492. Even the Crusades failed to reduce theirpower. During the First Crusade, 50,000 men were sentto the Middle East, where they managed to holdJerusalem and much of Palestine for a short while. TheSecond Crusade, in 1146, failed to regain control, and in

Córdoba established as capital ofMuslim Spain

756

732Furthest Muslim advances

in Western Europe

760

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1187, the Muslim warrior Saladin reconqueredJerusalem. Finally, in 1192, Saladin defeated KingRichard the Lion-Hearted of England in the ThirdCrusade.

The Muslim impact on the culture of NorthAfrica cannot be overstated. Beginning in about 750,not long after Muslim armies had conquered most ofNorth Africa, Muslim traders, following the traderoutes created by the Saharan Berber peoples, begantrading for salt, copper, dates, and especially gold withthe sub-Saharan peoples of the Niger River drainage.Gradually they came to dominate the trans-Saharantrade routes, and Islam became the dominant faith ofWest Africa.

In 1312, a devout Muslim named Mansa Moussacame to the throne of Mali. He built magnificentmosques throughout his empire, including theDjingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu (Fig. 595). Still

standing today and made of burnt brick and mud, itdominates the city. Under Moussa’s patronage, thecity of Timbuktu grew in wealth and prestige andbecame a cultural focal point for the finest poets,scholars, and artists of Africa and the Middle East. Todraw further attention to Timbuktu, and to attractmore scholars and poets to it, Mansa Moussaembarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1334. Hearrived in Cairo at the head of a huge caravan of60,000 people, including 12,000 servants, with80 camels carrying more than two tons of gold to bedistributed among the poor. In fact, Moussa distrib-uted so much gold in Egypt that the value of the pre-cious metal fell dramatically and did not recover for anumber of years.

In Spain, the center of Muslim culture was origi-nally Córdoba. For its mosque, Islamic rulers con-verted an existing Visigoth Church. The Visigoths,

Fig. 595 Djingareyber Mosque, Timbuktu, eleventh century.Peter Langer / Associated Media Group.

7601096

Beginning of First Crusade

1071Turks capture

Jerusalem

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who were a Christianized Germanic tribe who hadinvaded Spain three centuries earlier, had built theirchurch with relatively short, stubby columns. To createthe loftier space required by the mosque, the archi-tects superimposed another set of columns on top, cre-ating two tiers of arches, one over the other, using adistinctive alternation of stone and red brick voussoirs(Fig. 596). The use of two different materials is notonly decorative but also functional, combining theflexibility of brick with the strength of stone. Finally, thehypostyle plan of the mosque was, in essence, infi-nitely expandable, and subsequent caliphs enlargedthe mosque in 852, 950, 961–76, and 987, until it wasover four times the size of the original and incorpo-

rated 1,200 columns. As in all Muslim design, where avisual rhythm is realized through symmetry and repeti-tion of certain patterns and motifs, the rhythm ofarches and columns unifies the interior of the Córdobamosque.

CHRISTIAN ART IN NORTHERN EUROPE

Until the year 1000, the center of Western civilizationwas located in the Middle East, at Constantinople. InEurope, tribal groups with localized power held sway:the Lombards in what is now Italy, the Franks and theBurgundians in regions of France, and the Angles andSaxons in England. Though it possessed no real politi-cal power, the Papacy in Rome had begun to work

Fig. 596 Interior of the sanctuary of the Mosque at Córdoba, Spain, 786–987.Photo © Achim Bednorz, Koln.

1300

Mongols sack anddestroy Baghdad

1258

Most of Muslim Spainfalls to Christian reconquest

mid-1300s

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Fig. 597 Hinged clasp from the Sutton Hoo burial ship, seventh century.Gold with garnets, mosaic, glass, and filigree. British Museum, London.© The Trustees of the British Museum.

hard to convert the pagan tribes and to reassert theauthority of the Church. As early as 496, the leader ofthe Franks, Clovis, was baptized into the Church.Even earlier (c. 430), St. Patrick had undertaken anevangelical mission to Ireland, establishing monaster-ies and quickly converting the native Celts. Thesenew monasteries were designed to serve missionary aswell as educational functions. At a time when onlypriests and monks could read and write, the sacredtexts they produced came to reflect native Celticdesigns. These designs are elaborately decorative,highly abstract, and contain no naturalistic represen-tation. Thus, Christian art fused with the native tradi-tions, which employed the so-called animal style.

Some of the best examples of this animal style,such as this hinged clasp (Fig. 597), havebeen found at Sutton Hoo, north of present-

day London, in the grave of an unknown seventh-century East Anglian king. At the round end of each

side of the hinge are animal forms, and the entireclasp is covered with intricate traceries of lines andbands.

In 597, Gregory the Great, the first monk tobecome Pope, sent an emissary, later known as SaintAugustine of Canterbury, on a mission to convert theAnglo-Saxons. This mission brought Roman religiousand artistic traditions into direct contact with Celticart, and, slowly but surely, Roman culture began todominate the Celtic-Germanic world.

When Charlemagne (Charles, or Carolus, theGreat) assumed leadership of the Franks in 771, thisprocess of Romanization was assured. At the request ofthe Pope, Charlemagne conquered the Lombards,becoming their king, and on Christmas Day 800, hewas crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III atSt. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The fusion of Germanicand Mediterranean styles that reflected this newalliance between Church and state is known as

Slave trade between sub-Saharan Africa and Mediterranean begins

c. 600600

7th centuryAnglo-Saxon epic

Beowulf is composed

633–725Expansion of Islam

Take a Closer Look onMyArtsLab

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Fig. 599 St. Matthew from the Gospel Book of Charlemagne, c. 800–810.13 � 10 in. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Carolingian art, a term referring to the art producedduring the reign of Charlemagne and his immediatesuccessors.

The transformation in style that Charlemagneeffected is evident if we compare the work of an artisttrained in the linear Celtic tradition to one createdduring Charlemagne’s era. In the former (Fig. 598),copied from an earlier Italian original, the image is flat,the figure has not been modeled, and the perspective iscompletely askew. It is pattern—and the animalstyle—that really interests the artist, not accurate representation. But Charlemagne was intent on restor-ing the glories of Roman civilization. He actively col-lected and had copied the oldest surviving texts of theclassical Latin authors. He created schools in monas-teries and cathedrals across Europe in which classicalLatin was the accepted language. A new script, withRoman capitals and new lowercase letters, the basis ofmodern type, was introduced. A second depiction of

St. Matthew (Fig. 599), executed 100 years after theone on the left, demonstrates the impact of Romanrealism on northern art. Found in Charlemagne’stomb, this illustration looks as if it could have beenpainted in classical Rome.

ROMANESQUE ART

After the dissolution of the Carolingian state in theninth and tenth centuries, Europe disintegrated intoa large number of small feudal territories. The emper-ors were replaced by an array of rulers of varyingpower and prestige who controlled smaller or largerfiefdoms (areas of land worked by persons underobligation to the ruler) and whose authority was gen-erally embodied in a chateau or castle surrounded bywalls and moats. Despite this atomization of politicallife, a recognizable style that we have come to callRomanesque developed throughout Europe begin-

Fig. 598 St. Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels, c. 700.Approximately 11 � 9 in. British Library, London.By permission of the British Library.

1000c. 800–1000

England and Europe invaded by Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims

980sRussia converted

to Christianity

Rise of Inca Empire in South America

c. 1000Cluny monastery founded

910

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ning in about 1050. Although details varied fromplace to place, certain features remained constant fornearly 200 years.

Romanesque architecture is characterized by itseasily recognizable geometric masses—rectangles,cubes, cylinders, and half-cylinders. The wooden roofthat St. Peter’s Basilica had used was abandoned infavor of fireproof stone and masonry construction,apparently out of bitter experience with the invadingnomadic tribes, who burned many of the churches ofEurope in the ninth and tenth centuries. Flat roofs werereplaced by vaulted ceilings. By structural necessity,these were supported by massive walls that often lackedwindows sufficient to provide adequate lighting. Thechurches were often built along the roads leading to pil-grimage centers, usually monasteries that housedChristian relics, and they had to be large enough toaccommodate large crowds of the faithful. For instance,St. Sernin, in Toulouse, France (see Figs. 468 and 469),was on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela,in Spain, where the body of St. James was believed torest.

Thanks in large part to Charlemagne’s emphasison monastic learning, monasteries had flourished sincethe Carolingian period, many of them acting as feudallandlords as well. The largest and most powerful was

Cluny, near Maçon, France. Until the building of thenew St. Peter’s in Rome, the church at Cluny was thelargest in the Christian world. It was 521 feet in length,and its nave vaults rose to a height of 100 feet. Theheight of the nave was made possible by the use ofpointed arches. The church was destroyed in theFrench Revolution, and only part of one transept sur-vives.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, the art ofsculpture had largely declined in the West, but in theRomanesque period it began to reemerge. It is certainthat the idea of educating the masses in the Christianmessage through architectural sculpture on the facadesof the pilgrimage churches contributed to the art’srebirth. The most important sculptural work was usu-ally located on the tympanum of the church, thesemicircular arch above the lintel on the main door. Itoften showed Christ with His Twelve Apostles.Another favorite theme was the Last Judgment, full ofdepictions of sinners suffering the horrors of hellfireand damnation. To the left of Gislebertus’s LastJudgment at Autun, France (Fig. 600), the blessedarrive in heaven, while on the right, the damned areseized by devils. Combining all manner of animalforms, the monstrosity of these creatures recalls theanimal style of the Germanic tribes.

Fig. 600 Gislebertus, LastJudgment, tympanum and lintel,west portal, Cathedral, Autun,France, c. 1125–35.Stone, approximately 12 ft. 6 in. �22 ft.Photo © Achim Bednorz, Koln.

1000

Conquest of England by the Norman French

1066

1054Schism between Latin and Greek

Christian churches

1071The fork is introduced to Europe

by a Byzantine princess

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GOTHIC ARTThe great era of Gothic art begins in 1137 with therebuilding of the choir of the abbey church ofSt. Denis, located just outside Paris. Abbot Suger ofSt. Denis saw his new church as both the political andthe spiritual center of a new France, united under KingLouis VI. Although he was familiar with Romanesquearchitecture, which was then at its height, Suger choseto abandon it in principle. The Romanesque churchwas difficult to light, because the struc-tural need to support the nave walls fromwithout meant that windows had to beeliminated. Suger envisioned somethingdifferent. He wanted his church floodedwith light as if by the light of Heavenitself. After careful planning, he beganwork in 1137, painting the old walls ofthe original abbey, which were nearly300 years old, with gold and precious col-ors. Then he added a new facade withtwin towers and a triple portal. Aroundthe back of the ambulatory he added a cir-cular string of chapels, all lit with largestained-glass windows, “by virtue ofwhich,” Suger wrote, “the whole wouldshine with the miraculous and uninter-rupted light.”

It was this light that proclaimed thenew Gothic style. Light, he believed, wasthe physical and material manifestationof Divine Spirit. Suger wrote: “Marvelnot at the gold and the expense but at thecraftsmanship of the work. Bright is thenoble work; but being nobly bright, thework should brighten the minds, so thatthey may travel, through the true lights,to the True Light where Christ is the truedoor.” As beautiful as the church mightbe, it was designed to elevate the soul tothe realm of God.

As the Gothic style developed,French craftsmen became increasingly

accomplished in working with stained-glass, creatingwindows such as Chartres Cathedral’s famous RoseWindow (see Fig. 189). Important architectural inno-vations also contributed to this goal (Fig. 601). Themassive stonework of the Romanesque style wasreplaced by a light, almost lacy, play of thin columnsand patterns of ribs and windows all pointing upwardin a rising crescendo that seems to defy gravity, even asit carries the viewer’s gaze toward the heavens.

Fig. 601 Chartres Cathedral, 1145–1220.Herve Champollion / Caisse Nationale des MonumentsHistorique et des Sites, Paris, France.

110012th and 13th centuries

Growth of trade and towns as trading centers

1100Third Pueblo period

in American Southwest

Rise of Chivalric poetry written in the vernacular

12th century

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Compare, for instance, the Romanesque south towerof Chartres Cathedral to the fully Gothic north tower,which rises high above its starkly symmetrical neigh-bor. Extremely high naves—the nave at Chartres is 120feet high, Reims 125, and highest of all is Beauvais at157 (the equivalent of a 15-story building)—made pos-sible by flying buttresses (see Figs. 472 and 473) add tothis emphasis on verticality. They contribute a sense ofelevation that is at once physical and spiritual, as doesthe preponderance of pointed rather than roundedarches. In Germany’s Cologne Cathedral (Fig. 602),the width of the nave has been narrowed to such adegree that the vaults seem to rise higher than theyactually do. The cathedral was not finished until thenineteenth century, though built strictly in accordancewith thirteenth-century plans. The stonework is soslender, incorporating so much glass into its walls, thatthe effect is one of almost total weightlessness.

The Gothic style in Italy is unique. For instance,the exterior of Florence Cathedral (Fig. 603) is hardlyGothic at all. It was, in fact, designed to match the dog-matically Romanesque octagonal Baptistry that standsin front of it. But the interior space is completelyGothic in character. Each side of the nave isflanked by an arcade that opens almost com-pletely into the nave by virtue of four widepointed arches. Thus nave and arcade become one, andthe interior of the cathedral feels more spacious thanany other. Nevertheless, rather than the mysterious and

Fig. 602 Choir of Cologne Cathedral, Germany, thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies.Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historique.© Svenja-Foto / zefa / Corbis. All rights reserved.

Fig. 603 Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), begun by Arnolfo deCambio, 1296; dome by Filippo Brunelleschi, 1420–36.Vanni / Art Resource, NY.

St. Francis of Assisi1182–1226

1100

1209Founding of

Cambridge University

Islam penetratessub-Saharan Africa

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transcendental feelings evoked by most Gothicchurches, Florence Cathedral produces a sense of tran-quility and of measured, controlled calm.

The Gothic style in architecture inspired an out-pouring of sculptural decoration. There was, for onething, much more room for sculpture on the facade ofthe Gothic church than had been available on thefacade of the Romanesque church. There were nowthree doors where there had been only one before, anddoors were added to the transepts as well. The portal atReims (Fig. 604), which notably substitutes a stained-glass rose window for the Romanesque tympanum anda pointed for a round arch, is sculpturally much lighterthan, for instance, the tympanum at Autun, France(see Fig. 600). The elongated bodies of the Romanesquefigures are distributed in a very shallow space. In con-trast, the sculpture of the Gothic cathedral is more nat-uralistic. The proportions of the figures are more natural,and the figures assume more natural poses as well. Thespace they occupy is deeper—so much so that theyappear to be fully realized sculpture in-the-round, freedof the wall behind them. Most important of all, manyof the figures seem to assert their own individuality, asif they were actual persons. The generalized “types” of Romanesque sculpture are beginning to disappear.The detail of figures at the bottom of the Reims portal

(Fig. 605) suggests that each is engaged in a narrativescene. The angel on the left smiles at the more somberVirgin. The two at the right seem about to step off theirpedestals. What is most remarkable is that the spacebetween the figures is bridged by shared emotion, as iffeeling can unite them in a common space.

Fig. 604 Central portal of the west facade ofReims Cathedral, c. 1225–90.Picture Desk Inc. / Kobal Collection.

Fig. 605 Annunciation and Visitation, detail, west portal, ReimsCathedral, c. 1225–45.Scala / Art Resource, NY.

1215

Granting of Magna Cartaby King John of England

1215

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DEVELOPMENTS IN ASIA

As early as 1500 BCE, Aryan tribesmen from northernEurope invaded India, bringing a religion that wouldhave as great an impact on the art of India as Islamhad on the art of the Middle East. The Vedic tradi-tions of the light-skinned Aryans, written in religioustexts called the Vedas, allowed for the development ofa class system based on racial distinctions. Status inone of the four classes—the priests (Brahmans),the warriors and rulers (kshatriyas), the farmers andmerchants (vaishayas), and the serfs (shudras)—wasdetermined by birth, and one could escape one’s casteonly through reincarnation. Buddhism, which beganabout 563 BCE, was in many ways a reaction againstthe Vedic caste system, allowing for salvation bymeans of individual self-denial and meditation, and itgained many followers.

The Hindu religion, which evolved from theVedic tradition, has myriad gods, headed by the trinityof Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma is the creatorof the cosmos, and contains all things. Pictured here isShiva Nataraja, or the Dancing Shiva (Fig. 606),whose dance, on the body of a dwarf who symbolizes“becoming,” signifies the endlessly cyclic nature of theuniverse. The fire in the Shiva’s left hand representsthe destruction of both the physical universe and theego. The drum in the right hand beats out the rhythmsof birth and death. The Hindu Kandariya MahadevaTemple (Fig. 607) is dedicated to Shiva and symboli-cally captures the rhythms of Brahma, the cosmos.Completed only a few years before the greatRomanesque cathedrals of Europe, the main tower islike a mountain peak, showing the paths one must fol-low to attain salvation. The entirety is covered byintricate reliefs representing the gods and storiesfrom Hindu tradition.

Beginning in 618, at about the same time thatIslam arose in the Middle East, the Tang dynastyreestablished a period of peace and prosperity inChina that, except for a brief period of turmoilin the tenth century, would last 660 years.During this period, the pagoda became afavored architectural form in China. A pagodais a multistoried structure of successivelysmaller, repeated stories, with projectingroofs at each story. The design derives

Fig. 606 Shiva Nataraja (King of Dance). Chola period, Dravidian style,eleventh century. From Vellalagaram, Southern India.Bronze. Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris.Photo: Herve Lewandowski / Reunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY.

Fig. 607 Kandariya MahadevaTemple, Khajuraho, India,tenth–eleventh century.George Holton / Photo Researchers, Inc.

800

Kyoto establishedas the capital of Japan

1023

876The symbol for “zero” is

first used in India

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from Indian stupas that had grown increasingly tower-like by the sixth century CE as well as Han watchtow-ers. In fact, the pagoda was understood to offer thetemple a certain protection. The Great Wild GoosePagoda (Fig. 608) was built in 645 for the monkXuanzang, who taught and translated the materials hebrought back with him from a 16-year pilgrimage toIndia. In its simplicity and symmetry, it represents theessence of Tang architecture.

Since the time of the Song dynasty, which ruledthe empire from 960 until it was overrun by KublaiKhan in 1279, the Taoists in China had emphasizedthe importance of self-expression, especially throughthe arts. Poets, calligraphers, and painters wereappointed to the most important positions of state.After calligraphy, the Chinese valued landscapepainting as the highest form of artistic endeavor. Forthem, the activity of painting was a search for the

absolute truth embodied in nature, a search that wasnot so much intellectual as intuitive. They sought tounderstand the li, or “principle,” upon which the universe is founded, and thus to understand thesymbolic meaning and feeling that underlies everynatural form. The symbolic meanings of Guo Xi’sEarly Spring (Fig. 609), for instance, havebeen recorded in a book authored by his son,Guo Si, titled The Lofty Message of the Forestsand Streams. According to this book, the central peakhere symbolizes the Emperor, and its tall pines thegentlemanly ideals of the court. Around theEmperor, the masses assume their natural place, justas around the mountain, the trees and hills fall, likethe water itself, in the order and rhythms of nature.

Fig. 608 Great Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci’én Temple, Xi’an, Shanxi, Tangdynasty, first erected 645 CE.Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing.

Fig. 609 Guo Xi, Early Spring, 1072 (Northern Song dynasty).Hanging scroll, ink, and slight color on silk, length 60 in.Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Muslim invaders destroy Buddhistand Hindu centers of worship in India

1050–1200 1200


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Fig. 611 Attributed to Fujiwara Takanobu, Minamoto no Yoritomo,Kamakura period, c. 1150–1200.Ink and color on silk hanging scroll, height 4 ft. 61/2 in.The Art Archive / Laurie Platt Winfrey. Picture Desk Inc. / Kobal Collection.


Until the sixth century CE, Japan was a largelyagricultural society that practiced Shinto, anindigenous system of belief involving the worship ofkami, or deities believed to inhabit many differentaspects of nature, from trees and rocks to deer andother animals. But during the Asuka period(552–646 CE), the philosophy, medicine, music,food, and art and architecture of China and Koreawere introduced to the culture. Finally, in theHeian period (794–1185 CE), the influence ofChina was fully absorbed and transformed. Animperial government severed relations with Chinaand, with the support of aristocratic families, estab-lished a new capital in Kyoto.

It was a period of enormous splendor and refine-ment, highlighted by the growing popularity of PureLand Buddhism, which held that by merely chantinga mantra to Buddha, paradise, or the Pure Land, couldbe obtained. One of the most beautiful Pure Landtemples is Byodo-in (Fig. 610) in the Uji mountainsnot far from Kyoto. It is often called the PhoenixHall, not only for the pair of phoenix sculptures on its roof but also for the lightness and airiness of its columns and roofs, which seem to ascend to thePure Land.

Late in the Heian period, the emperors began tosee their authority challenged by regional clans of war-riors from outside Heian known as samurai (literally,“those who serve”). The absence of tax revenues fromthe valuable properties and temples controlled bythese nobles contributed to a general state of unrest.

While the samurai paid lip service to the sovereign,they increasingly exercised complete authority over allaspects of Japanese society.

In 1192, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the greatestsamurai of the day, gave himself the title of shogun,general-in-chief of the samurai, inaugurating the firstshogunate at Kamakura and what is known as theKamakura period (1192–1392). In a famous portraitof Yoritomo (Fig. 611), the sword that is the hall-mark of his class protrudes from his robe. The paint-ing is a masterful blend of the realism that comes todefine the artistic production of the Kamakura periodand a powerful compositional abstraction. His face,with its determined eyes, is absolutely realistic, whilehis robe is a flat geometry of black angles withoutdetail. Almost pyramidal in form, the figure ofYoritomo is above all a symbol of the authority andself-assuredness that defined Japanese culture foryears to come.

Fig. 610 Byodo-in, Uji, Kyoto prefecture, Heian period, c. 1053 CE.Corbis / Bettmann.

First use ofmovable type in China

10901040c. 1040

A Chinese writer describesthree forms of gunpowder

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THE CULTURES OF AFRICA

Just as in Europe and Asia, powerful kingdoms aroseacross Africa in the early centuries of the second mil-lennium. As we have seen, the influence of Islamhelped to establish a powerful culture in the kingdomof Mali (see Fig. 595). Further south, along the west-ern coast of central Africa, the Yoruba state of Ifedeveloped along the Niger River. On the eastern sideof Africa, the Zagwe dynasty maintained a longChristian heritage introduced in the first millenniumfrom the Middle East. Further south, near the south-eastern tip of Africa, the Shona civilization producedurban centers represented today by the ruins of “GreatZimbabwe.”

By the middle of the twelfth century, Ife culturewas producing highly naturalistic brass sculpturesdepicting its rulers. An example is the Head of a King(or Oni) (Fig. 612). The parallel lines that run downthe face represent decorative effects made by scar-ring—scarification. The hole in the lower neck sug-gests that the head may have been attached to awooden mannequin, and in memorial services themannequin may well have worn the royal robes of theIfe court. Small holes along the scalp line suggest thathair, or perhaps a veil of some sort, also adorned thehead. But the head itself was, for the Ife, of supremeimportance. It was the home of the spirit, the symbolof the king’s capacity to organize the world and toprosper. Ife culture depended on its kings’ heads for itsown welfare. Since the Ife did not leavea written record of their culturalbeliefs, we can best understand theirancient culture by looking at their con-temporaries.

One of the dynasties of greatest cul-tural importance in medieval East Africawas that of the Zagwe, who reigned forapproximately 150 years, from the earlytwelfth century to 1270. They carvedmassive rock churches into the softrock of the region (Fig. 613). The mostfamous of these was commissioned by

Fig. 612 Head of aKing (Oni), Ifeculture, Nigeria, c. thirteenth century.Brass, height 117/16in. Museum of IfeAntiquities, Ife, Nigeria.Dirk Bakker.

Fig. 613 Beta Ghiorghis (House of Saint George),Lalibela, Ethiopia, thirteenth century.Kazuyoshi Nomachi, The Image Works.

1300c. 1120–1270

The Zagwe dynasty rules in East Africa

Height of Ife culture in West Africa

1100–1300


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the emperor Lalibela. In the town now known by hisname, he ordered the construction of a series of thesesunken churches. Engineers had to conceive of the com-pleted building in advance, including decorative details,because subtractive techniques such as carving do notallow for repair of mistakes. Once the shell of the buildingwas carved, the interior was hollowed out into rooms foruse in Christian worship and study.

Inland from the southwestern coast of Africa, theShona people built an entirely indigenous African civi-lization in the region of today’s Zimbabwe beginningin about 1100. As trade developed along the Africancoast, the Shona positioned themselves as an inlandhub where coastal traders could travel to procuregoods for export. From surrounding regions theymined or imported copper and gold, and received inreturn exotic goods such as porcelain and glass fromAsia and the Middle East.

Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries,the Shona erected the massive stone buildings andwalls of a city known today as Great Zimbabwe. Theorigin of the Shona word zimbabwe is debated, but a

composite of various meanings suggests that it referredto the “palaces of stone” in this city. A huge city for itstime, the ruins cover one square mile and are believedto have housed a population of somewhere between10,000 and 20,000. Great Zimbabwe has several dis-tinct areas. The Great Enclosure is a group of structuresencircled by a tall stone wall (Fig. 614). constructedin approximately 1350, here Shona craftsmen con-structed a double wall with a space between the twowalls only wide enough to allow single-file passage.They tapered the walls inward from a seventeen-foot-thick base for greater strength and stability, andtopped the exterior wall with an alternating diagonalpattern of dark- and light-colored rocks. This decora-tion may have been meant to represent lightning, orperhaps the zebra, an animal frequently depictedin Shona art. Two conical structures that interruptpassage around the perimeter wall are likely to havebeen ancient granaries, for the Shona people todaystill use similar structures. Despite the turrets andlookout spots, the walls of Great Zimbabwe do notappear to have been meant for defense, and from

this scholars have surmisedthat the walls may haveexisted primarily to serveas a buffer between royaltyand the common people, aconstant reminder of theirpower and status.

Fig. 614 Double perimeter walland remains of two towers, GreatZimbabwe, c. 1200–1400.Robert Aberman / Barbara Heller / ArtResource, NY / Werner Forman.

The Shona city known as the Great Zimbabwe rises in Southwest Africa

c. 1200–14001300

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chapter The Age of Faith - University of Phoenixmyresource.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/ART101R4/A_World_of_Art… · Lord, meaning the year of his birth). Today, usage has changed