CLASSICAL & MEDIEVAL ART
BY HANNAH NELSON
CLASSICAL Terracotta column-krater By the Marlay Painter Date: ca. 430 B.C. Culture: Greek Medium: Terracotta These vases were used for decoration purposes, rather than everyday, functional uses. During this era, the Greeks were very interested and talented in sculpture. Vases like this were really the only two dimensional works of art they created, but they included the technique of sculpting the vase itself, and they showed their interest in the human form within the painting. The majority of vases like this display events and actions of life in Athens during the classical era. This style of painting on the vase is called red-figure, which was invented about 100 years earlier than this vase was created. After sculpting the terracotta vase, a glaze was painted on. During the firing process, there were a number of steps taken, decreasing and increasing oxygen levels in the kiln to make sure the vase would turn out to be terracotta orange and the glaze would come out black. This style of pottery is a defining art style of the Classical Greek Era, and is often recreated in recent pop-culture references to ancient Greek times (i.e. Disney’s Hercules).
LASSICAL
Gold finger ring engraved with an image of Hermes Date: late 4th century B.C. Culture: Greek, South Italian, Tarentine Medium: Gold This ring shows an image of the god Hermes, adjusting a wing on his foot. Hermes is the messenger god of Greek mythology. Greek artists were interested in showing frozen motion, like this engraving, to have the effect of stopping time and show a more perfect world in their work. This image and style has been seen on coins and other small golden and silver tokens as well, which is referred to as the Sandal-Binder Hermes, a popular image in Greek culture. This artwork is believed to be by or copied from that of the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos, who was known for his large bronze statue of Alexander the Great. The Greeks everyday life was greatly influenced by their beliefs in the gods and goddesses, so much of their artwork depicted the main characteristics of these gods and goddesses.
CLASSICAL
Marble grave stele of a little girl Period: Classical Date: ca. 450–440 B.C. Culture: Greek Medium: Marble, Parian This grave marker was sculpted to show that gentle motion, frozen in time, which is prevalent in Classical Greek art. In ancient greek culture, burial rituals are extremely important, and having an improper burial is disrespectful. Marble grave markers like this were made to be sure that the dead were not forgotten. This particular stele stands almost three feet tall, and most likely belonged to a more wealthy family. Due to the Greeks’ belief in the gods and all that world encompasses, death and the afterlife were not taken lightly. They believed that the spirit of the dead went to the underworld to be ruled over by Hades and his wife persephone. We hear accounts of this underworld in stories like the Odyssey, among other more recent stories and movies. It has never been described as a nice place to go, but resembles hell instead.
Pericles Marble Bust Date: 440 B.C. Culture: Roman Medium: Marble Pericles was a strong leader and general. He believed that Athens was the center and model for Greece as a whole. Sadly, he was killed by a plague in Athens. This bust is just a roman copy of the original Greek bust, but it represents Pericles strong beliefs and leadership, along with his determination to make Athens the center of political, cultural, and economics in Greece. Pericles was a symbol of Athens, and a symbol of classical greek as a whole. Sculptures like this are a major component of classical greek art, and the greeks prided themselves on the realistic features and the grace they displayed in their art. Their goal was to imitate nature, which is very evident in this sculpture.
CLASSICAL
This page is from a book of Christian musical and ritual chants. Considered graphic design, it was common practice to adorn pages of books with elaborate patterns, scenes, and even include gold leaf paint on the pages. Illuminated manuscript translates directly as “written by hand.” This was the primary method of “printing” until the printing press was created about 50 years later. It was often the monks who were in charge of writing these books and illustrating them. The illustrated scenes, also called miniatures, were included primarily due to the fact that most people still couldn’t read, so the illustrations helped them figure out what was written in the books. Each page was painstakingly created by hand, usually by a single person.
MEDIEVAL
Bifolium with Christ in Majesty in an Initial A, from an Antiphonary Date: ca. 1405 Geography: Made in Prague Culture: Bohemian Medium: Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment
MEDIEVAL Icon with the Virgin and Child Date: mid-10th–mid-11th century Geography: Probably made in Constantinople Culture: Byzantine Medium: Ivory This is a popular Byzantine image of the virgin and Christ called Virgin Hodegetria, which translates as “she who guides.” This popular image is the sculptors way of showing the viewer that the virgin is the guide to salvation, and that Jesus is the way to salvation. The way the sculptor portrayed Christ was to show him not as a baby, but as the Word of God, so he is illustrated in a more intelligent manner. Ivory was considered a luxury medium to work with. It was often used for items for the church like holy water buckets and relics. It was often used for statuettes like this one. Ivory was used to portray purity and chastity, hence why it was used on a sculpture of the virgin. After a while, when ivory became more accessible, it started being used for everyday objects as well as liturgical objects.
MEDIEVAL
Stained Glass Panel with the Visitation Date: 1444 Geography: Made in Germany Culture: German Medium: Pot metal, white glass, vitreous paint, silver stain, olive-green enamel This scene depicts a biblical event of the virgin Mary going to visit her cousin, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, after the angel Gabriel tells her she is pregnant with Jesus. This panel was created for the Carmelite church of Boppard, along with 14 other panels depicting the life of Mary and Jesus.The large sections of colored glass were intentionally made that way, rather than being detailed, so the image could still be seen from farther below the panel. Theophilus was a German monk who studied the art of stained glass and gave us most of the insight about the art that we now have. Sand and wood ash are mixed together, melted, and colored with powdered metals. The pieces are then assembled and melted together with strips of lead, called “cames.� The design is then put into a lead frame and mounted.
Crucifix Date: ca. 1200–1220 Culture: North Italian Medium: Wood with polychromy Unlike most crucifix sculptures, this one portrays Christ awake, not in pain, and looking much more dignified than most examples. He is fully clothed, which implies his heavenly royalty. This type of image of the crucifix is called the Volto Santo, which translates as “Holy Face.” This sculpture is a copy of the one in Lucca, Italy. It is believed that the original artist was Nicodemus, a disciple of Jesus, and was present during Jesus’ actual crucifixion.
Initially for this project, I wanted to highlight the most famous works of art and arti-
facts from the Classical and Medieval periods, but upon doing research from various museums around the world, I decided it would be more interesting and beneficial for myself and my classmates to focus on lesser known artifacts that showed us more about the culture during those time periods. I chose to create a book to display this information, because I am a Graphic Designer and I wanted to do more writing than I could fit on a poster. I also went with a striking, yet minimal design to catch the reader’s attention, but allow the focus to remain on the artifacts themselves.
In researching artwork from the Classical and Medieval periods, I realized just how
much changed in almost two thousand years. I found it to be an interesting venn diagram of sorts. Along with focusing on the art itself, it was interesting to learn about how certain artifacts were made, and the methods people used to create pottery and jewelry and how those techniques changes over the course of history.
Another interesting thing I found about some of these artifacts was how often cer-
tain icons were recreated in different ways. First, the golden ring with the image of the god Hermes. Through my research, I found that this image of Hermes was recreated many times over for many different purposes and artifacts, including other jewelry and coins. Along with that, the theme of using various gods and goddesses as the subject of the art. This showed me how realistically the artifacts I was researching displayed the culture of the time. Along the same lines, I discovered how common the ivory icon of the virgin and child is among artists. In looking at different museums, I saw probably hundreds of variations of this image. This showed me how biblically and church focused art was during the medieval times. All four artifacts I found from the medieval period were focused on Christ, the virgin Mary, or even both.
Finally, it was very interesting to experience the contrast between then and now
when creating this book. I went with a modern design as a way to show the extent of how different these artifacts are from what we have now, along with showing the difference in time between the classical and medieval periods. This project was a challenge, especially in finding a variety of different artifacts that would all be completely different from each other, but in doing so, I saw a wide variety of similar and dissimilar objects and was able to learn a lot about the artifacts I didn’t choose to include. My favorite part about studying these two different periods was seeing the themes within each one; how the classical era was so focused on what we now call greek mythology, and how the medieval period focused everything on biblical times and themes of the church. This project also taught me to look closer at themes of artwork today and how that will translate into history and humanities books years from now.
Works Cited Author: Department of Greek and Roman Art. “Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. Author: Department of Greek and Roman Art. “Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. Author: Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. “Stained Glass in Medieval Europe | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Bifolium with Christ in Majesty in an Initial A, from an Antiphonary | Bohemian | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Crucifix | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “FACT #1: What Is an Illuminated Manuscript? — Minneapolis Institute of Art.” Minneapolis Institute of Art. Minneapolis Institute of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Gold Finger Ring Engraved with an Image of Hermes | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. Guérin, Author: Sarah M. “Ivory Carving in the Gothic Era, Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Icon with the Virgin and Child | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Marble Grave Stele of a Little Girl | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. Matthews, Roy T. The Western Humanities. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print. “Portrait Bust.” British Museum. British Museum, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Stained Glass Panel with the Visitation | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017. “Terracotta Column-krater (bowl for Mixing Wine and Water) | Attributed to the Marlay Painter | 07.286.65 | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 05 May 2017.