Ancient Roman vs Early Christian

                      

                      This is a picture of the Ancient Roman Building of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Most of all the Ancient Roman buildings have the Corinthian Order columns. This was a traditional formation of the buildings and they were all built for a particular reason, for example this building being built in the memory of the Gemini Twins which is basis of the name. These buildings were built with blinding white veneer (marble at times) made of concrete and brick. They were all built very close to one another and in the same area and built with the idea of political propaganda in mind supporting public use. An example of public use is explained with the Temple of Vesta being used for the legal wills and documents of Roman Senators and cult objects. All of these are circular buildings unlike the bulk of other Roman architectural structures that are built in squares and some long and rectangular. Many of the sculptures made by the Ancient Romans were used for propaganda as well, but were mainly focused on a message or an idea. The Ancient Romans took on the similar architectural type of the Greeks, but they did begin to create their own types of structures, such as the arch and vaults, which continued on in the later years of Roman architecture.

                          This is a picture of the Church of San Vitale. This is a perfect example of the architectural structure of the early Christian churches. They have claristory windows, which are windows at the highest level of the building. These windows are used to allow light in from the upper level giving the whole church a heavenly lighting set. The buildings are usually darker on the upper level and then lighter on the lower levels, so the church is even brighter as the light makes its way down to the lower level. I personally believe that is what gives it a more heavenly feel. The ceiling is a high vaulted one, which adds to the depth of the lighting because that allows the light to come into the building and rise and then down into the lower level making it look like it is coming straight from the sky. There are mainly two types of building types: longitudinal building plan and central plan buildings. This church is a central building plan that is used to commemorate the death of a saint or as a baptistery. These central plan buildings are very tall being made sturdy on the inside by Corinthian columns leading to an altar in a long nave, which is roofed with a dome. The dome is believed to be the weakest part of these types of buildings because the windows are what’s holding them up. The two types of domes are domes on pendentives and domes on squinches, and this particular church is a dome on squindels. That allows for a different lighting and the reason for the look of having so much space.

                        These two are very similar type architectural structures. They both have buildings that are both longitudinal and central plan building types. They also both have some scenes in buildings and churches that symbolize similar types of scenes. One example of that is when we see the first baths of the emperors in Roman architectural art and the first bath of Christ in the early Christian architectural art. This is also seen with the Ancient Roman art we saw with the emperor and his followers in an organized fashion with all of their togas on and the emperor being the one in the middle with his hood on, and in early Christian art we see Emperor Justinian and his Attendants, which is in the Church of Vitale (above) and is so similar to the art I just explained from Ancient Rome. Another reason that they are similar is because of the fact that they both were inspired by the empires that came before them, Ancient Roman architecture was inspired by the Ancient Greeks and the early Christian architecture was inspired by the Ancient Romans. When one is inspired by the other, they basically take on that same exact style, but make it fit with the past and present of their particular empire. An example of this being the Ancient Romans giving their own flavor to the Ancient Greeks architecture by creating vaults and arches, and then following that the early Christian architectural structures adopting that and creating domes that have arches to hold them up and vaulted ceilings in the central plan building churches. This is just something that they all naturally do and it is really proven with the Ancient Romans and the early Christians.

Visit to the Parthenon

In this photo one is able to see the top of the Doric columns on the exterior of the Parthenon as well as the acroterion which is the winged figure which sits at the edge of the roof on the corner. One can also see the metope which is the space with the red background and smaller sculptural pieces (the man riding the horse for example). The triglyph is the ridged part in between the metopes. The architrave is the empty space in between the Doric columns and the repetitive metope, triglyph area also known as the Doric frieze.

Doric frieze- This is the area below the pediments and above the architrave and Doric columns. This is a repetitious section of metopes and triglyphs.

Metope- This is the decorative space in between two triglyphs in the Doric frieze section of the building.

Triglyph- These are the vertically channeled ridges separating the metopes in the Doric frieze.

This is a picture that shows the Doric columns that are found on the entire perimeter of the Parthenon. From top to bottom there is the  Abacus (flat square-like part connecting the column to the rest of the roof area), the Echinus (rounded area at the top of the shaft of the column), the Necking which is just the top of the column. All three of these parts that make up the top design of the column are known together as the Capital. The shaft is the long vertical, cylindrical part of the column. It has ridges and does not include the Capital, which is the more decorative part at the top. The Stylobyte is what the entire column sits on top of.

Greek Pottery

This piece of pottetry is one of my particular favorites. The reason for that is mainly because of the fact that it is used for as a present for the winners of the athletic games. It is called a Panathenaic Amphora made in 530 BCE attributed to the Euphiletos Painter, but is made by Nikias. He was an Athenian politician as well as a general during the Peloponnesian War, which is where he led several expiditions and achieved little, but he was very successful with negotiations that led to the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC. He inherited a fortune from his father who passed, which caused him to then become a member of the Athenian aristocracy. His spolitical views were very moderate adn he was strongly against the agressiveness of the democrats imperialism. This vase was usually filled with oil from the olive grove, which the victor from th ePanathenaic games would use all over their body after this victorious win. The figures that are painted on this vase are very geometric with fat bodies, small necks, and small feet. i figured they were painted this way because of the fact that they were used for athletics and that is the stylistic bodily structure of an athlete. The sfigures look very muscular and in an athletic running pose, which is very  fitting since "the early Olympian games were foot rces overtaken under varying distances.

Prezi Presentation Link

                                                   http://prezi.com/0j3risnlgune/the-anachronism/
**I chose this picture of the Great Temple at Luxor because this was the city I focused on mostly in our project! Enjoy!

Individual Blog: Part II

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/whatson/results.asp?id=1114094

                   I chose this image to write on for this blog because it reaminds me of the Parthenon. It reminds me of the Parthenon because of the fact that it has the columns and looks to have the curvature that was referred to in the Pollitt readings. This is a shrine of St Amandus of the early 13th century that is featured in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The author of this article says that many people ask the question "is there something in it?", and I would ask the same thing. If I just walked in and saw this, I would ask what was on the inside, was it hollow? He answers them every time and informs them that there is something on the inside, and I find it fascinating that something so small has something on the inside. I believe that this is something that could be seen during the Classical Period, like the Parthenon, but it is made of something from the Ancient Egyptian Period, with the it being made of gold and having jewels on it. I found that very interesting.

Individual Blog: Part I

                             I find this sculpture to be a very insightful sculpture because like we said in class "it is more realistic". This figure does not have the Archaeic smile, so it looks as if it is a real sculpture of an actual death. The veins of and muscles are showing in his arms to make it look even more real, which is why I like this figure so much. Many of the art from these time periods are very stylistic and don't look natural. "The twisted body that we see is looks as if it is capable of turning in space", so it gives the figure more meaning. He is obviously a fallen warrior, so he is "balanced on his shield" to try to catch himself. He even has a helmet on, in comparison to the Dying Warrior that was created a decade before it who has on, it looks to be, a wig. He does not physically resemble a warrior at all. He even had the Archaeic smile on his face, which is traditional of the art in this time period, that makes him look as if he is happy about the situation he is in.

                            Him being a fallen warrior along with his buldging veins and muscles, lets us be able to imagine and visualize how much pain he is actually in. We can even see the straining on his face that is the first sign of pain. That is something that lets you know that it is realistic because we are able to imagine what is going ton at the time. We can put ourselves in his situation and feel what he feels just by looking at it, and that is one of the main objectives of art. This is an excellent example of art in itself.

Downtown Presbyterian Church Blog

While visiting this church, built in the year 1851, I found the way of building it very original. I have never been inside of a church that looks this ancient, which is very wierd since I am from Nashville, Tennessee and have never been in this church. Referring back to the Horowitz reading, everything in here was built with a roundness to occupy space and show depth, and that is the one thing that I noticed this church continued to do. Even the lines that were on the walls, ceilings, and columns were very geometric, not having much of an end to them. There were also columns painted on the wall behind the pertruding colums to give the illusion that there was more space being occupied behind the front columns. This is called having a foreground and a background, which was played on very well in this particular section of the church. The columns in the front of the church represent volume and show that there is a flow of infinite space. The use of color creates a darker look to the church. The colors used, though, do represent the life of the Ancient Egyptians, the color red represents egyptian life, the color green represents the papyrus they used in many ways, and the tan/yellow color represents their egyptian land. I found that very interesting because we don't have main colors to represent our lifetime, we just have the color scheme that stands for nothing. It just stands for the colors that we learn as children. I also found it very interesting that everything seems to be enlarged, especially the columns, which would represent that worthiness of the Gods they worshiped. It is as if these things were built for the use of the Gods, letting the Gods know that they were an important aspect of the Ancient Egyptian life. I liked this trip to the church, wasn't what I expected at all, but I enjoyed it!

Website Image

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/149/hand-me-downs.html

                            This authors main thesis with this article is that they are trying to create heirlooms that resemble the art from the past. They want to create things from the past to make them last like the past, so that they can make it through generations and generations and one day finally it can be researched on. I completely agree with the author of this article because it would be nice to have something make its way to the near future, and someone does research on it to come to find out it was from our time period. I also believe it was smart to try to make something with the idea in mind that the want it to last. I believe that is very important because many things in our time period are not made durably. This is not because we are not able to, it is because our economy is becoming so greedy, and  no one wants to take the time to make something that durable because that is taking up there time to create some more of their product.

                         This relates to everything that we are discussing in class because the ancient Egyptians made things, every single time, with the intent that they wanted it to last. This also relates to the Kingdoms being economically and politically stable because I believe that we are an economy that is economically stable, but we choose not to use what we have. I also noticed that these crowns that are supposed to be part of the heirlooms that last are made of gold, as were the crowns and all the jewelry of the Ancient Egyptians. That shows that the Egyptians had strategy to the reason why they created so many things in gold. The crowns also look like crowns that king and queens of that time period would wear, so I really feel that this author was greatly influenced by the time periods before us, mainly the Egyptians.

Favorite Class Image

This image is my favorite image from class. It is my favorite image from class because as we discussed in class, it shows "the equality between male and female by them being the same height". I believe that that is so important to me because equality between man and woman is something that we have fought for in history, and I like the fact that this sculpture embodies that idea. "They are united as one. They are further united by the queens symbolic gesture of embrace" (p.59), which shows togetherness. This is a wonderful symbolic statue. The king is taking a step forward and his queen takes this step with him. This shows that even though the two are one unit, the male figure is still the one that is in control, and I just really love that because it is so true.

This statue was created during the Od Kingdom, along with the Pyramids at Giza, which meant that it was built during a "period of economic and political stability" as we discussed in class. This meant that the people of this time period were able to build things that were very sturdy and were going to definitely last for a long time because of the fact that they had the money to get the materials needed. The king and his queen were both "idealized and stylized" as we discussed in class. The king embodies the "athletic youthful figure that is nude to the waist" because those were the main characteristics of males at that time. That is what every male was expected to look like to show strength and masculinity. His queen is wearing a "sheer close-fitting garment revealing the soft curves of her gently swelling body". This shows that the women of this time period were expected to be beautiful, work in the house, and to bare children. They were not expected to do much. This is not my only favorite structure from class, but I chose this one because I can relate to it.

Collage Assignment: The Mucical Note

I chose to make my collage one large musical note because that it what my whole life revolves around. I listen to music and, also sing, every day. I even used to play an instrument, the saxophone, in middle school, which was all I used to do. The pictures of the collage that make up the musical note are all things that mean the most to me in life and keep me going. They are either products that I use every day, words to describe me, or my favorite things. By favorite things I mean color, foods, or hobbies. All of these pictures are pictures of things that are very important in my life, so this collage should tell you anything you need to know about me.


Color: I used bright colors to incorporate into this project, such as the poster board and the border around the purple fabric, because I am a bright and happy person. I love bright colors.

Light: The light areas on this collage are the most important things in my life, which are on the right side of the musical note. The dark areas are the things in my life that I don’t worry too much about, but they are important enough factors in my life to be in my collage.

Texture: The texture pattern that I used for this collage is soft textures because I am a really soft and sweet person.

Volume: The light and dark cutouts that I added into this collage are basically the staff and the outline of the staff. Since the staff is supposed to be the background, I figured I would make it darker than everything else in the collage, so that it will fade into the background and help the pictures to pop out and be the main focus.

Line: The implied line in the collage to direct people’s eyes to a certain area is the pointer that is pointing all the attention to the word family, which is the most important thing to me.

Space: The background of this collage is a musical staff, which are the lines that musical notes are on so the musician will know what pitch to play the note in. the foreground in this collage is a pointer, which is something that teachers use in class to direct students eye to something on a board. This evens out the collage to be equal space used on all sides.

Scale: The biggest pictures in the project are the words family, girl, and the letters TH. These two explain me to the fullest, which is why they are the biggest. The other pictures are just about equal size because they have equal importance to me.

Symbolism: 1.) The fact that the edges of the poster are round because I am a very well-rounded person. I can do many things. 2.) The fact that the whole collage is a musical note because music is a part of me. It represents the fact that I really like and appreciate music. 3.) The background fabric. It represents the fact that I am a very soft and sweet person. 4.) The light pictures represent the most important things in my life and the dark pictures represent the less important things in my life. 5.) The fact that the lighter pictures, which are most important to me, are on the right side and I am right handed. That is my strongest side.

You: I have pictures of my favorite hobbies, such as basketball and cooking.

Friends and Family: I have pictures of my friends and family’s favorite things, such as their favorite colors, foods, and products to use. I also have a picture of fives, which is how many people I have in my entire family.

Your town, community, school: I have my school colors of orange and blue, and I have pictures in here about what my community back at home stood for, the world.

Your country: I have pictures of things that our country tries to do, such as one picture that has the word protect on it, and another picture with the word America on it.

The world today: I have pictures that represent what is becoming of our world, such as a picture of McDonald’s because our world today has so many fast food places. I also have a picture on here that says “amazing world of delight”, which shows that people love the world we live in.

Art: Art to me means beautiful. It is a way to express your feelings, which is why I have many pictures on this collage that talk about beauty, fashion, and description.

History: History has made me a very proud young black female, who knows how to be civilized and act with elegance when it is needed. Art relates to history because they are both beautiful things. They both show how things used to be and how things have evolved over the years. This is also how it has shaped the world today because people see how things used to be, and they know how they want to live, which is not like things were in the past.

Web Link Image Blog: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.deviantart.com/download/58724418/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds_by_MakinMagic.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/58724418/&h=768&w=1024&sz=295&tbnid=il6F88mRPe760M:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlucy%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bsky%2Bwith%2Bdiamonds%2Bimage&zoom=1&q=lucy+in+the+sky+with+diamonds+image&hl=en&usg=__EoPS-l7WBBCDtypfxEteSiRqSuE=&sa=X&ei=-oyBTN7kGcL6lwfW2821Dg&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAQ

This image is an image that I stumbled up on by accident one day while researching for a class in high school. When I saw it I saved it to ym computer, which is why I still have it, but it really caught my eyebecause of the bright colors. I really like bright colors, especially when they are all incorporated together to make one big image. When I was younger, I used to draw pictures that were not that good, I must say, but I would always color them with bright colors. This particular image shows bright colors as well as darker colors. The darker colors, to me, show different dimensions showing shading and giving it volume. Another thing that I love about this image is that it has many diferent shapes that show different angles. It almost looks like this is a flag hanging up somewhere blowing in the wind because of the shading and different shapes in it. There is also use of lines, diagonal, horizontal and vertical, but the most frequent line being used is the diagonal line to give the image direction. There is one diagonal line going through the middle of the image, from the upper right hand corner down to the lower left hand corner. I think this diagonal is used to put focus going towards the middle of the page.

The focus is going to the middle of the page because there is also depth being shown that one does not notice until all of their focus is in the middle of the page. When one looks towards the middle of the page they will notice a squiggly dark shaded area. This is the only thing in this image that looks this way and that is because the viewer is supposed to see the depth in the middle of the image and artist use darker colors to show that depth. This image kind of looks like a maze when you contine to look at it and it can make you dizzy if you look at it too long because of all of the different things going on in it. Also if you look at it too long you may also see it start to spin a little bit. This is just another illusion that comes from all of the different things going on in the image, such as the different light and dark colors, the different shapes, and the different senses of direction. I can relate to this image because it has plenty of things going on in it and that is the kind of personality that I have at times. I have many different kinds of personalities, and I feel like this image is speaking to them. This is why this image caught my eye, and I chose to share it on my blog.

Prehistoric Favorite Picture

From the slide of images that were featured in this presentation, this image is one of my favorites. This one is one of my favorites because it shows color brilliantly. This image shows light on the parthenon showing that it is very important, which is what we discussed in class. The light shadow is also slanted which gives the parthenon the illusion of it rising up out something showing that it is durable, and that it can not be destroyed. The size of it is also something that we discussed in class showing also that is is something very important because is bigger than life. The little person in the image shows that this culture beilieves it was bigger than life because the person represents life. This image also shows the range of lines being directed toward a certain point or area in the image making the viewer focus more on the parthenon and nothing else. All of the focus should be on the parthenon because it is the subject of the painting. The viewer is supposed to notice the parthenon first, and then notice the fact that it has obviously survived something tragic by finally focusing in on the image as a whole and noticing the pieces on the ground in the shaded areas. Another thing that was discussed in class was the fact that this is an oil painting, and at this point in history oil paintings were the most important and expensive paintings. This shows how the parthenon was considered to be a very important landscape to this culture, and I absolutely agree with this.

The parthenon was considered to be a temple of protection for the people of Athens in Greek History, so it is understandable for this to be painted as if it were the most important thing. While reading in the Prown Article and learning about Material Culture, I completely understand the reason for painting the parthenon in this manor. Material Culture has many different phases to it, but the one that is hit on the most is the idea of historical artifacts surviving through history. The parthenon can definitely be put into this category because in this painting it seems as though there has been something like a battle around this monument, that ruined some parts of the it, which are in the dark areas of the image. These pieces are in the dark parts of the image because that represents how that is the past and the parthenon survived it. The artist is visiting the fact that the parthenon is a very strong structure and has endured many things, but it is still standing. This painting shows the struggle, and more than likely the artist is relating to that struggle and is showing it through the painting. The small image of the man at the very bottom of the photo may actually be the artist, and he could be walking alone because he has jsu survived something that was very painful.

Favorite Image

Out of all of the images that we have viewed, I believe I would have to say that my favorite is the "Starry Night" image. Even though it does not give me the happiest feeling, I feel that it is a very beautiful image. I also love the texture that the painting has. I have had the pleasure of going to a museum and actually seeing this painting in person, and I noticed that it has testure to it when one touches it. That has to be my favorite aspect of that image because to me the texture is symbolic of the fact that it is not supposed to convey a very easy and simple aspect of life. The texture symbolizes how it a kind of complicated image and does not just go one way. There is a lot of information and explanation that comes along with this image, so it should not just have that simplicity to it.
I also love the colors in this image. The colors are not bright, but they aren't dark either. They are a mixture of light and dark, which make them level out to convey a solemn color scheme. There are a lot of things that are going on in this image, which is another reason why I love it so much. This was one of the first paintings that I actually saw and studied, so it has always been with me. It has many things going on at once, for example, the swirls that are going on, the mountains in the background, the little town at the bottom of the image, and the large tree that is in the bottom left corner of the image. "Starry Nights" has received some wonderful ratings im sure and I agree with every single one of them about this image being wonderful!

Art History Survey 1: Welcome Art History Survey 1

I really do like this class and I believe I am going to love the group work that we do in here! The only thing that I do not like is the blogging because I do not know how to use it, but hopefully I get the hang of it!! =)