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In the Byzantine there was concern that people would worship the images of Christ rather than Christ himself. Artists were creators, in the image of God, so could create images that were so beautiful they could distract worshipers from God. The icons themselves were venerated as protective objects. The period of iconoclasm reminds me of the Muslim state ban on images of Muhammad, and the Taliban’s deliberate destruction of images of God or animals. Also, in the earlier lesson on Judaism, the text mentioned that there were no images in early Jewish temples. I think it’s interesting that there is a paradox in wanting to inspire religious belief in people by placing amazing artworks in a church — and worrying that the people would then accidentally worship the art rather than the subject.
Monasteries housed the bones or possessions of holy people who’d died. People believed that the bodies of dead saints had the power of healing. This does appear to be misdirected worship, if the church wants people to get all of their meaning from God.
Byzantine churches contained images of the rulers who presided over the land the worshipers lived on. Rulers looked down on the worshipers from the heavens, proclaiming their association with God. Justinian and his wife were depicted with halos that implied their divinely appointed roles — much like Egyptian rulers used symbols to justify their claim to divine power. People were reminded of their ruler’s earthly power through the images, in that way they could be considered to be graven.
Not quite graven, but interesting: Byzantine art snuck some hoochie into their religious art. There’s a water nymph in one scene of the Vienna Genesis, then one of Jacob’s wives had the booty in another scene.
Good blue jeans, much appropriate for a modern lion-man. I’m impressed by how much time you spent letting parts harden before adding more. I feel like he needs a tattoo….
Wow that is cool! It looks like a topographical map of a statue. I’m glad you mentioned that you know there are filters to do something similar, but that you made the decisions by yourself instead. The original was a striking piece, so I’m not surprised to see that you chose her.
Thank you Laura, I enjoyed your cookie woman as well. You had a very creative angle with your project. Did you eat her?
Thanks Gabe, the contrast in texture was one of the things I really enjoyed creating. I do have a bit of experience now, I’ve been working at digital for maybe five years now.
The depiction of the bearded Jesus may have been to mimic Greek and Roman art, but I think it was most likely a cultural thing in the Middle East. Jesus brushed shoulders with Islam and Judaism, two cultures that traditionally embrace beards. The image of him holding a lamb is associated with sacrifice because that’s what the Roman statuettes were about, but the image of Jesus as a shepherd was to show that he was a badass that protected his followers with his own life. We think of shepherds now as Hallmark Card representations of what they really were. Shepherds carried weapons to defend their sheep from thieves and wolves. They had to be ready to kill, and always be vigilant. Imagine Batman. This is why God favored Abel over Cain for his sacrifices, Abel worked much harder.
The Beit Alpha synagogue incorporated a Mesopotamian zodiac themed mosaic floor, with the sun god Helios in the center. The accompanying inscription is in Greek.
Herod’s temple makes me think of 11th century C.E. castles built for European rulers. Did both of these things happen around the same time?
The Royal Complex at Herodium had a courtyard and garden that were surrounded by Corinthian columns, in the style of Greek architecture. He also had a bath house built in Roman style.
Some of the decorative elements in the Arc of the Covenant and Menorahs looks like art from the Roman city of Pompeii. The catacombs were decorated with symbols and motifs that were generic to Roman culture.
During the 19th century building boom, Jews built synagogues in various styles, such as Art Deco or Egyptian. I believe having no nation made it possible for them to experiment with many different styles, and contribute to recognition of the cultures the styles came from.
Jewish coins were actually Roman coins on which Jewish images were stamped. This reminds me of how Islamic temples are built over the destroyed temples of other religions, but much less bloodshed involved. Jews got their system of weights and coins from the Babylonians.
In the Cubiculum of Leonis, Christian art borrowed the halo from Roman art, and Christ’s dress style from the Greeks. There are letters of the Greek alphabet, and a motif that mimics Roman architecture. Old Saint Peter’s Basilica also mimicked Roman architecture in structure.
Purely Christian art was forbidden by the Romans, so the image of a man carrying a sheep as used to represent Christ. This would go unnoticed because this was a common symbol representing sacrifice to the gods.
You make a good point by bringing up that Mary, the mother of Jesus is later worshiped by many in the Catholic faith. The Virgin Mary is a convenient gateway to Christianity for cultures that are matrilineal, such as some cultures in South America and Mexico. The mother goddess is a feature of virtually every religion, even one that has only one god.
Ancestor worship is an obvious one. The near deification of the offspring of Adam and Eve, to the point of several religious factions fighting over Herod’s temple to pray above the bones.
There are some Greek and Roman minor deities mixed into Early Jewish adornments of temples and tombs. The Goddess of Victory is in a fresco in the Jewish catacombs. An inscription in Dura Europos Synagogue contains an inscription to the Greek goddess Tyche. In the same synagogue the goddess Aphrodite takes Moses out of his basket and gives him to some nymphs that will raise him.
Not part of the art, but important to note:
God has many names, which indicates the number of times a new culture was assimilated into Christianity — how many tribes joined together by marriage or war, and then cooperated by adding the old god to the new religion.
Good point about the rich being able to afford to commission propaganda art, and being able to suppress art that contains views counter to their message. Isn’t it amazing that we have come far enough that artists can run their political cartoons that satirize our rulers – right in our daily newspapers? I’ve read that Romans loved to drag their famous people through the dirt just as much as Americans do, but I think it was easier to have someone flogged then as well.
The Veristic portraits are meant to teach the viewer that age is to be venerated, so they broke away from the idealized style of Greece and made them as realistic as possible. Roman public figures wanted to be taken seriously, so they wore their wrinkles as proof of how wise and hard-working they’ve been. Veristis portraiture was also a defense mechanism of the upper class when they saw foreigners with money moving into Rome. They wanted to distinguish themselves as having been there for a long time.
The statue of Augustus of Primaporta is a combination of the styles used to make the Greek statue of the Spear Bearer (symbolizing strength) and the Roman statue the Orator (symbolizing diplomacy). The intended effect was to get people on board with Augustus ending the Republic and beginning the Empire. He wanted to be seen as a strong but fair ruler, connected to the gods, with the power to bring about a golden age much like the time the Spear Bearer was created. This combination of two recognizable statues to communicate with the viewers seems like a meme…
Mussolini had the Altar of Augustan Peace rebuilt, because he wanted the public to see a connection between himself and Emperor Augustus. The Altar had been originally built as a symbol to Augustus’ people that he was returning Rome to old practices and traditions. The highly detailed and varied plant-life around the base of the altar was meant to communicate the abundance associated with Augustus’ golden age. Mussolini also wished to return to a traditional empire, a sort of golden age. He was responsible for 430,000 deaths under both his rule and military campaigns.
The Arch of Titus was used by the emperor to emphasize his victory over his enemies. He’d parade through it with the spoils of war, then execute the opposing leader ceremonially at the end. The inside of the arch has reliefs depicting the holy objects taken along with the Jews — such as the Menorah. Nearby, there was a museum built to house and show off the actual spoils of war. In a similar vein, the Forum of Trajan had statues of the peoples defeated by Rome. And in the theme of a ruler returning victoriously, there were many equestrian statues made of Emperors returning on horseback.
You made a really excellent point about Latin being one of the structures still standing after the fall of Rome. I hadn’t thought of it, but yes. A lot of the parts of English words are from Latin, I’ve been spotting it in many of the lessons this week but never made the connection. I went through a lot of lab training, and classes in science and was immersed in Latin without thinking about where it came from.
Salvo, classmates.
This isn’t an answer to the question, but I want to point out the significance of one of the images. The image of Aeneas carrying his father away from Troy to found Rome may be representative of Aeneas bringing the traditions, wisdom, and way of life of the old State to the new State he will found. The old state was crumbling, losing its sight and hearing in the way that a centralized government does when it grows too large or too secure in its power. The State is vulnerable to death, and must be taken — like a cutting from a tree — to grow and regain its health in new soil.
Roman art is found in our older architecture, such as capital buildings and learning institutions. It’s also found on our money, not only in the borders, but in the style of portrait busts that commemorate our founding leaders. In Roman art, Rome itself was represented by the figure of a beautiful woman, and Americans often associate their country with the statue of liberty.
America is one of the greatest powers in the world today, as Rome was in its own day. As a monetary power, our culture is exported and emulated all around the world. Our government consists of a council of elders, as in the Roman Republic. Yet we also have a president with veto power, as with Emperor Augustus in the Early Empire. America is generally welcoming to anyone who legally immigrates, no matter what your genes are or your god looks like, “welcome to America, pay your taxes.’ We both see our national character as fantastic — despite having some problems. For both of us those problems include running out of viable candidates for the military. A couple other problems that faced Rome when it was declining – and America now – are the loss of value of family and the loss of religious belief and behavior.
We have a class system, as the Romans did, but unlike them we have a middle class between the Plebs and the aristocracy. In Western culture we know that it is possible (yet statistically improbable) for a person of lower economic class to move upward to a higher tax bracket, just as you could in Roman culture. It just takes a strong will, hard work (or a catch phrase), and luck.
Rome built a great system of roads, we do the same. Their roads were for common use by traders, and for easier access to conquered lands. Our roads are more for common use by traders. We also share a knack for building multi-level shopping spaces such as malls for trade.
Like the Early Roman Empire, our government provides food and encourages engaging in entertainment so that the Plebs don’t become restless and revolt. By providing a set amount of food stamps to people of low economic status, the use of activism to change the government is disincentivized and the desire to move up in economic status is slowly killed. We each have a miniature version of the Colosseum in our living rooms to keep us complacent with entertainment: a television — or another type of screen. Entertainment is something that triggers our brains to produce reward chemicals, which is what happens if we watch our favorite team win the Superbowl, or our favorite gladiator kill some Christians. If we become dependent on a source of dopamine and seritonin, we will work to earn money to keep purchasing the reward — a Hulu subscription for instance. Subsequently, we remain complacent and pay our taxes.
For my final project I created a digital painting of the Woman of Willendorf dressed as Tinkerbell. My paper is a rant about how these things are connected, enjoy.
Here is the artwork:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hCmZwGHZtdGubmYE7Gx0GL1iAddnRXcs/view?usp=sharingAnd here is the paper:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lvAzq0do9fjAoYm54PIXu2UKxPB-brZn/view?usp=sharingI must disagree. in the statue of the Capitoline She-Wolf, she has no outward signs of being nurturing. It’s almost as if she just happened to be in the same place as some babies, and they stumbled upon her teats. It is possible that the Etruscans had a different idea of maternal power than I do, but this peice does not smack of feminine power to me.
