History of Art (From Egypt to the Romanesque) -Daniel Meno -

1) Art in Ancient Age: Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Art in Ancient Age is very  related with religion, especcially in the three biggest civilizations: Egypt, Greece and Rome.
In Egypt, the most famous art representations are the Pyramids, the Pharaoh's Tombs and the representation of the Death.

1.a) Art in Ancient Egypt

Art in Ancient Egypt is usually known as "sad" art, cause usually represent death and the Underworld.
In Egypt, the Pharaoh rules and gives the order for making and building the artistic representation. The most famous are:
 

1.a.1) Giza's Pyramids and the Sphinx.
The most famous Egyptian Scultures are the Giza's Pyramids and the Sphinx, that are all near the Capital, Cairo.

 1.a.1.1) Giza's Pyramids.
  The complex of Giza are the three most famous pyramids in the world.  The Egyptian Pharaohs; Khufu, Kafre and Minkaure order to built that pyramids, that  will be their place for eternal rest. Keops' pyramid is the biggest one, and is behind the Great Sphinx, Kafre's is the second bigger and his "visitor" also order to buil the Great Sphinx. Finally, Micerinos' Pyramid is the smallest one and the newest.

  1.b.1.2) The Sphinx
The Great Sphinx of Giza is located in a deppression behind Khafre's pyramid. Is an sculpture made of  clay and stone. The body is from a lion and the head, for a human. Some experts think that Khafre's head is the one represented, but most people prefer to think that "Khafre's Head" is from nearer time. The sphinx is approximately 2000-1500 years old, but; as most things of Ancient Egypt, aren't sure at 100%. 

 
  

1.b) Art in Ancient Greece

Art in Ancient Greece is divided in three important periods. Each period have differences between art of different areas.

1.b.1) The Doric Period:     

 Art in the Doric Period is usually known as simple art. In the doric period the most common art are the columns, which are very simple and resistant. The most famous Greek temples, such as the Parthenon or the temple of Delphi have doric columns.

The Doric column has only two parts: the capithel, in the high part and the shaft. I put a photo of the structure of a Doric column.

1.b.2) The Ionian Period

  The main difference between the Doric and the Ionian order is the creation of a pedestial and the thinner fuste (central part). The Capithel is more decorated and temples like the temple of Nike Áptera in Crete and the Nereida's temple in the British Museum of  London are vey famous temples of this Order.

  

The parts of a Ionian column are: the shaft, the capithel and a pedestial.

 

1.b.3) The Corinthian Order

The Corinthian Order is the most decorate one. In te capithel resides the difference: acantus leaves decorating it. The shaft is even thinner than in the ionian order and the pedestial is higher. The most famous temples with Corinthian Order are the temple of Olimpian Zeus ( ussually named Olimpeon) in Athens and the temple of Demeter in Epir (Epiro) are the most representative Corinthian temples.

 

 The most representative parts of the corinthian order are: the big pedestial, the very thin shaft and the capithel with acantus leaves, that were ussually built of marble or granite. This is a corinthian column.

1.c) Art in Ancient Rome.

Roman art is the most extended in Europe, obbiously cause os the Great Expansion of the Empire. oman art can be divided into two big periods: The Expansion and the Romanisation.

I put down a map of  Roman Art expansion, that expands with the Empire.




1.c.1) The Expansion

The expansion is the period between the creation of Rome (756 BC) and  the 30 BC, year of the ending of the republic. Roman Art had three important periods:

a) The conquer of the Chartaginian Empire by Rome.

b) The conquer of Greece. (Graecia)

c)The conquer of Egypt. (Aegyptus)

A) When Rome conquer the Chartaginian Empire in the Second Punic War (218 BC - 201 BC), fushioned it's own art and culture with Chartaginian one and that made a mixture of Iberan and           African art with Roman art creating the Hispano-Roman culture in the Iberian Peninsula and the         Cartaghinian-Roman Art.

B) When Rome conquer Greece, Romans adopted their gods to theirself, and create the Modern        Roman Religion; witch the most powerful gods were:

This "adopted" gods were the most important in the Roman Empire since Greek conquest (146 BC) to the adoption of christianism by emperor Constantin I.

C) When Rome conquer Egypt, wasn't with a war, cause pharaoh Cleopathra give to Rome the control in her lands. Rome adopted the culture in few things; for example, the papir and the using of esmeralds and gold in jewels. They also adopted the obelisks as a monument a form of power.

1.c.2) The Romanisation

In this video, the romanisation is explained in some parts... but the most important are:

A) The adoption of latin language and habits.

B)The creation of Roman provinces (Gallia, Lusitania...)

C)The adoption of Roman institutions. (Senate).

The Romanisation began with emperor Trajan in 98 AC and finished in 376 AC, year of the division of the Roman Empire.

The different emperor helped the population to learn latin and to transform itself into better Roman citizens. The "Great Romanised Emperor" was the same as began the process: Trajan.

2. Art in the Middle Ages: The Romanesque and the Gothic Order.

Art in the Middle Ages continue being very influenced by religion. In a society in witch only a few people could enter  the nobility and have the priviledge of know how to write or read; cristian art was the main and the cheaper form of giving to normal people the priviledge of learning something.

2.a) The Romanesque in the Iberian Peninsula and the St James' Way.

We can't imagine the Middle Ages in Spain without thinking n the St James Way; that was  a point of merchandising and traffic of cultures. Peregrins walked from all parts of cristianity to Santiago. This made possible the entering of Romanesque culture from north to south while Cristian Kingdoms were in a war against islam.

This map show the Iberian peninsula in year 850 AC during the war between Cristian Kingdoms and the Muslims.

 

 

  2.a.1) St' James way

The most famous St James way born in Roncesvalles, Spain and goes for all he Northern Spain, and is the most common one for pilgrims that came from all the world to visit the city of Santiago the Compostela.

There are 14 different Ways:

1.   The French Way, that borns in Roncesvalles (Spain).
2.   The Silver Way, from the Strait of Gibraltar.
3.   The British Way, from Northern Galicia.
4.   The Old Way, from Oviedo (Spain).
5.   The Portuguese Way, from Lisbon (Portugal).
6.   The Finisterre Way, from Finisterre (Spain)
7.   The Northern Way, from Bilbao (Spain).
8.   The Jaume Way, from Barcelona (Spain).
9.   The Arles Way, from Marseille (France).
10.   The Le Puy Way, from Lyon (France).
11.   The Geneva Way, from Geneva (Italy).
12.   The Cluny Way, from Cluny (France).
13.   The Vezelay Way, from Vezelay (France).
14.   The Paris/Tours Way, that borns in Paris and in Tours (France).

 

2.a.2) The Romanesque in the Iberian Peninsula.

The Romaneque in the Iberian Peninsula has someimportant artistic demostrations: the Panthocrator, The  Virgin with Jesus. Also; the chapels, and cathedrals had their own style: The Romanesque.

a) The Panthocrator:

 The Panthocrator is apicture of Christ in attidude of blessing people. It'sorrouded by a ghalo with form of almond named in Spanish"madorla" and sitted in a throne. The body hasn't got proportion, cause if you look the hand, it's bigger than his  head!!! In his other hand there is a book (probably a Bible) andit's written the latin words: << EGO SON LUX >> that means << I am Light >>. This picure is located in San Clemente e Taüll (Lleida, Catalonia, Spain)

b) The Virgin with Christ:

This is the Virgin of Veciana. She is holding Christ on her legs, but there isn't the appreciation of love from the mother to the kid. We can aso appreciate Jesus been Panthocrator; and a lot of disproportion, cause idea was to show the baby when he was that, a baby, but here we can appreciate more errors.
 

Errors of proportion:

1. The Virgin is huge in comparison with a normal person. Imagin it standing up, imagin a person of that dimensions... its high will be between 2.5 meters and 3 meters.
2. The "baby" hasn't got a body for a baby, according to his expresion of Panthocrator, will be around 12 years old.
3. Look into Virgin's hand; you can see a very small hand in comparison to the rest of the body.

This type of mistakes are very common in the Romanesque,  cause of paintors didn't want to create beauty; they wanted to show people who were they.

2.b.Romanesque cathedrals  

Romanesque cathedrals we can idetify cause of this:

Interior Part:

1.   Is very dark cause of the very small number of windows, that create a space for praying an "cleaning" people's sins.
2.    Can appear with three aisles, in which the central one is longer, wider and higher than latheral aisles.
3. Latheral ones have groin vault (when you look for it in an overhead drawing, it appear with a cross)
4. Central aisle have barrel vault (when you look for it in an overhead drawing, it appear in white)
5. When you are in the center, called transept you can see almost every parts of the cathedrals.

As we can see, in the central nave we see empty spaces, and that means that exist a cannon vault; but in each side we see crosses, that means that exist a groin vault.  You can appreciate three important parts in this photo.
1) In the inferior part you can see the narthex and the "feets" that ALWAYS look to the west. That part is one of the three, the FEET.

If the feet look to the WEST and the cathedral is a solid and straight, the ambulatory and the apse will look into the east, and the transept, to the north and to the south.

2) The body, that is comprended between the feet and the apse (also the transept) will connect the cathedral's doors and the crossing, making possible being in the centre of the latin cross.

3) The head, that comprends the apse, the ambulatory and the absidioles. As we can appreciate, the central absidiole is the most important one. Cause of that is re-marked.

Exterior part

We can appreciate this is a Romanesque chapel cause we can see:

1) Very small windows
2) Midpoint archs in the doors and the windows
3) Very solid walls

This are the most important characteristics of a romanesque chapel.

I'll write more information in the next part of History of Art:  From the Gothic until today