Gothic~ The Gargoyles

We have been studying the gothic architecture but we have not really gone over any gargoyles so I had to research about this. I found that gargoyle in french means gullet or throat, gargouille because the gargoyles on the cathedrals usually are used for down spouts for draining rain water from the cathedrals. Gargoyles are also can be considered Chimeras(which is like greek mythology)because they are made of parts of different animals.

Not only do they function for draining rain water but also they serve a sort of religious moral The reason why they were demon bat creatures on the churches was to remind people of the church being a safehaven for humans because the gargoyles symbolized the evil in the world; thats why they are outside the cathedrals and not inside. There are also the demon creatures who look like gargoyles but are called grotesques they are not gargoyles because they do not function like gargoyles; more like decoration.

Even on the chrystler building they were inspired by the gargoyles and consturcted what looks like a bird gargoyle, or more like a grotesque because it does not serve a function.

Notre Dame is most famous for its gargoyles.

I found that St. Vitus had many as well. It looks more human like. There are such a variety of gargoyles, bat, goat, pig,cat, dragon, and bird but they are not either of them but a combination of them.

 There are just so many cool gargoyles!!! What I really like about them is their emotion carved in stone with the deep lines and hollowed or popping eyes. They have such unique character and I think that is what really is makes Gothic stand out from the Romansque or Byzatine art.

Chartes Cathedral

The church is in a shape of a cross which is eyecatching. In the video when they mentioned Mary's blue tunic they said it was Chartes blue. I wonder what came first the name of that specific color and the church was named from this specific piece or the stainglass was just named after it being in the Chartes Cathedral? I noticed the main colors were the primary red,blue, and yellow, which is like several ancient cultures we have looked at; like Egypt and the Ancient near East. The stainglass were arranged in a flower shape to me, which is like in the Vezely Church I saw in the video some chandelier or decoration with the same flower shape, or something close to it. I think its cool that people in the current time can still touch the stainglass, by restoring it and being apart of it; so many years and its still being worked on to match how it was originally made.

Early Medieval and Romanesque

 In the French church Saitn Pierre de Chauvigny  have sculptures of dragon like creatures devouring people who are considered sinners. It was built in the late Romanesque time and so it has some gothic elements to it. It has pointed arches and a bell tower. It was painted red and white later in 1856. The red and white is what surprised me when I was hunting for a church to research, too bad it was not the original idea. I think the red over white adds to the disturbing imagery. It defiently has that shock value to persuade people not to sin and to grab a hold of their attention.

Annuciation

    All of the capitals to their columns have human and animal figures decorating it. Not only do they have dragons but also Sphinxes ( I guess they show up everywhere). more mythological creatures are present, like the manticore (half lion humans), sirens but, they have bibliocal scenes as well;like Anunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Christ, Temptation of Christ and Satan with demons. A lot of mixing of religon and another factor seems to be repeated in other churches, like the one with the zodiac symbols around sculptures of Christ.

                                                                   Exterior

                                                Satan and Demons

                                                 Sphinxes and Manticore.


This type of style in the sculptures makes me think of a combination of cultures we have learned. For one I think of India because of the figures surround a space and tell a story about religion and myths. Sphinxes and other creatures are used just like Ancinet Near East, and Greek. The exaggerated hands in the Annuciation reminds me of Etruscan art(the figures of people playing instruments) and Roman art( the statue of a leader). since we learned that most people during this time were illiterate it makes sense that they made the sculptures have dramatic expressions...they get the message across. I still think the dragon devouring the sinner is creepy...its like the painting by Goya with Saturn devouring his son.

Vezelay,Church and Hill

In this video when they first had shown the shot of the zoom out I was amazed at how the town stretched out in what looked like just a thick line of buildings embedded among green vegetation. In the Saint Magdalene church they have an arch which looks similar to a greek pediment, because it has sculptures in an arrow like shape, with the figures getting smaller on both left and right side. Finding out that the St. James shell is a symbol for pilgrimage was interesting because to me a shell is something I would not have known as meaning that. There seems to be a connection to all cultures with images having a significant meaning wheather obvious or not. Also one of my main questions is that of the Mary Magdalene relic; what would it have been. could it have been something that belonged to her or a part of her? I think I have heard from something that relics can be pieces of that person, like a finger or a tooth?

Early Christian and Byzantine

                                                              (Dove with olive leaf)
I know that one of the Christian symbols is that of the dove. I own a pet dove and she has been cooing to me all day so I thought why not research about why they became a symbol. The dove is represented as gentle,loving, and peaceful. It seems that the artists of the early Christian and Byzantine mostly chose the dove as a symbol none other than the fact that the dove is mentioned a lot in the Bible.Here is a quote from the Bible, Mattew 10.6 "Be ye there fore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." That quality of being peaceful is through the useage of the dove is portrayed several times through out the Bible. Also Milton a writer paraphrases Matthew by saying "I would have you drive the temple the money changers, who buy and sell, not doves, but the Dove, the Holy Spirit Himself", he refers a dove as being God. Also in Paradise Lost, Book 11 a dove is mentioned. It flies with an olive leaf which is like a symbol that means God declares peace.
    
               In the Early Christian and Byzantine art they have the dove in many of their mosaics.

Above Jesus, is the dove flying downwards, just showing its presence while he is being baptized.

Below Doves are shown throughout the scene

 

 

 

 

The dove is usually shown as white or as a turtledove. Probably it was more popular using the white doves because the color white means innocense and purity, also maybe they did it because the whiteness stood out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...P.s. Autumn approves this blog.

Edwards, Karen. "Dove." Milton Quarterly 40.2 (2006): 114-119. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

Etruscan sarcophgi

 The Etruscan sargophgi are made from stone, like terracotta. Some techniques they used were plastering and polychrome painting. The ashes of the dead are placed in an urn inside the sculptures.They are all usually lying on their side alone in a reclining position or with a loved one. Some wear cloth that cover their head and are adorned with jewelry.The sides of the sarcophgi have base relief of mythology or funeral procession scenes.

            Not only did the Etruscans have human figures for funeral sculptures but also animals. Just like many other cultures like China having fierce animals guarding the tombs.

          Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa was an Etruscan  wealthy noblewoman. Unlike the others her skeleton was found inside, which is one the most intact that has been found. The sarcophagus is in the British Museum. Helenistic style.

Another wealthy lady, named Larthia Seianti. she also has her hand up holding her cloth over her head just like Tlesnasa(show of rank?). They both have seianti in their names so I wonder what that means? relatives?  
    bas-relief on all four sides:

 Couples are shown together eating. woman and man. both reclining like the usual position of the sarcophgi. It is hollowed out and normally has the ashes or treasures of the dead inside.

more couples: this seems different though, the man and woman dont seem to be so much together compared to the one above.

A more different version of the couple sarcophgi

These two have more emotion in their pose and faces. To me they have a somewhat scared and lonely look and yet they are holding each other maybe it is saying they are together holding eachother as they pass into the after life.
 




Bonfante, Professor Larissa, Etruscan Life and Afterlife: a Handbook of Etruscan Studies. 1986   Wayne State University Press Detroit Michigan. Nov 12 2012 web.

Witcombe LCE Christopher. Art History Resources. May 2012. Web Nov 12 2012.

 

 

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbol

This cathedral I noticed had the growing curving arches and also colums. Some of their columns looked similiar to both ionic and Corinthian because they had swirls and leafy decor. The column with the hole in it which supposedly has healing powers its like every culture has superstitions. Even though they say it has history of an emperor using it to heal I wonder if it was used mostly just afterwards and more when it was a museum so then it would like a gimmick landmark to lure tourists in. The chandeliers were in a flower shape. Was this a common symbol to Istanbol?  They said some mosaics were stolen and shipped to vencince, are these placed in a museum? The mosaics that were still entact were of seperate images of the empress donating to a christ figure and another mosaic with Constatine with christ; now did they do this so they appeared more god like and as important? The cathdral seemed to be changed so much over time with different religions that it was like they were fighting with eachother like children, scribbling on each others drawings. Some covered up the mosaics because it showed figures which was against islam religion. The cathedral must have been so very impressive that people didnt want to build their own new mosques or churches.

Pont du Gard

I think its neat that people are still using the aqueduct today. Too bad it will some day collapse. Its strange that the poet thought it was constructed by a demon, but I guess that is because of the perfect same sized bricks and geometric shapes. When they show a far away image of the aqueduct it almost seems like it really doesnt fit; because the green vegetation that surrounds it just contrasts even more with it being man made and geometric. The aqueduct looks like its curving arches are repeated three times standing on top of the other; the top the smallest. The bricks that stick out on the surface are they like that on purpose for decoration or is it part of the construction?

Greek Sphyinx

I noticed the sphinxes were appearing in the cultures we have been looking at, but I didnt know how often they were until now.When one hears the name Sphinx one probably thinks of the great half animal half person creature laying in the sands of Egypt but the greeks came up with the name sphinx. Egypt's sphinx  has nothing to do with the mythology like the Greeks. It was named later by archeologists.  They are quite different because Egypt's sphinx is the pharaoh with a lion body and is not posed as an aggressive creature while the Greek's sphinx is half female human, half vulture and has a dog's body. They prey on young men and pose riddles. If you do not answer her riddle accurately she will take you away. Echidna and Typhon were her parents in myth and she had cerberous, Chimaera, hydra, and Nemean the lion as her brothers and sisters.She has such a lovely diverse family.
         The famous riddle the sphinx is known for is "which animal went on four, then two, then three. The anwser was a human. when the human is a baby, adult, and an elder with a cane. She would prey upon the ones who ansered it wrong. Odipous got her riddle right and so she committed suicide by throwing herself against the mountains. ouch that sounds painful but I guess she had too much pride.
       Greek Sphinxes were used as statues on graves of the young and also they are painted on vases with animals in processions.
          The sphinx appears in a lot of the cultures we have studied; very similar.

The Greek Sphinx has the arhaic smile and hair.
Egypt's sphinx

above to the left is an Ancient Near East sphinx. The one below it is a Roman copy                                                                                                                                                  

 Indian Sphinx.


There appearences are very alike but they have a different meaning for most of the cultures.


"Sphinx." Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1996. Credo Reference. Web. 05 November 2012.

"Sphinx." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 05 November 2012.

Perseopolis

When watching the videos on Perseopolis I noticed right away that they had simliaraties to other cultures we haved studied. They had huge bulls on the columns decorating the entrance. These looked like the style of the Ancient Near East and also they even had the man bird bull creature on the walls. The one thing different was the texture ofthe beards were more like round dots. I thought it was cool that this culture viewed equality of the nations of the Persian Empire as important. They showed a procession wall relief of people representing different parts of the area offering gifts to the king. The offerings were said to be out of respect for the king but to me it seemed like just gifts so the king will leave their region alone. Also they did not really show any thing about women playing any roles of importance. I wonder why they cared about equality enough to create the wall relief and yet they do not show any thing of women. They said all that marble once was black. I didnt see the originals but so the marble is white and they just paint it black? for some reason I was thinking there was such a thing as black marble as a resource, but if its paint then I understand that it was just faded away with time.

Greek Sculpture

I think greek statues are inspiring because like they said in the video, they are examples of a super human;more human than human. When we learned about Egypt I found that the gods like Anubis and Horace were super hybrid animals; aspects of the best qualites of that animal compiled into one. Its seems thats what the Greeks did with the human figure once they grew tired of making realistic statues they exaggerated the muscles for an ultimate althete-like god. They reached such a far realistic point compared with what they began with it makes me question what else would they have done after that? Also their progress changed so quickly I wonder what else besides observing help aid this progression? Were their tools getting more advanced? Maybe they sketched the human body and drew up plans before sculpting or did they just sculpt without them? The theme that exaggeration was hardwired in humans intrigued me.I think that holds true to even today.

Ancient Aegean

The two videos on Ancient Aegean brought up the main question of how much is fiction and how much is real?In the Ancient Island of Crete video it seemed like Evans used the Minoians as therapy for himself; living in a paradise for himself, since they mentioned that war was going on at the same time he worked on this. Its like a monument of his own imagination than what it really might have been. Although I do think it was a great idea for them to recreate it so people could have a tangible visual of how it could have looked.But that does bring up what if he ruined the real work by doing this. The frescoes looked similiar to the Ancient near east and Egyptians. Also the thick lines were like the Japanese with the cartoonlike paintings. In the second video they had mentioned a maze underneath the building and they even said it could have been the inspiration to the labrinyth maze tale. That makes me wonder weather more buildings had maze in the interior? Could they have been the norm of the time? That would be an interesting way of life, getting lost all the time.

Shinto

Shinto or "Kami-no-michi" which means the way of the gods is a religion in Japan that focuses on the relationship and harmony of human beings and the earth. They value the importance of nature. Shinto does not have official holy books, a founder, teachers or saints. It is based on mythology which can be found in Kojiki, the Records of Ancient Matters and the Chronicles of Japan; these were written in the 8th Century, even though the myths were orally passed down until the 5th century.

                                         
 Shinto had Amaterasu the sun goddess,Egypt's Ra came to mind. I researched a bit on her because I thought it was interesting that she was infact a goddess. Amaterasu was born from Izanagi's (I guess he just came back from the underworld looking for his sister) left eyeball, along with other heavenly people who were born from his body parts. She had symbols of a necklace of light, the milky way and her jeweled clothes. She introduced weaving clothes from silk to the humans. I also found out that she had a trouble some rival named Susano. He did horrible things like covering her temples floors with dung, killing horses, and servants. I guess this caused her to want to hide in a cave which she did not leave until a gods party intrigued her and also her own reflection and when she emerged from the cave, pushing a boulder away, supposedly the first dawns light happened. Susano got punished; having his nails and beard trimmed and sent to earth. (if you want to read the full detailed myth I have a link at the end of this blog)

This depicts the sun godess emerging, very cartoon like style here.

                                                             
          Kami is the word for gods and they were believed to purify the land. The Japanese have shrines to honor their gods. They are built on moutains and uneven land. Their are pilgrimages to these shrines, this is like many of the cultures we have been studying like Egypt giving offering to animal-god temples,and also with having temples where to pray is like both India, and china. Buddism influenced things. Shinto shrines originally were simple in design and left unpainted but then with Buddism became popular the shrines were then painted with bright colors. Also the images of the gods changed they were just symbols but later made into human images.

(brightly painted in comparison to the image of Ihrine Ise Bay Shrine)

 

                                       

        One of the oldest and most important shrine is the Ihrine Ise Bay shrine. Legends has it that the shrine has correlation to Amatersau's mirror which she gave to the first emperor, Jimmu (supposedly descented from gods) In the image of this shrine you can see the difference of the buddist influenced and with the original design. Also it seems more in harmony with nature and the Shinto way because of the green growth on the roof.

              Izumo Taisha Jinja is another shrine. Kamis are said to gather to the shrines every October, so I guess they are there right now!

            Also I found a cool image of kitsune guardians that can be found in shrines.(once more I think of Egypt and china because of the usage of animal icons as protectors with importance) At the museum in the China room they had akita like dog statues which protected the tomb.

 

 

So many Videos!!!!!!!!

an example of a Lantern Festival in the shrines This video is short and gives insight of celebrations of the shrines.

fox statues in shrine it just shows a shrine with the fox statues similar to the image above

Kami talks of the gods

Creation Myth story story of Izanami and Izanagi

Amaterasu visual art story of the sun goddess

 

 

                                                             Department of Asian Art. "Shinto". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shin/hd_shin.htm (October 2002) Web. 10. 2012.

"Shinto." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 10 October 2012.

"Shinto." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 10 October 2012.


 If you want to read the whole story of Amaterasu http://www.credoreference.com/entry/bloommyth/amaterasu

Art of Asia:Architecture-Four rooms

When watching these two videos I thought how peaceful and soothing it must have been to be in these rooms. In the part where they were discussing the Japanese large formal reception room  they had mentioned that the carpenders made sure when doing the wood trimming that they discarded wood with knots and they also  embellished the rooms;the architecture seemed kind of percise with the construction and lines. I thought just this part was in a way contradicting what Chinese and Japanese theme of nature emerging with people. The part of the Chinese room of the Wu family I thought it was interesting that the size and position of the chairs correlated with the importance of the guests. I guess the smaller the chair the less important you were. I wonder how the person with the tiniest chair felt about this; they must have been aware of the tradition. It seemed like they worshipped their ancestors like gods by having offerings given to them. This makes me think of the other cultures we have studied; like India and Egypt because they have multiple gods. They had talked of the tea ceremony which reminded me in ceramics we have learned about how important it was and how serious they took this. This culture seems to really emphasize the value of cherishing things that somepeople may think is small, by taking it all in. I wouldnt mind having my very own scholars room. I could have my birds singing, music playing, tickling crickets, drinking tea while painting. It sounds like a good idea right now especially after getting done with homework.

Chinese Traditional Music

Since I had researched eariler about the Chinese bells and music is a part of culture and art  I was inspired to research more into Chinese Traditional music. In the Song Dynasty this ermerged. It was very important to them and was mainly storytelling through music. It relates to the other cultures we have been studying because like Egypt's hieroglyphics or statues of India that tell of rulers or gods music conveys these aspects as well and are passed down through generations. Musical storytellers were highly respected as professionals. There are  two main forms which are Jingyun daguandtanci, its also known as Peking drumsong, and also Tanci, which is southern style storytelling. They both are musical narratives,but Jingyun focused on stories about China's history while Tanci told about romantic tales of Ming and Qing periods. I learned that these types of musicals became more popular in the 19th and 20th century and are still being played today.
             In the storytelling they would usually have a couple musicians playing and half singing, half speaking the tales. The instruments they used were made of silk thread. Instruments which were played are the Dizi, Qin(like a zither),Zheng, Erhu(a bowe lute),Shend, Pipa(plucked flute), Yueqin(struck lute), and Lithophone, qing. Here are some photos that illustrate the use of the instruments.

dizi

Qin

Zheng

Erhu

Shend

pipa

Yueqin

Lithophone

 

I wanted to know how the instruments sounded so I watched some videos of traditional chinese music. I like the Erhu instrument the best. It has a nice melancholy sound to it.

Pipa instrument

Erhu,Dizi,Pipa,guzheng

I think the music makes sense with the art. Looking at the silk and paintings you can defiently see(or hear) the connection.

The use of thin lines and open space somehow reminds me of the light parts and heavyness of the music. or maybe I have been just listening to it for too long.

 

 

 

 

"East Asia." The Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. 01 October 2012.