The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel Paintings and Icons

The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel Paintings and Icons PDF Author: Thomas F. Mathews
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606065092
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Staking out new territory in the history of art, this book presents a compelling argument for a lost link between the panel-painting tradition of Greek antiquity and Christian paintings of Byzantium and the Renaissance. While art historians place the origin of icons in the seventh century, Thomas F. Mathews finds strong evidence as early as the second century in the texts of Irenaeus and the Acts of John that describe private Christian worship. In closely studying an obscure set of sixty neglected panel paintings from Egypt in Roman times, the author explains how these paintings of the Egyptian gods offer the missing link in the long history of religious painting. Christian panel paintings and icons are for the first time placed in a continuum with the pagan paintings that preceded them, sharing elements of iconography, technology, and religious usages as votive offerings. Exciting discoveries punctuate the narrative: the technology of the triptych, enormously popular in Europe, traced by the authors to the construction of Egyptian portable shrines, such as the Isis and Serapis of the J. Paul Getty Museum; the discovery that the egg tempera painting medium, usually credited to Renaissance artist Cimabue, has been identified in Egyptian panels a millennium earlier; and the reconstruction of a ring of icons on the chancel of Saint Sophia in Istanbul. This book will be a vital addition to the fields of Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, and late-antique art history and, more generally, to the history of painting.

The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel Paintings and Icons

The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel Paintings and Icons PDF Author: Thomas F. Mathews
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606065092
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 59

Get Book

Book Description
Staking out new territory in the history of art, this book presents a compelling argument for a lost link between the panel-painting tradition of Greek antiquity and Christian paintings of Byzantium and the Renaissance. While art historians place the origin of icons in the seventh century, Thomas F. Mathews finds strong evidence as early as the second century in the texts of Irenaeus and the Acts of John that describe private Christian worship. In closely studying an obscure set of sixty neglected panel paintings from Egypt in Roman times, the author explains how these paintings of the Egyptian gods offer the missing link in the long history of religious painting. Christian panel paintings and icons are for the first time placed in a continuum with the pagan paintings that preceded them, sharing elements of iconography, technology, and religious usages as votive offerings. Exciting discoveries punctuate the narrative: the technology of the triptych, enormously popular in Europe, traced by the authors to the construction of Egyptian portable shrines, such as the Isis and Serapis of the J. Paul Getty Museum; the discovery that the egg tempera painting medium, usually credited to Renaissance artist Cimabue, has been identified in Egyptian panels a millennium earlier; and the reconstruction of a ring of icons on the chancel of Saint Sophia in Istanbul. This book will be a vital addition to the fields of Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, and late-antique art history and, more generally, to the history of painting.

Late Antique Portraits and Early Christian Icons

Late Antique Portraits and Early Christian Icons PDF Author: Andrew Paterson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100060022X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This book focuses on the earliest surviving Christian icons, dated to the sixth and seventh centuries, which bear many resemblances to three other well-established genres of ‘sacred portrait’ also produced during late antiquity, namely Roman imperial portraiture, Graeco-Egyptian funerary portraiture and panel paintings depicting non-Christian deities. Andrew Paterson addresses two fundamental questions about devotional portraiture – both Christian and non-Christian – in the late antique period. Firstly, how did artists visualise and construct these images of divine or sanctified figures? And secondly, how did their intended viewers look at, respond to, and even interact with these images? Paterson argues that a key factor of many of these portrait images is the emphasis given to the depicted gaze, which invites an intensified form of personal encounter with the portrait’s subject. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, theology, religion and classical studies.

Christian Art

Christian Art PDF Author: Rowena Loverance
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674024793
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
At once a sumptuously illustrated survey of Christian art over time and across the globe as well as a study of what RChristian artS really means, Loverance concludes with an assessment of the current state of this art form at the beginning of the 21st century.

Phenomenology of the Icon

Phenomenology of the Icon PDF Author: Stephanie Rumpza
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 100931792X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Interweaving art history, patristics, theology, and aesthetics, this original phenomenological study develops a fresh new approach to the icon.

Signs & Symbols in Christian Art

Signs & Symbols in Christian Art PDF Author: George Ferguson
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195014327
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Examines the use and meaning of Christian symbols found in Renaissance art.

From Idols to Icons

From Idols to Icons PDF Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520975731
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Even the briefest glance at an art museum’s holdings or an introductory history textbook demonstrates the profound influence of Christian images and art. From Idols to Icons tells the fascinating history of the dramatic shift in Christian attitudes toward sacred images from the third through the early seventh century. From attacks on the cult images of polytheism to the emergence of Christian narrative iconography to the appearance of portrait-type representations of holy figures, this book examines the primary theological critiques and defenses of holy images in light of the surviving material evidence for early Christian visual art. Against the previous assumption that fourth- and fifth-century Christians simply forgot or ignored their predecessors’ censure and reverted to more alluring pagan practices, Robin M. Jensen contends that each stage of this profound change was uniquely Christian. Through a careful consideration of the cults of saints’ remains, devotional portraits, and pilgrimages to sacred sites, Jensen shows how the Christian devotion to holy images came to be rooted in their evolving conviction that the divine was accessible in and through visible objects.

Empires of Faith in Late Antiquity

Empires of Faith in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Jaś Elsner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108473075
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
Explores the problems for studying art and religion in Eurasia arising from ancestral, colonial and post-colonial biases in historiography.

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture PDF Author: Ellen C. Schwartz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190277351
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 665

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Book Description
"This handbook offers a wide-ranging introduction to the richness and diversity of the arts in the Byzantine world. It includes thirty-eight essays by international authors, from prominent researchers to emerging scholars, on various issues and media. Discussions consider art created for religious purposes, to enhance and beautify the Orthodox liturgy and worship space, as well as art made to serve in royal and domestic contexts. While Byzantium is defined as the years 330-1453 CE, some chapters treat the aftermath and influence of Byzantine art on later periods. Arts covered include buildings and objects from the Eastern Mediterranean region, including the Balkans, Russia, North Africa, and the Near East. The volume brings together object-based considerations of themes and monuments which form the backbone of art history, with considerations drawing on many different methodologies-sociology, semiotics, anthropology, archaeology, reception theory, deconstruction theory, among others-all in an up-to-date synthesis of scholarship on Byzantine art and architecture. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture is a comprehensive overview of a rich field of study, offering a window into the world of this distinct and fascinating period of art"--

A Guide to Christian Art

A Guide to Christian Art PDF Author: Diane Apostolos-Cappadona
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567685136
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A one-volume introduction to and overview of Christian art, from its earliest history to the present day. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona begins by examining how art and Christianity have intersected throughout history, and charts this tumultuous relationship that has yielded some of the greatest outpourings of human creativity. To introduce readers to the way a painting can be read Apostolos-Cappadona begins with an analysis of a painting of the Adoration of the Magi, helping readers to see how they can interpret for themselves the signs, symbols and figures that the book covers. In the more-than 1000 entries that follow Apostolos-Cappadona gives readers an expert overview of all the frequently used symbols and motifs in Christian art as well as the various saints, historical figures, religious events, and biblical scenes most frequently depicted. Readers are introduced to the ways in which religious paintings are often "coded'" such as what a lily means in a picture of Mary, how a goldfinch can be "Christological", or how the presence of an Eagle means it is likely to be a picture of St John. The entries are organized by topic, so that students and beginners can easily find their way to discussion of the themes and motifs they see before them when looking at a painting.

Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium PDF Author: Jelena Bogdanovic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351359606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium seeks to reveal Christian understanding of the body and sacred space in the medieval Mediterranean. Case studies examine encounters with the holy through the perspective of the human body and sensory dimensions of sacred space, and discuss the dynamics of perception when experiencing what was constructed, represented, and understood as sacred. The comparative analysis investigates viewers’ recognitions of the sacred in specific locations or segments of space with an emphasis on the experiential and conceptual relationships between sacred spaces and human bodies. This volume thus reassesses the empowering aspects of space, time, and human agency in religious contexts. By focusing on investigations of human endeavors towards experiential and visual expressions that shape perceptions of holiness, this study ultimately aims to present a better understanding of the corporeality of sacred art and architecture. The research points to how early Christians and Byzantines teleologically viewed the divine source of the sacred in terms of its ability to bring together – but never fully dissolve – the distinctions between the human and divine realms. The revealed mechanisms of iconic perception and noetic contemplation have the potential to shape knowledge of the meanings of the sacred as well as to improve our understanding of the liminality of the profane and the sacred.