scholarly journals Singing to Emmanuel: The Wall Paintings of Sant Miquel in Terrassa and the 6th Century Artistic Reception of Byzantium in the Western Mediterranean

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Carles Sánchez Márquez
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Singular Set ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Technical Study

Since the late 19th century the wall paintings of Sant Miquel in Terrassa have drawn attention due to their singularity. From the early studies of Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867–1956) to the present, both the iconographic program and the chronology of the paintings have fueled controversy among scholars. In particular, chronological estimates range from the time of Early Christian Art to the Carolingian period. However, a recent technical study of the paintings seems to confirm an early date around the 6th century. This new data allows us to reassess the question in other terms and explore a new possible context for the paintings. First, it is very likely that the choice of iconographic topics was related to the debates on the Arian heresy that took place in Visigothic Spain during the 5th and 6th centuries. Secondly, the paintings of Sant Miquel should be reconsidered as a possible reception of a larger 6th-century pictorial tradition linked to the Eastern Mediterranean, which is used in a very particular way. However, thus far we ignore which were the means for this artistic transmission as well as the reasons which led the “doers” of Terrassa to select such a peculiar and unique repertoire of topics, motifs, and inscriptions. My paper addresses all these questions in order to propose a new Mediterranean framework for the making of this singular set of paintings.

Early Christian Art

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Jensen ◽  
Lee Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Painted Panel ◽  
Complex Images

Most scholars agree that Christian art first appeared around the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century. Among these earliest examples are the wall paintings and epitaphs found in the Roman catacombs. At first the iconography was primarily simple and symbolic (e.g., doves, anchors, boats, and praying figures). More complex images included the Good Shepherd with his sheep and representations from the Hebrew Bible, including Jonah, Noah, Daniel, and the Three Youths in the fiery furnace. By the end of the 3rd century, Christians had begun commissioning sarcophagi with relief carvings that depicted narrative episodes from the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Following the legalization of Christianity and the imperial support that following the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, Christian art was dramatically transformed in style, technique, context, and motifs. From the mid-4th through the end of the 6th centuries, Christians built and decorated churches and baptisteries; designed and made liturgical vessels; produced private devotional objects in gemstones, pottery, glass, ivory, fabric, and precious metals; painted panel portraits of their holy men and women; and began to illustrate their sacred texts. Older types and motifs, such as the Good Shepherd and Jonah, were gradually replaced by new iconography that emphasized the glory and triumph of Christianity over the traditional Roman gods. Along with the iconographic changes, new media emerged, in particular polychrome glass mosaic for walls, apses, and domes of church buildings.

scholarly journals Painted Churches of Medieval Lebanon: an Overview

Chronos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 129-161
Author(s):  
Tasha Voderstrasse
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The modern country of Lebanon preserves an important medieval and post-medieval legacy of standing churches and Christian religious art. After their discovery by western scholars in the 19th century, the art of the churches only attracted limited scholarly attention until about 100 years later, when they began to be studied in detail. Now a variety of studies have appeared on the churches and their art, including several books (Nordiguian and Voisin 1999 and subsequent new editions; Cruikshank Dodd 2004; Immerzeel 2009; Zibawi 2009) and numerous articles in both print and online. This article seeks to provide an overview of the studies of these monuments, first discussing the origins of the study of these churches and the viewpoints of the different scholars who have approached the material, and then examining some Of the surviving monuments. The churches discussed here date to what can be most accurately termed as a high medieval period of the 12th-13th centuries AD, when Lebanon was under the rule of the Crusaders. Nevertheless, while the region was under Crusader control, there is a growing recognition that the monuments that were produced were local art that was influenced from a variety of sources. Post-Crusader material will not be discussed, although it should be noted that the country also possesses important Christian art from the subsequent periods. The article will not only examine the standing architecture, but also the wall paintings, which have been the subject of considerable attention on the part of scholars in recent years. Further, other Christian religious items that would have been found or still can be found in the churches, such as icons, will also be treated here, particularly as a number of scholars have related the different art forms to each other. It is by examining all forms of Christian art surviving in Lebanon from this period that we can come to a better understanding of how and why this material was produced, as well as how the studies of this material has evolved through time. It can also help provide new ideas for further research, in addition to the valuable work of documentation, restoration, and interpretation that has been occurring since the end of the 20th century.

Ritual and Early Christian Art

2018 ◽  
pp. 586-609
Author(s):  
Robin M. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Ritual Spaces ◽  
Christian Practices ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Core Part

Extant examples of early Christian art allow scholars to evaluate the relationship between ceremonial actions and the decor of the physical environment in which they transpired. Wall paintings in tomb chambers, relief carvings on sarcophagi, floor and wall mosaics, and other embellished objects were not simply didactic or indiscriminate decorative schemes, they depicted, enhanced, and interpreted the activities that were enacted in their presence. In such places, viewers were also participants, and thus the images they saw contributed a core part of their sensory perception of as well as a reflection upon the ritual’s purpose and meaning. This chapter considers the different ways that visual art in ritual spaces sometimes represents elements of certain early Christian practices as well as other instances in which the design and decoration of the spatial context provide a kind of commentary on the activity taking place within it. In some cases, the imagery in ritual environments may even serve as the continuing performance of the ritual itself, even after the living actors have departed.

scholarly journals Monks across the desert. Hermitic life in Christian Petra

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 133-143
Author(s):  
Andrea Vanni Desideri ◽  
Silvia Leporatti
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Simple Addition ◽  
Military Installation ◽  
Monastic Community ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Town

Monks across the desert. Hermitic life in Christian Petra A new interpretation of the pre-Crusader phase of the site follows from the identification of a pre-Crusader rock-cut chapel. In particular, in early mediaeval time, a monastic community at al-Wu’ayra and a number of hermitic cells surrounding a central fortified coenobium preceded the later military castle keep. The Crusaders profited by the presence of a Christian fortified settlement, easy to transform into a military installation by a simple addition of a number of buildings, which are identifiable by a chrono-typology of building techniques.The new program of research which started in 2017 aims at registering, surveying, and studying various hermitic installations around the perimeter of the town in order to contextualize this early medieval phase of al-Wu’ayrain the topography of Petra and contribute to the knowledge of a ‘minor’and underestimated aspect of the town in early Christian time.  In fact, these monastic-hermitic settlements located in segregated spots of the peri-urbanarea, surviving the abandonment of the major churches of the town, can help to understand in a more realistic way the articulated forms of Christian presence and its duration until the late 19th century.

Knowing the Unknown

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-76
Author(s):  
Karen Polinger Foster
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Informal Settings

This chapter looks at the various existence of exotica in the Classical, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. Through Egyptian intermediaries, monkeys from elsewhere in Africa reached Minoan Crete and the Cyclades during the first half of the second millennium B.C.E. Dozens of them appear thereafter in wall paintings, seals, and jewelry, engaging in animal and human activities in formal and informal settings. From the seventh century on, gradually expanding colonial and commercial contacts—especially in the eastern Mediterranean—brought exotic experiences back to the Greeks. This gave rise to Greek writing on natural history. Meanwhile, the rise of imperial Rome meant that exotic fauna found themselves inextricably linked with the self-image of the state; any exceptional creatures were reserved as gifts for the emperors. Menageries also existed throughout the Arab/Islamic world from an early date.

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