Sunday, November 13, 2011

Byzantine art week 10

The two pieces of art that are being compared are "Christ Enthroned" on pg. 239 and "Rebecca at the Well" on page 243. In the first piece in is done in the Byzantine style because of the gold background which gives a heavenly affect and the angels that are standing on the right and left sides of Christ. He is being portrayed as a young man but in contrast to other portrays of him some of the features are different. For example he does not have a beard and he is not wearing white with a blue sash. He is wearing what appears to be a dark purple robe with a gold sash on his left shoulder. The hands and feet of the figures are thin. The faces have a cartoonish appearance and stays away from naturalism. One of the features that gives that away is the large eyes. The clothing on the angels is different because not only are they wearing white but there are other colors mixed in such as gold and blue. The wings are gray and brown. Their halos look like gold plates. The plants underneath their feet do not have a naturalistic appearance because of style and color blue that is used on some of the plants. Overhead it appears that there are thin clouds that have rainbow colors and above that a rainbow halo. To the right and the left of that halo is some short of vegetation. One thing to mention is that the throne that Christ is sitting on has the appearance of a blue orb.

"Rebecca at the Wall" first of all looks like a watercolor painting because of the black outlining of the camels and the faded colors of the water in the well.  When the viewer looks at the camels the outlining does mimic the appearance of watercolor use because the of the different shades of black and on of the heads of the camels looks like it is in shadow. The eyes are dots with no features. Both the human and animal figures in this scene do not look naturalistic and like the previous work they have the appearance of characters in an animated feature.  The faces of the women are hard to make out because of the use of white. The white almost causes a blinding affect and a person has to look close at the face in order to make out the features such as the eyes, nose and mouth.  The woman that is half naked with a blue cloak looks like she has a little potbelly which is a feature in the Byzantine form.With the objects it is the same way such as the well and the castle. The words on the piece are outlined in black and as the view reads the inscription the words start to fade out as view continues to read down. At the bottom the words fade out.  One of the reasons perhaps that this is so is because the piece could have been water damaged or the words could have been erased or smeared.  The language in the inscription could be Hebrew or Greek.The background is a reddish brown and the only evidence of vegetation is the green strip that is underneath the camels feet.

Both pictures have features of the Byzantine and Ottonian style. The artists steer clear of the naturalistic look and go for a more the animated appearance. One of the differences is that with "Christ Enthroned" the viewer can easily see the faces of the figures. In "Rebecca at the well" because of the use of the color white in the faces of the figures the viewer has to look close to make out the faces. One of the pieces is a Mosaic that is painted on the wall of the Church of Sant' Apollinare  and the piece of art is a page from a codex that is showing the book of Genesis.  In addition to that silver and purple dye are used. Some of the figures in "Rebecca at the well"are doing something like one is giving water to a passing traveler and another is walking beside the well with a jug. The figures in "Christ Enthroned"mostly in a standing or sitting position and looking regal. They is no action or movement involved in this picture. There is a distinct difference between the figures in the two scenes and that is one scene is depicting divine beings and the other the mortal humans.

4 comments:

  1. You've got some good ideas! I think that you are connecting both of these works (which are both from the Byzantine period, dating to the 6th century) with Ottonian art because of the stylized, cartoon-like features. Just to clarify for other readers, though, the Ottonian period occurs much later in the medieval period (not until the 9th century).

    I would probably shy away from mentioning the Ottonian style with these works of art, simply because of the time gap. You are welcome to argue that the water nymph in the Vienna Genesis page has a "potbelly," but I personally think that her belly looks a lot less pronounced than later Ottonian examples (such as the Crucifix of Gero, for example).

    -Prof. Bowen

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  2. I like how you mentioned the blinding affect about the women's faces in "Rebecca at the Wall." When I first looked at this piece I thought almost the same thing. But when I thought it was more like when you take a picture and your exposure is way too bright and the features of your subjects face are nothing but slight variations in shades of colors. This may have been to show the extreme heat that these individuals were enduring.

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  3. Sorry! I just noticed a typo in my previous comment. The Ottonian period began in the 900's (the 10th century). Otto I re-established the Holy Roman Empire when he was crowned by the pope in 962.

    -Prof. Bowen

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  4. It is true that the large eyes on these figures give us a more cartoon effect. Because of the colors and other unrealistic features found in the Christ Enthroned it really gives us the sense of anther worldly place.

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