Transcript Christian Art and Architecture

Medieval Life in the West
By:
Adriana Escobar
Adrian Moo
Kristen Koby
HUM 2230
Mrs. Alberta Harris
Group Project
December 5, 2010
The Middle Ages, a period of 1,000 years (AD 500 AD 1500), began after the fall of the Roman Empire
in AD 476. It is the period also known as the
Medieval ages and as the dark period in history. The
Middle ages was an era dominated by religion through
the rise and spread of its three most influential religions
of its time: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. As a
result of the religious fervor, new architectural styles
characterized the vast places for worships.
Christianity
• Emerged out of three cultural traditions:
Hebraic, Greco-Roman, and Near Eastern
• Popular Near Eastern cults promised
redemption from sins and personal immorality.
• The three Hebrew sects, Sadducees,
Pharisees, Essenes, placed emphasis on the
special covenant between God and the Chosen
People.
• Jesus, young charismatic Jewish rabbi from the city of
Nazareth
• Promised redemption of sin, personal immorality, and a life
without material possessions
• Gospels, the Christian writings authored by four Evangelist,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, describes the teaching
and life of Jesus
• Paul, known as the co-founder of Christianity, universalized
and systematically explained Jesus’ message.
• The Christian church strengthens as
the Roman Empire decline
• Migration of Germanic Tribes
• Refused to worship the emperor,
existence of Roman gods and to
serve the Roman army
• The message of Jesus was easy to
understand, free of complex rules
and pricey practices
• Constantine’s, the Edict of Milan,
liberated Christians from physical
and political oppression
• Saint Jerome (ca. 347-420) translated
the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to
Latin
• Ambrose (339-397) became bishop of
Milan and wrote some of the earliest
Christians hymns for congregational use
• Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604), elected
to the papacy in 590, established the
administrative machinery
• Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo,
most profound and influential, greatest
philosopher of Christian antiquity
• In the west, the Early Christian church building was
modeled on the Roman basilica.
• With the sacred temples of antiquity, the Christian
church consisted of a hierarchy of spaces that ushered
the devotee from the chaos of the everyday world to the
serenity of the sacred chamber, and ultimately, to the
ritual of deliverance.
• Some of the earliest basilicas contain an unroofed
atrium, an ambulatory, narthex, a nave and the
gallery/clerestory.
• The new Christian Church patterned its order after
Rome
• Romanesque pilgrimage churches was constructed in
great numbers and characterized by lively linearity and
vivid imagination
• The Gothic cathedral used form infused with
symbolism in soaring cathedrals; mostly dedicated to
the Virgin.
• Germanic tribes contributed to the decline of the
Roman Empire
• Charlemagne solidifies relationship with church and
crowned head of the new Holy Roman Empire
• Carolingian Renaissance preserved Roman writings in
easier to read Carolingian script
• Feudalism enhances the growth of political and
military organization
• Manorialism offered the lower classes physical
protection
• The Crusades established freedom and new mobility
• Judaism is one of the oldest religions still existing
today. It began as the religion of the small nation of
the Hebrews, and through thousands of years of
suffering, persecution, dispersion, and occasional
victory, has continued to be a profoundly influential
religion and culture. Today, 14 million people
identify themselves as Jewish. Modern Judaism is
a complex phenomenon that incorporates both a
nation and a religion, and often combines strict
adherence to ritual laws with a more liberal attitude
towards religious belief.
•
•Worldwide Jewish
The period of Christian hegemony in 5th-century
Palestine, Jews flourished in Babylonia, spread westward
to medieval Spain, north and east to Europe, while
continually adjusting their cultural bearings.
• As religious and social conditions worsened for the Jews
in Palestine under the control of Christian Rome, the
center of Jewish life was transferred from the land of
Israel to Babylonia, the seat of the new Muslim empire.
During this period of Muslim rule from the 7th-13th
centuries, Jews encountered Greek philosophy, medicine,
physics, astronomy, and mathematics. They also studied the
Quran, Muslim poetry, philology, biography, history, and
mysticism, illustrating a linguistic, philosophical, and
religious synthesis that is best described as "Judeo-Arabic
culture." Yet this synthesis not only occurred in the elite,
intellectual realm, but also at the popular level in the sense
that most Jews were indistinguishable from their Muslim
birth rates. neighbors in terms of names, dress, and language.
• At numerous points in the history of Judaism, Jews were taken into captivity
by other nations. The people spread, so their beliefs also spread. Generally
speaking, throughout history Judaism hasn't really spread per se. Rather it
has survived and grown naturally through childbirth. This due to fact that
Judaism doesn't proselytize and the small numbers of converts throughout
history have been minimal. Keep in mind that during most of history, in most
places, converting to Judaism was a capital offence, punishable by death or
losing all your possessions. Generally speaking most Jews are descendents of
Jews. Only in recent years has conversion to Judaism picked up a bit,
relatively to previous generations.
• History and Spread
Jewish civilization after the exodus prospered in the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah, originally headed by powerful kings like Saul, David and Solomon,
who built the first great temple in Jerusalem. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians
overran Jerusalem, taking many captives into exile and destroying the temple.
A second temple was built when the Jews returned about 538 BCE, to be
destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. This destruction was decisive for the
future of Judaism, replacing a sacrificial religion based around a temple with
a tradition of studying and learning centered around local synagogues.
By around 100CE, the canon of
the Hebrew Bible was fixed.
Between 200 and 700 CE,
scholars compiled the Mishna, the
definitive code of Jewish law. The
Talmud (written interpretation of
the scriptures) was compiled and
the rules for the Jewish calendar
were laid down. These scriptures
and teachings were the basis of the
religious worship that was
practiced around the world during
the Jewish Diaspora (exile).
Other info if needed
•
Date founded
c. 1300 BC
•
Place founded
Mesopotamia
•
•Judaism has spread to all corners of the
world. Seen here is a synagogue in downtown
Mumbai
Founder
Abraham
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Adherents
14 million
•
Main location
Israel, Europe, and USA
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Original language
Hebrew
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Spiritual leader
Rabbi (Rebbe in Hasidism)
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Place of worship
synagogue ("temple" in Reform Judaism)
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Day of worship
Saturdays
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Theism
monotheism
•
Ultimate reality
One God (YHWH)
•
Human nature
Created good
•
Purpose of life
Obedience to God
•
How to live
Obey the law and atone for sin
•
Afterlife
Views vary: Gan Eden, Gehinnom, nonexistence, or reincarnation
•Western Wall Judaism’s most sacred
site.
• In modernity, Judaism has successfully met the challenges
accompanying emancipation, assimilation, and antiSemitism, by redefining itself as a multiplicity of cultures
based on the triad: God, Torah, and Israel.
• The total number of Jews worldwide is difficult to assess
because the definition of "who is a Jew" is problematic; not
all Jews identify themselves as Jewish, and some who
identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews.
According to the Jewish Year Book (1901), the global
Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The
latest available data is from the World Jewish Population
Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar (2005). In
2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there
were 13.3 million Jews around the world. The Jewish
Year Calendar cites 14.6 million. Jewish population growth
is currently near zero percent, with 0.3% growth from 2000
to 2001.
• It's the Alhambra of Granada, a Moorish palatine city in Spain. But the
famous lion’s fountain was originally from a Jewish palace of the city. It
came from the palace of the Jewish poet and visir Ibn Nagrela, in the 11st
century. Ke know it due to a text from the poet Ibn Gabirol: the 12 lions are
the 12 tribes from Israel and two of them have a triangle in their forehead
symbolizing the chosen tribes of Judá and Levi.
“Lo Allah never changeth the grace He hath bestowed on any
people until they first change that which is in their hearts .
. ." Qur'an 8:53
• Islam was a religion founded in the 7th Century
AD by Mohammed, an Arabian merchant from
the city of Mecca.
• Around A.D 610 (age of 41) according to Muslim
teachings, the Angel Gabriel appeared to
Muhammad and commanded him to receive the
revelation of the one and only Allah(the Arabic
word for “God”)
• The Islamic scriptures, known as the “Qur'an” are
Muhammad's “reciting” of the revelations he
claimed to receive for the next 22 years of his life.
• In 622, Muhammad traveled to Yathrib,
(Medina). This event called the “Hejira,” is viewed
as the turning point of Islam. From then on, Islam
was no longer just a religion but a respected political
power. In Medina, the community of believers
became a state with Muhammad as its religious and
political leader.
• Islam became the unifying force in the rise of the first
global civilization to flourish following the fall Rome.
• Bridging Europe and East Asia, Islam forged the
historical link between Classical and early modern
civilization.
• Islam embraced the cultures of Arabia, the Near East
and Persia.
• Cultivated arts, the sciences, technology, Muslim scholars in
the cities of Baghdad (present day Iraq) and Córdoba(
Southern Spain) copied Greek manuscripts, creating
classical literature.
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The Islamic state expanded very rapidly after the
death of Muhammad through remarkable successes
both at converting unbelievers to Islam and by
religious, political, economic and military goals.
New faith offered rules of conduct and ritual
practices that were easy to follow.
The militant expansion of Islam was the evangelical
counterpart of jihad, fervent religious struggle or
“holy war”, which signifies all aspects Muslim drive
towards moral and religious perfection.
Unlike Christianity and Buddhism, Islam neither
renounced nor condemned material wealth. Jews
and Christians living in Muslim lands were taxed
but not prosecuted. Coverts from Islam were exempt
from paying a poll-tax levied on all non- Muslim
subjects.
Muslims brought expertise in navigation, trade, and
commercial exchange.
•The spread of Islam started
shortly after the death of
Mohammad. This is the graph of
his movement.
• In Islamic art differs from Christian art in its self- conscious
avoidance of symbols.
• Geometric, floral and calligraphic were the three types of motifs
that dominated the Islamic decorative repertory.
• These designs distinguishes Islamic frescoes, carpets, ivories,
manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics.
• Bold use of colors is a key feature of Islamic art and
architecture. Complex surface designs executed in mosaics and
polychrome patterned glazed tiles transform the exteriors of
mosques and palaces into shimmering veils of light and color.
• The mosque, an official place of worship, is a large, columned
hall whose square or rectangular shape derives from the simple
urban house made of sun-dried bricks.