art history

Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh). Isfahan, Iran. Islamic, Persian: Seljuk, Il-Khanid, Timurid and Safavid Dynasties. c. 700 C.E.; additions and restorations in the 14th, 18th, and 20th centuries C.E. Stone, brick, wood, plaster, and glazed ceramic tile. Most cities with sizable Muslim populations possess a primary congregational mosque. Diverse in design and dimensions, they can illustrate the style of the period or geographic region, the choices of the patron, and the expertise of the architect.  It is an architectural documentary, visually embodying the political exigencies and aesthetic tastes of the great Islamic empires of Persia. Another distinctive aspect of the mosque is its urban integration. Positioned at the center of the old city, the mosque shares walls with other buildings abutting its perimeter. Due to its immense size and its numerous entrances, it formed a pedestrian hub, connecting the arterial network of paths crisscrossing the city. The mosque faci...

Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem. Islamic, Umayyad. 691–692 C.E., with multiple renovations. Stone masonry and wooden roof decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome. One of the most iconic images of the Middle East is undoubtedly the Dome of the Rock shimmering in the setting sun of Jerusalem. Sitting atop the Haram al-Sharif, the highest point in old Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock’s golden-color Dome and Turkish Faience tiles dominates the cityscape of Old Jerusalem and in the 7th century served as a testament to the power of the new faith of Islam. The Dome of the Rock is one of the earliest surviving buildings from the Islamic world. This remarkable building is not a mosque, as is commonly assumed and scholars still debate its original function and meaning. when the Dome of the Rock was completed, there was intermittent warfare in Arabia and Holy Land around Jerusalem. The first Arab armies who emerged from the Arabian peninsula were fo...

The Kaaba. Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Islamic. Pre-Islamic monument; rededicated by Muhammad in 631–632 C.E.; multiple renovations. Granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread. Pilgrimage to a holy site is a core principle of almost all faiths. The Kaaba, meaning cube in Arabic, is a square building elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam. In Islam, Muslims pray five times a day; these prayers were directed towards Mecca and the Kaaba rather than Jerusalem. This direction is marked in all mosques and enables the faithful to know in which direction they should pray. Upon arriving in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram around the Kaaba. They then circumambulate and hope to kiss and touch the Black Stone.  The Kaaba was a sanctuary in pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that Abraham—known as Ibrahim in the Islamic tradition—an...

Petra, Jordan: Treasury and Great Temple. Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman. c. 400 B.C.E.–100 C.E. Cut rock. The prominence of the tombs in the landscape led many early explorers and scholars to see Petra as a large necropolis (cemetary); however, archaeology has shown that Petra was a well-developed metropolis with all of the trappings of a Hellenistic city. The tomb facades draw upon a rich array of Hellenistic and Near Eastern architecture and, in this sense, their architecture reflects the diverse and different cultures with which the Nabateans traded, interacted, and even intermarried.  Today scholars believe that the tombs were probably constructed when the Nabateans were wealthiest between the second century B.C.E. and the early  second century C.E. Archaeologists and art historians have identified a number styles for the tomb facades, but they all co-existed and cannot be used date the tombs. The few surviving inscriptions in Nabataean, Greek, and Latin tell ...

Nan Madol. Pohnpei, Micronesia. Saudeleur Dynasty. c. 700–1600 C.E. Basalt boulders and prismatic columns. Off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia, lies the ancient city of Nan Madol, the only ancient city ever built upon a coral reef. no records exist as to when exactly it was built, where the enormous rocks came from, how they were transported there, and for what reason it was constructed on top of a reef. They were deeply religious and sometimes cruel, and modern Pohnpeians view the ruins as a sacred and scary place where spirits own the night. Most of the islets served as residential area, however some of them served special purpose, such as food preparation, coconut oil production or canoe construction.  There are no sources of fresh water or possibilities to grow food on Nan Madol so all supplies had to be brought in from the mainland. The population of the city probably included a large number of commoner servants. Nan Madol had been abandoned by the time the fir...

 Great Mosque of Djenné. Mali. Founded c. 1200 C.E.; rebuilt 1906–1907. Adobe. As one of the wonders of Africa, and one of the most unique religious buildings in the world, the Great Mosque of Djenné, in present-day Mali, is also the greatest achievement of Sudano-Sahelian architecture It is also the largest mud-built structure in the world. The Great Mosque that we see today is its third reconstruction, completed in 1907. According to legend, the original Great Mosque was probably erected in the 13th century.  King Koi Konboro—Djenné’s twenty-sixth ruler and its first Muslim sultan (king)—decided to use traditional design techniques to build a place of Muslim worship in town.  The mosque compound continued to expand over the centuries.  The Great Mosque that we see today is rectilinear in plan and is partly enclosed by an exterior wall. An earthen roof covers the building, which is supported by monumental pillars. The roof has several holes cov...

City of Machu Picchu. Central highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1450–1540 C.E. Granite (architectural complex). It was built as a royal estate for the first Inka emperor, Pachacuti Inka Yupanqui, in the middle of the 15th century. It was intended as a place where the Inka emperor and his family could host feasts, perform religious ceremonies, and administer the affairs of empire, while also establishing a claim to land that would be owned by his lineage after his death. The site was chosen and situated for its relationship to the Andean landscape, including sight lines to other mountain peaks which have long been considered ancestral deities throughout the Andes. The site contains housing for elites, retainers, and maintenance staff; religious shrines, fountains, and terraces.  The site features architecture, from houses to terraces, built by carefully fitting individual stones against each other. Terraces were a common element of highland agriculture.  They increased the...

Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman) Qorikancha (Inka main temple) City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish colonial convent), and Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman). Central highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1440 C.E; convent added 1550–1650 C.E. Andesite. City was an axis mundi—the center of existence—and a reflection of Inka power. The city was divided into two sections, hanan (upper or high) and hurin (lower), which paralleled the social organization of Inka society into upper and lower moieties (social divisions). Cusco was further divided into quarters that reflected the four divisions of the empire, and people from those sections inhabited their respective quarters of the city. Each individual stone was pecked with tools and fitted to the one next to it; Twelve-Sided stone in the walls of Hatun Rumiyoq Street. Some sides of each stone were made to curve outward slightly, others to be slightly concave, so that the stones slotted ...

Templo Mayor (Main Temple). Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City, Mexico). Mexica (Aztec). 1375–1520 C.E. Stone (temple); volcanic stone (The Coyolxauhqui Stone); jadeite (Olmec-style mask); basalt (Calendar Stone). Destroyed by the Spaniards Aztec temple devoted to two main deities: Huitzilopochtli (God of War/Sun) and Tlaloc (Rain/Agriculture) Center, surrounded by many other temples; modern Mexico city is consists of complicated layers of colonial and pre-colonial history  Located in the sacred precinct at the heart of the city, the Templo Mayor was positioned at the center of the Mexica capital and thus the entire empire. The capital was also divided into four main quadrants, with the Templo Mayor at the center. This design reflects the Mexica cosmos, which was believed to be composed of four parts structured around the navel of the universe, or the axis mundi. Two grand staircases accessed twin temples, which were dedicated to the deities Tlaloc and Huitzilopocht...

Yaxchilán. Chiapas, Mexico. Maya. 725 C.E. Limestone (architectural complex). Yaxchilán is located on the south bank of the Usumacinta River, in Chiapas, Mexico. It was a significant Maya center during the Classic period (250-900 C.E.) Many of the exteriors had elaborate decorations, but it is the carved stone lintels above their doorways which are the focus.  Many of the exteriors had elaborate decorations, but it is the carved stone lintels above their doorways.  Bloodletting was a common practice in Maya life from the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C.E.- 250 C.E.) onwards, and an essential part of rulership and of all public rituals.

Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Montezuma County, Colorado. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi). 450–1300 C.E. Sandstone Beginning after 1000-1100 CE, they built more than 600 structures into the cliff faces of the Four Corners region of the United States: the southwestern corner of Colorado, northwestern corner of New Mexico, northeastern corner of Arizona, and southeastern corner of Utah. These structures were mostly residential but some were used for storage and ritual. The most famous residential sites date to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the Ancestral Puebloans accessed these dwellings with retractable ladders.  We often see traces of the people who constructed these buildings, such as handprints or fingerprints in many of the mortar and plaster walls.  The cliff dwellings are certainly among the best preserved buildings from this time. To build these structures, people used stone and mud mortar, along with wooden beams adapted to the natural clefts in the ...

Chavín de Huántar. Northern highlands, Peru. Chavín. 900–200 B.C.E. Stone (architectural complex); granite (Lanzón and sculpture); hammered gold alloy (jewellery). Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological and cultural site in the Andean highlands of Peru. with motifs and stylistic elements traveling to the southern highlands and to the coast. The location of Chavín played a role; the temple built there became an important pilgrimage site that drew people and their offerings from far and wide.  It is also located near the confluence of the Huachesca and Mosna Rivers, a natural phenomenon of two joining into one that may have been seen as a spiritually powerful phenomenon. Over the course of 700 years, the site drew  many worshipers to its temple who helped in spreading the artistic style of Chavín throughout highland and coastal Peru by transporting ceramics, textiles, and other portable objects back to their homes. The interior of the temple was riddl...

The Palace at Versailles. Versailles, France. Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin- Mansart (architects). Begun 1669 C.E. Masonry, stone, wood, iron, and gold leaf (architecture); marble and bronze (sculpture); gardens. KING OF FRANCE, XIV, 1664-1710; FRENCH NOBILITY THAT LED TO FRENCH REVOLUTION; LOUIS LE VAU (ARCHITECT) AND ANDRE LE NOTRE (LANDSCAPE DESIGNER); COMPLETED IN 21 YRS; 20,000 SERVANTS, SOLDIERS, FAMILY, ETC; 700 ROOMS. MEANT TO EMPHASIZE LOUIS’S IMPORTANCE; FILLED WITH SCULPTURE, PAINTING, FOUNTAINS; FOCUSED ON HIMSELF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE; SYMMETRICAL, REPETITIVE; BASIC ELEMENTS FROM ANCIENT GREEK TEMPLES; ANCIENT PAST SEEN AS THE ROOT OF INTELLECTUAL AND AESTHETIC SUPERIORITY; BELIEVE THEY HAD DESCENDED TO THE FRENCH NATION; LOUIS LIKED LINKING HIMSELF TO THE SUN GOD APOLLO; PALACE DESIGNED TO GLORIFY THE FRENCH MONARCH BY INCORPORATING BOTH ORNATE BAROQUE DECORATION AND THE STRICTER RULES OF CLASSICISM THAT EXPRESS HIS INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL STATURE

 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. Rome, Italy. Francesco Borromini (architect). 1638–   1646 C.E. Stone and stucco. FOUR FOUNTAINS; FRANCESCO BORROMINI; WAVE, UNDULATING SURFACE; BALANCE BETWEEN CONVEX AND CONCAVE; NATURE AND GEOMETRY INSEPERABLE; PURE WHITE LIGHT OF SUNLIGHT COMING IN; UNIFIES COMPOSITION CEILING MADE OF INTERCONNECTED SQUARE SHAPES, CROSSES, HEXAGONS AND OCTAGONS ORNATE CHERUBS; WINGS ENCLOSE ARCHITECTURE  

Mosque of Selim II. Edirne, Turkey. Sinan (architect). 1568–1575 C.E. Brick and stone. ELEGANT STACKED DOMES; TOWERING MINARETS; BUILT BY GREATEST OTTOMAN ARCHITECT: SINAN LOCATION HELD GEOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE; MEANT TO IMPRESS EUROPEAN VISITORS/TRADERS MUQARNAS: PROTRUDE/POINT OF TRANSITION   SQUINCHES: PROVIDE ARCHITECTURAL SUPPORT CREATED AFTER WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANS; GOD IS INDIVISIBLE

Il Gesù, including   Triumph of the Name of Jesus   ceiling fresco. Rome, Italy. Giacomo da Vignola, plan (architect); Giacomo della Porta, facade (architect); Giovanni Battista Gaulli, ceiling fresco (artist). Church: 16th century C.E.; facade: 1568–1584 C.E.; fresco and stucco gures: 1676–1679 C.E. Brick, marble, fresco, and stucco. CENTRAL CHURCH; 1500S AFTER DEATH OF FOUNDER; SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA; PATRON IS ALEXANDER FARNESE; RICH POWERFUL NUN HEART OF ROME; BAROQUE; ORNAMENTAL; CORINTHIAN COLUMNS; SICILIAN JASPER, OCHRE MARBLE; HUGE EXPLOSIVE CEILING WITH FRESCOES; STUCCO; HEAVEN, SPIRITUAL GLOW; SHADOWED FIGURE FALLING INTO HELL; DRAMATIC PERIOD IN EUROPEAN HISTORY

Palazzo Rucellai. Florence, Italy. Leon Battista Alberti (architect). c. 1450 C.E. Stone, masonry. HUMANIST ARCHITECTURE; BASED ON ITS PHILOSOPHY; DIVORCED FROM MEDIEVAL STYLE; QUINTESSENTIALLY RENAISSANCE; CONSTRUCTED OVER A PERIOD OF FIVE YEARS; MADE FOR WEALTHY MERCHANT FAMILIES; INFLUENCED DESIGNS OF HOMES OF MANY CLERICS

 Pazzi Chapel. Basilica di Santa Croce. Florence, Italy. Filippo Brunelleschi (architect). c. 1429–1461 C.E. Masonry. COMPLETED IN 1460 AFTER BRUNELLESCHI’S DEATH; CENTRAL PLAN, INTERIOR RESEMBLES EACH OTHER; BALANCED, PROPORTIONAL SPACE; COLORFUL CLAY RELIEFS ACCENTUATE THE BUILDING

Alhambra. Granada, Spain. Nasrid Dynasty. 1354–1391 C.E. Whitewashed adobe stucco, wood, tile, paint, and gilding. SOPHISTICATED PLANNING, ENCHANTED GARDENS AND FOUNTAINS; COMPLEX DECORATIONS NASRIA DYNASTY; LAST MUSLIMS TO RULE SPAIN (1200-1400)   CITY WITHIN A CITY; ENCLOSING WALLS PATHS GARDENS AND GATES; WATER INFLUENCED ARCHITECTURE; CATHOLICS LEFT IT INTACT GRANADA FELL TO CHRISTIANS MUQARNAS ARE INTRICATELY CARVED SYSTEM OF BRACKETS THAT HOLD UP THE VAULTED CEILING; PAINTINGS REPRESENT COURTLY LIFE CARVED AND PAINTED STUCCOS; STAR MOTIFS

Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, including   Lamentation.   Padua, Italy. Unknown architect; Giotto di Bondone (artist). Chapel: c. 1303 C.E.; Fresco: c. 1305. Brick (architecture) and fresco. FLORENTINE PAINTER; FRESCO CYCLE; ENRICO SCROVEGNI; BUILT IN HOPES THAT THE CHAPEL WOULD ATONE FOR THE MONEYLENDER’S SIN OF USURY; 38 FRAMED PANELS; SHOWS THE LIVES OF THE VIRGIN AND HER PARENTS; LIFE AND MISSION OF JESUS; SAVIOR’S PASSION AND RESURRECTION; EMULATED THE APPEARANCE OF THE NATURAL WORLD; REPRESENTED SPIRITUAL RATHER AND PHYSICAL REALITY; GOAL TO SHOW NATURAL WORLD WAS ABANDONED IN THE MIDDLE AGES; FIGURES ARE SCULPTURESQUE, SIMPLE; BASIC LIGHT AND SHADING; SHOWED HIS GENERATION A NEW WAY OF SEEING; RECORDING THE PHYSICAL WORLD WAS THE SOLE AIM OF ART LAMENTATION SHOWS JESUS'S FOLLOWERS MOURNING HIS DEATH; SCENE CONTAINS MARY, SAINT JOHN, ETC. MARY MAG. CRADLES JESUS IN HIS ARMS; DIAGONAL CLIFF POINTS TO MAIN ACTION SADNESS OF SCENE EMPHASISED BY GRIEVING ANGELS,...