Mini Midterm Outline

Mini Midterm Outline

I. The Dark Ages
A. St. Augustine
1. The world is sinful and dark
a. Our bodies lie to us that sin and lust feel good.
2. Only God’s grace allows us to access true salvation and happiness.
3. Must remove the faulty impression of sensory knowledge to attain divine wisdom.
4. Science and philosophy are anti-Church.
B. Romanesque Architecture
1. Old St. Peters
a mirror of St. Augustine’s view of the universe.
1) The ‘outside’ material world is sinful flesh à ugly, wretched
2) The ‘inside’ world of the soul & heaven à beautiful
b. Was a basilica because they were the only buildings not already used for Pagan worship. (courthouses)
1) Destroying the old philosophies (Paganism) and replacing it with the new (Christianity) à Ex: Columns.
II. The Middle Ages
A. Neo-Platonism
1. 1033 CE à 1000 years after Jesus died à finally got the picture.
a. Plotinus à The last great Pagan philosopher of the Greek civilization.
b. Allegory of the Cave
1) Plotinus
a) A small piece of God’s soul lies within us. à divine spark.
b) You just need reason to get there.
2) Christians
a) Chains are our sins à You can never get out alone, your body will lie to you.
b) You need God’s grace to realize that your body is lying to you à Read the Bible.
B. Abbot Suger
1. Wanted to rebuild the abbey church of St. Denis.
a. To eliminate space problem, glorify the monarchy
2. Suger a Neo-Platonist
a. The world is ugly and we need to escape to the world of the Forms and God à some of the things in this world has a certain divine spark as well.
b. You should appreciate all the objects around you which partake in the glory and light of God.
3. You cannot get the beatific vision through reading the Bible à Must be active Church member.
4. Suger to bring more light of God into the Church.
C. Gothic Architecture
1. The Abbey Staint-Denis (1140-44)
a. Romanesque Church burned down à replaced.
b. Beautifying it with stain glassed windows, gems, and gold à visitor with be dazzled.
1) Clerestory windows give knowledge to the illiterate.
c. Groin, ribbed, quadripartite, sexpartite vaults; large buttresses; piers à help support the structure of larger illuminating windows.
III. Renaissance
A. Thomas Aquinas: Reintroduces Science and Logic
1. Science & Logic is used in architecture
a. More complicated design of vaults, buttresses and compilation of the elements.
2. St. Augustine à as long as science & logic help the church its okay
3. Thomas Aquinas à As long as science & logic don’t contradict each other its okay.
a. We should go out and actively use it.
b. Used Islamic philosophers to justify the use of science & logic.
B. Islamic Art: Geometry
1. Logic
a. Islamic artists combined geometry with traditional art to form a new art.
b. Islamic philosophers embraced Greek philosophy and mathematics à works of Euclid (father of geometry) & Pythagoras.
1) Study of geometry also led to the study of stars and astronomy.
c. Geometric motifs were used for decorating every surface, whether walls or floors, pots or lamps, book covers or textiles
1) This art expressed the logic and order inherent in the Islamic vision of the universe.
d. Domes of Islamic mosques are better built to reflect sound during worship.
1) Made through geometry.
2. Science
a. These images include geometric patterns of the cells of our bodies, plant-forms, and geological structures hence the statement “geometry is God manifest.”
3. Religion
a. Created infinite, decorative patterns of geometric shapes
1) Symbolized how God is infinite and how the strict rules for construction of geometric patterns provide a visual analogy to religious rules of behavior
2) Represents how un-changing the laws of God were.
3) Also comprehended with Mohammad’s warning that human or animal forms should not be depicted in art.
4. “The designs are so intricate and geometric that they seem to turn in endlessly upon themselves, inviting your own mind to do the same.” – Brian Wingate
a. “Seek knowledge, even if it be in China.”
C. Renaissance Art
1. Leonardo Da Vinci
a. Linear Persepctive à Giotto thought of it, Brunelleschi portrayed it, Alberti wrote about it, Leonardo perfected it.
b. Linear perspective is a mathematical system for projecting the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface à Geometry.
1) Brunelleschi studied Greek Geometry and created developed the theory of perspective.
2. The Last Supper
a. Every single element of the painting directs the audience’s attention straight towards the midpoint of the composition, Christ’s head.
1) His head is the vanishing point.