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ap art history early byzantine empire
ap art history early byzantine empire
ap art history early byzantine empire
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The (Failed) Art of Seduction: A Cautionary Tale
The Byzantine Empire was a primarily Christian empire whose reign started in 330 A.D and ended in 1453 A.D with the capturing of the its capital, Constantinople by the Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. In the years following the fall of the Byzantines, many of the Christian basilicas were transformed into mosques for Islamic worship, inspiring many artists to create works that embodied their religious politics. One of the pieces created following the fall of the Byzantine Empire is the painting of Yusuf Fleeing Zulayhka, created in 1488 by Kamal al-Din Bihzad, a famous Persian painter who worked under the patronage of several Persian sultans. The illustration depicts Yusuf’s struggle to escape his master’s wife Zulaykha as she chases him through her elaborate palace in an attempt to seduce him. The representation was made using paint, ink and gold, and features jewel-like colors in order to portray the extravagancy of the palace Zulayhka has built specifically for the seduction of Yusuf (Stokstad 286). This essay will assess three accounts of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha and the reasoning behind why the narrative is often labelled as a cautionary tale and of what kind.
Bihzad has placed strong emphasis on the complexity of the palace’s architecture which he has adorned with colorful ornaments and emblazoned with gold. Each room is decorated with rugs and tiles featuring complex floral and asymmetrical patterns that cover each chamber from floor to ceiling. The palace appears to be three stories tall and features a balcony on the left and a zigzagging staircase on the right. The asymmetrical style of these two architectural features gives the impression of the work being 3-dimensional ...
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...n the painting as it is made apparent that it requires an immense amount of effort on his part to break away from his Zulaykha’s advances. However, she fails to focus on the surrounding structure of the painting. According to Humphrey, the painting of Yusuf and Zulaykha portrays the cautionary tale that good things come to those who wait.
The story of Yusuf and Zulaykha is no doubt a cautionary tale, the sort of which is almost entirely based off of the context studied behind the painting. It is also made apparent that the main focus of the art piece tends to be dependent on the context of the tale. Being an optimist myself, I believe that the most reasonable analysis is that of Humphrey as the context behind her analysis of the art piece contains more depth than the others. And as the bible says, “The lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him.”
Information from the textbook and Hays’s article help illuminate the events depicted and their significance in culture and art of the New Kingdom, and how the style ties into the art of the time.
This artwork not only visually engages the viewer as a beautiful example of Byzantine tempera painting but also elicits a spiritual response from its audience. Martyrdom of Saint Demetrios venerates Saint Demetrios and his sacrifice in order to imbue its audience with the same strength of faith seen in the martyrs last moments.
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
This painting made me cry. After knowing her story, this meaning of this painting is so apparent and distressing. The biblical story of Susanna says that two elders were infatuated with her beauty and cornered her in a garden one day. To save their skin, they lied in court and said that they had seen her lay with a man that was not her husband. They had been lying. Daniel convinced the court that the two men were bearing false witness and both men were put to death. The turmoil that this young woman went through is parallel to what happened to Artemisia when she was a young woman. You can see the pain and confusion on Susanna’s face and the condemning judgement that the two judges are casting upon her. Susanna is nude with a simple sheet draped over one leg and her breasts are exposed, it makes her appear vulnerable. I think she chose this biblical heroine for this painting because it helped depict the tragedy of her own life. She was only 17 years old when she painted
In the following essay, I will be comparing the Hagia Sophia in the City of Istanbul, and the Suleymaniye Mosque of Istanbul. Both of these pieces of art are very significant to the in modern-day Turkey. The art pieces will be covered in more detail further on in this comparative essay, and finally, I will be judging the pieces at the end of this essay
Shahîd, Irfan. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century. Washington, D.C: Dumbarton Oaks, 1984.
I chose to elaborate on two of Karen Armstrong’s themes from the first chapter of A History of God as I felt they were both very strong ideas. The first explains how cultural differences between North Africa and Europe during the Romantic Period affected white society’s failure to realize that Islam indeed worshipped the same deity. The second explains how Delacroix’s audience desired the imagery in the painting because people were, during this time, losing their concept of God.
Seduction, as well as some other terms, has been an important chapter for Beaudrillard’s theory of sexuality. Beadrillars was applying/using/ these terms in order to expand his analysis on the contemporary culture. Within his studies, he examines and identifies the attributes, strategies and meaning of seduction, the act of diverting from one’s path and its fatal attraction.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, was recognized as a disorder with specific symptoms and was added to the Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980. However, prior to this acknowledgement, father of psychology, Sigmund Freud, had already developed a theory on it. Freud’s Seduction theory states: “both forgotten childhood trauma and a variety of adult stresses could cause neurosis”, such as we have seen in Euripides’s Medea; in which Medea acted irrationally after having gone through traumatic events. Whether it was Freud in the 1890s or Euripides in 430 BC the idea that PTSD is present in one’s daily live has always been a suggestion.
A story listed in the Arts Section of the New York Times caught my eye most was the one regarding a discussion about three books that paint the big picture of the most commonly complicated thing we have to go through at certain points in our lives called finding true love, disappointment, and heartbreak. This story gave me instant physical and contextual appeal with a valid explanation of it simply being relevant in this point of my life, providing me with passion and thirst to apply myself to it, and expand on it. Beginning with its catchy title, “Date-Onomics,” “The Sex Myth” and “Modern Romance,”with its three unique and authentic book resources, and obviously being a
"The Flow of History." FC44: The Byzantine Empire (c.500-1025) -. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
What makes us human is the ability to recognize the good in other people and in turn recognize the good in ourselves. There is a saying that whatever you think about another person is just a reflection of what you think about yourself; it is like looking into a mirror. Paintings can act like mirrors as well; we can gaze into a painting and see the good of the subject being portrayed and in turn we can identify the same attributes within ourselves allowing us to relate to the subject matter. Both Rembrandt and Vermeer were able to capture intersubjectivity in their paintings. In The Return of the Prodigal Son (Fig. 1) and Aristotle (Fig. 2) by Rembrandt and The Milk Maid (Fig. 3) and Woman Weighing Pearls (Fig. 4) by Vermeer there is an autonomy that can be recognized in the painting as well as within us.
Unlike most “victimized” cultures of Western European domination, the Ottoman Empire was considerably successful and powerful for many years, particularly in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century under the rule of Sulayman the Magnificent (Haberman, 132). By 1520, the Ottoman Empire had secured much of the Arab Middle East, Belgrade and most of Hungary (Haberman, 132...
Maalouf’s main thesis in The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is that the crusades are a major part of history and have truly influenced every one of our lives. The second pa...
The ability to create a picture of The Annunciation in one’s mind is a key factor in understanding the analysis of the work. Francisco de Zurbaran approaches the painting with a naturalistic style. The painting features a room in which a woman – like angel is seen at the left kneeling on the ground before the Virgin Mary. The figure of Mary is placed between a chair and a small wooden table draped with a green cloth. Mary disregards an open Bible on the table, as she appears solemn while staring at the floor. Floating above the two main figures in the upper left side of the painting are cherubs resting on a bed of clouds. They happily gaze down at Mary with eyes from Heaven.