Assignment Overview

Please write about the Mosaic from San Vitale in Ravenna and use references !!!

This week we will be focusing on identifying and describing the influence of earlier Classical art from ancient Greece and Rome upon Christian and Islamic art and architecture from the early to late Medieval era, specifically by describing and analyzing the ways in which certain elements are appropriated in contexts outside of their original creation and use.The term “appropriation” refers to the intentional use of something that is not original but is rather borrowed and reused. For example, many musicians may appropriate melodies or lyrics from other artists or composers, but they reuse the original material in ways that are not strictly mirror copies. In art history, many visual artists have borrowed and repurposed stylistic, thematic, or other technical aspects from contemporaneous or earlier artforms all the time, but the difference between simply copying something and appropriating something involves using the material in a way that is different from its original appearance, use, and/or meaning.

Assignment Instructions

Select one (1) artwork, structure, or monument from this week’s textbook reading assignments and/or lecture videos and describe it in detail. Help your reader imagine this work in their minds as clearly as possible.

Your description should provide a visual analysis of your selected artwork or monument, including discussion of the style, design, and visual elements (colors, lines, shapes, scale, proportion, etc.), as well as the materials, techniques, and subject matter.

Make sure to include the name/title of the artwork or monument, as well as other key identifying details such as the medium (materials used), and the date/date range.

Explain how this work displays the appropriation of Greco-Roman features, styles, or techniques for a Christian or Islamic religious context. Your explanation should:

Identify specific elements that appear in Greco-Roman art or architecture and also clearly appear in your selected work. These elements could include specific patterns, designs, materials, techniques, or iconographic features such as animal or human figures, etc.

Explain how the Greco-Roman aspects of this work that you identified were used and understood by a Christian or Islamic audience in as much detail as possible.

For instance, perhaps the work borrows the same kind of naturalism in style from Roman freestanding or relief sculpture, or the same kinds of techniques in fresco or mosaic, or the same kinds of design in architectural structures and public spaces, for example, but the work from Late Antiquity repurposes those traditional Roman features to be used in the worship of Christian or Islamic beliefs, or the practice of Christian or Islamic religious activities, or in the depictions of Christian or Islamic figures, etc..