Medieval Art and Architecture if Term Paper

Thus, stylistically, they may have owed a great deal to the Persian-style painting traditions in the lands from which the relics came. However, only vestiges remain today, making it difficult to ascertain this for a certainty (Derbes, 1995).

S. Maria in Cosmedin's connection with the tradition of Marian veneration and with the entire substrate of Eastern/Islamic influence is easier to trace. The church began as a fourth-century loggia, was enclosed in the sixth century (probably) and expanded into a church by Hadrian I (772-95), a time when the Islamic influence, so close to the Mediterranean and the East, could certainly have been extant. In fact, in its vicinity, in the eighth century, Orthodox refugees fleeing the Iconoclastic Controversy settled. (During the Iconoclastic Controversy, Greek orthodoxy rebelled against the use of religion icons; Islam did not allow the depiction of the Godhead in art (Schuetz-Miller, 2000), so that, arguably, there was a connection in that respect as well.) as for its inclusion in the Marian cult tradition, the statement "Alfanus fieri tibi fecit Virgo Maria: (Alfanus had [this] made for you, Virgin Mary) appears twice, on the bishop's chair and on a marble panel" (Derbes, 1995).These few examples certainly do not definitively trace any single aspect of Islam into Western ecclesiastical art. But they do serve as an indication that it is impossible to consider any medieval art, no matter how isolated we moderns think Europe of the Middle Ages must have been, without considering the very substantial trade (not to mention wars and incursions) that made the traditions of one culture available to the others.

Works Cited

Derbes, Anne. "Crusading ideology and the frescoes of S. Maria in Cosmedin." The Art Bulletin; 9/1/1995.. Highbeam Research Database. 22 November 2004 http://www.highbeam.com.

Lee, Jeffrey. The long lost land. The Middle East; 5/1/1993.. Highbeam Research Database. 22 November 2004 http://www.highbeam.com.

Medieval Ukrainian treasures featured in Byzantium exhibition." The Ukrainian Weekly, 03-02-1997.. Highbeam Research Database. 22 November 2004 http://www.highbeam.com.

Parseghian, Christine. "First Major Exhibition in U.S. Devoted to Medieval Armenia Opens" the Armenian Reporter, 4/30/1994.. Highbeam Research Database. 22 November 2004 http://www.highbeam.com.

Schuetz-Miller. "Survival of Early Christian Symbolism in Monastic Churches of New Spain and Visions of the….....