Title: Great Mosque at Kairouan

Date: 900
Culture: Islam, Tunisia
Scale: 450 x 260 feet

Subject: The traditional mosque follows the layout of Muhammads house. It

has a hypostyle hall (space with pillars throughout to hold the stone roof) and a
courtyard. There is a minaret (tower) and a domed area in the hall marking the
mihrab (marker) and minbar (pulpit). A great mosque is large enough to
accommodate the entire community for Friday prayer.
Content: Mosque building is one of the great achievements of Islamic culture.
Mosques are often elaborately decorated. The hall is used for prayer. The mihrab
marks the direction of prayer towards Mecca. The minbar is in front of the
mihrab and is the place from which the imam leads worship. From the minaret
Muslims are called to prayer. The mosque represents the devotion of the
community to Allah (the one god) and the presence of Islam. Islam is noted for
individually direct devotion.
Context: In the early 600s Islam was founded by Muhammad, the Prophet, in
what is now Saudi Arabia. Islam is a monotheistic religion based on the Koran
(recitations revealed to Muhammad). It developed from Judaism and
Christianity and spread rapidly from Arab areas to North Africa and Spain and

east to India.
Style: Islamic religious art prohibits representation and narration so the mosque
is decorated in non-representational designs emphasizing pattern. Non-religious
art, such as history miniature painting, is representational. Mosque building
was based on Byzantine traditions, especially in the use of the dome, and on
Roman traditions in the use of the courtyard with columns around it.
Medium: Most early mosques are post-and-lintel building with smaller domes to
mark important areas.
Formal Analysis: Hypostyle halls provide large expansive and cool interior
spaces. They also divide the interior into more intimate areas for prayer.
Mosques, such as this one, are based on geometry and geometric volumes. They
emphasize horizontal volumes more than vertical.

Upper Left Title: Great Mosque at Isfahan

Date: 1000s to 1600s
Culture: Islam, Iran
Lower Right Title: Mihrab from Isfahan
Date: 1300s
Culture: Islam, Iran
Scale: 11 feet high

Subject: The Iranian mosque has four large gates (iwans) around its courtyard.

The largest iwan marks where the mihrab is inside (towards Mecca, the place of
Muslim pilgrimage). The outer and inner mosque are covered in elaborate tile
work. The mihrab is from a theology college. It is covered in organic patterns;
calligraphy (ornamental writing) goes around the border and is inside the central
recessed area.
Content: The non-representational designs on the mosque and the mihrab create
aesthetic beauty. Elaborate patterns suggest infinity. There is no representation
to distract the mind from prayer and nothing that could be associated with
idolatry. Domes are associated with paradise and mark special areas.
Words from the Koran often decorate walls of buildings. Because calligraphy
represents the words of Allah and it is non-figurative, it is considered the highest
art. Tile work was associated with the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and
Persia. On the mihrab the calligraphy details the pillars of Islamic faith from the
Koran such as prayer, fasting, caring for others, and pilgrimage.

Context: During the building period of this mosque, the Islamic world supported
great centers of learning where math, medicine, engineering and science
reached high levels. This was also a time when Islam spread to many areas.
Style: Religious art must be non-representational out of respect for Allah. The
1600s and 1700s is the golden age of tile work in Iran and Turkey. Complex
patterns and fluid calligraphy mark Islamic style.
Medium: Mosques in Iran were built of brick covered in ceramic tile work. Tile

was cut into many shapes and assembled as mosaic designs. Note the amount of
pieces on the mihrab and multiply that for large walls. Some tiles were made into
convex and concave volumes. Sometimes stucco was also elaborately carved into
patterns. In Turkey mosques followed the example of Byzantine architecture and
included large domed interiors; in the late 1400s Hagia Sophia was converted
into a mosque.
Formal Analysis: Islamic mosaic tile work is based on pattern calculated
mathematically. It combines organic and geometric shapes and plays
conceptually with visual and spatial figure and ground relationships.

Title: Pentecost and Mission of the Apostles at Church of Mary Magdalene

Date: 1100s
Culture: Europe, France
Period: Romanesque
Scale: 20 feet wide

Subject: Above the door to the church, a large Christ sits centrally with light
coming from his hands to instill the apostles with the Holy Spirit (the
Pentecost). The disciples are then to convert the surrounding non-Christians of
the world who are depicted as different races. In the outer ring are figures of the
zodiac calendar.

Content: The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages (400s to 1300s) believed that
images in art taught Christians, especially the majority who couldnt read. In
both the large Romanesque churches and the Gothic cathedrals, sculpture was
concentrated around the great doors and seen when Christians entered the house
of god on earth. The sculpture proved Christs power and presented the Church as
salvation. The specific message in this sculpture is that Christianity was for all
people and that it was the duty of Christians to convert non-believers. The smaller
size of the non-Christians show that they have not yet been saved. The zodiac
represents that Christs salvation is eternal.
Context: The early Middle Ages in Europe is the time of monasteries and the
ending of nature worship. In the Romanesque period Christians made
pilgrimages to great churches to prove their faith by being in the presence of
holy relics. Christians believed pilgrimage would atone their sins and cure their
diseases. It is also the time of the Crusades (Christian wars against the Muslims in
Jerusalem).
Style: Scale and proportion are hieratic. Background space is minimized.
Figures are representational, abstracted, angular and elongated. Anatomy is
not important. Nudity is considered sinful so images are clothed in drapery with
linear patterns on it. Images are symbolic and conceptual, not realistic.
Medium: Sculpture on church doors is deep relief of carved stone. Sculptors
probably came from the masons who worked on building the church. The bishop
of the church probably determined the subject matter of the sculpture and raised
the money to pay for it.
Formal Analysis: The semicircle above the doors is the main shape of the
composition and holds everything together. The form suggests the unifying
quality of faith. The hieratic scale and proportion seen on Christ focus the
narrative and indicates who is important as does the central positioning of his
figure. The apostles are seated to emphasize this hieratic scale and the angles of
the legs create variation and diagonal tension. The symmetry reflects the
balance of the world when Christ is present.

Title: Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

Date: 1200
Culture: Europe, France

Period: Gothic
Scale: 226 feet high

Subject: As in other Gothic cathedrals, flying buttresses (outer supports to the

walls) allow the height and stained glass windows. The floor plan of French
cathedrals is the shape of the cross with a nave (long central part) and transcept
(shorter cross part). The nave is 394 feet by 42.5 foot. The transcept is 131 feet
across. Opposite the doors and at the other end of the nave is the altar where
mass (the re-enactment of the Last Supper) was celebrated.
Content: Cathedrals were the center of the cities. They were the place of the
mass, prayer, sacraments, and pilgrimage. In sculpture near the doors depictions
from the Gospels were usually above Old Testament figures. The shape of the
cathedral as a cross symbolized salvation through the death and resurrection of
Christ. The light coming through the bible stories of the stained glass windows was
transformed to mystical light. The height of the cathedral was a symbol of
reaching to heaven. The cathedral represents the Catholic Church and Christian
royalty.
Context: A cathedral is run by a bishop, a high ranking official in the Catholic
Church. The royal court, aristocracy and the population of the city were the
patrons. Legal judgments were pronounced on the cathedral steps and markets
were often nearby.
Style: Gothic architectural style is determined by pointed arches, large stained
glass windows, vertical height, and flying buttresses on the outside of the

church. The buttresses on the outside allowed wider and open interiors (naves).
The cross shaped floor plan was a conscious effort to make a Christian building
not based on the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans.
Medium: Cathedrals were made by stone masons without mortar or concrete.
Architects, engineers, carpenters, glassworkers, and metal smiths worked with
these masons. Cathedrals took decades and sometimes centuries to complete.
Formal Analysis: The Gothic cathedral dominated the city with its monumental
scale. They were the largest buildings of their age. The main emphasis of the outer
composition is verticality and frontal. The faade is dominated by two large bell
towers and a complex levels of convex and concave volumes. The flying
buttresses, though practical, create a graceful almost sail like effect around the
sides and back of the cathedral.

Upper Left Title: Chartres Cathedral, Nave

Lower Right Title: Virgin and Child Window
Date: 1200
Culture: Europe, France
Period: Gothic
Scale: nave 129 feet high, window 16 feet high

Subject: The nave is the long, hall-like part of the cathedral. The ceiling has
pointed rib vaults. Chartres cathedral has three interior levels unified by carved
piers (supporting masses) that run vertically through them. The highest level is the

clerestory, which has many windows to let in light. The altar area also has many
windows.
Content: When Christians were in the church, they believed they were in the
presence of Christ and in his home on earth. They came to be in a holy place of
relics and where the body and blood of Christ was made present in the mass.
They would see stories of the bible in the stained glass and hear sermons on the
Gospels (New Testament books). Images of the Virgin and Child were very
popular in this period because Christians saw Mary as a nurturing mother who
would intercede for them.

Context: There were no seats and the mass was said behind a screen in Latin.
The large interior space allowed many worshippers at one time. The lower side
areas outside the nave were for chapels and walking prayers such as the Stations
of the Cross (stages in the suffering of Jesus). Chartres Cathedral has its original
stained glass.
Style: Chartres Cathedral is the key monument for defining Gothic style
architecture. Here many things were developed such as the flying buttresses,
ribbed vaults, and large stained glass windows.
Medium: The exterior buttresses allowed the high walls of the cathedral. They

also supported the window areas which cannot be load-bearing. Stained glass
windows were expensive. They do not allow a lot of light but bring color and a
glowing ambiance to the interior. Stained glass is thick and blown by hand.
Pieces are held together by a lead framework. Some glass is layered and some is
painted with heated enamels. Subjects in stained glass vary depending on the
patron.
Formal Analysis: The compositional focus of the nave is extremely vertical. The
windows of the altar area also create directional lines to the front of the cathedral.
Stained glass forms a mosaic pattern effect with the leading as dark lines
separating the figures into parts. Outside the cathedral is majestic and powerful.
Inside it is awesome and mystical.