Post by mt on Nov 5, 2011 21:39:19 GMT
I am interested in the art style shift that occurred in late Antiquity/early Middle Ages, the one that shifted the art from Classical realism to Medieval idealism.
An interesting sub-topic is the evolution of ruler portraits on coins. As time passes, you can see them becoming less individualized -
especially when the Classical profile bust on solidi got replaced with the three-quarter facing military bust of late Rome, and then, in the reign of Justinian, with the completely facing bust. The profiles for a while remained on fractional gold, but they were progressively deindividualised:
Is Christianity the reason for its development, with its disapproval of too much focus on human body? This explanation strikes me as too simplistic and reductionist. After all, there were signs of this artistic trend already in the Third century, and in the Renaissance, when ancient art realism was popular again, Europe definitely wasn't "non-Christian"!
An interesting sub-topic is the evolution of ruler portraits on coins. As time passes, you can see them becoming less individualized -
especially when the Classical profile bust on solidi got replaced with the three-quarter facing military bust of late Rome, and then, in the reign of Justinian, with the completely facing bust. The profiles for a while remained on fractional gold, but they were progressively deindividualised:
Is Christianity the reason for its development, with its disapproval of too much focus on human body? This explanation strikes me as too simplistic and reductionist. After all, there were signs of this artistic trend already in the Third century, and in the Renaissance, when ancient art realism was popular again, Europe definitely wasn't "non-Christian"!