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Black Madonna

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The term Black Madonna or Black Virgin tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus , where both figures are depicted with dark skin. Examples of the Black Madonna can be found both in Catholic and Orthodox countries.

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130-503: The paintings are usually icons , which are Byzantine in origin or style, some of which were produced in 13th or 14th-century Italy. Other examples from the Middle East , Caucasus or Africa , mainly Egypt and Ethiopia , are even older. Statues are often made of wood but are occasionally made of stone, painted, and up to 75 cm (30 in) tall. They fall into two main groups: free-standing upright figures or seated figures on

260-554: A pagan or Gnostic context) in his Life of Alexander Severus (xxix) that formed part of the Augustan History . According to Lampridius, the emperor Alexander Severus ( r.  222–235 ), himself not a Christian, had kept a domestic chapel for the veneration of images of deified emperors, of portraits of his ancestors, and of Christ, Apollonius , Orpheus and Abraham . Saint Irenaeus , ( c.  130–202 ) in his Against Heresies (1:25;6) says scornfully of

390-558: A visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition that may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Abstract expressionism was an American post- World War II art movement that combined the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools—such as Futurism , Bauhaus and Cubism , and

520-422: A C note) is analogous to "light" in painting, "shades" to dynamics , and "coloration" is to painting as the specific timbre of musical instruments is to music. These elements do not necessarily form a melody (in music) of themselves; rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage , which began with Cubism and

650-471: A beardless young man. It was some time before the earliest examples of the long-haired, bearded face that was later to become standardized as the image of Jesus appeared. When they did begin to appear there was still variation. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said that no one knew the appearance of Jesus or that of Mary. However, Augustine was not a resident of the Holy Land and therefore was not familiar with

780-401: A blue undergarment with a red overgarment (representing a human who was granted gifts by God), and thus the doctrine of deification is conveyed by icons. Letters are symbols too. Most icons incorporate some calligraphic text naming the person or event depicted. Even this is often presented in a stylized manner. The historical tradition of icons used for purposes other than visual depiction are

910-439: A characteristic of the alliance between Symbolist writers and Neo-Impressionist artists: I ask of divided brushwork not the objective rendering of light, but iridescences and certain aspects of color still foreign to painting. I make a kind of chromatic versification and for syllables, I use strokes which, variable in quantity, cannot differ in dimension without modifying the rhythm of a pictorial phraseology destined to translate

1040-408: A church and admonished the other bishop that such images are "opposed   [...] to our religion". Elsewhere in his Church History , Eusebius reports seeing what he took to be portraits of Jesus, Peter and Paul , and also mentions a bronze statue at Banias /Paneas under Mount Hermon, of which he wrote, "They say that this statue is an image of Jesus". Further, he relates that locals regarded

1170-402: A common graffiti medium. In the late 1970s, street graffiti writers' signatures and murals became more elaborate, and a unique style developed as a factor of the aerosol medium and the speed required for illicit work. Many now recognize graffiti and street art as a unique art form and specifically manufactured aerosol paints are made for the graffiti artist. A stencil protects a surface, except

1300-510: A few conventional poses. Archangels bear a thin staff and sometimes a mirror. Colour plays an important role as well. Gold represents the radiance of Heaven; red, divine life. Blue is the colour of human life, white is the Uncreated Light of God, only used for resurrection and transfiguration of Christ. In icons of Jesus and Mary, Jesus wears red undergarment with a blue outer garment (representing God becoming human) and Mary wears

1430-423: A fluid medium, to the cracking and discoloration that result from changes in the color, opacity, or dimensions of the medium as it dries. Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion . Acrylic paints can be diluted with water but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes,

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1560-502: A high pillar, surrounded by candles; and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre , a replica of an original destroyed during the French Revolution. Restoration work on the cathedral resulted in the painting in 2014 of Notre Dame de Pilar , to reflect an earlier 19th-century painted style. The statue is no longer a "Black Madonna" and the restoration was severely criticized for wiping away the past. Some scholars have chosen to explore

1690-602: A kiln to be fired. This melts the Silica glass in the glaze and transforms it into a vibrant glossy version of itself. Ink paintings are done with a liquid that contains pigments or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text , or design . Ink is used for drawing with a pen , brush , or quill . Ink can be a complex medium, composed of solvents , pigments, dyes, resins , lubricants , solubilizers, surfactants , particulate matter , fluorescers , and other materials. The components of inks serve many purposes;

1820-530: A letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. This version of the Abgar story does not mention an image. A later account found in the Syriac Doctrine of Addai ( c.  400? ) mentions a painted image of Jesus in the story. Even later, in the 6th-century account given by Evagrius Scholasticus , the painted image transforms into an image that miraculously appeared on

1950-410: A medium for portrait miniatures . In the late 20th century, the technique of porcelain enamel on metal has been used as a durable medium for outdoor murals. Tempera , also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other size ). Tempera also refers to

2080-447: A miracle in which Saint Plato of Ankyra appeared to a Christian in a dream. The saint was recognized because the young man had often seen his portrait. This recognition of a religious apparition from likeness to an image was also a characteristic of pagan pious accounts of appearances of gods to humans, and was a regular topos in hagiography. One critical recipient of a vision from Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki apparently specified that

2210-528: A natural progression for the image of Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, to be paid similar veneration as that given to the earthly Roman emperor. However, the Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and other groups insist on explicitly distinguishing the veneration of icons from the worship of idols by pagans. (See further below on the doctrine of veneration as opposed to worship.) After adoption of Christianity as

2340-413: A painter can be any of the blues: phthalocyanine blue , Prussian blue , indigo , Cobalt blue , ultramarine , and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, means of painting. Colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music (like

2470-639: A part of church tradition. Thus accounts such as that of the miraculous "image not made by hands", and the weeping and moving "Mother of God of the Sign" of Novgorod are accepted as fact: "Church Tradition tells us, for example, of the existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the 'Icon-Made-Without-Hands') and of Icons of the Most-Holy Theotokos [Mary] immediately after Him." Eastern Orthodoxy further teaches that "a clear understanding of

2600-693: A performance of Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition illustrates his "synaesthetic" concept of a universal correspondence of forms, colors and musical sounds. Music defines much of modernist abstract painting. Jackson Pollock underscores that interest with his 1950 painting Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) . Aesthetics is the study of art and beauty ; it was an important issue for 18th- and 19th-century philosophers such as Kant and Hegel . Classical philosophers like Plato and Aristotle also theorized about art and painting in particular. Plato disregarded painters (as well as sculptors) in his philosophical system; he maintained that painting cannot depict

2730-563: A religious image or symbol on the reverse , usually an image of Christ for larger denominations, with the head of the Emperor on the obverse, reinforcing the bond of the state and the divine order. The tradition of acheiropoieta ( ἀχειροποίητα , literally 'not-made-by-hand') accrued to icons that are alleged to have come into existence miraculously, not by a human painter. Such images functioned as powerful relics as well as icons, and their images were naturally seen as authoritative as to

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2860-497: A solution acrylic paint under the brand Magna paint . These were mineral spirit -based paints. Water-based acrylic paints were subsequently sold as latex house paints. In 1963, George Rowney (part of Daler-Rowney since 1983) was the first manufacturer to introduce artists' acrylic paints in Europe, under the brand name "Cryla". Acrylics are the most common paints used in grattage , a surrealist technique that began to be used with

2990-529: A spiritual value, and he attaches primary colors to essential feelings or concepts, something that Goethe and other writers had already tried to do. Iconography is the study of the content of paintings, rather than their style. Erwin Panofsky and other art historians first seek to understand the things depicted, before looking at their meaning for the viewer at the time, and finally analyzing their wider cultural, religious, and social meaning. In 1890,

3120-552: A surface is the essence of painting, just as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music . Color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, white is. Some painters, theoreticians, writers, and scientists, including Goethe , Kandinsky , and Newton , have written their own color theory . Moreover,

3250-508: A surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Digital painting is a method of creating an art object (painting) digitally or a technique for making digital art on the computer. As a method of creating an art object, it adapts traditional painting medium such as acrylic paint , oils , ink , watercolor , etc. and applies the pigment to traditional carriers, such as woven canvas cloth, paper, polyester, etc. by means of software driving industrial robotic or office machinery (printers). As

3380-416: A technique, it refers to a computer graphics software program that uses a virtual canvas and virtual painting box of brushes, colors, and other supplies. The virtual box contains many instruments that do not exist outside the computer, and which give a digital artwork a different look and feel from an artwork that is made the traditional way. Furthermore, digital painting is not 'computer-generated' art as

3510-554: A throne. About 400–500 Black Madonnas have been recorded in Europe, with the number related to how they are classified. There are at least 180 Vierges Noires in Southern France alone. There are hundreds of copies made since the medieval era. Some are displayed in museums, but most are in churches or shrines and are venerated by believers. Some are associated with miracles and attract substantial numbers of pilgrims . Black Madonnas come in different forms. Speculations behind

3640-523: A towel when Christ pressed the cloth to his wet face. Further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken by General John Kourkouas to Constantinople . It went missing in 1204 when Crusaders sacked Constantinople, but by then numerous copies had firmly established its iconic type. The 4th-century Christian Aelius Lampridius produced the earliest known written records of Christian images treated like icons (in

3770-539: A very exact, but reverse mirror image of the original circular icon that was made in the 5th century and brought to Rome, where it has remained until the present. In later tradition the number of icons of Mary attributed to Luke greatly multiplied. The Salus Populi Romani , the Theotokos of Vladimir , the Theotokos Iverskaya of Mount Athos , the Theotokos of Tikhvin , the Theotokos of Smolensk and

3900-442: Is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus , bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather , fabric , wood and canvas . In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese , Korean , and Japanese painting it has been

4030-542: Is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting , in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , and Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Jesus , Mary , saints , and angels . Although especially associated with portrait-style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most of the religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity , including narrative scenes, usually from

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4160-405: Is a water-based paint consisting of pigment and other materials designed to be used in an opaque painting method. Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such as chalk is also present. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities. Like all water media, it

4290-406: Is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul. Wassily Kandinsky often used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations" and described more elaborate works as "compositions". Kandinsky theorized that "music is the ultimate teacher", and subsequently embarked upon

4420-418: Is also proclaimed in the language of colors". Painting Painting is a visual art , which is characterized by the practice of applying paint , pigment , color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or " support "). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush , but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes , may be used. One who produces paintings

4550-577: Is an important form of visual art , bringing in elements such as drawing , composition , gesture , narration , and abstraction . Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting ), photographic , abstract, narrative, symbolistic (as in Symbolist art ), emotive (as in Expressionism ) or political in nature (as in Artivism ). A portion of

4680-596: Is any of several related mural painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco [afˈfresːko] , which derives from the Latin word for fresh . Frescoes were often made during the Renaissance and other early time periods. Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh lime mortar or plaster , for which

4810-434: Is called a painter . In art , the term "painting" describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting"). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer , pottery, leaf , copper and concrete , and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay , paper, plaster , gold leaf , and even whole objects. Painting

4940-440: Is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process. Because the surface of a pastel painting is fragile and easily smudged, its preservation requires protective measures such as framing under glass; it may also be sprayed with a fixative . Nonetheless, when made with permanent pigments and properly cared for, a pastel painting may endure unchanged for centuries. Pastels are not susceptible, as are paintings made with

5070-434: Is diluted with water. Gouache was a popular paint utilized by Egyptians, Painters such as Francois Boucher used this medium. This paint is best applied with sable brushes. Ceramic Glaze Glazing is commonly known as a premelted liquid glass. This glaze can be dipped or brushed on. This glaze appears chalky and there is a vast difference between the beginning and finished result. To be activated glazed pottery must be placed in

5200-575: Is in a context attributed to the 5th century that the first mention of an image of Mary painted from life appears, though earlier paintings on catacomb walls bear resemblance to modern icons of Mary. Theodorus Lector , in his 6th-century History of the Church 1:1 stated that Eudokia (wife of emperor Theodosius II , d. 460) sent an image of the " Mother of God " named Icon of the Hodegetria from Jerusalem to Pulcheria , daughter of Arcadius ,

5330-403: Is no century between the fourth and the eighth in which there is not some evidence of opposition to images even within the Church". Nonetheless, popular favor for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons yet existed. The use of icons was seriously challenged by Byzantine Imperial authority in

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5460-578: Is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as metal, plastic, sand , cement , straw , leaves or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer . There is a growing community of artists who use computers to "paint" color onto a digital "canvas" using programs such as Adobe Photoshop , Corel Painter , and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required. Jean Metzinger 's mosaic-like Divisionist technique had its parallel in literature;

5590-421: Is of crucial importance in the given work of art, and it directly affects the aesthetic value of that work. This is because the aesthetic value is functionality dependent, i.e. the freedom (of movement) of perception is perceived as beauty. Free flow of energy, in art as well as in other forms of " techne ", directly contributes to the aesthetic value. Music was important to the birth of abstract art since music

5720-604: Is self-consciousness. This often led to experiments with form, and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction). The first example of modernism in painting was impressionism , a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors ( en plein air ). Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself. The school gathered adherents despite internal divisions among its leading practitioners and became increasingly influential. Initially rejected from

5850-474: Is simple and mundane: Christians lacked land and capital. Art requires both. As soon as they began to acquire land and capital, Christians began to experiment with their own distinctive forms of art". Aside from the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ, the 4th-century Eusebius of Caesarea , in his Church History , provides a more substantial reference to a "first" icon of Jesus. He relates that King Abgar of Edessa (died c.  50 CE ) sent

5980-603: Is the perceived age of the figures. TROJA CHATEAU chapel- original "Montserrat Madonna" from Old Town Byzantine building (pg.100 of Martin Krummholz ISBN 978-80-7010-131-5) Icon Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: An icon (from Ancient Greek εἰκών ( eikṓn )  'image, resemblance')

6110-499: The Apostle John discovers that one of his followers has had a portrait made of him, and is venerating it: [John] went into the bedchamber, and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands, and lamps and altars set before it. And he called him and said: Lycomedes, what do you mean by this matter of the portrait? Can it be one of thy gods that is painted here? For I see that you are still living in heathen fashion. Later in

6240-579: The Black Madonna of Częstochowa are examples, and another is in the cathedral on St Thomas Mount , which is believed to be one of the seven painted by Luke the Evangelist and brought to India by Thomas the Apostle . Ethiopia has at least seven more. Bissera V. Pentcheva concludes, "The myth [of Luke painting an icon] was invented in order to support the legitimacy of icon veneration during

6370-591: The Franco-Cantabrian region in western Europe, and in the caves in the district of Maros ( Sulawesi , Indonesia ). In November 2018, however, scientists reported the discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo ( Kalimantan ). In December 2019, figurative cave paintings depicting pig hunting in

6500-638: The Iconoclastic controversy " (8th and 9th centuries, much later than most art historians put it). According to Reformed Baptist pastor John Carpenter, by claiming the existence of a portrait of the Theotokos painted during her lifetime by the evangelist Luke, the iconodules "fabricated evidence for the apostolic origins and divine approval of images." In the period before and during the Iconoclastic Controversy , stories attributing

6630-669: The Maros-Pangkep karst in Sulawesi were estimated to be even older, at at least 43,900 years old. The finding was noted to be "the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world". More recently, in 2021, cave art of a pig found in an Indonesian island, and dated to over 45,500 years, has been reported. However, the earliest evidence of the act of painting has been discovered in two rock-shelters in Arnhem Land , in northern Australia. In

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6760-548: The Palladium (protective image) , the Palladium (classical antiquity) , the acheiropoieta , and various "folk" traditions associated with folk religion . Of these various forms the oldest tradition dates back to before the Christian era among the ancient Greeks. The various "folk" traditions are more poorly documented and often are associated with local folk narratives of uncertain origin. In English, since around 1600,

6890-477: The Renaissance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe. Pastel is a painting medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints ; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation . The color effect of pastels

7020-656: The Sublime , in terms that clearly gave priority to the former. Although he did not refer to painting in particular, this concept was taken up by painters such as J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich . Hegel recognized the failure of attaining a universal concept of beauty and, in his aesthetic essay, wrote that painting is one of the three "romantic" arts, along with Poetry and Music , for its symbolic , highly intellectual purpose. Painters who have written theoretical works on painting include Kandinsky and Paul Klee . In his essay, Kandinsky maintains that painting has

7150-471: The history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by religious art . Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery , to Biblical scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling , to scenes from the life of Buddha (or other images of Eastern religious origin ). The oldest known paintings are approximately 40,000 years old, found in both

7280-502: The truth —it is a copy of reality (a shadow of the world of ideas) and is nothing but a craft , similar to shoemaking or iron casting. By the time of Leonardo, painting had become a closer representation of the truth than painting was in Ancient Greece . Leonardo da Vinci , on the contrary, said that " Italian : La Pittura è cosa mentale " ("English: painting is a thing of the mind "). Kant distinguished between Beauty and

7410-460: The 2nd century. In the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy, and of the early Medieval West, very little room is made for artistic license. Almost everything within the image has a symbolic aspect. Christ, the saints, and the angels all have halos. Angels (and often John the Baptist ) have wings because they are messengers. Figures have consistent facial appearances, hold attributes personal to them, and use

7540-470: The 8th century identifies Luke the Evangelist as the first icon painter, but this might not reflect historical facts. A general assumption that early Christianity was generally aniconic , opposed to religious imagery in both theory and practice until about 200, has been challenged by Paul Corby Finney's analysis of early Christian writing and material remains (1994). His assumption distinguishes three different sources of attitudes affecting early Christians on

7670-672: The 8th century. Though by this time opposition to images was strongly entrenched in Judaism and Islam, attribution of the impetus toward an iconoclastic movement in Eastern Orthodoxy to Muslims or Jews "seems to have been highly exaggerated, both by contemporaries and by modern scholars". Though significant in the history of religious doctrine, the Byzantine controversy over images is not seen as of primary importance in Byzantine history; "[f]ew historians still hold it to have been

7800-468: The Bible or the lives of saints. Icons are most commonly painted on wood panels with egg tempera , but they may also be cast in metal or carved in stone or embroidered on cloth or done in mosaic or fresco work or printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity may be classified as "icons", although "iconic" may also be used to describe the static style of a devotional image. In

7930-569: The Christ child and it is this composite icon that became the one historically known as the Hodegetria. She further states another tradition that when the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II , fled Constantinople in 1261 he took this original circular portion of the icon with him. This remained in the possession of the Angevin dynasty who had it inserted into a much larger image of Mary and

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8060-485: The Christ child, which is presently enshrined above the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey church of Montevergine . This icon was subjected to repeated repainting over the subsequent centuries, so that it is difficult to determine what the original image of Mary's face would have looked like. Guarducci states that in 1950 an ancient image of Mary at the Church of Santa Francesca Romana was determined to be

8190-399: The East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media, with equally rich and complex traditions. The invention of photography had a major impact on painting. In the decades after the first photograph was produced in 1829, photographic processes improved and became more widely practiced, depriving painting of much of its historic purpose to provide an accurate record of

8320-483: The Gnostic Carpocratians : They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and

8450-488: The Greek god of healing, but the description of the standing figure and the woman kneeling in supplication precisely matches images found on coins depicting the bearded emperor Hadrian ( r.  117–138 ) reaching out to a female figure—symbolizing a province —kneeling before him. When asked by Constantia (Emperor Constantine 's half-sister) for an image of Jesus, Eusebius denied the request, replying: "To depict purely

8580-425: The Greek language, the term for icon painting uses the same word as for "writing", and Orthodox sources often translate it into English as icon writing . Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the production of Christian images dates back to the very early days of Christianity , and that it has been a continuous tradition since then. Modern academic art history considers that, while images may have existed earlier,

8710-515: The Italian word for plaster, intonaco , is used. A secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster ( secco is "dry" in Italian). The pigments require a binding medium, such as egg ( tempera ), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil , such as linseed oil , poppyseed oil which

8840-808: The Madonna and child. Research into the Black Madonna phenomenon is limited. Begg links the refrain from the Song of Solomon , ‘I am black, and I am beautiful’ to the Queen of Sheba . Recently, however, interest in this subject has gathered more momentum. Important early studies of dark-skinned holy images in France were by Camille Flammarion (1888), Marie Durand-Lefebvre (1937), Emile Saillens (1945), and Jacques Huynen (1972). The first notable study in English of

8970-549: The Parisian painter Maurice Denis famously asserted: "Remember that a painting—before being a warhorse, a naked woman or some story or other—is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order." Thus, many 20th-century developments in painting, such as Cubism , were reflections on the means of painting rather than on the external world— nature —which had previously been its core subject. Recent contributions to thinking about painting have been offered by

9100-636: The Roman Empire probably saw the use of Christian images become very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states "By the early fifth century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints; by c.  480–500 , we can be sure that the inside of a saint's shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, a practice which had probably begun earlier." When Constantine himself ( r.  306–337 ) apparently converted to Christianity,

9230-613: The Western church. Palladia were processed around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle. The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is generally quite different from that of most secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles: "The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity", Léonid Ouspensky has written. Accounts that some non-Orthodox writers consider legendary are accepted as history within Eastern Orthodoxy, because they are

9360-583: The advent of this type of paint. Acrylics are used for this purpose because they easily scrape or peel from a surface. Aerosol paint (also called spray paint) is a type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized container and is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a valve button. A form of spray painting , aerosol paint leaves a smooth, evenly coated surface. Standard sized cans are portable, inexpensive and easy to store. Aerosol primer can be applied directly to bare metal and many plastics. Speed, portability and permanence also make aerosol paint

9490-437: The age. Artists continue to make important works of art in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments —their merits are left to the public and the marketplace to judge. The Feminist art movement began in the 1960s during the second wave of feminism. The movement sought to gain equal rights and equal opportunities for female artists internationally. Color , made up of hue , saturation , and value , dispersed over

9620-460: The artist's ability to work quickly. Another difference is that watercolors must be painted onto a porous surface, primarily watercolor paper. Acrylic paints can be used on many different surfaces. Both acrylic and watercolor are easy to clean up with water. Acrylic paint should be cleaned with soap and water immediately following use. Watercolor paint can be cleaned with just water. Between 1946 and 1949, Leonard Bocour and Sam Golden invented

9750-476: The basis of the dark hue of each individual icon or statue vary greatly and some have been controversial. Explanations range from Madonnas made from dark wood, or Madonnas that have turned darker over time, due to factors such as aging or candle smoke, to a study by Jungian scholar Ean Begg into the potential pagan origins of the cult of the black Madonna and child. Another suggestion is that dark-skinned representations of pre-Christian deities were re-envisioned as

9880-443: The computer does not automatically create images on the screen using some mathematical calculations. On the other hand, the artist uses his own painting technique to create a particular piece of work on the computer. Other- Unruly Painting Methods. Painting is not confined to one method over another. Artists such as Andy Warhol Explored the limits of painting. Oxidization was utilized by Andy Warhol as he painted canvases sprawled on

10010-593: The creation of icons to the New Testament period greatly increased, with several apostles and even Mary herself believed to have acted as the artist or commissioner of images (also embroidered in the case of Mary). There was a continuing opposition to images and their misuse within Christianity from very early times. "Whenever images threatened to gain undue influence within the church, theologians have sought to strip them of their power". Further, "there

10140-423: The diverse emotions aroused by nature. (Jean Metzinger, c.  1907 ) Rhythm , for artists such as Piet Mondrian , is important in painting as it is in music. If one defines rhythm as "a pause incorporated into a sequence", then there can be rhythm in paintings. These pauses allow creative force to intervene and add new creations—form, melody, coloration. The distribution of form or any kind of information

10270-488: The dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Finger-painting with watercolor paints originated in China . There are various types of watercolors used by artists. Some examples are pan watercolors, liquid watercolors, watercolor brush pens, and watercolor pencils . Watercolor pencils (water-soluble color pencils) may be used either wet or dry. Gouache

10400-537: The earliest depictions of Christ, Mary and saints therefore comes from wall-paintings, mosaics and some carvings. They are realistic in appearance, in contrast to the later stylization. They are broadly similar in style, though often much superior in quality, to the mummy portraits done in wax ( encaustic ) and found at Fayyum in Egypt. As can be judged from such items, the first depictions of Jesus were generic, rather than portrait images, generally representing him as

10530-517: The elements a few Christian writers criticized in pagan art—the ability to imitate life. The writers mostly criticized pagan works of art for pointing to false gods, thus encouraging idolatry. Statues in the round were avoided as being too close to the principal artistic focus of pagan cult practices, as they have continued to be (with some small-scale exceptions) throughout the history of Eastern Christianity . Nilus of Sinai ( d. c.  430 ), in his Letter to Heliodorus Silentiarius , records

10660-435: The finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting , or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. The main practical difference between most acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over under-paintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques but may also impede

10790-426: The first seven of his ten Compositions . Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that (for example), yellow is the color of middle C on a brassy trumpet; black is the color of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colors produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. In 1871 the young Kandinsky learned to play the piano and cello. Kandinsky's stage design for

10920-546: The former emperor and father of Theodosius II. The image was specified to have been "painted by the Apostle Luke ." Margherita Guarducci relates a tradition that the original icon of Mary attributed to Luke, sent by Eudokia to Pulcheria from Palestine, was a large circular icon only of her head. When the icon arrived in Constantinople it was fitted in as the head into a very large rectangular icon of her holding

11050-532: The greatest issue of the period". The Iconoclastic period began when images were banned by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian sometime between 726 and 730. Under his son Constantine V , a council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria near Constantinople in 754. Image veneration was later reinstated by the Empress Regent Irene , under whom another council was held reversing the decisions of

11180-470: The ground. He then had his assistants and friends urinate on the still-wet Paint to witness the visible changes that would occur. Menstrual Painting Other interesting painting mediums have helped women and menstruating individuals gain freedom and liberty over their bodies. Blood from menstrual periods has been used to paint images across the world for centuries. Sarah Maple, a contemporary artist, has used her menstrual blood to create portraits to help erase

11310-418: The historic value of craft and documentation in favour of concept . This has not deterred the majority of living painters from continuing to practice painting either as a whole or part of their work. The vitality and versatility of painting in the 21st century defy the previous "declarations" of its demise. In an epoch characterized by the idea of pluralism , there is no consensus as to a representative style of

11440-480: The human form of Christ before its transformation, on the other hand, is to break the commandment of God and to fall into pagan error." Hence Jaroslav Pelikan calls Eusebius "the father of iconoclasm". After the emperor Constantine I extended official toleration of Christianity within the Roman Empire in 313, huge numbers of pagans became converts. This period of the Historiography of Christianization of

11570-555: The illiterate faithful during most of the history of Christendom . Thus, icons are words in painting; they refer to the history of salvation and to its manifestation in concrete persons. In the Orthodox Church, "icons have always been understood as a visible gospel, as a testimony to the great things given man by God the incarnate Logos". In the Council of 860 it was stated that "all that is uttered in words written in syllables

11700-444: The image as a memorial of the healing of the woman with an issue of blood by Jesus (Luke 8:43–48), because it depicted a standing man wearing a double cloak and with arm outstretched, and a woman kneeling before him with arms reaching out as if in supplication. John Francis Wilson suggests the possibility that this refers to a pagan bronze statue whose true identity had been forgotten. Some have thought it to represent Aesculapius ,

11830-444: The image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, nihilistic. Action painting , sometimes called gestural abstraction , is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist. The style

11960-526: The importance of Icons" was part of the church from its very beginning, and has never changed, although explanations of their importance may have developed over time. This is because icon painting is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation (Christ being the eikon of God) which did not change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Icons also served as tools of edification for

12090-424: The ink's carrier, colorants, and other additives control flow and thickness of the ink and its appearance when dry. Enamels are made by painting a substrate, typically metal, with powdered glass; minerals called color oxides provide coloration. After firing at a temperature of 750–850 degrees Celsius (1380–1560 degrees Fahrenheit), the result is a fused lamination of glass and metal. Unlike most painted techniques,

12220-515: The issue: "first that humans could have a direct vision of God; second that they could not; and, third, that although humans could see God they were best advised not to look, and were strictly forbidden to represent what they had seen". These derived respectively from Greek and Near Eastern pagan religions, from Ancient Greek philosophy, and from the Jewish tradition and the Old Testament. Of

12350-450: The late 19th century and early 20th century. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism . The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization, and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. A salient characteristic of modernism

12480-403: The local populations and their oral traditions. Gradually, paintings of Jesus took on characteristics of portrait images. At this time the manner of depicting Jesus was not yet uniform, and there was some controversy over which of the two most common icons was to be favored. The first or "Semitic" form showed Jesus with short and "frizzy" hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in

12610-698: The lowest layer of material at these sites, there are used pieces of ochre estimated to be 60,000 years old. Archaeologists have also found a fragment of rock painting preserved in a limestone rock-shelter in the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia, that is dated to 40,000 years old. There are examples of cave paintings all over the world—in Indonesia , France , Spain , Portugal , Italy , China , India , Australia , Mexico , etc. In Western cultures, oil painting and watercolor painting have rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In

12740-406: The majority of his subjects remained pagans. The Roman Imperial cult of the divinity of the emperor, expressed through the traditional burning of candles and the offering of incense to the emperor's image, was tolerated for a period because it would have been politically dangerous to attempt to suppress it. In the 5th century the courts of justice and municipal buildings of the empire still honoured

12870-825: The medium that the pigment is suspended or embedded in, which determines the general working characteristics of the paint, such as viscosity , miscibility , solubility , drying time, etc. Encaustic painting , also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes , damar resin , linseed oil , or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment. Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape

13000-411: The middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was "more authentic". To support his assertion, he relates a story (excerpted by John of Damascus) that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the "Zeus" form instead of the "Semitic" form, and that as punishment his hands withered. Though their development

13130-594: The most important commercial show of the time, the government-sponsored Paris Salon , the Impressionists organized yearly group exhibitions in commercial venues during the 1870s and 1880s, timing them to coincide with the official Salon. A significant event of 1863 was the Salon des Refusés , created by Emperor Napoleon III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon. Abstract painting uses

13260-439: The observable world. A series of art movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—notably Impressionism , Post-Impressionism , Fauvism , Expressionism , Cubism , and Dadaism —challenged the Renaissance view of the world. Eastern and African painting, however, continued a long history of stylization and did not undergo an equivalent transformation at the same time. Modern and Contemporary art has moved away from

13390-480: The only permissible Roman state religion under Theodosius I , Christian art began to change not only in quality and sophistication, but also in nature. This was in no small part due to Christians being free for the first time to express their faith openly without persecution from the state, in addition to the faith spreading to the non-poor segments of society. Paintings of martyrs and their feats began to appear, and early writers commented on their lifelike effect, one of

13520-699: The origin and meaning of the Black Madonnas appears to have been presented by Leonard Moss at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on December 28, 1952. Moss divided the images into three categories: (1) dark brown or black Madonnas with physiognomy and skin pigmentation matching that of the indigenous population; (2) various art forms that have turned black as a result of certain physical factors such as deterioration of lead-based pigments, accumulated smoke from

13650-473: The paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface. The technique was the normal one for ancient Greek and Roman panel paintings, and remained in use in the Eastern Orthodox icon tradition. Watercolor

13780-433: The painter and writer Julian Bell. In his book What is Painting? , Bell discusses the development, through history, of the notion that paintings can express feelings and ideas. In Mirror of The World, Bell writes: A work of art seeks to hold your attention and keep it fixed: a history of art urges it onwards, bulldozing a highway through the homes of the imagination. Different types of paint are usually identified by

13910-426: The painter. The word 'style' in the latter sense has fallen out of favor in academic discussions about contemporary painting, though it continues to be used in popular contexts. Such movements or classifications include the following: Modernism describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements , originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in

14040-487: The paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first centuries CE still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting . A paint commonly called tempera (though it is not) consisting of pigment and glue size is commonly used and referred to by some manufacturers in America as poster paint . Fresco

14170-646: The passage John says, "But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect: you have drawn a dead likeness of the dead." At least some of the hierarchy of the Christian churches still strictly opposed icons in the early 4th century. At the Spanish non-ecumenical Synod of Elvira ( c.  305 ) bishops concluded, "Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration". Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis , wrote his letter 51 to John, Bishop of Jerusalem ( c.  394 ) in which he recounted how he tore down an image in

14300-400: The performance of miracles". Cyril Mango writes, "In the post-Justinianic period the icon assumes an ever increasing role in popular devotion, and there is a proliferation of miracle stories connected with icons, some of them rather shocking to our eyes". However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as

14430-579: The portrait of the reigning emperor in this way. In 425 Philostorgius , an allegedly Arian Christian, charged the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople with idolatry because they still honored the image of the emperor Constantine the Great in this way. Dix notes that this occurred more than a century before the first extant reference to a similar honouring of the image of Jesus or of his apostles or saints known today, but that it would seem

14560-470: The previous iconoclast council and taking its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council . The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, i.e. those who held that veneration of images constitutes idolatry. Then the ban was enforced again by Leo V in 815. Finally, icon veneration was decisively restored by Empress Regent Theodora in 843 at the Council of Constantinople . From then on all Byzantine coins had

14690-517: The question of the appropriateness of images. Since then, icons have had a great continuity of style and subject, far greater than in the icons of the Western church . At the same time there have been change and development. Pre-Christian religions had produced and used art works. Statues and paintings of various gods and deities were regularly worshiped and venerated. It is unclear when Christians took up such activities. Christian tradition dating from

14820-459: The rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles [pagans]. On the other hand, Irenaeus does not speak critically of icons or portraits in a general sense—only of certain gnostic sectarians' use of icons. Another criticism of image veneration appears in the non-canonical 2nd-century Acts of John (generally considered a gnostic work), in which

14950-556: The saint resembled the "more ancient" images of him—presumably the 7th-century mosaics still in Hagios Demetrios . Another, an African bishop, had been rescued from Arab slavery by a young soldier called Demetrios, who told him to go to his house in Thessaloniki. Having discovered that most young soldiers in the city seemed to be called Demetrios, he gave up and went to the largest church in the city, to find his rescuer on

15080-490: The same techniques as traditional oil-based paint, but while still wet it can be effectively removed from brushes, palettes, and rags with ordinary soap and water. Its water solubility comes from the use of an oil medium in which one end of the molecule has been altered to bind loosely to water molecules, as in a solution . Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto

15210-405: The significance of the dark-skinned complexion to pilgrims and worshippers rather than focusing on whether this depiction was intentional. By virtue of their unusual presence, the Black Madonnas have sometimes acted to make their shrines revered pilgrimage sites. Monique Scheer attributes the importance of the dark-skinned depiction to its connection with authenticity. The reason for this connection

15340-401: The specific shape to be painted. Stencils can be purchased as movable letters, ordered as professionally cut logos or hand-cut by artists. Water miscible oil paints (also called "water soluble" or "water-mixable") is a modern variety of oil paint engineered to be thinned and cleaned up with water, rather than having to use chemicals such as turpentine . It can be mixed and applied using

15470-425: The surface can be handled and wetted Enamels have traditionally been used for decoration of precious objects, but have also been used for other purposes. Limoges enamel was the leading centre of Renaissance enamel painting, with small religious and mythological scenes in decorated surrounds, on plaques or objects such as salts or caskets. In the 18th century, enamel painting enjoyed a vogue in Europe, especially as

15600-411: The taboo covering the topic of periods. Style is used in two senses: It can refer to the distinctive visual elements, techniques, and methods that typify an individual artist's work. It can also refer to the movement or school that an artist is associated with. This can stem from an actual group that the artist was consciously involved with or it can be a category in which art historians have placed

15730-575: The three, Finney concludes that "overall, Israel's aversion to sacred images influenced early Christianity considerably less than the Greek philosophical tradition of invisible deity apophatically defined", so placing less emphasis on the Jewish background of most of the first Christians than most traditional accounts. Finney suggests that "the reasons for the non-appearance of Christian art before 200 have nothing to do with principled aversion to art, with other-worldliness, or with anti-materialism. The truth

15860-492: The tradition can be traced back only as far as the 3rd century, and that the images which survive from Early Christian art often differ greatly from later ones. The icons of later centuries can be linked, often closely, to images from the 5th century onwards, though very few of these survive. Widespread destruction of images occurred during the Byzantine Iconoclasm of 726–842, although this did settle permanently

15990-431: The true appearance of the subject: naturally and especially because of the reluctance to accept mere human productions as embodying anything of the divine, a commonplace of Christian deprecation of man-made " idols ". Like icons believed to be painted directly from the live subject, they therefore acted as important references for other images in the tradition. Beside the developed legend of the mandylion or Image of Edessa

16120-536: The use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent. The word " red ", for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a formalized register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as F or C♯ . For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic (primary) and derived (complementary or mixed) colors (like red, blue, green, brown, etc.). Painters deal practically with pigments , so " blue " for

16250-409: The use of votive candles, and accumulation of grime over the ages, and (3) miracle-worker Madonnas, the focus of the study, Black Madonnas found in areas of a Roman legion and, therefore, not a reflection of the current population's skin colour. In the cathedral at Chartres , there were two Black Madonnas: Notre Dame de Pilar , a 1508 dark walnut copy of a 13th-century silver Madonna, standing atop

16380-413: The wall. During this period the church began to discourage all non-religious human images—the Emperor and donor figures counting as religious. This became largely effective, so that most of the population would only ever see religious images and those of the ruling class. The word icon referred to any and all images, not just religious ones, but there was barely a need for a separate word for these. It

16510-563: The word palladium has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the Eastern Churches in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I , and later spread to

16640-447: Was gradual, it is possible to date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical (as opposed to simply popular or local) acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, "we first hear of the church's use of religious images". "As we reach the second half of the sixth century, we find that images are attracting direct veneration and some of them are credited with

16770-668: Was the tale of the Veil of Veronica , whose very name signifies "true icon" or "true image", the fear of a "false image" remaining strong. Although there are earlier records of their use, no panel icons earlier than the few from the 6th century preserved at the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt survive, as the other examples in Rome have all been drastically over-painted. The surviving evidence for

16900-405: Was widely used in early modern Europe. Often the oil was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense ; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body and gloss. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of

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