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24-461: From the latter part of the fourth century, a still beardless Christ begins to be depicted seated on a throne on a dais , often with his feet on a low stool and usually flanked by Saints Peter and Paul , and in a larger composition the other apostles . The central group of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus of 359 ( Vatican ) is the earliest example with a clear date. In some cases Christ hands

48-573: A scroll to Saint Peter on his right, imitating a gesture often made by Emperors handing an Imperial decree or letter of appointment to an official, as in ivory consular diptychs , on the Arch of Constantine , and the Missorium of Theodosius I . This depiction is known as the Traditio legis ("handing over the law"), or Christ the lawgiver – "the apostles are indeed officials, to whom the whole world

72-579: A book representing the Gospels and raising his right hand has become essentially fixed in the form it retains in Eastern Orthodoxy today. "Christ Triumphant" had a separate future development, usually standing, often with both hands raised high. The Pantocrator figure first became half-length because large versions filled the semi-dome of the apse of many, if not most, decorated churches. A full-length figure would need to be greatly reduced for

96-494: A complex composition, with sinners being dragged down by devils to Hell on the right and the righteous on the left (at Christ's right-hand side) rising up to Heaven . Generally Christ still looks straight forward at the viewer, but has no book; he often gestures with his hands to direct the damned downwards, and the saved up. From the High Renaissance the subject was more loosely treated; Christ and his court take to

120-640: A large-scale fresco in the semi-dome of the apse in Romanesque churches, and carved in the tympanum of church portals. This "seems to have been almost the only theme of apse -pictures" in Carolingian and Ottonian churches, all of which are now lost, although many examples from the period survive in illuminated manuscripts . From the Romanesque period, the image in the West often began to revert to

144-426: A room or hall, usually for one or more speakers or honored guests. Historically, the dais was a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall , raised a step above the rest of the room. On this, the master of the household or assembly (e.g. the lord of the manor ) dined with his senior associates and friends at the high table, while the other guests occupied the lower area of the room. In medieval halls, there

168-501: Is entrusted" wrote Saint John Chrysostom . This depiction tends to merge into one of "Christ the teacher", which also derives from classical images of bearded philosophers. Other Imperial depictions of Christ, standing as a triumphing general, or seated on a ball representing the world, or with different companions, are found in the next centuries. By the seventh century the Byzantine Christ Pantocrator holding

192-611: Is familiar in Byzantine mosaics . Maria Regina is an art historians' synonym for the iconic image of Mary enthroned, with or without the Child. In the West, the image seems to have developed from Byzantine precedents such as the coin of Constantine's Empress Fausta , crowned and with their sons on her lap and from literary examples, such as Flavius Cresconius Corippus 's celebration of Justin II 's coronation in 565. Paintings depicting

216-664: Is shown in majesty. A variant figure, or the same figure in a different context termed Christ in Judgement , depicting Christ as judge, became common in Last Judgements , often painted on the west (rear) wall of churches. Here an enthroned Christ, from the 13th century usually with robes pulled aside above the waist to reveal the wounds of the Passion (a motif taken from images of the Doubting Thomas ) sits high in

240-552: The Book of Revelation . In the Romanesque period the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse are often seen. Christ also holds a book and makes the blessing gesture, no doubt under Byzantine influence. In both, Christ's head is surrounded by a crossed halo . In Early Medieval Western art the image was very often given a full page in illuminated Gospel Books , and in metalwork or ivory on their covers, and it remained very common as

264-746: The Coronation of the Virgin by Christ. A Christ in Majesty became standard carved in the tympanum of a decorated Gothic church portal, by now surrounded by a large number of much smaller figures around the archivolts . In painting, the Ghent Altarpiece is the culmination of the Gothic image, although a minority of art historians believe that in this case it is God the Father , not Christ, who

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288-563: The Maestà came into the mainstream artistic repertory, especially in Rome, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, with an increased emphasis on the veneration of Mary. The Maestà was often executed in fresco technique directly on plastered walls or as paintings on gessoed wooden altar panels . A more domestic representation, suitable to private devotion, is the iconographic theme of Madonna and Child . The most famous example of

312-408: The Maestà is the Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints , an altarpiece comprising many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna . The painting was installed in the city's cathedral on June 9, 1311. Although it took a generation for its effect truly to be felt, Duccio's Maestà set Italian painting on a course leading away from

336-468: The Italian word for "majesty", designates a classification of images of the enthroned Madonna with the child Jesus , the designation generally implying accompaniment by angels , saints , or both. The Maestà is an extension of the " Seat of Wisdom " theme of the seated "Mary Theotokos ", "Mary Mother of God", which is a counterpart to the earlier icon of Christ in Majesty , the enthroned Christ that

360-662: The Pantocrator has no visible throne, but the earlier Deesis does, and at least a single-step dais. The Deesis continues to appear in Western art, but not as often or in such an invariable composition as in the East. In the West the image showed a full-length enthroned Christ, often in a mandorla or other geometrical frame, surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists , representing the vision of Chapters 4 and 5 of

384-579: The clouds, and are distributed with an eye to a harmonious and "natural" composition rather than the serried ranks of old. From the late Renaissance and through the Baroque, it often forms the upper part of a picture depicting events on earth in the lower register, and as stricter perspective replaces the hieratic scaling of the Middle Ages, Christ becomes literally diminished. Such depictions tend not to be described as "Christ in Majesty", although they are

408-467: The earliest, more crowded conception, and archangels , apostles and saints, now often all facing inwards towards Christ, appear, as well as the beasts emblematic of the Evangelists and the twenty-four elders. This development paralleled the movement towards a more "realistic" depiction of the "heavenly court" seen in the increasingly popular subjects of the Maestà (the enthroned Virgin and Child) and

432-457: The head to make maximum impact from a distance (because of the flattening at the top of the semi-dome). The gesture Christ makes has become one of blessing, but is originally an orators gesture of his right to speak. The Deesis became standard at the centre of the templon beam in Orthodox churches and the templon's successor, the iconostasis , and is also found as a panel icon . Generally

456-408: The hieratic representations of Byzantine art towards more direct presentations of reality. Creating this altarpiece assembled from many wood panels bonded together before painting was an arduous undertaking. The work was not only large, the central panel was 7 by 13 feet, but it had to be painted on both sides since it could be seen from all directions when installed on the main altar at the centre of

480-411: The linear development of the earlier image; the main subject has become the human events in the foreground, such as the martyrdom of a saint, to which Christ is now a rather distant witness. Dais A dais or daïs ( / ˈ d eɪ . ə s / or / ˈ d eɪ s / , American English also / ˈ d aɪ . ə s / but sometimes considered nonstandard) is a raised platform at the front of

504-566: The sanctuary. On the back of the Maesta were episodes from the life of Christ, focusing on his Passion. Sacred narrative unfolds in elegant episodes enacted by graceful figures who seem to dance their way through these stories while still conveying emotional content. Because the Maesta was dismantled in 1771, its power and beauty can only be imagined from scattered parts, some still in Siena, Italy, but others elsewhere. Other noted examples of

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528-488: The troops are reviewed, addresses are made, and salutes are taken. It can also have stairs and a throne. In life drawing rooms of art schools , the platform where the model poses for the students is sometimes referred to as the dais. A dais for giving speeches is called a rostrum . The first written record of the word dais in English is from the thirteenth century. It stopped being used in English around 1600 but

552-406: Was generally a deeply recessed bay window at one or both ends of the dais, which provided retirement or greater privacy than the open hall. The dais area often had its own doorway for admission from the master's chambers, whereas most of the guests entered through a doorway leading into the main area of the hall. At military parades , the dais is the raised, sometimes covered, platform from where

576-536: Was revived by antiquarians in the early 19th century with the disyllabic pronunciation. It comes from the Anglo-French deis , meaning "table" or "platform", which comes from Medieval Latin discus , meaning "table", earlier "disc" or "dish". [REDACTED] Media related to Dais at Wikimedia Commons This architectural element –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Maest%C3%A0 Maestà [maeˈsta] ,

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