Islamic Peer Review

Rachael: I think she did a good job on talking about several different mosques.  Although she should of put of pictures of the inside and outside of the mosques.  Overall, her information was helpful and insightful.

Savannah: I liked how she talked a lot about the Taj Mahl and the history of it.  I didn't know that much about Minbars so I liked how she went into detail about those.

Islamic

Islamic design is centered on religion.  The Great Mosque of Damascus, converted from a Roman temple, shows how repetitive mosques are.  Sometimes architects reused the ruins, but incorporated Roman columns and capitals.  Anatolia and the regions of the Middle East were under the Ottoman Empire.  The Hagia Sophia was designed by Justinian to outshine the Pantheon.  It was later converted from a Christian temple to a mosque in the fifteenth century.  Later on, lots of churches were turned into mosques.  Today, the Hagia Sophia is now a museum that you can visit and learn about the history of it and see other exhibits inside of it.

Moorish furniture shows the combination of western forms and Islamic decoration.  A typical piece from this time period was the vargueño.  It was a chest with a stand, which also served as a desk.  It was for writing and storing things.  It has a lot of carvings and decorations on the chest.  Moorish chairs usually resemble Italian and French chairs.  They had a chair called sillón frailero.  It was a highly decorated folding chair made out of wood and leather.

Current Applications

Extra Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccfSy6-Ljlo

Romanesque

The Romanesque period had two different kinds of important chairs.  The first chair was know as the X-frame chair.  The X-frame chair already existed in Egypt, Nubia, Greece, and the Byzantine Empire.  Dagobert I was the ruler at this time and he loved metalwork.  He had an X-frame chair made for him out of metal.  It slightly resembles a sella curulis chair.  The second important chair was Charlemagne's throne.  It is mainly famous because it was Charlemagne's.  The chair was situated on a raised platform.  The height of it shows his authority and status.  Charlemagne was so important to history because of his success in creating a unified government.

Chests were still important to people at this time.  They used them to store household possessions.  The chest came in many forms and was considered a piece of luggage.  Most chests were made out of oak, walnut, poplar, and pine.  The most basic type of furniture is a chest.  Not only was the chest used for storage, but people in the Middle Ages designed it to have a work surface on top.  They also used these work surfaces for sitting, dining, or sometimes sleeping.  Footed chests were very desirable because they lifted contents off of the cold floor.  Large numbers of chests survived because the contents inside were considered valuable.  Chests that had flat bottoms and curved lids were used for transportation.  The curved lids helped prevent water for coming in.  In the Romanesque period furniture had to resist the unwanted intruder.  To tell that a chest came from the Romanesque period is if it has a semicircular arch.

Current Applications

Extra Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4PI8dEWTGE

Byzantine Peer Reviews

Kiera: She did a good job describing the Hagia Sophia so you could picture what it looks like. Her extra credit video described it in even more detail.

Lisa: She did a good job covering what pendentives are and other architectural vocabulary for this time period.  I really liked how her video showed how to make a pendentive for a dome.

Early Christianity Peer Reviews

Holli: She did a really good job of displaying all of the information of Early Christianity and really went into detail about how it began and the architectural improvements.  The second current application picture was really cool and unique looking.

Katie: I liked how she went into the different classes in Early Christianity.  She also covered the different kinds of architecture and furniture inside the churches very well.

Byzantine

The Hagia Sophia was a dedicated Christian Cathedral.  This structure has multiple domes.  The Hagia Sophia almost out does the Pantheon.  What is so special about the Hagia Sophia is that it has a dome lifted onto four columns and connected to them with a pendentives.  The assembly of the dome rests largely on four piers that sit in an outer shell.  It has a double shell construction.

The Byzantine Empire consisted of three main cities: Constantinople, Venice, and Ravenna.  Their furniture was very similar to the Roman forms.  The most common piece of furniture was a chest that had strong hinges and a lock.  This helped keep thieves out of their precious items.  The throne of Maximian shows excellent examples of ivory carving.  It is traced back to ivory-carving schools in Egypt.  Ten of the panels on the throne show scenes from Joseph's life.  The larger panels show St. John the Baptist.  Most of their furniture was pretty simple and only used for sitting.  

Current Applications

Extra Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-zKkloLuc

Early Christian

Early Christian refers to the art and architecture of first Christians.  Early Christian churches were built throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.  Sant' Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna shows how these Christian architects first started with a basilica form and then fixed it to meet the needs of that specific Christian church.  The structure of Apollinare is set up as a long rectangle and at the end of it there is a big space/focal point to have the alter.  There are columns on each side of the interior building.  Along these columns there are walkways so one could walk down them without interrupting the service.

The facade of the Basilica de San Julian de los Prados in Oviedo it shows the height of the nave and it also has side aisles in the interior.  It has a triangular roof and a central door opening.  Some churches combine the basilica and the cruciform plan, or both apses at the end of the basilica.

Current Applications

Extra Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mpq3OnpV4Y