Ishtar Gate and Bronze Doors Saint Michael’s Abbey Church II. Analysis of Artwork # 1: a. How does this work relate to its style movement and historical context? The monumental Gate of Ishtar was built in 575 B.C. making use of enamelled bricks which are in cobalt blues and sea greens. The gate is decorated with reliefs of 575 dragons and bulls (BBC Culture, 2009). The gate is the most potent symbol of ancient Babylon’s magnificence. The gate was marks the entrance to the city at the beginning of the Procession Street which represents an important thoroughfare that had been the site of parades during new years’ celebrations. It was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon (BBC Culture, 2009).
The Ishtar Gate was constructed as part of King Nebuchadnezzar’s plan to beautify the capital during the first half of the 6th century. The Ishtar Gate made the initial list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Ishtar Gate was named after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. The animals that were carefully represented on the gate are young bulls (aurochs), lions, and dragons (sirrush). These animals are mere symbolic representations of specific Babylonian deities: lions are associated with Ishtar, bulls with Adad, and dragons with Marduk. Ishtar was a goddess of fertility, sex, love, and war. Adad was the goddess of weather god.
Marduk was national god of Babylon (Garcia, 2013). The front of the gate is adorned with glazed bricks and characterized by the alternating rows of dragons and bulls. The beasts were coated in yellow and brown tiles, while the bricks surrounding them are blue. The blue enamelled tiles are made of lapis lazuli. The gates are more than 38 feet (11.5 m) high with a vast antechamber on the southern side. There is a Processional Way, a brick-paved corridor over half a mile long with walls which are over 50 feet tall (15.2 m) on each side near the gatehouse. The walls are adorned with over 120 sculptural lions, flowers, and enameled yellow tiles. The Processional Way was used for the New Year’s celebration. During the celebration, the different deities would be paraded down and the path paved with red and yellow stones (Garcia, 2013).
b. How does the piece express the visual and thematic features of its style period? The visual themes of the period reflect religious devotion to the different Babylonian gods. For example, a panel from the Ishtar Gate has the symbol of Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. This panel was made to adorn the area and to communicate powerful messages about nationhood, political authority and legitimacy. Babylon’s cobalt blue Ishtar Gate with its stately procession of animals, both real and mythological carefully reflects the religious devotion of the people at that time.
c. Support your ideas with your objective observations on the work and what it reveals about the style movement and time period in which it was created. The Ishtar Gate reflects the religious beliefs and customs of the people in the Empire of Babylon. The Gate had bricks with blue stone on which wonderful bulls and dragons were depicted. The roofs have majestic cedars length-wise over them. The artist placed cedars with bronze at all the gate openings. The artist put wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and adorned them with luxurious splendor so that the people can easily admire them (Garcia, 2013).
III. Analysis of Artwork # 2: a. How does this work relate to its style movement and historical context? This second art work reflects Ottonian art. Ottonian art expresses the Ottonians’ desire to confirm a holy Roman imperial lineage connecting them with the Roman emperors and their Carolingian predecessors. Ottonian art fuses traditions and influences from late Roman, Byzantine, and Carolingian art. This consists of several jeweled processional crosses embellished with portraits and engravings. Basically, Ottonian art is inherently abstract and it has adopted the use of motifs to pertain to deep theological and philosophical concepts. The Ottonian ruler portraits have elements with long iconographic histories in the Roman tradition.
The histories encompass the personifications of the provinces of the empire and representatives of the Church and the military flanking the emperor. Another common motif that is very reflective of the Roman origin is the hand with the victor’s wreath which is incorporated in the art works (Boundless, 2015). St. Michael’s Church is one of the most important churches of early Christian period. Its architecture features a double-choir basilica that has two transepts and a square tower at each crossing. The west choir has an ambulatory and a crypt. The ground plan of the building features a geometrical conception. Specifically, the square of the transept crossing in the ground plan represents the key measuring unit for the church.
The square units are welldefined by the alternation of columns and piers. The bronze doors of Bishop Bernward have decorated the larger entryway on St. Michael’s south aisle flank, that is, the entryway near the western transept. b. How does the piece express the visual and thematic features of its style period? The bronze doors of Bishop Bernard reflect the Romanesque style. c. Support your ideas with your objective observations on the work and what it reveals about the style movement and time period in which it was created. The Bernward Doors are the two leaves of a pair of Ottonian or Romanesque bronze doors in Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany.
This art work was commissioned by Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim. The doors show relief images from the Bible, scenes from the Book of Genesis on the left door and from the life of Jesus on the right door. These are masterpieces of Ottonian art. It is also considered as the oldest known monumental image cycle in German sculpture, and also the oldest cycle of images cast in metal in Germany. The doors reflect the efforts of Bishop Bernward’s efforts to establish a cultural ascendancy for the seat of his diocese with artistic masterpieces in the Ottonians art. Each leaf of the doors was cast as a single piece. It has the size (left: 472.0 x 125.0 cm, right: 472.0 x 114.5 cm, maximum thickness c. 3.5-4.5 cm) and heavy weight (both c. 1.85 tonnes). The raw material for the casting was Gunmetal, which consisted predominantly of copper with substantial lead, tin, and zinc.
The Bernward Doors were manufactured through the Lost-wax process. The individual scenes of the doors were carved from massive wax tablets by modellers and then supported by an iron frame. The Bernward Doors depict scenes from the Book of Genesis (left door) arranged in parallel to scenes from the Gospels (right doo oor). The scenes are done in such a way that Adam and Christ mirror each other – given Christ’s sacrificial death redeeming Adam’s sin. The left door depicts the increasing estrangement of humanity from God from top to bottom: the Creation, the Fall, Cain’s murder of Abel. The right door shows the redemptive work of Christ from bottom to top: the Annunciation and Nativity, the Passion, the Resurrection). The art complements each other.
For example, the depictions of the right door, in which the birth and childhood of Jesus are succeeded by his passion and resurrection. This is also supplemented thematically by the depiction of his life and ministry on the Bernward Column. Several events which chronologically occur one after another are depicted in a single panel which features a sense of multiplicity. This was an artistic convention of the time. For example Adam appears twice in the scene of his awakening by God the Father. The left door features this: Top panel: God creates Adam. Adam after the creation; Second panel: Adam and Eve are introduced; Third panel: The fall; Fourth panel: God interrogates Adam and Eve; Fifth panel: Expulsion from paradise; Sixth panel: Life on earth; Seventh panel: Cain and Abel make their offerings to God and Eighth panel: Cain kills Abel.
The right door features this: Top panel: Noli me tangere; ascension of Christ into heaven; Second panel: The women at the tomb; Third panel: The crucifixion; Fourth panel: Christ appears before Pilate and Herod; Fifth panel: The child Jesus is brought to the Temple; Sixth panel: The gifts of the Wise Men; Seventh panel: The birth of Christ; and the Eighth panel: The annunciation to Mary. The doors reflect a typological reading of the Old Testament based on the revelation of the New. IV. Compare/Contrast: a. Identify the visual similarities and differences between the two works. Both works are similar in that the composition of the individual scenes is simple and effective. Both works also reflect art that are necessary for comprehension of the scene or for compositional reasons. Another similarity is that with their respective movement and individual gestures, each figure interacts with others.
This means that none of the figures can be understood on their own, independent of their counterparts, without losing their meaning. The figures are individualized reflecting medieval art. Their difference lie in the kind of artistry. For example, a progressive feature of the figures on the Bernward Doors is their style of relief: the figures do not extend a uniform distance from the background, but ‘lean’ out from it, so that when seen side on they almost give the impression of “roses on a trellis, with nodding heads (Boundless, 2015).
b. Explain why they are important and how they relate to the style movements of the pieces. Both art works are quite important because they reflect the religious customs and beliefs of that time. c. Expand upon the similarities and differences you have identified here. The main similarity between the Ishtar Gate and the Bronze Doors is that both art works reflect the aesthetic sense of their respective periods. A second similarity is that both art works were done by groups of artists or artisans. One difference between the two art works is that the identity of the artist responsible for the Bernward Doors is not preserved while the identity of the artists of the Ishtar Gate is known (Garcia, 2013). Art specialists contend that a single artist did the Bernward Doors with the aid of apprentices and assistants.
