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Christ in Majesty Essay

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Christ in Majesty

Christ in Majesty is a Romanesque fresco secco from the 12th century that was transferred to plaster and wood. It was originally located in the apse of the Church of Santa Maria de Mur in Catalonia, Spain but now is located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a gift from the Maria Antoinette Evans Fund. The fresco is a transition from Roman and Byzantine Art to Gothic Art. The artist of Christ in Majesty utilizes his art to educate people in the doctrines of the Christian faith.
Christ in Majesty is a work of art made to emphasize religion and to teach illiterate people the principles of Christianity. On the upper register one sees figures from the New Testament such as Christ surrounded by the four symbols of the …show more content…

Unlike Medieval painting, Roman painting does not have a specific scene to show nor a particular doctrine to teach. Some scenes might denote the same theme, but the artist tries to individualize his work by playing with the elements. In Romanesque painting the iconographical demands do not allow artists to illustrate the same icons in different ways. To spread Christianity, the symbols need to remain the same everywhere to make the message easier to understand. In Christ in Majesty the halo is an example of the recurring iconographic element. A halo around someone's head means that the person is a saint. Christ, the evangelists, and the Twelve Apostles have halos to point out their religious significance. Individualization is no longer important on Medieval works because artists focus on the expansion of the Christian message.
The figures in Christ in Majesty are less naturalistic than the ones in the Dionysiac mystery frieze (second style Roman), located in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. The figures of Christ in Majesty seem flatter because their outline is stronger than the ones on the Roman fresco. When the artist outlines a form (a three dimensional figure), the form becomes a shape (a two dimensional figure). The shadows in the Romanesque fresco are represented by thick black lines or by using different tones. Under Christ eyes the spectator sees turquoise circles, instead of black circles. Around the eyes of some of the Apostles, one can see shadows

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