We must be soldiers for Art!

Tag: turkey

  • The First Stirrings of Abstract Thought

    I’m particularly fascinated by prehistoric cultures as well as cultures from the very, very early days of writing. I’m awed by how they first developed art and abstract thinking. Therefore I was quite excited to be able to see some of the following items at a private museum in Turkey.

    Female figurine, terracotta, Late Neolithic Period. Private museum
    Female figurine in the Kilia Type, Marble, Early Bronze Age. Private museum
    Ram-shaped rhyton, Terracotta, Late Bronze Age. Private museum

    The first two are fertility goddess figures, the first from the late neolithic period about the sixth millennium BCE and the second from the early Iron Age about the third millennium BCE. I love how they capture the female form and how the rounded lushness of the carving portrays beauty and desirability. It’s especially thrilling to me to think about how old these pieces are and that I am looking at the same object that an artist saw in their mind’s eye thousands of years before my existence.

    The third photo just made me laugh, so I had to include this cute little guy. The museum has labeled it as a ram-shaped rhyton, which is a drinking horn or cup. It’s from the second millennium BCE.

    Below I have some photos of a Cycladic idol from the Neues Museum, Berlin.

    Cycladic figurine, Neues Museum, Berlin
    Close up of facial features, Cycladic figurine, Neues Museum, Berlin
    “Blue Eyes,” Modigliani, 1917. Philadelphia Museum of Art

    This piece is from the Cycladic Islands some time between 2600 and 1100 BCE. I love the soaring elegant form of the figure, especially the face. It reminds me of Modigliani and I wonder if he was influenced by Cycladic art.

  • Revolutionary Architecture

    I waited forty-five years to see the Hagia Sophia and was finally able to see it in October 2024. Some might wonder why I’m calling a church built in the reign of Justinian “revolutionary,” but it was! This building launched architecture in a whole new direction.

    Previously, large buildings were constructed in the basilica style, which is the style you still see in church architecture today. It’s a large rectangular-shaped building with rows of columns supporting the roof. Since the walls also had to support the roof to some extent, there were not many windows in the walls and those that were there were small.

    The Hagia Sophia instead consists of a large square center with enormous piers at the corners, that spread out into triangular areas at their head, which are called pendentives. The pendentives and piers are strong enough to support a glorious dome. Although domes were already known, this dome’s size made it unique for the time. I’ve read some descriptions that say the dome appears to float atop the church (I agree.) Another consequence of having weight-bearing piers and pendentives is that they could put large windows in the walls and those in turn lent a beautiful light to the interior. The sense of soaring height and natural light must have been a wonderful spiritual experience at the time. Heck, it’s a wonderful experience today even after all the innovations we’ve seen in architecture.

    The church has suffered a much damage from earthquakes and war over the fifteen centuries since it was built and today it has a lot of external buttressing to keep it together. Exterior photos can therefore be very clunky-looking but I would argue that the dome is still spectacular!

    Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
    Interior of the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey