Transition from the Classical to the Christian Era

Transition from the Classical to the Christian Era

Zoë Woodworth Pre-Industrial Visual Cultures Final Paper

The rise of rational doubt among ancient Greek philosophers lay the groundwork for a dramatic reconceptualization of time and space in the Classical Era. In this paper, I will expose some basic characteristics of the artwork which came out of this era. I will then examine the subsequent rise of Christianity, and how this radical change in the belief system affected the artwork which we see, in turn, from this era.

Rational doubt sharply separated the Greek system of beliefs from other systems based on religious notions. The effect it had in Classical society was to sweep away convoluted magical explanations and replace them with the mechanism of logic. In societies which preceded Greece -- such as the ancient Egyptians, Hindus, and aborigines -- it was generally held that time was cyclical, and meandered back and forth between reality and myth. Furthermore, in these cultures there was typically no distinction made between the "in here" space of human imagination and the "out there" space of reality. In fact, the mixing of the inner space of dream, trance, and myth with the real space of everyday existence was a characteristic of nearly every cultural system of beliefs worldwide before the Greeks.

However, using their newly-crafted mechanism of logic, philosophers of Greek Civilization made deep inquiry into the concepts of time and space. Their conclusions had a profound effect on art. According to Leonard Shlain, author of Art & Physics, "Greek art was the first 'free' art -- free in the sense that its purpose was more aesthetic than religious or political." For the first time, there existed individual artwork...

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...Kepes writes in The Language of Vision, the purpose of this "was to represent all possible relationships that affected [the main figure] and they recognized this could be done only by a simultaneous description of various actions." Thus, Christian art assumed a nonlinear elasticity, having disregarded the conventions of causality so important to the Greeks.

Hopefully, then, I have shown how Classical and Christian conceptions of space and time influenced the artists of their respective eras. I find it interesting that, despite the fact that Christianity chronologically followed Greco-Roman civilization (and was pervasive for centuries), it is the Classical values of logic and reason which have survived in Western philosophy. It shows that, despite the linearity of history, philosophical notions of time and space haven't developed in any sort of logical sequence.