The era known as the Renaissance began approximately around the beginning of the fifteenth century. The philosophy behind the whole movement is one of "rebirth" or the re-establishing of ancient classical culture. Following the collapse of the Roman civilization, much of Europe fell into decline,...

Construction of the Pantheon commenced in 27 BC by the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. It was a building of the classical style, rectangular with a gabled roof supported by a colonnade on all sides. I t was completely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian sometime between AD 118 and 128, with some alte...

The architectural style of Rome was firmly rooted in the Hellenistic traditions. However, Roman culture is probably more accurately reflected in the development of new engineering skills and secular monuments. The style and construction progress of Roman architecture was different from other st...

The Pantheon is the best preserved and one of the most impressive of all Roman buildings. It was constructed in AD 118-128 during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon was a temple to all the Olympic Gods, and the word pantheon is Greek for "of all the gods". The Pantheon today...

The greatest of medieval civilizations was the Eastern Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was divided in 395. The Western half, ruled from Rome, was ruled by the barbarians in the 5th century. The Eastern half, known as the Byzantine Empire, lasted for more than over 1,000 years. The Byzantine Empire ...

One of our progressions in the world is trying to minimize the size of our global village. The world has been made smaller with the means of the internet and air travel. Art, without a doubt, is no exception to the group of contributors of the shrinking world. In some forms, it is the most powerf...

At the end of the fourteenth century, gothic architecture began to wear off and renaissance architecture moved in. Europe was evolving out of the middle ages and in the Renaissance period. The beliefs in humanity were growing in popularity. Along with the changes in ways of life, politics, families ...

A Painting In studying their prototypes the Byzantine artists learned anew the classical conventions for depicting the clothed figure, in which the drapery clings to the body, thus revealing the forms beneath-the so-called damp-fold style. They also wanted to include modeling in light and shade, wh...

Life in Ancient Rome Romans of the Classical era built what was perhaps the greatest empire of all time. Roman civilization has served as a model or basis for much of Western culture. Roman engineers pioneered the use of concrete, glass windows, the dome, central heating, and apartm...

The Byzantine Empire is sometimes referred to as the East Roman Empire. The word Byzantine, in fact, comes from "Byzantium," which is the Greek name for a city on the Bosphorus. It was established with the foundation of Constantinople, the capital. The Empire included parts of both southern and Ea...

In order to obtain a better understanding of Raphael's "The Marriage of the Virgin" and the time period in which it was created, it would be helpful to look at useful comparisons of both the work of this artist and influential work that may have inspired him. Raphael a very well-known Renaissance...

EARLY ARCHITECTURE Skara Brae (3200 - 2200 BC), Orkney, Scotland. This Neolithic village lies on the shores of Bay o Skaill on the western coast of the Orkney mainland. It is comprised of eight dwellings that are linked together with a series of low alleyways. Each of the houses has the same bas...

My Trip to Rome, Italy I had learned I was being sent to Italy in March of 2000 for a machine tool exhibition. I found out the happy news just before leaving work. Excitedly I jumped into my car and started my journey home. As I drove home down I-95 through all of the usual evening traffic I j...

Roman empire "The Romans were a people of genius whose empire dominated the western world for 500 years."(Pg. 7, Ancient Rome) What made the Romans so powerful was their way of government. It was very similar to the one that we have today, except emperors don't rule us. The pax ...