3.3 Materials, Processes, and Techniques in Early European and Colonial American Art

San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy; Early Byzantine Europe; c. 526–547 CE; brick, marble and stone veneer; mosaic). A central-plan church shaped as an octagon. Mosaics of glass tesserae, many backed with gold leaf and set at slight angles to catch light, cover the apse. Facing panels show the emperor Justinian and empress Theodora with their courts carrying offerings for the Mass. The figures float, front-facing, against gold: holy and imperial power, not physical bodies.

Merovingian looped fibulae (Early medieval Europe; mid-sixth century CE; silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of garnets and other stones). Fibulae are cloak pins. The Merovingians were Franks who ruled much of today's France. Filigree is fine twisted wire soldered on as decoration, and the red garnets were set into small cells. Portable, precious objects like these showed rank, and many were buried with their owners.

Pyxis of al-Mughira (Umayyad; c. 968 CE; ivory). A pyxis is a small round lidded box, often for perfume or cosmetics. Carved from a single section of elephant tusk, it was a gift to al-Mughira, son of a caliph of Córdoba. Deeply carved medallions show courtly scenes, musicians, hunters and animals. An Arabic inscription around the lid names him. Some scholars read the images as hints about who would inherit power.

Lindisfarne Gospels (Early medieval, Hiberno-Saxon Europe; c. 700 CE; ink, pigments and gold on vellum). Made at a monastery on Lindisfarne, an island off northeast England, probably by one monk-artist. Vellum is prepared calfskin. Hiberno-Saxon means Irish and Anglo-Saxon traditions blended. The cross-carpet page before St. Matthew's Gospel hides a cross in dense interlace (woven, knotted lines) and tangled animals, like metalwork patterns. The St. Luke portrait page shows the evangelist seated and writing, with his symbol, a winged calf, above him, a figure type borrowed from Mediterranean books. The St. Luke incipit page (the opening words) turns letters into ornament outlined in thousands of red dots.

Bayeux Tapestry (Romanesque Europe, English or Norman; c. 1066–1080; embroidery on linen). It isn't woven, so it isn't technically a tapestry: wool thread was stitched onto linen, about 70 meters long. It tells the Norman conquest of England in continuous narrative, ending at the Battle of Hastings, with Latin captions and lively borders. It tells the story from the Normans' side, stressing Harold's broken oath to justify William's invasion.

Pazzi Chapel (Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence; Filippo Brunelleschi; c. 1429–1461; masonry). A meeting room for friars, paid for by the Pazzi family. Gray stone called pietra serena outlines white walls in a clear grid of pilasters and arches, and a dome sits over the center. Simple geometric ratios give calm order. Brunelleschi is also credited with working out linear perspective.

School of Athens (Raphael; 1509–1511; fresco). Painted in a room of the pope's Vatican apartments. In buon fresco, pigment is painted into wet lime plaster, a day's patch at a time, and becomes part of the wall as it dries, so mistakes can't be fixed easily. Raphael used one-point linear perspective, with lines meeting between Plato, pointing up to ideal forms, and Aristotle, gesturing to the world. Ancient thinkers in a grand vaulted hall express the humanist effort to unite classical philosophy with Christian learning.

Venus of Urbino (Titian; c. 1538; oil on canvas). Venetian painters favored rich color built in thin, glowing layers of oil glaze. A nude reclines and looks straight at you, while maids search a chest in the background, a type of chest associated with marriage. Many scholars connect it to marriage; it later inspired Manet's Olympia.

Calling of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio; c. 1597–1601; oil on canvas). Tenebrism means extreme contrasts of light and dark. A beam of light enters with Christ and falls on tax collectors in modern clothes. Christ's pointing hand echoes Adam's in the Sistine ceiling. Which man is Matthew is debated.

Self-Portrait with Saskia (Rembrandt van Rijn; 1636; etching). In etching, the artist scratches through a waxy coating on a metal plate, then acid bites the exposed lines. Drawing on wax is freer than gouging metal, giving a sketch-like look. Rembrandt shows himself drawing, with his wife Saskia behind him.

Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene (Circle of the González Family; c. 1697–1701; tempera and resin on wood, shell inlay). A biombo, a folding screen based on Japanese screens that reached Mexico through Pacific trade. Shell inlay, called enconchado, makes surfaces shimmer. One side shows the 1688 siege of Belgrade by Habsburg forces; the other, an aristocratic hunt. Use the images, not old captions, to tell the sides apart, since the CED corrected them in 2026.