Early church buildings developed in a style we call Romanesque that of the round arch and dome of the Roman Empire. For many its elements emphasized the incarnation, or that of God coming down to earth.

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‘There is a land called Crete in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair rich land, surrounded by water, and there are many men in it, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech; their tongues are mixed. … Among their cities is the great city Knossos, where Minos reigned when nine years old, he that held converse with great (God) Zeus.’

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All cultures on earth, just like individuals, have distinct modes of existence and creation stories are something they all have in common in a logical attempt to rationalise the presence of humans on earth. ‘In the beginning’, the ancient Greek oral Poet Hesiod says somewhere between 750 and 650 years before the Christ event (BCE), ‘there was Khaos, vast and dark.

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This is the starting segment for our course of study the evolution of western art, design, style and culture antiquity until today. It is surveyed in chronological order from antiquity to the contemporary age with respect to intellectual and philosophical ideas, other cultural influences and social change.

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Marco Polo said….let us now…travel into Cathay, so.. you may learn something of its grandeurs and… treasures… inspiring the notion at the turn of the fourteenth century China was a land, unlike any other; an idea that found fertile ground in the imagination of western people. We survey Chinese ceramics including those of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when the most splendid wares made for the Imperial Court, as well as the more exacting home markets of China, attracted connoisseurs and collectors, especially Imperial yellow monochromes.

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The European medieval mind concerned itself with matters of the soul, harmony and music as major aspects of the kósmos, which was conceived as a tightly structured, hierarchical system centred on the earth and the human race.

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Woven textiles are a transmitter of both wealth and status and a measure for the development of a society from its primitive or early beginnings in ancient societies. By the second half of the fourteenth century tapestry and needlework had both become a highly important aspect of England and Europe’s societies and economies. The qualities that were the special characteristic, or hallmarks of what would become the fully developed European medieval art of tapestry were excellence in design, crispness of execution, wonderful depth of tone, superb richness and exquisite gradations of colour.

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For Muslims and Christians the origins of the idealized garden are encapsulated in the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament. There are many reasons for making gardens including worldly pleasure, political power, ambition, exhaustion… a place to indulge in detailed observation, for dreaming to engage emotions on many levels, including remembering those we have loved.

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At Ravenna in the Church of San Vitale, completed around 547, the finest examples of Roman mosaics influenced by the style of the Byzantine Empire are conserved. They reflect its beliefs and concerns prior to its decline.

Among the mosaics is an image of the three wise men who over the centuries became three kings and liturgical stars of the western church carrying the symbols that were a pointer to Jesus the Christ’s earthly ministry. Gold for Kingship, Frankincense for Priestliness and Myrrh for death.

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Constantinople was sited on the Bosporus its waters dividing Asia from Europe. And, it was there that the heritage of the classical world was preserved and developed in the Byzantine Style. When transposed to Russia and Venice it was intertwined with European Gothic architecture to create a unique style.

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When the Roman civilization of western Europe was destroyed early in the fifth century…it was Christians who took on the role of the custodian of a civilized way of life. We discuss what defines a sacred space in any culture, creed or religion and examine a wealth of imposing buildings, including the development of the Gothic style in architecture in France and England starting with the Abbot Suger in St Denis at Paris.

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The advancement of classical disciplines under Roman rule, highlighting the reign of first century Emperor Augustus. We discuss the treatise of architect Marcus Pollio Vitruvius and what it reveals about Roman design and construction. Caught in a time warp, Herculaneum and Pompeii have today revealed a great deal of fact about living and lifestyle in Ancient Rome.

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The romantic ideal of ancient Greece as a centre for youth, energy, toleration and intellectual freedom, a place where beauty and nature came together as a flawless entity is true however it does ignore all the other uncomfortable facts of life at that time. But this is how it is with memories of those who have passed on, that in time it is only their goodness we remember and as we go on a journey in search of an Arcadian ideal that never was real.

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The survey starts with the emergence of ancient societies discussing the development of architecture gardens and costume. We highlight the ancient Egyptians who were pioneers in the art of adornment, especially the creation of jewellery.

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