Key Characteristic of the Decorative Arts During the Byzantine Period

Beginnings of Byzantine Art and Architecture

To Outset: Defining the Byzantine Period

The term Byzantine is derived from the Byzantine Empire, which developed from the Roman Empire. In 330 the Roman Emperor Constantine established the metropolis of Byzantion in mod day Turkey every bit the new capital of the Roman empire and renamed information technology Constantinople. Byzantion was originally an ancient Greek colony, and the derivation of the name remains unknown, simply under the Romans the name was Latinized to Byzantium.

In 1555 the German language historian Hieronymus Wolf commencement used the term Byzantine Empire in Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, his drove of the era's historical documents. The term became popularized among French scholars in the 17^th century with the publication of the Byzantine du Louvre (1648) and Historia Byzantina (1680), only was not widely adopted past fine art historians until the 19^thursday century, as the distinctive style of Byzantine compages and art in mosaics, icon painting, frescos, illuminated manuscripts, small scale sculptures and enamel work, was divers.

The Byzantine Empire lasted until 1453 when Constantinople was conquered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Byzantine fine art and compages is usually divided into 3 historical periods: the Early Byzantine from c. 330-730, the Middle Byzantine from c. 843-1204, and Late Byzantine from c. 1261-1453. The political, social, and artistic continuity of the Empire was disrupted by the Iconoclastic Controversy from 730-843 and and then, over again, by the Flow of the Latin Occupation from 1204-1261.

The Roman Empire

In the era leading up to the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire was the most powerful economic, political, and cultural force in the earth. A polytheistic society, Roman organized religion was deeply informed by Greek mythology, equally Greek gods were adopted into the Roman mos maiorum, or "way of the ancestors," viewing their ain founding fathers equally the source of their identity and worldly ability. At the same time, as the empire absorbed the deities of the peoples they conquered as a mode of supporting civic stability, the monotheism of Christianity, which first appeared in Roman-held Judea in the ane^st century, was seen as a political and civil threat. The Emperor Nero instituted the showtime persecution of Christians, as he blamed the sect for the Not bad Fire of Rome in 65, and subsequent emperors followed arrange.

In 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian instituted the Corking Prosecution, during an era when political leaders, including Constantine, were engaged in a state of war, driven by competing claims to be Diocletian'southward successor. Facing a boxing with his rival Maxentius, legend has it that Constantine converted to Christianity because of a vision. Described by the historian Eusebius, "he saw with his own eyes in the heavens a trophy of the cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message, In Hoc Signo Vinces (In this sign, you shall conquer)." Marking his soldier'due south shields with the Chi Rho, a symbol of Christ, Constantine was victorious and, later, became emperor. His 313 Edict of Milan legalized the practice of Christianity, and in 324, he moved to create a new upper-case letter in the Eastward, Constantinople, in gild to integrate those provinces into the empire while simultaneously creating a new center of art, culture, and learning.

Early Christian Art

Creating frescoes, mosaics, and panel paintings, Early on Christian fine art drew upon the styles and motifs of Roman art while repurposing them to Christian subjects. Works of fine art were created primarily in the Christian catacombs of Rome, where early depictions of Christ portrayed him every bit the classical "Skilful Shepherd," a swain in classical clothes in a pastoral setting. At the same time, significant was often conveyed by symbols, and an early iconography began to develop. As the Edict of Milan was followed by the Emperor Theophilus I'southward 380 edict establishing Christianity as the official faith of the empire, Christian churches were congenital and decorated with frescoes and mosaics. The classical sculptural tradition was abased, every bit it was feared that figures in the circular were as well reminiscent of pagan idols. In the first two centuries of the Byzantine Empire, equally the historians Horst Woldemar Janson and Anthony F. Janson wrote, there was, "No clear-cutting line betwixt Early Christian and Byzantine art. Eastward Roman and Westward Roman - or, every bit some scholars prefer to call them, Eastern and Western Christian - traits are difficult to carve up before the sixth century."

Early Byzantine Art and Emperor Justinian I

The flowering of Byzantine architecture and art occurred in the reign of the Emperor Justinian from 527-565, as he embarked on a building campaign in Constantinople and, afterward, Ravenna, Italy. His most notable monument was the Hagia Sophia (537), its name pregnant "holy wisdom," an immense church with a massive dome and calorie-free filled interior. The Hagia Sophia's many windows, colored marble, bright mosaics, and gilded highlights became the standard models for subsequent Byzantine compages.

To pattern the Hagia Sophia, burnt downwards in a previous riot, Justinian I employed 2 well-known mathematicians, Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Isidore taught stereometry, or solid geometry, and physics and was known for compiling the get-go collection of the works of Archimedes, a classical Greek engineer and scientist. A mathematician, Anthemius wrote a pioneering study on solid geometric forms and their relationships while arranging surfaces to focus calorie-free on a unmarried signal. The two men drew upon their knowledge of geometrical principles to engineer the Hagia Sophia's large dome as they pioneered the use of pendentives. The triangular supports at the corners of the dome's square base redistributed the weight, making it possible to build the largest dome in the globe until the St. Peter'due south Basilica dome, which likewise employed pendentives, was completed in Rome in 1590.

Hiring 10,000 artisans to build and decorate the Hagia Sophia, Justinian I also established innumerable workshops in icon painting, ivory etching, enamel metalwork, mosaics and fresco painting in Constantinople. As art historians H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson wrote, during his reign, "Constantinople became the artistic as well as political capital of the empire....The monuments he sponsored take a grandeur that justifies the claim that his era was a golden age." As the Empire was at its most geographically expansive during Justinian's reign, Byzantine art and architecture influenced modernistic 24-hour interval Turkey, Hellenic republic, the Adriatic regions of Italian republic, the Middle East, Spain, Northern Africa, and Eastern Europe. While other structures, specially his Chrysotriklinos, the imperial palace reception room, were equally influential, that building, like other early structures in Constantinople, was later destroyed. As a result, the all-time examples of Early on Byzantine innovation can be seen in Ravenna, Italian republic.

Ravenna, Italy

Justinian I appointed his protégé Maximianus, a lowly and somewhat unpopular deacon, equally Archbishop of Ravenna, where he acted equally a kind of implicit regent for the Emperor within Italian republic. In 547, Maximianus completed the construction of San Vitale, a cardinal-programme church using a Greek cross within a square that became a model for subsequent architecture. The shallow dome, placed upon a pulsate, used terracotta forms for the start time every bit construction cloth, while the interior'southward exquisite mosaics and sacred objects, including the Throne of Maximianan (mid-11^th century) defined the Byzantine style.

Having survived well-nigh intact since its consecration, the interior of the Church building of San Vitale created an effect of intricate splendor, with every inch richly decorated. Large mosaics depicting the Emperor and Empress established Byzantine limerick and figurative techniques, every bit the realistic depictions of classical fine art were abandoned in favor of an emphasis upon iconographic formality. The tall, thin, and motionless figures with almond shaped faces and wide eyes, posed frontally, against a gold background became the instantly recognizable definition of Byzantine art.

Acheiropoieta and Icons

Early Byzantine artists pioneered icon painting, small panels depicting Christ, the Madonna, and other religious figures. Objects of both personal and public veneration, they developed from classical Greek and Roman portrait panels and were informed by the Christian tradition of Acheiropoieta. Acheiropoieta, meaning, "made without hands," was an image believed to have been miraculously created. Co-ordinate to tradition, St. Luke the Evangelist, 1 of the original twelve apostles, painted the paradigm of the Madonna and Kid Jesus when they miraculously appeared to him. The Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in Constantinople was built to firm a at present-lost icon believed to exist St. Luke'southward painting. Every bit art historian Robin Cormack noted, it became "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium." These miraculous images influenced the development of iconographic types, as St. Luke'due south icon became known every bit Hodegetria, pregnant "She Who Points the Fashion," as the Madonna pointed to the Child Jesus.

Acheiropoieta were often credited with gimmicky miracles. The Epitome of Edessa was believed to have come to the divine help of the metropolis of Edessa in its 593 defense against the Persians. The central image of Christ's head, known as the Mandylion in the Byzantine tradition, recalled the paradigm of Christ'south face imprinted on a cloth while he walked to the place of his crucifixion. Worshippers believed they were in the presence of the divine, as art historian Elena Boerck wrote, "Icons, dissimilar idols, take their ain agency. They're interactive images, in which the divine is present." Nonetheless, as the worship of icons became a dominant feature of Byzantine life, a fierce and destructive theological debate developed.

Iconoclastic Controversy

Past the viii^th century, the Byzantine Empire was under pressure and oftentimes at war, and in this tense climate the controversy over the spiritual validity of icons erupted. Motivated by the belief that recent events, including military defeats and a volcanic eruption in the Aegean Sea in 726, were God'southward penalty for what he called, "a craft of idolatry," the Emperor Leo Iii officially prohibited religious images in 730 and launched a movement called Iconoclasm, meaning "breaking of icons." Long standing theological debates over the divine and human nature of Christ and a power struggle betwixt the purple country and the church stoked the controversy. The Iconoclasts felt that no icon could portray both Christ's divine and human nature, and to convey only one aspect of Christ was a heresy. Those who supported icons argued that, unlike idols which depicted a false god, the images simply depicted the incarnate Christ and that the images derived their potency from Acheiropoieta. By inserting himself into the debate, the Emperor substituted royal prescript for religious authority, undercutting the influence and ability of the church. Afterward, the state violently supressed monastic clergy and destroyed icons.

th century), portrayed Byzantine Empress Theodora and her son Michael III as the Hodegetria, a Madonna and Child icon presiding over the restoration of icons." data-initial-src="/images20/photo/photo_byzantine_art_8.jpg" width="235" height="300" src="https://www.theartstory.org/images20/photo/photo_byzantine_art_8.jpg">

The era came to an end with a change in royal power. Following the death of her husband, the Emperor Theophilus, in 842, the Empress Theodora took the throne and, as she was passionately devoted to the veneration of icons, summoned a quango that restored icon worship and deposed the iconoclastic clergy. The occasion was historic at the Feast of Orthodoxy in 843, and icons were carried in triumphal procession dorsum to the various churches from which they had been taken. Nonetheless, the Iconoclastic Controversy had a notable touch on the later development of art, as the councils that restored the worship of icons also formulated a codified system of symbols and iconographic types that were also followed in mosaics and fresco painting.

Middle Byzantine 867-1204

The Middle Byzantine era is ofttimes called the Macedonian Renaissance, as Basil I the Macedonian, crowned in 867, reopened the universities and promoted literature and art, renewing an interest in classical Greek scholarship and aesthetics. Greek was established every bit the official language of the Empire, and libraries and scholars compiled extensive collections of classical texts. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Photios was non only the leading theologian just has been described past the historian Adrian Forescue as "the greatest scholar of his fourth dimension." His Bibliotheca was an important compilation of almost three hundred works by classical authors, and he played a leading role in seeing Byzantine culture as rooted in Greek culture. The consequence was, every bit Janson and Janson wrote, "an almost antique enthusiasm for the traditions of classical art," displayed in works similar the illuminated manuscript, the Paris Psalter (c. 900) a book of Biblical psalms that included full folio illustrations from the life of King David and that employed a more than realistic treatment of both the figures and the mural.

Throughout Europe, Byzantine civilisation and art was seen as the height of artful refinement, and, as a result, many rulers, even those politically combative to the Empire, employed Byzantine artists. In Sicily, which had been conquered by the Normans, Roger 2, the first Norman Male monarch, recruited Byzantine artists and, as a result, the Norman architecture that developed in Sicily and Nifty United kingdom, following the Norman Conquest in 1066, profoundly influenced Gothic compages. Hundreds of Byzantine artists were also employed at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice when construction began in 1063. In Russia, Vladimir of Kiev converted to the Orthodox Church upon his marriage to a Byzantine princess. He employed artists from Constantinople at the St. Sophia's Cathedral he built in Kiev in 1307. Notable examples of Macedonian Renaissance art were also created in Greece, while the influx of Byzantine artists influenced fine art throughout Western Europe as shown by the Italian artist Berlinghiero of Lucca's Hodegetria (c. 1230).

The Latin Occupation 1204-1261

Famed for its wealth and creative treasures, Constantinople was cruelly sacked and the Empire conquered in 1204 by the Crusade Army and Venetian forces under the Quaternary Crusade. The brutal attack upon a Christian metropolis and its inhabitants was unprecedented, and historians view it as a turning indicate in medieval history, creating a lasting schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, severely weakening the Byzantine Empire and contributing to its afterward demise when conquered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Many notable artworks and sacred objects were looted, destroyed, or lost. Some works, similar the Roman bronze works of the Hippodrome, were carried off to Venice where they are still on brandish, while other works, including sacred objects and altars equally well equally classical bronze statues, were melted downward, and the Library of Constantinople was destroyed. Though the Latins were driven out by 1261, Byzantium never recovered its onetime glory or power.

Late Byzantium 1261-1453

Following the Latin Conquest, the Tardily Byzantine era began to renovate and restore Orthodox churches. However, as the Conquest had decimated the economy and left much of the metropolis in ruins, artists employed more economic materials, and miniature mosaic icons became popular. In icon painting, the suffering of the population during the Conquest led to an emphasis upon images of compassion, as shown in sufferings of Christ. Artistic vitality shifted to Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, where regional variations of icon painting developed. Russia became a leading middle with the Novgorod School of Icon Painting, led by chief painters Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev. Byzantine fine art also influenced contemporaneous art in the West, peculiarly the Sienese School of Painting and the International Gothic Way, also as painters similar Duccio in his Stroganoff Madonna (1300).

Byzantine Art and Architecture: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

Architectural Innovations

Known for its key plan buildings with domed roofs, Byzantine architecture employed a number of innovations, including the squinch and the pendentive. The squinch used an arch at the corners to transform a foursquare base of operations into an octagonal shape, while the pendentive employed a corner triangular support that curved upwards into the dome. The original architectural design of many Byzantine churches was a Greek cross, having iv artillery of equal length, placed within a square. Later, peripheral structures, like a side chapel or second narthex, were added to the more than traditional church footprint. In the eleven^th century, the quincunx building blueprint, which used the four corners and a fifth element elevated above it, became prominent as seen in The Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, Athens, Hellenic republic. In addition to the central dome, Byzantine churches began adding smaller domes around it.

Poikilia

Byzantine architecture was informed by Poikilia, a Greek term, significant "marked with various colors," or "variegated," that in Greek aesthetic philosophy was developed to suggest how a complex and various assemblage of elements created a polysensory experience. Byzantine interiors, and the placement of objects and elements within an interior, were designed to create e'er changing and animated interior as light revealed the variations in surfaces and colors. Variegated elements were also accomplished by other techniques such as the employment of bands or areas of gold and elaborately carved stone surfaces.

For case the basket capitals in the Hagia Sophia were then intricately carved, the stone seemed to dematerialize in light and shadow. Decorative bands replaced moldings and cornices, in event rounding the interior angles then that images seemed to period from one surface to another. Photios described this surface upshot in one of his homilies: "It is as if 1 had entered heaven itself with no i barring the mode from any side, and was illuminated past the beauty in changing forms...shining all around similar so many stars, so is one utterly amazed. [...] It seems that everything is in ecstatic movement, and the church itself is circumvoluted effectually."

Iconographic Types and Iconostasis

Byzantine art developed iconographic types that were employed in icons, mosaics, and frescoes and influenced Western depictions of sacred subjects. The early Pantocrator, meaning "anointed," portrayed Christ in majesty, his right hand raised in a gesture of didactics and led to the evolution of the Deësis, meaning "prayer," showing Christ every bit Pantocrator with St. John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary, and, sometimes, additional saints, on either side of him. The Hodegetria developed into the later on iconographic types of the Eleusa, significant tenderness, which showed the Madonna and the Child Jesus in a moment of affectionate tenderness, and the Pelagonitissa, or playing kid, icon. Other iconographic types included the Man of Sorrows, which focused on depicting Christ's suffering, and the Anastasis, which showed Christ rescuing Adam and Eve from hell. These types became widely influential and were employed in Western art besides, though some like the Anastasis only depicted in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition.

Iconostasis, meaning "altar stand," was a term used to refer to a wall composed of icons that separated worshippers from the altar. In the Eye Byzantine period, the Iconostasis evolved from the Early on Byzantine templon, a metallic screen that sometimes was hung with icons, to a wooden wall composed of panels of icons. Containing three doors that had a hierarchal purpose, reserved for deacons or church notables, the wall extended from floor to ceiling, though leaving a infinite at the top so that worshippers could hear the liturgy effectually the altar. Some of the most noted Iconostases were developed in the Late Byzantine period in the Slavic countries, as shown in Theophanes the Greek's Iconostasis (1405) in the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow. A codified organisation governed the placement of the icons arranged according to their religious importance.

Novgorod Schoolhouse of Icon Painting

The Novgorod Schoolhouse of Icon Painting, founded past the Byzantine artist, Theophanes the Greek, became the leading schoolhouse of the Late Byzantine era, its influence lasting beyond the autumn of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Theophanes' piece of work was known for its dynamic vigor due to his brushwork and his inclusion of more than dramatic scenes in icons, which were usually only depicted in large-calibration works. He is believed to have taught Andrei Rublev who became the most renowned icon painter of the era, famous for his ability to convey circuitous religious thought and feeling in subtly colored and emotionally evocative scenes. In the side by side generation, the leading icon painter Dionysius experimented with residuum between horizontal and vertical lines to create a more dramatic upshot. Influenced by Early Renaissance Italian artists who had arrived in Moscow, his style, known for pure color and elongated figures, is sometimes referred to as "Muscovite mannerism," as seen in his icon series for the Cathedral of the Dormition (1481) in Moscow.

Carved Ivory

In the Byzantine era, the sculptural tradition of Rome and Hellenic republic was essentially abased, as the Byzantine church felt that sculpture in the round would evoke pagan idols; still, Byzantine artists pioneered relief sculpture in ivory, normally presented in small-scale portable objects and common objects. An early case is the Throne of Maximianan (also called, the Throne of Maximianus), made in Constantinople for the Archbishop Maximianus of Ravenna for the dedication of San Vitale. The work depicted Biblical stories and figures, surrounded by decorative panels, carved in different depths and so that the almost iii-dimensional treatment in some panels contrasted against the more shallow two-dimensional treatment of others.

In the Middle Byzantine menstruum, ivory carving was known for its elegant and delicate detail, equally seen in the Harbaville Triptych (mid-eleven^thursday century). Reflecting the Macedonian Renaissance'due south renewed interest in classical art, artists depicted figures with more naturally flowing draperies and contrapposto poses. Byzantine ivory carvings were highly valued in the Due west, and, as, a issue, the works exerted an artistic influence. The Italian creative person Cimabue'southward Madonna Enthroned (1280-90), a piece of work prefiguring the Italian Early Renaissance'southward employ of depth and space, is predominantly informed by Byzantine conventions.

Later Developments - After Byzantine Art and Compages

During its almost 1 1000 year span, the Byzantine era influenced Islamic architecture, the art and architecture of the Carolingian Renaissance, Norman architecture, Gothic architecture, and the International Gothic style. When the Turkish Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453, renaming information technology Istanbul, the Byzantine Empire came to an cease. Even so the Byzantine style continued to exist employed in Hellenic republic and in Eastern Europe and Russia, where a "Russo-Byzantine" style developed in architecture.

In the mid-1800s, Russia underwent a Byzantine Revival, also called the Neo-Byzantine, which was established as the official style for churches by Alexander Two of Russian federation, who reigned from 1885-1891. The manner continued to be used until Earth War I, and, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, a number of architects immigrated to the Balkans where churches in the Byzantine Revival style continued to exist made until after World State of war Ii. The veneration of icons, and the painting of them, is withal a notable feature of the Orthodox faith, equally Orthodox households have a infinite defended to icons, and churches, renowned for their images, draw worshippers from well-nigh and far.

Byzantine icons have connected to exert an influence, being employed for more traditional religious imagery, such as Luigi Crosio's late 19th-century rendering of Lady of Refuge, a popular image amid Catholics, but also reframed inside modern art in works such every bit Natalia Goncharova'southward The Evangelists (1911) and other Russian Futurists of the time. In item, Russian Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich famously exhibited his radically abstract Black Square (1915) in the corner of the room, a space traditionally reserved for religious icons and referred to equally the "crimson corner." As Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya wrote of this radical human action, "Instead of red, black (zero colour); instead of a face, a hollow recess (zero lines); instead of an icon - that is, instead of a window into the heavens, into the light, into eternal life - gloom, a cellar, a trapdoor into the underworld, eternal darkness." In subverting the traditional Byzantine icon, Malevich hoped to comment on the bleak country of modernity.

Contemporary Interpretations of the Style

Contemporary artists working in Byzantine styles and subjects include the Russian Maxim Sheshukov, the Romanian Ioan Pope, the American architect Andrew Gould, iconographer Peter Pearson, the Canadian sculptor Jonathan Pageau, and the Ukrainian Angelika Artemenko. The Archimandrite, or priest-monk, Zenon Theodor was acclaimed for his 2008 paintings in St. Nicholas Cathedral, in Vienna, Austria, while Greek artist Fikos combines Byzantine murals and icons with his interest in street art, comic book strips, and graffiti in what he calls "Contemporary Byzantine Painting." In America, the Brooklyn-based Alfonse Borysewicz has been chosen "i of the most important religious artists since the French Catholic Georges Rouault" by art historian Gregory Wolfe.

lincolnarither.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/byzantine-art/history-and-concepts/

Share this post