The Art of Byzantine.
(Image from Wikipedia)
The Byzantine Art can be divided into three distinct periods: Early Byzantine started around 300 to 750 AD, the Middle Byzantine period around 850 to 1204; and the Late Byzantine period lasted from 1261 to 1453. Most of the art produced during this time was related to the Christian Church. The Church commissioned most of the artworks, thereby dictating the norm for what was acceptable or taboo. From the very started of Early Christian Art, the question would remain whether an image was acceptable or not and at what point do an image become an idol? The artists of the times solution, that was deemed acceptable by the Church, was to focus less on the physical realm and more on the spiritual realm. Artist started to abandon Classical conventions like shading, perspective, illusions of any kind related to the natural world and any individual characteristics in their illustrations of the Biblical figures. Still not fully satisfied with the artist solutions, this question would eventual lead to the Iconoclast at the end of the Early Byzantine period.
During the Iconoclast, some scholars like Augustine, argued that all illustrations was lies and therefor was intolerable since it promoted the use of lies in the Church that was supposed to preach Truth. By 800 AD, the Iconoclast ended, when the scholars of the Church decided that images may be used to educate the illiterate mass, but the style and appearance was strictly prescribed to become almost abstract with no natural illusion of space and rather two-dimensional depictions of people, animals and objects that just barely resemble the physical objects. With these restrictions, the Church no longer had to worry about idolatry.
The Early Byzantine period started in 330 AD, when the first Christian ruler, Constantine, took over Rome. He moved the main city from Rome to the “new Rome” that was to become known as Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey) – an important trade city during ancient times with its own harbour. During his reign, the Christian religion becomes the official religion in Constantinople. This facilitated the dissemination of the new religion to the distant corners of the Empire, as far as Egypt. During this period, numerous Churches were built, including the Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey) and the Basilica of San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy). Many of these Churches also had monasteries were literate monks spend much of their time copying manuscripts that is known as Illuminati. An important further development by the monks was the Codex – bounded manuscripts – that replaced the ancient scrolls.
Most of the church buildings include a dome and glittering mosaics that narrate the Bible to the illiterate masses. The use of gold inside the church buildings along with candelabra and the few window openings manipulated the natural light to brighten the dark building – creating a mood that subdue people into a spiritual realm and ensuring that people understand that God is the Light in the dark world.
(Image from Wikipedia)
The Middle Byzantine period follows the Iconoclast, with renewed enthusiasm to building churches that are smaller in scale than the Hagia Sophia is but also includes domes and richly decorated interiors. Frescoes and mosaics are used to decorate the ceilings and domes of the churches. It is the illustrations inside the curves that create the most drama within the narrative. This use of the physical space and juxtaposing images to work together demonstrate a thorough knowledge, understanding and excellent planning of arranging images to create the narrative.
The floor plans of these churches are increasingly based on a centralised cross-inside-a-square. A plan that was to become synonymous with the Byzantine Art. Later the exterior of these churches are also adorned, a beautiful example of this is, Hosios Loukas Monastery, Greece.
During the Middle Byzantine period, the Christian religion spreads to the Slavic nations. Russia accepts the Orthodox Christianity during the 10th century leading to new inspiration in the art – beautiful iconography paintings of saints.
The supreme authority of the Pope from the Latin Church of Western Europe would eventually lead to the crumbling of the Byzantine Empire. The small remnant of the Byzantine Empire in Nicaea was all that remained of the once magnificent and strong kingdom.
(Images from Wikipedia)
The Late Byzantine period can be found in two separate Realms: one includes Constantinople with provinces in the north and central parts of Greece and south to Peloponnesus; and the other at Trebizond in the east. These Realms finally ended in the mid-15th century when the Turks invaded them, Trebizond was the last to fall in 1460.
During the final years of the Byzantine Empire, even though they were desperately holding on defending on all sides and with extremely limited funds their art flourished. New buildings were erected, old ones restored and newly decorated with monumental scale narratives, iconography and church adornments. One of these buildings that was restore and enlarged was the Hagia Sophia. Other example is the Choro Cloister in Constantinople, here they used more economical mediums, replaced expensive metals with cheaper ones and used glass or coloured stones instead of precious minerals.
Even after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, their standards for beauty would persistently influence the Latin Western Empire’s ideal of art. The new masters of Constantinople, Islam, also continued to inspire the West.
(Images from Wikipedia)
And so the lights dim… until next time keep making art to light the way!
A view Byzantine inspired class warm-ups:
