Byzantine Art!!

• Early Byzantine Age 527 – 726 (Justinian 527 - 565)

• Iconoclasm 730 – 787 and 814 - 842• Middle –843 – 1204 (restoration of icons)• Break from the Western Church – 1054• Constantinople Falls to Venetian Invaders in

the 4th Crusade - 1203• Late Period 1261 – 1453• The fall of Constantinople to Mehmed II of the

Ottoman Empire - 1453

Justinian reigned 527 - 565

In the late Fifth and early Sixth Centuries, the Western half of The Roman Empire fell into a shambles. Even Italy was under the control of feuding barbarians.The Emporer Justinian rallied his forces and Recoverred Ravenna. For a short time Ravenna became the Byzantine capital in the West and a number of important early Byzantine monuments are preserved there today. The church of San Vitale in Ravenna is one of these monuments. SanVitale's humble exterior protects a glistening interior full of glass mosaics and sumptuous decorative marble.

Emperor Justinian and Attendants, Saint Vitale, Ravenna, c.547

Built during the city’s rebuilding after riots of 532

“Purple makes a fine shroud” – attributed to Theodora

Pendentive vs. Squinch

Hagia Sophia – Holy Wisdom

• Designed by 2 scholar-theoreticians:• Anthemius of Tralles (geometry and optics) & Isisorus

of Miletus (physics)• Rumored to have been constructed by angels in 5

years (532 – 537)• Massiveness of piers and walls disguised by mosaics• Dome has a band of 40 windows around the top

making it appear to float (first one fell in 558)

Early Byzantine Art in the Age of Justinian

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul• Combination of central plan and

axial plan• Exterior: plain and massive, little

decoration• Altar at far end, but emphasis

placed over the area covered by the dome

• Dome supported by pendentives• Powerful central dome, with forty

windows at base• Cornice unifies space• Arcade decoration: wall and

capitals are flat and thin but richly ornamented

• Great fields for mosaic decoration• At one time had four acres of gold

mosaics on walls

•Many windows punctuate wall space•Minarets added in Islamic period

Apse mosaic (detail) hagia sophia, 867

Emperor Justinian and Attendants, Saint Vitale, Ravenna, c.547

Justinian and Attendants• To his left the clergy, to his right the

military• Dressed in royal purple and gold• Symmetry, frontality• Holds a plate for the host, or perhaps

a golden bowl• Slight impression of procession

forward• No volume of figures, seem to float,

and yet step on each other’s feet• No background to set the figures in

space• No landscape, gold background

indicates timelessness• Maximianus identified, patron of San

Vitale• Halo indicates saintliness

Pictorial space not depicted as a window to the natural world (i.e. Romans)

Theodora and Attendants, Saint Vitale, Ravenna, c.547

Theodora and Attendants• Hieratic composition• Slight displacement of

absolute symmetry with Theodora

• Sumptuously executed• She holds a chalice for

the ceremony and is about to go behind the curtain

• Altar boys and ladies at court accompany her

Mosaics

•More abstract than Roman Paintings

•Used as narrative illustrations to instruct the faithful

•Bright colors, small bits of stone, glass tesserae

S. Vitale, c. 525 -547

Commisioned by Bishop Ecclesius

Column Capitals, San Vitale

Column Capitals, Hagia Sophia

Santa Costanza, Rome

Ambulatory

Early Byzantine Artin the Age of Justinian

San Vitale, Ravenna (c. 547)• Byzantine forces capture

Ravenna in 540• 8 sided structure• Plain exterior except porch

added later in Renaissance• Large windows for illuminating

interior designs• Interior has thin columns and

open arched spaces, complex spatial system

• Sense of mystery in the space

Transfiguration of Christ with Sant’Apollinare, 1st Bishop of Ravenna (549)

•Revelation of Christ’s divinity

•12 sheep surround Christ

•Expressing essential spiritual meaning rather than the material world

Apostles Peter, James and John

Moses and Elijah

Bishop Appolinaris

Byzantine Icons

How Icons Are Made• Made of rectangular wooden panels• Painters were monks and worked with humility, rarely signing anything• Wood prepared by covering the surface with fish glue and then a layer of

putty• Cloth placed on top and successive layers of stucco are laid over the cloth• Paper sketch is placed over and lines are traced on the surface• Gilded, then painted• Varnish applied last to make it shine and protect the surface• Icons were often handled and kissed

Byzantine Icons

• Iconoclastic Controversy: icons prohibited as sacrilegious and pagan between 726-843

• Pronounced by Leo III and caused widespread destruction, destroying most icons

•Thought to have miraculous powers

•Jesus sent a portait to King Abgar of Edessa, known as the Mandylion. In Constantinople and taken by Crusaders in 10th century

•Church at first was uneasy about the power of images, but accepted as aids to meditation and prayer

•Created a need for more immediate and personal religion

Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, built by Justinian, ca. 550

Virgin of Vladimirc. 11th or 12th century“Virgin of Compassion”

The spread from Constantinople to Kiev

Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints Theodore and George (c. 600)

• Theodore and George, two military saints, have rigid frontal poses, as befits the military

• Archangels painted with free open brushwork

• Devoid of depth• Virgin relatively solid and three-

dimensional, her knees to the right• Virgin’s head frontal, but eyes

averted• Christ convincingly rendered as a

child• Perhaps executed by three

different artists in different styles

Byzantine Icons

Annunciation (c. 1300)• Classical looking angel with

heavy modeling• Strong line surfaces• Mary sits enthroned• Realistic setting contrasts with

golden background• Small squashed figures hold up

canopy

Rüblev, Old Testament Trinity(Three Angels Visiting Abraham)c. 1410 - 25

• Byzantine affinity for repeating forms from older art

• Forms of angels are traditional• Heads of angels nearly identical• Poses are mirror images• Luminous appeal of colors• Deep color harmonies of

draperies• Extensive use of gold• Nearly spaceless background