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Ancient Art

Byzantine Influence in AmericaJustinian IRoman EmpireByzantine vs RomanReligious MotivationsInfluences in America

THE MAGAZINE OF ANTIQUITIES AND ARCHAEOLOGY

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In America today, our culture and our architec-tural advancements our very comparable to the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I. Byzantine Empire was an entity of many cultures, Rome, Greek and Persian, we are still a young entity, America but we are a very cultural place. To this day we still see many similarities in architecture, arts, religion and government. There are many arguments to this ideal of America being like the Byzantine Empire because the close relationship to the roman style. I disagree. I don’t think that we are a clone of the Byzantium era but I intend to prove the areas that we do have similarities in. For one, the architecture of the Hagia Sophia has been used in many instances over the years and now we see the style in our architecture. Not only is our architecture based from byzantine era but

the way they used symbolism in there art. The arts in this era were mainly based on a religious subject mat-ter but I want to show how even though we don’t use the same mediums as them we still use their style of hierarchy, the symbolic nature and the abstract style. Don’t get me wrong we have used their subject mat-ter in our pasts works but my main issue is to show the style generally in our works of art. The other main subject that I intend to show is that in our major advancements in architecture we tend to go with the byzantine style of building. I keep coming back to areas of research that says that I can’t relate byzantine style to our architecture because it so closely reflected to Roman architecture. I want to clarify what we are talking about when I say, our architecture. We are pinpointing that in our colleges, government, library and our many other service building, we tend to use the stylistic nature of the byzantine style. I feel that the the roman style is not as detailed as the byzantine style.

BYZANTINE EMPIREThe New Style By. James Vincent

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Justinian I 4 -Life and struggle

Religious Differences 7 -few and far between

Byzantine Vs World 8Byzantine VS Roman 9 -art and architecture

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When you live in the United States of America you tend to notice certain things about your country, or even of the area that you reside in. I have been researching many areas of archi-tecture in the time of this paper and I have chose several buildings that I will be able to compare and contrast the different styles of the architecture. See the fact is that the Byzantine style is not its own style, it is a mix of several different stylistic

ways of building. Even though the byz-antine empire was from Rome, Justinian I was set on being a whole different place because after the fall of Rome there needed to be changes made. Even before these two areas had their issues. If you take time to look around at architecture around you, you will see many different shapes and stylistic fea-tures that actually make up these build-ings. Even within the residential archi-tecture you will find the Byzantine style. If you think about the mix of styles in

Life and the struggle to bring rome back to life.

Justinian I

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“Rather let the crime of the guilty go unpunished than condemn the innocent.”

-Justinian I-

the Byzantine empire and compare it to the United States, we are also a very diverse country. With many different styles all together into one. The Byz-antine Empire was one of the longest empires stand-ing in the world. Which also was revered as one of the strongest, richest and changed how governments were run for many future empires. (History Today Vol. 58, pg 38) What the difference was between the architecture of the Byzantine empire and the Ro-man Empire was the abstract style to the Byzantine empire. It wasn’t so horizontal and vertical in the sense of the building itself. There was more cultural styles to the Byzantine structures. Justinian I wanted a different way of culture and many refinements from Rome. He made many changes from legal reform, administration of the empire, ecclesiastical policy and changed foreign policies. He had many differences that he put in place for the rebuilding of post rome; He based it all on church, war and hard work. As soon as Justinian I came into power he had Hagia Sophia built which was one of the largest churches for around 1000 years(HAGIA SOPHIA Web. 02 Sept. 2013). Personally I have never stopped to feel and take in the sights of these architectural buildings until I started school, which then I was taught to see them in different ways and actually formally analyze these situations. These buildings are not just churches that have gained this byzantine style, there is libraries with this style. I feel as if we have adopted this style from the byzantine empire for the simple fact that they were around for a thousand years. One of the longest standing empires ever and in my opinion the most influential by far. I think that the straight roman style is very strong and simple but if you add the to like the byzantine empire did then you get a style all its own. The surviaval of the Byzantine Empire was a well thought out strategic plan. From Constantines move to Constantinople, to Justinian’s reign. These reasons for the move to an area that would make this empire prosper and give this “New Rome” a boost not only for economic frustrations; but for all areas that seemed to be the cause of the fall of Rome. Over 1000s years proved that Byzantine Empire would be a cultural identity for many cul-tures worldwide. How did an empire that was part of a empire that failed in the past, survive this long?

Money was one reason of that Byzantine survived so long. Along with several other stategic plans that Jus-tinian I orchestrated when he came into power of this empire. Location, new strategies, and an attitude of any means necessary. In 527 c.e. Justinian took power of this empire, along with his downfalls e had many ideas for change; and the perfect trade route into the europe. It was also a great area to safeguard the empire.

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These two empires were the same blood, originated from the same culture and Rome was their past. Can we say that they are the same because of that. My em-phasis to my research is that they were not the same, even though they broke off from Rome as a separate entity, most still consider Byzantine Empire as Ro-mans. I argue this point because of the simple fact that Justinian I wanted to be different and he did so by making many changes. Who wouldn’t want to be different from a place that was just not working. One thing that they had much deference in was religion. I'm not the best person to go to for facts or knowledge about religion, but there are some distinct differences between these two regions. For the Byzantine empire it seemed more religious based and there society’s way was to use idols as a meaning of worship. I think it was very different with west part of Rome, as in the worship of an icon was in a different context. Some other differences were the way that the Byz-

antines used science and philosophy, much different then the stricter Roman way of faith. The Byzantines seemed more open to learning new things but was more so for superficial reasons. Most of the Byzantine art was very symbolic in meaning, the eyes being real-ly big compared to other parts of the art. I relate this in this section of religion because I think that everything from Byzantine empire was motivated for religious matters, and art was not any different. One thing that is a definite relation to this idealistic art, is the way that we use symbolism in out society today. We use symbolism on identity and much more and it seems to be more refined then ever. For example the cross, you see a cross and automatically you think oh there is a church, Kind of like when you see a big yellow “M” you know what that is. Not only do we symbolize in icons, we also use color just like the byzantines did. I think that the better comparison to america is the Byz-antine empire because of it symbolic nature in general.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES-FEW BUT FAR BETWEEN

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Have you ever really actually looked at these two empire and compared them, there differences are many. As well as there similarities, Byzantine is actually Roman. The differ-ences were many because Justinian I was trying for a new and better empire. He was trying to change the parts that didn’t work for Rome, they did just crumble to the ground. One of the first things that he accomplished was the con-struction of the Hagia Sophia, the first of its kind and the construction took only 5 years to finish. When it was built it was used for an eastern orthodox cathedral but has since changed several different denominations and now is a museum. The actual phenomenon of this architecture was the perplexity if the way it was built, it was the first time that anyone had built a transition from a square space into a circular dome. The actual sentiment of this structure has influenced many cultures to this day. The difference of the two types of architectures were the complexity of the way they were built, if you look at a roman structure it is more vertical and horizontal in the shapes. Roman structures are more so of a simple structure that is more based from a greek structural point of view. Unlike the Byzantine architecture with many geometric designs meshed in with the style of roman architecture. I definitely have to say that Roman style has been used for a longer period of time throughout history, but in recent times there has been a movement towards more of an eclectic Byzantine-style. I think because the way that america has been moving towards a more diverse population. It would

define our look in art and architecture, present day. I was researching the actual cultural change that is happening in america today. The middle eastern influence on America has come with much change, not only with archi-tecture but there are many eastern influenced artists(Middle East In The Americas). Don’t get me wrong, Roman style was very strong and everywhere you go, you see it. Although, most of it is probably five plus decades old. I see remnants of the Roman style a lot when you go through older parts of most cit-ies or capitals of the states in America. These places are more for the tour-ist and political aspects of America. I believe that our residential areas are the places that are most populated with the different culture these days. These ro-man building were for a different time and place and the symbolic meaning is different then how our culture is these days. We have a more cultural aesthetic to our everyday life, wether it be food, architecture or art, it is different these days.

BYZANTINE VERSUS THE WORLD.

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This is a very difficult comparison, between the Roman and the Byzantine Empire. The Roman Empire fell a lomg time before Justinian I and something else to consider is that these two empires are of the same lineage. Some consider these the Byzan-tine’s just another extension of the Rome. That may be true, but the differences are immense and they are similar in many instances. To compare these two you have to go back to Greece because this is where the actual style originated from. The sheer strength and balance of the greek style is very comparable to the Roman style. If you look at the statues of ancient Greece and compare them to the Roman Statuary, there is a obvious relationship between the two; The mere contrapposto and shape of these figures. Then you get to the Byzantine style and then there is a drastic change in subject and style, the ones that are from the early Byzatine empire have a similar symbolism, considerable to the Roman style. The dif-ference is that the subject of the piece of art symbolized an ideal, instead of showing strength. Rome seems to me more self cen-tered and for show and Byzantine was more of a religious symbolism. In the same they were very narrow in there way of expressing their actual beliefs. In Byzantine they did’nt seem to need the look of strength for there meaning of there belief, unlike the Romans. Even when there was a similar statue in the Byzantine Empire, there was a differnt, look to the piece.

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C O N C L U S I O NIn a World full of change, we see things put tested everyday. In general our society likes new things and when there is something that hasn’t been part of there life we want it and play it out as much as possible. Its what America is all about, we are a diverse na-tion with many different people and creeds and cultures. The Byzantine Empire was around for over 1000 years(Herrin) and was one of the biggest influences in many coun-tries. We as american look at other areas and see the beautiful designs and with there style and aesthetic, but you have to take into account that the meaning of there culture is much different then ours. Its basically a trend that flows throughout history and we actually change to our needs. Or what we think is going to work with our style. As of the Roman style, which we have used for our past endeavors. To me it is easy to spot out that we as a nation our moving towards a more eclectic look and this style includes the Byzantine style. Who knows if that will stay or go as we grow, but it is a definition of our diverse cultural identity that america is all about.

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