Byzantine Art and Architecture: Key Terms and Concepts

Altarpiece

a panel, sculpted or painted, situated above and behind an altar

Ambulatory

the passageway around apse and choir of a church

Byzantium

the Christian, Eastern, Roman Empire, which lasted until 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks. Constantine established it in AD 324, and called it the New Rome and it remained a united empire until Rome fell in AD 476.

Chi-Rho

a monogram of Christ

Choir

The space reserved for the clergy and the singers in a church usually east of the transept but sometimes extending into the nave

Cloisonné

a process of enameling by putting the ground glass into little cells made of wires and fused in a kiln

Cupola

a drum with a shallow cap

Drum

a circular wall that supports a dome.

Gallery

a second story over the side aisles of a church below the clerestory

Greek Cross

one in which the arms are equal

Hieratic

a fixed stylized method of representation, often determined by religious principles or ideas

Iconoclasm

the destruction of religious images

Iconophile

persons who favored the production of religious images as an aid to devotion

Icons

religious images regarded as objects of veneration

Justinian

the founder of the New Rome which marks the beginning of the Byzantine Empire and the end of Late Roman Empire. He codified the Roman law.

Latin Cross

has a long vertical piece and shorter arms

Mandorla

an almond shaped halo appearing around the head of a holy figure

Mysticism

the experience of union or direct communication with ultimate reality known as God or Spiritual Truth

Pantocrater

the image of God as the Creator of the Universe

Pendentives

a set of curved triangles, which achieve the transition from a rectangular polygonal opening to the round base of a dome or a supporting drum.

Pillar

a generic term for a vertical support (column, pier or pilaster)

Psalter

a book containing the Psalms

Rotunda

circular area under a dome

Squinches

a system shaped like an octagon that supports a dome using arches, corbels or lintels to bridge the corners of the supporting wall and form the octagon inscribed in the square

Theocracy

a state ruled by divine guidance