Hagia Sophia

• Church → mosque → museum → mosque

• Commissioned by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I

• “Holy Wisdom” in Greek

• Most remarkable feature: massive dome

  • Seems to float above the building due to pendentives and windows at its base

  • Symbolized the heavens and entering gave the sense of stepping into a divine space

• Originally adorned with intricate mosaics depicting Christian figures

  • Later covered when converted into a mosque

• Richly decorated with colorful marble and golden mosaics, reflecting wealth and artistic mastery.

San Vitale

• Unusual → centrally planned church

• Ambulatory surrounds the central space

• Extension with an apse at the end

• Octagon and a smaller octagon that rises higher

• Lots of windows

• Massive piers that help support the building

• Mosaics → theme of offering and sacrifice

  • Abel and Mechizedek make an offering to God

  • Abraham sacrificing Isaac

  • Abraham offers bread to three stangers

  • Relates to giving the Eucharist

• Lamb of God → Jesus Christ

  • Wearing a halo

  • Jesus as the sacrificial lamb

  • Surrounded by a wreath of victory

    • Triumph of Christianity

    • Held in place by four angels who stand on globes

• Jesus Christ bearded, older, in the archway

• Triumphal arch has Christ in the center and his body is surrounded by a mandorla

Justinian and His Retinue

• Justinian and Theodora never came to Ravenna

  • In the mosaics to reassert their control over the city

• Justinian in the center, wearing purple.

  • Color associated with the throne

  • Surrounded by his court

• Religious figures representing the church

• Soldiers

• Church, emperor, and the military.

• Justinian and Maximian (bishop) are more individualized but the figures from the army are much more anonymous

• Justinian’s authority is divine

  • Halo around his head and holds a bowl associated with the Eucharist

  • handing in the direction of Christ in the apse

• Schematic, abstracted

  • Medieval

  • Left the classical tradition of naturalism behind

• Seem to float in eternal space

• Right side of Justinian

  • Maximian and clergymen

  • Maximian holds beautiful jeweled cross

  • One of the clergymen hold a jeweled book of the Gospels

  • Another holds an incense burner

Theodora and Her Court

• Theodora ruled as co-equal to Justinian

• Wearing incredibly elaborate clothing and jewelry with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and very large pearls.

• Halo

• Carrying the chalice for the wine for the Eucharist

• Surrounded by attendants that symbolize the imperial court

• Curtain is raised as though she is about to take part in a ceremony

Christ Enthroned Between St. Vitalis and Bishop Ecclesius

• Christ dressed royally in purple, sitting on an orb.

• Below flor the four rivers of paradise

• On either side of him, an angel.

• Christ holding the book of the Apocalypse with the seven seals visible

• Christ handing a crown to San Vitalis → primary martyr of the city

• Ecclesias → founder and sponsor

  • Handing the church to the angle beside Christ

The Emperor Triumphant (Barberini Ivory)

• Emperor on horseback in the central panel

  • Energized and deeply carved

  • Emperor → Christian

  • Holding the reins as he turns the horse

  • Smaller figure behind the horse

    • Phrygian cap, pants, and closed shoes → barbarian

    • Barbarian → foreigner

  • Female figure under the horse

    • Holding fruits → symbol of plenty

    • Represents conquered lands or the bounty of the earth

    • Personification of the earth, submitting to the emperor

      • Holding his foot

  • Would originally have small gems or pearls

• Four panels on all four sides

  • Top panel

    • Christ in a medallion in the center

      • Gesture of blessing

      • Holds a scepter with a cross and looks directly at us

      • Young and beardless

      • Curly hair → classical tradition

    • Angels on either side

      • Reminiscent of Nike

      • Drapery simplified

    • Around him is a symbol of the sun, moon, and a star.

  • Left panel

    • General or very high-level officer

      • Presenting the emperor with a statue representing Victory

      • Shallower relief

      • Corinthian columns behind him

      • Below him is a bag (spoils of war?)

  • Right panel (missing)

    • Maybe similar to left panel

  • Bottom panel

    • Another winged female figure (Victory)

      • Holding a trophy with a military uniform on top → symbol of military triumph

    • On the left, two bearded figures.

      • One carrying a crown

      • One carrying a container (with spoils of war?) and lion below

    • On the right, conquered people.

      • People from the East?

        • One has an ivory tusk

        • One has a staff

        • Between them is a tiger

        • Before them an elephant

        • Symbols of distant people that have been conquered

• All iconography is imperial

  • Nike → figure of victory

    • Presenting the emperor with a palm branch (symbol of victory)

    • Would have originally held a crown on her right hand

Theotokos and Child Between Saints Theodore and George

• Virgin and Child flanked by two soldier saints

  • Saint Theodore to the left

  • Saint George at the right

  • Two angels above who gaze upward to the hand of God

    • Light emanates, falling on the Virgin

    • Faces are modeled (neck of the muscles)

    • Heads almost turn three-quarters

• Classicizing style inherited from Rome

• Compressed space (almost flat)

• Yet spatial recession

  • Throne of the Virgin

    • Part of the right side and a shadow cast by the throne

    • Receding armrest and projecting footrest

  • Slight twist of the Virgin’s body

    • Leaning her body left toward the edge of the throne

    • Jesus sits on her lap as the Virgin supports him with both hands

• Spatial ambiguity → partake of viewer’s world but also separates from the normal world

• Hierarchy of bodies

  • Theodore and George

    • Standing and gazing directly at the viewer with large, passive eyes.

    • No recognition of the viewer

    • Ready to receive something from us

    • Slightly animated → lifting of a heel

      • Slowly stepping towards us

  • Virgin → doesn’t make eye contact with the viewer

  • Ethereal angels

    • Concentrate on the hand above

    • Light tones and transparent rendering of their halos → otherworldly

• Visual movement inward and upward

  • Saints → Virgin → angels → hand of God

  • Saints receive veneration of the viewer and pass it inward and upward until it reaches God

Christ as Pantokrator

• Seen in mosaics and frescoes within Byzantine churches

  • Particularly in the domes or apses where it commands a prominent and elevated position

• Mature man with a serious, solemn expression.

• Depicted with a halo inscribed with a cross → symbol of his divinity and sacrifice

• Right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing with the fingers arranged in a way that symbolize both the sign of the cross and the initials for “IC XC” (Greek abbreviation for Jesus Christ)

• Left hand holds the Gospels, representing his role as the Word of God and the source of divine truth

• Gospel book in Christ’s hand often has an inscription

  • “I am the Light of the Word”

  • “Come unto me”

  • Emphasize Christ’s dual role as both a source of guidance and the judge of humanity

• Direct, penetrating gaze

  • Communicate his omniscience and ability to see into the soul of the viewer

• Gold backgrounds

  • Radiant, ethereal effect.

  • Symbolizing divine light of Christ

  • Removes the image from earthly space, placying him in a timeless, heavenly realm.

• Color palette

  • Deep blues, reds, and golds.

  • Emphasizing solemnity and majesty

• Symmetry and frontal poses → divine stability and authority

• Facial features became standardized across Byzantine art

  • Creating a recognizable, universal image that viewers could immediately identify.

• Constant reminder of his omnipotent authority and his role as the ultimate judge who will preside over the Last Judgement

  • Personal connection with a compassionate yet powerful deity who governed the cosmos

Vocabulary

• Pendentive(s)

  • Triangular segment of a sphere that fills the upper corners of a room to support a dome

  • Used in architecture to place a circular dome over a square dome or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room

  • Taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to create a circular or elliptical base for the dome

  • Allowed for the construction of taller domes and created a new engineering technique

  • Created an interesting interior space that could be decorated

  • Could be used to tell a visual story

• Encaustic

  • Painting technique that involves applying a heated wax medium mixed with pigment to a surface

  • Main ingredients of encaustic are beeswax and damar resin, a tree gum. → encaustic medium

  • Wax applied to a surface

  • Heating element fuse. thepaint into a uniform film → burning in

  • Ancient Greeks developed for architectural design, decorative paintings, and burial portraits.

  • Encaustic paint’s colors stay true over time

    • Beeswax is photoreactive

      • May turn yellow if kept in the dark for a long time

      • Exposing to natural light will restore the colors

• Icon

  • Sacred images of holy figures, events, and angels that were believed to connect worshipers to Christ, Mary, or other saints.

  • Comes from the Greek word “eikon” → “image”

  • Made from a variety of materials

    • Most common: encaustic

  • Included attributes to help identify the figures they represented

  • Texts were sometimes included to label the subjects

• Iconoclasm

  • Theological debate and a period of time when the production and use of religious images was prohibited by imperial law

  • Iconoclasm → “image breaking“

    • Destruction of religious images for political or religious reasons

  • Iconomachy "→ “image struggle”

  • Iconoclasts were those who opposed icons

• Mandorla

  • Almond-shaped aureole that surrounds the entire body of a holy figure

  • Italian for “almond”

• Theotokos

  • Virgin Mary as the Mother of God

  • Compound of. to Greek words: “God” (theos) and “childbirth” or “offspring” (tokos)

  • Often depicted in icons holding the infant Jesus

• Pantocrator

  • Jesus Christ as the “ruler of all” or “all-powerful”

  • Combination of the Greek word pas (“all”) and kratos (“strength” or" “power”)

  • Seated on his throne in the church dome, delivering his blessing and judgement.

  • Frontally with his right hand raised in a blessing gesture and his left hand holding a gospel book

• Illuminated Manuscript

  • Religious documents that often depicted Christianity

  • Decorated with gold and silver

  • Featured illustrations and other flourishes to highlight parts of the text

  • Produced in a variety of settings

  • Often commissioned by patrons and used for private worship or gifted to churches

• Theocracy

  • Emptire’s political ideals and goals were based on Christian values and ideals

  • Emperor was seen as God’s representative on Earth

  • Constitution was based on the idea that the empire was a replica of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth