Byzantine Art and Architecture - Summary Notes

Introduction to Byzantium

• Byzantium was the original name of Constantinople, later referring to the entire Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).
• Byzantine art is the art of Byzantium.
• Emperor Constantine:
  • Promoted Christianity (Edict of Milan, $313$ CE).
  • Moved the Roman capital to Constantinople in $330$ CE.

Key Dates in Byzantine History

• Barbarian invasions: $100-500$ CE.
• Maximum territorial extension: c. $555$ CE under Emperor Justinian I.
• Muslim invasions: c. $600-800$ CE.
• Iconoclastic controversy: $720s-843$ CE, prohibiting image production.
• Fall of Constantinople: $1453$ CE to the Ottoman Empire.

Periods in Byzantine History

• Early Byzantine Period: $527–726$ CE.
• Middle Byzantine Period: $843–1204$ CE.
• Late Byzantine Period: $1261–1453$ CE.

Overview of Byzantine Art and Architecture

• Religious Architecture:
  • Central plan churches and basilicas.
  • Domes with sophisticated structures.
  • Simple exteriors, lavish interiors.
• Religious Interiors:
  • Rich colors and decoration.
  • Mosaics with gold (representing divinity).
• Images:
  • Religious devotion and transcendental qualities.
  • Clarity in religious stories.
  • Symbolic, symmetrical, static representations, with some dynamism returning in the Late Byzantine Period.

Early Byzantine Period (527–726 CE)

• Architecture and mosaics in Ravenna, Italy:
  • Basilica of Saint Apollinaire in Classe.
  • Church of S. Vitale.
• Architecture and interior decoration in Constantinople:
  • Church of Hagia Sophia.
• New architectural developments:
  • Pendentives in dome architecture.
  • Byzantine capitals.

Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy (720s–843 CE)

• Icon: Greek for “image,” referring to religious images of Byzantium.
• Iconoclasm: Destruction of images.
• Iconoclast: Opposed/destroyed icons.
• Iconophile: Supported religious images.
• Debate points:
  • Iconophiles (Popes) supported images for teaching religion to the illiterate.
  • Iconoclast emperors opposed images, citing the Bible.
  • Contributed to the split between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches (Great Schism, 1054).

Middle Byzantine Period (843–1204 CE)

• Religious images accepted and viewed as holy.
• Simplified imagery developed; iconography became fixed.
• Iconography:
  • Virgin and Child mosaic in Hagia Sophia.
  • Christ Pantocrator: standardized iconography.
• Icon characteristics: portable, religious images on wood.
• Church architecture: St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice; Monreale Cathedral in Sicily.

Late Byzantine Period (1261–1453 CE)

• Religious painting techniques: fresco and egg tempera.
• Continuities and new approaches in religious painting: Madonna and child on a curved throne; Resurrection in the Church of the Monastery of Christ in Chora.