Cultural Studies I
Byzantium – Chapter 10
November 2010
Byzantium becomes Constantinople
• The city of Byzantium was a relatively unimportant harbor city
before the arrival of Constantine, the first Christian ruler of
the Roman Empire
• Emperor Constantine shifted his capital from Rome to
Byzantium in 325 CE, which he renamed Constantinople
• Why was the capital relocated?
– 330 CE, Roman Empire in severe economic and political decline, Rome
was disease-ridden
– The city was so weakened that it was sacked several times (first for
800 years)
– Strategic military location and central, surrounded by water
Constantine’s capital
• Constantine’s empire focused on the eastern Mediterranean
(modern-day Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria) but its influence
extended as far west as Spain, across north Africa, large parts of Italy
and all of Greece
• Constantinople had two roles: capital of the empire and center of the
Christian church. How did these two roles affect the city itself?
– As the capital of the empire, it was a city every bit as opulent as Rome:
magnificent forums, elaborate baths, massive walls for defense, Roman palace
and senate, Roman hippodrome – all but the basilicas decorated with pagan art
taken from all Roman provinces and moved to the new capital. How did
Christians in Constantinople respond to the presence of pagan art and
sculpture? How did this change over time? (page 315)
– Great basilicas were built to signify the city’s role as the center of Christian
culture in the early Middle Ages
• During the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe’s largest and
wealthiest city
• Constantinople lasted as the capital until 1453 when the Ottoman
Turks conquered the city
The walls of Constantinople
• Built in 412 CE, the walls of
Constantinople were
impregnable against enemy
attack until the 15th century,
when Turkish Ottomans invaded
using modern cannons
• The walls are one of the most
complex and elaborate systems
ever built
• Initially built by Constantine, the
walls surrounded the city on all
sides, protecting it against attack
from both sea and land
• They saved the city from many
medieval attacks but when
gunpowder and cannons began
to be used, the walls became
vulnerable
Justinian and Theodora: Byzantine power couple
• As a young emperor, Justinian and his
wife Theodora launched a massive
construction campaign to divert
attention from domestic turmoil
(warring gangs, riots, destruction in
Constantinople)
• Justinian asserted his political
leadership but also ruled as a spiritual
authority with a direct connection to
god
• Theodora was originally an actress but
became a powerful queen – she did
not fit a conventional understanding of
women’s place in society, which she
sought to improve: she shut down
brothels, defended wronged women
and influenced the passage of many
laws to improve the status of women
in the empire
• The couple enjoyed a union of mutual
respect and apparently equal status
Byzantine art: a new standard of beauty
• A new standard of beauty replaced the physical ideal of
Classical art with the representation of spiritual power
– What does the above statement mean? How did the focus and
purpose of art change during the Byzantine Empire?
Byzantine art: a new standard of beauty
• A new standard of beauty replaced the physical ideal of
Classical art with the representation of spiritual power
– What does the above statement mean? How did the focus and
purpose of art change during the Byzantine Empire?
• The validity and morality of representing the body was
questioned during this time, resulting in the abandonment of
the naturalism of Classical art
• As the Empire gained control of territories in the west that
had succumbed to Germanic invasion, the Byzantine style
spread into the rest of Europe
– The Byzantine style would endure for 1,000 years in Europe
Constantinople
-once fortified by walls that withstood attacks until the Turks captured it in 1453, after
which it became a Muslim city
-Constantinople was one of the richest and most cosmopolitan and sophisticated in the
world – entertainment included chariot races, theatre productions
-Justinian and Theodora, the notorious Empress and Emperor, constructed the Church of
the Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia, 532-37, Istanbul – built for Justinian and Theodora
-masterpiece in Byzantine architecture
-central dome is buttressed by smaller half domes
-appears solid from the exterior
-unlike the Roman Pantheon, which sits on a circular base, the dome of the Hagia
Sophia sits on a square base supported by four large piers
Hagia Sophia
-while domed, it is not a centrally planned church due to the oval nave
-single focus of attention as well as a great open space – combined the
advantages of the longitudinal basilica plan with those of the domes central plan
-lofty interior
-dome seems to
float
-transition from
circle to square
supported by
pendentives,
pieces of
triangular
supporting
masonry
-the dome that
rises from these
pendentives has
40 windows,
creating a circle of
light that makes
the dome appear
to float
-the dome is 184
feet high (41 feet
higher than the
Pantheon)
• Beneath the arches are ‘conch domes’ (half domes), semicircular structures that spread out from a central dome,
extending the space
• The succession of curving spaces draws the visitor’s eye both
upward to the symbolically heavenly space of the dome and
forward to the sanctuary apse where the altar is
• The domes are believed to have been covered with gold
mosaics – creating a magical celestial light
San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-47 CE
-typically plain, unadorned exterior
Two centrally planned churches in early Christianity:
Santa Costanza:
Circular plan
San Vitale: octagonal plan
Minarets were added to the Hagia Sophia by Ottomans when they converted it into a
mosque http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW8zUDI27pU
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome – visitor’s eye drawn towards the altar
Ravenna
Constantinople
San Vitale:
-complex interior space
-advantage of a central dome – creates a
large covered space
Disadvantage: visitor’s eye attracted up into
the dome rather than toward the altar
-Light enters on three levels
-polished marble surfaces, glittering
mosaics
-why is there such a contrast between the
interior and exterior?
San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy – How can we characterize the depictions of people?
Empress Theodora
-typically Byzantine features:
•Larges eyes
•Small mouth
•Long nose
•Slender and weightless body
•Drapery of dress gives no idea
of the body underneath
•Appears frozen
•Lack of concern for realism
Capitals of columns in Ravenna were designed to appear lace-like – masks the
solidity and strength of the material
Byzantine Mural Mosaics
• Byzantine mosaics are made by embedding into soft cement or
plaster squares of naturally colored stone with squares of opaque
(as opposed to clear) glass, which offer a variety of vivid colors
• The squares are called tesserae, from the Greek word meaning
‘squares’
• Gold tesserae were widely used in Byzantine mosaics – made by
sandwiching gold leaf between two layers of glass
• Artists first outlined the images on the wall, then covered areas
with cement of plaster and adding the tesserae while each section
was wet
• Each tessera was set at a slight angle to the one adjacent to it so
the light striking the squares would produce a shimmering,
heavenly radiance
Byzantine tesserae set at angles produce a
shimmering effect
Greek and Roman tesserae were set flat on a
perfectly even surface – the materials were
usually limited to pebble, stone and shell
Byzantine tesserae set at angles produce a
shimmering effect
Greek and Roman tesserae were set flat on a
perfectly even surface – the materials were
usually limited to pebble, stone and shell
Perspective and reverse perspective
Reverse perspective, also called ‘Byzantine
perspective’, is a convention of perspective drawing
where the further the objects are, the larger they
are drawn.
The lines diverge against the horizon, rather than
converge as in linear perspective.
Justinian and Theodora had never actually set foot in San Vitale or even Ravenna. So why
were they depicted in the mosaics in San Vitale?
Justinian and Theodora had never actually set foot in San Vitale or even Ravenna. So why
were they depicted in the mosaics in San Vitale?
-a symbol of the relations between church and state in the Byzantine Empire
The Later Byzantine Empire
• In the 150 years following Justinian’s rule, there were multiple
political and military setbacks for the Byzantines:
–
–
–
–
Germanic tribes overran Italy and the Balkans
Persian forces sacked Jerusalem in 614
Most importantly, Islam emerged after the death of Muhammed in 632
Byzantines re-captured Jerusalem in 620 only to lose it again to Muslim
Arabs in 638
– Within two years, Muslim Arabs had conquered Syria, Palestine, and Iraq
– In 542, the Byzantine army abandoned Alexandria
• Muslims now controlled all of what was once Byzantine Asia
Minor
• Constantinople, still the center of the Byzantine Empire, was
besieged twice but its invincible walls kept Muslim invaders out.
The Byzantine
Empire when
Justinian became
emperor (527), at
his death (565) and
later in 1355
The Iconoclast Controversy
• The rise of Islam as a powerful military and religious force had a
powerful influence on Byzantine art.
• As the Muslims gained power and converts, the Byzantine
Emperor Leo III began to oppose the use of holy images. Why do
you think he adopted this stance?
– Muslims forbid images from mosques, and so the logic went, their
military success against the Byzantine Empire was a sign of God’s
approval of their religious practices a sign of God’s disapproval of
Byzantium’s
• Like Muslims, Leo argued that God had prohibited religious
images in the Ten Commandments:
– “Thou shalt not make any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth….”
The era of iconoclasm
• Iconoclasm comes from the
Greek eikon (“icon” or “image”)
and klao (to “break” or
“destroy”) and was the practice
of destroying religious images
• 726 –Emperor Leo III ordered all
icons in the Byzantine Empire
destroyed – wall paintings were
painted over, books burned,
mosaics destroyed and
reconstituted as crosses,
sculptures smashed
The Crucifixion and Iconoclasts, Chludov Psalter,
870-75
• What is happening in this
image?
• What were some reactions to
the iconoclasts by the
‘iconophiles’ (literally ‘lovers of
icons’)?
• 843 – icons are restored to Orthodox worship
• Iconoclasm would reappear several hundred years later during
the Renaissance
• The controversy affirmed the centrality of visual imagery in
Western culture
• The controversy also contributed to the radical division, or
schism, between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern
Orthodox Church
• The Great Schism of 1054 CE – the church split into two
branches: 1) Eastern Church, based in Constantinople and lead by
the patriarch 2) Roman church, lead by the pope
Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the
Catholic church
Patriarch of Eastern Orthodox
church, Bartholamew I
• Cultural differences between the churches:
– Few in the west spoke Greek
– Few in the east spoke Latin
– Most Roman Catholics believed that images of God
the Father, Christ, and the Virgin served to inspire
reverence and piety, while most in the Eastern
Orthodox church did not
– Eastern Orthodox Church discouraged innovation to
the point that its art remained remarkably consistent
to modern times
– In contrast, the church in the west was open to new
artistic innovation, as we will see in later chapters
Where are these Greek Orthodox churches?
Where are these Greek Orthodox churches?
(from bottom left: London, Tennessee, Alabama)
What features make these churches recognizably
Eastern Orthodox churches?
The Icon in the Second Golden Age
• After the Iconoclast Controversy, Macedonians headed by
Basil I, gained power in the Byzantine Empire (867-1056)
• The empire enjoyed a rebirth of art and architecture, often
referred to as the Second Golden Age
The empire was rather
reduced (Turkey,
Greece, southern Italy)
and exerted influence
over Russia, Ukraine,
and Venice).
•
•
•
The artists of the Byzantine Empire’s
Macedonian era turned to classical and
Justinian art for their church decoration
– as a result, the traditional icon took
on a more naturalistic air and an almost
Hellenistic emotional appeal
Images of Christ on the cross had
appeared occasionally in earlier
centuries but after the iconoclast
controversy, they appeared with
greater frequency
The crucifixion found in the Church of
Dormition at Daphni (near Athens,
Greece) is a good example Second
Golden Age Byzantine art
– Traditional in its use of reverse
perspective and its unrealistic spatial
setting – uses gold tiles to create a
‘spiritual space’
– The nudity of Christ and the graceful
gestures of the Virgin Mary and St. John
and the draperies of their clothing are
clearly inspired by classical Roman and
Greek art (very different from the stiff
folds of Justinian and Theodora mosaics in
San Vitale)
– Also, the human emotion displayed is also
Classical rather than Byzantine
Christ the Pantocrator
Another innovation of the Byzantine Empire’s Second
Golden Age is the icon of Christ the Pantocrator, literally
means Lord or Master of Everything (the universe)
A bearded Christ appeared earlier in Byzantine art (see
figure 10.7, Transfiguration of Christ), the inspiration of this
figure is the bearded Zeus of Classical art
1) What is going on in
this image?
2) What are the characteristics of the new Byzantine style of art? Why did
Byzantine artists abandon the naturalism of classical Greek and Roman
art?
3) What is the iconoclast controversy? How did it affect the arts, especially
with regard to the differing attitudes toward the arts in the Eastern
Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches?