Early Christianity and Byzantium
Early Christian Art: Funerary Art :: Architecture and Mosaics :: Manuscript
Illumination :: Byzantine Art: Early Byzantine Art :: Iconoclasm (726-843) :: Middle
Byzantine Art :: Byzantium after 1204
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART:
FUNERARY ART
The new monotheistic religion of Christianity that grew out of Judaism during the Roman
Imperial period adapted imagery and architectural forms from other religious cults and
secular sources as its adherents sought ways to express and practice their religious beliefs
in visual terms and in suitable architectural spaces.
Christians in Rome buried their dead in subterranean networks of galleries and chambers
called catacombs. Openings were cut into the walls to hold the dead. Most early Christian
art in Rome is found in these catacombs.
Jonah and Jesus:
Chambers that served as mortuary chapels adjoining the galleries in catacombs were
sometimes painted with Christian symbols and motifs, praying figures (orants), and
biblical scenes suitable to a funerary context.
4-1: The Good Shepherd, the story of Jonah, and orants, painted ceiling of a
cubiculum in the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, Rome, Italy, early
fourth century.
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Frescoes
Frescoes
Frescoes
Frescoes
Frescoes
A convert's coffin:
The Old Testament scenes on the Junius Bassus sarcophagus were chosen for their
significance in the early Christian Church.
4-2: Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, from Rome, Italy, ca. 359. Marble, 3' 10 1/2 " X
8'. Museo Storico del Tesoro della Basilica di San Pietro, Rome.
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sarcophagus
sarcophagus
sarcophagus
sarcophagus
sarcophagus
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ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS
Constantinian Patronage:
Christian architecture adapted the Roman basilica and audience hall for use as a church
following a design that includes a nave, flanking aisles, transept, and apse. Also adopted
was the central-plan building for use as mausoleums, baptisteries, and private chapels.
Byzantine architects used the central plan design also for churches. The interior surfaces
were decorated with mosaics.
Basilica to church:
Peter was Rome's first bishop and also the head of the long line of popes that extends to
the present.
4-3: Restored view of Old Saint Peter's, Rome, Italy, begun ca. 320.
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Reconstruction
Plan and Section
Interior Reconstruction
Drawing
Plan
4-4: Interior of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, dedicated 504.
1. interior
2. interior
3. interior
The central plan:
Early Christian architects also adopted the central-plan building for churches. The
building is called central-plan because the buildings' parts are of equal dimensions around
the center.
4-5: Interior of Santa Costanza, Rome, Italy, ca. 337-351.
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interior
interior
interior
interior
4-6: Plan of Santa Costanza, Rome, Italy, ca. 337-351.
1. Section and Plan
2. Section and Plan
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3. Section and Plan
4. Section and Plan
Mosaics for a martyr:
Religious architecture includes a small cruciform building with barrel-vaulted arms and a
dome-covered crossing, and a larger basilican plan church. The interiors are adorned with
mosaics.
4-7: Christ as the Good Shepherd, mosaic from the entrance wall of
the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 425.
1. mosaic
2. mosaic
Theodoric's Palace-Church:
In the ninth century, the three-aisled basilica in Ravenna was rededicated Sant'Apollinare
Nuovo.
4-8: Miracle of the loaves and fishes, mosaic from the top register of the nave wall
(above the clerestory windows) of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 504.
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mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION
The first illustrated bibles:
Codex manuscript bibles were illustrated with small paintings ("illuminations") of
biblical scenes.
4-9: Rebecca and Eliezer at the well, folio 7 recto of the Vienna Genesis, early sixth
century. Tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum, approx. 1' 1/4" X 9 1/4".
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.
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1. folio
2. folio
BYZANTINE ART: EARLY BYZANTINE ART
In 324, Constantine I founded the city Constantinople on the site of the ancient city of
Byzantium to serve as the new capital of the Roman Empire. After the collapse of the
empire in the west in the 5th century, Constantinople and the eastern portion of the
empire continued to flourish artistically for another thousand years, until the 15th century
when it was finally defeated and occupied by the Ottoman Turks.
A distinctive Byzantine style emerged during the reign of Justinian in the sixth century.
Holy wisdom:
The domed church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is one of the supreme
accomplishments of world architecture.
Churches built in Constantinople and Ravenna and the fortress monastery built at Mount
Sinai in Egypt are typically plain on the exterior but lavishly decorated with mosaics on
the inside.
4-10: ANTHEMIUS OF TRALLES and ISIDORUS OF
MILETUS, Hagia Sophia (view facing north), Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey,
532-537.
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exterior
exterior
exterior
exterior
exterior
exterior
4-11: ANTHEMIUS OF TRALLES and
ISIDORUS OF MILETUS, interior of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul),
Turkey, 532-537.
1. interior
2. interior
3. interior
Pendentives:
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Justinian's architects used pendentives to transfer the weight from the great dome to the
piers beneath, rather than to the walls.
The domed basilica:
By placing a hemishperical dome on a square base instead of a circular base, Anthemius
and Isidorus fused two architectural traditions: the vertically oriented central-plan
building and the longitudinally oriented basilica.
4-12: ANTHEMIUS OF TRALLES and ISIDORUS OF MILETUS, longitudinal
section and plan of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, 532-537 (after
drawings by Van Nice and Antoniades).
1. plan
2. Longitudinal section
3. Cross-section
Byzantine liturgy:
The ingenious design of Hagia Sophia provided the illumination and the setting for the
solemn liturgy of the Orthodox faith.
San Vitale, martyr's shrine:
San Vitale is the most spectacular building in Ravenna.
Aerial view of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-547.
1. exterior
2. exterior
3. exterior
4-14: Plan of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-547.
1. plan
2. plan
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4-13:
4-15: Interior of San Vitale (view from the apse into the choir), Ravenna, Italy, 526547.
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interior
interior
interior
interior
Justinian and Christ:
The mosaics that decorate the apse and choir of San Vitale proclaim the triumph of
Justinian and of the Orthodox faith.
4-16:
Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants, mosaic from the north wall of the
apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547.
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mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
Theodora at San Vitale:
The presence of Theodora at San Vitale is significant as neither she nor Junstinain ever
visited Ravenna.
4-17: Theodora and attendants,
mosaic from the south wall of the apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547.
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mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
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Monasticism in Egypt:
The monastic movement began in Egypt in the third century and spread rapidly to
Palestine and Syria in the East and as far as Ireland in the West.
Monks and icons:
Some of the finest early icons come from Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai.
4-18: Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George, icon,
sixth or early seventh century. Encaustic on wood, 2' 3" X 1' 7 3/8". Monastery of
Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt.
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icon
icon
icon
icon
ICONOCLASM (726-843)
During this period almost two-thirds of the Byzantine's Empire was lost.
MIDDLE BYZANTINE ART
Middle Byzantine art emerges in the wake of the Iconoclastic period with the renewal of
image making and the need to refurbish defaced and neglected churches, including the
Hagia Sophia.
New churches, new mosaics:
Beginning in the 10th century, a number of domed, central-plan monastic churches were
built in Greece.
4-19: Christ as Pantokrator, dome mosaic in the Church of
the Dormition, Daphni, Greece, ca. 1090-1100.
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mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
mosaic
detail
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4-20: Crucifixion, mosaic in the Church of the Dormition, Daphni, Greece, ca. 10901100.
1. mosaic
2. mosaic plan
Venice and Byzantium:
A resurgence of religious architecture and of the mosaicist's art also occurred in areas of
the former Roman empire.
4-21: Interior of Saint Mark's (view facing east),
Venice, Italy, begun 1063.
1. interior
2. interior
3. interior
Byzantium in the Balkans:
Once the ban against religious images was lifted, a renewed enthusiasm for picturing key
New Testament figures was universal.
4-22: Lamentation, wall painting, Saint Pantaleimon, Nerezi, Macedonia, 1164.
1. painting
2. painting
David as Greek harpist:
The Paris Psalter reasserts the artistic values of the classical past with astonishing
authority.
4-23: David composing the Psalms, folio 1 verso of the Paris Psalter, ca. 950-970.
Tempera on vellum, 1' 2 1/8" X 10 1/4". Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
1. folio
2. folio
A miracle-working icon:
The return of the painted icon best demonstrates the rejection of the iconoclastic
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viewpoint.
4-24: Virgin (Theotokos) and Child, icon (Vladimir Virgin), late eleventh to early
twelfth century. Tempera on wood, original panel approx. 2' 6 1/2" X 1' 9".
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
1. icon
2. icon
3. icon
Early Christian Art: Funerary Art :: Architecture and Mosaics :: Manuscript
Illumination :: Byzantine Art: Early Byzantine Art :: Iconoclasm (726-843) :: Middle
Byzantine Art :: Byzantium after 1204
BYZANTIUM AFTER 1204
During the Fourth Crusade in 1203 and 1204, the crusaders attacked and sacked the city
of Constantinople. They split the remainder of Byzatium into three small states which,
isolated from the West by Muslim conquests in the Balkans and to the east, ultimately fell
to the Ottoman Turks.
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