1. Byzantine art,
architecture and culture

2. Byzantine Empire
• Capital of Eastern Roman Empire moved to
Constantinople (330 AD)
– More advantageous trade route between Asia and
Europe
– Other factors: Situated; port; forests; water;
agricultural land
• Rome falls to the Goths in 476 AD
• Reached its highest expression of power in early
6th (500s) century when Justinian took the throne
• Longest-lasting empire just short of Egyptian
• Exerted strong cultural influence over Christian
world

3. Byzantine Empire with Time

4. architecture

5. Byzantine Architecture
• Most famous church : Hagia Sophia
– Name means “Holy Wisdom”
• Church is the culminating example of
Byzantine architecture known as arcuate
domicile
• Built between 532-537 AD
• Was once the largest church in the world

6. Hagia Sophia

10. Hagia Sophia
• Bricks alternated with mortar were not
properly/evenly balanced for weight
– Destroyed twice
– Damage/Collapse occurred during two
earthquakes
– Rebuilt by Justinian I
• Arches buckled and buttresses were erected
• New research suggests actually survived b/o
these features: windows, pendentives,
mortar/brick ratio; mortar itself flexible and
self-sealing.

11. Stone remains of the basilica Marble blocks from the
ordered by Theodosius II, second church
showing the Lamb of God

12. Hagia Sophia
• Long plan + Dome (Holy Sepulcher)
• Emphasis is placed on the elevated central
pavilion –ie, the dome
– Image of heaven
– Tall, open spaces
– Need for light
• Pavilion is a large dome with two half domes
flocking the east and west sides
• Took five years to finish

13. Ground-plan of the Hagia Sophia A section of the original
architecture of Hagia Sophia

14. Hagia Sophia
• In order to create a transcendental
environment, dome could not be heavy as
seen in typical barrel vault techniques
• Architects Anthemius and Isidore created
and used pendentives
• Triangular masonry devices that
carried the weight of the dome on
massive piers

17. Inside
Hagia
Sophia

20. Hagia Sophia
• Shows elements of old basilica styles
– Columned side aisles
– Gallery for female worship
• Overwhelming visual impression from
dome

21. Need for light
• Light = symbol of divine wisdom, illumination
• Forty windows make the dome appear to be
floating
• Light refracted off the rich mosaics and
colored marbled interior
• Nave= oval
• 184’ high

27. Ravenna: Mausoleums
•Built between 425 and 433 BC.
•The mausoleums were covered with
mosaics.
•Brilliance of the colors, which mask the
architecture and create an illusionistic
effect.
•Notable - Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
and Mausoleum of Theodoric

28. Ravenna : Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

29. Inside
Mausoleum of
Galla Placidia

30. Mausoleum of Theodoric

31. Mosaics

32. Mosaics
• Mosaics are icons
– A window into the world of the sacred
• One stands before the icon and speaks
through its image to the reality beyond
– (Justinian had several mosaics of himself created;
thought he represented Christ on Earth)
• Religious figures always surrounded by halo
of light.

33. The Deësis mosaic with Christ as ruler from the
Hagia Sophia

34. Some Other Examples of Mosaics

35. Justinian and Theodora

36. Emperor Justinian and Attendants
Tile Mosaic (540 – 547 AD)

37. Theodora

38. Christ the Good Shepherd

39. St Lawrence

41. Concentric Circles

42. Sant Apollinare / Nuovo

47. Christ the Sustainer

49. Icons
• Often painted on wood
• Used in the home as
well as in churches

51. Controversy Surrounding Icons
• Many people believed them to be idol worship.
• These people became known as iconoclasts.
• Byzantine Emperor banned them for a time.
• Patriarch of Rome not recognized as main Christian
authority by the Byzantines.
• Patriarch of Rome declared all opposition to icons a
heresy.
• Heresy – anything attacking the basic principles of the
church.
• Heresy was punishable by excommunication
• Excommunication – being kicked out of the church.

52. Split in the Christian Church
• 1054 AD Christian Church split into two parts.
• Western Church – Roman Catholic Church
• Led by the Pope, in Rome
• Eastern Church – Eastern Orthodox Church
• Led by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

53. Split in the Christian Church

54. Byzantine Sculptures
• The most prominent works of sculpture are
manufactured Byzantine capitals
ornamental plant and animal motifs.
• But the major works of sculpture is the small
Byzantine works, pamphlets and carved
boxes in ivory.

55. Archangel Ivory
•The Archangel ivory is the largest surviving
Byzantine ivory panel, now in the British
Museum. Dated to the early 6th century, it
depicts an archangel holding a sceptre and
imperial orb.
•The archangel is usually identified as
Michael, and the panel is assumed to have
formed the right part of a diptych, with the
lost left half possibly depicting Emperor
Justinian (reigned 527–565).

56. Archangel Ivory

57. Barberini Ivory
•The Barberini ivory is one fifth of a
Byzantine ivory imperial diptych dating
from Late Antiquity, now in the Louvre,
Paris, France. It is carved in the classical
style known as late Theodosian,
representing the emperor as triumphant
victor.

58. Barberini Ivory

59. Consular Diptych
•In Late Antiquity a consular diptych was a
particular type of diptych (a pair of linked panels,
generally in ivory, wood or metal and decorated
with rich sculpted decoration) which could
function as a writing tablet but was also intended
as a deluxe commemorative object,
commissioned by a consul ordinarius and then
distributed to reward those who had supported
his candidature as rewards and to mark his entry
to that post.

60. Consular Diptych

61. Imperial Diptych
•In Late Antiquity, an imperial diptych is a
theoretical type of ivory diptych, made up of
two leaves of five panels each and each with
a central panel representing the emperor or
empress.

62. Imperial Diptych

63. Byzantine Literature
• Four different cultural elements are to
be reckoned with:
– The Greek
– The Christian
– The Roman
– The Oriental

64. Byzantine Literature
• Genres
Historians and Annalists
Encyclopedists and Essayists
Secular Poetry
Ecclesiastical and Theological Literature
Popular Poetry

65. Historians and Annalists
• Jurists - Procopius, Agathias, Evagrius,
Michael Attaliates.
• Statesmen - Joannes Cinnamus, Nicetas
Acominatus, Georgius Pachymeres, Laonicus
Chalcondyles.
• Generals and diplomats - Nicephorus
Bryennius, George Acropolites, Georgius
Phrantzes.
• crowned heads - Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, Anna Comnena, John VI
Cantacuzene.

66. Historians and Annalists
• Jurists - Procopius, Agathias, Evagrius,
Michael Attaliates.
• Statesmen - Joannes Cinnamus, Nicetas
Acominatus, Georgius Pachymeres, Laonicus
Chalcondyles.
• Generals and diplomats - Nicephorus
Bryennius, George Acropolites, Georgius
Phrantzes.
• crowned heads - Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, Anna Comnena, John VI
Cantacuzene.

67. An image and text from John Skylitzes 'Chronicle'
A work of 11th Century Byzantine Historical scholar.

68. Encyclopedists and Essayists
• Patriarch Photios, Michael Psellos,
and Michael Choniates are regarded as
the greatest Encyclopedists of
Byzantium

69. A page from a 16th-century edition of the vast
Byzantine Encyclopaedia, the Suda

70. Secular poetry
• They wrote romances, panegyrics, epigrams,
satires, and didactic and hortatory poetry.
• The only genuine heroic epic of the
Byzantines is the Digenis Acritas.

71. Byzantine Music
• Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine
Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial,
festival, or church music.
• Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient
Greek system.
• It remains the oldest genre of extant music, of
which the manner of performance and the names of
the composers, and sometimes the particulars of
each musical work's circumstances, are known.

72. Byzantine Music
• The identification of "Byzantine music" with
"Eastern Christian liturgical chant" is a
misconception due to historical cultural reasons. Its
main cause is the leading role of the Church as
bearer of learning and official culture in the Eastern
Roman Empire (Byzantium), a phenomenon that
was not always that extreme but that was
exacerbated towards the end of the empire's reign
(14th century onwards) as great secular scholars
migrated away from a declining Constantinople to
rising western cities, bringing with them much of
the learning that would spur the development of
the European Renaissance.

73. Byzantine music notation style in a 1823 "Book of
Hymns at the Lord's Resurrection"

74. Dance
• Antiquity was originally held to have some kind of
educational value, as evidenced in Plato's dialogues
on this point in The Laws. However, as Greek
culture gradually conquered Rome, dancing lost most
of its educational value and was simply used as a
method of entertainment, this coincided with the
perception that being a dancer was not a particularly
admirable job to have, and that its performers were
generally of low social status.

75. Popular Dances of That
Period
• Syrtos (literally "dragged dance")
• Geranos ("circle dance")
• Mantilia ("kerchiefs")
• Saximos
• Pyrrichios ("war dance")
• Kordakas ("indecent dance")

77. Musical Instruments
• Byzantine instruments included the:
• Guitar
• Single, double, or multiple flute
• Sistrum ("tambourine, instrument with
bells")
• Timpani ("drum")
• Psaltirio ("psalter")
• Lyre
• Keras ("horn (musical)")
• Kanonaki

78. Byzantine Musicians

79. Byzantine Economy
• The Byzantine economy was among the most
advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for
many centuries. Europe, in particular, was unable to
match Byzantine economic strength until late in the
Middle Ages. Constantinople was a prime hub in a
trading network that at various times extended
across nearly all of Eurasia and North Africa, in
particular being the primary western terminus of
the famous silk road.

80. Byzantine Economy contd.
• One of the economic foundations of the empire was
trade. Textiles must have been by far the most
important item of export; silks were certainly
imported into Egypt, and appeared also in Bulgaria,
and the West. The state strictly controlled both the
internal and the international trade, and retained
the monopoly of issuing coinage. The government
exercised formal control over interest rates, and set
the parameters for the activity of the guilds and
corporations, in which it had a special interest.

81. The PersisTence of
ByzanTine culTure

82. Byzantine and Russia
• Sense of Stability due to Russian
Orthodox (and Greek Orthodox)
churches
– Russian emissaries brought back Byzantine
style of art
– Impact of services in Hagia Sophia and the
building itself
– Russian Onion-dome churches - Byzantine
influence
– Schools of icon painting in Russia

83. Byzantine and Italy
• Most dominant influence in Ravenna
under Justinian
• Byzantine artists active in Italy after
iconoclastic controversy
• Influences create own movement
known as Italo-Byzantine by the end of
the 13th century

84. Stability in Art
• Art connected to theological doctrine
and liturgical practice
– Infuse work with spirituality
• Icon painting considered a holy
occupation
– New Orthodox church
• Commission monk or icon painter
• Greece
– Movement to purge icon painting of
Western Influence

85. Carry on Greek tradition
• During Middle Ages (next unit) Greek
learning becomes “lost”
• Greek learning gained through Arabic
sources
– Aristotle (12th and 13th centuries)
– Greek language not readily known 15th
century
• Greek scholars move westward after fall
of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453

86. Thank you
Presented By – Joyita Dey
Batch 2 ( FP)