Byzantine, << BIHZ uhn teen or bih ZAN tihn, >> art is the Eastern Christian art that flourished during the time of the Byzantine Empire, from the 300’s to the 1400’s. In the West, Byzantine art is known chiefly for domed churches with magnificent interiors that feature a variety of highly crafted religious images. Byzantine artists used many costly materials, including gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, to create colorful murals. Religious artworks of a smaller scale, such as books and panel pictures, show a similar interest in elaborate workmanship and luxury materials.
Many Byzantine works of art were produced to serve the imperial court or the imperial religion, which was Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Most Byzantine artists worked as servants of the court or belonged to religious orders, and they often remained anonymous. These artists followed strong conventions that restricted both the content and the form of their work. For example, in Byzantine paintings, tradition often determined the choice of the subject and the arrangement of the figures within the picture. In general, the figures in Byzantine painting appear flat and somewhat abstract to modern viewers.
The development of Byzantine art
In A.D. 330, Byzantium became a capital of the Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople. In 395, the Roman Empire permanently split into the West Roman Empire and the East Roman, or Byzantine, Empire. The Byzantine Empire included lands along the Mediterranean and Black seas and lasted until 1453. In that year, the Ottomans captured Constantinople. The Ottomans later gave the city its present name, Istanbul. See Byzantine Empire.
During the early period of Byzantine art, which began in the 300’s and ended in the 600’s, architects began to build impressive domed churches. The middle period of Byzantine art started in the 800’s and featured smaller churches. During the late period of Byzantine art, which began in the 1200’s, artists experimented with more expressive painting styles.
Byzantine art varied over the centuries and also from region to region. The art that developed in Constantinople was imitated in many areas, including Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Spain. These areas created their own styles of Byzantine art to suit their particular political, religious, and social needs.
Western artists and audiences tend to value individualism and novelty in art. As a result, they may perceive Byzantine art as impersonal or unchanging. By imposing these Western standards, viewers underrate the richness of Byzantine art.
Architecture
Churches are almost all that survive of Byzantine architecture. Byzantine churches were built mainly of stone, brick, and mortar. They featured plain exteriors and elaborately decorated interiors. This contrast suggested the differences between the daily world outside and the ideal or spiritual universe of the church.
Early Byzantine churches.
Four large arches springing from columns or piers defined the nave (the central part of the church) and supported a great central dome. East of the nave lay a sanctuary made up of one large apse (semicircular recess) flanked by two smaller ones. A high screen called an iconostasis separated the sanctuary from the rest of the church. The clergy performed the elaborate rituals of the service in both the sanctuary and the nave.
The grandest example of early Byzantine churches is the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Hagia Sophia was built during the 530’s and ranks as one of the most remarkable buildings in the history of architecture. The church’s great central dome is supported by smaller semidomes that cover the sanctuary to the east and the entrance to the west. See Hagia Sophia.
Later Byzantine churches
were smaller and more modest than the churches of the early period. In the 800’s, Byzantine architects began to build complex domed churches. One example of a later Byzantine church is the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Through the centuries, the architectural plans used in Byzantine churches were modified in Armenia, southern Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Sicily. Architects in each region changed the scheme to fit their own technology, building materials, and cultural or national style.
Frescoes and mosaics
Magnificent frescoes and mosaics decorate the interiors of Byzantine churches. Frescoes are wall paintings created on damp plaster. Mosaics consist of small pieces of stone or glass fitted together to form a design or picture.
Only a few Byzantine frescoes and mosaics produced before the 800’s still exist. Most were destroyed during the 700’s and early 800’s as a result of a bitter dispute called the iconoclastic controversy. This disagreement among Christians concerned the use in churches of images of God and the saints. A group known as iconoclasts opposed the worship of such images and removed or destroyed religious pictures in churches. Many people, particularly monks and women, opposed the iconoclasts. In 843, the Eastern Christian church again permitted the display of religious pictures.
The Eastern Christian church also developed a strict code governing the use of religious images in churches. The church standardized the way holy persons could be portrayed, and it formulated an order of rank for images placed on church walls. The code required that a portrait of Jesus Christ occupy the central dome. A portrait of Mary, the mother of Jesus, had to be at the top of the main apse. The middle surfaces of the church walls and columns displayed episodes in the life of Christ. Artists concentrated on a chosen number of scenes, most often from the New Testament, rather than illustrating Biblical stories in chronological sequence. Portraits of the saints and church leaders occupied the lowest wall surfaces.
Most of the portraits in Byzantine churches were frontal views. They were rendered on a solid background created from gold mosaic or from one color of paint. Artists did not try to portray realistic figures and scenes with a sense of spatial depth. Instead, they focused on creating works that evoked spiritual feelings. As a result, the portraits appear flat and somewhat abstract, rather than lifelike.
Following the iconoclastic controversy, Byzantine frescoes and mosaics developed subtle changes in style. The mosaics in the church of Daphni, near Athens, Greece, which date from about 1100, feature an elegant, restrained style. A more dramatic style is represented by the mosaics of the 1100’s in the Norman churches in Sicily. Later artists depicted narrative sequences and portrayed more emotional expression. The works feature elongated figures and elaborate detail. The principal masterpieces of the last phase of Byzantine art are the frescoes and mosaics of the 1300’s in the church of Kariye Camii in Istanbul.
Other art forms
The Byzantines excelled in many art forms other than frescoes and mosaics. They produced beautiful panel pictures called icons and book decorations called illuminations. They also worked in various crafts.
Icons are religious images considered sacred by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Many icons are painted on wood and are small enough to be carried in processions. Most Byzantine icons followed the themes and styles of the frescoes and mosaics. They greatly influenced Western artists of the 1200’s, including the Italian painters Duccio di Buoninsegna and Giovanni Cimabue.
Byzantine artists illuminated many kinds of manuscripts. They illustrated the margins and pages of Psalm and Gospel books with miniatures (small paintings) of Biblical stories. They also decorated lectionaries with miniatures of themes for the feast days of the church. Lectionaries were books in which the New Testament was rearranged into readings for feast days.
In the palace workshops, Byzantine craftworkers produced many luxury art objects decorated with religious and imperial images. These included ivory carvings on caskets and plaques, enamel crosses and crowns, gem-studded reliquaries (containers for holy relics), silver and gold book covers, and embroidered garments.
The Byzantines did not create much large sculpture. They disapproved of sculpture as an art form, partly because they associated it with what they regarded as pagan statues.
