(5th century - 1453)
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of
the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) from about the 5th century until the
fall of Constantinople in 1453. The term has also been used for the art of
states which were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire and shared a common
culture with it, such as Bulgaria, Serbia or Russia, and also Venice, which had
close ties to the Byzantine Empire. It has also been used for the art of peoples
of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of the Ottoman Empire after 1453.
In some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia,
Greece, Serbia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.Byzantine art grew from the art of Ancient Greece, and never lost sight of its classical heritage, but was distinguished from it in a number of ways. The most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of Ancient Greek art was replaced by a Christian ethic. If the purpose of classical art was the glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God, and of His Son, Jesus.
This had a number of consequences. Classical artistic tradition of depicting nude figures was banished. The triumph of Christianity brought with it a Christian moral derived from its roots in Judaism and replaced this classical preoccupation with human body. The figures of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints and martyrs of Christian tradition were elevated, and became the dominant - indeed almost exclusive - focus of Byzantine art. This is also connected with the most important form of Byzantine art, still dominant, - the icon. Icon creates reverence in worship and serves as an existential link to God. Icon has been called prayer, hymn, sermon in form and color. It's used as an object or veneration in Orthodox churches and private homes.
Another consequence of the triumph of Christianity was a decline in the importance of naturalistic representation in art. The Byzantines lost interest in the realistic portraiture. Ideal images of Christ, the saints and martyrs were used, and this became the norm of Byzantine art.
This is sometimes interpreted on the West as a decline in artistic skills and standards. It is only partially true that some of the technical expertise of the classical world, particularly in sculpture, was lost in the Byzantine world and it wasn't seen there as representing as any decline. It was seen as the harnessing of artistic skill to the service of the one true Belief, rather than using art for the production of pagan idols or the gratification of personal vanity and sensual pleasure, as the ancients had done. The Byzantine artist sought to depict the inner or spiritual nature of his subjects. To this end simplification and stylization were perfectly acceptable.
The Byzantines developed new techniques and reached new heights. Byzantine gold and silversmith, enamel-work, jewelry and textiles preserved the quality of anything done in ancient times. In mosaics and icon-painting they developed major and original art forms of their own. In architecture they achieved masterpieces such as Hagia Sophia, a building of superior scale and magnificence to anything in the ancient world.
Periods of Byzantine Art
Artistic characteristic of Byzantine art began to develop in the Roman Empire as early as the 4th century. As the classical tradition declined in vitality, eastern influences were more widely felt. The founding of Constantinople in 324 created a great new Christian artistic centre for the eastern half of the Empire. Artistic traditions flourished also in rival cities. Constantinople established its supremacy after the fall of Alexandria and Antioch to the Arabs, and Rome to the Goths.
Justinian Age (5th-6th Century)
The first great age of Byzantine art coincided with the reign of Justinian I (483-565). Justinian was the last Emperor of the whole Greco-Roman world, and was devoted to reconquering Italy, North Africa and Spain. He laid the foundations of the imperial absolutism of the Byzantine state, codifying its laws and imposing Christian views on all subjects by law. Part of his program of imperial glory was a massive building program, including Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople and the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna.
Invasions of the Avars, Slavs and Arabs (7th century) and Iconoclasm (730 - 843)
The Justinian Age was followed by a decline. Empire faced acute crisis with the invasions of the Avars, Slavs and Arabs in the 7th century. The rise of Islam had important consequences for Byzantine art. The Islamic view that the depiction of the human form was blasphemous made the Emperor Leo III in 730 to ban the use of images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. This inaugurated the Iconoclastic period, which lasted, with interruptions, until 843. Period of Iconoclasm was the period of military and political crisis of the Empire and great decline in artistic achievement. With icon-painting banned and the state too preoccupied with warfare to commission major buildings, this was a thin period for Byzantine art.
The Macedonian Dynasty (843-1025)
The lifting of the ban on icons was followed by the Macedonian Renaissance, beginning with the reign of Emperor Basil I the Macedonian in 867. In the 9th and 10th centuries the Empire's military situation improved, and art and architecture revived. New churches were again commissioned, and the Byzantine church mosaic style became standardized. One of the best known examples is at Hosias Lukas, near Athens. More sophisticated techniques were used to depict human figures.
The Comnene Dynasty (1025-1204)
The Macedonian emperors were followed by the Comnene dynasty, beginning with the reign of Alexius I Comnenus in 1057. Empire lost most of its eastern territories to the Seljuk Turks. Although Byzantium was no longer a great power, following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Comnenans were great patrons of the arts, and with their support Byzantine artists continued to move in the direction of great emotion in their works. Themes such as the Virgin and Child and the Threnos (the lamentation over Christ's body) became more common. The finest Byzantine work of this period was actually outside the Empire: the Basilica of St Mark in Venice, begun in 1063. The basilica is based on the great Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, now destroyed, and is thus an echo of the age of Justinian. The acquisitive habits of the Venetians mean that the basilica is also great museum of Byzantine artworks of all kinds.
The Latin Occupation of Constantinople (1204-1261)
Eight hundred years of continuous Byzantine culture were brought to an abrupt end in 1204 with the sacking of Constantinople by the knights of the Fourth Crusade, a disaster from which the Empire never recovered. Although the Byzantines recovered the city in 1261, the Empire was thereafter a small and weak state confined to the Greek peninsula and the islands of the Aegean.
The Palaiologan Period (1261-1453)
Nevertheless the Palaeologan Dynasty, beginning with Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1259, was a last golden age of Byzantine art, partly because of the increasing cultural exchange between Byzantine and Italian artists. Italian-style frescoes began to replace the traditional mosaic-work.
The Byzantine era, properly defined, came to an end with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, but by this time the Byzantine cultural heritage had been widely diffused, carried by the spread of Orthodox Christianity, to Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and, most importantly, to Russia, which became the centre of the Orthodox world following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Even under Ottoman rule, Byzantine traditions in icon-painting and other small-scale arts survived.
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