Humanity In Byzantine Art

Early Christian and Byzantine art started after Jesusí death in the first century ranging and ending to the fourth century AD. The art produced during this period was secretive because Christianity was not a formal religion but as a cult; the Romans and rest of Europe persecuted Christians so the artist disguised their work with symbols and hints of Christian aspects. Christianity was the first cult to not involve rituals of sacrifice of animals and refused to worship an Emperor causing the Roman Empire to make Christianity illegal. Byzantine art excelled in the Justinian period in the east during 520-540 AD. The art was produced in Ravenna, Byzantine, Venice, Sicily, Greece, and Russia. The

The increase in mosaics in churches in Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era was largely due to the influence of the Roman Emperor Constantine (ruled from 306 to 337 AD). During his rule as emperor, Christianity became the major religion and there was a push for more buildings to house the followers of Christ. Along with the new buildings there was a need to decorate these places of worship accordingly and express the religion in a grandiose sort of way. Mosaics were generally the inexpensive and impressive answer that was used to convey the church’s message. Through mosaics, the people of the church could learn and be informed of the spiritual and cultural symbolism (Kleiner and Mamiya 313).

was wracked by religious and political conflict. And Leo III issued a ban on religious

The Greeks used architecture and sculpture to demonstrate their care for the gods as well as an outlet to demonstrate the value of beauty. In the specific area of architecture and sculpture there was no visible dispute or disagreement about the

Our first piece is the choir apse of San Vitale with a mosaic of Christ, Saint Vitale, and Bishop Ecclesius, Ravenna Italy, 526-547. During this period of time the emperor Constantine had previously arisen and founded Constantinople and later, which is where we will begin, the emperor Justinian arises. During the reign of Justinian we see the construction of the San Vitale church in which there lies our first piece of art to discuss. The mosaic depicts the second coming and it has Jesus sitting on the world and extending a wreath to the martyr Saint Vitalis. The artist here chose to add a small landscape, but Christ is not in it. We can infer that this shows that the artists has a more divine rendition of Jesus and we can see this also rendered in the separation of contact with the saints. Between them and Jesus are angels preventing direct contact and we can see that the saints hands are covered for the passing of the wreath as well. This piece shows the hardening of the Byzantine style and the distancing of Christ that contradicts the views of the Early Christian's. This is evident in the Byzantines choice of a gold sky over the Early Christians traditional blue one in Galla Placidia. The artist chose a movement towards the divinity of Christ and he represents this in the elevation. We can infer that this happened due to the imperial influences during the period and we can see these influences reflected in the artists choice for purple robes that represent royalty and present Christ as ruler of the

The Byzantine Empire had many advances in art, specifically images dedicated to the Christian religion. Within the Byzantine empire there was a lot of time and dedication to making art dedicated solely on the christian religion. Some of the first pieces of art done in this time was mosaics in churches depicting god or other idles of the christian religion .

When researching iconoclasm during the Byzantine Empire and today’s Middle East, one can easily see the end result of the two ages is similar - the destruction of valuable religious artwork. However it is important to analyze the reasons and intent behind the destruction. By doing this, a person can better understand the motivation for the artwork’s destruction and even determine if history should treat the two eras differently. With respect to the Byzantine era, the reason behind the destruction of icons was a theological debate within the Christian religion.

Sometimes the purpose was to add a bit of humor! This added a lot of Roman to Greek art, which was originally somber and serious. The Romans used a variety of media in their artwork. Some include marble, painting, mosaic, gems, silver and bronze work, terracottas, and more!

Gothis is a word that comes from the reference to the Goths (Visigoth and Ostrigoths) who were barbarian peoples settling in Europe around in the 4th century A.D.

how were images used in byzantine worship?
-Christians in Byzantine prayed to Christ, Virgin Mary, and saints

I have learned how art during the Middle Ages went through several changes and then became the foundation of the early Renaissance period. Byzantine Art was the title bestowed upon the type of art techniques used in very early Middle Ages Art. The title given to this type of art is derived from the capitol of the Roman Empire, Byzantium. I consider Early Medieval Art as a reflection of the variances amongst the western growth of the Catholic religion and the eastern development of the Byzantium Empire. Through research, I found most of the people producing art were participants of religious communities such as monasteries. I believe in the era covering medieval art, images began to be uniform and to connect more closely to Biblical text. It seems as though Early Medieval Art was primarily restricted to the creation of Pietistic productions, known as religious

The Byzantine time period produced a significant style of art. This art style was created when the Roman Empire was split into two parts, the Eastern and Western Empires. The Eastern Empire or Byzantine Empire was responsible for this art style. The Byzantine period produced many significant artist such as Giotto di Bondone, Cimabue and Giotto di Bondone. All these artists were famous for their religious artworks. These artists were also reliant on the Byzantine art style which was characterised by beautiful paintings and mosaics which depict important religious figures. Artists used flat patterns and bright colours, the art was always two-dimensional and depicted figures with long, narrow and solemn faces. While Greek and Roman artists attempted

Hanna Moran Mrs. Cummings ART 2713 001 (Online) 16 October 2016 Chapter 12 Short Essay (Byzantine) “Byzantine art from its Early Christian explorations through its peak years of artistic and architectural production, and finally to its eventual decline. This period spans roughly from 527 to 1453 CE” (Culotta). Justinian was the emperor and in his time, he had restored and built thirty churches. Later on he had renamed “Old Rome” to “New Rome”.

The purpose of this gallery is to examine the culture, religion, history, and beliefs of the time of the Byzantine Empire through close evaluation of its art and architectural elements.

The form of art has been around for thousands of years. There has been many different types of art form found from the ancient greece times. These time are the earliest times that are recorded and are placed in museums. These early art forms teaches us a little bit about the human race and how they were back in the roman times. There are some painting and sculptures that represents different people from their time lines. These art form can explain how they were back in their times and with the statues you can see how far they were allowed to do.