The Role Of Images Within The Context Of Byzantine Art

Culture means nothing without the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire evolved Christianity, a modern day religion and art that pieced together our society and it’s cultural studies of the background behind it. It is significantly important that the Byzantine Empire is continued to being studied because of the drastic influence it implemented to unify modern day religions, modify political and military strategies, and benefit our education of the world today. With the government unification and architectural protection of the Byzantine Empire, strategic military defense and the Justinian code were both created.

We are also shown how these different forms of art change over time and how different cultures have adopted them and used them as their own form of art to express emotion, love, creativity, and passion. This book teaches us how art is viewed in different ways by the church and was very informative for me to obtain a better and deeper understanding of art and how the churches valued it.

follow. That was the first goal of icons. The second goal was to form an

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

Western Europe triumphed from their princes and the Pope ruling since they soon overcame The Byzantine Empire. This was because having more than one ruler can hold together an empire or countries better than one ruler. The princes had control of the government in their areas, and the Pope had control of the entire religion in Western Europe. Having the Pope and the princes dealing with separate issues is better than having just one emperor deal with all of their issues. Another difference of the two halves of Europe was the monasteries and nunneries. Western Europe believed that they should have both priests and nuns teaching and preaching to other people. The Byzantine Empire did not feel that nuns were needed in their empire to preach and to teach other people. This was the most likely cause for the many people in the empire converting to their barbaric enemies religions. If The Byzantine Empire had used nuns to preach and teach their people, instead of having just priests and monasteries, the people would not have converted the their enemies. Hence, The Byzantine Empire, and Western Europe were greatly different than each other.

This essay aims to investigate two different time periods in the history of art. It will scrutinize the influence that the respective societal contexts had on the different artists, which in turn, caused them to arrange the formal elements in a specific way. I will be examining an Egyptian sculpture of the god Isis nursing Horus, her son, as well as the Vladimir Virgin icon, which dates from the Byzantine era. Experts vary on the precise ‘lifetime’ of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, but according to Mason (2007:10) it existed from 3100 BCE up to 30 BCE. The Byzantine era, which

With the adoption of Christianity as the official religion, art was able, so to speak, to come above ground in the old pagan city of Rome, and painting, instead of being restricted to the decoration of the walls of the Catacombs or of small chambers and chapels, came into use on a large scale in the new churches that were at once set up. At the same time patronage moved from the hands of the poorer classes to the richer, and artists of outstanding quality came to be employed as well as those of obscurer character, who would work for small fees (www.religion-online.org). To wall painting was added the more luxurious art of mosaic; numerous sculptures were done, and minor objects, often in expensive materials, were in addition produced in the service of the Church, so that art production became at the same time both more extensive and more luxurious (www.religion-online.org ).

In the 4th century, the Roman Empire underwent major changes, becoming the Byzantine Empire. The Roman religion was replaced by Christianity, specifically the Eastern Orthodox Church, as the new state religion. Artists helped to spread this new religion by building churches and producing manuscripts. The artists imagined what religious figures looked like to portray them in art. But the Church criticized the visual representation of figures at certain periods during the Byzantine Era. Artists lost their creative freedom during these periods, called iconoclasm.

The Byzantine era is the continuation of the Roman Empire and as we, all know they were influenced by the Greeks. Around the 11th century “the clergy began to display icons in hierarchical order Christ, the Theotokos, John the Baptist and other saints” (Kleiner 279). The Virgin and Child Icon is tempera on wood, 30x21 inches. The virgin and her child have been an inseparable part of Russian history and its people. Many Russians claim and believed of miraculous interventions and favors received from the Virgin Mary due the

The early Byzantine art mainly followed the Roman arts. The work I chose was a

Just as it’s human nature to believe in something larger or more powerful than oneself, it is also human nature to express that divinity through art, this is proven time and time again in human history. Picturing the divine is a type of testimony to show a cultures greatness. The painting Arhats Giving Alms to Beggars comes from the Chinese culture of the Southern Song period. Whereas, the mosaic Christ as Pantocrator comes from the Byzantine culture of the Greek Orthodox tradition. Although these paintings come from very different backgrounds both cultures show the divine and their pressure on mankind to follow the rules, such as giving away worldly desires. By doing so and letting go of material possessions, mankind can be hopeful of

Christian art is classified as Byzantine, but It is also very difficult to know when Christian art

This essay starts with the use of Roman architecture to practice Christianity. Then I will write about how the image of the Roman emperors became the inspiration for the image of the Jesus. Finally I will discuss the way Romans used the same iconography and narrative they already had as a formula to image the bible.

Byzantine Mosaics and San Marco Basilica Intro Mosaics have been present in Italy dating back to the Romans. They were originally used in palaces, temples, and other monumental structures as a way of decoration and paving of surfaces such as walls, ceilings, and floors, however they can also serve as pictorial art. Mosaics are pictures formed by marble, stones, and vitric tesserae of various colors, placed on a layer of stucco, putty or other durable building material.

Artists created their own unique style in Greek culture and with the creation of the Roman Empire, Greek artwork had been spread throughout the region. When the empire eventually split and faded from existence, Greek artwork had left its mark on the remaining civilizations. Because Byzantium had arisen from the ashes of the Roman Empire, Byzantine artwork incorporated aspects of Greek art within their own artwork. The purpose of this investigation is to compare and contrast art in ancient Greece and Byzantium. Recognizing the similarities and differences between two related cultures is vital in understanding the evolution of art from one culture to another. Within this investigation designs/patterns and