Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

Constantine recognized Christianity at the beginning of the

fourth century, Theodosius established it as the Roman Empire’s offi-

cial religion at the end of the fourth century, and Justinian, in the

sixth century, proclaimed it New Rome’s only lawful religion. By that

time it was not simply the Christian religion but the Orthodox Chris-

tian doctrine that the Byzantine emperor asserted as the only permis-

sible creed for his subjects. In Orthodox Christianity, the central arti-

cle of faith is the equality of the three aspects of the Trinity of Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit (as stated in Roman Catholic, Protestant, and

Eastern Orthodox creeds today). All other versions of Christianity

were heresies, especially the Arian, which asserted that the Father and

Son were distinct entities and that the Father created the Son and

therefore Christ was not equal to God. Also classified as a heresy was

the Monophysite view that Christ had only one nature, which was di-

vine, contrary to both the Orthodox and Arian belief that Christ had

a dual divine-human nature. Justinian considered it his first duty not

only to stamp out the few surviving pagan cults but also to crush all

those who professed any Christian doctrine other than the Orthodox.

Art historians divide the history of Byzantine art into the three

periods of its greatest glory, sometimes referred to as “golden ages.”

The first, Early Byzantine, extends from the accession of Justinian in

527 to the onset oficonoclasm(the destruction of images used in re-

ligious worship) under Leo III in 726. The Middle Byzantine period

begins with the renunciation of iconoclasm in 843 and ends with the

western Crusaders’ occupation of Constantinople in 1204. Late

Byzantine corresponds to the two centuries after the Byzantines re-

captured Constantinople in 1261 until its final loss in 1453 to the

Ottoman Turks and the conversion of many churches to mosques

(see Chapter 13).

Early Byzantine Art

The emperor Justinian (r. 527–565) briefly restored much of the Ro-

man Empire’s power and extent (MAP12-1). His generals, Belisarius

and Narses, drove the Ostrogoths out of Italy, expelled the Vandals

from the African provinces, routed the Bulgars on the northern fron-

tier, and held the Sasanians at bay on the eastern borders. At home,

the emperor quelled a dangerous rebellion in 532 of political and reli-

gious factions in the city (the Nika revolt), and Orthodoxy triumphed

over the Monophysite heresy. Justinian also supervised the codifica-

tion of Roman law in a great work known as the Corpus juris civilis

(Code of Civil Law), which became the foundation of the law systems

of many modern European nations. Justinian could claim, with con-

siderable justification, to have revived the glory of “Old Rome” in

New Rome. Under Justinian, Byzantine art emerged as a recognizably

novel and distinctive style, leaving behind the uncertainties and hesi-

tations of Early Christian artistic experiment. Though still reflecting

its sources in Late Antique art, it definitively expressed, with a new in-

dependence and power of invention, the unique character of the East-

ern Christian culture centered at Constantinople.

Architecture and Mosaics

In Constantinople alone, Justinian built or restored more than 30

churches of the Orthodox faith, and his activities as builder ex-

tended throughout the Byzantine Empire. The historian of his reign,

Procopius, declared that the emperor’s ambitious building program

was an obsession that cost his subjects dearly in taxation. But his

grand monuments defined the Byzantine style in architecture for-

ever after.

MAP12-1The Byzantine Empire at the death of Justinian in 565.

Rome

Venice

Ravenna

Athens

Hosios Loukas

Daphni

Ohrid

Nerezi

Alexandria

Thessaloniki

Constantinople

(Byzantium, Istanbul)

Nicaea

Miletus

Tralles

Jerusalem

Honoratai

Kiev

Moscow Vladimir

Monreale

Palermo

Zagba

Antioch

Black SeaBlack Sea

Adriatic SeaAdriatic Sea

Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

North

Sea

North

Sea

Bal

tic

Se

a

Bal

tic

Se

a

C

as

pi

an

Se

a

C

as

pi

an

Se

a

Tyrrhenian

Sea

Tyrrhenian

Sea Aeg

ea

n

Se

a

Dan

ubeR.

Danube R.

iN

leR

EGYPT.

SYRIA

ANATOLIA

RUSSIA

ITALY MACEDONIA

KINGDOM

OF THE

FRANKS

KINGDOM

OF THE

VISIGOTHS

Cyprus

Mt.

Sinai

Sicily

SASANIANS

ARABS

Balkans

0 200 400 miles

2000 400 kilometers

Byzantine Empire,

565

312 Chapter 12 BYZANTIUM