Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

EARLY BYZANTINE ART, 527–726

❚The reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) opened the first golden age of Byzantine art. Justinian was a
great patron of the arts, and in Constantinople alone he built or restored more than 30 churches.

❚Constructed in only five years, Hagia Sophia, a brilliant fusion of central and longitudinal plans,
rivaled the architectural wonders of Rome. Its 180-foot-high dome rests on pendentives but seemed
to contemporaries to be suspended “by a golden chain from Heaven.”

❚The seat of Byzantine power in Italy was Ravenna, which enjoyed its greatest prosperity under
Justinian. San Vitale is Ravenna’s greatest church. Its mosaics, with their weightless, hovering,
frontal figures against a gold background, reveal the new Byzantine aesthetic.

❚Justinian also rebuilt the monastery at Mount Sinai in Egypt, where the finest Early Byzantine icons
are preserved. In 726, however, Leo III (r. 717–741) enacted a ban against picturing the divine,
initiating the era of iconoclasm (726–843).

MIDDLE BYZANTINE ART, 843–1204

❚In 867, Basil I (r. 867–886) dedicated a new mosaic depicting the Theotokos (Mother of God) in
Hagia Sophia. It marked the triumph of the iconophiles over the iconoclasts.

❚Middle Byzantine art is stylistically eclectic. Mosaics with otherworldly golden backgrounds were
common, but some paintings, for example those in the Paris Psalter, revived the naturalism of
classical art.

❚Middle Byzantine churches like those at Hosios Loukas have highly decorative exterior walls and
feature domes that rest on drums above the center of a Greek cross. The climax of the interior
mosaic programs was often an image of Christ as Pantokrator in the dome.

LATE BYZANTINE ART, 1261–1453

❚In 1204, Latin Crusaders sacked Constantinople, bringing to an end the second golden age of
Byzantine art. In 1261, Michael VIII Palaeologus (r. 1259–1282) succeeded in retaking the city.
Constantinople remained in Byzantine hands until the Ottoman Turks captured it in 1453.

❚Important mural paintings of the Late Byzantine period are in the Constantinopolitan Church of
Christ in Chora. An extensive picture cycle portrays Christ as Redeemer; in the apse he raises
Adam and Eve from their tombs.

❚Late Byzantine icons were displayed in tiers on an iconostasis or on individual stands so that
the paintings on both sides could be seen. The great painting centers during this period were in
Constantinople and Russia. The work of Andrei Rublyev is notable for its great spiritual power
and intense colors.

THE BIG PICTURE

BYZANTIUM

Hagia Sophia, Constantinople,

532–537

San Vitale, Ravenna, 526–547

Paris Psalter,ca. 950–970

Katholikon, Hosios Loukas,

first quarter of 11th century

Andrei Rublyev, Three angels,

ca. 1410