astronomy, music, and all the other “Hellenic” [i.e., pagan Greek]
teachings.^4
The resurrection of “Hellenic” books helped inspire an artistic revival. Even during
the somber years of iconoclasm, artistic activity did not entirely end at Byzantium.
But the new exuberance and sheer numbers of mosaics, manuscript illuminations,
ivories, and enamels after 870 suggest a new era. Sometimes called the Macedonian
Renaissance, after the ninth- and tenth-century imperial dynasty that fostered it, the
new movement found its models in both the hierarchical style that was so important
during the pre-iconoclastic period (see Plate 1.12 on pp. 32–33) and the natural,
plastic style of classical art and its revivals (see Plate 1.1 on p. 12 and Plate 1.10 on
p. 20).
In the hands of Byzantine artists, these different styles worked together. Consider
a lavish manuscript of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, made c.880 at
Constantinople. It begins with several pages that represent the imperial family of Basil
I (r.867–886), the original recipient of the manuscript. Plate 3.1 shows one of these
opening pages: the emperor’s wife, Eudocia, is flanked by two of her sons, potential
heirs to the throne. All of the figures are flat and weightless. They stare out at the
viewer, isolated from one another. In the center is the empress, towering above her
sons not because she was physically taller than they but in order to telegraph her
higher status. The artist is far more interested in the patterns of the richly ornamented
clothing than in delineating any body underneath. The entire miniature celebrates
hierarchy, transcendence, and imperial power. Yet in the very same manuscript are
pages that draw eagerly upon the classical heritage. In Plate 3.2, on the left, the
prophet Ezekiel stands in a landscape of bones, the hand of God reaching toward him
to tell him that the bones will rise and live again (Ezek. 37:1–11). On the right the
prophet stands next to an archangel. All the figures have roundness and weight; they
turn and interact. It is true that their drapery flutters and loops unnaturally, giving the
scene a non-classical excitement; and it is true that the angel “floats,” one foot in
front of the prophet, one arm a bit behind him. But it is in just this way that the
Byzantines adapted classical traditions to their overriding need to represent
transcendence.
