The origins of the monastic movement are associated with
Saint Anthony and Saint Pachomius in Egypt in the fourth century.
By the fifth century, regulations governing monastic life began to be
codified. Individual monks came together to live according to a rule
within a common enclosure, a community under the direction of an
abbot (see “Medieval Monasteries and Benedictine Rule,” Chapter
16, page 420). The monks typically lived in a walled monastery, an
architectural complex that included the monks’ residence (an align-
ment of single cells), an oratory(monastic church), a refectory (din-
ing hall), a kitchen, storage and service quarters, and a guest house
for pilgrims (FIG. 16-19).
Justinian rebuilt the monastery at Mount Sinai between 548 and
565 and erected imposing walls around it. The site had been an impor-
tant pilgrimage destination since the fourth century, and Justinian’s
fortress was intended to protect not only the hermit-monks but also
the lay pilgrims during their visits. The Mount Sinai church was dedi-
cated to the Virgin Mary, whom the Orthodox Church had officially
recognized in the mid-fifth century as the Mother of God (Theotokos),
putting to rest a controversy about the divine nature of Christ. The
church’s apse mosaic (FIG. 12-13) depicts the Transfiguration.(Other
mosaics in the church depict Moses receiving the Law and standing be-
fore the burning bush.) Jesus appears in a deep-blue almond-shaped
mandorla (almond-shaped aureole of light). At his feet are John, Peter,
and James. At the left and right are Elijah and Moses. Portrait busts of
saints and prophets in medallions frame the whole scene. The artist
stressed the intense whiteness of Jesus’ transfigured, spiritualized form,
from which rays stream down on the disciples. The stately figures of the
prophets and the static frontality of Jesus set off the frantic terror and
astonishment of the gesticulating disciples. These characteristics effec-
tively contrast the eternal composure of heavenly beings with the dis-
traught responses of the earthbound.
In this apse the mosaicist swept away all traces of landscape and
architectural setting for a depthless field of gold, fixing the figures
and their labels in isolation from one another. A rainbow band of col-
ors graduating from yellow to blue bounds the golden field at its base.
The figures are ambiguously related to this multicolor ground line.
Sometimes they are placed behind it. Sometimes they overlap it. The
bodies cast no shadows, even though supernatural light streams over
them. This is a world of mystical vision, where the artist subtracted all
substance that might suggest the passage of time or motion through
physical space. In the absence of such physicality, the devout can con-
template the eternal and motionless world of religious truth.Ivory Carving and Painting
As in the Early Christian period, ivory carving and manuscript
painting were important art forms during the Early Byzantine era.
Most of the finest examples date to the sixth century. They feature
both secular and religious subjects.
BARBERINI IVORYCarved in five parts (one is lost), the ivory
plaque known today as the Barberini Ivory (FIG. 12-14)—it was
once part of the 17th-century collection of Cardinal Barberini in
Rome—shows at the center an emperor, usually identified as Justin-
ian, riding triumphantly on a rearing horse, while a startled, half-322 Chapter 12 BYZANTIUM12-13Transfiguration of Jesus,apse mosaic, Church of the Virgin, monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt, ca. 548–565.
Unlike the Sant’Apollinare mosaicist, this Mount Sinai artist swept away all traces of landscape for a depthless field of gold. The prophets and
disciples cast no shadows even though bathed in divine light.