Valencia High School AP/IB Art HistoryMrs. Schultz

Content Area 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas

Chapter 9: Byzantium

324- 1453 (8 WORKS)

Goals:

•Understand Constantine’s move to the east and the extent of the Roman Empire in the east.

•Understand the cultural mix of Roman, Christian, and eastern influences in the art of Byzantium.

•Define distinct characteristics in art from various periods of the Byzantine Empire.

  • Define distinct characteristics in architecture of this period.

List of Required Works AP (3 works):

Cue Cards

1. San Vitale. Ravenna, Italy. Early Byzantine Europe. c. 526- 547 C.E. Brick, marble, and stone veneer; mosaic. (p. 254-255, 263-266)

2. Hagia Sophia. Constantinople (Istanbul). Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. 532- 537 C.E. Brick and ceramic elements with stone and mosaic veneer. (p. 258-263)

3. Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George. Early Byzantine Europe. Sixth or early seventh century C.E. Encaustic on wood. (p. 268- 270)

List of Required Works IB (6 works):

Cue Cards

1. Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll (late 4th-early 5th century AD). Marble. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

2. Areobindus presiding over Games in the Hippodrome (506 AD). Leaf from an ivory diptych. Musee national du Moyen Age, Paris.

3. Christ and Abbot Mena (late 6th- early 7th century). Paint on sycamore fig wood. Musee du Louvre, Paris.

4. Hagia Irene, Istanbul (6th century AD; repaired and expanded in subsequent centuries). Interior and ground-plan.

5. David keeping his Flock (10th century). Folio I v from the Paris Psalter. BibliothequeNationale, Paris.

6. South façade, Church of St. Simeon Stylites, Qal’ at Si’man, Syria (c. 480-90 AD).

Early Byzantine Art

  • Examine art in the “golden age of Justinian.”
  • Understand the cultural mix of Roman, Christian, and eastern influences in the art of Byzantium.
  • Define distinct characteristics in architecture of this period, particularly Hagia Sophia and San Vitale.
  • Understand the form and iconography of the early Byzantine mosaics.
  • Understand the religious controversies related to the use of images.

Art of the Middle Byzantine Period

•Understand the triumph of the iconophilesand the rejection of western politics and art.

•Describe the common stylistic characteristics, themes and materials in the art of the middle Byzantine period.

Late Byzantine

•Examine Western Crusader destruction and subsequent influence in art and architecture.

•Describe the Byzantine view of “conventional vision of a spiritual world unsusceptible to change.”

•Examine the purpose of the icon and the style and methods of Russian icon painting.

•Define distinct characteristics in architecture of this period, particularly St. Catherine in Thessaloniki.

Vocabulary

altarpiece / A panel, painted or sculpted, situated above and behind an altar. See alsoretable.
ambulatory / A covered walkway, outdoors (as in a churchcloister) or indoors; especially the passageway around theapseand thechoirof a church. In Buddhist architecture, the passageway leading around thestupain achaitya hall.
atrium / The court of a Roman house that is partly open to the sky. Also the open,colonnadedcourt in front of and attached to a Christianbasilica.
base / In ancient Greek architecture, the lowest part ofIonicandCorinthian columns.
basilica / In Roman architecture, a civic building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan with an entrance usually on a long side. In Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman basilica, usually entered from one end and with anapseat the other.
brocade / The weaving together of threads of different colors.
buttress / An exterior masonry structure that opposes the lateralthrustof anarchor avault. A pier buttress is a solid mass of masonry; a flying buttress consists typically of an inclined member carried on an arch or a series of arches and a solid buttress to which it transmits lateralthrust.
caliph(s) / Muslimrulers, regarded as successors of Muhammad.
cathedral / A bishop’s church.
choir / The space reserved for the clergy and singers in the church, usually east of thetranseptbut, in some instances, extending into thenave.
cloison / A cell made of metal wire or a narrow metal strip soldered edge-up to a metal base to hold enamel or other decorative materials.
cloisonné / A process of enameling employingcloisons; also, decorative brickwork in later Byzantine architecture.
conch / Half-dome.
cupola / An exterior architectural feature composed of adrumwith a shallow cap; adome.
enamel / A decorative coating, usually colored, fused onto the surface of metal, glass, or ceramics.
Gospels / The four New Testament books that relate the life and teachings of Jesus.
Greek cross / A cross with four arms of equal length and at right angles.
hieratic / A fixed, stylized method of representation, often determined by religious principles and ideas.
icon / A portrait or image; especially in Byzantine art, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration. In the visual arts, a painting, a piece of sculpture, or even a building regarded as an object of veneration.
iconoclasm / The destruction of images. In Byzantium, the period from 726 to 843 when there was an imperial ban on images. The destroyers of images were known as iconoclasts. Those who opposed such a ban were known as iconophiles or iconodules.
iconostasis / In Byzantine churches, a screen or a partition, with doors and many tiers oficons, separating the sanctuary from the main body of the church.
illumination / Decoration (usually in gold, silver, and bright colors), especially of medieval manuscript pages.
mandorla / An almond-shapednimbussurrounding the figure of Christ or other sacred figure.
nimbus / A halo or aureole appearing around the head of a holy figure to signify divinity.
pala / In churches, analtarpiece, or panel placed behind and over the altar.
Pantocrator / Christ as ruler and judge of heaven and earth.
parekklesion / The side chapel in a Byzantine church.
pendentive / A concave, triangular section of a hemisphere, four of which provide the transition from a square area to the circular base of a coveringdome. Although pendentives appear to be hanging (pendant) from the dome, they in fact support it.
psalter / A book containing the Psalms.
refectory / The dining hall of a Christian monastery.
rotunda / The circular area under adome; also a domed round building.
squinch / An architectural device used as a transition from a square to a polygonal or circular base for adome. It may be composed oflintels, corbels, orarches.
tapestry / A weaving technique in which theweftthreads are packed densely over thewarpthreads so that the designs are woven directly into the fabric.
templon / The columnar screen separating the sanctuary from the main body of a Byzantine church.
triptych / A three-paneled painting oraltarpiece.

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