Byzantine & Islamic Art

A. D . 4 7 6 – A . D . 1 4 5 3

ISLAMIC & BYZANTINE

BYZANTION

• Constantine the Great moved the capital from Roman to the city of Byzantion (Greece) Constatinople • Christianity spreads and later important

documents are recovered from this area (Old and New Testaments, Iliad) • Sculpture of portrait busts & full length statues

commemorate civic and religious figures.• Relief carvings, paintings and mosaics are

popular in religious and secular artwork.

Portrait head of Emperor Constantine I, ca. 324–337; Marble

Icon with Saint Demetrios, ca. 950–1000Byzantine Ivory

Portable Mosaic Icon with the Virgin Eleousa, early 14th

HAGIA SOPHIA

• Constantine I• Marble pillars• Rich mosaics• Greatest

surviving examples of Byzantine art

ISLAMIC ART

• Does not just pertain to religious art but also artwork from Muslim ruled territories or art produced by Muslims.• The art styles varied within dynasties but tend to

all focus on surface decoration.• The four basic components of Islamic art include:

Calligraphy, vegetal patterns, geometric patterns, figural representation.

CALLIGRAPHY

• Highly regarded and most fundamental element of Islamic art. • Qur’an transmitted in Arabic, meant to transmit

the text, but in a decorative way.• Sometimes the art was the text, or calligraphic

strokes enhanced with frames or backgrounds

VEGETAL PATTERNS

• Patterns/backgrounds used with calligraphy, figural representations or geometric patterns.

GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

• Used commonly in many other cultures of that period but known best in Islamic art and design.• Used as surface

adornment in architectural and as décor on objects

FIGURAL REPRESENTATION

• Flourished in secular art, not with religious art, religious people felt like the creation of any living thing was and should only be credited to God