Byzantine Art

Byzantine Art

Early Byzantine Empire

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey c. 532-537

Anthemius of Tralles & Isidorus of Miletus




San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy c. 526-547



Theodora and attendants c. 547

San Vitale, Ravenna, Ital

Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants,

c. 547 San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Byzantine Icons

How Icons are Made

• Made of rectangular wooden panels

• Painters were monks and worked with humility, rarely signing anything

• Wood prepared by covering the surface with fish glue and then a layer of putty

How Icons are Made

• Cloth placed on top and successive layers of stucco are laid over cloth

• Paper sketch is placed over and lines are traced on the surface

• Gilded, then painted

How Icons are Made

• Vanish applied last to make it shine and protect the surface

• Icons were often touched, kissed, handled

Virgin & child between Saints Theodore and George

c. 6th or early 7th Century

Roman vs. Byzantine Mosiacs

• Opaque marble cubes• Smooth, flat finish• Natural stones and

their available colors• Floors of private

homes• Secular topics• Realistic detail• Background

represented landscape

• Reflective glass• Uneven surface,

sparkly• Glowing glass, variety

of colors, gold• Walls and ceilings,

especially in Church dome or apse

• Religious• Stylized designs• Abstract backgrounds

Iconoclasm 726-843

Annunciation,

c. early 14th Century

Saint Clement, Ohrid

Christ as Savior of Souls

c. early 14th Century

Saint Clement, Ohrid

Virgin and Child

(Vladimir Virgin)

c. late 11th to early12th century

Andrei Rublev,

Old Testament Trinity

c. 1410

Pantocrater,

Church of Dormition, Daphni, Greece

c. 1090-1100

Pantocrater,

Church of Dormition, Daphni, Greece

c. 1090-1100

Pantocrater, Cathedral, Monreale, c. 1180-1190

Pantocrater,

Cathedral, Monreale

c. 1180-1190

Harbaville Triptych, c. 950, Louvre, Paris





David Composing the Psalms, Paris Psalter, c. 950-970

Documents

Byzantine Art