Byzantine Art
Byzantine Art
Throughout this work the words Byzantium, Byzantine Art, Byzantine Empire, etc. have been used as an indication of a specific field.
The Byzantines called themselves Rhomaion and their state the Roman Empire – basileia ton Rhomaion, using in the very beginning the name Byzantion only for their capital, later renamed Constantinople. They never called themselves Byzantines.
The date of its beginning remains under discussion for there is no act of revolution abolishing ancient regimes. Some prefer the date of foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great, others prefer the year 395 when the Roman Empire was divided between the sons Honorius and Arcadius of Theodosius I into the Western Roman Empire, which ceased to exist in 476, and the eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium.
Byzantium as a term for the state was only introduced into scholarship only in the sixteenth century by Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580), who appreciated Byzantine history for its own sake. Wolf was a classicist, humanist and librarian in Byzantine as well as in classical authors. He was the first to regard Byzantine history as occupying a special and independence province of its own, and he conceived the idea of a Corpus byzantinae historiae. In different places and in different ways western humanists and art historians at the end of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth century were impelled to continue the initial work of Wolf of periodicising history and art.
Byzantium was regarded as the store-house in which the treasures of the classical world were to be found, while there was little interest in the schismatic Byzantine Empire itself. But as the Greek language became more widely known, travellers often visited the old centres of Byzantine culture,[1] rousing interest in Byzantium itself.
Byzantium existed for more than thousand years, and can be considered as a continuation of the Roman Empire inasmuch as its legal and administrative system retained numerous Roman features. At the same time it underwent significant transformations, evolving into a Christian and primarily Greek-speaking state centred on the Balkan and eastern Mediterranean. After the loss of the eastern provinces to the Arabs in the seventh century, its population remained multination and was composed primarily of Greeks, Armenians and Slavs.
The history of Byzantium is characterised by many wars and internal revolts. Some emperors tried unsuccessfully to regain the power of and to reinstate the former Roman Empire. The empire was weakened again by the Slav invasions across its northern borders causing a dark period. There were frequent revolts by vassal states, which for some time succeeded in gaining power. The deepest point of humiliation was the occupation of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, who in their fanatic religious zeal to free the Holy Land from the Moslems, conquered a Christian country and plundered almost completely the magnificent manuscripts and other art treasures from its churches and palaces. The city was re-conquered in 1261, but the once mighty state could never achieve again the glory and power of its past.
But one line continued: the court of Constantinople remained an inspiration for art and craft. In the course of these thousand years we see a development in the expression of wall paintings from stiff figures with large eyes looking motionless from the walls to the last development of the Paleologen Renaissance with much more vivid and human figures. A development caused by humanism and partly western influences.
In Greece there is a growing tendency to consider the inheritance of Byzantium as Greek art. “Greek art is a fertile concurrence of myth and reason, a perfect matching of idea and deed, a celebration of and a hymn to mankind and his works. Through its continuity, its cohesion, its ability to assimilate, and its robust vigour over the long course of its evolution, Greek art has become a life-giving spring, the fount of spiritual and intellectual endeavour, and a decisive parameter of our moral destiny.”[2]
This view is not shared by everyone outside Greece. Historically it is known that the long classical development of Greek art ended with Hellenism, which lasted until about the year 100 A.D.
It was Philip II who put an end to the independent Greek town-states, and his son Alexander the Great who spread Hellenistic art over the world he conquered. After the Romans had conquered the southern Balkans and Macedonia they absorbed Greek art forms and most of the now famous statues are copies made by the Romans. By the time Constantine the Great founded his new capital at the Bosporus, Attica and Athens were almost forgotten areas and Greece did not even exist. The simple fact that the Rhomaion were Greek speaking is not a condition sine qua non to suggest that modern Greece is the inheritor of the art of Byzantium particularly after more than five hundred years of Turkish domination of the Balkan Peninsula.
It is often suggested that the Orthodox Church is the guardian, the protector of the Christian belief in the form in which it originated, and had been laid down in the dogmas formulated in first three Oecumenical Councils. Some later Oecumenical Councils had to solve problems which arose after theological discussions, while the seventh Council reinstituted the veneration of icons. The first six Oecumenical Councils were applicable for the Christian church as it existed in the world.
Controversially, the Roman Catholic Church, partly out of political aspirations, went another way. In the course of the centuries a large number of councils were held which not only influenced the organisational structure of the church, but also had a great impact on the way of believing, interpretation and preaching of the church. These doctrines took it (far) away from what had been laid down in the first six Oecumenical Councils.
In spite of all the precautions taken by the Orthodox Church the main ideas of early Christianity could not be maintained in the purest form. The writings of learned Fathers of the Church have influenced the way of thinking in some way or another, but kept as much as possible the line once set out.
Modern thinking and opinions and increasing knowledge on theological, but also social and scientific fields have influenced Orthodox thinking to a certain degree.
The position of Maria is almost unaffected. She is highly honoured for the Immaculate Conception and numerous hymns and songs have been composed to honour her virginity. The summit of her veneration in hymns is most probably reached in the Akathistos hymn ascribed to Romanos the Melode.
Tendencies are noticeable in thinking to consider her also as a woman who did not commit any sin during her lifetime, making her the ultimate intermediary between earth and heaven, between mankind and divinity, laying less stress on her Virginity. She is and remains the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Whereas she is the only human being without sin she can be the intermediate towards her Son when he comes to judge mankind: “My Son, have pity with the sinners.”
On the other hand the sometimes extremely conservative monasteries of Athos exercise considerable influence on Orthodox thinking. They are taken to be the protectors of the real Orthodox believing. Many of their abbots later fulfilled important functions in the ecclesiastical top of the church in the countries where the Orthodox belief is professed.
In spite of previous unsuccessful efforts the popes of the Roman Catholic Church have never ceased or given up the ambition to get control and power over all Christian churches mindful of their pretended order to be the successor of Peter according to the Bible words from Matthew 16:18, where Christ is remarking to him “I say to thee, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. General opinion today is that Peter has stayed in Rome, but has not founded the first Christian community there. Paul during his many travels spread Christianity. Mark established the first Christian community in Egypt and in particular in Alexandria; from where it under influence of neo Platonian thinking exercised great influence over the then growing Mediterranean world.