architecture. The Byzantines perceived art as an active agent. Earthly materials such as water, light, and gold give rise to new forms of vision and understanding of one’s place in relationship to figural imageries in Byzantine art and the metaphoric representation of the universe. Ruth Webb’s essay “The Aesthetics of Sacred Space: Narrative, Metaphor, and Motion in ‘Ekphraseis’ of Church Buildings” argues that “the intensity of aesthetic experience inside the church is such that normal modes of perception and normal distinctions between subject and object are said to be disrupted.” The Byzantines seemed to favor the construction of lived experiences over the works that conformed to a passive relationship between the spectator and object of …show more content…
worth. The amalgamation of the different elements and materials constituting the interior of a Byzantine church creates a visually striking and profound atmosphere that Christian theology and doctrines better than any other form of symbolic description. Byzantine architectural spaces and art orient the viewer around specific visions of the universe, while also implementing them within hierarchical orders in a microcosmic sense. Light shapes the visitor’s visual and spatial understanding of church spaces by creating an environment that simulates “Heaven on Earth. ” The element of light also works to reposition the viewer in relation to the presence of the omniscient divinity that manifests himself in the form of light. According to Claire Nesbitt and Mark Jackson, the “light-scape” for worship within Hagia Sophia “reflects the use of light as a symbolism of divinity… an indicator of the hierarchy of space within the church building. In other words, Christ is often understood as being the light of the world. The pierced domes flooding with light literalizes the metaphor, appearing as though it is being suspended from heaven on a golden chain. It hovers over the communal space of the church. Christ, appearing in the form of light, oversees and blesses the events transpiring inside the church. Another example of the effects of light on experience is the morning liturgy at St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai in Egypt. The service begins at dawn and as it progresses the sun rises and light floods through the window, making the symbol of Christ as the light of the world very palpable. “The interior of the church is a reminder of God's constant and visible revelation in the history of mankind, at same time as it is a copy, in the sense that it symbolizes God's perfect kingdom ‘up there.'” Light represents the trinity of God, while also changing the visual setting and transcending it a realm that beyond everyday existence. Byzantine artist made everyday entities function in new ways. It becomes a language to describe and represent divinity, which creates a new mode of human consciousness grounded in perception. The Proconnesian marble floors at Hagia Sophia, as a symbol for water, turns the interior of the church into a space that recreates important moments in Christian theology.
Marble was perceived as petrified water or waves. The marble floors at Hagia Sophia were book matched, creating an illusion that stimulates rain droplets falling onto the surface of a still body of water and creating a rippling effect that becomes frozen for all eternity. Fabio Barry’s article “Walking on Water: Cosmic Floors in Antiquity and the Middle Ages,” interprets the marble floors as a reminder of the Creation and Apocalypse, because it depicts “the moment God froze the waters, and when he renews the universe at the end of time.” The marble floors, in dialogue with the dome pierced by light, references the moment in which God, as the light, creates the world. The marble floors also represent the moment in which God “restores the Earth’s original luminosity” where it’s “surface will become a diaphanous mass as sleek as glass” (Barry 637). The effect is created by the rays of light streaming through the little windows in the dome with the rays of light. As the light pierces through the dome and hits the surface of the marble floors, it creates a sheen glow that makes the viewer’s experience of walking across the floors like walking across this glass-like surface. The floors are the macrocosmic plan of the universe, containing within it the beginning and end of time. Concurrently, the water-like marble floors also call attention to the geographical location of Hagia Sophia, which sits on the Bosporus. Therefore, the floors of Hagia Sophia not only brings in and reflects the world around it, but also reorients itself and its visitors within the universe at
large. The Annunciation with Archangel Gabriel and Virgin Mary at the Daphni Monastery in Greece includes the viewer as a part of the narrative, encouraging a sense of spectatorial participation. The scene situated on the pendentives of the church, is set on a theatrical stage. The viewer is similar to the spectator watching the scene unfold. Described as a spatial icon, the narrative engages with the actual space of the church, as if spilling out from the wall and occurring in the space of the viewer. Robert S. Nelson’s article “To Say or to See: Ekphrasis and Vision in Byzantium” describes spatial icons or “icons in space” as a narrative or interaction that “is shared by the beholder and the beheld.” In other words, the icons are conscious of the viewer. The Archangel Gabriel looks at the Virgin, while she looks off into the distance, acknowledging a world that exists beyond the picture plane. The inclusion of the viewer heightens the religious drama and charge of the scene, making the event more palpable and visually striking. Although the scene does allows the viewer to bear witness to this important moment, at the same time, it creates a sense of separation, by creating two distinct worlds—that of the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and that of the viewer below. The gold backdrop points to the idea that these figures exist in a realm outside of the mundane. We are allowed to visualize it, but never be an integral part of it. Furthermore, the scene is situated just below the Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the monastery, which speaks of both a hierarchy of narratives and figures. The mosaic speaks of a specific relationship with the image that not all viewers can achieve. The mosaic, with its use of the gold backdrop, creates a separation between the viewer and the religious scene playing out above, one that they can never be apart of. The visual experience and reorientation of the viewer is often created by using the world of the viewer as the theatrical stage for the religious drama, which either situates the viewer as a part of the drama or outside of the scene looking into it. The interior spaces such as that of church of Hagia Sophia appear to transcend beyond mundane existence yet somewhat still grounded in reality, bringing the visitor into a liminal space that is in flux between heaven and earth. Experiences of water and light are intertwined with the materials used to build Hagia Sophia, which communicate a religious narrative primarily through the employment of visual metaphors. Spatial icons such as those at the Daphni Monastery also mediate on this idea of flux between the religious narrative playing out in the mosaics and the physical space of the church, which positions the viewer as the witness to the scene, but as separate entities from the drama. Byzantine mosaics can also implement a hierarchy that reflects a microcosm of the Byzantine world, creating a distinction between the holy and the ordinary. Thus, the Byzantine church was a sort of encapsulation of the perfect and ordered universe, drawing in the world around it and the greater universe at large into a single coherent space, granting the beholder a new experience grounded in perception and knowledge.
Q: Use St. Peter’s Basilica and Donato Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome, in opposition to John Balthasar Neumann’s Pilgrimage Church of Vier(7) in Bamburg, Germany, to argue that a rational engagement with architecture is a more effective means to comprehend and understand architectural form. During the period of Renaissance, human’s thought and intelligence has reached its highest and its effect on the architectural form, it became clear and its engagement of rational aspect on the building. Mainly geometrical forms are the characteristics which can be identified. Not so long after the Renaissance period of Baroque architecture was introduced, rather than logic and reasoning they wanted to capture the emotional atmosphere by using the architectural elements such as light, height, crafted art, costly materials and so on as mentioned by(Scotti 2007, 5-10).
“The Passions of Christ: A Journey Through Byzantine Art.” Kypros-Net: “The World of Cyprus”. 18 Oct. 2004 <http://kypros.org/Byzantine/>.
He suggests that the use of “electronic imaging prevents imagining and promotes thinking about architecture rather than bring architects, contractors, clients and critics to think within architecture” (275). Inspired by Frascari, the strategy of technography is encouraged (278). This is a “different way of thinking about the relationship between a [working] drawing and a future building. Rather than “simply Cartesian, technical lines showing edges, corners and joints these technographic drawings reveal both the symbolic and instrumental representations of the future building.. it is to make visible what is invisible”. Ridgway remarks, “The fact that any of this could be considered contentious indicates that extent to which architects have become alienated from the heart of their profession” (279). He asserts, “Part of any technography must be an acknowledgement of the historical context of construction knowledge. This is not only so we can better understand our rich architectural ancestry, but because it re-establishes a connection with the origins of our profession in building” (279). Rather than a “miniature projected representation of an imagined building, details are drawn as poetic constructions themselves, following the logic of drawing and not building and representing the “built detail symbolically, in addition to instrumentally. The symbolic and practical are one and the same thing” (280). “What are the symbolic qualities we are trying to embody in our buildings and how would we represent them in drawings?” becomes the question (278). These drawing “may not be easy or straightforward to understand or interpret.
Both Byzantine and Roman mosaics developed at a similar time which led to the influenced upon one another. They possessed distinct techniques, materials, styles and subject matter. Byzantine structures emphasized on decorative touches while Roman mosaics were greatly functional. Both styles were enhanced in order to honour religious figures and domestic life (Ovadiah, 1987).
Karl Marx once said “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce” (8). His words ring true with regards to the two periods of Iconoclasm that happened during the Byzantine era. The exact target of all of these destructive acts may be different (icons, Buddhas, and a Christian Monastery), however, what these events do have in common is one similar outcome: the loss of beautiful historical religious artistry that can never really be replaced.
The artwork I chose for the art criticism project was ‘The Survivors’ by Kathe Kollwitz. The piece was created in 1923 in Berlin, Germany, where she resided with her husband. She and her husband resided in a poorer area, and it is believed to have contributed too much of her artwork style. ‘The Survivors’ is currently displayed in two museums, the MoMA and the Kathe Kollwitz Museum. In the piece there is a woman directly in the middle, with sunken in cheek bones is draped in a black cloak. Her arms are around three small children, who look very frightened. On each side of her body there are an additional four small children who convey sadness upon their innocent faces. Also, they are outstretching their arms as if they are begging for her to give them something. In the background, on the top left side, there are two elderly men with their heads down, looking as if they are very sad and
Architecture is one important aspect of Byzantine culture. One of the most famous Byzantine architectural achievements is the Hagia Sophia, which is located in modern-day Istanbul. The basic design of the cathedral has a dome over a square base, which required a new innovation. At the time, it was kn...
Toni Morrison makes a good point when, in her acceptance speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, she says, “Narrative . . . is . . . one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge” (7). The words we use and the way in which we use them is how we, as humans, communicate to each other our thoughts, feelings, and actions and therefore our knowledge of the world and its peoples. Knowledge is power. In this way, our language, too, is powerful.
When walking around a city, you may notice that the architecture and art look similar to other works. Many of these designs have changed along the course of history and time whilst others have not. The designs that many people still see in society and day to day living is from two of the many cultures of the old civilizations, Roman and Islamic. The art and architecture forms from the Islamic and Roman cultures have many comparisons and contrasts between them. They, the Islamic and Roman nations, have both adopted from other cultures and have made their own discoveries in the art and architecture worlds. The Roman and Islamic architecture and art vary drastically from each other and yet have varying comparisons between the two.
Have you ever felt insignificant while standing in front of a monumental building that you have seen in small images of your history book? No one could imagine the atmosphere and physical beauty inside the most beautiful structures in the world, the Pantheon and the Florence cathedral. While sitting at the fountain in front of the Pantheon, one can see the huge columns rising towards the entablature and the walls curving behind to form a cylinder. Although the exterior of the pantheon could look majestic, the interior is just as breathtaking. The first thing someone does when they enter the Pantheon is to look up at the coffered dome and the oculus. The important feature that seemed impossible to have been built during the time that the Pantheon
In The Sacred & The Profane: A Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade attempts to define the sacred by stating it is “the opposite of the profane” (pg. 10). Through out the book he tries to explain this statement through the concept of hierophany (the idea that one can experience, sensorily, the manifestation of the holy/sacred), however his main explanation of the sacred being “the opposite of the profane” is the comparison of a modern religious man and a modern non-religious man (a profane man). Eliade compares the two by explaining how each would react to space, time, nature, and life. This essay will explain the idea of sacred space, how a religious and a profane man would experience it, and how the idea of sacred space might be applied to the study of medieval art and architecture.
In the poem “One Art” the thesis statement declared in the first stanza, on the first line as “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” also repeating it again in line 6 and 12. The statement is better interpreted as “The skill of losing is not hard to attain”. Bishop speaks in the poem as if she has successfully mastered the skill of losing. She also goes around in circles admitting that the art of losing is not hard to master as if that is what she is making herself believe is true. She is also helping the reader create a habit as the reader reads and repeats the refrain of “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” not to mention the line 4 where she tells the reader to make it a habit to, “Lose something every day”.
The concept of loss is a notable theme in poetry, whether its about love, beauty or even
Byzantine art had many basic characteristics. The first was expressionistic using color and emotion. Many of the are lacked depth in a two dimensional fashion. The art was symbolic in nature, decorative, detailed. The figures are stiff and ...
Therefore its threshold represents the dichotomy to the interior is such a shocking transition to the spirit. This supports the conjecture that the most powerful connection to the sacred reality is present in the rites of passage going from the profane to sacred worlds. The sacred view of water represents formlessness. The material used as the flooring of the Hagia Sophia is striated with wave like curves that look similar to ripples in water. Because it symbolizes formlessness the floor of the temple is representative of the chaos of the profane world and the large distance between the floor and dome further emphasizes the distance that separates the world form the glory of God. tmedia of the enormous hemispheric Dome of the