Turkish Delight on a Moonlit Night! - The Byzantine Era

Hey did you hear the news? Emperor Constantine died! ...What year is it? 337. Yes, that's A.D.
Hahaha, funny story... I kinda transported us in the time machine while you were sleeping... What? Don't look so mad! We have to go forward in time a little, too, so I can get some more pictures for the professor!

Here we are, Byzantium! After the fall of Rome following Constantine's death, the west of Europe declined and the East became great and flourished! Right now Justinian is the ruler, and we're here to look at the magnificent basilicas created at this time- oh, basilicas are churches, by the by. 

This is Constantinople (Istanbul in my time), where this style of architecture began. The style was so popular- understandably, look how pretty it is!- that it spread all across Europe through the 5th and 6th centuries, and the style was used for over 1000 years!

Now, off to the first church! This one has quite an odd name...

(Image found here.)

This is the Hagia Sophia. But you call it the i-ah Sophia. Weird, I know. But that funny name means "the church of holy wisdom."
 This is the third Hagia Sophia built, the other two having been torn down by rioters. This one was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and was originally an Eastern Orthodox church. It was built from 532 A.D.- 537 A.D., that's only six years- a short time for people without modern equipment! 

In 1453 Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks who converted this building into a mosque- a temple for the Islamic religion. The four bell towers around the Hagia Sophia are minarets, they are used to call Islamic worshipers to prayer.

 

(Image found here.)

Do you see the rounded triangular shapes in the ceiling of the building? These triangular pendentives on the inside of this square building allowed a circular dome to be supportable on top. It took them a long time to get this architecture right, and after the discovery of pendentives they were used for the rest of history!

(Image found here.) 

This is some ornate architecture alright! It's like the entire building itself is art!

 

That was a cool stop, now back into the time machine! We're off to see another Byzantine church!

In 726 A.D., the Church split and created two different and opposing groups of people. There were the iconoclasts who destroyed all images and icons and the preservationists who preserved all the images and icons in this period. Art was not being widely created in this time, churches were.

(Image found here.)

Here we are in Venice, Italy!  This is the largest and grandest church of the Second Golden Age (a Renaissance rebirth of the Byzantium) is St. Mark's Basilica. It was built originally in 832 in this spot, but then it was burned down and rebuilt. It was rebuilt again and again until its consecration in 1094, when Saint Mark's body was said to have been discovered in a pillar by the Doge.

 

(Image found here.)

On the outside, as you can see, are many large and elaborate mosaics. And those columns are made of marble, there are 2,643 of them on the outside of this basilica, to be exact. There were four Greek Bronze horses put on the outside in 1254, but these were looted and went around the world before being put in a safe place to be preserved in my time. There aren't many Greek Bronzes that have survived in my time, so they are quite the artifact.

 

(Image found here.)

Look a those ceilings! Wow they're high!
And there's more mosaics all throughout the inside, and there is also venetian glass.

As pretty as this is, let's go look at a more colorful cathedral in Moscow!

 

(Image found here.)

This is St. Basil's cathedral. Although it was built much later than the Byzantine era, from 1555–1561 A.D., it was  highly influenced by Byzantine architecture.

The "onion domes" you see on the top are called Kokoshniki. Try saying that ten times fast.


(Image found here.)

The funny thing is this colorful building was actually ordered to be built by a guy called Ivan the Terrible. But, then again, looking at those clashing colors, I understand why they called him that...

Do you see all those gold portraits throughout the room? They had some of those in St. Mark's Basilica as well. Those are icons, which are religious symbols.

This is one of the most common icons of Jesus Christ:

 

(Image found here.)

If you think they look very stylized and unrealistic, you're right. Icons are made for the religious experience, not an aesthetic one. The artists strove for beauty and essence, not realism. They served as worship centers in peoples' homes and in churches. There are many icons still around and being made in my time as well.
Icons were painted on wood panels using egg tempera, however they weren't made cheap. They always contained gold leaf, sometimes vast amounts of it, so they usually had a patron, which was sometimes a church.

 This is another common icon of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus:

(Image found here.)

This colorful and emotional style had certain standards. All the religious icons had halos around their heads and very Eastern features, such as long, thin noses and sunken eyes. The babies were painted like little old men, the draping of clothing was unrealistic, the people and elongated fingers and elongated proportions, and the artists used used ladder perspective. Some, but certainly not all of these traits may have been due to the artists being inexperienced in how to paint proper perspective and detail.  


Let's go to the time machine, we're going to Spain!  

 

(Image found here.)

This is the  Alhambra, which means "the red fortress." In 889 it was a fortress, but since 1333 it has been converted to a palace. It was built during the time of Moorish rule for the last Muslim Emirs (high-ranking Sheiks) in Spain. 

 

(Image found here.)

The Alhambra is famous for it's giant gardens and has gorgeous and vastly ornate Moorish and Byzantine architecture.

(Image found here.) 

Moorish architecture is very unique. They made columns and vaults in a sort of rounded triangular shape, as seen above, and they used stucco.

Islam spread as rapidly as Christianity during this time. You can thank them for the numbers we use, our Arabic numerals (1,2,3...). I'm sure you don't want to be doing your math homework in Roman numerals!

One more stop, a particularly golden mosque.

(Image found here.)

This is the great Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem! It is is a Muslim mosque built on a particularly holy site to Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike. It marks the temple Jesus went to, as well as the place where Mohammed ascended, and the hill where Abraham brought Isaac to sacrifice him in the Old Testament.

 

(Image found here.)

It was built in 685-691 AD, in Byzantine style. The outside, once covered in mosaics, is now covered in bright tiles. The dome is wood covered in gold leaf- I bet you can see it glittering from a mile away! The inside is smaller than it appears, and it is, in fact, built over the top of a giant rock.

One last piece of artwork to point out from this era- this is the Lamentation by Giotto di Bondone. He was the precursor to Renaissance art. As you can see, this is in a very different style than the icons were in. This has real perspective instead of ladder perspective, is more realistic rather than stylized (as you can see, Jesus actually has a normal human anatomy), and there are even people with their backs turned to you! It may seem like they're giving you the cold shoulder,  but don't worry about that, this is actually a big deal in the world of art, it just hadn't been done before!

(Image found here.)

And that's all the highlights of the Byzantine Era. We should really get out of here before the Crusaders come and everything starts getting pillaged again... Plus I'm starting to miss indoor plumbing. Well, see you next time!