Early Byzantine Europe (118-537 CE)

Question 1

Vienna Genesis IDs

Answer 1

Early Byzantine Europe
Early sixth century
Pigments on purple vellum

Question 2

San Vitale IDs

Answer 2

Early Byzantine Europe (Ravenna)
118-125 CE
Brick, marble, stone veneer, and masonry

Question 3

Hagia Sophia IDs

Answer 3

Early Byzantine Europe
Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus
532-537 CE
Brick, marble, mosaic, and wood

Question 4

Virgin and Child between Theodore and George IDs

Answer 4

Early Byzantine Europe
6th to 7th century CE
Encaustic on wood with gold leaf

Question 5

Vienna Genesis

Answer 5

Oldest biblical text with imagery
Part of a codex
Shows narrative of Genesis
Abraham sends Eliezer to find a wife for his son, and he chooses Rebecca
Greco-Roman elements (columns,arenas on bridge, shades/highlights
Byzantine elements (simple forms, disproportional, inconsistent space)
Purple vellum = imperial

Question 6

San vitale

Answer 6

Gives emotional impact (unlike rationality from western churches)
Octagonal and circular
Based on Roman tombs
Pushes weight of dome onto exterior walls
Martyrium (marks where San Vitale was martyred)
Ambulatory
Exadrare (niches with piers and columns)
Barrel vaults
Mosaics of Justinian and his wife bringing bread and wire (spacial ambiguity)

Question 7

Hagia Sophia

Answer 7

Most important of Byzantine
Commingles secular and religious power
Iconoclasm
Devotion to Christianity and political power
Site of coronations
Makes you feel insignificant
Ring of windows under dome (divinity of light, higher power holding it up
Iconostasis (conceals clergy)
Rivals any other religious building
Converted to a mosque later (added quranic verses, minarets)
Now a museum and a mosque

Question 8

Virgin and child between Theodore and George

Answer 8

Creates a strong, emotional appeal to eastern orthodox Christians
Relays message to God
Mary as furniture to Christ
Christ(teaching gesture, holding the word of God)
Two saints
Represents triumph of church over paganism
Greco-roman elements (3D face, highlights + shadows, foreshortening, receding lines, elongation)
Iconoclasts thought this was praying to an idol
I condoles thought this was a messenger to God

Question 9

Early Byzantine Europe Style

Answer 9

Spread Christian faith
Signals strength and importance of empire
Less naturalistic
Domes and vaults
Pendentives and squinches (better transitions between bases)
Mosaics and frescoes