Exam 2 Chapter 7 Flashcards
Describe the fall of Rome and the rise of Byzantium (Constantinople).
Rome was experiencing major economic political and social problems so Emperor Constantine dedicated a Greek trading town on the Bosporus as his eastern capital changing its name from Byzantium to Constantinople. It was to be a new Rome.
What were the contributions of Augustine and Boethius?
Augustine
Following his conversion and his denunciation of the flesh, Augustine became a priest and then a bishop back in Hippo and eventually one of the Latin fathers of the church. He developed the concepts of original sin and just war. He wrote that humans are depraved- perhaps as he was depraved in his earlier years- and could not become righteous without the grace of God. His intellectual impact on the subsequent cultural history of the West is difficult to overestimate. His influence within Christianity is without parallel.
Boethius
Wrote Consolation of Philosophy which wa one of the most widely read and influential works of the Middle Ages and Elizabethan England. Chaucer made a Middle English translation of it from an already existing French version, and Queen Elizabeth I translated the work into modern English. ITs message of hope and faith was quoted liberally by every major medieval thinkers from Thomas Aquinas to Dante Alighieri.
Describe the significance of Justinian and Theodora.
Justinian and Theodora were fiercely partisan Christians who took a keen interest in theology and ecclesiastical governance.
Justinian: Shut down the last surviving Platonic Academy in the world because he felt their pagan teachings were inimical to the true religion. He ruled that the Hagia Sophia was constructed.
Theodora: Was the wife of Justinian.
Describe Hagia Sophia. How was it different from Early Christian or Roman?
Used Pendentives, which are triangular masonry devices that carry the weight of the dome on massive piers rather than straight down from the drum. Higher than the pantheon. It is abutted by two half domes instead of a quadrangle.
How were mosaics made and what artistic merit did they have? How did they create an other-worldly feel?
Mosaics are made by creating an image with little tiny tiles. They were used to refract and break up the light.
Orthodox vs. Arianism
Orthodox Christians accepted the divinity of Christ and Arian Christians did not.
Arianism believed that Christ was inferior to the Father, not equal. He was not of the same substance as God.
Orthodox thought that God and Christ were the same
What was the legacy of Byzantine civilization?
The Byzantine Empire insulated Europe from enemies and gave it the time it needed to recover from its chaotic medieval period.
Byzantium’s role in shaping Orthodoxy was also hugely influential; the modern-day Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world.
Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt and Arabia to Russia and Romania. Byzantine painting from this period would have a strong influence on the later painters of the Italian Renaissance.
Greek cross:
a cross of which all four arms are of equal length.
Pendentive:
A triangular section of vaulting between the rim of a dome and each adjacent pair of the arches that support it.
Drum:
in architecture, any of the cylindrical stone blocks composing a column that is not a monolith. The term also denotes a circular or polygonal wall supporting a dome cupola, or lantern.
Dome:
A vaulted roof usually having a circular base shaped like a half a sphere.
Mosaic:
An image created by assembling small pieces of materials such as glass, stone, or tile.
Tesserae:
Small pieces of stone, glass, or ceramic tile used in the creation of a mosaic (singulare tessera).
Icon:
An image or symbol.
Iconoclastic controversy:
The dispute as to whether or not it was blasphemous to use images or icons in art, based on the second of the Ten Commandments, in which God forbids the creation and worship of “graven images” the Greek word iconoclasm translates as “image breaking” and refers to the destruction of religious icons within a culture.
