Byzantine & Islamic Art

Byzantine and Islamis (A.D. 476 - A.D. 1453)

Byzantine What is Byzantine Art: • Byzantine art flourished from about 300 A.D to the 1400s. It grew out of the early Christian world.

• Byzantine art is a mixture of Greek, Roman, and formal Medieval style.

• Byzantine art was very religious. Most Byzantine art was created for the Eastern Orthodox Church, made by servants of the courts or mambers of religious orders.

• Byzantine art divided into four distinct periods, with strong influence from its Christian relidion and the Byzantine’s existing appreciation pf traditional Roman art.

Byzantine Icons: An Icon is a religious devotional image usually of portible size, made out of wood and covered with coats of paint. An Icon is a worship item of an idea or holy person depicted in a work of art, that helpes people with medetations and prayers.

Bigger and more valuable Icons are displayed on screens in churches were people come in and pray.

Byzantine Architecture: One of the most notable areas where Byzantinium’s legacy remained was its influence on architecture. Following the capture of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottomans incorporated its architectual elements and style into their srtuctures, icluding the conversion of a traditional basilica, or Christian church, into their own distinguished mosque. Most widely know for its heavy European stykistic influences is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine built with similar measurements to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre located in Jerusalem.

To support the domes Byzantine architectors created Pendentives and Squinch that are shaped like a triangles that transition the space between flat walls and the base of a round dome.

Byzantine Dome of the Rock

Byzantine Mosaics and Tiling: Inspired by the divinely crated mosaics ( a piece of art or image made from the assemblage of small pieces of coloured glass and/or other materials) abording the walls of classic Christian architectures, mosaics became another prominent art that transitioned into Islamic territory.

One of the major differences between Byzantine and Islamic mosaics was that the beautiful scenes were often created without the use of human figures in Islamic art.

Byzantine mosaics

Islamic mosaics

Islamic Meaning and beauty: Art is the mirror of a culture and its worldview.

The art of the Islamic world reflects its cultural values, and reveals the way Muslims view the spiritual realm and the universe.

For the Muslim, reality begins with and centars on Allah. \ Allah is at the heart of worship and aspirations for MUslims, and is the focus of their lives.

So Islamic art focuses on the spiritual representation of objects and beings, and not their physical qualities.

Islamic Calligraphy: Calligraphic design is omnipresent in Islamic art, where, as in Europe in the Middle Ages, religious exhortations, including Qur’anic verses, may be included in secular objects, especially coins, tiles and metalwork, and most painted miniatures include some script, as do many buildings. Use of Islamic calligraphy in architecture extended significantly outside of Islamic territories; one notable example is the use of Chinese calligraphy of Arabic verses from the Qur’an in the Great Mosque of Xi’an. Other inscriptions include verses of poetry, and inscriptions recording ownership or donation. Two of the main scripts involved are the symbolic kufic and naskh scripts, which can be found adorning and enhancing the visual appeal of the walls and domes of buildings, the sides of minbars, and metalwork. Islamic calligraphy in the form of painting or sculptures is sometimes referred to as uranic art.

Islamic

Qur’an in the Great Mosque of Xi’an

Islamic calligraphy

Islamic Paintings: Although there has been a tradition of wall-paintings, especially in the Persianate world, the best-surviving and highest developed form of painting in the Islamic world is the miniature in illuminated manuscripts, or later as a single page for inclusion in a muraqqa or bound album of miniatures and calligraphy. The tradition of the Persian miniature has been dominant since about the 13th century, strongly influencing the Ottoman miniature of Turkey and the Mughal miniature in India.

Islamic Persian miniature painting.

Byzantine and Islamis (A.D. 476 - A.D. 1453)