Essay
4
Essay
# 4B
Title:
East and West
Question:
Based
solely on their art, which of the two
Roman
Empires most affected the Christian iconography of the middle ages
and, was it subsequently replaced later on and by whom?
Part
I
Summary:
Overall
the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) affected the Christian
iconography of the middle ages in many powerful ways.
Reason:
The
reason for this question I think was for us to see how the Eastern
Roman Empire affected the Christian iconography of the middle ages
with their art.
Purpose:
The
purpose for this question was for us to see how art can affect
religion.
Direction:
The
direction I took in answering this was to find out how they based
their art on their own religion.
Impressions:
What
interested me was how this Empire took such an affect on the
Christian iconography and how they had to fight for it.
Part II
Based
on the art of the two Roman Empires the art that affected the
Christian Iconography of the middle ages the most was the Eastern
Roman Empire. “If the purpose of classical art was the
glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the
glorification of God, and of His Son, Jesus.”
(http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/medieval/byzantine.htm)
With these ideal images Christ became the norm of Byzantine art and
their religion being Christianity you can see how their religious art
would have such an affect on Christian iconography. One example is
the church Hagia Sophia. “The architects and builders of Hagia
Sophia clearly stretched building materials so their physical limits,
denying the physicality of the building in order to emphasize its
spirituality.” (Art History, page 237)
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This is what made iconography so strong during the middle ages. “Worshipers standing on the church floor must have felt such a spiritual uplift as they gazed at the mosaics of saints, angels, and, in the golden central dome, heaven itself.” (Art History, page 237) The purpose of this design was to point the worshiper toward god. These icons in their art served as an existential link to god. During the 8th century is when the drawing on the second commandment against graven images, Pope Leo III issued an edict prohibiting religious images. Acceptable religious art according to these “iconoclasts” including abstract symbols and plants, animal forms. The iconoclasts destroyed most of Byzantine art. Cities revolted and battles were fought. This art was affecting both church and state but as it went on in 843, debate settled and Eastern Orthodox churches regained their rights to use art in worship. This made their art very powerful and it shows how their art really took an affect on Christian iconography during that time.
“The Byzantine tradition would continue in the art of the Eastern Orthodox Church and is carried on to this day in Greek and Russian icon Painting. In Constantinople, however, the three golden ages of Byzantine art- and the empire it self- came to an end in 1453. When the forces of the ottoman sultan Mehmed II overran the capital, the Eastern Empire became a part of the Islamic world. But the Turkish conquerors were so impressed with the splendor of the Byzantine art and architecture in the capital that they adopted its traditions and melded them with their own rich aesthetic heritage into a new, and now Islamic, artistic efflorescence.”(Art history, page 259) So after the Ottoman Empire in the 15th Century their art would no longer take an affect on Christian Iconography. I think during the middle ages the Byzantine art was very powerful in many ways showing their beliefs in such a mind blowing way and I see how it took a big role on Christian Iconography back then but also if this never happened the image of Christianity would not be the same.
