Byzantine architecture


Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from AD 330, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture. The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale. Wall mosaics with gold background became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescos a cheaper alternative.
The richest interiors were finished with thin plates of marble or coloured and patterned stone. Some of the columns were also made of marble. Other widely used materials were bricks and stone. Mosaics made of stone or glass tesserae were also elements of interior architecture. Precious wood furniture, like beds, chairs, stools, tables, bookshelves and silver or golden cups with beautiful reliefs, decorated Byzantine interiors.
Early Byzantine architecture drew upon earlier elements of Roman and Greek architecture. Stylistic drift, technological advancement, and political and territorial changes meant that a distinct style gradually resulted in the Greek cross plan in church architecture. Civil architecture continued Greco-Roman trends; the Byzantines built impressive fortifications and bridges, but generally not aqueducts on the same scale as the Romans.
This terminology was introduced by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire as it evolved as a distinct artistic and cultural entity centered on the new capital of Constantinople rather than the city of Rome and its environs. Its architecture dramatically influenced the later medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East.

Characteristics

When the Roman Empire became Christian with its new capital at Constantinople, its architecture became more sensuous and ambitious. This new style with exotic domes and richer mosaics would come to be known as "Byzantine" before it traveled west to Ravenna and Venice and as far north as Moscow. Most of the churches and basilicas have high-riding domes, which created vast open spaces at the centers of churches, thereby heightening the light. The round arch is a fundamental of Byzantine style. Magnificent golden mosaics with their graphic simplicity brought light and warmth into the heart of churches. Byzantine capitals break away from the Classical conventions of ancient Greece and Rome with sinuous lines and naturalistic forms, which are precursors to the Gothic style.
In the same way the Parthenon is the most impressive monument for Classical religion, Hagia Sophia remained the iconic church for Christianity. The temples of these two religions differ substantially from the point of view of their interiors and exteriors. For Classical temples, only the exterior was important, because only the priests entered the interior, where the statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated was kept. The ceremonies were held outside, in front of the temple. Instead, Christian liturgies were held inside the churches.
Broadly speaking, according to Patricios, sacred Byzantine architecture falls into one of seven types:
  1. basilican dominant from the fourth to the seventh centuries;
  2. domed basilica where all parts of the church were covered by masonry vaults and the dome was placed at the centre point of the length of the church;
  3. cruciform typically tripartite—the Bema or sanctuary faces east, the naos or nave space in the middle, and the narthex or entrance vestibule to the west;
  4. centralized designed initially as martyria and baptisteries, often where the longitudinal axis of the basilica was replaced by a vertical axis, that served as the focal point;
  5. converted temple taking various forms based on the conversion of ancient Egyptian temples;
  6. cross-in-square prominent during the ninth century, and then took over as the dominant form, with a square central mass and four arms of equal length, typically, with a distinctive domed-roof; and
  7. Athonite created in the tenth century, based on the cross-in-square form with two major modifications: two side apses and two narthexes

    Columns

Byzantine columns are quite varied, mostly developing from the classical Corinthian, with the ornamentation undercut with drills, and fluted shafts almost entirely abandoned. The block of stone was left rough as it came from the quarry, and the sculptor evolved new designs to his own fancy, so that one rarely meets with many repetitions of the same design. One of the most remarkable designs features leaves carved as if blown by the wind; the finest example being at the 7th-century Hagia Sophia. Those in the Cathedral of Saint Mark, Venice specially attracted John Ruskin's fancy. Others appear in Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna .
The column in San Vitale, Ravenna shows above it the dosseret required to carry the arch, the springing of which was much wider than the abacus of the column. On eastern columns the eagle, the lion and the lamb are occasionally carved, but treated conventionally.
There are two types of columns used at Hagia Sophia: Composite and Ionic. The Composite column that emerged during the Late Byzantine Empire, mainly in Rome, combines the Corinthian with the Ionic. Composite columns line the principal space of the nave. Ionic columns are used behind them in the side spaces, in a mirror position relative to the Corinthian or Composite orders. At Hagia Sophia, though, these are not the standard imperial statements. The columns are filled with foliage in all sorts of variations. In some, the small, lush leaves appear to be caught up in the spinning of the scrolls – clearly, a different, nonclassical sensibility has taken over the design.
The columns at Basilica of San Vitale show wavy and delicate floral patterns similar to decorations found on belt buckles and dagger blades. Their inverted pyramidal form has the look of a basket.

Overview of extant monuments

Buildings increased in geometric complexity, brick and plaster were used in addition to stone in the decoration of important public structures, classical orders were used more freely, mosaics replaced carved decoration, complex domes rested upon massive piers, and windows filtered light through thin sheets of alabaster to softly illuminate interiors. Most of the surviving structures are sacred, with secular buildings having been destroyed.

Early architecture

Prime examples of early Byzantine architecture date from the Emperor Justinian I's reign and survive in Ravenna and Istanbul, as well as in Sofia. One of the great breakthroughs in the history of Western architecture occurred when Justinian's architects invented a complex system providing for a smooth transition from a square plan of the church to a circular dome by means of pendentives.
In Ravenna, the longitudinal basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, and the octagonal, centralized structure of the church of San Vitale, commissioned by Emperor Justinian but never seen by him, was built. Justinian's monuments in Istanbul include the domed churches of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Irene, but there is also an earlier, smaller church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, which might have served as a model for both in that it combined the elements of a longitudinal basilica with those of a centralized building.
File:Millingen H Eirene section.svg|thumb|The 6th-century church of Hagia Irene in Istanbul was substantially rebuilt after an earthquake in the 8th century.
Other structures include the ruins of the Great Palace of Constantinople, the innovative walls of Constantinople and Basilica Cistern. A mosaic in the church begun by the Ostrogoths, San Apollinare in Nuovo in Ravenna, depicts an early Byzantine palace.
Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki, Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, Jvari Monastery in present-day Georgia, and three Armenian churches of Echmiadzin all date primarily from the 7th century and provide a glimpse on architectural developments in the Byzantine provinces following the age of Justinian.
Remarkable engineering feats include the 430 m long Sangarius Bridge, the pointed arch of Karamagara Bridge, as well as the dome of the Church of Hagia Sophia.

Middle Byzantine architecture

In the Macedonian dynasty, it is presumed that Basil I's votive church of the Theotokos of the Pharos and the Nea Ekklesia served as a model for most cross-in-square sanctuaries of the period, including the Cattolica di Stilo in southern Italy, the monastery church of Hosios Lukas in Greece, Nea Moni of Chios, and the Daphni Monastery near Athens. All three of the later churches display the important shifts in architectural design that occurred following the end of Iconoclasm, when architectural design and decoration became more standardized.
File:20090803 hosiosloukas36.jpg|thumb|upright|External view of the 11th-century monastery of Hosios Loukas in Greece. It is representative of the Byzantine art during the rule of the Macedonian dynasty
File:St Sophia.jpg|thumb|left|Rear courtyard of Church of St. Sophia, Ohrid, 9th century, First Bulgarian Empire, now North Macedonia
The Hagia Sophia church in Ochrid, built in the First Bulgarian Empire in the time of Boris I of Bulgaria, and eponymous cathedral in Kiev testify to a vogue for multiple subsidiary domes set on drums, which would gain in height and narrowness with the progress of time.

Comnenian and Paleologan periods

In Istanbul and Asia Minor the architecture of the Komnenian period is almost non-existent, with the notable exceptions of the Elmali Kilise and other rock sanctuaries of Cappadocia, and of the Churches of the Pantokrator and of the Theotokos Kyriotissa in Istanbul. Most examples of this architectural style and many of the other older Byzantine styles only survive on the outskirts of the Byzantine world, as most significant and ancient churches and buildings were in Asia Minor. During World War I, almost all churches that ended up within the Turkish borders were destroyed or converted into mosques. Some were abandoned as a result of the Greek and Christian genocides from 1915 to 1923. Similar styles can be found in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia and other Slavic lands, as well as in Sicily and Veneto.
In Middle Byzantine architecture "cloisonné masonry" refers to walls built with a regular mix of stone and brick, often with more of the latter. The exterior of the 11th- or 12th-century Pammakaristos Church in Istanbul is an example, though it is even more renowned for Late Byzantine additions discussed below.