Download or read book Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience written by Nadine Schibille and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paramount in the shaping of early Byzantine identity was the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (532-537 CE). This book examines the edifice from the perspective of aesthetics to define the concept of beauty and the meaning of art in early Byzantium. Byzantine aesthetic thought is re-evaluated against late antique Neoplatonism and the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius that offer fundamental paradigms for the late antique attitude towards art and beauty. These metaphysical concepts of aesthetics are ultimately grounded in experiences of sensation and perception, and reflect the ways in which the world and reality were perceived and grasped, signifying the cultural identity of early Byzantium. There are different types of aesthetic data, those present in the aesthetic object and those found in aesthetic responses to the object. This study looks at the aesthetic data embodied in the sixth-century architectural structure and interior decoration of Hagia Sophia as well as in literary responses (ekphrasis) to the building. The purpose of the Byzantine ekphrasis was to convey by verbal means the same effects that the artefact itself would have caused. A literary analysis of these rhetorical descriptions recaptures the Byzantine perception and expectations, and at the same time reveals the cognitive processes triggered by the Great Church. The central aesthetic feature that emerges from sixth-century ekphraseis of Hagia Sophia is that of light. Light is described as the decisive element in the experience of the sacred space and light is simultaneously associated with the notion of wisdom. It is argued that the concepts of light and wisdom are interwoven programmatic elements that underlie the unique architecture and non-figurative decoration of Hagia Sophia. A similar concern for the phenomenon of light and its epistemological dimension is reflected in other contemporary monuments, testifying to the pervasiveness of these aesthetic values in early Byzantium.
Download or read book Aesthetics and Theurgy in Byzantium written by Sergei Mariev and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-07-31 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The general scope of the present volume is to present a variety of approaches and topics within the growing field of research on Byzantine aesthetics. Theurgy in Neoplatonic and Christian contexts is represented by the contributions of W.-M. Stock and L. Bergemann; theories of beauty are at the centre of interest of the papers by S. Mariev and M. Marchetto. A. Pizzone approaches Byzantine aesthetics by looking for aesthetic experience in the literary texts, while the remaining contributions explore issues related to the iconoclast controversy: An important moment in the development of Byzantine philosophy on the eve of iconoclasm is the primary interest of A. del Campo Echevarría, who looks at the question of universals in John of Damaskos. The relationship between image and text in Byzantine illustrated manuscripts occupies the attention of B. Crostini. D. Afinogenov explores from a philological perspective the fate of important iconophile terminology in Old Bulgarian, while L. Lukhovitskij reconstructs from historical and philological perspectives the historical memory of the iconoclast controversy during the Late Byzantine Period.
Download or read book Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience written by Nadine Schibille and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paramount in the shaping of early Byzantine identity was the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (532-537 CE). This book examines the edifice from the perspective of aesthetics to define the concept of beauty and the meaning of art in early Byzantium. Byzantine aesthetic thought is re-evaluated against late antique Neoplatonism and the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius that offer fundamental paradigms for the late antique attitude towards art and beauty. These metaphysical concepts of aesthetics are ultimately grounded in experiences of sensation and perception, and reflect the ways in which the world and reality were perceived and grasped, signifying the cultural identity of early Byzantium. There are different types of aesthetic data, those present in the aesthetic object and those found in aesthetic responses to the object. This study looks at the aesthetic data embodied in the sixth-century architectural structure and interior decoration of Hagia Sophia as well as in literary responses (ekphrasis) to the building. The purpose of the Byzantine ekphrasis was to convey by verbal means the same effects that the artefact itself would have caused. A literary analysis of these rhetorical descriptions recaptures the Byzantine perception and expectations, and at the same time reveals the cognitive processes triggered by the Great Church. The central aesthetic feature that emerges from sixth-century ekphraseis of Hagia Sophia is that of light. Light is described as the decisive element in the experience of the sacred space and light is simultaneously associated with the notion of wisdom. It is argued that the concepts of light and wisdom are interwoven programmatic elements that underlie the unique architecture and non-figurative decoration of Hagia Sophia. A similar concern for the phenomenon of light and its epistemological dimension is reflected in other contemporary monuments, testifying to the pervasiveness of these aesthetic values in early Byzantium.
Download or read book Byzantine Aesthetics written by Gervase Mathew and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes Byzantine standards of beauty by relating them to changes in Byzantine civilization.
Download or read book Art of the Byzantine Era written by David Talbot Rice and published by London : Thames and Hudson. This book was released on 1963 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Useful ... convenient ... authoritative."--The Times Educational Supplement
Download or read book Byzantine Art written by Robin Cormack and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully illustrated, new edition of the best single-volume guide to Byzantine art, providing an introduction to the whole period and range of styles.
Download or read book The sensual icon written by Bissera V and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Explores the Byzantine aesthetic of fugitive appearances by placing and filming art objects in spaces of changing light, and by uncovering the shifting appearances expressed in poetry, descriptions of art, and liturgical performance"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Hesychasm and Art written by Anita Strezova and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Although many of the iconographic traditions in Byzantine art formed in the early centuries of Christianity, they were not petrified within a time warp. Subtle changes and refinements in Byzantine theology did find reflection in changes to the iconographic and stylistic conventions of Byzantine art. This is a brilliant and innovative book in which Dr Anita Strezova argues that a religious movement called Hesychasm, especially as espoused by the great Athonite monk St Gregory Palamas, had a profound impact on the iconography and style of Byzantine art, including that of the Slav diaspora, of the late Byzantine period. While many have been attracted to speculate on such a connection, none until now has embarked on proving such a nexus. The main stumbling blocks have included the need for a comprehensive knowledge of Byzantine theology; a training in art history, especially iconological, semiotic and formalist methodologies; extensive fieldwork in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Turkey and Russia, and a working knowledge of Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, Latin as well as several modern European languages, French, German, Russian and Italian. These are some of the skills which Dr Strezova has brought to her topic.” Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA Adjunct Professor of Art History School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics The Australian National University
Download or read book The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312 1453 written by Cyril A. Mango and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published by Prentice-Hall, 1972.
Download or read book Sources for Byzantine Art History Volume 3 The Visual Culture of Later Byzantium 1081 c 1350 written by Foteini Spingou and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 1683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book the beauty and meaning of Byzantine art and its aesthetics are for the first time made accessible through the original sources. More than 150 medieval texts are translated from nine medieval languages into English, with commentaries from over seventy leading scholars. These include theories of art, discussions of patronage and understandings of iconography, practical recipes for artistic supplies, expressions of devotion, and descriptions of cities. The volume reveals the cultural plurality and the interconnectivity of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries. The first part uncovers salient aspects of Byzantine artistic production and its aesthetic reception, while the second puts a spotlight on particular ways of expressing admiration and of interpreting of the visual.
Download or read book Beauty and the Male Body in Byzantium written by M. Hatzaki and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-10-29 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A neglected aspect of Byzantium, physical beauty appears as a quality with an unmistakable dark side, relating ambiguously to notions of power, goodness, evil, masculinity, effeminacy, life and death. Examined as an attribute of the human and, in particular, of the male body, this study of beauty refines our understanding of the Byzantine world.
Download or read book Epigram Art and Devotion in Later Byzantium written by Ivan Drpić and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using epigrammatic poetry as a framework, investigates the interplay between art and religious devotion in the later Byzantine period.
Download or read book Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline written by Cecily J. Hilsdale and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-20 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions how political decline refigures the visual culture of empire by examining the imperial image and the gift in later Byzantium (1261-1453). Provides a more nuanced account of medieval artistic cultural exchange that considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.
Download or read book Michael Psellos on Literature and Art written by Michael Psellos and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2017-04-30 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ambition of Michael Psellos on Literature and Art is to illustrate an important chapter in the history of Greek literary and art criticism and introduce precisely this aspect of Psellian writing to a wider public.
Download or read book The Art of Dining in Medieval Byzantium written by Lara Frentrop and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of intact ceramic bowls and plates as well as fragments made in the medieval Byzantine empire survive to this day. Decorated with figural and non-figural imagery applied in a variety of techniques and adorned with colourful paints and glazes, the vessels can tell us much about those who owned them and those who looked at them. In addition to innumerable ceramic vessels, a handful of precious metal bowls and plates survive from the period. Together, these objects make up the art of dining in medieval Byzantium. This art of dining was effervescent, at turns irreverent and deadly serious, visually stunning and fun. It is suggestive of ways in which those viewing the objects used a quotidian and biologically necessary (f)act – that of eating – to reflect on their lives and deaths, their aspirations and their realities. This book examines the ceramic and metal vessels in terms of the information offered on the foods eaten, the foods desired and their status; the spectacle of the banquet; the relationship between word and image in medieval Byzantium; the dangers of taste; the emergence of new moral and social ideals; and the use of dining as a tool in constructing and enforcing hierarchy. This book is of appeal to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences interested in the art and material culture of the medieval period and in the social history of food and eating.
Download or read book Early Christian and Byzantine Art written by John Beckwith and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on mosaics, sculpture, paintings, jewelry, and silk, the author examines this artistic style as an expression of religious thought
Download or read book Byzantium in the Seventh Century written by John F. Haldon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analytical account of developments within Byzantine culture, society and the state from c. 610 to 717.
