INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY

General Foundation

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

Students are expected to • understand the basic characteristics of the field, • become familiar with the time frames, turning-points and sub-periods of the field and understand the related scholarly debates over the pertinent issues, • become familiar with the terminology of the field, • know the scholars who developed the field and shaped its evolution, • know the auxiliary disciplines that serve the field.

The course offers an overview of the development of the Byzantine civilisation with an emphasis on the architecture and the history of art from the beginning of the 3rd century until 1453, that is from the time of the wide spread of Christianity to the fall of Constantinople. Among other things the course examines the most representative architectural creations, select issues of topography and the evolution of cities, as well as the most characteristic examples of mosaics, frescoes, icons and sculpture works. The material is divided into periods and sub-periods following chronological and geographical terms. Emphasis is put mainly on the production of the great centres of Byzantium. In all these cases, developments in art and architecture are related to the historical circumstances that led to them. Week #1 Introduction in Byzantine culture and its remains. Analysis of basic terms, theoretical approach of Byzantine Art, periodisation, main features of Byzantine art. Early Byzantine period – Early Christian art. Catacombs, sepulchral monuments, domus ecclesiae. The architectural evolution of the ritual building. The ideological framework. The time and place: Rome and the East, 2nd – 4th centuries. Week #2 Art in the Constantinian period and later: the emergency of the basilica type, the architectural and liturgical parts of the naos, its structural characteristics. Constantine's basilicas. Examples in the eastern and the western part of the empire. The ideological aspect. Time and place: Rome, the Holy Land, Constantinople, 4th and 5th centuries. Week #3 Concentric buildings: simple circular, composite circular, free-standing and inscribed octagonal, multi-conch buildings. Cruciform churches. Baptisteries. Time and place: Italian peninsula, the East, Constantinople, Thessalonike - Macedonia. 4th to 6th centuries. Week #4 The domed basilica and its evolution: historical and ideological context. Structural characteristics, representative examples and Aghia Sophia in Constantinople. Time and place: Constantinople, Ravenna, the East. End of 5th to 6th centuries (Justinianic period and reconquista). Week #5 The urban planning of Constantinople: the transformation of the Greek colony into the capital of the ecumenical empire of the medieval world. Basic urban characteristics, articulation of the city (fortifications, secular buildings, roads and public works) with an emphasis in the early Byzantine period. Comparison with Thessaloniki. Sculpture in the proto-byzantine period –general characteristics: secular examples, architectural and religious sculpture. Week#6 Monumental painting – Mosaics (1): The art and technique of mosaics. Floor mosaics: Antioch, Great Palace, Constantinople. Wall mosaics: Thessalonike, Cyprus, Sinai, 4th to 7th centuries. Week #7 Monumental painting – Mosaics (2): Wall mosaics: Ravenna and Rome, 4th-7th centuries. Portative icons: Art and technique. Ideology and symbolism of the icon. Origin and evolution during the Early Byzantine period. From the Fayum portraits to the encaustic icons of Sinai and Rome, 3rd to 8th centuries. Week #8 The transitional period (“Dark ages”) – The Iconoclastic period: historical, ideological and religious parameters. The impact on the development of cities and the countryside. New archaeological data. The architectural type of the domed church with ambulatory and its transformation- examples. Monumental painting and anionic decoration. Art in the East and the West- examples. Time and place: Helladic peninsula and the islands, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Rome. Mid-7th- to mid-9th centuries. Week #9 Middle byzantine period (864-1204) (1): Chronology - historical outline. Basic characteristics of the culture of the period. The renaissance of the arts. Architecture: origins and evolution of the inscribed crossed domed church. Examples in Constantinople and in areas under its influence. The architecture of the “Helladic school” and the types of churches, general and special characteristics: examples from southern Greece. Week #10 Middle byzantine period (864-1204) (2): The evolution in the support of the dome: the composed octagon churches with angular conches. Simple or insular octagon churches. Examples from central, southern and insular Greece. The imperial donations and the evolution of the monastic world. Monastic architecture. The triconch crossed domed type in Mount Athos. Week #11 The monumental painting under the Macedonian dynasty: Macedonian renaissance – Byzantine humanism and the arts. The iconographic program of the inscribed cross domed church and its symbolism. The mosaic decoration in Aghia Sophia of Constantinople - the imperial votive representations: political and artistic context. Week #12 The evolution of mosaics and wall paintings: the decoration of three 11th-century monasteries: Hosios Loukas, Phokis (2nd half of the 11th cent.), Nea Moni, Chios (1042-1056), Dafni Monastery, Attica (c. 1080). Examples of the evolution of the mural decoration under the Macedonian and the Comnenian dynasties in different artistic centres: iconographic and stylistic approaches. Byzantine art under Latin rule (1204-1261). Week #13 Late Byzantine period – Palaeologan era (1261-1453). The historical context and the meaning of the Palaeologan renaissance. Old types in new forms. The combination of different elements and the complexity of the forms. Comparative examples from Constantinople and Thessalonike in architecture and monumental painting. Mystras. The emergence of artistic “schools” and artistic cycles with painters who sign their works. Recapitulation of the previous lectures. Discussion on the basic aims of the course. General instructions for the exams.

Byzantine Archaeology, Αrt, Architecture, Topography, Mosaics, Frescoes, Icons, Sculpture

06-04-2021