This course examines the art and architecture of the
Byzantine Empire from its beginnings in the sixth
century until its end in 1453. The story of Byzantium begins
with emperor Justinian's attempt to revive the glory of
ancient Rome in Constantinople. This was short-lived,
as ethnic and political upheavals in the following centuries
set the eastern empire on a path of decline into the status
of a medieval principality. Austere saints in dim candlelit
interiors replaced the festive images of salvation
that had adorned the walls of Justinian's dazzling bright
churches. Despite this inclination toward mysticism,
links with Antiquity were not severed, and a profoundly
classical humanism came to permeate even the strictest and
most transcendental of Byzantine mosaics, ivory plaques,
illuminated manuscripts, or icons. It is no accident,
therefore, that even under the Paleologue dynasty, there
should have been a true classical revival which
anticipated the Italian Renaissance.
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