Byzantine Art (indicate early or middle)

Question 1

Hagia Sophia

Answer 1

1. Constantinople
2. commissioned by Justinian I
3. 532-37 and 562 CE
4. Early Byzantine
   nave elevation, framed marble revetment in the narthex, mosaic decoration of the arches, basket capital
   justinianic gold glass mosaic in the inner narthex

Question 2

San Vitale

Answer 2

1. Ravenna
3. founded 526 CE by Ecclesius, Bishop of Ravenna; completed c. 547 CE under Justinian I and Bishop Maxiimianus of Ravenna and funded by the banker Julianus Argentarius
4. Early Byzantine
   groin-vaulted ambulatory at ground level
   view of the chancel (choir) and apse
   chanel vault: Jesus, apostles and saints; lamb of God and angels
   north wall of the chancel: lunette with Feast of Abraham and the Three Men in the Valle of Mamre; Sacrifice of Isaac
   apse:
   - Saint Vitalis and Bishop Ecclesius presented to Jesus
   - Bishop Ecclesius offers a model of San Vitale to Jesus
   -Justinian and his retinue; Bishop Maximianus and clergy
   -theodora and attendants

Question 3

Virgin and Child
Enthroned with
Angels and Saints

Answer 3

1. Constantinople; preserved at the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai (Egypt)
2. encaustic on wood
3. early 7th century
4. Early Byzantine

Question 4

Blessing Jesus or Christ Pantokrator

Answer 4

1. Constantinople; preserved at the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai (Egypt)
2. encaustic on wood
3. c. 700
4. Early Byzantine

Question 5

Virgin of Vladamir (Virgin Eleousa) “Compassionate Virgin”

Answer 5

1. Constantinople
2. tempera and gold on panel
3. early 12th century
4. Middle Byzantine

Question 6

Katholikon, Hosios Loukas

Answer 6

1. Greece
2. 1020
3. Middle Byzantine
4. -note the icons on the templon
   apse:
   -Virgin and Child: Mary as “Theoktokos”
   squinch:
   - Nativity (Gospel of Luke)

Question 7

Monastery Church of St. Panteleimon, Nerezi

Answer 7

1. Macedonia
2. 1164
   built under the patronage of Alexios Komnenos
3. Middle Byzantine

nave frescoes:

• warrior and saints at “ground” level
• story of jesus

Isaiah 1:3: “The ox knoweth
his owner, and the ass his
master’s crib: but Israel hath
not known me, and my people
hath not understood.”
Second Council of Nicaea
(787): "When Christians see
in a picture the Virgin giving
birth and angels standing
above with shepherds, they
acknowledge God born for
our salvation, and they
confess saying, 'He who was
without flesh was made
flesh'." 
Lamentation
From a 10th-century sermon: “I raised you in a mother’s arm, but leaping
and jumping as children do. Now I raise you up in the same arms, but
laying as the dead. Then I dipped my lips in your honey-sweet and dewy
lips. Many times you slept on my breast as an infant, and now you have
fallen asleep there a dead man.”

Question 8

Church of the Dormition, Daphni

Answer 8

1. Greece
2. c. 1100
3. Middle Byzantine
4. north cross-arm:
   Crucifixion
   Second Council of Nicaea (787): “If we saw an
   image showing our Lord crucified, would not we
   have wept? For therein is recognized the extent of
   the abasement of God who became man for us.”
   dome:
   Jesus as Pantokrator with Old Testament Prophets
   “He became man so that we might be made divine.”