Byzantine Art

by Cormack, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780192842114
• ISBN10: 0192842110
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Mostly religious in function, but preserving the classicism of Greco-Roman art, Byzantine buildings and art objects communicate the purity and certainties of the public face of early Christian art. Focusing on the art of Constantinople between 330 and 1453, this book probes the underlying motives and attitudes of the society which produced such rich and delicate art forms. It examines the stages this art went through as the city progressed from being the Christian center of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its crisis during attack from the new religion of Islam, to its revived medieval splendor and then, after the Latin capture of 1204 and the Byzantine reoccupation after 1261, to its arrival at a period of cultural reconciliation with East and West.

Author Biography

Robin Cormack is Professor in the History of Art in the University of London, and Deputy Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Previous books are Writing in Gold and Painting the Soul (Runciman Award 1998).

Table of Contents

Preface	vi
Rome with a Christian Face?	1	(36)
In the Shadow of St Sophia	37	(38)
The Definition of an Orthodox Christian Empire	75	(30)
Developments and Diversions in the Consolidated Empire	105	(40)
The New Spirituality of the Eleventh Century and the World of the Twelfth Century	145	(42)
Art in the Service of a Failing Society	187	(31)
Notes	218	(6)
Timeline	224	(5)
Glossary	229	(2)
Further Reading	231	(7)
Museums and Websites	238	(2)
List of Illustrations	240	(5)
Index	245