As mentioned in the title this post is dedicated to the Byzantine period. You will read a little bit about the history of this era and then I will take you through a formal breakdown of a mosaic Byzantine piece that happens to be an image of Christ Pantocrator, painted on one of the domes of Cefalu Cathedral in Italy. To make it more fun, I will show you a digital self-portrait that I painted based on the same image.

Since its founding in 330 A.D., the city of Constantinople, New Rome, had been the capital of the Roman Empire. When Constantine founded New Rome the dominant art style was classical, yet just about two centuries later their art started to show its distinguishing characteristics. When the city fell in 1204 A.D. to the Fourth Crusade, their long-lasting artistic and cultural traditions began to get replaced. In 1557, the name of the Roman Empire was changed to Byzantium by the German scholar Hieronymus Wolf.

Byzantine art refers to the art of Constantinople and of the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire, which followed the early Christian period. It is thought to have matured in the sixth century, declining afterward until its second peak around the twelfth century, and continuing throughout the later middle ages. Byzantine artistic influence on Europe and the East was immense, and the reputation of its architecture and paintings spanned continents. Many Late Byzantine artists produced secular and religious pieces that were later transformed by Eastern Christian countries, and their influence even went as far as the Islamic world.

 

The male figure is composed in the middle of the image inside a dome shape. He is looking to the left slightly, while holding his right hand up and holding a book in his left hand. There is a circle-shaped halo behind his head and two words in Greek on each side that make the image more symmetrical. Two different kinds of ornamental decorations also surround the figure.

Even though mosaic has it is own limitations, we can more or less feel the softness of the hair and differentiate it from the folds of drapery. In some cases lighter values have been used to emphasize the fabric’s texture and sometimes the black crossed lines are utilized to depict the texture of the lower layer of Christ’s clothing.

Extreme use of lines is one of the primary features of the Byzantine-style paintings. Here lines have been used to exaggerate the drapery’s folds. Using parallel and smooth lines also forms Christ’s beard and hair. I think only the gold clothing fabric has been illustrated with black and really sharp, strong lines.

I can see mostly flat colors that have been separated with black lines. It is really interesting how the artist has used different shades of blue in the drapery and different shades of skin tone considering the limitations they had due to mosaic being their media. The painting also shows a relatively high contrast in value.

In this image the male figure (Jesus Christ, or more specifically in Byzantine church decoration, Pantocrator) has been depicted with a beard and long hair, which are signs of wisdom. He has outstretched his right hand for blessing and is holding a book in the other one. The figure is in the middle of the interior of a dome-shaped ceiling and there are a few ornamental decorations around it that help the whole image feel symmetrical.

There is a limited color palette but most colors are highly saturated in this piece, with primary use of gold and blue. Gold has mostly been used for the background, the first layer of Christ’s clothing, and some parts of the decoration around him, while blue covers the top layer of clothing and is also seen in the decorations as well. The color green in addition to a skin tone are the other two colors besides black that separate most of the elements in the painting. We can also see a limited gradient in hue and value throughout the drapery masses, ornament sparkles, and in the skin tone and hair strands.

In the portrait of Christ the letters IC and XC can be seen to the left and right of his head respectively. IC is a gathering of first and last letters of Jesus (Ιησους) and XC the first and last letters of Christ (Χριστος). I took a shot at translating my name (which has a meaning close to ‘sparklingly bright’) to Ancient Greek, and the result (or one of the possible results) was: μαρμαρυγή ἀγλαός. Taking the first and last letters of each world leaves me with: μή ἀς, which in uppercase becomes: ΜΗ ΑΣ. Hence the letters MH to the left, and AΣ to the right of my head in my self-portrait.

Citations:

1. Evans, Helen C., Byzantium, Faith and Power, 1261-1453, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004
2. Hartt, Frederick, Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Volume 1, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition, 2003
3. Latourette, Kenneth Scott, A History of Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500, Prince Press, 1st Edition, 1997
4. Schönborn, Christopher, God’s Human Face: The Christ-Icon, Ignatius Press, 1994

Online dictionary I used to translate from English to Ancient Greek:
Perseus