Logo UAB
2021/2022

Byzantine Art

Code: 100563 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OB 3 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Manuel Antonio Castiņeiras Gonzalez
Email:
Manuel.Castineiras@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Other comments on languages

Lessons will be delivered in Spanish.

Prerequisites

A minimum knowledge of English or French is recommended in order to carry out the supervised and autonomous activities. It's worth remembering that most of the material for the course works are written in English.

 

The teaching methodology and the evaluation proposed in the guide may undergo some modification subject to the onsite teaching restrictions imposed by health authorities. 

Objectives and Contextualisation

Context

This course is part of the general subject Medieval Art History, of 24 ECTS, which includes four courses:Art in Europe from the 4th to the 10th centuries, Byzantine Art, Romanesque Art and Gothic Art.

 

The aim of this course is to lay the ground to enable the student to know and be familiar with basic knowledge of the chronological development of the artistic image, its formal values, its iconographic meanings, artistic techniques and procedures as well as its reception in the Byzantine milieu.

Students are expected to acquire on the course analytical, comparative and critical tools and basic methodology in order to acknowledge several forms of cultural expression and mainly  to place Byzantine forms of expression within their geographical and political framework as well as their transmission in Europe, the Slav world, the Eastern Mediterranean countries and the Middle East.

 

Goals

1-Students  are expected to acquire deep knowledge on the Arts of Byzantium or Byzantine-like expressions with a particular focus on its chronological, formal and typological development within the Byzantine milieu.

 

2- The ultimate goal of the course is to acquire deep knowledge on the connections between Art and the historical, political and cultural background of Byzantine society and its areas of influence, as well as on the several functions and contents of the artwork within this period. 

Competences

  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  6. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Efficiently presenting knowledge in oral and written form.
  9. Encouraging creativity and fomenting innovative ideas.
  10. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  11. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  12. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  13. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.
  14. Working in teams, respecting the other's points of view and designing collaboration strategies.

Content

 

Unit 1. The Arts of Byzantium: Introduction. Justinian’s prestigious models: architecture, mosaics, manuscript illumination, enamels, ivories and metalwork objects. Byzantine aesthetics, religious settings and expressions of faith: icons and the cult of sacred images. - Pilgrimage Art in Byzantium: (IV-X centuries): Eulogia, Charisteria and Encolpia.

Unit 2. The Art of Coptic Christianity: Byzantine Egypt.Monasticism, churches and rock sites. Iconography and visual content. Textiles. Liturgical implements. Icons  and manuscript illumination.

Unit 3. Towards a Christian Orthodox Empire (680-843): Iconoclasm and the resolution of the Iconoclastic controversy. Islamic invasion: Umayyad Art and Byzantine Art.  Iconoclasm as a sociological and conceptual phenomenon. Second Council of Nicaea (787). Wall paintings, icons and manuscript illumination.

Unit 4. Middle Byzantium (843-1204): Byzantium’s continuous engagement with its ancient past and the re-establishment of icon veneration. Macedonian and Komnenian Renaissance. -Courtly Art: architectural renewal of Constantinople. -Art in the monastery: domed cross-in-square plan. The Hosios Loukas model. -Cappadocia: architecture and rock painting.  –Second flowering of Hellenistic aesthetics: an intensified revival of interest in classical art forms and ancient literature: mosaics, manuscript illumination, and ivory carving.  Komnenian painting: pathos and movement. Mosaic and fresco programmes decorating vaulted and domed spaces to complement narrative. 

Unit 5. The Arts ofArmenia: Peculiarities of the Armenian Christianity. The Armenian principalities. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Greater Armenia and Lesser Armenia. –Armenia and Byzantium (9th-11th centuries): architecture, carved reliefs and wall paintings. Aght’amar. Khatchkar. Manuscripts and metalwork objects. –Armenia and the Crusades (12th century). The Arts of the Great Armenia (13th-15th centuries): architecture and manuscript illumination.

Unit 6. Byzantium and the West: Italy, maritime trade and Constantinople: bronze doors. –Interchange networks within the Crusades and the Latin Conquest of Byzantium. –Crusaders Art. Venice, Norman Sicily, Cyprus and the Holy Land. Architecture and pictorial arts: circulation of Constantinopolitan models and local traditions. St. Mark’s Treasure. Byzantine models in the West.

Unit 7. Palaiologan Renaissance: Colourful use of materials and decorative motifs.Constantinople, Thessaloniki and Mystras.New pictorial humanism:narrative, expression and mimesis.The Manual of the Painter of Mount Athos. Presence of Byzantine Art in Spain: Skylitzes, The Cuenca diptych and the Akathistos Escurialensis.

Unit 8. Byzantine Art: from the Balkans to Russia: Serbia,Bulgaria and Moravia. Russian-Byzantine architecture: Kiev and Novgorod. Moscow:  the third Rome. Ivories and icons. Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev.

Unit 9. Women and arts in Byzantium.  Linage, education, patronage and devotions.

 

 

 

Methodology

 

 

 

Professor's Lectures will be complemented by student self-learning by delivering book and text comments.

The teaching methodology and the evaluation proposed in the guide may undergo some modification subject to the onsite teaching restrictions imposed by health authorities 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lessons (From Units 1 to 9) 50 2 3, 4, 2, 12, 5, 1, 7, 10, 11, 13, 6, 14
Type: Supervised      
Comment on texts 50 2 3, 4, 2, 7, 11, 13, 6, 14
Type: Autonomous      
To write a review paper to be delivered 50 2 3, 4, 2, 12, 5, 7, 10, 14

Assessment

 

-Third grade: written exam (50%). It will be evaluated the theoretical and practical knowledge that students have learnt during the lessons by the comparison of 3 images. The exam consists of: 3 pages to develop this comparison. 

-Second grade: submission of a written book review (to be chosen among a list provided by the Professor)  (25%). 

-First grade: written comment on a questionnaire dealing with the reading of three articles (25 %). 

 

The final grade will be the result of the addition of the written exam (50%), the book review (25%), and the comment on texts (25%). 

  • Final grade: it will be the additon of the grade of the written papers and that of the exam. The result will be divide by 2.

     

     
    • Students will obtain a “Not assessed/Not submitted” course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items. 

     

    As far the reassessment exam is concerned, its date is officilly fixed.  This proof only involves the grade of the exam. Who has not submitted the papers can not pass this exam.


  • Students with a grade equal to or higher than 3,5 but less than 5 have the option to sit a reassessment exam. This exam will have in terms of content the characteristics of a final exam. 

 

  • On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
  • In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place.
  • In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.  
  •  

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First Evidence: Questionnaire on the reading of three articles 25% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 12, 5, 1, 7, 10, 11, 13, 6
Second Evidence: written review of a book 25% 0 0 1, 14
Third Evidence: Written test 50% 0 0 2, 12, 5, 9, 13, 6, 8, 14

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The most relevant bibliography is marked with an *

Basic

  Acheimastou-Potamianou, Mirtaly, Greek Art. Byzantine Wall-Paintings, Atenes, 1994.

  Beckwith, John, Arte paleocristiano y bizantino, Cátedra, Madrid, 1997 (1ª ed. ang. Harmondsworth ,  1970)

  Byzance. L’art byzantin dans les collections publiques française,  Jannic Durand (ed.), Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1992.*

  Byzantium and Islam. Age of Transition, 7th-9th Century, Helen C. Evans, Brandie Ratliff (eds.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012.*

  Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture,  Helen C. Evans (ed.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007.*

  http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/Byzantium_Faith_and_Power_1261_1557

  Cameron, Averil, Byzantine Matters, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ., 2014.*

  Cameron, Averil,  Cuestiones Bizantinas, Edicions Bellaterra, Bellaterra, 2017.*

  Cavallo, Guglielmo, Leer en Bizancio, Ampersand, Buenos Aires, 2017.*

  Cormack, Robin, Byzantine Art, Oxford History of Art, Oxford, 2000.

   Cortés Arrese, Miguel Ángel., Bizancio: el triunfo de las imágenes sagradas, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2010.

   Cortés Arrese, Miguel Ángel, Nostalgia de porvenir. Navegando hacia Bizancio con El Greco de Toledo, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2015. *

   Curcic, Slobodan, Architercture in the Balkans. From Diocletian to Süleyman the Magnificient, Yale University Press, New Haven-Londres, 2010.*

  Cutler, Anthony., Spieser, J-M., Byzance Médiévale, 700-1204, Paris, 1996.

  Lecturas de Bizancio. El legado escrito de Grecia en España, eds. Miguel Cortés Arrese, Inmaculada Pérez Martín, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid, 2008.*

  •  Florenski, Pavel., La perspectiva invertida, ed. F. Pereda, Siruela, Madrid, 2005.*

    Hell in the Byzantine World. A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. Angeliki Lymberopoulou, 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020.*

    Icons of Space. Advances in Hierotopy, Ed. Jelena Bogdanović, Routledge, New York, 2021.* 

    Grabar, André, La iconoclastia bizantina, Akal, Madrid, 1998 (1ª ed. fr. París, 1984).*

    Holy Images. Hallowed Ground. Icons from Sinai, Robert. S. Nelson, Kristen. M. Collins (eds.), The John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2006.*

    Jorba, Montserrat, Les majestats de la Cerdanya, Edicions Saloria, Barcelona, 2017. 

    Krautheimer, Richard, Arquitectura paleocristiana y bizantina, Cátedra, Madrid 1984 (1ª ed. ing. The Pelican History of Art, 1965)*

     L’Art Byzantin, Art Européen, Conseil de l’Europe, Atenes, 1964.

    L’artista a Bisanzio e nel mondo cristiano-orientale, Michele Bacci (ed.), Seminari e Convegni, 12, Edizioni della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Pisa, 2007.

     Lazarev, Viktor, Storia della pittura bizantina, Milán, 1967

     Lodwen, John., The Octateuchs. A Study in Byzantine Manuscript Illumination, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1992.

    Lowden, John., Early Christan & Bizantine Art, Phaidon, Londres, 1997 (2008).*

    Mango, Cyril, Arquitectura bizantina, Aguilar, Madrid, 1975.* 

    Matthews, Thomas F., The Art of Byzantium, Hong Kong, 1998.*

    Ousterhout, Robert, Master Buiders of Byzantium, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999.*

     Paloumpis Hallick, Mary,The Story of Icons, Brookline, Mass., 2001.

    Pitarakis, Brigitte, Les croix-reliquaires pectorales byzantines en bronze, Picard, Paris,2006. 

    Rodley, Lyn, Byzantine Art and Architecture. An Introduction, Cambridge, 1994.

    Runciman, Steven, Byzantine. Style and Civilization, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1987 (1971).*

    Santa Sofia y San Salvador de Cora: el legado bizantino en peligro (Special issue of Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Bizantinística, 36, 2020,  edited by Manuel Castiñeiras) *:

    -Manuel Castiñeiras, “La Μεγάλη ἐκκλησία: un edificio admirable”, pp. 5-25
    -Inmaculada Pérez Martín, “San Salvador de Cora, ayer y hoy”, pp. 79-88.
    -Alfredo Calahorra, “El Patrimonio Palatino de Constantinopla (ss. XIX-XXI): itinerario, valoración y perspectivas de futuro”, pp. 106-126.

    https://bizantinistica.blogspot.com/p/boletin.html

    https://drive.google.com/.../1cn2hkFRdQbXlGXQyWyolk7.../view

     

    Spatharakis, Ioannis,The Illustrations of the Cynegetica in Venice, Alexandros Press, Leyden, 2004.*

    Tsamakda, Vassiliki, The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, Alexandros Press, Leyden, 2002.* 

    Teteriatnikov, Natalia B., Justiniac Mosaics of HagiaSophia and Their Aftermath, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington, DC,  2020.* 

    The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture in the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, Helen C. Evans, William D. Wixom (eds.),  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997.*

    http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/The_Glory_of_Byzantium_Art_and_Culture_of_the_Middle_Byzantine_Era_AD_843_1261

     The Holy Apostles. A Los Monument, a Forgotten Project, and the Presentness of the Past, ed. Margaret Mullett i Robert G. Ousterhout, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington DC, 2020.*

    The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, Elizabeth Jeffreys, John Haldon, Robin Cormack (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008. 

    Tradigo, Alfredo, Icone e Santi d’Oriente, Electa, Milà, 2004.*

    Treasures of Mount Athos, Athanasios A. Karakatsanis,  Salònica, 1997. 

     Vanderheyde, Catherine,  La sculpture byzantine du IXe au XVe siècle: Contexte, mis en oeuvre, décors, Picard, Paris, 2020.*

    Velmans, Tania  (ed.), El mundo del Icono desde losorígenes a la caída de Bizancio, San Plablo, Madrid,  2003.*

    Velmans, Tania (ed.),  El Icono: de la Caída de Bizancio al siglo XX, Mensajero, Bilbao, 2005.

    Vikan, Gary, Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art, Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications, 3, Washington, DC, 1982 (2010).  

    Vizcaíno Sánchez Jaime, La presencia bizantina en Hispania (siglos VI-VII): la documentación arqueológica, Universidad de Murcia, 2009.*

    Weitzmann, Kurt (ed.), The Icons, London 1982 (1990).*

    Westbrook, Nigel, The Great Palace in Constantinople. An Architectural Interpretation, Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, 2019.*

  •  

 

Coptic and Armenian art

 

         Arrmenia sacra. Mémoire chrétienne des Arméniens (IVè-XVIIIè siècle), Musée du Louvre, París, 2007.*

         Der Nersessian, Sirarpie, L’Art Arménien, Flammarion, Paris, 1989.* 

  • Gabra, Gawdat, Eaton-Krauss, Marianne, The Treasures of Coptic Art in the Coptic Museum and Churches of Old Cairo,The American Unversity in Cairo Press, El Cairo-New York, 2005.

    Interactions. Artistic Interchange between the Eastern and Western Worlds in the Medieval Period, Colum Hourihane (ed.), Index of Christian Art, Penn State University, 2007.

    Wipszycka, Eva, The Second Gift of the Nile: Monks and Monasteries in Late Antique Egypt. University of Warsaw, Varsòvia, 2018.*

     
      

Byzantium and the Latin West

 

  • Demus, Otto, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily, London, 1949.*
  • Demus, Otto, Byzantine Art and the West, London, 1970.*
  • Demus, Otto., The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice, 4 vols., WashingtonDC-Chicago-Londres, 1984.

    El arte sículo-normando,Milà, 2004.

    Folda, Jaroslav, The Art of the Crusaders and the Holy Land (1098-1187), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.*

     Folda, Jaroslav, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, from the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291, Cambridge University Press, Hong Kong, 2005.

     Iacobini, Antonio (ed.), Le porte del Paradiso. Arte etecnologia bizantina tra Italia e il Mediterraneo, Roma, 2009.

     Maguire, Henry, Nelson, Robert S. (eds.), Byzantium and the Myths of Venice, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC, 2010.

    The Year 1200. A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kurt Hoffmann (ed.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970 (2 vols.). http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/the_year_1200_a_centennial_exhibition_at_the_metropolitan_museum_of_art

 

<ahref="http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/the_year_1200_a_background_survey">http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/the_year_1200_a_background_survey

 

 

Russia

 

  • lpatov, Mijail, Tesoros del arte ruso, Barcelona, 1967.

    Cacciari, Massimo, Iconos. Imágenes extremas, Casimiro, Madrid, 2011. 

    Papaioannou, Kostas, Pintura bizantina y rusa, Madrid, 1968.

     

  

 

DVD

 

  • Andrei Roublev, Andreï Tarkovski, 1966.
  • Holy Image. Hallowed Ground. Icons from Sinai, november 14, 2006-March 4, 2007, J. P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2006

 

 

 

Texts

 

Arte Medieval I. Alta Edad Media y Bizancio, ed. Joaquin Yarza et alii, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1982.

Damasco, Juan de, Sobre las imágenes sagradas, ed. i trad. José B. Torres Guerra, EUNSA, Pamplona, 2019.*

Mango, Cyril, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: Sources and Documents, University of Toronto Press, 1986.

The Painter Manual of Dionysius of Fourna, ed. Paul Hetherigton, Londres, 1981 (1974)

 

 

 WEBSITES

 

 

Museums

 

www.doaks.org (Dumbarton Oaks Collection)

 

www.benaki.gr (Benaki Museum, Athens)

 

www.culture.gr (Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens)

 

www.alincom.com/tretiakov (The State Tretyakov, Moscow)

 

 

 

Byzantine Art

 

 

 

www.fordham.edu/halsall/medweb

 

www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html

 

www.courtauld.ac.uk/pages/indexframe.htlm

 

 

Hagia Sophia's church in the byzantine time: https://youtu.be/HQ9KfQBwhIs

 

Theotokos, apse, Hagia Sophia (Iconoclasm and Iconoluds):

Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

https://youtu.be/EmQ1TdoT-zE

Hagia Sophia: Masterpiece Deesis Mosaic and the Byzantine Renaissance: https://youtu.be/38asbg1WdA8

 

Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai

 

http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/africa/north-africa/egypt/saint-catherine/map.html

Icons from Sinai

PRESENTATION:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NicalTC4bLI

https://vimeo.com/9708525 

Father Justin’s talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJsBqWSRFQ8

 

Mount Athos:

https://youtu.be/dY1MjA7AWRM

 

Panagia Asinou

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U__pZmxXUpI&t=&fbclid=IwAR2xDG1xGeoKJ8XofTvO3pfsI9_R1QqOT8qE-gqxGUzwI9u0aeOJBvMDYcM

 

Coptic Art

 

Elizabeth Bolman talks on the Red Monastery:

 

https://youtu.be/5-bcdKpM9h4

 

Armenia

 

http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/

 

-Churches of Historic Armenia

 

-Index of Armenian Art: Armenian Architecture

 

-Index of Armenian Art: Armenian Miniatures

 

-Saint Gregory of Ani

 

http://www.virtualani.org/mren/index.htm

 

http://socalgalopenwallet.blogspot.com/2011/08/interiors-of-st-grigor.html

 

 

 

 

Software


"If specific programming is required, it will be indicated appropriately"