The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture offers a wide-ranging introduction to the richness and diversity of the arts in the Byzantine world. It includes thirty-eight essays by an international roster of authors, from prominent researchers to emerging scholars, on various issues and media. Discussions consider art created for religious purposes, to enhance and beautify the Orthodox liturgy and worship space, as well as art made to serve in royal and domestic contexts. While the Byzantine period is defined as the years 330–1453 ce, some chapters treat the aftermath and influence of Byzantine art on later periods. Arts covered include buildings and objects from the Eastern Mediterranean region, including Italy, the Balkans, Russia, and the Near East. The volume brings together object-based considerations of themes and monuments that form the backbone of art history, with considerations drawing on many different methodologies—sociology, semiotics, anthropology, archaeology, reception theory, deconstruction theory, among others—all in an up-to-date synthesis of scholarship on Byzantine art and architecture. The handbook is a comprehensive overview of a rich field of study, offering a window into the world of this distinct and fascinating period of art.

Art History ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Schwartz

Byzantine art and architecture may be defined as the artistic production of the eastern Mediterranean region that developed into an orthodox set of societies after the relocation of the Roman capital to Constantinople in 330 ce. While there is a debate about the use of the term “Roman” for emperors as late as Justinian (r. 526–565), the churches and their decoration in Ravenna, as well as the 6th-century purple Bible and Gospel manuscripts clearly show the beginnings of the new iconographic and stylistic concerns that we call “Byzantine.” While Byzantium itself was conquered when the capital fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the types of buildings and the traditions of monumental and portable arts continued on, even to the present day in places such as Mount Athos. Thus it is hard to define the era with clear-cut beginning and endpoints. It is similarly difficult to define Byzantine architecture and art in geographic terms. The quintessential middle Byzantine church type, the cross-in-square, continues in Russian churches in contemporary times. Elements of style in icon painting are preserved as well. The orthodox traditions that are expressed in these artistic forms cover much of eastern Europe; autocephalous churches form part of the orthodox confession despite the differences in language as well as the addition of some local saints. Areas included in what has been called the “Byzantine Commonwealth” include Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and parts of Albania and Romania, among others. The relationship of the style to Italy has never been satisfactorily explored. Byzantine art and architecture have largely been studied in terms of religious buildings, decoration, reception, and liturgical use. New approaches such as the study of gender, light, and sound (both vocal and musical) in Byzantine art are yielding significant results. Recently, secular arts have begun to form a focus of examination. New technologies have allowed closer viewing of objects such as ivories; modern approaches have also been applied to the consideration of Byzantine buildings and artifacts, yielding innovative interpretations. Although a tiny fraction of what we believe was created still exists, Byzantine art has continued to fascinate viewers as seen by a number of recent exhibitions worldwide.


2021 ◽  
pp. xxx-18
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Schwartz

The introduction to this handbook explains the scope and purpose of Byzantine art, architecture and visual culture from 330 to 1453, across the Eastern Mediterranean world, including Italy and the Balkans, Russia, and the Middle East. It begins with an overview of the role of the arts in religious and secular life, and explains the periodicization of the field into Early, Middle and Late phases as a useful way to consider these artistic productions. It presents the development in scholarly approaches that flow from the beginning phase of Byzantine art history when modern scholars were first discovering the wealth of Byzantine materials, to the later analysis and interpretation of the arts in their historical roles, and finally to the contemporary use of newer (including scientific) techniques and interdisciplinary approaches often incorporating methods from other fields. Consideration of the arts after 1453 that continue to show Byzantine influence is included. Dissemination of information including publications, digital opportunities and display in collections and exhibitions is discussed. The section presents information about the authors, the use of the handbook, and offers thoughts for future exploration in the field of Byzantine art.


Art History ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Marsengill

Early Christian art history encompasses a range of material loosely dated from the first known appearances of Christian art in the late 2nd or early 3rd century and continuing through the 6th, 7th, and sometimes even into the early 8th centuries. Early Christian art history, however, has proven to be an inchoate term, often overlapping with, or including, Early Byzantine art history. In previous divisions of the field, Early Byzantine art tended to be too politically confining when one considers cities such as Ravenna before and after its inclusion in the Eastern Byzantine Empire. On the other hand, Early Christian art implied only the earliest centuries, usually through the 4th or mid-5th centuries, and usually centered on Roman art. Thus, many scholars today favor the term Late Antique in order to integrate the study of art and architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire as well as to understand Christian art in dialogue with Jewish and pagan art. In terms of dating, scholars generally acknowledge the genesis of Christian art and architecture around 200 ce, although some pursue theories that Christians participated in visual culture in the early 2nd century, if they had not yet developed a distinctly Christian visual language. In terms of geography, the eastern and western Mediterranean, Palestine and the Near East, and sometimes even northern Europe and Britain are all included. One result of this large geographical span has been the separation of Early Christian art in Rome, the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East, and so on. In the last decade or so, however, scholars have generally recognized a more cohesive Mediterranean world and a more fluid transition from Late Antiquity to medieval art and culture. Questions of continuity between these periods have ultimately made dating the end of “Early Christian” or “Late Antique” difficult, if not impossible. Most scholars see the end of Late Antiquity as coinciding with the death of Justinian I or, for the convenience of a rounded date, the year 600. Others argue the end of the period occurred at the beginning of the 7th century with the spread of Islam in the Near East and across North Africa. Byzantinists sometimes recognize the beginning of the iconoclastic controversy in 730 as the end of Late Antiquity. Accordingly, “true” Byzantine-era art begins after iconoclasm in the 9th century, what some refer to as the Middle Byzantine period, which marks the beginning of a distinguishable Byzantine state and extends until the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, then followed by the Late Byzantine period (until 1453). Those who assert the continuity of Late Antique traditions in early Islamic art have recently broached the year 800 as the cut-off point.


Author(s):  
O. Satir ◽  
O. Yeler

Detecting the seasonal agricultural crop pattern accurately is a vital part of the agricultural planning. In this extent, Cukurova Region that is located in Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey was evaluated on agricultural landscape pattern. This region is the most productive agricultural region of Turkey also crop variability and yield are higher than many parts of the world. The main agricultural part of the area is called Lower Seyhan Plane (LSP) and it has been formed by the Seyhan, Ceyhan and Berdan rivers. The purpose of the study was to define the wheat, corn and cotton crop pattern using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images and object based classification approach for 2007 and 2013 cropping years. Three main crop’s areal difference were evaluated and changes were monitored between 2007 and 2013. The accuracy of the classifications were obtained by the spatial kappa statistics. Overall kappa accuracy was derived to be 0.9. Classification results were shown that wheat areas were decreased 35% and corn and cotton areas were increased 49% and 69% respectively. Particularly, government subventions and market demands were impacted cropping pattern in the region significantly. In addition, multi-temporal Landsat images and object based classification were a great combination to define regional agricultural crop pattern with very good accuracy (>90%).


Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 503
Author(s):  
Ali Rostami ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Riahi ◽  
Vahid Fallah Omrani ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Andreas Hofmann ◽  
...  

Toxascaris leonina is an ascaridoid nematode of dogs and cats; this parasite affects the health of these animals. This study estimated the global prevalence of Ta. leonina infection in dogs and cats using random effects meta-analysis as well as subgroup, meta-regression and heterogeneity analyses. The data were stratified according to geographical region, the type of dogs and cats and environmental variables. A quantitative analysis of 135 published studies, involving 119,317 dogs and 25,364 cats, estimated prevalence rates of Ta. leonina in dogs and cats at 2.9% and 3.4%, respectively. Prevalence was highest in the Eastern Mediterranean region (7.2% for dogs and 10.0% for cats) and was significantly higher in stray dogs (7.0% vs. 1.5%) and stray cats (7.5% vs. 1.8%) than in pets. The findings indicate that, worldwide, ~26 million dogs and ~23 million cats are infected with Ta. leonina; these animals would shed substantial numbers of Ta. leonina eggs into the environment each year and might represent reservoirs of infection to other accidental or paratenic hosts. It is important that populations of dogs and cats as well as other canids and felids be monitored and dewormed for Ta. leonina and (other) zoonotic helminths.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Nagwa Nashat ◽  
Redouane Hadjij ◽  
Abdul Munem Al Dabbagh ◽  
Mohammed Rasoul Tarawneh ◽  
Huda Alduwaisan ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Ravaghi ◽  
Mahnaz Afshari ◽  
Parvaneh Isfahani ◽  
Victoria D. Bélorgeot

In the original publication of this article [1], one author’s name needs to be revised from Pavaneh Isfahani to Parvaneh Isfahani.


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