Byzantium, Early Medieval Christian and Islamic Visual Culture (Combined lectures from 9/30 and 10/3)

We’ll begin class with our quiz today!

Key-works:

St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, ca. 320-340 CE. Sponsored by the emperor Constantine I (‘the Great’)

Apse mosaic of Justinian and Archbishop Maximian, San Vitale, Ravenna, ca. 547 CE.

Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus (architects), the cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), 532-537 CE.

Icon showing the Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George, ca. 600, from the Monastery of St. Catherine, Egypt. Encaustic on wood.

Rebecca and Eleazer at the well, from the Vienna Genesis, c. 500 CE. Ink and tempera on purple vellum.

Cross-inscribed carpet page, from the Lindisfarne Gospels, Northumbria, England, ca. 700 CE. Ink and tempera on vellum.

Purse cover, from the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, England, ca. 625 CE. Gold, glass and cloisonné garnets.

Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, Germany, ca. 800 CE.

The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, 687-692 CE. Patron: Caliph Abd al-Malik. Built mostly of stone, interior decorated in mosaic.

Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain, begun ca. 786 CE. Built of stone and brick, with mosaic decoration in some areas.

— Dome over the maqsura built by Al- Hakam II, 962-63 CE.

The carpet pages from volume one of Sultan Baybars’ seven-volume Qur’an. Made by the master illuminator  Abu Bakr (a.k.a. Sandal), Cairo, 1304 CE.  Ink, paint, and gold on vellum.

The Pyxis of al-Mughira, from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain), 968 CE. Ivory.

Spherical Hanging Ornament, ceramic (fritware), Iznik, 1575-1585 CE.

 Mimar Sinan, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Istanbul, 1561-63 CE.

— Iznik tiles in Rüstem Pasha Mosque

Keywords:

basilica:

apse:

pendentive:

icon:

iconoclasm:

illuminated manuscript:

mosque:

minaret:

mihrab

Qur’an

Süleyman “the Magnificent” (ruled 1520-1566):

Iznik (Iznik tiles):

Slides