The Byzantine Achievement (Routledge Revivals) by Byron Robert;

Author:Byron, Robert;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

1 A masterful woman, who introduced a fixed breakfast into the Palace ritual.

2 See H. C. Luke, Mosul, and Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan.

3 Between the accession of Constantine in 330 and the Photian schism of 858, the severance of official relations had already extended over 203 years.

Chapter IX

Culture

A PECULIAR indecision attaches to the words “ art ” and “ artistic.” Whereas the latter is relevant to numerous spheres of cultural activity, the former is employed mainly to differentiate one of them from the rest. “ Art ” in common parlance, implies the creation of form, in two dimensions or three, as opposed to other manifestations of “ artistic ” expression, such as music or writing. And it was in art thus defined, in representation and design, in leviathans of architesture and microcosms of craftsmanship, that the Byzantine genius found its medium, and thereby bequeathed posterity a legacy both in concrete monument and formative affect. In relation to posterity, Byzantine art has suffered twofold misfortune: only in the present century has a revived affinity, born of escape from the trammels of classicism, trained the critical eye once more to its appreciation; and even in this age of prodigious communication, its memorials remain for the most part singularly inaccessible, either fortified against wheeled traffic by the mountainous coasts of the East Mediterranean, or, in such localities as Constantinople and Kiev, necessitating, in their inspection, an expenditure of time and money that the ordinary traveller cannot afford. Italy, profuse in tourist facilities, provides an exception, but one which, by itself, can convey only a one-sided impression of the art in question. And a journey to Spain will reveal that which nothing else can, the painting of the last Byzantine, El Greco. Otherwise, the Wesl of Europe is sparsely furnished with material examples of mediæval Greek culture. None the less, their significance, once understood, goes deep. Dutch tavern and Umbrian hummock fade like the memory of a loved but departed nurse. The veils of prettiness, the opacity of coherence, are pierced.

Yet still the novice, in orbit of the light, gropes. Over a period of twelve centuries, there must be landmarks of achievement and transformations of manner to be grasped. Manuals of Byzantine art are scarce, expensive, and usually incomplete. An historical summarisation of that art’s three phases in development, illustrated by patently outstanding monuments and facts, may therefore be excused.

The first period, dating from the foundation of Constantinople in 330, reached its golden age in the reign of Justinian. The imported Oriental art of mosaic— by which is meant the inlay of coloured glass cubes —was now brought to a technical perfection which the compositions on which it was employed did not justify. At Ravenna, however, in the mausoleum of the Empress Galla Placidia, dating from the middle of the fifth century, the background of vaulted sapphire to the unconvincing Romano-Hellenistic figures renders this earliest of Byzantine monuments unique in its beauty. The mosaics of this first phase,

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