< Return to index
BYZANTINE CIVILISATION AND PATMOS
Professor Mary Aspra
If research, science and technology help us in finding out the secrets of life, art, in all
its expressions, relieves us of our existential anguish.
Welcome to the Holy Island of Patmos, to this rocky and barren place where St. John
the Evangelist is believed to have written the Book of Revelation and his Gospel.
(1)
This paper aims to provide an overview about the civilization of the Byzantine
Empire, which dominated the Eastern Mediterranean from 330 to 1453.
The word Byzantine today immediately conjures up an image of remoteness,
obscurity, and labyrinthine complexity. It is often handled as a useful term of abuse—
anybody frustrated by the machinery of an organisation is likely to criticize it as a
Byzantine bureaucracy.
The capital city of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinopolis, often called simply as
the polis, the city, or even the Queen of Cities. Also, the present name Istanbul, is a
Greek one –es tin poli . The he site of the town had a long history before the Middle Ages, and first appeared with the name Byzantion as a colony of the
Greek city of Megara in the seventh century BCE.
Its site was a strategic one on the Bosporous, and it was soon able to derive wealth
from levying tolls on passing ships and from fishing. Later, it benefited further still
when, as an outcome of the administrative division of the Roman Empire into two
sectors, one western and one eastern, Byzantium was “refounded” as the capital city
of the eastern half of the Roman Empire by the emperor Constantine the Great (285-
337 AD). It was then (in 330 AD) that it gained its official title of Constantinopolis or,
alternatively, New Rome.
From the beginning, the society of Constantinopolis was one with a predominant
commitment to Christianity and its institutions – Constantine was the first Roman
emperor who became a Christian. Partly as a consequence of this official ideology,
theologians and mystics gained a prominent role in Byzantine society and influenced
behaviour and beliefs in the eastern half of the Roman Empire; the position of the
emperor was understood and justified by a Christian interpretation of the order of the
universe.
The emperor was beyond human criticism; everyone had to obey him and pray for
him. Religion was the soul of Byzantine culture, permeating all aspects of life. The
days of the year were counted by the feasts of the saints; every important landmark
in one’s life, from birth to death, was blessed with a sacrament. Business was
transacted with coins carrying the stamp of Christ’s face; and battles were waged
behind icons with the image of the Virgin.
The Byzantine religion's mentality is a complex and difficult subject embracing
doctrine, practice and Church organisation. While the Byzantines shared with other
Christian communities most of the same basic beliefs and observed the same
sacraments, their religious experience was somewhat different. Byzantium is also a
society in which no easy distinction can be made between the political and the
religious, or between the lay rulers and the church. This is one of the factors that
makes it difficult to compare Byzantium and Western Europe. Despite their
differences Orthodoxy and Catholicism offer contrasting but somehow
complementary modes of realising the Christian way of life.
In Byzantium the emperor freely crossed boundaries into matters that were properly
those of the church. Byzantine law defined the state as consisting of two bases of
authority: sacerdotium (priesthood) and basileia (imperial power). The two were
expected to be equal partners in promoting Orthodoxy and regulating human affairs.
In the West the situation was the reverse.
Constantine’s transfer of the imperial seat from Rome to his new capital on the
Bosphorous made Constantinople, the emperor’s city, par excellence. The Rome
that he abandoned became the papal city. Gradually, the Pope filled the vacuum in
political power created by the emperor’s move, as he assumed an increasing variety
of secular roles. Bishops administered large feudal domains. They served their kings
as chancellors and secretaries. They even led armies in combat.
Byzantium was a rich and complex society. Its art consisted of a vast complex
artistic heritage originating from the civilisation that grew up in the heart of the
Byzantine Empire, the coastal regions and countries of the eastern Mediterranean, in
Asia Minor, Cyprus and Greece.
In the Byzantine world, the church was conceived as an intimate vessel in which a
personal assimilation into God might be realized. The dominant image was the Christ
Pantokrator in the circle of the dome.
(2)
The circle itself is a symbol of unity, and the blessing figure of Christ embraces the
faithful in the nave below.
But which is the role of images in worship?
As has been observed, “of all the cultural families of Christianity- the Latin, the
Syrian, the Egyptian, or the Armenian - the Byzantine was the only one in which art
became inseparable from theology”. The presence of icons is the most striking
feature first noticed upon entering an Orthodox church. This did not come about all at
once, but over time and with a great deal of controversy. In the end, the result was a
special wedding of art and faith that is unique in the history of religions.
The term icon in its strictest sense identifies a painted panel of a sacred subject
intended for veneration. In a broader sense the term can be applied to sacred
images in general, whether in smaller, personal objects, such as ivories and
enamels, or in larger, permanent mural decoration.
 4  5
Panel paintings, because of their scale and mobility, entered readily into the ebb and
flow of public life. They could be brought out for veneration on special occasions,
carried about in processions, even used as palladia to protect a city in time of war.
Single or grouped figures in static poses, carrying emblems of their special power;
they stare directly at the beholder, their heads ringed with halos.
 6  7
In the home such images were placed in niches, which were at times provided with
doors to close them. Candles were lighted before them, incense was offered, and
petitions were made to them.
In Greco-Roman antiquity, cult images were customarily statues of the Gods and
great temples were built to house them, such as the Parthenon in Athens, which
contained Phidias’s gold and ivory statue of Athena.
Byzantine art evolved as a popular art, the expression of a deep religious instinct,
and later developed into a predominantly courtly art, promoted by the imperial court
and the Eastern Church.
It spread quickly, far and wide to Asia, Africa and
Europe. In spite of the amazingly large area it
covered, Byzantine art was always surprisingly
consistent in style and iconography.
Unlike classical art, where the emphasis was on
representation and evaluation of physical reality,
Byzantine art always aimed at depicting a reality
not of this world. Its figures were highly idealized,
and unrestricted by time or space. Symbolic signs
and emblems were integrated with forms and
figures even in architecture.
The two basic media of expression in this art were
its colors – intense, luminous (fig.526 10), evoking
the mystical joy of a world permeated by the light
of God – and the extended perspective of its
figures, violating the laws of volume and gravity
and lifting them to a level of pure ecstasy and
solemn splendor.
Despite its abstract forms and abstruse symbolism, Byzantine art had a profound
influence on European art of the Middle Ages, especially in Italy.
Art in the church may be divided into three large categories:
1. the permanent decoration of the walls and vaults in fresco or mosaic;
2. icons which could be either mobile or permanently attached to the templon;
and,
3. the portable vessels, vestments, books and reliquaries used in Church ritual.
For a better understanding of the decoration of the churches and the religious art
works visible in the monastery of Patmos, herein lies an outline of the main features
of the Byzantine art and the different means of expression and communication with
the divine.
Mosaic work was an extremely important aspect of Byzantine art because mosaic
lends itself well to creating an otherworldly atmosphere of mystery. Mosaics were
originally intended to decorate the apsidal half-dome vault:
 10
and their function was limited to portraying the glory of Heaven, but later they were
also used to decorate the walls and cupola, including illustrating stories from the
Bible.
Byzantine murals were executed (al secco) in oil or tempera on dry plaster,
misleadingly called fresco, or on wet plaster. They handled the same subjects as the
mosaics but generally in a cruder style, since this was the appointed decoration for
small or poor churches, remote from the great art centres.
Here you see Pieta, a mural dating from 1164 AD;
 12
This fresco is from a church in Nerezi, near Skopia. Byzantine murals, often a
sublime expression of early Christian religious faith, reflect in their rigid structure (13,
left) the same courtly style predominant in the mosaics, but have the spontaneity and
immediacy of provincial art. In the last Byzantine period, the influence of the West
saw Byzantine art gain a lot of charm and joy. An example representative of this is
the mural decoration of the church of the Virgin Pantanassa at Mystras in
Peloponese.
Illuminated manuscripts were a medieval creation that flourished the centres
throughout the Byzantine Empire, but especially in Constantinople from the late ninth
to the end of twelfth century.
 15
Before about the year 850 AD, illuminated manuscripts were extremely rare; about
1200 AD, the absolute number of books illuminated in Byzantium, as well as their
proportion relative to all books produced, dropped.
The significance of medieval Byzantine illumination can be measured not only by its
power over later Byzantine artists and patrons, who often drew on medieval works for
models, but also by its influence on the arts of Europe, Georgia, Armenia and Russia.
The content of the books produced in handsome editions
changed little during the Middle Ages. Scribes and
illuminators were most often called on for copies of the
Bible, collections of Saints’ lives and sermons (16, left).
Each of these texts could be produced in a variety of
formats, depending on how the patron intended the book
to be used.
Pocket versions of the Gospels and psalms were popular
for private devotional reading, whereas larger manuscripts
tended to be made for use in church. Personal copies as
small as 2 �� by 3 �� inches might have been decorated
with miniature icons that enhanced prayer and meditation.
Size and use do not always correlate precisely.
The Byzantines’ interest in books was not confined to texts
used in the liturgy or copies of Scripture for private
reading.
To them we owe nearly all our knowledge of classical Greek poetry, drama, and
philosophy. Histories, secular poetry and practical manuals on law, veterinary
science, military tactics, poisons and medicinal plants were produced to meet the
needs of generals, physicians and other professionals.
Secular texts were, however, sometimes produced in decorated editions when the
patron demanded it. Any book made for the emperor or for a wealthy client had to
reflect the patrons’ status. Patrons and makers created the impression of material
richness in a number of ways. Display scripts were executed in gold as early as the
sixth century.
Book titles were often framed or otherwise set off with ornament (17, left). To the
decorative repertoire inherited from mosaics and sculpture, medieval illuminators
added patterns that referred to contemporary metal work.
The necklace surrounding the miniature (18, right) from the liturgical homilies of
Gregory of Nazianzos is executed in trompe l’ oiel, as if it had been casually dropped
on the page. The illustration of a medieval book is difficult to characterise, since it
can take many forms and serve many needs.
Monasticism assumed an extraordinary importance in Byzantium and was
characterised by great flexibility. Monasteries were built at the discretion of their lay
founders and could be constituted with as few as three monks for a relatively small
endowment.
Large monasteries, however, were often imperial foundations, generously supported
with permanent income from properties attached to them, as it happened with the
monastery of St. John the Theologian in Patmos.
It was in April 1088 A.D. that Alexios I Comnenos, Emperor of Byzantium, ceded the
island of Patmos free of all taxation to Hosios Christodoulos of Latros (place in Asia
Minor).
Patmos had been earlier to Christendom only the place where St. John the
Theologian had been exiled and where he probably wrote, at the end of the first
century A.D., the Apocalypse and his Gospel. After February (or May) of 1089 AD,
the Blessed Christodoulos founded the monastery, the nucleus of a small state which
included, in addition to Patmos, the neighbouring islets Lipsoi and Arkioi as well as
large properties on the island of Leros.
The site where the monastery stands was apparently occupied in antiquity by the
temple of Artemis, which was replaced by an early Christian basilica. When this fell in
ruins a small church was built on the site.
It is not clear what Hosios Christodoulos was able to build during the few years he
spent on Patmos. According to his “secret testament” he started "with a castle, which
he built as much as he could, leaving it incomplete…”
It is for sure, that the work of Christodoulos was completed later in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries by abbots who had come from the upper social classes and were
very well educated; this is reflected in the contents of the library of the monastery and
the quality and repertory of the monastery’s wall paintings which reveal its close
association with the Constantinople, the cultural centre of the empire.
Two ensembles of Byzantine wall paintings of the last quarter of the twelfth century
have partly preserved in the monastery. The more complete murals cover the walls in
the chapel of the Holy Virgin (20, left), and about half of the original paintings cover the
walls of the Refectory
 21
The Katholikon of the Monastery was most probably decorated with wall paintings in
the same period, but later painted over in successive layers.
Also, remains of painted decoration were discovered in the Cave of the Apocalypse,
further down, north of Chora, the capital of the island.
The Patmian monks were a learned community maintaining close contact with the
Capital of the Byzantine Empire, having every support by the state in order to hold
that part of the Southeast Aegean against both the Turks of Asia Minor and the
Franks.
Monasteries, whether for males or females, were favorite places of retirement for the
wealthy, whose lifestyles were often at variance with the monastic ideal.
Furthermore, lay ownership or lay administration (charistikion) of monastic property
often provided opportunities for personal gain at the expense of the monastery.
Monasticism thoroughly penetrated Byzantine Christianity, to the extent that one
might say the Byzantine Church was primarily monastic. Monks took the lead in
theological development, in the cultivation of icons, and in shaping the piety and
religious practice of Byzantium in general.
This gave Byzantium a liturgy-centered Christianity, a piety in which cult, ritual and
symbolism were paramount, and this was what motivated the commissioning of
religious artworks, as benefactors wanted to furnish the churches with plate of gold
and silver, with silken vestments and bronze lamps to express their participation in
the rite. People came to church to be somehow transformed, and the art became
their means of communication with the divine.
In the Byzantine culture there were two worlds, the work of workaday reality and the
world of the spirit. These two worlds ceaselessly looked for one another. The glory of
Byzantium resided in its ability to create a civilization that was distinct, original and
vibrant, and in its power to influence not only the inhabitants of the empire but also its
neighbours. Byzantium was influential in much that happened in the world of the
South and East Slavs and of the Balkans, and made these peoples intimate
participants in, and creative contributors to, its civilization; such border peoples as
the Georgians, Armenians, and Syriac Christians had varying degrees of
appreciation for Byzantine culture. Byzantium passed on to Islamic civilization an
important portion of the ancient Greek heritage.
The West took elements from Byzantium’s religious and legal systems and during the
Renaissance became the direct heir to that part of ancient Greek literary culture,
which Byzantine scribes, scholars, and libraries had preserved for some one
thousand years.
________________
* Professor Mary Aspra
< Return to index |