Byzantine Art: Justinian and His Attendants

Allen Farber wrote on Saturday, October 24, 2009

An issue that I like to discuss in relationship to this mosaic is the question of reality. I emphasize how there is no universal definition of reality, but how each culture constructs its own conception of reality. For the culture of the time of Justinian, reality would have been seen in Platonic terms where this physical world is only a shadow or reflection of true reality which exists on the spiritual level. It is then interesting to compare the conception of the figure and space in the Justinian mosaic to that evident in the adjacent apse mosaic of Christ in majesty. In the latter mosaic the artist does indicate bodies beneath the drapery through the use of lines and some shading, and the figures do have a sense of gravity standing on a ground plane. See especially here the figures of the angels who flank the Christ in Majesty. This emphasis on the solidity of figures placed in space is in marked contrast to the flatness of the figures and ambiguity of space of the Justinian mosaic. How does one explain this difference in treatment? Could it be due to different artists or different periods? Another explanation is suggested by an examination of the roughly contemporary icon of the Virgin and Child from Mount Sinai. This icon includes representations of saints, the Virgin and Child, and angels. Comparison of these different figures reveals different styles used for these different figures with the saints being done in a relatively flat and more abstract style while the angels are well modelled and have solidity. The Virgin and Child are done in an intermediate style. This reverses our conventional explanation. We would expect the angels to be more abstract and the saints who are closer to our existence should be done more illusionistically, but the opposite is true. Applying the Platonic conception of reality, the saints in the icon and Justinian in the mosaic are the shadows of the spiritual realm or true reality of God and the angels.