Islamic and Byzantine Empires

Caleb Haught

December 15, 2013

Block A

Islamic and Byzantine art

The Islamic civilization and The Byzantine Empire had different religions and thoughts which led to very different art. Christianity was the most focused on and worshipped religion in Byzantium and the most worshipped religion in Islamic civilization was Islam. Religion played a major role in many things such as art, architecture, and music and continues to have an effect on many things today.

The Islam civilization had a great emphasis on art throughout their community. The primary source I chose for the Islamic civilization is a picture of a a boat covered in “tailsman”. Tailsman are religious words, phrases, and/or quotes that are they to protect what they are on. Tailsman’s are supposed to have defensive capability because of the religious writing. Many people had necklaces or jewelry that they would put prayers on to protect them from evil spirits. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Early Islamic art was influenced by older styles because it was a fairly new religion. Whereas other communities art focused on mainly there religion the Islam’s blended all different kinds or religion together in there art. The art in Islam was very important to the civilians because they were a somewhat new civilization and they knew that the art they produced would be within their culture for a long time.

Byzantine art was mainly used for religious purposes. The primary source I chose for the byzantine empire is a mosaic of Jesus Christ. In this Mosaic Jesus Christ is dressed in the same clothes as a Byzantine leader. The main religion in Byzantium was Christianity so this painter painted Jesus Christ wearing the robes of a leader of Byzantium because he is, to most of the population, a leader. Deborah M. Deliyannis, Cambridge University. Byzantine art evolved very rapidly. The casual art on a canvas out grew itself and painters started painting more mosaics on floors and more realistic paintings. In 1204 crusaders came into the capital of Byzantine, Constantinople, and burned down a lot of the city and destroyed many statues, sculptures, and paintings. This set back the production of art pieces in Byzantium for a long while. The Byzantine artist used art to represent there religion.

The Islamic civilization and the Byzantine empire were diverse communities that shared the common relation of the passion of art. The religious aspects of each civilizations art was extremely different. Both civilizations had interesting styles of art whether it was paintings or pottery they were very unique.

Outline

Introductory paragraph

The Islamic civilization and The Byzantine Empire had different religions and thoughts which led to very different art. (Thesis)
Compare and contrast elements of both civilizations
Concluding sentence (restate thesis)