Creative process is a psychological and societal process relating to the creation of new innovative ideas or conceptions, or new relations of the creative mind among accessible notions, thoughts or perceptions. The creative process is driven by the development of either conscious or unconscious awareness. A different idea of creativity is that it is purely the process of creating or generating something new and original. In this case the use of gold used in the artwork provided that extra new substance that glorified the religious aspects of the era (Simson 112).
Political and religious leaders in the Holy Roman Empire found a new source of power during the 14th century and this power was religion and faith. The common people of the region was thus influenced with religious art to make them more stable believers of Christianity and it was essential to show the common that this empire was powerful by the dint of its fait. As a result, art became a weapon or tool of extreme propaganda. From the ancient ages, art has always been a free expression.
But now, the perspective changed but it was controlled by the empire and the subject of this control was the general population by use of faith. Thus, to show the value of faith it was necessary to manifest the might of the empire through art. Under such conditions, there was a distinct function in the use of precious metal like gold in the forms of Byzantine art during this era (Rice 27).
Gold is a very precious metal and anyone who is in possession of gold can be considered as powerful. Logically, the empire or political power that is capable using gold in art works dedicated to Christian faith must be a very powerful, thus stable. This was an assurance for the residents of the region.
Any association of gold is a point of power and when, for example, “Icon of the Savior”, (James 692-698) decoration of gold makes it more important to the viewers who start believing in the fundamental stability and might of the faith and therefore it was a belief towards the political power that supported it. In this case, this power was the Empire. Thus, the function was gold was of fundamental importance in the era while being used in artworks (Nelson 489-502).
However, there was another reason of using gold in artworks. Gold is supposed to be permanent and its durability is extremely high. Therefore, in order to preserve the painting gold was used in parts of the artwork. There were also the riches of the empire to support the cost too. Apart from that gold gave luminosity to the artwork that no other medium can provide. This enhanced the quality of the work and thus the religious sentiments were exposed in a better and illustrious manner (James 692-698).
In the process of describing the creative process of the artists in the parameters of Byzantine art, it is evident how closely the word ‘Genius’ is intertwined with their creativity. Intellectual brilliance in combination with highest quality of creativity brings in the concept of genius. Beautiful ideas and their proper implementations which have a profound influence on the observers get tagged with the label of creative genius. Individuals are often said to be creative on the basis of their lifestyle, their works in respective fields and their attitudes (Beckwith 15). Their creative process can be perceived as imaginative, supple, not stereotyped, and influential and authoritarian and the use of gold definitely help their cause.
Works Cited
Beckwith, John. Early Christian and Byzantine art. NY: Yale University Press, 1993.
James, Liz. Senses and sensibility in Byzantium. Art History 27.4, (2004): 692-698.
Nelson, Robert S. Empathetic Vision: Looking At And With A Performative Byzantine Miniature. Art History, 30.4, (2007): 489-502.
Although, no declaration of any sort was made of Christ in early religious artistry “the text only states that in the vital instant of the cordon the godless Chagan glimpsed a number of a woman, clothed in a dignified kind, running beside the ramparts of the town walls” (Ousterhout 95). The bard connected this lady to the Virgin of the Blachernai. This image of the Blessed Virgin, the Blachernitissa, was affiliated to the maphorion (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Our Lady of Blachernae.
The maphorion always was presumed to be the assurance for the Byzantine empires’ security as its episode in the place of adoration of the Blachernai in the 5th century; by the 7th century the image of the Virgin Blachernitissa was affiliated with mutually the maphorion and the defense of the realm (Ousterhout 95).
The Virgin Mary in Byzantine Representations
The Virgin Mary, well-known as the Theotokos in Greek expressions, was centralized to Byzantine religion as foremost important spiritual records. As the intermediary flanked by agony human being and Christ and the lady who protected the Constantinople, she was amply recognized. The Virgin symbolizes Greek songs in the praise of God, which were considered to be of importance, for signifying the Akathistos Hymn, which was created to endeavor the church festival held on the 25th of March. Account imaginative depictions of Christ’s mother objective on her starting and babyhood or her Koimesis (her Dormition, or everlasting siesta).
Most images of the Virgin stress her purpose as the mother of Jesus Christ, brandishing her status and keeping her son such as ‘The Vladimir Virgin’ (Figure 2). The sort of art in which the Virgin keeps Christ is very meticulous. Confident mimics developed into “types” that became names of refuge or rhythmical descriptions.
Figure 2. The Vladimir Virgin.
Hence, an image of the Virgin was proposed to encompass her resemblance and, at the equal instance, the imitation of a fine well-known image unique (Forsyth, 1972).
For emergence, the Virgin Hodegetria is a noise admired figure of the Virgin in which Christ is held by her in the left arm and indications in the main heading of him through her right hand, brandishing that he is the means to deliverance (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The Virgin Hodegetria.
Theotokos in Greek expressions
In Constantinople, the Hodegon Monastery named it Hodegetria, where the image brandishing the Virgin in this exact position existed in even in the 12th century, depicting to fight back the city. What came to be renowned later was a type similar to that of Virgin Eleousa (Figure 4); which is pronounced to have rooted from the Virgin Hodegetria.
Figure 4. Virgin Eleousa.
These types comprise the sympathetic for demonstration of the Virgin. She is exposed viewpoint to seem her insolence to the impudence of her offspring, who respond this liking by placing the support of his arm around her neck. Byzantine images of the Virgin were then moved on to the West (Forsyth, 1972).
Thus, as asserted by Pentcheva,
“Vestiges of the Virgin proceeded to purpose as the only entails of sign of the Virgin’s defense of Constantinople in the time span directly later than Iconoclasm. Only beginning with the middle of the 10th century … did Marian icons start to come by a public function in triumphal parades and battles. … By the second half of the eleventh 100 years, Psellos and Attaleiates record the custom of the Byzantine emperors to convey an exceptional Marian icon on infantry campaigns: the Blanchernitissa” (Ousterhout, 96).
The Virgin Mary in Western Representations
Nearly all Western types of the Virgin’s similarity, for demonstration the “Throne of Wisdom” (Figure 5) in 12th century coming from France, in which the Christ is suggested confrontationally as the supplement of heavenly knowledge, surfaced to have started in Byzantium.
Figure 5. Morgan Madonna- Sedes Sapientiae – Throne of Wisdom.
Other similar art created includes ‘The Cambrai Madonna’ (Figure 6) Byzantine types become amply distributed in Western Europe by the 7th century. The12th and 13th centuries sighted an outstanding growth of the spiritual grouping of the Virgin in Western Europe, in element inspired by the literature of Theology for demonstration.
Figure 6. The Cambrai Madonna.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Figure 7), Song of Songs in the Old Testament shows Virgin Mary being adored as Christ’s bride, personification of the Church, Heaven’s Queen and Intercessor for the deliverance of humanity (Belting, 1994).
Figure 7. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
The Virgin Mary in the Later Middle Ages
This activity found out its grandest signal in the mission of France, which are frequently devoted to “Our Lady” (Figure 1) and many villages, for demonstration Siena, puts beneath her protection. Belting directs exceptional vigilance to the 13th century and to Tuscany in considering and interpreting the change of the Holy Image among East and West. “The decorating of panel crosses, altarpieces, and devotional pictures appeared in Italy in 13th Century with the aggression of an explosion….Tuscany with its increasing villages was at the forefront of the movement.” (Belting 349)
Mother of God
The hieratic photos such as the ‘Mother of the word made Flesh’ (Figure 8), of the Romanesque period, which purpose Mary’s noble characteristic, gave an approach in the Gothic age to more offer images highlighting the binding flanked by mother and child (Cormack, 1997).
Figure 8. Mother of the word made Flesh.
When sealed, the pivoted statue made higher of the Virgin nurturing the child Christ, any person who saves the Holy Spirit. Her piece of clothing unfastens higher, like the wings of a triptych, to divulge in her body the diagram of God the Father. He saves the pass, organized of couple tree trunks, from which the presently not existing diagram of Christ hung (Cormack, 1997).
The neighboring wings are embellished with views from Christ’s childhood or Incarnation that is to declare, the personification of God the Son in personal embodiment. This is evident especially in ‘”Tripticho” Crucifixion-Virgin Mary-Jesus Birth’ (Figure 9), which is a three fold image.
Figure 9. Crucifixion Triptych.
“We should habitually recall that painters were not free to invent the minutia of pictures but administered with archetypes that, more often than not, were forms in the local area accessible that had become famous, for causes conspicuous at the time but unidentified today. Painters may have disregarded the Eastern icons, which we today know to have been the factual archetypes, and intermediary forms may have profited more significance for the charge of a picture.
In its inquiring about the authorship of enduring images, art history has neglected this kind of study and has therefore tended to overestimate the individual assistance of individual painters and to underestimate the function of granted kinds, which artists duplicated other than invented.” (Belting 352)
The valued run of sensitivity in the Byzantine reaction to the Mother of God in journals, art and piety has been emphasized in a well-known paper by Ioli Kalavrezou (1990), and this statements a many trade for the appealing attribute today of icons of the Theotokos.
It was aggregated even so with a doctrinal and theological discourse of extensive complexity without which more icons were not able to be entirely expounded or appreciated. Giving due sinking implement to both these characteristics of the run of the Theotokos in Byzantium is the contest to which the providers to this size have enhanced so admirably.
Works Cited
Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Cormack, Robin. “Women and Icons, and Women in Icons.” James, L. Women, Men and Eunuchs. Gender in Byzantium. London, 1997. 24–51, 31–8.
Forsyth, Ilene H. The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Kalavrezou, Loli. Images of the Mother. When the Virgin Mary became Meter Theou. DOP (1990): 165–72.
Ousterhout, Robert. “The Virgin of the Chora: An Image and Its Contexts.” Brubaker, Robert Ousterhout and Leslie. The Sacred Image East and West. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
By Byzantine Art is meant the art that was produced by the Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire that continued from the 5th Century till 1453 when Constantinople fell. Byzantine Art also refers to the art of the states that came under its aegis, sharing a common legacy – Bulgaria, Serbia and or Russia. Venice too can be included as it had intimate links with the Byzantine Empire. It also refers to the art produced after the decay of Constantinople in the hands of the Ottoman Empire. “So in a very broad sense it includes the art of Russia, Greece and other countries under the Greek Orthodox Church” (James 692-692). In this context, the role of portraiture, including the saints, in Byzantine art became a very significant form of art.
Background
Byzantine art had its roots in Ancient Greece and never broke ties with this classical link. But there were differences. “The focus on humanistic ethics of Greek art was replaced by Christian philosophy” (Simson 132). Classical art glorified man but Byzantine art glorified God and the Son of God – Jesus Christ. This led to disappearing of nude figures in Byzantine tradition. “The figures that dominated were that of God the Father, Jesus and the Virgin Mary” (Simson 132). The saints and the martyrs also crowded in. And they became the main and sole focus of Byzantine Art. Thus the icon came to dominate Byzantine Art. Icon generates reverential worship and it is the link between God and man. “Icon is the rendering of prayers, hymns and sermons in the form and in color” (Simson 132).
The “portraiture of’Saint George Slaying the Dragon (14th Century) or Saint John Chrysostom (1325) evokes the sense of the supremacy related to Christianity. Where as, Makariya Zograf’s ‘Holy Virgin Pelagonitissa’ (1421)” (Nelson 489-502) reveals the underlying love and humbleness of the religion.
Discussion
The Byzantine artists lost interest in Nature and portraits that were real. “Only the ideal images of Jesus and the saints were used” (Simson 142). This became the norm. The artist brought out the inner thoughts pinpointing it on the icons. It was a deviation from the multiple pagan arts that was more sensual in the classical age. Thought took precedence over reality.
Analysis
The Byzantine artists developed new technical skills ascending artistic heights. This was reflected in the works of goldsmiths and silversmiths, enamel workers, jewelers and makers and textile weavers. Keeping touch with the classical age they stamped their own ingenuity in their art. It was the same in architecture – the living symbol of which is the building of Hagia Sophia (Simson 132).
The art of portraiture in Byzantine Art is known as iconography. It is ritualistic art and holy. It is more spiritual than just about ornamentation and decoration. In Greek it is called hagiography or the picture that is holy. It depicts the individuals and the sacred ideas. As such the monks were the sole keepers of this art and the work was done inside the church from beginning to end. The portrait in Byzantine Art had a spiritual meaning that goes above the mundane world. It is not just about mechanical skill but something beyond. Thus the materials used were natural, pure and fragrant. For the drawing of the portraits aromatic wood from the cypress, chestnut or pine was taken (Beckwith 65). Color was obtained the earth. After mixing with water earth gives out a divine fragrance that has not been lost in time.
Result
Rough or thick stuff was not used in Byzantine Art such as is used in other forms of art – flax oil, hard brushes etc. The portraits radiated an inner beauty that is not related to the flesh. While working, these portrait artists fasted and changed their clothes as soon as they started to work. Both inside and outside they endeavored to be pure, to bring out the depth of the portrait they were depicting. They also chanted hymns while they worked (Rice 121).
Conclusion
So, it is obvious that religion was the main driving force behind this form of painting. However, it is also clear that stories of the saints and the other divinity influenced the artists to compose their artwork in a specific manner that was unique in the region. Thus, it can well be stated that both religion and art form influenced each other during this period.
Works Cited
Beckwith, John. Early Christian and Byzantine art. NY: Yale University Press, 1993.
James, Liz. Senses and sensibility in Byzantium. Art History 27.4, (2004): 692-692.
Nelson, Robert S. Empathetic Vision: Looking At And With A Performative Byzantine Miniature. Art History, 30.4, (2007): 489-502.
