Plan.
1. Introduction Stage I (mid IV century the first half of VI century) 1.
The role of religion in culture 3 2.
New in the visual arts 6 3.
Architecture 8 4.
Fine arts 12 5.
Secular and ecclesiastical music, theater 13 Stage II (mid VIIIV early XIII) 1.
Public life and religion 15 2.
Philosophical movements 16 3.
Literature 19 4.
Aesthetics 21 5.
Fine arts 21 6.
Architecture 23 7.
Music 23 Stage III (XIII mid XV century) Brief description 25 Introduction The Byzantine state was formed as a result of the separation of the eastern part of the Roman Empire at the end of the IV century AD.
It existed for over a thousand years, until the defeat of its capital Constantinople in 1453 during the Turkish invasion.
The beginning of the Byzantine Empire is considered to be the year 395, when Emperor Theodosius I divided the Roman state into two parts – eastern and western.
Constantinople became the capital of the eastern part of the empire (the old city of Byzantium was renamed in 330) Byzantium is one of the states that made a great contribution to the development of culture in Europe of the Middle Ages.
A special, outstanding place belongs to the history of Byzantium.
In artistic creativity, Byzantium gave the medieval world high images of literature and art, which were distinguished by the noble elegance of forms, imaginative vision of thought, refinement of aesthetic thinking, depth of philosophical thought.
By the power of expressiveness and deep spirituality, Byzantium stood ahead of all the countries of medieval Europe for many centuries.
The direct heir of the Greco Roman world and the Hellenistic East, Byzantium has always remained the center of a unique and truly brilliant culture.
If we try to separate the Byzantine civilization from the civilization of Europe, the Near East and the Near East, the following factors will be the most important: 1. There was a linguistic community in Byzantium (the main language was Greek);
2. There was a religious community in Byzantium (the main religion was Christianity in the form of Orthodoxy);
3. In Byzantium, despite all the multi ethnicity, there was an ethnic core consisting of Greeks.
4. The Byzantine Empire has always been distinguished by a stable statehood and centralized management.
All this, of course, does not exclude the fact that the Byzantine civilization, which had an impact on many neighboring countries, was itself influenced by both the tribes and peoples who inhabited it, and the neighboring states.
During its thousand year existence, Byzantium faced powerful external influences coming from countries that were at a close stage of development - from Iran, Egypt, Syria, Transcaucasia, and later the Latin West and Ancient Russia.
On the other hand, Byzantium had to enter into various contacts with peoples who were at a slightly or significantly lower stage of development (the Byzantines called them "barbarians").
The process of development of Byzantium was not straightforward.
There were epochs of rise and decline, periods of triumph of progressive ideas and gloomy years of the rule of reactionary ones.
But the sprouts of a new, living, advanced germinated sooner or later in all spheres of life, at all times.
Folk art was an inexhaustible source of culture.
Under the cover of traditions and stereotypes, a new, creative beginning lived, acted and made its way.
The entire thousand year history of Byzantium can be divided into three periods: 1. The middle of the IVB.
- The first half of VIIb.
- the period of decomposition of the slave owning system and the formation of medieval society.
2. The middle of the VIIIb the beginning of the XIII century.
- the emergence and development of feudalism in Byzantium.
3. XIII.
- the middle of the XV century.
- the last period characterized by the further development of feudalism and the beginning of its decomposition.
The first centuries of the existence of the Byzantine state can be considered as the most important stage in the formation of the worldview of the Byzantine society, based on the traditions of pagan Hellenism and the principles of Christianity.
In early Byzantium, the philosophy of Neoplatonism is experiencing a new flourishing.
A number of Neoplatonic philosophers appear: Proclus, Diadochus, Plotinus, Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite.
Neoplatonism was directly adjacent to and coexisted with early Byzantine philosophical thought.
But Neoplatonism required from its adherents a special philosophical training, special thinking, a turn of the brain.
He was elitist, that is, inaccessible to the broad masses, which was reflected in his historical doom.
I period The role of religion in culture The formation of Christianity as a philosophical and religious system was a complex and lengthy process.
Christianity absorbed many of the philosophical and religious teachings of that time.
Christian dogmatics has developed under the strong influence of not only Middle Eastern religious teachings, Judaism, Manichaeism, but also Neoplatonism.
The dogma of the trinity of the deity, one of the central dogmas of the Christian faith, is essentially a reinterpreted triad of Neoplatonists.
However, Christianity, despite having common features with Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, is fundamentally different from Manichean dualism and Neoplatonic monism.
Christianity itself was not only a syncretic religious teaching, but also a synthetic philosophical and religious system, an important component of which was the ancient philosophical teachings.
This, perhaps, explains to some extent the fact that Christianity not only fought with ancient philosophy, but also used it for its own purposes.
The irreconcilability of Christianity with everything that bore the stigma of paganism is replaced by a compromise between the Christian and ancient worldview.
In Neoplatonism itself, two currents have formed: one is radical, opposed to Christianity, the other is more moderate.
Gradually, the supporters of a compromise with Christianity are gaining the upper hand.
There is a process of repulsion, isolation and at the same time rapprochement, merging of Neoplatonic philosophy and Christian theology, which ends with the absorption of Neoplatonism by Christianity.
The most educated and far sighted Christian theologians realized the need to master the entire arsenal of pagan culture in order to use it in creating philosophical concepts.
In the works of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, in the speeches of John Chrysostom, one can see a combination of the ideas of early Christianity with Neoplatonic philosophy, sometimes a paradoxical interweaving of rhetorical ideas with a new ideological content.
Such thinkers as Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus lay the foundation of Byzantine philosophy, their philosophical constructions are deeply rooted in the history of Hellenic thinking.
At the center of their philosophy is the understanding of being as perfection, which leads to a kind of justification of the cosmos, and, consequently, the world and man.
In Gregory of Nyssa, this concept sometimes approaches pantheism.
In the transitional era of the demise of the slave owning system and the formation of a feudal society, fundamental changes are taking place in all spheres of the spiritual life of Byzantium.
A new aesthetic is being born, a new system of spiritual and moral values that is more appropriate to the way of thinking and emotional needs of a medieval person.
Patristic literature, biblical cosmography, liturgical poetry, monastic novella, world chronicle, Christian hagiography, permeated with a religious worldview, gradually take possession of the minds of Byzantine society and replace ancient culture.
The man himself of that era is also changing, his vision of the world, his attitude to the universe, nature, and society.
A new "image of the world" is being created in comparison with antiquity, embodied in a special symbolic system of symbols.
The ancient idea of a heroic person, the ancient understanding of the world as a world of laughing gods and heroes fearlessly going to death, where the highest good is not to be afraid of anything and not to hope for anything (a very nice philosophy), is replaced by the world of a suffering, torn by contradictions, a small, sinful person.
He is infinitely humiliated and weak, but he believes in his salvation in another life and tries to find solace in this.
Christianity reveals with unprecedented intensity the painful division within the human personality.
The idea of man about the cosmos, about time, about space, about the course of history is also changing: the biblical vision of the progressive movement of history of early Byzantine historians and chroniclers, conditioned by the will of God, is replacing the closed historical cycles of ancient writers.
In early Byzantium, one of the fundamental ideas of the Middle Ages was crystallized - the idea of the union of the Christian church and the "Christian empire".
The spiritual life of the society of that time is characterized by dramatic tension; in all spheres of knowledge, literature and art, there is an amazing mixture of pagan and Christian ideas, images, representations, a colorful combination of pagan mythology with Christian mysticism.
The era of the formation of a new, medieval culture gives birth to talented, sometimes marked by the seal of genius thinkers, writers, poets.
The artist's individuality has not yet dissolved into the church dogmatic thinking.
Fundamental changes are taking place in the sphere of fine art and the aesthetic views of Byzantine society.
Byzantine aesthetics developed on the basis of the entire spiritual culture of Byzantium.
She largely relied on ancient views about the essence of beauty, but synthesized and reinterpreted them in the spirit of Christian ideology.
A distinctive feature of Byzantine aesthetics was its deep spiritualism.
Giving preference to the spirit over the body, she also tried to remove the dualism of the earthly and heavenly, divine and human, spirit and flesh.
Without denying the physical beauty, the Byzantine thinkers put the beauty of the soul, virtue, and moral perfection much higher.
Of great importance for the establishment of the Byzantine aesthetic consciousness was the early Christian understanding of the world as a beautiful creation of a divine artist.
That is why natural beauty was valued higher than beauty created by human hands, as if "secondary" in its origin.
Byzantine art was genetically traced back to Hellenistic and Eastern Christian art.
In the early period, the refined platonism and the trembling sensuality of late antique impressionism seemed to merge in Byzantine art with the naive, sometimes rude expressiveness of Oriental folk art.
Hellenism for a long time remained the main, but not the only, source from which the Byzantine masters drew the elegance of forms, the correctness of proportions, the charming transparency of the color scheme, the technical perfection of their works.
But Hellenism could not fully resist the powerful flow of Eastern influences that swept over Byzantium in the first centuries of its existence.
At this time, the influence of Egyptian, Syrian, Malaysian, and Iranian artistic traditions on Byzantine art is felt.
In the IV V centuries.
the late Antique traditions were still strong in the art of Byzantium.
If classical ancient art was distinguished by a peaceful monism, if it did not know the struggle of spirit and body, and its aesthetic ideal embodied the harmonious unity of bodily and spiritual beauty, then a tragic conflict of spirit and flesh is already outlined in late Antique artistic creativity.
Monistic harmony is replaced by a clash of opposite principles, " the spirit is trying to throw off the shackles of the corporeal shell, as it were."
Later, Byzantine art overcame the conflict of spirit and body, it was replaced by a calm contemplation, designed to lead a person away from the storms of earthly life into the supersensible world of pure spirit.
This "pacification" occurs as a result of the recognition of the superiority of the spiritual over the corporeal, the victory of the spirit over the flesh.
From now on, the main aesthetic task of Byzantine art is the artist's desire to embody a transcendent idea in an artistic image.
In the VI VII centuries, Byzantine artists managed not only to absorb these diverse influences, but also, overcoming them, to create their own style in art.
Since that time, Constantinople has become a famous art center of the medieval world, a "palladium of sciences and arts".
It is followed by Ravenna, Rome, Nicaea, Thessalonica, which also became the focus of the Byzantine artistic style.
The heyday of the Byzantine art of the early period is associated with the strengthening of the power of the empire under Justinian.
At this time, magnificent palaces and temples are being erected in Constantinople.
Architecture The unsurpassed masterpiece of Byzantine art was the Church of St. Nicholas built in the 30s of the VI century.
Sofia.
Christian Byzantium also devoted a lot of work to decorating the temple of the One God.
The churches of Constantinople were striking with their majestic architecture and the splendor of the interior decoration.
But since the time of Justinian, the pride of Constantinople, or Byzantium, has become the church of St. Sophia built by this emperor, in memory of the pacification of the rebellion, when this sovereign almost lost his throne.
Having conceived the idea of building a temple, Justinian turned to the most famous architects of his time - Anthimius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus.
He wanted the temple being erected to become a great monument for him, and therefore did not spare any costs for the construction.
Under the leadership of Anthimius and Isidore, up to 10,000 people of masons, carpenters and other workers were employed on the buildings every day.
According to Justinian, the church of St. Sophia was supposed to surpass all the temples that ever existed in its size and luxury.
Gold, silver, ivory, expensive rocks of stones were used for construction and decoration in countless quantities.
Columns and blocks of rare marbles were brought from all over the empire, which were used for the decoration of the temple.
The result was that the unprecedented and unheard of splendor struck even the popular imagination, and in Byzantium there were legends that the heavenly forces themselves helped the architects in the construction.
Where Justinian conceived the construction, there was already a temple in the name of divine wisdom - St. Sophia, built by Constantine.
The temple, over which the place of the holy Cross has been so offensive to Christians for four centuries occupied by the Mohammedan moon, was built on the same place as the first, but much later.
The first was small for a large Christian population, and Constantius, the son of Constantine, increased it.
In 404, during the reign of Arcadius, it was burned during the confusion.
Emperor Theodosius rebuilt the cathedral again.
Subsequently, it burned down again, and only the Emperor Justinian built a new stone church of St. Nicholas.
Sofia in incomparably large sizes and with great splendor.
This temple has been preserved to our times.
To fulfill his plan, the emperor ordered all the governors to find marble, columns and sculptural decorations for the new temple.
The last fire that destroyed the remains of the former temple was in January 532, and on February 23 of the same year, the first stone of the new one was laid.
The new temple was built for about seven years, and in December 538 the completion of construction was celebrated, but seventeen years later the eastern part of the main dome collapsed from an earthquake and fell on the precious altar and pulpit.
This misfortune did not in the least diminish Justinian's zeal: he renewed the church with greater strength and splendor, and on December 24, 568, before the day of the Nativity of Christ, its consecration was celebrated.
Under the direction of two main architects - Anthimius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus a hundred other architects managed the work, and each of them had a hundred masons under his command.
Five thousand workers worked on the right side of the temple and the same number on the left.
According to Byzantine legends, an Angel drew the plan of this church to the emperor during a dream.
The emperor encouraged the workers with money and his presence, and instead of resting after dinner according to the Eastern custom, he tied a handkerchief around his head and with a stick in his hand, went to inspect the work in the simplest linen clothes.
All the estates paid a monetary tribute for the construction of the temple.
Marble of all colors white, pink, green and blue, granite of Egypt and porphyry, as well as precious columns extracted from various ancient pagan temples: eight porphyry columns of the lower floor of the famous temple of the Sun in Baalbek, the other eight from the temple of Diana in Ephesus - decorated it.
It is remarkable that the materials included in the building are taken from temples belonging to almost all pagan religions, so that it was based on the columns of the temples of Isis and Osiris, the Sun and Moon (in Heliopolis), Minerva of Athens and Apollo of Delos.
In general, the form of the sanctuary of the Temple of Solomon prevails throughout the building.
To make it easier to understand the structure of the Cathedral of St.To Sophia, it is necessary to imagine a spacious quadrangle, to which four smaller squares adjoin on its four sides and thereby form the main parts of the building and the shape of a cross inside.
At the corners of the middle large square, four massive pillars (piliers) are built, the tops of which are connected to each other by semicircular arches, and on top of this entire arcade rises a huge dome having 35 meters in diameter.
The dome, apparently, rests on the arches only with four points, and the rest of it is supported by pandatives (triangles at the intersection of the arches), which begin at the sharp corners of the pilers and go up, so imperceptibly rounded that they seem to be simple light veins, and the points of support of this giant vault escape the observer's eyes, and the dome seems to hang in the air.
The upper point of the vault rose 61 meters above the floor of the church; the length of the church inside the walls is 81 meters, and the width is 60 meters.
There are two semi domes adjacent to the eastern and western parts of the middle vault and three niches to each of them, so that the roof of the main part of the building consists of nine domes rising one above the other.
The rest was covered with marble slabs, and the domes themselves were covered with lead sheets.
The semi domes and niches are supported by both four main piliers and four other smaller ones, and under each niche there are two porphyry columns with capitals and bases made of white marble.
From the north and south of the main square, under the arches, between each two large piliers, four columns of the most beautiful granite are placed, supporting choirs or galleries for women, which the ancient Christians stood separately during divine services.
On 24 other columns of Egyptian granite, side galleries are adjacent to the choirs, illuminated by windows in three tiers: in the lower and middle seven windows, and in the upper five.
The main dome is illuminated by 4 windows.
Above the 40 columns of the lower floor, there are 60 others in the upper galleries and seven more above the entrance doors, so there are 107 columns in total.
This number was attributed a mysterious meaning in the East.
All the columns of the upper floor are marble or granite, perfectly polished and smooth, but the cornices and archivolts on top of these columns are absolutely fantastic.
They are decorated with countless leaves and stripes in the form of braid, mixed and intertwined with each other.
The main dome, to combine the full development of its size with the ease of style, is made of clay pots, which still surprise with their strength; they are made of light clay found on the island of Rhodes, and are so light that the weight of 12 pots is equal to the weight of one ordinary brick.
The walls are made of brick and all covered with marble slabs, and the pilers are made of large lime stones linked together by iron ties, and are smoothly plastered with lime mortar in oil under marble of various colors.
Another masterpiece of Byzantine architecture is the Church of St. Vitalia in Ravenna impresses with the sophistication and elegance of architectural forms.
This temple was particularly famous for its famous mosaics not only of an ecclesiastical, but also of a secular nature, in particular the images of the Emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora and their retinue.
The faces of Justinian and Theodora are endowed with portrait features, the color scheme of the mosaics is characterized by full blooded brightness, warmth and freshness.
Visual art In the painting of the VI VII centuries, a specifically Byzantine image is crystallized, purified from foreign influences.
It is based on the experience of the masters of the East and the West, who came independently to create a new art that corresponds to the spiritualistic ideals of medieval society.
Various trends and schools are already appearing in this art.
The metropolitan school, for example, was distinguished by the excellent quality of performance, refined artistry, picturesque and colorful diversity, trembling and iridescence of colors.
One of the most perfect works of this school were the mosaics in the dome of the Church of the Assumption in Nicaea.
Other trends in the art of early Byzantium, embodied in the mosaics of Ravenna, Sinai, Thessalonica, Cyprus, Parenzo, mark the rejection of the Byzantine masters from ancient reminiscences.
The images become more ascetic, there is no place for not only the sensual, but also the emotional moment in such art, but spirituality reaches an extraordinary power.
Church worship turned into a kind of magnificent mystery in Byzantium.
In the semi darkness of the vaults of Byzantine churches, many candles and lamps shone dimly, illuminating with mysterious reflections the gold of mosaics, the dark faces of icons, multicolored marble colonnades, magnificent precious utensils.
All this, according to the church's plan, was supposed to overshadow in the soul of a person the emotional elation of an ancient tragedy, the healthy fun of mimes, the vain excitement of circus contests and give him joy in the everyday life of real life.
"Orthodox iconography includes paradise palms, flowers and plant ornaments, for" the righteous blooms like a palm tree, rises like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the Lord, they bloom in the courts of our God" (Ps 91: 13-14).
The Old Testament descriptions of images of angels, palm trees and flowers can be compared, for example, with the Byzantine mosaics of the Basilica of St. Apollinarius Nuovo in Ravenna (VI century), representing the processions of martyrs and martyrs in the Garden of Eden.
The green meadows under the feet of the saints are dotted with lily flowers.
There are palm trees between the figures of Christian ascetics, symbolizing eternal life.
During the period of the iconoclastic heresy in Byzantium, the Old Testament symbols of paradise were depicted instead of icons, so that the temples, according to contemporaries, "turned into gardens, flower beds and poultry houses."
In the applied art of Byzantium, to a lesser extent than in architecture and painting, the leading line of development of Byzantine art was determined, reflecting the formation of the medieval worldview.
The vitality of ancient traditions was manifested here both in images and in forms of artistic expression.
At the same time, the artistic traditions of the peoples of the East gradually penetrated here.
Here, though to a lesser extent than in Western Europe, the influence of the barbarian world played a role.
Secular and ecclesiastical music, theater Music occupied a special place in the Byzantine civilization.
A peculiar combination of authoritarianism and democracy could not but affect the nature of musical culture, which represented a complex and multifaceted phenomenon of the spiritual life of the epoch.
In the V VII centuries, the formation of the Christian liturgy took place, new genres of vocal art developed.
Music acquires a special civil status, is included in the system of representation of state power.
The music of city streets, theatrical and circus performances and folk festivals preserved a special flavor, reflecting the rich song and music practice of many peoples who inhabited the empire.
Each of these types of music had its own aesthetic and social meaning, and at the same time, interacting, they merged into a single and unique whole.
Christianity very early appreciated the special possibilities of music as an art that is universal and at the same time has the power of mass and individual psychological impact, and included it in its cult ritual.
It was cult music that was destined to occupy a dominant position in medieval Byzantium.
Mass spectacles still played a huge role in the life of the broad masses of the people.
However, the ancient theater is beginning to decline - ancient tragedies and comedies are increasingly being replaced by performances of mimes, jugglers, dancers, gymnasts, tamers of wild animals.
The place of the theater is now occupied by a circus (hippodrome) with its equestrian ristanyas, which are very popular.
If we summarize the first period of the existence of Byzantium, we can say that during this period the main features of the Byzantine civilization were formed.
First of all, they should include the fact that the Byzantine culture was open to other cultural influences received from outside.
But gradually, already in the early period, they were synthesized by the main, leading Greco Roman culture.
The culture of early Byzantium was an urban culture.
The major cities of the empire, and first of all Constantinople, were not only centers of craft and trade, but also centers of the highest culture and education, where the rich heritage of antiquity was preserved.
The struggle between secular and ecclesiastical cultures is especially characteristic of the first period of the history of Byzantium.
In the history of the Byzantine civilization, the first centuries of the existence of Byzantium were a time of acute ideological struggle, a clash of contradictory trends, complex ideological collisions, but also a time of fruitful searches, intense spiritual creativity, positive development of science and art.
These were the centuries when the culture of the future medieval society was born in the throes of the struggle of the old with the new.
II period Social life In the second stage of the development of culture, which fell on the time from the second half of the VII century to the XIII century., the time of iconoclasm is distinguished (the second quarter of the VIII 40s of the IX century, the reign of the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty ( the so called "Macedonian Renaissance": 867-1056, and the reign of the Komnenos ("Komnenian Renaissance": 1081-1185).
The defining feature of the spiritual life of the empire by the middle of the VII century was the undivided domination of the Christian worldview.
Deep religiosity was now simulated not so much by dogmatic disputes, as by the offensive of Islam, which was waged by the Arabs, inspired by the "holy war" and the struggle against pagan Slavs and pro Bulgarians.
The role of the church has increased even more.
The instability of the foundations of life, the economic and household disorder of the masses of the population, poverty and the constant danger from an external enemy sharpened the religious feeling of the subjects of the empire: the spirit of humility before the vicissitudes of "this world", uncomplaining submission to "spiritual pastors", boundless faith in miracles and signs, in salvation through self denial and prayer was confirmed.
The class of monks was rapidly increasing, the number of monasteries was multiplying.
As never before, the cult of saints flourished, especially the worship of those known only in this area, district, city; all hopes were placed on them as" their own " heavenly intercessors.
The widespread spread of superstitions helped the church to rule over the minds of parishioners, to multiply its wealth and strengthen its position.
This was also facilitated by a decrease in the level of literacy of the population, an extreme narrowing of secular knowledge.
However, the triumph of theology, the assertion of its dominance through violence, was fraught with serious danger - theology could be powerless before the criticism of non believers and heretics.
Like any ideological system, Christianity needed to be developed.
The need for this was realized in the narrow circles of the church elite, who preserved the traditions of high religious and secular education.
The systematization of theology became the first task, and for this it was necessary to resort again to the spiritual treasures of antiquity - without its idealistic theories and formal logic, the new tasks of theologians were impossible.
The search for original philosophical and theological solutions was already undertaken in the second half of the seventh century, although the most outstanding works in this field were created in the next century.
It is characteristic in this regard that against the general background of the decline of culture in the middle of the seventh century, in fact, only theology experienced a certain rise: this was required by the pressing interests of the ruling elite, which were presented as an urgent need of the broadest strata of society.
Regardless of the fact that Maximus the Confessor was persecuted by the Emperor Constant II himself, the theoretical searches of this theologian met the needs of the ruling class; without them, by the way, it would have been impossible to manifest the "Source of Knowledge" of Damascene.
The basis of the theological constructions of Maxim is the idea of the reunion of man with God (through overcoming the gap between the spiritual and the carnal) as the reunion of the root cause of all things, the whole with its part.
In the ascent to the spiritual, Maxim assigned an active role to the person himself, his free will.
John of Damascus set himself and fulfilled two main tasks: he sharply criticized the enemies of Orthodoxy (Nestorians, Manichaeans, Iconoclasts) and systematized theology as a worldview, as a special system of ideas about God, the creation of the world and man, determining his place in the worlds of this world and beyond.
Compilation (in accordance with the motto of Damaskin "I donot like anything of my own") on the basis of Aristotelian logic represented the main method of his work.
He also used the natural scientific ideas of the ancients, but carefully selected from them, as well as from the dogmas of his predecessors theologians, only that which in no way contradicted the canons of the Ecumenical councils.
In fact, the work of Damaskin, even by medieval standards, is devoid of originality.
His works played a major role in the ideological struggle against iconoclasm, but not because they contained new arguments in defense of traditional ideas and religious rites, but due to the elimination of contradictions from church dogmas, bringing them into a coherent system.
A significant step forward in the development of theological science, in the development of new ideas concerning the problems of the relationship of spirit and matter, the expression of thought and its perception, the relationship of God and man, was made during the fierce disputes between iconoclasts and icon worshippers.
But in general, until the middle of the IX century, philosophers and theologians remained in the circle of traditional ideas of late Antique Christianity.
The ideological struggle of the era of iconoclasm, which took an acute political form, the spread of the Pauline heresy made it absolutely obvious that the clergy and representatives of the upper strata of society should be educated more.
In the context of the general rise of spiritual culture, a new direction in the scientific and philosophical thought of Byzantium was outlined in the work of Patriarch Photius, who did more than anyone else before him for the revival and development of sciences in the empire.
Photius made a new assessment and selection of scientific and literary works of the previous era and the present, based not only on the church's doctrine, but also on considerations of rationalism and practical usefulness, and trying to explain the causes of natural phenomena through natural science knowledge.
The rise of rationalistic thought in the era of Photius, accompanied by a new increase in int heresy to antiquity, became even more noticeable in the XI XIII centuries.
It is noteworthy, however, that at the same time with this trend, as was very often the case in Byzantium, purely mystical theological theories were developed and deepened.
One of these theories, created at the turn of the X XI centuries and not widely recognized in the XI XII centuries, was defined as a major ideological and political role in the future: it formed the basis of a powerful current in the Orthodox Church in the XIV XVI centuries.
- hesychasm.
We are talking about the mysticism of Simeon the New Theologian, who developed the thesis about the possibility for a person of real unity with the deity, the connection of the sensory and mental (spiritual) world through mystical self contemplation, deep humility and "intelligent prayer".
Even in the time of Photius, contradictions in the interpretation of the idealistic concepts of antiquity between the adherents of Aristotle and Plato were clearly revealed.
After an era of long preference given by Byzantine theologians to the teachings of Aristotle, since the XI century there has been a turn towards Platonism and Neoplatonism in the development of philosophical thought.
A bright representative of this particular direction was Mikhail Psell.
For all his reverence for ancient thinkers and for all his dependence on the provisions of the classics of antiquity quoted by him, Psellus nevertheless remained an original ("artistic") philosopher, able, like no one else, to combine and reconcile the theses of ancient philosophy and Christian spiritualism, to subordinate even the mysterious prophecies of the occult sciences to Orthodox dogmatics.
However, no matter how careful and skilful were the attempts of the intellectual Byzantine elite to protect and cultivate the rationalistic elements of ancient science, an acute clash turned out to be inevitable: an example of this is the excommunication and condemnation of the philosopher John Ital, a disciple of Psellus.
Plato's ideas were driven into the rigid framework of theology.
Rationalistic tendencies in Byzantine philosophy will not resurrect soon now, only in the context of the growing crisis of the XIII XV centuries, especially in the conditions of a fierce struggle with the mystics and the hesychasts.
The general decline of creative activity in the "dark Ages" had a special impact on the state of Byzantine literature.
Vulgarization, lack of literary taste, "dark" style, formulaic characteristics and situations all this has been established for a long time as the dominant features of literary works created in the second half of the VII - first half of the IX century.
Imitation of ancient models no longer found an echo in society.
The black clergy became the main customer and connoisseur of literary work.
Monks were very often the authors of hagiographies.
Hagiography and liturgical poetry came to the fore.
The preaching of asceticism, humility, hopes for a miracle and an otherworldly reward, the glorification of a religious feat - the main ideological content of literature of this kind.
Byzantine hagiography reached special heights in the IX century.
In the middle of the X century, about one and a half hundred of the most popular lives were processed and rewritten by the prominent chronicler Simeon Metaphrastus (Logophete).
The decline of the genre was marked in the following, XI century: instead of naive, but lively descriptions, a dry scheme, template images, stencil scenes of the life of saints began to prevail.
At the same time, the hagiographic genre, which always enjoyed the widest popularity among the masses of the people, had a noticeable influence on the development of Byzantine literature in the X and XI centuries.
Vulgarization was often combined with vivid imagery, realistic descriptions, vitality of details, dynamism of the plot.
Among the heroes of the lives, there were often the poor and the offended, who, performing a martyr's feat for the glory of God, boldly entered into a struggle with the strong and the rich, with injustice, unrighteousness and evil.
The note of humanism and mercy is an integral element of many Byzantine lives.
Religious themes dominated in this era and in poetic works.
Some of them directly related to liturgical poetry (church hymns, hymns), some were dedicated, like hagiography, to the glorification of a religious feat.
Thus, Fyodor Studit sought to poetize monastic ideals and the very routine of monastic life.
The revival of the literary tradition, which consisted in focusing on the masterpieces of antiquity and rethinking them, became especially noticeable in the XI XII centuries, which affected the choice of subjects, genres, and artistic forms.
As in the times of antiquity, epistolography, replete with reminiscences from ancient Greco Roman mythology, became a means of vividly emotional narration, self expression of the author, rising to the level of refined prose.
The plots and forms of both Eastern and Western literature are boldly borrowed during this period.
Translations and reworkings from Arabic and Latin are carried out.
There are experiments of poetic compositions in the vernacular, colloquial language.
For the first time in the entire history of Byzantium, since the IV century, a cycle of folk language literature has been formed and gradually expanded since the XII century.
The enrichment of the ideological and artistic content of literature by strengthening the folk folklore tradition, the heroic epic is most clearly shown in the epic poem about Digenis Akrit, created on the basis of a cycle of folk songs in the X XI centuries.
Folklore motifs also penetrate into the Hellenistic love adventure novel that was revived at that time.
The second period also marks the heyday of Byzantine aesthetics.
The development of aesthetic thought in the VIII IX centuries was stimulated by the struggle over cult images.
The icon worshippers had to summarize the main Christian concepts of the image and on their basis develop a theory of the relationship between the image and the archetype, primarily in relation to fine art.
The functions of the image in the spiritual culture of the past were studied, a comparative analysis of symbolic and mimetic (imitative) images was carried out, the relationship of the image to the word was made meaningful in a new way, the problem of the priority of painting in religious culture was posed.
The most complete development was received in that era by the anti classical direction of aesthetics, which focused on the ancient criteria of beauty.
Interest in the physical (bodily) beauty of a person was revived; the aesthetics of eroticism, which was condemned by religious rigorists, received a new life; secular art again enjoyed special attention.
The theory of symbolism, especially the concept of allegory, also gained new impulses; gardening and park art began to be appreciated; the revival also affected the dramatic art, to the understanding of which special works were devoted.
In general, aesthetic thought in Byzantium in the VIII XII centuries reached, perhaps, the highest point of its development, exerting a strong influence on the artistic practice of a number of other countries in Europe and Asia.
The crisis phenomena of the transitional era in the Byzantine culture were particularly protracted in the field of fine art of the VII IX centuries, the fate of which was more strongly affected by iconoclasm than in other industries.
The development of the most popular, religious types of fine art (icon painting and fresco painting) resumed only after 843, i.e. after the victory of icon worship.
The peculiarity of the new stage was that, on the one hand, the influence of the ancient tradition noticeably increased, and on the other , the iconographic canon developed at that time with its stable norms concerning the choice of the plot, the ratio of figures, their very poses, the selection of colors, the distribution of chiaroscuro, etc., acquired an increasingly stable framework.
This canon will be strictly followed by Byzantine artists in the future.
The creation of the pictorial stencil was accompanied by an increase in stylization, designed to serve the purposes of transmitting through the visual image not so much the human face as the religious idea contained in this image.
At that time, the art of colored mosaic images reached a new heyday.
In the IX XI centuries, old monuments were also restored.
Mosaics were also renewed in the church of St. Nicholas.
Sofia.
New stories appeared, which reflected the idea of the union of the church with the state.
In the IX X centuries, the decoration of manuscripts was significantly enriched and complicated, book miniatures and ornaments became richer and more diverse.
However, a truly new period in the development of book miniatures falls on the XI XII centuries, when the Constantinople school of masters in this field of art was flourishing.
In that era, in general, the leading role in painting as a whole (in iconography, miniature, fresco) was acquired by the metropolitan schools, marked by the seal of special perfection of taste and technique.
Architecture In the VII VIII centuries.
in the temple construction of Byzantium and the countries of the Byzantine cultural circle, the same cross domed composition prevailed, which originated in the VI century and was characterized by a weakly expressed external decorative design.
The facade decor acquired great importance in the IX X centuries, when a new architectural style emerged and became widespread.
The emergence of a new style was associated with the flourishing of cities, the strengthening of the public role of the church, the change in the social content of the concept of sacred architecture in general and temple construction in particular (the temple as an image of the world).
Many new churches were built, a large number of monasteries were built, although they were, as a rule, small in size.
In addition to changes in the decorative design of buildings, the architectural forms and the composition of buildings themselves changed.
The value of the vertical lines and divisions of the facade increased, which also changed the silhouette of the temple.
Builders increasingly resorted to the use of patterned brickwork.
The features of the new architectural style were also manifested in a number of local shk
For example, in Greece of the X XII centuries, it is characteristic to preserve some archaic architectural forms (not dissection of the facade plane, traditional forms of small temples) - with the further development and growth of the influence of the new style patterned brick decor and polychrome plastic were also increasingly used here.
Music In the VIII XII centuries, a special musical and poetic church art was formed.
Due to its high artistic merits, the influence of folk music on church music has weakened, the melodies of which previously penetrated even into the liturgy.
In order to further isolate the musical foundations of the divine service from external influences, the canonization of the laotonal system - "octoecha" (octaglasia) was carried out.
The Ihos represented certain melodic formulas.
However, musical theoretical monuments allow us to conclude that the system of ihos did not exclude a sound order understanding.
The most popular genres of church music were the canon (a musical and poetic composition during a church service) and the troparion (almost the main cell of Byzantine hymnography).
Troparia were composed for all holidays, all solemn events and memorable dates.
The progress of musical art led to the creation of musical notation (notation), as well as liturgical handwritten collections in which chants were recorded (either only the text, or the text with notation).
Public life was also not complete without music.
The book "On the Ceremonies of the Byzantine Court" reports almost 400 chants.
These are the songs of the procession, and songs during horse processions, and songs at the imperial feast, and songs of acclamation, etc.
Since the IX century, interest in ancient musical culture has been growing in the circles of the intellectual elite, although this interest was mainly theoretical in nature: attention was attracted not so much by the music itself as by the works of ancient Greek music theorists.
As a result, for the second period, I would like to say that Byzantium at that time reached the highest power and the highest point of cultural development.
Contradictory tendencies are evident in the social development and in the evolution of the culture of Byzantium, due to its middle position between East and West.
The third period (XII XIV centuries) can be briefly described as the highest point of the development of feudalism and the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.
Due to the lack of material on this period, it can only be noted that, despite the fact that Byzantium existed for 1000 years longer than the Great Roman Empire,it was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the XIV century.
But, despite this, Byzantium made a huge contribution to the development of world culture.
Its basic principles and directions of culture were transferred to neighboring states.
Almost all the time, medieval Europe developed on the basis of the achievements of the Byzantine civilization.
Byzantium can be called the "second Rome", because its contribution to the development of Europe and the whole world is in no way inferior to the Roman Empire.
