Art History, Period 1, Class 7 [3-7]
"Today we move forward, and a little bit east, to talk about Byzantine art, centered at Constantinople, which is now Istanbul." Steve smiled. "You may have heard the song. Rome fell. The Roman empire did not; it continued in the east, in Constantinople. Now, Byzantine art is specifically religious art, but it's not the polytheistic religions we've dealt with in the past, in Egypt, Greece, Rome. This is Christianity, a monotheist religion which is uh, still around." To say the least. "This is art class, not religion class, so I'm not going to go into any detail on Christianity's tenets, so let's talk about the art."
Steve proceeded to lecture on the move from representing naturalism to more symbolic, less realistic works to represent the divine, on mosaics and icons, finally coming to the Iconoclasm. "A lot of art was destroyed at this time," Steve explained, "by people who believed it was sacrilege to represent the divine in art. I want to know what you think. Do you believe it's all right to make images of the divine, whatever it may be? And if not, is it your responsibility to destroy what other people might believe is perfectly fine; even part of how they worship? Discuss."
Steve proceeded to lecture on the move from representing naturalism to more symbolic, less realistic works to represent the divine, on mosaics and icons, finally coming to the Iconoclasm. "A lot of art was destroyed at this time," Steve explained, "by people who believed it was sacrilege to represent the divine in art. I want to know what you think. Do you believe it's all right to make images of the divine, whatever it may be? And if not, is it your responsibility to destroy what other people might believe is perfectly fine; even part of how they worship? Discuss."