The Byzantine Southern Provinces

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented:  Byzantium and Islam:  Age of Transition.  The exhibit was on display March through July, 2012.

Byzantium's Southern Provinces

As the seventh century began, much of the wealth of the Byzantine Empire came from its southern provinces, which extended from Syria to Egypt and across North Africa. Affluent cities dotted the trade routes that moved the silks and spices of the east as well as local products throughout the region and beyond. Local officials were appointed from the imperial capital, Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). The state religion of the region was Orthodox Christianity, as defined by the patriarch in Constantinople.

Although proscribed, other forms of Christianity as well as Judaism flourished. As heir to the Greco-Roman tradition, the empire promoted classical academic training, including scientific learning. In the arts, well-established motifs, especially themes associated with Dionysos, the god of wine, were joined by subjects related to Christianity and Judaism.

The Sasanian Empire occupied much of Syria and Egypt from 614 to 629, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius would celebrate regaining those territories by returning the True Cross to Jerusalem in 630. Late in his life, adversaries from the Arabian Peninsula advanced into the region, taking the Byzantine provinces and ultimately establishing Damascus as the capital of the Umayyad Dynasty, which lasted until 750.

Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition

Drawing of Job and His Family Represented as Heraclius and His Family

Date:  5th century (text), ca. 615–629 (drawing)

Geography:  Made in, Egypt

           

Heraclius (r. 610–41), the most celebrated Byzantine emperor of the seventh century, suppressed the Sasanian Persian army’s advance on the Byzantine Empire’s southern provinces, reclaiming Jerusalem in 630, only to lose much of the territory to Arab advances during the final years of his reign. Under Heraclius, Greek replaced Latin as the official language of the state, signifying the importance of Byzantium’s southern territories. His efforts toward religious accommodation made him a hero in Islamic literature.

On this manuscript page, Job stands to the left in royal dress with his daughters. Job’s regained wealth and stature as described in the eponymous biblical book is emphasized by his contemporary Byzantine courtly costume. Similarities with images of Heraclius suggest that this depiction of Job may have been modeled on representations of the popular Byzantine emperor.

Roundel with a Byzantine Emperor, Probably Heraclius

Date:  8th century

Geography:  Made in, Egypt, possibly Panopolis (Akhmim)

Possibly a representation of Heraclius, this roundel (orbiculus) shows a mounted figure of imperial status, indicated by his crown, orb, scepter, and purple cloak. The cloak arches over two captives in Persian dress. The roundel would have been applied to a tunic or a domestic textile, perhaps as a protective emblem.

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Plate with David's Confrontation with Eliab

Date:  629–630

Geography:  Made in, Constantinople

Culture:  Byzantine

Medium:  Silver

In 628–29 the Byzantine emperor Herakleios (r. 610–41) successfully ended a long, costly war with Persia and regained Jerusalem, Egypt, and other Byzantine territory. Silver stamps dating to 613–29/30 on the reverse of these masterpieces place their manufacture in Herakleios’s reign.

The biblical figures on the plates wear the costume of the early Byzantine court, suggesting to the viewer that, like Saul and David, the Byzantine emperor was a ruler chosen by God. Elaborate dishes used for display at banquets were common in the late Roman and early Byzantine world; generally decorated with classical themes, these objects conveyed wealth, social status, and learning.

This set of silver plates may be the earliest surviving example of the use of biblical scenes for such displays. Their intended arrangement may have closely followed the biblical order of the events, and their display may have conformed to the shape of a Christogram, or monogram for the name of Christ.

Plate with the Presentation of David to Saul

Date:  629–630

Geography:  Made in, Constantinople

Culture:  Byzantine

Medium:  Silver

 

Dionysos

Date:  4th–6th century

Geography:  Made in, Egypt

Culture:  Byzantine

Medium:  Bone

 

 

Silenus, the Tutor of Dionysos

Date:  4th–7th century

Geography:  Made in, Egypt

Culture:  Byzantine

Medium:  Bone

Ostrakon with Medical Recipes

Date:

580–640

Geography:

Made in, Byzantine Egypt

Culture:

Coptic

Medium:

Pottery fragment with ink inscription

Ostrakon with a Letter Referring to the Persian Occupation

Date:

618–629

Geography:

Made in, Byzantine Egypt

Culture:

Coptic

Medium:

Pottery fragment with ink inscription

Floor Mosaic Depicting the Cities of Memphis and Alexandria

Date:  ca. 540

Geography:  Made in, Jordan, excavated Church of Saints Peter & Paul, Gerasa

The Naples Dioscorides

Date:  end of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century

Geography:  Made in, Italy

Medium:  Ink and pigment on parchment, 172 folios

During the seventh century, Byzantine scholars continued to study and advance the scientific and medical knowledge established earlier by Greeks and Romans. Alexandria, in Egypt, remained a major intellectual center. Paul of Aegina, who resided there, would write a medical compendium that was widely used by later Byzantine and Muslim scholars.

The lavishly illustrated manuscript written in Greek is a Byzantine copy of the work of the first-century scholar Dioscorides describing the medical properties of 827 ingredients from the natural world. An important source of scientific learning, the text was used by Byzantine and later Muslim and Western scholars for centuries. The opening seen here illustrates Lesser Burdock and Wild Vine or Wild Grape.

Panel

Period:  Sasanian

Date:  ca. 6th century A.D.

Geography:  Mesopotamia, Ctesiphon

Culture:  Sasanian

Medium:  Stucco

Ewer with dancing females within arcades

Period:  Sasanian

Date:  ca. 6th–7th century A.D.

Geography:  Iran

Culture:  Sasanian

Medium:  Silver, mercury gilding

Late Sasanian silver vessels, particularly bottles and ewers, often were decorated with female figures holding a variety of festal objects. The appearance of these motifs attests to the continuing influence of Greek imagery associated with the wine god Dionysus.

On this silver-gilt vessel, floral arches, supported by low pilasters, frame four dancing female figures. Each holds a ceremonial object in either hand: grape and leaf branches, a vessel, a heart-shaped flower. Beneath one arcade, birds peck at fruit, and beneath another a tiny panther drinks from a ewer.

Both the females and their decorative motifs recall representations of the maenads, attendants of Dionysus. However, it has been suggested that these figures have been adapted to the cult of the Iranian goddess Anahita.

No texts survive to explain the appearance or function of these female figures, but it seems likely that vessels decorated with motifs such as these would have been intended to hold wine for court celebrations or religious festivals.

Textile Fragment with Tree

Date:

6th-7th century

Geography:

Made in, Possibly Egypt

Medium:

Tapestry weave in polychrome wool and undyed linen on plain-weave ground of undyed linen

Trees like this stylized pomegranate with its red fruit appeared widely in domestic interiors on tapestries used as wall hangings and across openings. Perhaps meant as allusions to gardens, they may also be read as images of a heavenly paradise, as the pomegranate was a symbol of immortality.


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