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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies
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Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience (Paperback)
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Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience (Paperback)
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Paramount in the shaping of early Byzantine identity was the
construction of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople
(532-537 CE). This book examines the edifice from the perspective
of aesthetics to define the concept of beauty and the meaning of
art in early Byzantium. Byzantine aesthetic thought is re-evaluated
against late antique Neoplatonism and the writings of
Pseudo-Dionysius that offer fundamental paradigms for the late
antique attitude towards art and beauty. These metaphysical
concepts of aesthetics are ultimately grounded in experiences of
sensation and perception, and reflect the ways in which the world
and reality were perceived and grasped, signifying the cultural
identity of early Byzantium. There are different types of aesthetic
data, those present in the aesthetic object and those found in
aesthetic responses to the object. This study looks at the
aesthetic data embodied in the sixth-century architectural
structure and interior decoration of Hagia Sophia as well as in
literary responses (ekphrasis) to the building. The purpose of the
Byzantine ekphrasis was to convey by verbal means the same effects
that the artefact itself would have caused. A literary analysis of
these rhetorical descriptions recaptures the Byzantine perception
and expectations, and at the same time reveals the cognitive
processes triggered by the Great Church. The central aesthetic
feature that emerges from sixth-century ekphraseis of Hagia Sophia
is that of light. Light is described as the decisive element in the
experience of the sacred space and light is simultaneously
associated with the notion of wisdom. It is argued that the
concepts of light and wisdom are interwoven programmatic elements
that underlie the unique architecture and non-figurative decoration
of Hagia Sophia. A similar concern for the phenomenon of light and
its epistemological dimension is reflected in other contemporary
monuments, testifying to the pervasiveness of these aesthetic
values in early Byzantium.
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