INTRODUCTION

HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE
EAST AND WEST

T he rich and diverse medieval architectural

traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and
adjacent regions are the subject of this book. The
known contemporaries in Western Europe. Viewed
through an Orientalist lens, scholars of the past two
centuries saw the East (broadly construed) as exotic,
focus is the Byzantine (or East Roman) Empire distant, and only vaguely connected to Western civ-
(324–1453 ce), with its capital in Constantinople, ilization. Nevertheless, they often looked to the
although the framework expands chronologically to East as a never-ending generator of architectural
include the foundations of Christian architecture in ideas, which were called upon at critical moments
Late Antiquity and the legacy of Byzantine culture to invigorate and inspire European masons. Their
after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Because sweeping generalizations are usually discounted
Late Antiquity has become a burgeoning field of today: the twin-towered façade, the alternating
study in its own right, I have limited my discussions support system, ribbed vaults, pointed arches, and
of Western Europe to Italy and have opted to the like seem to have developed independently in
emphasize the later developments. Geographically both West and East, and one doesn’t need to be
broad as well, this study includes architectural modeled on the other. And while there was certainly
developments in areas of Italy, the Caucasus, the cultural interchange across the Mediterranean, ar-
Near East, the Balkans, and Russia, as well as related chitecture is most often regionally based, following
developments in early Islamic architecture—that is, established workshop practices, and determined by
areas connected culturally or politically to the local concerns and devotional habits. But the view
Byzantine Empire (see Map 1). The term “the East” of the East as a source of inspiration has encouraged
is used here to refer inclusively to this large and the notion that developments there must necessar-
diverse area. The title of the book, Eastern Medieval ily precede those in the West. Still following this
Architecture, is intended to reflect its breadth—that outdated view, most textbooks on Western art or
is, covering more than just the Byzantine Empire architecture are unsure where to place the Byzantine
and more than just the Eastern Mediterranean. Empire: it appears either as the end of Antiquity or
This book might have been titled Architecture of as the beginning of the so-called Dark Ages.1 Later
the Forgotten Middle Ages, for it addresses the lesser
known and understudied monuments of the East, 1
See my comments, R. G. Ousterhout, “An Apologia for
which often stand in sharp contrast to their better Byzantine Architecture,” Gesta 35, no. 1 (1996): 21–33; and those

Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, view from the west (author)

xix
[Map 1] The Roman Empire, ca. 390 (Oxford History of Byzantium, ed. C. Mango, 2002, p. 33)
 FIGURE 0.1
Constantinople,
Hagia Sophia,
view from the
west (author)

Byzantine developments—those coeval with the nant, and dull. Rather than developing from tiny
Romanesque and Gothic—are usually omitted, not Dark Age basilicas into the towering cathedrals of
fitting into a neatly encapsulated, linear view of the Gothic era, church architecture in the East
European cultural history. In fact, most textbooks seems backward by comparison. The great Hagia
stop with Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or San Sophia (Fig. 0.1)—taller and broader than any
Marco in Venice, and the vibrant architectural de- Gothic structure (Fig. 0.2)—appeared already in
velopments in the Caucasus, the Balkans, and else- the sixth century, when very little was happening
where are omitted altogether. in Western Europe. Subsequent centuries in the
Recent scholarship is more willing to see the East witnessed a significant reduction in architec-
cultures of the East as parallel and coeval to those tural scale. Indeed, most of the church buildings
of the West. From this perspective, the differences in the East tend to be small, centralized, and
in architectural traditions stand as the cultural ex- domed (Fig. 0.3); rather than a move toward
pressions of polities in similar stages of develop- monumental forms and unified spaces, we find
ment, with common concerns manifest in differ- instead increasing compartmentalization and
ent ways. That said, it is nevertheless difficult to complexity on a small scale. Because of the dra-
view Byzantine and other Eastern architectures matic difference in form and scale, it is easy to
without preconceptions based on our greater forget that the two lines of development—East
familiarity with Western medieval monuments. and West—are contemporary.
Consequently, we expect something like a linear Why did medieval architecture in the East
pattern of evolution, new structural achievements, follow a different trajectory than that of the West?
and buildings on the grandest of scales. Byzantine This is a critical question and one this book at-
architecture fails to live up to such great expecta- tempts to answer. Several suggestions have been
tions and is all too often dismissed as small, stag- put forward, such as economic factors (i.e., limited
scale represents limited skill) or notions of sacred
by R. S. Nelson, “The Map of Art History,” ArtB 79 (1997): 28–40. presence, with the centrally planned memorial

INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE EAST AND WEST xxi

 FIGURE 0.2 where buildings continued to be the product of
Beauvais, individual patronage rather than communal effort.
Cathedral of Even with our vision narrowed to just monu-
St. Peter, view
ments within the Byzantine Empire, a full under-
from the east
standing of the architectural history is fraught with
(Andrew Tallon,
courtesy of the
challenges: to paraphrase one recent critic,
Archmap Project, Byzantine architecture is “an elusive concept built
Columbia upon evidence that would be thrown out in any
University) court of law.”2 The Byzantine Empire lasted for
more than a millennium, and if we take into
consideration areas under its influence, such as
Russia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans, it can be said
to have lasted even longer (Fig. 0.4). Its geographic
scope is similarly broad, now spanning modern na-
tion-states not always friendly with one another and
not always easy for foreign scholars to access. Both
the historical languages and those of modern schol-
arship are rich and varied, and there seem to be
more than any single human being could possibly
master in a lifetime. The student of Byzantine archi-
FIGURE 0.3 tecture is challenged to be intrepid as a diplomat, an
Kitta (Mani), Sts. explorer, an archaeologist, and a linguist, not to
Sergius and mention a scholar with a discerning eye.
Bacchus, view The study of historical architecture is full of
from the east challenges, not the least of which is learning it
(author) from a textbook. Buildings are three-dimensional
entities, whereas our systems of representing
them are two dimensional, and the reader is called
upon to assemble these entities in the mind’s eye,
to imagine the experience of the forms and spaces
in three dimensions. How big is it? How does the
plan relate to the elevation? How is space defined
or modulated? Does the external articulation
structures (martyria) guiding the developments in relate to interior space? Thinking more experien-
the East. The differences may lie more in worship tially, what happens when you pass through a
practices: although corporate worship never dis- door? How do the qualities of sound and light
appeared in Byzantium, private devotion grew in change? How do construction materials or deco-
popularity, more conveniently housed in smaller rative details affect our response to the building?
buildings. Even the nature of monasticism dif- These are all questions that the close analysis of a
fered: rather than the grand establishments of building might answer but that are harder to un-
Western Europe, with a regularized typology derstand from a short description and a few select
(e.g., a basilica flanked by a cloister), a fixed rule images.
(e.g., the Order of St. Benedict), and hundreds of The standard approach to Byzantine architec-
monastics in residence, Byzantine monasteries ture—indeed, to most historic architectures—
tended to be small, family-sized units, less for- begins with formal analysis, establishing the
mally organized, and without an established archi- basic typology and taxonomy of buildings, and
tectural typology. Moreover, from the twelfth cen-
tury onward in Western Europe, the cathedral 2
S. Melikian, “‘Byzantium Art’: A Fit-All Category Defeated by
dominates the architectural scene, representing a Its Elusiveness,” International Herald Tribune (24–25 January
concept of urbanism all but unknown in the East, 2009), 11.

xxii EASTERN MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

 FIGURE 0.4
Moscow, Cathedral
of the Virgin of the
Intercession, also
known as
St. Basil’s, seen
from the east
(author)

resulting in the description of planning schemes, rian, whose concerns are often at odds with estab-
formal solutions, structural features, or decorative lished approaches to Byzantine art or architec-
details. Although a variety of texts survive, build- ture. Traditional art history, for example, relies on
ings often constitute our primary surviving evi- stylistic and iconographic analysis of visual images
dence for reconstructing or re-imagining the and has only in recent decades become concerned
culture that produced them.3 We are thus obliged with issues of patronage, context, and social his-
to learn all we can about them, beginning with tory. Because the vast majority of the surviving
their physical structure, closely observed—that is, architecture is religious, it is often read in reli-
to “read” the fabric of the building with the same gious terms only, as manifestations of the belief
insight and nuance that a philologist would apply system of the period, rather than as windows onto
to the study of a text. If we are to understand the society that produced it. Historians of material
what buildings mean and how they communi- culture, however, tend to shy away from “high”
cate, we must begin with their grammar, vocabu- art and architecture that reek of elitism or religi-
lary, and syntax. osity. And yet, the churches are hard to ignore, as
The approach adopted in this book begins they stand in sharp contrast to the paltry remains
with formal analysis as a first step toward under- of urban and residential architecture, which were
standing the cultural context: how does a build- less carefully constructed and often built of
ing reflect the concerns of the society that produced ephemeral materials. That is, the religious build-
it, symbolically or ideologically? How does it re- ings represent the concerns that were most im-
flect the social or economic situation of its day? portant to the society that built them. They have
How was it used on a daily basis? These questions survived for a reason.
may move us into the world of the social histo- Writing an architectural history depends on
surviving buildings, and because the majority of
3
See comments by C. Mango, Byzantine Architecture (New York, them are ecclesiastical structures, medieval archi-
1974), 7–9. tecture, both East and West, is often dismissed as

INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE EAST AND WEST xxiii

“all about churches.” As I shall argue, a church is it: this is my body and my blood. It was
never just a church. It may stand as a manifestation prefigured by the table of the law, on which was
of piety and the spiritual aspirations of its age, and the manna, which cometh down from heaven,
we would be remiss not to recognize it as such. But i.e., Christ.
it is also a social construct, an emblem of power,
prestige, and identity; it represents the combined The text continues to associate the ciborium
efforts of artisans of varying backgrounds and (canopy) with the Crucifixion, the presbytery
social statuses; it is the product of intention, a with Christ’s tomb, the bema with a footstool and
social contract orchestrated within a hierarchy of a throne, the ambo with the stone rolled away at
command, technical knowledge, and labor. the Resurrection, and so on. While the symbol-
At all levels of society, Eastern medieval people ism might seem inconsistent and might not add
looked at, inhabited, and responded to their up to a coherent whole, the text gives a sense of
architectural environment, for buildings were the how architecture could resonate with and rein-
visual manifestations of human enterprise in the force the ceremonies it housed.
world around them. They also wrote about build- A different view of architecture is provided by
ings in texts ranging from theological exegeses to the Inventory of the So-Called Palace of Botaniates,
legal documents to ekphraseis. These texts often a legal document that records the contents of an
concentrate on the defining features of a building estate in Constantinople, given to the Genoese in
at the expense of general description, but they can 1192. Its description of the palace church reads in
inform us of what was important to the contem- part,
porary viewer and provide a personal, emotional
response to the experience of architecture. For ex- The holy church is domed with a single apse
ample, the Historia mystagogica, a theological and four columns—one of Bithynian marble.
treatise attributed to the eighth-century patriarch The frieze and the curve of the apse are revetted
Germanos I of Constantinople, outlines the sym- with marble, along with the vaults. The
bolism of the church and its parts, offering many L-shaped spaces to the west are incrusted with
overlapping meanings and associations:4 Nikomedian tiles, along with the cornice.
Above there are images in gold and colored
The church is a heaven on earth wherein the mosaic, as with the dome and the four vaults—
heavenly God “dwells and walks.” It typifies the three with windows. The partition of the
Crucifixion, the Burial and the Resurrection of sanctuary consists of four posts of green marble
Christ. It is glorified above Moses’s tabernacle with bronze collars, two perforated railings, a
of testimony. . . . It was prefigured by the marble entablature, and a gilded wooden
Patriarchs, foretold by the Prophets, founded by templon.
the Apostles, and adorned by the Hierarchs.
The conch is after the manner of the cave of As a legal document, the text says nothing of
Bethlehem, where Christ was born, and that of symbolism or sanctity but concentrates on the ex-
the cave where he was buried. . . . The holy table pensive materials and surface coverings, noting,
is the place where Christ was buried, and on later in the document, where the terrace is de-
which is set forth the true bread from heaven, cayed and where window panes are missing.
the mystic and bloodless sacrifice, i.e., Curiously, it says nothing of the construction or
Christ. . . . It is also the throne upon which God, the size of the church, and even some details of its
who is borne up by cherubin, has rested. At this plan remain unclear.
table, too, he sat down at his last supper in the A description in the form of an ekphrasis
midst of his apostles and, taking bread and offers yet another perspective, one that is experi-
wine, said unto them, “Take, eat and drink of ential and impressionistic, a rhetorical exercise
known from classical antiquity.5 More than
4
C. Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire 312–1453: Sources and
Documents (Englewood Cliffs, 1972), 140–43, 185–86, 239–40, for 5
See, among others, H. Maguire, “Truth and Convention in
the texts presented here. Byzantine Descriptions of Works of Art,” DOP 28 (1974):

xxiv EASTERN MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

simply a literary description, an ekphrasis was expanded our knowledge of aspects of daily life,
a form of evocative writing, meant to conjure the urbanism, and military technology, there is a
image of its subject in the mind’s eye of the reader. concomitant danger of Eastern medieval archi-
The ninth-century patriarch Photios’s well-known tecture becoming a subset of archaeology or of
ekphrasis of the Pharos Church at the Great social history. To utilize the terminology of the
Palace in Constantinople, for example, offers a Roman architectural theorist Vitruvius (first cen-
visual experience that is both vertiginous and tury bce), utilitas (function) becomes our main
distracting: concern, with firmitas (structure) a distant
second and venustas (aesthetics) not at all. As the
It is as if one has entered heaven itself, with no texts often emphasize, a Byzantine viewer under-
one barring the way from any side and was stood a great building as a work of art and re-
illuminated by the beauty in all forms shining sponded to it accordingly. Thus, an emphasis on
all around like so many stars, so is one utterly the aesthetics of architecture, an approach that
amazed. Thenceforth it seems that everything is has fallen out of favor, remains valid to our dis-
in ecstatic motion, and the church itself is cussions. At the same time, new areas of investi-
circling round. For the spectator, through his gation have considerably broadened the field of
whirling about in all directions and being study, and they allow a discourse on architecture
constantly astir, which he is forced to experience that addresses all levels of society. In short, a
by the variegated spectacle on all sides, imagines more integrated approach is necessary if we are
that his personal condition is transferred to the to understand historical architecture in its many
object. contexts. To this end, the book includes chapters
with differing approaches, both those that dis-
As Photios describes it, movement attributed to cuss architectural developments by period or
architectural features may be a way of suggesting region and thematic essays on topics ranging
the experience of the visitor, for whom the view- from urbanism to ceremonies to construction
ing of the church transforms the building into an technology.
intricate and ever-changing pattern of forms. Finally, an examination of its architecture em-
While he says nothing about the plan or scale of phasizes that the Eastern medieval world was
the building, and elsewhere his description con- neither static nor isolated. It was both fluid and
centrates on selected details, he provides a sense dynamic, regularly invigorated by the movement
of a viewer’s response to a work of architecture. of people and ideas. Areas of cultural interchange
We are much better informed about religious are particularly instructive in this respect, as
architecture, although recent decades have seen planning types, structural solutions, and architec-
increased interest in secular architecture, with ar- tural details were disseminated across great dis-
chaeological studies bringing a range of forms tances. The architecture of the Crusaders or of
and new building types into the discussion: Norman Sicily, for example, makes no sense with-
urban entities, fortification systems, fortresses, out an understanding of both regional and inter-
citadels, towers, palaces, houses, public build- national architectural traditions. There is also the
ings, public baths, and water supply systems. The element of time to consider. In architectural stud-
state of research varies for these topics, and none ies, we tend to focus on the moment of inception,
of the secular examples is as well preserved as the but most buildings have long histories, replete
churches. While archaeology has dramatically with additions, modifications, changes in func-
tion, or changes in demographics. Buildings are
forever in the process of becoming. To isolate
113–49; R. Webb and L. James, “‘To Understand Ultimate Things
and Enter Secret Places’: Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium,” AH 14
them at a single moment in their rich histories
(1991): 1–17; R. Webb, “The Aesthetics of Sacred Space: limits what we might learn from them. In sum,
Narrative, Metaphor, and Motion in ‘Ekphraseis’ of Church buildings have lives of their own, and taken to-
Buildings,” DOP 53 (1999): 59–74; R. G. Ousterhout, Master gether, Eastern medieval architecture has a fasci-
Builders of Byzantium (Princeton, 1999), 33–38. nating story to tell.

INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE EAST AND WEST xxv