Religious Architecture – Form and Function

Religious Architecture – Form and Function

A compare-contrast analysis of Byzantine and Islamic architecture reveals notable differences and similarities. One clear difference is that the art shuns any depiction of people, animals, and religious figures in Islamic architecture. This is consistent with their beliefs that only Allah can create life; as such, art depicting living things infringes on His creation sphere. Instead, Islamic art tends to be about floral themes, symmetrical configurations, or calligraphy, especially in religious places. In contrast, Byzantine art has a clear religious purpose, particularly with its numerous stylized images of prophets and saints, for example, as seen in Anastasis, fresco in the apse of the parekklesion of the Church of Christ in Chora (Kleiner, 2015). Further, paintings, icons, and statues, among others, were all intended to glorify Christianity.

However, both Byzantine and Islamic architecture also significantly influenced each other, leading to similarities between the two art worlds. One similarity is that Byzantine art adopted the Islamic motifs from Islamic art into their designs; a perfect example of this is the First Church of the Monastery of Hosios Loukas in Phokis, Greece (Kleiner, 2015). This church is decorated using the Arab Kufic script, which does not mean anything, but its purpose is purely aesthetic. Secondly, Islamic architecture adopted the dome, their thoughts, and beliefs and personified the concept of Allah as an omnipotent and all-powerful God. A perfect example of this similarity is seen in the architecture of the mosque of Selim II, which is almost an exact copy of Hagia Sophia (Sqour, 2016).

One way that Islamic architecture facilitates their specific worship practices is that a mosque is a simple square-shaped building with colonnades placed along the qila wall (Ali, n.d). This specific design allows Muslims to stand shoulder to shoulder in rows while they face the Ka’ba as they pray. In Byzantine architecture, one design that served their worship practices was having the central dome raised very high, and the image of Jesus was painted on it, which turned it into a representation of heaven (Cartwright, 2018).

References

Ali, A. (n.d.). DEVELOPMENT OF MOSQUE ARCHITECTURE IN.

Cartwright, M. (2018). Byzantine Art. World History Encyclopedia.

Kleiner, F. S. (2015). Gardner’s art through the ages: A global history. Cengage Learning.

Sqour, S. (2016). Influence of Hagia Sophia on the construction of dome in Mosque architecture. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology, Dubai, UAE.

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Religious Architecture – Form and Function

Discussion Board Statement: These discussions are meant for you to jot down your thoughts and analyses of the week’s works. In art, everything is evaluated by your perspective. There is no right or wrong answer to be graded against; instead, you will be graded on how you defend your analysis of the art pieces and the use of the resources (when appropriate).
Religious architecture is often rich in ornament but never purely decorative. In this unit, you will consider different types of religious architecture, paying particular attention to how the architecture serves religious rituals.
Using at least one example from chapter nine and one from chapter ten:
Compare and contrast Byzantine and Islamic architecture.
Describe the architecture and explain how its design facilitates specific worship practices.