What do you think?
Rate this book
World of Art
Art of the Byzantine Era
"Useful ... convenient ... authoritative."― The Times Educational Supplement For the people of Byzantium, their architectural works, frescoes, mosaics, ivories, chalices, bejeweled gospel covers and many other opulent works of art were the material proof of their greatness and power over the Mediterranean states.
The vast range of these riches is illustrated in this complete account of Byzantine art from the reign of Justinian to the fall of Constantinople.
David Talbot Rice, one of the greatest authorities on Byzantine art, traveled as far afield as the rock churches of Cappadocia and Cilicia, the tufa monuments of Armenia and Georgia, and the thirteenth-century ceramic factories of Bulgaria, now buried in the alluvial mud of the Danube. His book is a masterly survey of an art of magnificence and power that belonged to a great and sophisticated society. 247 illustrations, 64 in color
The vast range of these riches is illustrated in this complete account of Byzantine art from the reign of Justinian to the fall of Constantinople.
David Talbot Rice, one of the greatest authorities on Byzantine art, traveled as far afield as the rock churches of Cappadocia and Cilicia, the tufa monuments of Armenia and Georgia, and the thirteenth-century ceramic factories of Bulgaria, now buried in the alluvial mud of the Danube. His book is a masterly survey of an art of magnificence and power that belonged to a great and sophisticated society. 247 illustrations, 64 in color
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1963
7 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
David Talbot Rice
87 books5 followersDavid Talbot Rice CBE (11 July 1903 in Rugby – 12 March 1972 in Cheltenham) was an English art historian. His father was "Talbot-Rice" and both he and his wife published using "Talbot Rice" as a surname, but are also sometimes found under "Rice" alone, or "Talbot-Rice".
Born in Rugby and brought up in Gloucestershire (England), he was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford.[1] At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) whom he was to marry in 1927. She was a Russian émigrée, who was also an art historian, writing on Byzantine and Central Eastern art and other subjects as Tamara Talbot Rice.
Following his graduation, Talbot Rice undertook a number of archaeological digs overseas and developed a passion for all things Byzantine. His expertise in the area of Islamic art was recognised when, in 1932, Samuel Courtauld endowed the Courtauld Institute at the University of London and Talbot Rice was among the first appointments, taking up a position as lecturer.
Talbot Rice was subsequently appointed to the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1934, a post he held until his death in 1972. In 1937 he gave the Ilchester Lecture, later published as The Beginnings of Russian Icon Painting.
During the Second World War Talbot Rice served with modest distinction as Head of the Near East Section of Military Intelligence (MI3b), which was responsible for Eastern Europe including Yugoslavia but excluding Russia and Scandinavia. Originally commissioned onto the Special List in 1939, he transferred to the Intelligence Corps in 1943. He ended the war with the rank of Major.
When peacetime returned he came back to Scotland and established an Honours degree at the University which combined art history and studio art and is still offered today. His ambition to establish an arts centre in the University was realised posthumously when the Talbot Rice Gallery was founded and named after him.
From 1952 to 1954, he led the excavations of the Great Palace of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey.
Born in Rugby and brought up in Gloucestershire (England), he was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford.[1] At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) whom he was to marry in 1927. She was a Russian émigrée, who was also an art historian, writing on Byzantine and Central Eastern art and other subjects as Tamara Talbot Rice.
Following his graduation, Talbot Rice undertook a number of archaeological digs overseas and developed a passion for all things Byzantine. His expertise in the area of Islamic art was recognised when, in 1932, Samuel Courtauld endowed the Courtauld Institute at the University of London and Talbot Rice was among the first appointments, taking up a position as lecturer.
Talbot Rice was subsequently appointed to the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1934, a post he held until his death in 1972. In 1937 he gave the Ilchester Lecture, later published as The Beginnings of Russian Icon Painting.
During the Second World War Talbot Rice served with modest distinction as Head of the Near East Section of Military Intelligence (MI3b), which was responsible for Eastern Europe including Yugoslavia but excluding Russia and Scandinavia. Originally commissioned onto the Special List in 1939, he transferred to the Intelligence Corps in 1943. He ended the war with the rank of Major.
When peacetime returned he came back to Scotland and established an Honours degree at the University which combined art history and studio art and is still offered today. His ambition to establish an arts centre in the University was realised posthumously when the Talbot Rice Gallery was founded and named after him.
From 1952 to 1954, he led the excavations of the Great Palace of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Read
January 3, 2018Opens with the author's definition of what the art of the Byzantine era was:
1 Christian - dedicated to the service of the Church
2 Abstract, in that rhythm or spirituality trumped resemblance to nature,while also figurative and developed from the Classical artistic heritage
3 sophisticated and complex, with profound meaning , not primitive in depending on colour or design qualities (p.7)
Ok. Six chapters: "The east Christian world before Islam", "the art of Constantinople 550-1204", "the eastern World from the 7th century", "Sicily & Venice", "The Slavonic Art of the Balkans" and "The revival under the Palaeologue emperors". So a mix of regions and times any one of which you could probably write a 260 page book about. The 2nd chapter felt endless, luckily it did have an end otherwise I would not be here typing, unless I was very naughty. I felt that this approach for me blurred a lot together, styles felt unchanging , also the author considers almost everything - textiles, architecture, ceramics, frescos, mosaic, icons, metal work, book illustration.
On the one hand I was moved to respect the amount of knowledge, research and travel involved (particularly since this was written in the 60s, travel was more expensive, and it was harder to research where things are to be seen. On the other hand, it is a mess and contradicts several if not all of the author's definitions of Byzantine Art, the textiles all come from either Egypt, Syria or Persia, and Persian motives dominate. Rice points out that the silk laid out as a shroud by his Imperial Highness Otto III in the tomb of Charlemagne was of an old fashioned design (even by 10th or 11th century standards) or one's sense is that it was the oriental designs and colours and symbolism that pleased the purchasers. Covering such a large area, there where both continuities but also strong local differences in architectural styles - in Georgia external decoration of stonework was popular while in Sicily the Normans introduced Romanesque architecture. There's a shifting in the text from the big and the sweeping to the discussion of individual artists . There are a lot of illustrations: 247 in 264 pages of text, some illustrations are full or half page, which on the one hand is great, on the other hand plainly too much. I felt frequently that the author's respect for the Christian nature of the Art got in the way of his ability to perceive it, he might praise the spiritual qualities of a composition which to me looked interesting only on account of the colour. The author's approach for me tended to flatten out variation in favour of continuity as a result the Balkan frescos and the Palaoloegian art emerged to me as the most interesting. Curiously he didn't give over much space to icons and only mentioned the first Iconoclast phase, just in a half sentence , yet surely the beginning and ending (twice) of a profoundly religious caesura in an artistic tradition which the author says is deeply and profoundly Christian is something important?
But this, the head of a Queen from a Boiana fresco (Bulgaria) I thought was great, though particularly in discussion of the Serbian fresco's Rice transmogrifies into Rebecca West with sentences that could have been lifted directly from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon playing on the contrast between the sensitivity and expressiveness of the depictions with the brutality of the times, curiously West doesn't appear in the bibliography but her spirit is strong in the text.
Reading the chapter on the Palaeologian period, I remembered that one day I would like to read something in which this was considered together with the art of Giotto and his Italian contemporaries, my sense is that there is a continuity of style there.
For me more ruthlessness in chopping out certain types of Art would have allowed more space for a more detailed consideration of the remainder, it is in my view fatally flawed by too wide a scope, but on the other hand you do get a gorgeous front cover of King Roger II in the guise of Byzantine King rather than Norman robber Baron. Which won't be enough to prevent me from taking this book for a long walk down to the Oxfam shop.
1 Christian - dedicated to the service of the Church
2 Abstract, in that rhythm or spirituality trumped resemblance to nature,while also figurative and developed from the Classical artistic heritage
3 sophisticated and complex, with profound meaning , not primitive in depending on colour or design qualities (p.7)
Ok. Six chapters: "The east Christian world before Islam", "the art of Constantinople 550-1204", "the eastern World from the 7th century", "Sicily & Venice", "The Slavonic Art of the Balkans" and "The revival under the Palaeologue emperors". So a mix of regions and times any one of which you could probably write a 260 page book about. The 2nd chapter felt endless, luckily it did have an end otherwise I would not be here typing, unless I was very naughty. I felt that this approach for me blurred a lot together, styles felt unchanging , also the author considers almost everything - textiles, architecture, ceramics, frescos, mosaic, icons, metal work, book illustration.
On the one hand I was moved to respect the amount of knowledge, research and travel involved (particularly since this was written in the 60s, travel was more expensive, and it was harder to research where things are to be seen. On the other hand, it is a mess and contradicts several if not all of the author's definitions of Byzantine Art, the textiles all come from either Egypt, Syria or Persia, and Persian motives dominate. Rice points out that the silk laid out as a shroud by his Imperial Highness Otto III in the tomb of Charlemagne was of an old fashioned design (even by 10th or 11th century standards) or one's sense is that it was the oriental designs and colours and symbolism that pleased the purchasers. Covering such a large area, there where both continuities but also strong local differences in architectural styles - in Georgia external decoration of stonework was popular while in Sicily the Normans introduced Romanesque architecture. There's a shifting in the text from the big and the sweeping to the discussion of individual artists . There are a lot of illustrations: 247 in 264 pages of text, some illustrations are full or half page, which on the one hand is great, on the other hand plainly too much. I felt frequently that the author's respect for the Christian nature of the Art got in the way of his ability to perceive it, he might praise the spiritual qualities of a composition which to me looked interesting only on account of the colour. The author's approach for me tended to flatten out variation in favour of continuity as a result the Balkan frescos and the Palaoloegian art emerged to me as the most interesting. Curiously he didn't give over much space to icons and only mentioned the first Iconoclast phase, just in a half sentence , yet surely the beginning and ending (twice) of a profoundly religious caesura in an artistic tradition which the author says is deeply and profoundly Christian is something important?
But this, the head of a Queen from a Boiana fresco (Bulgaria) I thought was great, though particularly in discussion of the Serbian fresco's Rice transmogrifies into Rebecca West with sentences that could have been lifted directly from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon playing on the contrast between the sensitivity and expressiveness of the depictions with the brutality of the times, curiously West doesn't appear in the bibliography but her spirit is strong in the text.
Reading the chapter on the Palaeologian period, I remembered that one day I would like to read something in which this was considered together with the art of Giotto and his Italian contemporaries, my sense is that there is a continuity of style there.
For me more ruthlessness in chopping out certain types of Art would have allowed more space for a more detailed consideration of the remainder, it is in my view fatally flawed by too wide a scope, but on the other hand you do get a gorgeous front cover of King Roger II in the guise of Byzantine King rather than Norman robber Baron. Which won't be enough to prevent me from taking this book for a long walk down to the Oxfam shop.
May 16, 2019
Amazing book. David Talbot Rice was a great historian.
April 9, 2016
A comprehensive analysis of the evolution of art over a spectrum of five centuries since 800AD and diverse influences stemming from the construction of Hagia Sophia by the original architect Tiridates of Armenia around mid-fifth century AD.
May 17, 2022
Nice overview of a long and wide ranging period of art history. I appreciated how the author divided it into regions.
Read
September 4, 2022Definitely very old fashioned and amateurish, but makes a compelling case for the wide reach and deep and quality of Byzantine art
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews