Religious Pluralism
The Byzantine Empire stretched far and wide from Western Europe to Africa to Eastern Asia. As a result, the empire was arguably one of the most diverse societies to exist, including in terms of religious practice. Across time, not only does the rise and prominence of modern-day Orthodox Christianity develop, but Judaic, Muslim, and Pagan religions exist as well. This gallery examines objects that emphasize the religious pluralism of the Romans, split into two galleries: Liturgical Texts and the Art of Devotion.
Liturgical Texts features objects that served an ecclesiastical purpose. In Byzantine Christianity, the liturgy employed a wide range of service books in the celebration of mass. This gallery explores texts from the tenth through twelfth centuries that come from across the empire.
The Art of Devotion gallery focuses on visual culture that explores the religious pluralism of the Romans. The objects presented here all have certain religious narratives or persons. The objects span between the mid-fourth century to fourteenth century, and display the rich religious history of the empire. Some items here display themes and people attributed to Christianity. However, there are also objects that show Judaic and Pagan motifs and people, demonstrating the rich interactions and understandings of multiple traditions during this thousand-year civilization.
Liturgical Texts
Liturgical books and texts are some of the most important objects from Byzantium, demonstrating some of the most important aspects of the liturgy. The liturgy refers to the services held by the church, which can include ordinary masses and the celebration of the Eucharist, Sacraments, and Baptisms. There are many customs that take place during these services, some of which include: blessing, singing, washing, kneeling, eating, and more. Services have many fixed aspects, but depending on the day or season, service leaders rely on these liturgical texts to help guide the service.
Lectionaries, a general term for books containing readings from the Four Gospels for the liturgical services, can be traced back to the 7th century CE. There are three major types of liturgical books: the evangelion (lectionary) which contains Gospel lections; the prophetolgion which contains Old Testament lections; and the Apostolos which contains lections from the Book of Acts. These texts are crucial as their main purpose is to provide the readings of the church during mass.
Liturgical texts found in this gallery range from fragments of Psalters, to a Menologion (a church calendar), to entire lectionaries made for Hagia Sophia, and are all exceptional examples of the importance of liturgy for the Byzantine world. The Old Testament and the New Testament are all represented, and provide an idea of what a liturgical service during the Byzantine Empire looked like.
Gallery
Art of Devotion
Religion in Late Antiquity was marked by religious pluralism. Although the Byzantine Empire's official religion was Orthodox Christianity, art sometimes called upon non-Christian forms, and visual culture of multiple faith traditions existed. For example, when images of Christ or the apostles were depicted, sometimes they were figured in the form of Greek or Roman gods, or accompanied with pagan-derived personifications of geographic locations or ideas such as Death. Religious ideas from Byzantium spread to and are evident in a wide range of geographies, like Kyivian Rus' or late medieval Italy. Byzantine art of devotion mostly comprises Christian themes from Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, religious themes are seen even in personal items not used in the Church. Some of these include capitals adorned by angels; six silver plates that tell the story of the Life of David and his slaying of Goliath; and a Bowl Base with Christ Giving Martyrs’ Crowns to Saints Peter and Paul. Additional objects, such as a Dedication Plaque to a Jewish Temple and a a figural sculpture of Dionysius, demonstrate different religious traditions of Late Antiquity. While the contexts of these works vary, all of them engage with religious iconography.
Gallery
