This is a dome window found at the Stavrovouni Monastery found in the community known as the Monastery of the Holy Cross.The Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire had different kinds of Christianity. I wanted to find out more about the kind of Christianity found in Byzantine and how it changed everyday life of the people who lived there. In the Byzantine Empire they practiced Orthodox Christianity. The Byzantine Empire was influenced greatly by Orthodox Christianity, by this I mean their art and literature was based around their faith.
Icons are very important to Orthodox Christianity along with other traditions. Most of the artwork found in this Empire depicted saints and other figures from the bible. Most of the art was abstract and stood for icons, and normally took the forms of small panels. These panels were all over churches a long with crosses and the amazing Architecture. Most of the structures for churches in the Byzantine Empire had domes and were surrounded by many figures from the bible. The dome represents the expansion of the heavens; the Orthodox Christians believed the heavens were always expanding to allow more people to enter. A lot of the churches had colored/abstract panels and beautiful stained glass windows. There were two different forms of architecture for churches found in this Empire.
The basilica type had a long column shaped tower that was covered with a wooden roof, which formed a dome at the top. The other type was the vaulted centralized church. This had separate components that gathered under a central dome. It was very important for the Orthodox churches to have a dome shaped top because of its significance to the heavens. In most of the churches there was a variety of different shapes incorporate into the windows and floors.
Icons are very important to Orthodox Christianity along with other traditions. Most of the artwork found in this Empire depicted saints and other figures from the bible. Most of the art was abstract and stood for icons, and normally took the forms of small panels. These panels were all over churches a long with crosses and the amazing Architecture. Most of the structures for churches in the Byzantine Empire had domes and were surrounded by many figures from the bible. The dome represents the expansion of the heavens; the Orthodox Christians believed the heavens were always expanding to allow more people to enter. A lot of the churches had colored/abstract panels and beautiful stained glass windows. There were two different forms of architecture for churches found in this Empire.
The basilica type had a long column shaped tower that was covered with a wooden roof, which formed a dome at the top. The other type was the vaulted centralized church. This had separate components that gathered under a central dome. It was very important for the Orthodox churches to have a dome shaped top because of its significance to the heavens. In most of the churches there was a variety of different shapes incorporate into the windows and floors.
I used information from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?vendorId=FWNE.fw..by218900.a and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire.
The picture is found on this website: http://www.holytrinityindy.org/OurParish/AboutourByzantineTemple/AncientByzantineArtandArchitecture/tabid/243/language/en-US/Default.aspx
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