Lesson 2 Byzantine Art of Building

Exercise 1. Read and pronounce correctly the following words:

Version, mansion, expression, mission, permission, extension, discussion, suspension, position, elevation, competition, orientation, harmonization, imbrication, crenellation, classification.

Fusion, vision, inclusion, division, decision, confusion, corrosion, protrusion, conclusion, adhesion.

Antique, unique, mosque, Baroque, arabesque, esquisse, technique, Romanesque, grotesque.

Exercise2. Name Ukrainian words which have the same root as English ones:

Colour, hospital, fortress, to define, chief, approximately, contribution, interior, octagonal, radical, to represent, multiple, original, climax, ambulatory.

Exercise 3. Translate the given below word combinations composed of two nouns:

City plan, temple design, street lighting, column shaft, stone church, façade wall, garden pavilion, arch door.

Exercise 4. Translate the words with suffix – ive-, don’t forget that they may be both nouns and adjectives:

Collective, perspective, directive, initiative, conservative.

Exercise 5. Words for the text comprehension:

aisle	боковий або малий неф, прохід між рядами в церкві
bulbous	цибулеподібний, грушоподібний, опуклий
carry	нести, підтримувати
support	підтримувати
clothe	одягати, покривати
cross Greek	рівнокінцевий хрест
cross Latin	хрест з трьома приблизно рівними крилами і одним довшим за інші
crossing	середохрестя
cruciform	хрестоподібний
departure	відступ, відхід
dome	маківка (баня), купол
end	кінець, завершення, торець
fall	падіння
huge	величезний
inscribe	вписати, надписати
masterpiece	шедевр
mosque	мечеть
pendentives	вітрила склепіння або купола
spread	розповсюджуватись
striking	вражаючий
surface	поверхня, площа
turn	оберт, зміна

Exercise 6. Read and translate text A, find the answers to the following questions:

1. What features are typical to Byzantine architecture?

2. When did the Byzantine style culminate?

3. How long did it last?

4. What structures did the Emperor Justinian erect and reconstructed?

5. When did Russo-Bizantine style develop?

Text a. Byzantine Art of Building

The architecture of Byzantium or Eastern Roman Empire was the culmination of early Christian architecture. This style developed after 380 BC spread widely and lasted throughout the Middle Ages until the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. Byzantine architecture is characterized by large pendentive-supported domes/pendentives being the chief contribution of the Byzantine style to the architecture of the world/, round arches and elaborate columns, richness in decorative elements and colour.

The Byzantine style reached its climax in the reign of the Emperor Justian/527-65/. He built and rebuilt 26 churches, many hospitals, bridges, aqueducts and fortresses.

The outstanding masterpiece of Byzantine church architecture is Hagia or Saint Sophia in Constantinople/now Istanbul/. Originally built as a church by Emperor Constantine in AD 360, rebuilt in 532-7 by Anthemius of Tralles/assisted by Isidore of Miletus/ and then again in 563in a form of very nearly as it is today, became a mosque in 1453 with the Turkish conquest of the city. Its plan may be defined as a Greek cross inscribed in a square/typically Byzantine/ with a narthex at the west end. The chief feature is the huge dome, approximately 32.6 m in a diameter, rising 56 m above the floor. It is carried on pendentives. There are half-domes at two ends which are, in turn, carried by smaller semidomed exedrae. The interior surface of the edifice is richly decorated.

As early as 5-th century the Byzantine style began to influence architecture in Italy, especially Ravenna, city of mosaics/St. Giovanni Batista, St Groce and the so-called Mausoleum of Galla Placida/. The basilican St.Apolinare in Classe, Ravenna/c.536-50/ and the octagonal St.Vitale, Ravenna/c.526-47/ are among the greatest ans least altered of all Byzantine buildings. Later, Western buildings began to show more radical departures from Byzantine precedents-e.g.St.Marco, Venice, with its very rich marble-clad exterior.

The first phase of Russian architecture was Russo-Byzantine style from the 11-th to 16-th centuries. It was derived from the Byzantine architecture of Greece. It is represented by stone churches, characterized cruciform plans and multiple bulbous domes. Kyiv was Russia’s first Christian centre. The domed Cathedral pf St.Sophia, began 1037, was the countrie’s first great Byzantine church. This brick-domed basilica had 5 aisled, terminating at the east end in semicircular apses, with open arcading around the other three sides. A striking Russian feature was the construction and arrangement of the 13 domes, representing Christ and the 12 Apostles. In Moscow the Cathedral of St. Basil and Blessed, in Red Square, is as fantastic in form as in decoration. It represents the calmination of the Russian Byzantine style.