Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This survey is concerned with the architecture and visual arts of the five Miaphysite churches: the Syrian, Armenian, Coptic, Nubian and Ethiopian. What they have theologically in common is that in 451 they all separated from the Council of Chalcedon, which prescribed the official definition of the nature of Christ adopted by the Byzantine Church. However, the oriental churches maintained links with the Byzantine church as well as with each other throughout the Middle Ages. But there was also divergence as each expressed of its own cultural and religious identity, an expression in which the visual played a major part.The Syrian churches are defined culturally as those sharing Syriac as the liturgical language. The Syrian Orthodox is the largest of these, interacting in the Middle Ages with the Melkite community and also with the Church of the East. The geographical area is centred on Syria, and also encompasses Iraq, Lebanon and ur bdin in Eastern Turkey, as well as India, and in the earlier period central Asia and China, and the more recent diaspora communities in the USA and Australia.Antioch, one of the great cities of the classical world alongside Rome and Alexandria, thrived in the early Christian period. Among its magnificent churches was that built by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century on an octagonal plan. Edessa (present day Urfa), on the other hand, was the ... log in or subscribe to read full text