byzantine art spans 1,000 years. it begins from the 4th century a.d. and all the way into the 15th century a.d. it is a very significant period to the development of western art. it affects substantially the art production of the periods of western medieval art, for example, the carolingian, the romanesque, gothic and also the early renaissance periods. unfortunately, these very important thousand years of artistic development is almost entirely omitted from the telelesson or from the telecourse art of the western world. for this reason, i have brought you here to the holy trinity church.

we are very fortunate here in san francisco to have such a lovely monument which reflects the byzantine art tradition. the decorative program which you will see, the lovely images that you will see in this church, belonged to the middle byzantine phase. i need to clarify, the byzantine period is divided into three periods: the early, middle and the later phase. and it's the middle phase lasting from about the 10th century all the way up and into the 12th century a.d., the style of which is reflected in the interior and the decorative program of the church. i, maria cheremeteff, from city college of san francisco art department, welcome you here to this church. and i would like to invite you to a tour to step with me from this narthex, which is the entrance to the church,

and then walk with me through the nave and then up and toward the sanctuary barrier which is the icon or image screen dividing the sanctuary where the ritual is performed from the nave where the congregation meets. and so would you follow me then on our tour. [music] to give a better history of this church, this magnificent structure, i have asked father anthony to give us the historical background of its construction and the design of the decorative program of the interior. maria, welcome to our church on brotherhood way. thank you. the greek orthodox church of holy trinity.

and i understand that you want to know some things about our church. yes, i do. students come to me and ask, following their programs that they're watching on television for telecourse, what happens to art following the roman empire and they mean the fifth century a.d.? isn't there any art for the next 500 or 400 years? does art simply pick up in the year 1000 with western romanesque architecture? and, of course, i say, "definitely not." there is such a wonderful era called byzantine art which lasted some 1,000 years. and this is the reason why we came here. so we're here. well, first of all, the church is a circular church in design. typically, this is not an orthodox architectural design. there is a church at thessalonica, greece, which is circular, goes back at least 1,500 years. most orthodox church is a rectangular or crystal formed with a dome or domes on top.

but we do have a church which fits into the niche of this landscape. this is organic architecture. we took this area of the environment and we finished the church into this area. and this is as if the church comes out of the ground, as if it's growing here as part of nature. and we have this church circular in order to bring people closer to the altar. a rectangular church would bring them farther from the altar. and what we have here is a church which was constructed in two years. reid & tarix were the architectural firm. robert alder was the designer. and we started november 1961 and we finished in october 1963. we have 12 pillars in the church. believe it or not, they were poured six days like the six days of creation with a slick form method of construction. twenty-four hours a day, we had the pouring of cement, of concrete. then we have the tilted panels which were poured on the ground,

lifted by a crane and fitted to the spaces, fitted to the walls and weld it to the walls. now we go up to the vaults which are below the dome. each one of those vaults weighs 32 tons. each one was poured on the ground, lifted by a crane and fitted and seated on top of the pillar. then we have a dome, of course. so what we have here is a church which is contemporary in its design but it is traditional in its features. ith has the dome, it has height. it has windows which have colors which are toned down. you don't have rich rubies, colors which are western. we have the narthex where people enter the church. we have the nave where people sit, stand or kneel in the church. we have the sanctuary where the priest conducts liturgy, which is inside. and between the sanctuary and the nave, we have the altar screen. let's talk about byzantine art for a moment. our artist is robert andrews. he's american--american born.

he lives in massachusetts. he taught art for 36 years. he has a family of his own. and he said, "i'm going to try to capture the style of 11th, "12th century byzantine art through the eyes of a 20th-century man." and this is what we see here. this is the altar screen. it has 12 large icons and 12 small icons. we have 12 pillars. we have 12 windows. we have 12 tilted panels. twelve is a significant number in this church. our lord had 12 apostles. if you look beneath the dome, you'll see 12 apostles. here we have the apostles. this church is named holy trinity so we have the depiction of pentecost because we celebrate holy trinity feast day, the day after pentecost. but now you might be interested in knowing what this is. this is byzantine. this is smalti, baked glass. and this is a section of a complete design. what occurs, in effect, is the artist sends a sketch of each icon to italy.

and then the artisans there, who are specialists really, take each section. it's about this large. as you notice this paper underneath here. it has the design on it. well, it has the design. would you see it on the other side? that's correct. so what the artist will do, he will take some grout. this was a plaster wall. you take the grout and grout the whole wall. then he will take some grout and he'll butter this. they call it buttering, a very light grout of this. and he'll take this piece, and he has to make sure it's centered because if he doesn't put it in the right place, the whole icon will be off center. so now we see the mosaic being brought to the wall which has been grouted ahead of time. and let's assume that this is the first piece of a mosaic depiction. the artist will now put the mosaic up like this. make sure that it's adhered to the grout on the wall. then take the next piece and put it here, and make sure that it's butted up against this piece.

and when all this has been done this way, and you see all this with paper, then the artist moists this with water and then he peels this paper off and you see the icon as it really is on this side. the only difference between this side and this side is that all the green you see here is gold viewed from this side. all the other colors are true on each side, on both sides. whatever you see here is on the other side except the green. that's gold on the other side. and so we have what we call byzantine art. now if you take your fingernail and you've realized that each piece of this art is about as large as your fingernail, you can imagine how many pieces are on this mosaic. and you then imagine how many pieces are on the apse mosaic. if you go from the floor to the top of the apse, we have 52 feet.

so byzantine art per se, in tempera or oil or mosaic, constitutes the kind of art which does not emphasize the beauty of the body, emphasize the beauty of the spirit. you will never see a very sweet, romantic madonna in the orthodox church, a mary. you see a mary who ponders the mystery of ever becoming the mother of jesus. you will see the apostles, not realistic in the sense that we see them today. if you look at their fingers, for example, it all seemed to be necessarily symmetrical. the spirit of the icon, is what counts, because in the orthodox church each icon is a window which leads us into the other world. all these people lived on earth. they've left this earth, now they're with us. and we pray to them, and we ask them to pray for us. so this is what we call byzantine art. it's two-dimensional in a sense. you have length, you have width.

who gives--who provides the third dimension? the believer. the believer provides the depth to the icon. in effect then what we try to capture here in brotherhood way is a church which lifts you toward heaven, out into space, always elevating your mind with contemporary design and byzantine-- traditional byzantine features and art which is really traditional. you'll always see a depiction of christ because we want christ to be emphasized at all times, that he is the center of our life. [music]

all who view this tape will come to a better appreciation of byzantine art, byzantine or orthodox architecture-- even though it might be contemporary, it has byzantine features-- and come to a deeper understanding of what means to know that art and architecture are not just things that came from the west. much of what we have today came from the east. it's very nice to see you. well, thank you very much for graciously allowing us to experience this wonderful building. indeed, a wonderful building. it's a pleasure. and god bless all of you. - thank you. - and i wish you the very best. thank you. [music]

at this time, i'd like to continue the tour through this wonderful building. but before i do that, i would like to give you a historical backgrod which i think is essential for the understanding of byzantine art. we need to understand byzantine history. the roman-- in fact, the byzantines consider themselves to be the descendants of the romans or the roman empire. so, essentially, the byzantine empire which lasted from around the 4th century all the way and into the 15th century was really a continuation of the great roman empire. therefore, they preserved-- there is a definite continuity. and because there is a continuity with past tradition, they preserved the administrative structure, the law, the judicial system of the classical romans. now, the byzantine period is divided into three essential phases.

the phases are interrupted by two other phases, but let me take you back and start with the early medieval-- early medieval byzantine period. the early period begins with the 4th century. some even argue that, perhaps, it should start in the 6th century, but let's, for this particular purpose, say and assert that it began in the 4th century with the move of the capital city of rome from italy to constantinople or present-day istanbul, turkey. constantine the great, when he moved or made this essential decision, then focused the entire roman empire because he perceived himself to be, and was in fact, in reality, a roman emperor. he then moved and made an entire new focus for the empire which was eastbound, and he made the essential move because he realized and recognized that the trading grounds

were actually directed towards the east rather than towards the west. in addition to that, there was a great deal of unrest in the northern portions of continental europe at that time because the migratory tribes were unsettled. the migratory tribes were on the move and the people were actually on the move in their attempt to find a place for permanent settlement. so the early phase then begins with this important move to a new capital in constantinople, and it takes and it lasts all the way and into the early phase of 8th century a.d. the 8th century is comparable-- in fact, the end of the early period is parallel to the carolingian development in the west, and, in fact, is very instrumental in the development of the carolingian culture because byzantine art fed right into it. and i think that we need to keep that in mind.

now, following the early byzantine period, there is an intermediate phase. and this intermediate phase is called the iconoclastic period. this is the period where representational imagery was not allowed, in fact, banned from religious interiors, which certainly is not the case in this particular building nor in any buildings created in the byzantine tradition, following the iconoclastic period. now, the iconoclastic period lasts for about 120 years until, finally, in the early or about the mid-, actually, 843 to be exact, by the mid-9th century, you have once again a re-ascension of religious art or figurative representation in religious art which becomes a very important form of art. in fact, the best-preserved byzantine works of art

have been preserved in religious structures. now, following the iconoclastic phase, we enter the middle byzantine period. in this middle byzantine period, you have, really-- it lasts, in fact, and starts from the middle 9th century till about the early 13th century. and during this period, it is, in fact, a very important critical period for the development of byzantine art and, especially, their religious art because it is at-- during this particular phase that they developed a classical system of the decorative program for the interior of the buildings. in addition to that, they also developed a standardized form of architecture. during the early phase, they tended to experiment a bit more, but during the middle byzantine period, they reaffirmed the acceptance of an architectural form which was centralized.