Main content
Course: Medieval Europe + Byzantine > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Middle Byzantine- Illuminated Gospel-books
- Book illumination in the Eastern Mediterranean
- Illuminating the Psalms in Byzantium
- Theotokos mosaic, apse, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- The Paris Psalter
- Middle Byzantine church architecture
- Regional variations in Middle Byzantine architecture
- Mosaics and microcosm: the monasteries of Hosios Loukas, Nea Moni, and Daphni
- Middle Byzantine secular art
- Middle Byzantine secular architecture and urban planning
- Byzantine frescoes at Saint Panteleimon, Nerezi
- Saving Torcello, an ancient church in the Venetian Lagoon
- Cross-cultural artistic interaction in the Middle Byzantine period
- Saint Mark's Basilica, Venice
- Mobility and reuse: the Romanos chalices and the chalice with hares
- A Byzantine vision of Paradise — The Harbaville Triptych
- A work in progress: Middle Byzantine mosaics Hagia Sophia
- Byzantium, Kyivan Rus’, and their contested legacies
- The visual culture of Norman Sicily
- The Cappella Palatina
- The Melisende Psalter
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
The Paris Psalter
By Dr. Anne McClanan
The classical past and the medieval Christian present
Why would a Biblical king surround himself with pagans? The Paris Psalter embodies a complex mixture of the classical pagan past and the medieval Christian present—all brought together to communicate a political message by the Byzantine emperor.
The Byzantine Empire, which ruled areas of the eastern Mediterranean from the fourth through fifteenth centuries, left a dazzling visual legacy that has influenced other medieval Christian and Islamic societies as well as countless artists in our own time.
What is a psalter?
The word “Psalter” in the name of this manuscript is the term we use for books and manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible’s . Psalters were one of the most commonly copied works in the Middle Ages because of their central role in medieval church ceremony.
The images
This work is unusually large and lavishly illustrated, with 14 full-page illuminations included in its 449 . Eight of these images depict the life of King David, who was often seen as a model of just rule for medieval kings. Because King David was traditionally considered the author of the Psalms, he is shown here in the role of musician and composer, sitting atop a boulder playing his harp in an idyllic pastoral setting.
This manuscript so carefully follows models from prior centuries that scholars once thought it was made during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. Only later did research demonstrate that the Paris Psalter was actually made in the tenth century as an exquisite imitation of Roman work from the third to fifth centuries—in other words, it was part of an intentional revival of the Classical past. Classical style, as a general term, refers to the naturalistic visual representation used during periods when, for example, the Roman emperors Augustus and Hadrian ruled.
Classical revival
The period of classical revival that produced the Paris Psalter is sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance, because the of emperors ruled the Byzantine Empire at the time. This classical revival followed Byzantine Iconoclasm. The notion that this Byzantine revival of the Roman past was a Renaissance, in the sense of a full-scale revival of classical thinking and art such as in the Italian Renaissance, has been questioned. However, there is no doubt that we see in this, and other contemporary works, a conscious appropriation of elements of the classical artistic vocabulary.
Thus we have the conundrum of the Biblical David encircled by classical personifications (a figure that represents a place or attribute). In this example, the seated woman embodies the attribute of Melody. David’s seated posture with his instrument is likely based on the classical tragic figure , usually shown similarly positioned holding his . Likewise the hazy buildings in the background also belong to the Greco-Roman tradition of wall painting. The meaning of the personifications such as the woman, Melody, perched beside David, is intriguing—within the medieval Christian context she presumably has now become a symbol of culture and erudition as opposed to her earlier significance as a minor deity in the pagan classical world.
Notice how the surroundings including plants, animals, and landscape differs from the resplendent gold backgrounds used in the imperial mosaics of Justinian and Theodora at Ravenna or the icon we call the Vladimir Virgin. In contrast, David is depicted naturalistically as a youthful shepherd, rather than the grand king he was to become. The classicizing, more realistic style of the figures and the landscape coupled with the overt classical allusions made by the personifications show the pains taken to render a coherent vision uniting subject and style.
Connecting with great emperors of the past?
Other Byzantine art from the so-called Macedonian Renaissance, such as the ivory Veroli Casket, also show a renewed interest in classicism that called upon Late Roman artistic models. The patron of the Paris Psalter perhaps sought to liken himself this way with great emperors of the past by reviving a style that had been out of favor for hundreds of years and perhaps evoked a “golden age.” Choice of artistic style could function as a tool for conveying meaning within the sophisticated Byzantine society at the time.
The Paris Psalter was produced in , today known as Istanbul, and takes its name from its modern location, Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale. The Paris Psalter manuscript, like most western medieval manuscripts, was not made from paper, but from carefully prepared animal skins. Medieval manuscripts were far more rare and precious than mass-produced modern printed books. Large-scale examples, such as this, made for an aristocratic if not imperial patron, show how Biblical art of the highest craftsmanship could serve many purposes for its medieval audience and patrons.
Essay by Dr. Anne McClanan
Want to join the conversation?
- How can we tell pieces belong to early, middle or late byzantine era?(3 votes)
- It's not easy. Like Egyptian art, Byzantine art is fairly static (ie. it doesn't change very much). The goal was not personal expression, but the making of a work that stands in a long, perfected tradition.(4 votes)
- In the paragraoh on what a Psalter is, it says something about the "Hebrew Bible's Book of Psalms" but isn't the Book of Psalms present in Christianity and Islam as well?(3 votes)
- The Hebrew Bible is another name for the Old Testament; It is considered a holy book in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam(3 votes)
- Does paris have an famous art musem?(2 votes)
- The Louvre, of course! It's where they keep the Mona Lisa. :)(4 votes)
- Is it documented on who made the Paris Psalter?(2 votes)
- I can't find any information on a maker - like most other medieval illuminated manuscripts, we probably don't know.(2 votes)
- I'm doing a research paper on this particular work and I came across a source that says that the Paris Psalter wasn't produced during the reign of Justinian I as was previously assumed by art historians but was made after that, during the Macedonian Renaissance. So what's the difference? A lot of sources I'm finding indicate that the Macedonian Renaissance essentially begins with Justinian and Theodora's reign. In other words, when specifically was it made and when does the Macedonian Renaissance actually begin?(1 vote)
- Whatever sources you are using are incorrect. The Macedonian Renaissance was the period (from the 9th to 11th centuries) when the Eastern Roman Empire was under rule by the Macedonian Dynasty. This period saw an increased interest in classical forms of art, which is why it is called a "renaissance."
This period is only tenuously connected with the times of Justinian and Theodora, since the 7th and 8th centuries saw tremendous crises and disruptions in Byzantium. The Empire had greatly changed by then.
See for example the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_Renaissance(2 votes)