Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
A comprehensive study of Syr. Christian art and architecture is still
missing, and only a few subfields are relatively well covered in overview
monographs, such as the architecture of Syria west of the Euphrates (Butler;
Lassus; Tchalenko), floor mosaics in churches of Syria and Lebanon
(Donceel-Voûte), manuscript illumination (Leroy 1964), and wall paintings in
Syria and Lebanon (Cruikshank Dodd; Immerzeel 2009). Given Syr.
Christianity’s intertwinement, throughout its history, with other
linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions, the definition of what
constitutes ‘Syr. Christian’ art or architecture is somewhat elusive and
should not be attempted here. In the early period much of Syr. Christianity
was situated in the Roman Empire, in which there was a great deal of overlap
between Syr. Christian and Greek Christian art and culture. In the Islamic
period certain forms of art were shared between Syr. Christians and Muslims.
In addition, the proximity of Byzantine Christianity or even Western
Christianity (esp. in the period of the Crusades) had its
impact on themes and forms of expressions. There is some evidence in the
early Syr. tradition of the use of portable icons (the image of
The art of the semi-independent kingdom of Edessa is accessible to us in a
number of funerary mosaics, dated or datable to the first three cent. AD
(prior to the mid–3rd cent.). Some of these show portraits of the deceased,
often with their family; others have topics or figures from Greco-Roman
antiquity, such as the Phoenix or Orpheus playing the lyre. Reflecting the
life of the urban aristocracy, the mosaics show the proximity of the
Parthian world, in particular in the costumes (Leroy 1957). Most of the
mosaics (some of which are dated in their inscriptions) are contemporaneous
with the nascent Christian communities in Edessa, and with our earliest
Christian authors, such as
The earliest dated church in the Syr. Christian area is the church of
Most of the evidence for churches between the 4th and 7th cent. is from the
region between
The region of
A special architectural feature in some of the earliest churches is the bema.
This is a raised platform, usually horseshoe-shaped and with low walls,
which is located in the middle of the nave and on which the liturgy of the
Word was performed. The above-mentioned churches of Qirqbize, Qalbloze, and
Resafa provide interesting examples, while detached pieces of the bema
construction have found their way to modern museums, such as the stone bema
lectern of Bennawi, which is presently shown in the garden of the National
Museum of
Hidden Pearl,
vol. 2, 43). In recent years the bema has received considerable attention,
both from liturgists and archeologists (Cassis, Loosley, Renhart, and
Taft).
Several other detached pieces of church decoration, chancel panels, or door
lintels, exhibiting ornamental motifs or iconographical themes, are found
scattered all over the world. Two chancel panels in stone, uncovered at Rasm
al-Qanafez (to the east of Salamiyya, Syria) and presently in the National
Museum of Damascus, show Daniel among the lions and the three Magi
approaching the Virgin with Child (Syrie, 358–59;
Peña, 84).
Floor mosaics as well often have left their original location. Most of the
mosaics belonging to churches in Syria and Lebanon have conveniently been
brought together by P. Donceel-Voûte, with the ‘Adam mosaic’ in the
Michaelion of Huarte (ca. 15 km. north-northeast of
Hidden Pearl, vol. 2, 41). More recently beautiful mosaics have
been uncovered at Tall Biʿa, near Raqqaʿ/Kallinikos, in the church of a
monastery that may have been the Monastery of Mar Zakkay, to which
While by far the largest part of our evidence for the early period belongs to
the W.-Syr. tradition (in particular Syr. Orth. and Melkite), there has been
in recent years considerable and promising archeological activity in the
geographical area of the Ch. of E. (Hauser; Kröger, with further
references). The Christian monuments of Iraq (belonging to either the Ch. of
E. or the Syr. Orth. tradition), a number of which go back to the first
millennium, have been surveyed by Fiey in his three-volume publication Assyrie chrétienne, while the same scholar devoted a
separate volume to
Hidden Pearl, vol. 2, 46) and possibly a monastic complex at Tel
Masos, in the northern Negev (Fritz and Maiberger).
An excellent survey of illuminated mss. kept in Western and Middle-Eastern
libraries, with detailed analysis, is available in Leroy 1964. The most
significant set of early illuminations is found in the opening quire of the
6th-cent. ms. that contains the Rabbula
Gospels (named after the scribe of the Gospel text), with its
richly decorated canon tables and its full-page illuminations. Of the same
period, or possibly slightly later, is the so-called ‘Syriac Bible from
Paris’ (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Syr. 341), which contains mostly OT themes and
figures (Sörries). The art of ms. illumination came to full fruition in the
11th to 13th cent.: along with biblical mss., such as the ‘Buchanan Bible’
(ms. Cambridge, Univ. Libr. Hidden Pearl, vol. 2, 237–38). In the 16th cent. the tradition of
ms. illumination was given new life among the Chaldeans (see e.g. ms. Borgia
Syr. 169, Leroy, 404–8). For more recent studies, esp. on the Syr. Orth.
mss. of the 11th–13th cent., see e.g. Doumato. It should also be noted that
ms. illumination is not limited to the mss. of the mainstream ecclesiastical
traditions, but is also found, e.g., in magic mss. (Balicka-Witakowska
2008).
Most of the late antique churches must have contained painting, either of a
purely ornamental nature or intended to provide instruction or to impart
devotion. Remains of painting can be found on some of the ruins, but no full
Christian wall paintings from the first millennium have survived. The wall paintings in Syria and Lebanon deserve separate attention,
with those of
Hidden Pearl, vol. 2, 147–50).
In addition to the heartlands of Syr. Christianity, wall paintings reflecting
Syriac Christianity may be found in
mandylion), both of which are accompanied by Syriac
inscriptions and may also belong to the 10th cent. (Innemée and Van
Rompay). Fully preserved paintings in three half-domes of the church, with
Syriac inscriptions, belong to the early 13th cent. (Leroy 1982).
A large number of 5th- or 6th-cent. liturgical objects from Syria have been
uncovered in the course of the 20th cent., in the area south-west of Aleppo
(Mundell Mango). In some cases inscriptions provide information on the date
and on the church to which the objects belonged: Kaper Koraon (the exact
location of which is uncertain) and Beth Misona (three chalices and a paten,
now in the Cleveland Museum of Art). While the link with Syriac Christianity
seems to be obvious, the inscriptions are in Greek, not in Syriac. A rare
Syriac inscribed silver dish from the 6th cent., in the collection of the
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, has been made popular among Syr. scholars
by R. Murray’s Symbols of Church and Kingdom (1975
and 2004). It represents the Ascension, the women at the tomb, and the
Crucifixion, along with soldiers, Peter and the cock, and Daniel in the
lions’ den.
To a slightly later period, perhaps 8th or 9th cent., belongs a very well preserved bronze incense burner uncovered in Takrit (now in the National Museum of Baghdad); it has nine scenes from the life of Jesus (Harrak 2006), but no inscriptions.
From the early 13th-cent. a bronze liturgical fan is preserved (marwḥā or marwaḥtā,
‘flabellum’), now housed in the Belgian Museum of Mariemont. The Syr.
inscription reports that it was made in 1202/3 for Dayr al-Suryān in Egypt;
it may have been produced in a workshop in the Mosul area (Snelders and
Immerzeel). To the same period belongs the church treasure of Resafa, which
includes a skillfully decorated silver chalice and a paten, both bearing
inscriptions in Syriac (even though the objects may have been of Western
origin or inspiration). The paten was a gift to the church of St. Sergius at
Resafa by Ḥasnon of Edessa. These objects had probably been buried in order
to be saved from the Mongol invasions of 1259/60 (Ulbert; Brock and Taylor,
Hidden Pearl, vol. 2, 212).
While some information on liturgical vestments may be extracted from literary
sources and from depictions in ms. illuminations and wall paintings, a rare
piece, presently housed in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, has
recently been studied: a bishop’s stole (batrashil),
bearing inscriptions in Syriac and Arabic. It was made for
Bp. Athanasius Abraham Yaghmur of Nabk in 1534–35 (Ball).
While the precious remains of ancient Syr. Christian art and architecture
nowadays are receiving more attention from Syr. scholars and Syr. Christians
alike, Syr. Christians at the same time are creating their own art forms,
often inspired by the treasures of the past, to which they add new layers of
interpretation and meaning according to their present-day situation.
Churches are being renovated or new churches are being built in the Middle
East, in India, and in the worldwide
See Fig. 1,