The reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) opened the first golden age of Byzantine art (527–726). Justinian was a great patron of the arts, and in Constantinople alone he built or restored more than 30 churches, including Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom). A brilliant fusion of central and longitudinal plans, the church featured a 180-foot-high dome resting on pendentives, rivaling the architectural wonders of Rome. Please describe the characteristics of the great church , and explain why we say that the ambitious scale of imperial Rome and the religious mysticism of the Eastern Christian Empire combined to create a monument that is at once a summation of antiquity and a positive assertion of the triumph of Christian faith
The reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) opened the first golden age of Byzantine art
