16 Facts About Byzantine art

1.

Byzantine art originated and evolved from the Christianized Greek culture of the Eastern Roman Empire; content from both Christianity and classical Greek mythology were artistically expressed through Hellenistic modes of style and iconography.

FactSnippet No. 583,688
2.

The basis of Byzantine art is a fundamental artistic attitude held by the Byzantine Greeks who, like their ancient Greek predecessors, "were never satisfied with a play of forms alone, but stimulated by an innate rationalism, endowed forms with life by associating them with a meaningful content.

FactSnippet No. 583,689
3.

Subject matter of monumental Byzantine art was primarily religious and imperial: the two themes are often combined, as in the portraits of later Byzantine emperors that decorated the interior of the sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

FactSnippet No. 583,690
4.

Religious Byzantine art was not, however, limited to the monumental decoration of church interiors.

FactSnippet No. 583,691
5.

One of the most important genres of Byzantine art was the icon, an image of Christ, the Virgin, or a saint, used as an object of veneration in Orthodox churches and private homes alike.

FactSnippet No. 583,692
6.

Byzantine art ceramics were relatively crude, as pottery was never used at the tables of the rich, who ate off Byzantine art silver.

FactSnippet No. 583,693
7.

Byzantine art laid the foundations of the imperial absolutism of the Byzantine state, codifying its laws and imposing his religious views on all his subjects by law.

FactSnippet No. 583,694
8.

The eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman and later the Byzantine Empires inherited a strong artistic tradition from Late Antiquity.

FactSnippet No. 583,695
9.

Christian mosaic Byzantine art flourished in this area from the 4th century onwards.

FactSnippet No. 583,696
10.

Later in the same year, the Emperor Basil I, called "the Macedonian, " acceded to the throne; as a result the following period of Byzantine art has sometimes been called the "Macedonian Renaissance", although the term is doubly problematic.

FactSnippet No. 583,697
11.

Ivory sculpture and other expensive mediums of Byzantine art gradually gave way to frescoes and icons, which for the first time gained widespread popularity across the Empire.

FactSnippet No. 583,698
12.

ApByzantine art from painted icons, there were other varieties - notably the mosaic and ceramic ones.

FactSnippet No. 583,699
13.

Splendour of Byzantine art was always in the mind of early medieval Western artists and patrons, and many of the most important movements in the period were conscious attempts to produce art fit to stand next to both classical Roman and contemporary Byzantine art.

FactSnippet No. 583,700
14.

Byzantine art silks were especially valued and large quantities were distributed as diplomatic gifts from Constantinople.

FactSnippet No. 583,701
15.

The willingness of the Cretan School to accept Western influence was atypical; in most of the post-Byzantine world "as an instrument of ethnic cohesiveness, art became assertively conservative during the Turcocratia".

FactSnippet No. 583,702
16.

Russian icon painting began by entirely adopting and imitating Byzantine art, as did the art of other Orthodox nations, and has remained extremely conservative in iconography, although its painting style has developed distinct characteristics, including influences from post-Renaissance Western art.

FactSnippet No. 583,703