Byzantine art
Gold mosaics and a heaven-like dome: the church as paradise, the icon as a window to eternity
How to recognise it
- Gold backgrounds on mosaics and icons
- Flat frontal figures with large eyes
- Dome on pendentives over a square bay
- Strict canon of saints' poses and robes
Why it emerged
A Christian empire centred on Constantinople fused Roman engineering with theology: art was meant not to depict the earthly world but to reveal divine order, of which the emperor's power was the reflection.
Examples
Hagia Sophia532–537 · Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of MiletusIts 31 m dome on pendentives made it the largest church for nearly a millennium and a model for mosques
Basilica of San Vitale526–547Its mosaics of Justinian and Theodora are the best-known image of the Byzantine court
Christ Pantocrator (Sinai)c. 550One of the oldest icons: a 6th-century encaustic that survived Iconoclasm in the Sinai desert
Theotokos of Vladimirc. 1130A Greek icon that became Rus's chief holy image and the model for the tender Eleousa type
Chora Churchc. 1315–1321Mosaics and frescoes of the Palaiologan Renaissance, full of movement — Byzantium's last floweringMore in this style
- 1063–1094 St Mark's Basilica
How it spread
- 330 Constantinople
- 526 Ravenna
- 548 Sinai, St Catherine's Monastery
- 989 Kyiv
- 1063 Venice
- 1132 Palermo
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Ancient Roman art Europe
- Gandhara art Asia
- Classic Maya art Americas
- Insular art (Ireland and Britain) Europe
- Early Islamic art (Umayyad and Abbasid) Middle East
- Moorish style (al-Andalus) Europe
- Khmer art of Angkor Asia
- Yamato-e, Heian Japanese painting Asia
- Song landscape painting Asia
- Pre-Mongol architecture of Rus Eastern Europe & Russia
- Romanesque Europe
- Ife and Benin bronzes Africa
- Gothic Europe
- Persian miniature Middle East
- Aztec Art Americas
- Ming and Qing Porcelain Asia
- Russian Icon Painting: Theophanes, Rublev, Dionisius Eastern Europe & Russia
- Italian Renaissance Europe
- Northern Renaissance Europe
- Inca Architecture Americas