FREE ESSAY ON BYZANTINE ART

BYZANTINE ART

Byzantine Art
Mosaic
Byzantine achievements in mosaic decoration brought this art to an unprecedented level of
monumentality and expressive power. Mosaics were applied to the domes, half-domes, and
other available surfaces of Byzantine churches in an established hierarchical order. The
center of the dome was reserved for the representation of the Pantocrator, or Christ as
the ruler of the universe, whereas other sacred personages occupied lower spaces in
descending order of importance.
The entire church thus served as a tangible evocation of the celestial order; this
conception was further enhanced by the stylized poses and gestures of the figures, their
hieratic gaze, and the luminous shimmer of the gold backgrounds. Because of the
destruction of many major monuments in Constantinople proper, large ensembles of mosaic
decoration have survived chiefly outside the capital, in such places as Salonica, Nicaea,
and Daphni in Greece and Ravenna in Italy.
Painting
An important aspect of Byzantine artistic activity was the painting of devotional panels,
since the cult of icons played a leading part in both religious and secular life. Icon
painting usually employed the encaustic technique. Little scope was afforded
individuality; the effectiveness of the religious image as a vehicle of divine presence
was held to depend on its fidelity to an established prototype. A large group of
devotional images has been preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.
The development of Byzantine painting may also be seen in manuscript illumination. Among
notable examples of Byzantine illumination are a lavishly illustrated 9th-century copy of
the Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus and two works believed to date from a 10th-century
revival of classicism, the Joshua Rotulus (or Roll) and the Paris Psalter.
Other Arts
Enamel, ivory, and metalwork objects of Byzantine workmanship were highly prized
throughout the Middle Ages; many such works are found in the treasuries of Western
churches. Most of these objects were reliquaries or devotional panels, although an
important series of ivory caskets with pagan subjects has also been preserved. Byzantine
silks, the manufacture of which was a state monopoly, were also eagerly sought and
treasured as goods of utmost luxury.
Bibliography
See A. van Millingen, Byzantine Churches in Constantinople (1912); D. T. Rice, Art of
Byzantium (1959) and Art of the Byzantine Era (1963, repr. 1985); W. MacDonald, Early
Christian and Byzantine Architecture (1963); I. Hutter, Early Christian and Byzantine Art
(1988).