Byzantine Art
Byzantine art originated in the Eastern Roman Empire from the 4th to 15th centuries AD. Centered in Constantinople, it developed a decorative aesthetic emphasizing splendor, harmony and devotion.
Byzantine art fused Greco-Roman culture with Christian spirituality and Eastern influences. It favored stylized, hieratic and flattened forms rather than naturalism. Gold backgrounds, rich colors, and ornamentation were used in mosaics, manuscript illumination, and panel paintings to create a sense of opulence and transcendence.
Subjects were mostly religious, especially iconic images of Christ and the saints. The human figure was abstracted and flattened. Paintings and mosaics relied on symbolic use of size, color and composition rather than the illusion of depth.
Key examples include the mosaics of Hagia Sophia and St. Catherine’s Monastery, with their golden glow and stylized figures. Illustrated gospels like the Book of Kells from Ireland showed the spread of Byzantine style.
Political crises and conflicts led to periods of iconoclasm that temporarily halted religious art. But at its heights, Byzantine art achieved a harmony of architecture, painting and ritual that conveyed the glory of the Christian faith.
Byzantine art had a lasting influence on Russian and Slavic Orthodox art. Its luxurious and symbolic aesthetic also shaped the development of Romanesque and Gothic art in Western Europe. More broadly, Byzantine art represented the enduring power of the Christian ethos in the Middle Ages.
Though the Byzantine Empire ultimately fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, its art survives as a testament to the ambition of an era that fused imperial grandeur with spiritual devotion. At its best, Byzantine art illuminated a vision of heaven on earth through the symbolic and lavish depiction of faith.
Artists Names
Famous Artists
> Alfred Sisley
> Camille Pissarro
> Caravaggio
> Claude Monet
> Diego Velázquez
> Edgar Degas
> Édouard Manet
> Eugène Delacroix
> Francisco de Goya
> Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
> Isaac Levitan
> Ivan Shishkin
> Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
> Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
> John Singer Sargent
> John William Waterhouse
> Joseph Mallord William Turner
> Lawrence Alma-Tadema
> Leonardo da Vinci
> Michelangelo
> Paul Cézanne
> Paul Gauguin
> Peter Paul Rubens
> Pierre-Auguste Renoir
> Raphael Sanzio
> Rembrandt Van Rijn
> Vincent van Gogh
> William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Art Subjects
>Abstract Oil Painting
>African Oil Painting
>Angel Oil Painting
>Animal Oil Painting
>Architecture Oil Painting
>Beach Oil Painting
>Bird Oil Painting
>Black and White Oil Painting
>Boat Oil Painting
>Buddha Oil Painting
>Bunny Oil Painting
>Cartoon Oil Painting
>Cat Oil Painting
>Cityscape Oil Painting
>Coastal Oil Painting
>Contemporary Oil Painting
>Daisy Oil Painting
>Dog Oil Painting
>Eagle Oil Painting
>Fantasy Oil Painting
>Figure Oil Painting
>Floral Oil Painting
>Forest Oil Painting
>Fruit Oil Painting
>Genre Works
>Horse Oil Painting
>Hunting Scenes Oil Painting
>Impressionist Oil Painting
>Jesus Oil Painting
>Landscape Oil Painting
>Modern Oil Paintings
>Mountain Oil Painting
>Music Oil Painting
>Nature Oil Painting
>Nude Oil Painting
>Pet Portrait Oil Painting
>Realistic Oil Painting
>Religious Oil Painting
>Scenery Oil Painting
>Seascape Oil Painting
>Season Oil Painting
>Sport Oil Painting
>Still Life Oil Painting
>Sunset Oil Painting
>Textured Oil Painting
>Tree Oil Painting
>War Oil Painting
>Wildlife Oil Painting
Art Movment
>Abstract Expressionism
>Academic Classicism
>Aestheticsm
>Art Deco
>Art Nouveau
>Barbizon School
>Baroque Art
>Byzantine Art
>Cubism
>Expressionism
>Fauvism
>Hudson River School
>Impressionism
>Mannerism
>Gothic Art
>Modernism
>Nabis
>Neoclassicism
>Neo-Impressionism
>Orientalism
>Pointillism
>Pop Art
>Post Impressionism
>Pre-Raphaelites
>Primitivism
>Realism
>Renaissance
>Rococo
>Romanticism
>Suprematism
>Surrealism
>Symbolism
>Tonalism
>Victorian Classicism