Byzantine Art

Byzantine Art is part of the Medieval Art unit of AP Art History. The Byzantine empire was born when the Roman Empire split. Its capital was Constantinople, which was one of the envies of the world. Because of this, it was frequently attacked. The Byzantine empire was also Christian, so those themes were prominent in the art. 

Common Stylistic Characteristics: 

• Icons: Images that act as reminders to the faithful. They are extremely controversial, since there are many differences between religions on how acceptable they should be. However, they were Byzantine specialties. Eventually, idols were banned in the empire after the emperor believed that these images were being worshipped as idols. 

• Extravagant works: The royals and nobility were interested in art, so a lot of Byzantine art is very extravagant. For example, they are made of luxury items such as ivory and precious metals.

• Domes: Domes were very popular and innovative at the time. Byzantine architecture was full of them, especially once pendentives were invented.

• Greek and Roman classics mixed with Medieval style: Roman and Greek conventions are mixed with a more hieratic, flat medieval style. Artists were often trained in only one type of art and worked together to create pieces. 

• Unusual angles and relaxed figures: The artists would use their brushstrokes in a particularly innovative way to use soft color transitions to craft these angles and make their figures have more casual stances. 

• Frontal poses: Byzantine art is really well known for its rigid frontality. The bodies are weightless and completely symmetric. Perspective is not important (or really invented) in Byzantine art.

• Golden backgrounds: Byzantine art is known for its golden backgrounds, which accentuates each holy figure's halo. Halos are stressed because of the holy nature of Byzantine art's figures.

• No nudity: Nudity was seen as debasing and paganist, so Byzantine artists kept away from it. It was an example of departure from Greek and Roman mythology (since nudity was embraced there).

• Meticulous details: Byzantine art was incredibly detailed, since manuscript artists were trained to be extremely precise. Byzantine manuscripts also became a luxury item because so few people could read at the time.

• Purple to show importance: Purple was a luxurious color back then, so it was often used to depict important religious figures and royalty. 

• Standardized faces: Faces stuck to the same conventions. Everyone had large eyes, long and thin noses, and short and closed mouths.

• Baby Jesus looks like a man: Christ was frequently depicted as a baby, but Byzantine artists chose to depict his face like that of a man's to accentuate his wisdom. 

• Flat backgrounds: Again, perspective wasn't very important back then. Backgrounds were frequently gold and flat. The gold made the scenes look like they set in a "heavenly world."