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Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, [1] as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of western Rome and lasted until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, [2] the start date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still ...
The mosaics in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem show the influence of Byzantine designs. Some Western art historians have dismissed or overlooked Byzantine art in general. For example, the deeply influential painter and historian Giorgio Vasari defined the Renaissance as a rejection of "that clumsy Greek style" ("quella greca goffa maniera"). [20]
One of the earliest examples of Byzantine mosaic art in the region can be found on Mount Nebo, a place of pilgrimage in the Byzantine era where Moses died. Among the many 6th century mosaics in the church complex in an area known as Siyagha (discovered after 1933) the most interesting one is located in the baptistery.
Byzantine art is the art of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire formed after the division of the Roman Empire between Eastern and Western halves, and sometimes of parts of Italy under Byzantine rule. It emerges from Late Antiquity in about 500 CE and soon formed a tradition distinct from that of Catholic Europe but with great influence over it.
The inhabitants of the empire, now generally termed Byzantines, thought of themselves as Romans (Romaioi).Their Islamic neighbours similarly called their empire the "land of the Romans" (Bilād al-Rūm), while the people of medieval Western Europe preferred to call them "Greeks" (Graeci), as they regarded themselves as being the true inheritors of Roman identity. [6]
These panels show the influence of the Italian trecento on Byzantine art especially the more natural settings, landscapes, figures. The last Byzantine mosaic work was created for the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople in the middle of the 14th century. The great eastern arch of the cathedral collapsed in 1346, bringing down the third of the main dome.
Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features, e.g. Zeus' thunderbolt. In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominant church insisted on the expression of Christian themes due to the overlap of church and state. [5]
Byzantine illuminated manuscripts were produced across the Byzantine Empire, some in monasteries but others in imperial or commercial workshops. Religious images or icons were made in Byzantine art in many different media: mosaics , paintings, small statues and illuminated manuscripts . [ 1 ]