Early Christian and Byzantine Art

Early Christian and Byzantine art is the longest and most consistent of the early medieval artistic traditions, stretching from the third-century catacomb paintings of Rome to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and beyond. The tradition inherited the technical mastery of late Roman painting, mosaic, sculpture, and metalwork, and adapted it to a new visual program: the depiction of biblical narrative, the sacraments, the saints, and the figure of Christ in a sacred art that was designed to teach, to move, and to mediate between the worshipper and the divine. For the broader context, early medieval art and architecture sets out the broader context. For related discussion of the architectural setting, see early medieval architecture, and for the manuscript tradition that developed alongside the monumental art, see illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages.

Byzantine art is conventionally divided into three main periods: the Early Byzantine, from roughly the reign of Constantine to the iconoclast controversy of 726; the Middle Byzantine, from the end of iconoclasm in 843 to the Latin occupation of Constantinople in 1204; and the Late Byzantine or Palaiologan, from the recovery of Constantinople in 1261 to its fall in 1453. Each period has its own distinctive visual language, but the underlying theological and technical framework remained remarkably constant across the centuries. On a fuller discussion of the icon as a devotional object, see what an icon is, and for the broader historical context of the imperial patronage, see the Byzantine Empire and Emperor Justinian and his reign.

Early Christian Art: From the Catacombs to Constantine

The earliest surviving Christian art is found in the catacombs of Rome and the painted tombs of the eastern Mediterranean. The catacomb paintings, of which the Capella Greca in the Catacomb of Priscilla, the Crypt of Lucina, and the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus are the most famous examples, were painted in the third and fourth centuries. The iconography was limited: the Good Shepherd, the orant figure, the fish (the Christogram ichthys), the loaves and fishes of the miracle at the Sea of Galilee, the story of Jonah, the portraits of the deceased, and the Eucharistic symbols of bread and wine. The figures were painted in the late Roman style, with the same techniques used for the pagan funerary art of the same period, and the Christian subject matter was incorporated into the standard Roman visual vocabulary.

After the conversion of Constantine in 312 and the Christianization of the empire, the patronage of art shifted decisively to the Christian Church. Constantine built the great basilicas of Rome, the Holy Land, and Constantinople, and his successors continued the program. The Old St. Peter’s, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the original great church of Constantinople (later the Hagia Sophia of Justinian) were the major building projects of the Constantinian period. The architectural type, a longitudinal hall with a nave, side aisles, an apse, and an atrium, set the template for Christian church building in the West for the next thousand years.

The great basilicas of Rome were decorated with mosaics, frescoes, and marble revetment. The mosaics of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, of which the Old Testament scenes of the nave and the apse mosaic of the Coronation of the Virgin are the most famous, were laid in the late fourth and early fifth centuries and are among the earliest surviving monumental Christian mosaic programs. The iconography of these mosaics combines biblical narrative with imperial imagery, and the figure of Christ appears in a form that would become the standard Byzantine type. The great carved sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries, of which the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (c. 359) is the most famous, show the technical mastery of late Roman relief carving and the gradual shift of the iconographic program from classical mythology to Christian narrative.

The Age of Justinian and the High Point of Early Byzantine

The reign of the Justinian I (527–565) was the high point of Early Byzantine art and architecture. Justinian’s architects, working in brick, marble, and mosaic, gave the early Middle Ages one of its most enduring artistic languages. The Hagia Sophia, rebuilt in 532–537 under the direction of the mathematicians Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, was the largest cathedral in Christendom for nearly a thousand years and set the architectural standard for Orthodox Christianity. The Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, the Church of the Virgin at the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, the great basilicas of Ravenna, and the churches of the reconquered provinces of North Africa, Italy, and southern Spain were all built or rebuilt in the Justinianic style.

The great surviving monuments of Justinianic art are the churches of Ravenna. San Vitale (c. 527–547) and Sant’Apollinare in Classe (c. 533–549) are the best-documented examples, and the famous panels of Justinian and Theodora in the apse of San Vitale are among the most reproduced images in the history of Christian art. The mosaics of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (c. 425–450), the Arian Baptistery, the Neonian Baptistery, and the great processional mosaics of the Sant’Apollinare Nuovo document the development of the Christian mosaic program from the late Roman to the fully Byzantine. The Justinianic style — gold-ground mosaics, frontal imperial figures, elongated proportions, hieratic poses, and saturated colors — became the standard for the Orthodox Christian world for centuries.

The iconoclasm controversy, treated in iconoclasm controversy in early medieval Christianity, profoundly affected the development of Byzantine art. From 726 to 843, with a brief restoration between 787 and 815, the production of religious images was officially banned and many existing images were destroyed. The iconoclast emperors and their supporters regarded the veneration of icons as idolatry, and they ordered the destruction of icons, the whitewashing of figurative mosaics and frescoes, and the removal of figural imagery from the churches. The iconophile party, led by the monks and the iconophile theologians, defended the veneration of images on the grounds that the honor paid to the image passed to the prototype. The controversy was settled at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, briefly reversed in 815, and definitively settled in 843 when the empress Theodora restored the icons in an event still celebrated in the Orthodox Church as the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

The Icon and the Iconophile Tradition

The icon, a devotional image painted on a wooden panel in egg tempera, is the most distinctive art form of the post-iconoclast Byzantine tradition. The icon was venerated with a kiss, with incense, with candles, and with prostration; the theological defense of the practice, developed in the writings of the John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite, held that the veneration paid to the image passed through the image to the prototype — the holy person represented — and that this veneration was not idolatry but a proper respect for the holy. The icon was understood to be a window into the divine, a material object that mediated between the human worshipper and the holy figure represented.

The most famous surviving icons of the post-iconoclast period include the famous Virgin of Vladimir (c. 1130), the Christ Pantocrator of Sinai (c. 6th century, repainted), the Virgin and Child of St. Catherine’s Monastery, and the great Hodegetria icons of Constantinople. The technique of icon painting was standardized in the post-iconoclast period and remained remarkably consistent throughout the Middle Ages. The wooden panel, prepared with a layer of gesso, was painted in egg tempera in a sequence of layers, with the final details of the face and hands added in the final stages. The gold ground, the hieratic pose, the frontal gaze, the elongated proportions, and the limited range of colors were all standard features.

The icon was not confined to the Byzantine world. The veneration of icons spread rapidly to the Slavic lands after the conversion of the Bulgars, the Serbs, and the Rus’, and the icon painter became one of the most important figures of Orthodox Christian society. The great Russian icon painters of the medieval period, of whom Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev are the most famous, worked in the Byzantine tradition but developed their own distinctive visual languages. The icon also spread to Italy, where the Venetian and southern Italian workshops produced icons in a distinctive Italo-Byzantine style that influenced the development of the Western devotional panel painting tradition.

Middle Byzantine Art and the Macedonian Renaissance

The Macedonian dynasty (867–1056) presided over a long revival of Byzantine art, architecture, and learning. The artistic achievements of the period include the surviving mosaics of Hagia Sophia, the great churches of the Macedonian and Comnenian periods, the icons of the post-iconoclast era, the manuscript painting of the imperial and monastic scriptoria, the carved ivories of the Constantinopolitan workshops, and the metalwork of the imperial and ecclesiastical goldsmiths. The Macedonian renaissance, like the Carolingian renaissance in the West, was a self-conscious revival of classical and Christian learning, and it produced a body of art and learning that would shape the medieval Orthodox world for centuries.

The architectural achievements of the Macedonian and Comnenian periods include the great monastic churches of Mount Athos, the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I, the Hagia Sophia of Kiev (a direct copy of the Justinianic original), the Hagia Sophia of Ohrid, and the great churches of Thessalonica. The cross-in-square plan, in which a central dome is supported on four piers and the building is divided into nine bays, became the standard architectural form of the Orthodox church in this period. The technique of brick and stone construction, the use of ceramic decoration, the carved marble revetment, and the gold-ground mosaic decoration were all developed in this period and became the standard building practice of the Orthodox world.

Manuscript painting flourished in the Macedonian and Comnenian scriptoria. The Paris Psalter, the Joshua Roll, the great menologion of Basil II, and the Psalter of Basil II are the most famous surviving examples. The Macedonian style of manuscript painting combined late classical naturalism with the abstract theological vision of the Orthodox tradition, and it set the standard for Byzantine book painting for centuries. The ivories of the period, of which the famous Romanos Ivory and the Borradaile Triptych are the most famous examples, are the masterpieces of the Constantinopolitan ivory workshops.

Late Byzantine Art and the Palaiologan Renaissance

The Palaiologan period (1261–1453) was the last great flowering of Byzantine art. The dynasty presided over a final revival of classical and Christian learning in a state that was now greatly reduced in territory, surrounded by enemies, and politically and economically dependent on the Italian city-states and the Ottoman Turks. The artistic achievements of the period, made in a state of political crisis, are remarkable for their technical and theological sophistication. The mosaic and fresco programs of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonica, the Chora Church in Constantinople, and the great monastic churches of Mount Athos, the Meteora, and Cappadocia are the most famous surviving examples.

The Palaiologan style of mosaic and fresco painting is characterized by a more emotional, more humanized, and more classically inspired visual language. The figures are more elongated, the colors are more saturated, the compositions are more dramatic, and the iconographic programs are more complex than in the earlier Byzantine periods. The famous mosaics and frescoes of the Kariye Mosque in Istanbul, originally the Church of St. Savior in Chora, are the masterpieces of the Palaiologan style and exemplify the late Byzantine visual language. The great the Archangel Michael ivory of the British Museum, the famous Theotokos of Vladimir, and the panel paintings of the Cretan school are also products of the Palaiologan period or its close successors.

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 brought the Byzantine Empire to an end, but the artistic tradition did not die. The Cretan school of icon painters, working under Venetian rule, preserved the Byzantine tradition into the seventeenth century, and the great Russian icon painters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries built on the Palaiologan inheritance. The modern study of Byzantine art, like the modern study of all early medieval art, has only begun to do justice to the richness of the tradition.