LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Byzantine Art: Constantinople
built 627 days ago
For more than a thousand years, until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Byzantine art retained a remarkably conservative orientation; the major phases of its development emerge from a background marked by adherence to classical principles. Artistic activity was temporarily disrupted by the Iconoclastic controversy (726-843), which resulted in the wholesale destruction of figurative works of art and the restriction of permissible content to ornamental forms or to symbols like the cross. The pillaging of Constantinople by the Frankish Crusaders in 1204 was perhaps a more serious blow; but it was followed by an impressive late flowering of Byzantine art under the Paleologus dynasty.
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This Byzantine church was built in an area of Constantinople that was originally outside the city walls. "Chora" means "in the country". The city walls were later moved to enclose a larger area that included the church, but the name stuck. Today the church is a museum that features well-preserved mosaics and other art dating from the 14th century. Although the church as seen today dates from an earlier period, the artwork was added between 1315 and 1321 by Theodore Metochites, a theologian, philosopher and a member of the Byzantine elite of his day. Indeed, one of the mosaics modestly depicts a turbaned Theodore presenting the church to the seated Christ.
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[T]he Palaeologan Dynasty, beginning with Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1259, was a last golden age of Byzantine art, partly because of the increasing cultural exchange between Byzantine and Italian artists. Byzantine artists developed a new interest in landscapes and pastoral scenes, and the traditional mosaic-work (of which the Chora Church in Constantinople is the finest extant example) gradually gave way to detailed cycles of narrative frescoes (as evidenced in a large group of Mystras churches). The icons, which became a favoured medium for artistic expression, were characterized by a less austere attitude, new appreciation for purely decorative qualities of painting and meticulous attention to details, earning the popular name of the Paleologan Mannerism for the period in general.
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An excellent way to view and learn about byzantine art, architecture, and icons, is to participate in an organized group tour. Several of them take place every year to different countries, including Greece, Russia and Constantinople / Turkey. Organized by various operators, the tours mostly take from 10 days to 3 weeks. Here are some examples:
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John Lowden provides an authoritative account of early Christian and Byzantine art from the third century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. From the grandest public buildings to the smallest personal items, it was - and still is - an art of extraordinary directness, but ... of mystery and transcendence. Lowden explains how and why early Christian and Byzantine art was made and used, and situates it within the controversies of its time.
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THE CHURCH of St. Sophia in Constantinople is the masterpiece of Byzantine art, and it is at the same time one of those monuments where some of the most characteristic features of that art appear most clearly. Thus if one would understand the nature of the Christian art of the East and in what its originality consisted, one must go first of all to this essential building-to this "Great Church" as it was called throughout the East during the Middle Ages.
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