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Byzantine Art: Roman Empire
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Early Christian and Byzantine art started after Jesusà death in the first century ranging and ending to the fourth century AD. The art produced during this period was secretive because Christianity was not a formal religion but as a cult; the Romans and rest of Europe persecuted Christians so the artist disguised their work with symbols and hints of Christian aspects. Christianity was the first cult to not involve rituals of sacrifice of animals and refused to worship an Emperor causing the Roman Empire to make Christianity illegal. Byzantine art excelled in the Justinian period in the east during 520-540 AD. The art was produced in Ravenna, Byzantine, Venice, Sicily, Greece, and Russia. The difference between Christian and Byzantine was Christian was earth beyond realism and Byzantine was more spiritual than worldly style.
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Art associated with the Byzantine Empire. Its characteristic styles were first codified in the 6th century and persisted with remarkable homogeneity until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. Concerned almost exclusively with religious expression, it tends to reflect an intensely hierarchical view of the universe. It relies on vigour of line and brilliance of colour; individual features are absent, forms are flattened, and perspective is absent. Walls, vaults, and domes were covered in mosaic and fresco decoration in a total fusion of architectural and pictorial expression. Byzantine sculpture was largely limited to small ivory reliefs.
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In Byzantine art one can discover the wealthiest and most complex fusion of functions, elements and reasons. The synthesis of theology, religion and aesthetics provides a window to a multifaceted world view that has endured remaining relevant for centuries, still being promoted today within the Orthodox Church. Borne of the Early Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries (Rodley, p.2) prior to its acceptance and promotion as the official state religion of the Roman empire, this art form originally drew on the visual imagery of the pagan past. Amidst the vastness of the Roman empire, multiform influences prevailed of which the most significant was Hellenistic (Stuart, p.54) The majesty and physical detachment one encounters in an icon contrast sharply with the delight in the beauty of the human form that Hellenism elaborated. The pagan deities were given visual form in images and idols that evoked their presence and assured their cooperation. Although it is difficult to reconstruct the emotive and psychological values that the idols and temples of antiquity elicited from the viewer... the power of those images to inform and instruct has been amply discussed from Plato onward.
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Artistic characteristic of Byzantine art began to develop in the Roman Empire as early as the 4th century. As the classical tradition declined in vitality, eastern influences were more widely felt. The founding of Constantinople in 324 created a great new Christian artistic centre for the eastern half of the Empire. Artistic traditions flourished ... in rival cities. Constantinople established its supremacy after the fall of Alexandria and Antioch to the Arabs, and Rome to the Goths.
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The Byzantine art movement was active from the 5th century AD to 1453 during the time when the Byzantine Empire was dominant. The period was centered around the Orthodox church and featured painted icons, and decorative churches with mosaics and frescoes. With the fall of Constantinople (the center of the movement) to the Turks in 1453, the Byzantine style ... ended. This occurred during the European Renaissance era but the influence of Byzantine art remained strong in Russia, and other areas where the Orthodox church was influential. The Byzantine style grew out of traditional designs such as pictures of saints and Bible stories and repetitive decoration. There does not seem to be any basis on natural forms as the human figures are unnaturally long, the emotions are formal and still, and the facial expressions are conventional, rigid and almost lifeless.
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Early Christian and Byzantine art emerged from the Roman centers of Anatolia. The architectural elements and forms as well as the ornaments were first developed during Roman times in Asia Minor, namely in Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Hierapolis, Side, Perge, Antioch and many other important cities in Anatolia. The mythological motifs of Near Eastern origin encountered in Byzantine art were partly transmitted by towns in Eastern and Southern Anatolia.
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