What Is Byzantine Art?

From around 330 to 1450 CE, Byzantine art encompassed the visual expressions of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople, as the capital of Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire, was the epicenter of much of this period’s artistic development. Much Byzantine art was used to facilitate worship and to capture themes of the Christian faith. The Byzantine aesthetic can still be seen today in the architecture of Byzantine churches, religious iconography, paintings, and decorative mosaics.

The Hagia Sophia, now a museum in Istanbul, is probably the most well-known Byzantine church (formerly Constantinople). The Hagia Sophia, built Emperor Justinian, was the world’s largest church for 1,000 years, until the Cathedral in Seville, Spain, was completed. The church was notable for its massive dome, which stood on four pendentives, triangular shapes cut from a sphere that help distribute the weight of a dome. The shape of the Hagia Sophia was replicated in Byzantium’s other churches.

The church was decorated both inside and out with mosaics, frescoes, and paintings to tell the story of Jesus to a mostly illiterate populace. When President Ataturk decided to turn the religious site into a museum in 1934, the artworks that had been covered plaster when the church became a mosque were uncovered and restored. The Hagia Sophia’s frescoes and mosaics display many of the characteristics of Byzantine art.

The relatively two-dimensional representations of Byzantine paintings and icons are well-known. The artists focused on forms that could be easily identified to transmit stories from the Bible and Christian history, rather than realism. Figures painted in this style are often stiff and awkward. The subjects in some paintings appear to be weightless, floating in a golden ether.

Byzantine artists were known for their use of deep golds, blues, and greens. The use of gold symbolized the faith’s glory and wealth. Figures in paintings and mosaics could be identified from a distance thanks to the use of bright colors. Those colors were used in secular art to help distinguish the ranks of the subjects being depicted. Those colors have survived centuries of exposure in many Byzantine pieces and are still vibrant today.

Byzantine art was primarily created craftsmen who did not sign their work. The artists’ trade, like many other professions at the time, was typically a family affair. A father would teach his son the art of fresco painting and mosaic installation. Conservatism arose from the continuity of artistic expression. Despite the passage of 1,000 years, Byzantine art remained largely unchanged until the 1400s, when the Turks conquered the empire.