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Byzantium Artistic Empire
Title: The Riha Paten, ca. 565-578
Unknown Artist
Medium: Silver with gilding and niello
Dimensions: 35 cm
Permanent Collection: Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC
Photograph: © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Byzantine culture is the story of politics mixing with art.
Byzantium 330-1453
Royal Academy of Art
London, England, UK
October 25, 2008 - March 22, 2009
Byzantium art refers to objects created during the Eastern Roman Empire. Constantine, the first Christian
Emperor of Rome, founded the Byzantine Empire when in 330 AD he declared that Constantinople would
be the new capital of the Roman Empire. At the very heart of the empire was religion and at the
beginning Byzantine rulers encouraged the use religious icons and images in art. The empire ended with when Mehmed II and the Ottoman forces
captured Constantinople in 1453 and changed it's name to Istanbul.
Title: Enamel icon with Archangel Michael,
Unknown Artist
Medium: Silver gilt, gold cloisonné, stones
Dimensions: 46 x 35 cm
Permanent Collection: Procuratoria di San Marco, Venezia
Photo per gentile concessione delle
Procuratoria di San Marco/Cameraphoto Arte, Venice
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Byzantium art was closely guarded by the powers of the day. In the churches the images of Jesus Christ showed his likeness above all; as
the ruler of the universe. Artists lacked freedom of expression they were required to produce as the rulers
ordered of them. Orthodox dogma selected the expressions of figures and attitudes that
were found in frescoes and any traditional art forms and extended to manuscripts, jewelry, decorative arts and textiles.
Title: The Khludov psalter, ca. 857-865
Unknown Artist
Medium: Parchment, ink, cinnabar, gold painting, tempera, wood and leather
Dimensions: 21 x 17.5 x 6 cm
Permanent Collection: The State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russian Federation,
GIM 86795 Khlud. 129, fol. 67r
Photograph: © The State Historical Museum
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
The internal decorations of churches, mosaics, was where Byzantium art truly impressed. All available surfaces
were covered at first entering one was to be overwhelmed by the shimmering interiors. Then the figures, created
as ordered, staring forward, set in a one-dimensional flat pose in the foreground of any part of the
fresco was meant to inspire a sense of grandeur and expressive power: to overwhelm.
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Title: Mosaic icon of Saint Stephen, ca. 1109-1113
Unknown Artist
Medium: Tesserae on stucco
Dimensions: 218 x 118 x 7 cm
Permanent Collection: National Conservation Area St. Sophia of Kiev
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
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Icons were a key component of the art usually the image was the head of Christ or Madonna with or without child.
Sometimes saints were used in icons but this was rare.
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During the 8th and 9th century there was a backlash against religious imagery partially because icons had
become cult images: objects themselves of worship. It lead to iconoclasm, the destruction of images. Artists
were permitted to use ornaments forms, such as images of the cross, as subject but were prohibited from
using figures.
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Byzantium art had a strong influence on Italian Renaissance art. Through trade
and conquest the art movement spread to Italy; where the traditional stiff
staring figures were replaced by more natural poses leading to the rebirth in
Italy's art community and beyond.
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Title: Double sided processional cross, Christ crucified, 1250
Artist: Attributed to Giunta Pisano (Italian active 1236-1257)
Medium: Egg Tempera on Wood
Dimensions: 113 x 83 cm
Permanent Collection: Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa
Photo su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali,
Soprintendenza di Pisa e Livorno/Aldo Mela
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
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London's Royal Academy of Arts (RA) hosts an outstanding Byzantium exhibition which includes
icons, detached wall paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, enamels plus gold and
silver metalwork.
Byzantium 330-1453
Royal Academy of Art:
October 25, 2008 - March 22, 2009
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