BYZANTINE ART. The style which pre vailed in the Byzantine or Eastern Roman em pire as long as it existed (330-1453) and which has prevailed since in Greece, in the Balkan Peninsula and in Rumania, southern Russia and Armenia, with other parts of Asia Minor. Byzantine art is divided into four periods : (1) From the Foundation of Constantinople (330 A.D.) to the beginning of the Iconoclastic Pe riod.— This represents the experimental period and the golden age of Byzantine achievement. Figure sculpture had not yet become dominated by Eastern ideals, and was largely realistic in treatment, but by the 6th century mosaics were splendidly conventionalized and attained great beauty. The Byzantine style of archi tecture became distinctive about the year 450 A.D. The great development of trade between the East and the West led to its rapid develop ment. The great buildings of this period were Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Constanti nople, the early basilicas in Rome and the early churches at Ravenna, etc. The artistic centres of the Near East were at first Alexandria and Antioch, and later Byzantium itself. (2) The second period is that known as the Iconoclas tic Period.— The Emperor Leo III (717-40 A.D.) was an adventurer from the mountainous regions of Isauria. Gibbon narrates that he was' °ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but his education, his reason, perhaps his inter course with the Jews and Arabs had inspired the martial peasant with a hatred of all im ages.* One reason for this hatred can be found irr the fact that many of the people were beginning to endow the images with mysterious power, believing they could work miracles and were in some occult way the medium of the saints. In spite of the opposition of the peo ple, whose sympathies were monastic, and who were led by the priests themselves, Leo joined the iconoclastic party, which thought the grow ing power of the monks a danger to the state. He began to wage war against all sacred im agery, causing numberless works of art to be destroyed, and prohibited the further production of religious art of a monumental kind. This pro scription did not have for art the disastrous con sequences that one might have expected. Re ligious art, persecuted, continued to increase despite the strife. Hundreds of artists and craftsmen also, prohibited from following their callings, turned from religious to Hellenistic motives, and devoted themselves to ivory and goldsmith's work, miniature painting and con ventional decorative design, Eastern in inspira tion. By about the middle of the 9th cen tury, mosaic and painted figures began to be used once more in decoration, and a general artistic revival set in, furthered by the growing prosperity of the empire under the Macedonian dynasty. (3) The third period dates from the
beginning of the Macedonian Dynasty (867 A.D.) to the sack of Constantinople (1204 A.D.). This was the second great stage of Byzantine art. It was two-fold in character, being im perial and secular, and inspired by classic tra dition, while at the same time the monastic art of the times continued and preserved its strict and severe traditions. Masterpieces of each type were frequent, both historic and ecclesias tical. The greatest extant monument of this style and period was San Marco, Venice (11th century. (4) The fourth period is that from the Restoration until the Turkish Conquest (1453 A.D).—Although many fine works of art were produced during this period, it was, on the whole, an age of artistic decline and slow de cadence. As the empire was impoverished fewer works were executed in precious metal and ivory.
Byzantine art had no period of struggle and slow development, and passed through no archaic stage. It represented the union of the mature styles of the nearer East and West, and showed small desire to draw fresh truth from nature, being content instead to blend the stored fruits of its knowledge for the produc tion of its masterpieces. Its chief element was not so much the art of Rome, but of Sassanid Persia and the Hellenized East. It was from the East that it acquired its dislike of realistic representation, its love of domed and vaulted buildings and its delight in Oriental decorative pattern and sumptuous richness of color. It was above all a great decorative art— formal, splendid, ceremonial and reflecting the set ritual of the- court and the Church. We find the key to it, not in nature and the spontaneous joy and beauty of life, but in some such scene as Gibbon has described, when telling of the visit of Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, to the Emperor Constantine VII in the year 948 A.D.: "When he (Luitprand) approached the throne the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roaring of two lions of gold. With his com panions, Luitprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate, and thrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in the short time the throne had been hoisted from the floor to the ceiling, the imperial figure appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the in terview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence.° Here we have all the set pageantry and conventionality of Byzantine decoration, which was magnificent for itspurpose, but which, in the end, was destined to lose its power and force owing to its lack of fresh stimulus and inspiration, and its divorce from life.