BYZAN'TINE ART. Broadly speaking, the art that flourished throughout the Byzantine Empire. from the time when Constantine the Great made Constantinople (Byzantium) his capital, A.D. 330, to the capture of the city by the Turks in 1453. The term may be applied to Christian art of the Oriental and Hellenic peoples. as soon as it began to differ from the style of early Christian art, which both East and \Vest had largely in common at the beginning. Its historic development falls into six periods: (I) Eormatire Aye, Fourth to the Fifth Century, in which experiments were tried and various forms of architecture and painting put to the service of religion, but no fixed formulas were found. Egypt, Syria. Asia Minor, North Africa, Greece, all erected monuments that differed very much from the official type of Roman Christian basilica : and it was the Hellenic painters who then depict ed, both in manuscripts and on church walls, the first portraits of Christ and the earliest systematic series of Bible illustrations. (2) The Golden Age of Justinian. began about 500 A.D., and established the true norms of classic Byzantine art. These were. in architecture, the use of the dome on pendentives, with other forms of Vault ing in suhordinathat ; the deco ration of surfaces, mainly by deeply colored mosaics and rich marble facings, without the light and shade of heavy architectural tirojec tions or relief ornaments. The standard set by Saint Sophia was never afterwards equaled. The centre of official art was at Constantinople, and the clergy gradually assumed its Nan rel. This school declined during the Seventh Cen tury. (3) The Iconoclastic Aye, lasting sub stantially throughout the Eighth Century, while it seemed to give a death-blow to certain forms of religions art, really led to a healthy reform. It temporarily killed religious painting. from an exaggerated fear of the idolatrous tendency of painted images of sacred personages, but de veloped decorative and floral design, and its renovation of social and political life reacted healthily on art, preparing- the way for (4) The Macedonian Rceirctl of the Ninth and Tenth centuries. The sturdy rulers of the Macedonian
dynasty counteracted the morbid and unhealthy tendencies of Byzantine art and fostered the return to classic models. The reigns of Basil the Macedonian. Cinestantine, and .Nicephorus Phocas saw a second Golden Age of superb mann •uoits. The imperial palaces were as magnificent as the palaces of the Ciesars in old Rome. and the industrial arts reached an unequaled perfection. (5) The Age of the Comneni, during the Elev enth and Twelfth centuries. at, its beginning was as splendid as the preceding. A great new school of art was established at 1.lount Athos. 'Phis monastic school spread its influence far and wide. Many cities and monasteries be came special art centres, no longer dependent on Constantinople. Thessaloniea continued its traditions. The churches of Cities, Daphne, Mount Heiken, Neteora, arc a few of the monuments of this age. it was now that Europe, through the Crusades, through the trade with Venice, Pisa, Genoa, and other Italian cities, and through the Greeks in Sicily and South Italy. came to feel most intensely the in fluence of Byzantine art, by which the barbarism of European nations was modified and their newly awakened artistic instincts directed. (fi) The Age of the .Pa/ao/ogi, during the Thirteenth and Fifteenth centuries, is that of decadence. The decline was hastened by the barbarous con tnest of Constantinople and the Empire by the Crusaders in P204. The stream of fruitful art was dried up and the works of this which helped to influence Italy in the revival of paint ing., were unworthy of this high office, and have helped to give the mistaken idea, of Byzantine painting generally current. The churches at Trebizond show the decline in architectural grandeur and decorative ability.