Byzantine Art



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 also 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. The most prominent figures of the period are Christ, the Virgin Mary, the apostles, the saints, Bishops and angels. The political structure of the period revolved around the emperor who was believed to be divinely appointed by God. Art played a large role in visualizing his powers with images of gods, goddesses, cherubs, and personifications of virtues.


Andrei Rublev

Andrei Rublev is a legendary Byzantine style painter born in the 1360’s in Russia. Even in the fifteenth century Rublev’s icons were considered extremely valuable, and were much coveted. Rublev’s works were so popular that the Church Council in Moscow directed that the correct representation for the Trinity was to be painted from models as painted by Greek painters and by Andrei Rublev. Very few of Rublev’s great works have survived, but the ones that have include The Lives of Russian Saints, individual icons, the festival tier of the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow’s Kremlin, frescoes in the Cathedral of the Assumption, and The Old Testament from the Holy Trinity Cathedral.


Cimabue

Cimabue or Cenni di Pepe was a painter that concluded the Byzantine era. He was submitted to the rules of the Byzantine style but took it to the greatest heights of expression, paving the way for artists such as Giotto and new trends in Italian painting. Cimague was first mentioned for his work on Roman mosaics in 1272, and then again in 1278 when he began his work on the Franciscan basilica at Assisi, which he worked on with Sienese painter Duccio di Buoninsegna, and Giotto from Florence. Cimabue most likely created the Crucifix in Arezzo, and the Crucifix in Santa Croece. Cimabue’s earliest works tend to be rigid and lifeless, whereas later in life, his works portray new sensitivity to body movement and emotional expression.


The Lorenzetti Brothers

The Lorenzetti brothers were two 14th century Italian painters of the Byzantine period, born in Siena. They attended the Sienese school built around the Byzantine style tradition – it was run by Duccio di Buoninsegna and Simone Martini. The Lorenzetti brothers were the first Sienese artists to manifest the style of Tuscon sculptor Giovanni Pisano in that they experimented with 3-dimensional images and spatial arrangements; this foreshadowed the advent of the Renaissance. Pietro was more traditional than his brother and focused on refinement, harmony and dramatic emotion. His works include the altarpiece portraying Madonna and Child with Saints, frescoes in the lower Church in Assisi, and the masterpiece the Birth of the Virgin. Ambrogio was more realistic and inventive than his brother and is best known for his fresco cycles Good Government and Bad Government, as well as his painting Presentation in the Temple.