History of Graphic Design - Byzantine Art

Byzantine Art

The Byzantine Empire began when the Emperor Constantine moved the headquarters of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium (present day Istanbul) which he renamed Constantinople. The Byzantine empire, although marked by periodic revivals of a classical aesthetic of the art of the Roman empire and ancient Greek, was above all marked by the development of a new aesthetic which Josef Strzygowski viewed it as a product of "oriental" influences. The subject matter of Byzantine art was primarily religious and imperial. Byzantine art is more spiritual in content (figures presented as representations of the soul rather than the body) and yet more "worldly" in form with a show of gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones.

• Frescoes in Nerezi near Skopje (1164). The Byzantine graphic art emerges out of artists attempt to convey divine spiritual statements. The graphic represents the Christian narrative of salvation in stylized two dimensional elongated figures.

• Mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, showing the Emperor Justinian and Bishop Maximian of Ravenna surrounded by clerics and soldiers. Here the graphic statement conveys the unification of the church and state.

• Mosaic from the church of Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki, late 7th or early 8th century, showing St. Demetrios with donors. Artists used highly decorative, symbolic, and flattened graphical representations of Christian saints by setting small pieces of colored glass into the mortar of the church walls at different angles to catch the light. An heavenly atmosphere was created by using gold backgrounds together with haloed figures.

• Two-sided icon with the Virgin Psychosostria (saver of souls) and the Annunciation.Byzantine (Constantinople), early 14th century. One of the most important genres of Byzantine graphic art was the icon, an stylized image of Christ, the Virgin, or a saint, used as an object of veneration in Orthodox churches and private homes alike.