Explore the beauty of Byzantine art on our webpage showcasing a collection of images. Byzantine art, from 4th century to 1453, known for rich colors, intricate patterns and religious themes. Browse our collection to gain a deeper understanding of this fascinating historical period.
About the Image: The image features a Byzantine cameo depicting Christ Emmanuel, dating from between 1200 and 1400. Cameos are typically small, carved gems that have been valued as art objects since ancient times. This piece is particularly notable for its representation of Christ as Emmanuel, a title meaning "God...
About the Image: This image is a page from a manuscript, specifically featuring an illustration of "Christ Addressing Nicodemus" by Lukas of Cyprus, created between 1594-1596 during the Ottoman period. The artwork is a fine example of Byzantine manuscript illumination, which persisted into the Ottoman era in regions that had...
About the Image: This pendant is one of the most beautiful and technically accomplished personal devotional objects to survive from Byzantium. On one side Christ Pantokrator (Ruler of All) blesses the viewer with his right hand and holds the Gospel book in his left. Christ gazes to the side, acknowledging...
About the Image: Images of the Koimesis, or the Dormition in the West, show the Virgin lying on a bier, while her soul, represented as a baby, is offered by Christ to attendant angels who will take it to heaven. The apostles, led by Saints Paul and Peter, stand witness....
About the Image: Fitted with two rings for suspension, a hook, and a hasp, this small icon can be closed and hung round one's neck as a token of piety and divine protection. Open, it can be used as a prayer image. Christ and two bishop saints, most probably Nicholas...
About the Image: Here is a beautiful page from a Byzantine-style illuminated manuscript. Manuscripts such as these played a crucial role in preserving religious texts, stories, and iconographies during the medieval period. Let's delve into the components: 1. Text: 2. * The text is written in Greek, a significant language for...
About the Image: This representation of Christ joined with the Virgin and John the Forerunner (the Baptist), one of the most widespread middle Byzantine icon types, is known as the Deesis. By tradition, the first witnesses to Christ's divinity, the Virgin and Saint John came to be seen as holy...
About the Image: A masterpiece in the corpus of Byzantine ivory icons, this small representation of the Crucifixion is the only surviving portion of a triptych whose wings are now missing. It was probably used as a personal devotional object in a private setting. The entire scene is represented taking...
About the Image: This is a fascinating artifact from the rich tapestry of Syriac Christianity. The image appears to be a folio from a prayer book related to services for the dead, written in the late 13th century in Syria. Let's delve deeper into the context and significance of this...
About the Image: The Neonian Baptistry in Ravenna, a testament to early Christian Byzantine art in Western Europe, boasts breathtaking mosaics from the late 4th to early 5th century. In the dome's mosaic, twelve apostles encircle a central depiction of Christ's Baptism, each elegantly robed and holding a crown, symbolizing...
About the Image: Standing erect, a spear in his hand and a shield at his side, Saint Demetrios is shown ready to protect the Christian faithful. The name of the popular Byzantine military saint is inscribed in two parts in Greek. Martyred in Thessalonike, the second most important city of...
About the Image: This is a splendid example of Byzantine art, specifically from the Middle Byzantine period. Reliquary caskets such as this one were designed to house and protect sacred relics, often pieces of bone or clothing from revered saints. The artistic and spiritual significance of this piece is rich...
About the Image: The image is a remarkable piece of Ethiopian Christian art. Depicting the Crucifixion, it originates from the first half of the 16th century during the Stephanite period. Ethiopian Christian art is distinct in its style and iconography, often integrating local traditions and interpretations. Let's delve into some...
About these Images: Elaborately worked in cloisonné enamel, the lid of this box displays Christ on the cross wearing the colobium (sleeveless or short-sleeve tunic) associated with early images of the Crucifixion. Christ stands erect, his eyes wide open. His posture, the sun and the moon on either side of...
About the Image: Christianity most likely arrived in Ethiopia in the first century. The conversion of King Ezana in 330 c.e. led to its official acceptance and the minting of coins bearing one of the earliest uses of the cross as a Christian symbol. Although the silver pendant crosses...
About the Image: This relief was once part of a larger object, probably a decorated metal sheet that covered a painted icon for protection and embellishment. Christ, holding a Gospel book in one hand and making the sign of blessing with the other, would originally have faced a portrait of...
About the Image: This cross depicts at its center a second small cross of the Crucifixion, flanked by miniature representations of the lance and sponge, instruments of Christ's Passion. The skull below suggests the name of the hill - Golgotha (place of skulls) - and also refers to the legend...
About the Image: [Translation] A picture of the Mother of Our Lord and His Disciple John, whom he loved, as they stood beneath the cross. May their prayers protect us. Amen. This large Ethiopian Gospel Book was made in the first half of the sixteenth century and is written in...
Details: This delicately painted icon shows Christ's Crucifixion before the walls of Jerusalem. A detail rarely included in Crucifixion scenes is the resurrection of the dead, portrayed here as tightly wrapped corpses, after Matthew 27:52: "The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen...
Details: This small triptych icon is fitted within a silver frame and was meant to be worn on the chest as a pendant. The outside of the frame is engraved with floral ornament and has a small relief Crucifix in the middle. In the top register on the inside, the...
Details: According to legend, Saint Catherine was a learned noble maiden from the Egyptian city of Alexandria who was martyred in the early 4th century on account of her Christian faith. The three small scenes at the bottom of this panel illustrate episodes from her life: the Roman empress is...
Details: This large Ethiopian Gospel Book was made in the first half of the sixteenth century and is written in Ge'ez, the traditional liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Containing eleven full-page miniatures, six canon tables, and five elaborately ornamented harags, or headpieces, this manuscript represents the golden age...
Details: These panels reproduce the upper two tiers of the screen (known as the iconostasis) that separates the nave from the altar in Orthodox churches. Such sets, of which this is one of the earliest known, were used by priests for makeshift altars and by lay people for personal prayer....
Details: In this full-page portrait, John the Evangelist is depicted as having already copied John 1:1-2. It is a leaf from a large Ethiopian Gospel Book that was made in the first half of the sixteenth century and is written in Gǝ‛ǝz, the traditional liturgical language of the...
