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: 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Details: This panel was painted on the Greek island of Crete, once part of the Byzantine Empire, and reflects the Post-Byzantine style that prevailed among the island's artists during the 15th century. The Christ Child lies in a manger while the Virgin Mary kneels in veneration. Joseph sits...
Details: This rare double-sided icon was most likely commissioned by Tsar Boris Godunov (r. 1598-1605) as a gift for a church in Jerusalem, where it was kept until the mid-20th century. It would have been displayed for veneration on the feast days of the Virgin's Presentation in the...
Details: The Evangelist is depicted as having already copied Lk. 1:1-2. 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,...
This majestic painting was created for a large iconostasis, a screen separating the altar sanctuary from the nave in Orthodox churches. Here, Abraham and Sarah sacrifice a calf to honor their guests, who reveal themselves as angels (Genesis 18:1-10). Christian theologians interpreted the three angels as Old Testament precursors...
The smaller fragment (37.2751C) shows Christ as High Priest clad in episcopal vestments, blessing the bishop saints Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom (37.2751A), Gregory of Nazianzus, and Nicholas (37.2751B). The three pieces, now separate, once formed part of a two-winged door in the center of an iconostasis,...
