Byzantine Renaissance

Examples of Byzantine Renaissance in the following topics:

• The Macedonian Dynasty

  • The Macedonian Dynasty saw expansion and the Byzantine Renaissance but also instability due to competition among nobles in the theme system.
  • Despite his humble origins, he showed great ability in running the affairs of state, leading to a revival of Imperial power and a renaissance of Byzantine art.
  • This was also a period of cultural and artistic flowering in the Byzantine world.
  • The time of the Macedonian Dynasty's rule over the Byzantine Empire is sometimes called the Byzantine Renaissance or the Macedonian Renaissance.
  • Byzantine painting from this period would have a strong influence on the later painters of the Italian Renaissance.

• Byzantium's Legacy

  • The Byzantines also preserved and copied classical manuscripts, and they are thus regarded as transmitters of the classical knowledge, as important contributors to the modern European civilization, and as precursors of both the Renaissance humanism and the Slav Orthodox culture.
  • It had preserved this cultural heritage until it was taken up in the West during the Renaissance.
  • During the Byzantine Renaissance of the Macedonian Dynasty, art and literature flourished, and artists adopted a naturalistic style and complex techniques from ancient Greek and Roman art, mixing them with Christian themes.
  • Byzantine painting from this period would have a strong influence on the later painters of the Italian Renaissance.
  • The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and émigrés in the period following the sacking of Constantinople and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism and science.

• The Last Byzantine Dynasty

  • He founded the Palaiologos Dynasty, the longest and last dynasty of Byzantine rulers.
  • During the Palaiologan Dynasty, the empire experienced a short but vibrant renaissance, known as the Palaiologan Renaissance.
  • Although the Palaiologan Renaissance came too late to save the struggling Byzantine civilization, it would be a major catalyst for the Italian Renaissance, especially as Byzantine artists and scholars traveled to Italy to seek shelter from the new threats that besieged the empire.
  • The Fall of Constantinople was marked by large amounts of Greek refugees escaping Turkic rule into Europe via Italy and thus accelerating the Renaissance.
  • A gold Byzantine coin, called the hyperpyron (which replaced the earlier solidus), depicting the first emperor of the Byzantine Palaiologan Dynasty, Michael VIII.

• Italian Painting: 1200–1400

  • In his Maesta the viewer may observe elements of both the earlier Byzantine style of painting, as well as the emerging Renaissance style.
  • The work retains the gold background that was familiar in Byzantine icons, and his figures are rendered in a Byzantine style.
  • While his work retains the gold background and gold halos so important in Byzantine art (and to Sienese patrons), this art acts as a bridge between the late Medieval era and Early Renaissance.
  • Duccio's work demonstrates the emerging Renaissance style, as seen in the developed form of the figures, as well as the older Byzantine styles and the Sienese preference for materiality with the use of gold.
  • Cimabue's art work reflects the changes that were occurring in Florentine painting during this period by demonstrating both the older Byzantine style as well as the emerging Renaissance style.

• The Italian Renaissance

  • The art of the Italian Renaissance was influential throughout Europe for centuries.
  • When you hear the term "Renaissance" and picture a style of art, you are probably picturing the Renaissance style that was developed in Florence, which became the dominate style of art during the Renaissance.
  • During the Early Renaissance, artists began to reject the Byzantine style of religious painting and strove to create realism in their depiction of the human form and space.
  • High Renaissance painting evolved into Mannerism in Florence.
  • Raphael was one of the great artists of the High Renaissance.

• Carolingian Architecture in the Early European Middle Ages

  • Carolingian architecture is characterized by its attempts to emulate late Roman classicism, Christian, and Byzantine styles.
  • Carolingian architecture is the style of northern European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late eighth and ninth centuries, when the Carolingian dynasty dominated western Europe politically, culturally, and economically.
  • To that end, the Carolingians borrowed heavily from Early Christian and Byzantine architectural styles, although they added their own innovations and aesthetic style.
  • The Palatine Chapel in Aachen demonstrates the Byzantine-influence on Carolingian architecture, evidenced by its octagonal style.
  • Locate Carolingian architecture as it relates to Pre-Romanesque, Roman classicist, Late Antiquity, early Christian and Byzantine styles.

• Renaissance Architecture in Venice

  • Venetian Gothic architecture is a term given to a Venetian building style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Ottoman influences.
  • The style originated in 14th century Venice, where the confluence of Byzantine style from Constantinople met Arab influence from Moorish Spain.
  • The city also has several Renaissance and Baroque buildings, including the Ca' Pesaro and the Ca' Rezzonico.
  • This phase of architecture demonstrates how Gothic and Byzantine influences lingered much longer in Venice than they did in Florence or Rome during the Renaissance.
  • Describe the style of Venetian architecture during the Renaissance, and of Palladio in particular

• Painting in the Late Byzantine Empire

  • As Late Byzantine painting became more naturalistic, bodies gained mass and figures portrayed humanity with emotion and movement; these developments and traditions continued into the Post-Byzantine age.
  • During the Late Byzantine period the iconostasis fully developed.
  • The architecture is rendered in a later Byzantine style.
  • Over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the styles of Italian and Northern Renaissance artists grew in popularity, the rendering of the human body and illusionistic space became increasingly realistic.
  • The influence of the Renaissance, in which the notion of the artistic genius arose, can also be seen in the increasing attachment of artists' names to their creations.

• Italian Painting: Giotto

  • Giotto was one of the most revered painters of his time and an important bridge between the medieval and renaissance periods.
  • He would go on to become one of the most revered painters of his time, and an important bridge between the medieval and renaissance periods.
  • Giotto's distinct contribution to the history of art was a return to a style that directly references the natural world, a style that had not been emphasized by Medieval or Byzantine painters.
  • While Medieval and Byzantine styles favored flat, elongated figures and a lack of natural perspective Giotto returned painting to a style that aimed to capture the naturalism of the human form.
  • This focus on relationships between figures, as well as a renewed interest in perspective and life drawing, are some of the aspects that would become prominent in Renaissance painting.  

• Late Byzantine Art

  • Late Byzantine Art began following the sack of Constantinople in 1204 and continued until the fall of Byzantium in 1453.
  • The period of Late Byzantium saw the decline of the Byzantine Empire during the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries.
  • Once more, Constantinople  became a prosperous Byzantine city until falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
  • In sum, their poses anticipate the return to classicism that would define the Renaissance in the West.
  • The Division of the Byzantine Empire after its Sacking in 1204