Reply To: Artistic Conventions

[Lucas Warthen]

The art of the Byzantine Empire seemed to devolve (but not in a bad way, only in an aging way). The style is similar to that of the Egyptians in that there are 2D static characters rather than realistic and 3D ones. There is a decline in statues too, so we see much less posing – such as the contrapasso. Most of the art is present in murals or in architecture or a mixture of both. There are no depictions of polytheism (like in Jewish and Christian art) but I think they are inspired by older periods to have a variety of people represented in the art, hence the use of Saints, Mary, and The Son.