{Byzantine Art [continued (7):] Late Byzantine Art}[21st February 1991]

[Redbook8:282][19910221:1142j]{Byzantine Art [continued (7):] Late Byzantine Art}[21st February 1991]

19910221.1142

[continued]

‘Late Byzantine Art. The sack of Constantinople 1204 cut short artistic development in the capital. The city never recovered from the depredations of the Latin occupation (1204-61),* when churches were stripped of their physical protection of relics and their physical protection of bead roofing. After the recovery of the city and its rule under the Palaeologan dynasty until its fall to the Turks in 1453, **Constantinople inside its walls remained a partial wilderness of ruins and fields. Only a few of its churches were restored in the early 14^th century, to act as family mausoleums for a small and inter-related aristocracy, *** and received an expensive mosaic and marble decoration. After the civil wars of the mid 14^th century,**** further economic decline set in while intellectuals consciously watched the decline and fall of the Empire.

‘Yet the period of Byzantine painting after 1204* is one of major achievement in the history of European painting. Examples of painting in the “Agitated” style continue to occur in the 13^th century, but the best work is painted in a quite different manner, in which the figures are calm, softly modelled, and three dimensional.’

#

‘...There is an implication that Byzantine art could flourish without the stable central stimulus of Constantinople. Probably this is because the late 12^th century was also a period of decentralisation.’

#

*2048J~1280CE

**(2048G~1536CE)

***[sic]

****{2048J~1280

(But nearing end of Byz[antine] cycle)}

#– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 3:] 388

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