{Byzantine Art [continued (8):] Byzantine Art as Religious Expression}[21st February 1991]

[Redbook8:283][19910221:1142k]{Byzantine Art [continued (8):] Byzantine Art as Religious Expression}[21st February 1991]

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[continued]

‘Since Byzantine art defies attempts to interpret it in terms of individual genius, renaissance, or distinctive regional schools, it is clear that the art-historical approach to it must be different from that to most Western European art. This is not to deny the importance of individual artists and patrons in its development, but it is to recognise that the opaque quality of this culture was intentional, and needs appreciation. As an art to express Christian dogma in a permanently intelligible form, Byzantine art is unsurpassed. Its importance lies in its positive qualities as religious art. To regard Byzantine art as primarily the carrier of antique art through the Middle Ages would represent a failure to penetrate through it stylistic appearance to its true function as art.’

– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 3:] 390

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