Byzantine and Medieval Art: Teaching Christianity

The mosaics of Hagia Sophia would set the standard for centuries of Byzantine Art throughout the Christianized Empire. Byzantine artists were constrained by church and empire to focus solely on instructing the faithful in theology and worship. Byzantine art was therefore strongly Didactic.

Byzantine art almost universally exclusively focused on the Icon: an image of Jesus, Mary, or a saint who had earned special favor with God. Icons decorated churches, instructed believers in the faith, and focused worship and rituals. The churches of Rome and the East encouraged intercessory prayer, the supplicant bringing a request to the saint who relayed it to God. The connection with the saint was thought to be more effective in the presence of a relic from the saint’s life (bones, clothing, possessions) or an Iconic image. 

In the aftermath of the alliance between emperors and bishops, Christian faithfulness had also come to mean fidelity to the Empire. You can see this fusion in Byzantine images, in which Christ the humble shepherd becomes Christ the emperor, robed in purple, the emperor’s color. As early as the 3rd Century, Mary is celebrated as the Queen of Heaven. In “Madonna” images from Asia Minor to Ireland, the Virgin sits on an imperial throne, her divine child on her lap.

Virgin and Child. Mary as Queen of Heaven. Mosaic, Hagia Sophia.

Now, Didactic Art generally develops a fixed Stylized technique that focuses on communicating an unchanging message. Indeed, for more than 1,000 years, the distinctive Byzantine style dominated art throughout Europe, Western Asia, and northern Africa.  Focused on worship and theology, a Byzantine image is composed in a static, timeless, placeless present. Unlike Classical Greek art, it has no interest in Mimesis, Ideal human forms, Rhythmos or Ethos.

The stylistic result is a painting or mosaic in a flat plane with little attention to depth. The figures are abstractions with little individuality. They do not move, display little emotion and are not placed in any particular time or place. Transcending time, a single composition will combine images of Mary and the Christ child with those of saints who lived centuries later.

Remarkably, this style survived the 5th Century collapse of Imperial rule in the West—basically, Europe—in the face of waves of migration from Germanic peoples. Warrior tribal chieftains assumed control of local lands and adopted the titles of the old Empire. But they had little interest in the Classical tradition of learning and art. They converted to Christianity and delegated to monks and bishops the tasks of education, administration and law. For roughly 1,000 years, all but a tiny portion of Classical learning was lost to the West. 

Church scholars monopolized Latin learning and the churches monopolized art. Anonymous artists designed and decorated churches, created icons and altar pieces for worship, and illustrated Bibles and prayer books. These images dutifully adhered to Byzantine Conventions.