✨ BYZANTINE ICONS
PAGE 1 OF 5 — STEPPING INTO A GOLDEN HEAVEN
CONSTANTINOPLE · A GREAT CHURCH
A ROOM MADE OF LIGHT AND GOLD
Step through the doors of a Byzantine church and the whole room glows. The walls and ceilings shimmer with gold, and giant calm figures of Christ, Mary and the saints look down at you from above. This was the art of the Byzantine Empire, the Christian half of the old Roman world, ruled from the city of Constantinople. Byzantine artists were not trying to copy the real world like the Greeks and Romans did. They were trying to build a doorway to heaven that you could actually stand inside.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Gold backgrounds have no sky, ground or shadow on purpose. Heaven has no morning or night, so the artists removed all sense of time and place.
GLOW!
WHAT IS BYZANTINE?
🏰 The Christian eastern half of the Roman Empire
🌊 Ruled from Constantinople, today's Istanbul
⏳ It lasted over 1,000 years after Rome fell
🌊 Ruled from Constantinople, today's Istanbul
⏳ It lasted over 1,000 years after Rome fell
NOT OF THIS WORLD
🌅 No real backgrounds, just endless gold
🧍 Figures stand flat, calm and still
🙏 Everything points your mind to God
🧍 Figures stand flat, calm and still
🙏 Everything points your mind to God