Art

Byzantine art is an archaistic word used more often to describe the products of artists of the Byzantine Empire. This was at around the 4th century until the fall of the Constantinople in 1453. These works were used in the early periods in the Byzantine Empire for mostly political reasons. This ended up influencing other empires that were neighboring it, for instance the eastern orthodox and other states that were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire such Bulgaria, Serbia, Rus. Other kingdoms that had close ties with the Byzantine Empire were also influences like the Republic of Venice and the kingdom of Sicily. Certain artistic customs that originated in the Byzantine empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church architecture (Joseph, 1997). These works are still stored in the Greece, Bulgaria, Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries till the present day.
Byzantine art developed out of the art of the Roman Empire, and so is the fact that Byzantine Empire did represent the political continuation of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was also influenced by the ancient Greek art. The nature and causes of this revolution which largely took place in the late ancient times, has been subject of scholarly debate for many years (Nerva, 2001). Some have attributed it to a decline in artistic skills and standards, which had in turn been reviewed by the contemporaries in the Italian Renaissance.

Some of the products produces in the Byzantine art include the enamels, jewelry, metalwork, ceramics, ivories and steatites among others. Many of these were also in the religious nature as they implied an inner meaning of religion. They had a diverse representation even politically. Others did represent the classical mythology while others widely helped in decorations of the houses (Katerina, 2002).

To begin with, Byzantine paintings were used as an educational art. Its object was by its icons to teach Christian orthodox religion even to the illiterate. Imitation alone did not seem adequately to fulfill the function of the icon since its divine visions were enriched with inscriptions which identified the persons represented, indicated the subject of the scenes which were depicted or rather dogmatic or with quotations of fragments of educational texts that were frequently use in the Byzantine periods (Sharon, 2005). Therefore, we conclude that the Byzantine paintings were meant for education, and such educational messages were meant for the students and scholars of those times.

Apart from educational purposes, the Byzantine paintings did a lot of good religiously. Indeed the church of Natives at Bethlehem has mosaics which contain full inscriptions explaining the creed. From the theological point of view, the action of adding inscriptions to the icons made it look further as a religious purpose. It helped the beholder to recognize the persons, to understand the meaning by silently reading the words of the inscription to remembering a theological text (Maria, 1995). These particular Byzantine paintings were written for the Christians to strengthen their faith at those periods.

Another purpose of the Byzantine paintings was to promote the political culture in the Byzantine Empire. Some classical paintings had political messages meant for all citizens in the empire. The messages either rebuked the poor leadership skills that were being used by the then leaders, the writings could also have meant to praise an outstanding king of that time, or even pass a political message of the existing political situation at that period. Some paintings were completely picture s of ancient kings, those that were considered as legends of those particular times (Nerva, 1997).
There were paintings of the different economic activities that were being practiced at those times. For instance, pictures of people exchanging commodities could mean they were trading, or pictures of people herding cattle could mean pastoralist. Such pictures were meant or rather drawn for everyone to promote the spirit of hard work so as to improve different working conditions of the citizens.  For instance a painting of a potter doing his thing could imply that every one should do what he or she is best in.

Byzantine paintings were also used to improve language in the Byzantine period. Not only language, but also other good behaviors in the kingdom. Often the paintings could rebuke poor characters such as theft or witch crafty. Paintings could be painted and places in public places so as to pass the required message (John, 2003). Like in churches, some of the pictures displayed there could mean silence in church, or good characters cited in the creed. The paintings helped in language development in that the inscriptions that used to be in the paintings had a language that was unique and purposely meant for emulation. It was a language of worth it was mostly in sayings and parables.
The main materials used in the Byzantine paintings included ivories and bones. Ivories of elephants and hippos. Other materials included the woods and icons, wall paintings, pottery and glass, paper and parchment, metal objects, mosaic and stone and marbles. The ivories were not available in the Byzantine Empire, but they were being traded in from Africa (Sharon, 2005). It was called ivory carvings, but in other times to make the metal products, metals like silver, bronze were used to make products like the silver plates, or other products. Ivories could be shaped into desired shapes, and then carved to become a picture words could then be engraved in the picture, which would be painted to make the final product. These products could also be used in the houses for decoration purposes.
The Byzantine art had a scale or rather the range that it used to cover in the society, in terms o purposes. The representation of the Byzantine art is the crowning of an ambitious research program that attempts to open new paths in the study of Byzantine art. The program aimed at a better understanding the importance of architectural depiction in Byzantine art.

There were exhibitions then and now about the post Byzantine paintings and culture. Some exhibitions show case aspects such as the spirituality that marks the Byzantine architecture, the richness in understandings of architectural forms and space, the two dimensional representations of the certainty and the importance on the imaginary or symbolic ideas such as the celestial hierarchy and the relation between man and power. At the same time it shows the diachronic importance of many precise basics in the formation and representations of the structural design in Byzantine art (Maria, 1995).

Apart from the existence of exhibitions, where the Byzantine art is kept, there are workshops, each specializing in the conservation of the archeological material or rather materials with similar conservation requirements. The workshops also contain temporary holding rooms, where the archeological materials undergoes cleaning and initial stages before proceeding to the specialized workshops (Nerva, 2001). The treatment the objects receive during the conservation process not only protects them from further ravages of time, but also restores them as closely as possible to their original form.

Generally, there was a notable diverse reaction or rather perceptions to the Byzantine arts, as some regarded them highly and decided to build museums for them to keep them inside some never even bothered to see their significance. But from researches, most people considered the Byzantine paintings as educational, religious and inspiring works of man. They even painted their walls as such to promote the Byzantine paintings.