BYZANTINE ORNAMENT

Byzantine Ornament - Byzantine is the title given to that conglomerate style of art which was developed in the Eastern Roman Empire from all the different styles which were in existence at that early period. The first impulse to the development of a Byzantine style was given in the year 30 A. D., when Byzantine or Constantinople became the seat of the royal residence of the emperor Constantine, and when Christianity was made the established state religion. Byzantine Art may be said to have reached its highest standart in the 6th century when it spread throughout the whole Empire and extended to North Africa.

Its influence however was not confined to those regions for already in the same century it had reached as far north and west as Scotland and Ireland, in which countries it is found intermingled with Celtic Art. It also penetraded through the Balkan States and Italy, and, from the 9th century when under the influence of the Macedonian Empire, it took fresh life, down to the middle of the 12 th century, it permeated the ornament of all the Romanesque Style of Europe, whilst even in Constantinople when taken by the Turks, in 1453, the Church of Sancta Sophia became the model on which all the Turkish Mosques were based, so far as their main features are concerned.

It was in fact the political influence which the Byzantine Empire enjoyed during the period of its supremacy, together with the low standard of civilization existing at that period in the Christian States of the West, which caused the new Christian Art, whose development had already commenced, to be strongly influenced by the Byzantine Style, more especially in its ornament.

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EARLY CHRISTIAN ORNAMENT
Gradually, as the political supremacy of a country begins to decline, Art in that country begins also to decay. The decline of classic art was the natural consequence of the political weakness and final decay of the Western Roman Empire, as well as of the decisive victory which Christianity finally obtained over Heathenism. READ MORE.

ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
So soon as charlemagne had succeeded to a certain extent in consolidating his empire, he selected Aixla-Chapelle as his place of residence, and called around him in that city artist of all kinds both from the former Western as well as from the Eastern Roman empires. These artist were engaged in decorating and adorning his palaces, and it was here that a new style, the Romanesque style, based upon classic architecture. READ MORE.