Byzantium: Early Modern Art and Culture

Description

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, but its cultural heritage endured through the ages. While political Byzantium had vanished by the fifteenth century, its rich legacy, especially in Orthodox Christianity and icon painting, persisted and flourished beyond the empire's demise. Unfortunately, this aspect of Byzantine material culture has received limited scholarly attention due to the scarcity of accessible artifacts and publications in lesser known languages. This study proposes a groundbreaking model of Post-Byzantine art history to bridge the gap in our understanding of how Byzantine visual culture perpetuated and evolved in drastically different socio-political and religious contexts. By investigating religious art trends that emerged under Venetian, Ottoman, and Slavic rule in the former Byzantine territories, we explore Orthodoxy's role in shaping historical memories of Byzantium and its impact on Christian community identities during diverse colonial circumstances