Editing Byzantine art (section)

{{short description|Art of the Byzantine Empire}}
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| image1            = Christ Pantocrator mosaic from Hagia Sophia 2744 x 2900 pixels 3.1 MB.jpg
| caption1          = One of the most famous of the surviving [[Byzantine mosaics]] of the [[Hagia Sophia]] in [[Constantinople]] – the image of [[Christ Pantocrator]] on the walls of the upper southern gallery, Christ being flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist; {{circa|1261}}; 4.08 x 4.2 m
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{{History of art sidebar}}
'''Byzantine art''' comprises the body of artistic products of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]],<ref>{{harvnb|Michelis|1946}}; {{harvnb|Weitzmann|1981}}.</ref> as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the [[decline of Rome|decline of western Rome]] and lasted until the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453,<ref>{{harvnb|Kitzinger|1977|pp=1‒3}}.</ref> the start date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still imprecise. Many [[Eastern Orthodox]] states in Eastern Europe, as well as to some degree the [[Islamic state]]s of the eastern [[Mediterranean]], preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.

A number of contemporary states with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire were culturally influenced by it without actually being part of it (the "[[Byzantine commonwealth]]"). These included [[Kievan Rus']], as well as some non-Orthodox states like the [[Republic of Venice]], which separated from the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century, and the [[Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture|Kingdom of Sicily]], which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire and had also been a Byzantine territory until the 10th century with a large Greek-speaking population persisting into the 12th century. Other states having a Byzantine artistic tradition, had oscillated throughout the Middle Ages between being part of the Byzantine Empire and having periods of independence, such as [[History of Medieval Serbia|Serbia]] and [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]]. After the [[Fall of Constantinople|fall of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople]] in 1453, art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the [[Ottoman Empire]] was often called "post-Byzantine." Certain artistic traditions that originated in the Byzantine Empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church architecture, are maintained in [[Greece]], [[Cyprus]], [[Serbia]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Romania]], [[Russia]] and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.