"Valuable and informative . . . absorbing reading for the specialist and the layman alike."
—Arts Review
One of the greatest authorities in the field chronicles the opulence of
Byzantine art from the reign of Justinian (527-565) to the fall of Constantinople
in 1453. With plates that depict stupendous architectural works, frescoes,
mosaics, chalices and bejeweled gospel covers, to name a few, the book
provides a masterly survey of an art of magnificence and power. Drawing
on extensive scholarly research as well as his own travels to the rock
churches of Cappadocia and Cicilia, the monastic communities in the
mountains of northern Greece and Yugoslavia, and the author illuminates
the astounding works of art within a culture that celebrated art as
material proof of their dominance over the Mediterranean states.
One of the greatest authorities in the field chronicles the opulence of
Byzantine art from the reign of Justinian (527-565) to the fall of Constantinople
in 1453. With plates that depict stupendous architectural works, frescoes,
mosaics, chalices and bejeweled gospel covers, to name a few, the book
provides a masterly survey of an art of magnificence and power. Drawing
on extensive scholarly research as well as his own travels to the rock
churches of Cappadocia and Cicilia, the monastic communities in the
mountains of northern Greece and Yugoslavia, and the author illuminates
the astounding works of art within a culture that celebrated art as
material proof of their dominance over the Mediterranean states.