Byzantine icons
Eastern religious paintings
Byzantine icons are religious images—typically of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or saints—painted on wooden panels in the distinctive style of the Byzantine Empire.
The figures appear flattened, frontal, and solemn, with gold backgrounds suggesting divine light.
Icons served as devotional objects and windows to the sacred, not mere decoration.
The museum's collection of Byzantine icons dates to the 12th century.
The term sometimes describes any artwork in this tradition, which continues in Eastern Orthodox churches today.
- temperaEgg-yolk painting method
- ConstantinopleHistoric Turkish metropolis
- gold leafUltra-thin decorative metal
- venerationProfound admiring respect
- haloLuminous ring overhead
encaustic painting · Hagia Sophia · Andrei Rublev · prayer · votive offering · Virgin Mary · sacred image · mosaic · cross · liturgy · cherubim · Eastern Orthodox Church · seraphim · relics · fresco · monasticism · gesso · divine light
Byzantine iconstrompe l'oeil
Realistic optical illusion art
photorealism · Impressionism · landscape painting · Abstract Expressionism
Byzantine iconsart for art's sake
Intrinsic value of creation
documentary photography · scientific illustration · anatomical drawings · still life · commercial art
Byzantine, icons, icon, iconic, iconically, iconography, iconographic, iconoclast, iconoclastic