History of Iconography...

History of Byzantine Iconography Byzantine painting began as the continuation of the Early Christian paintings of the catacombs beginning with the 1st and 2nd centuries, of the first churches of Rome and of the East. Christian Art became heir to the traditions of the ancient art of Greece. Byzantine paintings include the wall paintings, portable icons, mosaics and the painted manuscripts that were produced by the artists of the Greek Empire of Byzantium. Luke the Evangelist was the first recognized Iconographer who painted icons representing the Holy Virgin and the Apostles Peter and Paul. Byzantine Art begins with the emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD and ends with the Iconoclastic Controversy begun by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian in the early 8th century AD. The restoration of the Holy Icons begins in the 9th century AD, and continues until the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204 AD. Architecture, painting, music and poetry cease to be forms of art, each following its own way, independently of the others, in search of appropriate effects and become liturgical and dogmatic. It follows that from its very nature, church art is liturgical art. This is why the image of the Orthodox Church, the icon, does not define itself as an art belonging to one or another historical epoch, nor as the expression of the national peculiarities of one or another people. But only by its function, which is as universal as Orthodoxy itself, being determined by the essence of the image and its role in the Church. Since in its essence the icon, like the word, is a liturgical art. It never served religion but, like the word, has always been and is an integral part of religion. It is one of the instruments for the knowledge of God, and a means of communion with him.