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Two-Sided Icon with the Virgin Pafsolype and
Feast Scenes and the Crucifixion and Prophets
Byzantine (Constantinople?), second half of the
14th century
Collection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Istanbul
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Icons, or sacred images executed in a variety of media, were
powerful expressions of the Orthodox Christian faith. From the
empire’s fourth-century foundation, sacred images of Christ,
the Virgin and the host of saints had evolved as central to
Byzantine religious, political and social life, serving in imperial
ceremony, personal devotion, and public celebration. In the
Late Byzantine period (ca. 1261–1453) and in the decades
after the empire’s fall in 1453, icons continued to play
an essential role in Orthodox spiritual life, both in the public
and private spheres.
One of the most remarkable developments in the history of icons
during the Late Byzantine centuries (ca. 1261–1453) was
the tremendous growth in the production of panel painted icons
on a golden ground. This is the same form that today is most
often associated with Byzantine sacred images. Panel painted
icons, surviving in great number from the Late Byzantine period,
ranged in scale from the very intimate and personal to the monumental,
many as large as six feet in height.
Visual Expressions of the Faith
Liturgical Objects | Manuscripts
and Frescoes | Miniature Mosaic
Icons | Vestments and Textiles
| Painted Icons
Themes in Late Byzantine Art
1. Introduction | 2. Peoples
of the Byzantine Sphere | 3. Visual Expressions of
the Faith | 4. The Byzantine Sphere
and the Islamic World | 5. The
Byzantine Sphere and the West
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