Byzantine Mosaic Art

Timeline

1. 300–500Constantinople and Anatolia · AnatoliaAfter the Roman Empire legalized Christianity, church domes and apses became carriers of mosaic, decorating major religious buildings with biblical narratives and imperial donation scenes, techniques inherited from the Roman mosaic tradition.
2. 527–565Hagia Sophia · TurkeyJustinian I rebuilt Hagia Sophia, covering its dome and arches with large expanses of gold mosaic, establishing the visual language of a 'theology of light' in Byzantine religious architecture; contemporary works in Ravenna display the same imperial aesthetic standards.
3. 726–843Churches throughout the Byzantine Empire · AnatoliaLeo III launched the iconoclast movement, and many figural icon mosaics were covered with lime or scraped away; after the triumph of Orthodoxy in 843, icon veneration was restored, and previously covered works resurfaced in later restorations.
4. 800–1100Constantinople and Kiev · Southeastern EuropeFrom the ninth to the eleventh century, Byzantine mosaic art entered a flourishing period; techniques and craftsmen spread to Kievan Rus' (such as St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev), mainland Greece, and southern Italy, forming a shared visual vocabulary of the Orthodox artistic sphere.