Byzantine art [antikvár]

Byzantine art is an outstanding, and in many respects unique, phenomenon in the history of world culture. Emerging on the brink of the medieval period, at a point where the antique society was giving way to the nascent feudal system, the art of Byzantium absorbed the traditions of classical antiquity, and preserved them throughout the thousand years of its existence. This, however, was but one of the several aspects which made of Byzantine art a factor of paramount importance in the cultural evolution of a number of countries in Europe and Asia. A blend of artistic traditions of the various peoples inhabiting the vast Byzantine Empire, this art came to express, with the utmost force and clarity, the aesthetic ideals of its time. Though here, as elsewhere in Europe, art was subservient to religious doctrine, and the necessity to follow the canons set by the Christian church curbed the individual freedom of the artist, yet Byzantine masters achieved unprecedented heights of artistic perfection. Their work possessed a powerful emotional appeal, and addressed itself to much wider circles of society than the art of antiquity had ever done. Constantinople, the capital of the Empire, was unquestionably the leading centre of medieval culture; its place in the art evolution of the time could be compared to that of Paris during the past four or five centuries. Karl Marx once called Constantinople "a golden bridge joining the East and the West", and this refers to art no less than to any other sphere of human activity. Up to the seventh century, the Byzantine Empire incorporated many different countries situated on the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Many peoples enriched the culture of this powerful state with their ancient artistic traditions. At a later time they, in their turn, were to be influenced by Byzantine cultural traditions. Ancient Russia, Georgia and to a lesser degree Armenia are also numbered among the legatees of Byzantine culture. Soviet museums own extensive collections of art objects from Byzantium. Viewed in their entirety, they give a more comprehensive idea of the evolution of the various branches of Byzantine art than do the collections of any other single country. Among the works housed in Soviet museums are specimens of the art of painting, of sculpture, and of the minor arts : silver- and bronzework, goldwork, jewellery and glyptics, wood and ivory-carving, cloisonné enamels, textiles, embroidery and ceramics. The wealth of Byzantine collections in Soviet museums is explained by historical reasons. For a long period of time the Byzantine Empire included the southern coast of the Crimea, with the town of Chersonese (near the modern Sevastopol) which was the bulwark of Byzantine domination in this area. As far back as 1827, excavations were started here, which have been carried out up to the present day with the participation of the Hermitage, Leningrad, and the History Museum, Moscow. They yielded large numbers of jewellery objects, bronze and stone icons, and various articles of pottery. Byzantine gold and silver wares are found in Central Russia and in the Ukraine, where they occur at different spots once visited by nomad peoples in the course of their migrations. Most of the silver objects from the sixth and seventh centuries, produced in Constantinople, come from