The Transition from the Aesthetic of Ancient Greek Art to the Medieval Aesthetic - Continuities and Discontinuities

The Transition from the Aesthetic of Ancient Greek Art to the Medieval Aesthetic - Continuities and Discontinuities

Nafsika Panselinou

Professor Emerita of the Athens School of Fine Arts

During the Late Roman period (3^rd- 4^th centuries), the classical aesthetic of the previous imperial times regressed with schematisation of design and simplification of the forms. This new artistic language was adopted by Christian art which, by the 6^th century, acquired its Byzantine face in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, which is of interest for the present study. After the end of iconoclastic Controversy (726-843), the Byzantine art was marked by two currents, a classist current that drew on the example of Greco-Roman art and produced what are known as “renaissances”, Macedonian “renaissance” of the 10^th-11^th centuries and Palaeologian of the 13^th-14^th centuries. The second current was more spiritual, expressionistic and anti-classical, as was especially the idiom that has been described as “koine”, i.e. the common language of the Comnene age in the 12^th century.

Keywords: Late Roman period; Early Christian art; Macedonian “renaissance”; Palaeologian “renaissance”; Comnene art