Art of the Byzantine Era (World of Art) Paperback – February 17, 1985

Beautiful art work. The Byzantine era so influenced our art. It is not familiar to everyone, but it really is a fascinating time.

While this book discusses Byzantine art, it also describes art in what Dmitri Obolensky described as The Byzantine Commonwealth. As such, this book is on a lot more than just the art produced in and for the elites in Constantinople. Instead Talbot Rice describes the influence of Byzantine art surrounding regions, such as Armenia, Norman Sicily, the Slavonic lands, and Georgia. The cover of the book amply demonstrates this fact, given that the mosaic depicted is not one produced in the Byzantine Empire, but rather the crowning of Roger II of Sicily. Looking at regions outside of Constantinople's temportal power but still under the influence of Byzantine art is what this book does. In this survey, Talbot Rice examines an enormous variety of artistic source material: mosaics, manuscripts, textiles, objects of art, churches, sculpture, ivories, and enamels. While this is an incredible selection of material spanning an vast geographical area, he manages to synthesize it cogently. The result is this good little book on Byzantine art. For a Thames and Hudson publication, I was a little disappointed in the number of colour plates, given that their books often include a disproportionate quantity of colour plates in relation to their price compared to many other art books. Nonetheless, there are still sixty-some colour images in this book, and given the price one can hardly complain. This is a great little book, but if you're looking for a great big art book on the roughly the same subject (albeit somewhat more confined chronologically) where everything is in colour, check out the shockingly affordable Glory of Byzantium: Arts and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261

This was a Christmas gift, My sister in law, Said it was what she was looking for and can't wait to go through it.

No color illustrations, despite the title page stating that there are 64 color illustrations.

In most histories of western art, the Byzantine style sat someone incongruously to the side, as treatment was usually limited to frescoes in Ravenna and Constantinople. Yet its unusual style had a wider geographical spread and more universal appeal as David Talbot-Rice explores here in the Pelican edition of the Style and Civilisation series. Originally published by Oxford University Press in 1935 with its limited circulation, Penguin approached the erudite Talbot-Rice to update his work for a wider, but still discerning audience. This 570 page reader is still daunting for the novice to art history however, but its handy 5" x 8" size makes it worthwhile. This older edition now looks as though it has been overtaken, updated and reissued by Thames and Hudson with more colour plates.The various chapters cover architecture, mosaics, manuscript illustrations, panel paintings , sculpture , enamels , ceramics and glasswork. My 1968 edition in paperback is still useful to read , but modern readers would more likely prefer more colour plates than is found here. Many cathedral photographs are accompanied by useful plans of buildings. This noted author does a brilliant job in commentary. Highly recommended.

Rice's introduction to Byzantine art is particularly useful in that it does not limit itself to the arts of Constantinople only. It focuses first on the Late Antique period (primarily in Egypt), and then goes on to provide worthwhile overviews of artistic developments in Constantinople, Byzantine Italy and the Balkans. And, although he provides little more than a cursory explanation of the complex causes of change in the Byzantine aesthetic, the author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident in his clear, jargon-free descriptions of individual works. Despite being originally published almost 40 years ago, this study still effectively conveys the breadth of Byzantium's artistic influence better than most.