The Realms of Gold

This chapter focuses on Byzantine art and architecture. Not all Byzantine art was a luxury art. However, the lasting appeal of its use of gold, silver, enamel, and precious stones is evident from the choice of objects in blockbuster exhibitions and in the admiring reactions of their visitors. The latter represent a response to Byzantine art and architecture that also found expression among the Byzantines themselves, who composed many lengthy and detailed literary descriptions of art works or buildings. Light and color, as well as gold and glitter, are key features in these works, and light is the dominant feature in the description of the newly built Justinianic Hagia Sophia by Procopius of Caesarea—when Byzantines described marble, what they emphasized was its sheen and brilliance. Moreover, a high proportion of surviving Byzantine art is religious. This does not mean that the Byzantines were all religious themselves; rather, it reveals something about patronage and how art was commissioned.