Macedonian Renaissance (867–1056)

also: Middle Byzantine Renaissance · First Byzantine Renaissance · Macedonian art

movement 867-1056 Byzantine Empire Eastern Mediterranean

The Macedonian Renaissance is the historians' name for the flowering of Byzantine culture in the ninth to eleventh centuries, under the Macedonian dynasty founded by Basil I in 867. After the end of Iconoclasm in 843, religious art resumed on a grand scale, and painters, carvers and scribes turned back to Late Antique and classical models: figures gained natural bodies, drapery gained illusionistic weight, and classical personifications entered biblical manuscripts. The term was coined by the art historian Kurt Weitzmann in 1948 in his study of the Joshua Roll, and the Paris Psalter remains the era's touchstone. Also called the Middle or First Byzantine Renaissance - the Palaeologan Renaissance of the thirteenth century being the second - it produced the empire's finest illuminated books, ivories and icons, in the imperial workshops of Constantinople.

The Virgin and Child ( Theotokos ) mosaic, in the apse of Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)
The Virgin and Child ( Theotokos ) mosaic, in the apse of Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)Public domain (credit: Photograph: Myrabella) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Renewed classicism: modeled figures and illusionistic drapery after Late Antique prototypes
  • Classical personifications (such as Melody beside David) inside biblical manuscripts
  • Luxurious full-page manuscript miniatures in the imperial workshop style
  • Ivory carving revived for book covers and caskets, with classical poses
  • Icons painted with new naturalism after the end of Iconoclasm
  • Courtly standardization of style centered on Constantinople

Key figures

  • Basil I (811-886) — Founder of the Macedonian dynasty whose reign opened the cultural revival
  • Leo VI the Wise (866-912) — Scholar-emperor whose writings exemplify the age's learned court culture
  • Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (905-959) — Emperor-scholar of encyclopedic commissions; the Paris Psalter belongs to his circle
  • Kurt Weitzmann (1904-1993) — Art historian who named the Macedonian Renaissance in his 1948 study of the Joshua Roll

Example works

  • Paris Psalter — Unknown (Constantinopolitan imperial workshop) (c. 940)
  • Joshua Roll — Unknown (Constantinopolitan imperial workshop) (10th century)
  • Menologion of Basil II — Unknown (Constantinopolitan court workshop) (c. 1000)

Sources

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