Byzantine artists produced numerous masterpieces that still resonate today, despite the centuries. While most scholars and writers are known by name, the same cannot be said for the majority of the artists who created the stunning mosaics, sculptures, and paintings that continue to fascinate us. Unlike in antiquity, where artists were famous and renowned, in the Middle Ages the individual who produced the art became less important than the cause they served. As a result, with a few exceptions, we don’t know the names of the artists involved. However, this began to change toward the end of the Byzantine period, foreshadowing the Renaissance, when the role of the artist started to take on its modern meaning.

Meet the Byzantine painters.

Among Byzantine artists, painters are perhaps not the most obscure, but only a handful of names emerge from the Middle Byzantine period. However in the final phase of Byzantine history, as the Empire shrank and approached its end, there was an artistic revival known as the Palaeologan Renaissance. During this period, we begin to see more artists’ names come to light, marking a shift in how these creators perceived themselves, and were recognized and remembered.

Apart from that, it is important to draw attention to the fact that right until the end of the 18th century, there were Greek artists whose signatures consisted of their name and patronym, (like Theodore, son of Daniel, who painted the Church of Christ Soter in the village of Meskla, Crete, in 1303).

Meet the Byzantine novelists.

Byzantine romance literature marks a revival of the ancient Greek romances from Roman times. In 12th-century Constantinople, under the Comnenian dynasty, writers reintroduced this genre, mirroring its form and setting while infusing the content with medieval and Christian elements. Though these Byzantine romances followed the traditional structure of ancient tales – featuring complex plots set in the ancient Mediterranean with references to classical gods and myths – they also reflected the medieval world of the Crusades, incorporating the beliefs and customs of that era. This revival bridged an eight-century gap between the last surviving romances of late antiquity and the emergence of this medieval literary form.

Today, only four examples of Byzantine romance of the Komnenian time survive. One is written in prose: Hysimine and Hysimines by Eustathios Makrembolites. Two are composed in dodecasyllable meter: Rodanthe and Dosikles by Theodore Prodromos and Drosilla and Charikles by Niketas Eugenianos. The final work, Arístandros and Kallithéa by Constantine Manasses, is in “political verse,” but only exists in fragments.