Byzantine art is the artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire and other Eastern Orthodox states that culturally inherited from the empire. Several states, while not part of the Byzantine Empire, were still culturally influenced by it, including Bulgaria, Serbia, and Kievan Rus. Certain artistic traditions originating in the Byzantine Empire in icon painting and church architecture have been maintained in Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.

1. Byzantine art is the name for the artistic products of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine)
Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire.
Though the empire itself emerged from Rome's decline and lasted until the Fall of
Constantinople in 1453, many Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern Europe, as well
as to some degree the Muslim states of the eastern Mediterranean, preserved
many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.
A number of states contemporary with the Byzantine Empire were culturally
influenced by it, without actually being part of it (the "Byzantine commonwealth").
These included Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Rus, as well as some non-Orthodox
states like theRepublic of Venice and the Kingdom of Sicily, which had close ties
to the Byzantine Empire despite being in other respects part of western European
culture. Art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman
Empire is often called "post-Byzantine." Certain artistic traditions that originated in
the Byzantine Empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church
architecture, are maintained in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia and
other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.
7JULY 2014