Byzantine

Refers to the style and period of Christian art that developed in the eastern Mediterranean during the rule of the Byzantine Empire (330 - 1453 CE), was carried throughout much of the Christian world, and lasted into the 16th century in eastern Europe. The style is characterized by imperial and religious subject matter, and a movement away from the original Greek naturalistic forms to favor ritualistic stylization, intended to suggest the spiritual. For the style and period of the Italian and western Mediterranean Christian world roughly from the third to the mid-ninth century CE, use "Early Christian."