Art Materials and Techniques

Term used to describe a wide range of ‘floral’ motifs prominent in Western art from the 11th century to the end of the 12th. The German term was first used to describe generically similar motifs that appear in 10th-century Byzantine art, for example in the ...

Wooden panel with a painting, usually in tempera, of a holy person or one of the traditional images of Orthodox Christianity (see fig.), the religion of the Byzantine empire practised today mainly in Greece and Russia (see Early Christian and Byzantine art, §VI...

Term for the architectural core or sanctuary of a building. In ancient Greek architecture it refers to the cella or main sanctuary of a temple, while in Byzantine architecture it is used for that area of a centrally planned church that is reserved for the performance of the liturgy....

Generic Greek name for the subsidiary chapel of a Byzantine church, as distinct from the main structure variously called ekklesia, naos or katholikon. Parekklesia vary considerably in size, position, architectural form and decoration. They frequently form an integral part of the overall church design, and many are distinguished externally by a dome. Often ...

Room, chapel or apse north of the sanctuary in a Byzantine or Greek Orthodox church, used for the storage and preparation of the Eucharist before Mass (for illustration see Parekklesion).

Atrium or forecourt of an Early Christian and Byzantine church, fronted on each of its four sides by a colonnaded portico.