Byzantium

[ewx]

Do go and see the Royal Academy's Byzantium Exhibition if you have any interest in that sort of thing. A few comments:

• Many of the pieces of course are Christian artwork; strikingly some of these predate Constantine.
• The most amusing piece was a simple bowl with what I can only describe as a happy fish painted on the inside. It wouldn't look even slightly out of place in the modern world.
• Byzantine religious artists liked writing (or carving) identifications of the figures they depicted, even the ones their audience really ought to be able to get easily like Mary and Jesus. Dead handy for a modern audience though.
• St Paul is pretty reliably depicted with a longer beard than any of his human peers. Makes him pretty easy to pick out.