Did patronage of the arts exist prior to the renaissance?
Patronage of the arts did exist prior to the ‘Renaissance’ in Western Europe by existing within the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire of the Amorian, Isaurian, Nikephorian, Phrygian, Macedonian, Komnenian, Angelid, Laskarid and Palaeologan Dynasties. Early Byzantine Art: 330-600 CE started with the promulgations of Licinius and Constantine on 313 CE allowing monumental Christian art to be developed and the allowing of Christianity to be worshipped throught the greater empire. Some examples include the works of the so-called ‘acheiropoietos’ or works ‘graced by God, and not touched by man’ as well as the use of chiaroscuro, an ivory diptych showing Areobindus as consul on 506 CE over the games in the Hippodrome, religious illustrations in classical writings such as Virgil in Vergilius Vaticanus and Vergilius Romanus, and Homer represented by the Ambrosian Iliad. Here the art helped to illustrate the excess of hubris and the loss of sophrosyne as a major sin. During the Age of Justi
