ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the period 1261 to 1453. Historically this means the time bracket which starts with the triumphant return of Constantinople from Frankish occupation to Byzantine imperial control and of the conversion of Hagia Sophia from Catholic cathedral to Orthodox worship and which ends with the Ottoman suppression of an East Christian empire in Constantinople and the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The chapter discusses the art of this period in terms of how it shows a response to topical threats. It clarifies whether the art of this period is to be viewed as art in the service of Orthodoxy or as art that represents Orthodoxy. The chapter considers the visual issues which might be connected with Hesychasm. It describes how to interpret 'unionist' art around the times of the two major attempts in the west to solve the east-west schism of 1054 by the union of churches.
