Editing Icon (section)

===Byzantine Empire===
{{see also|Byzantine art}}
[[File:Ohrid annunciation icon.jpg|thumb|A key piece of [[Palaiologan era|Palaiologan-era]] [[mannerism]]—the [[Annunciation]] icon from [[Ohrid]] in [[North Macedonia]]]]

Of the icon painting tradition that developed in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the chief city, we have only a few icons from the 11th century and none preceding them, in part because of the Iconoclastic reforms during which many were destroyed or lost, and also because of plundering by the [[Republic of Venice]] in 1204 during the [[Fourth Crusade]], and finally the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453.

It was only in the [[Komnenian period]] (1081–1185) that the cult of the icon became widespread in the Byzantine world, partly on account of the dearth of richer materials (such as mosaics, [[ivory]], and [[vitreous enamel]]s), but also because an ''[[iconostasis]]'' a special screen for icons was introduced then in ecclesiastical practice. The style of the time was severe, hieratic and distant.

In the late Comnenian period this severity softened, and emotion, formerly avoided, entered icon painting. Major monuments for this change include the murals at [[Daphni Monastery]] ({{c.|1100}}) and the [[Church of St. Panteleimon (Gorno Nerezi)|Church of St. Panteleimon]] near [[Skopje]] (1164). The [[Theotokos of Vladimir]] ({{c.|1115}}) is probably the most representative example of the new trend towards spirituality and emotion.

The tendency toward emotionalism in icons continued in the [[Palaiologos|Paleologan period]], which began in 1261. Palaiologan art reached its pinnacle in mosaics such as those of [[Chora Church]]. In the last half of the 14th century, Palaiologan saints were painted in an exaggerated manner, very slim and in contorted positions – a style known as the Palaiologan Mannerism, of which [[:File:Ohrid annunciation icon.jpg|Ochrid's Annunciation]] is a superb example.

After 1453, the Byzantine tradition was carried on in regions previously influenced by its religion and culture—in the Balkans, Russia, and other Slavic countries, [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and [[Armenia]] in the Caucasus, and among Eastern Orthodox minorities in the Islamic world. In the Greek-speaking world [[Crete]], ruled by [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] until the mid-17th century, was an important centre of painted icons, as home of the [[Cretan School]], exporting many to Europe.