A great deal of the Byzantine Empire of the mid-15th century lives on in the work of the French illustrator Antoine Helbert. You can see some of Helbert's work on his site, which is divided into two sections: one for scenes of Byzantium, and one for the architecture of Byzantium. The latter category, images from which you see here, includes such world-famous landmarks as Hagia Sophia, Boukoleon Palace, and the Great Palace of Constantinople — the city now known as Istanbul, Turkey.
Very cool! Thank you for posting this. I like best Helbert's Byzantine street scenes and depictions of ordinary people. When you google "Byzantine clothing" you have to dig through 100s of pictures of Theodora and Justinian mosaics and other rulers, nobles, and church figures, but there are few pictures of what ordinary people wore. His bird's eye views of the architecture of the shining Justinian era Constantinople are incredible, too. I admire all of his research. I wish he would put out coffee table books of his Byzantine projects - I would totally shell out for shipping from France.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it.
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