The Byzantine Style

Margaritone d’Arezzo - Margaritone d'Arezzo, Madonna and Child, c. 1270, tempera on panel, overall: 97.3 x 49.5 cm (38 5/16 x 19 1/2 in.) height (main panel, without extension for head and halo): 73.2 cm (28 13/16 in.) top section (extension for head and halo): 26.6 x 23.5 cm (10 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.) - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The Byzantine style basically ended with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, during the European Renaissance. However, its influence continued for a considerable time in Russia and elsewhere where the Orthodox church held sway. Margaritone d'Arezzo (fl. ca.1250-1290) was a painter about whom we know very little.The only documentary record of his existence dates from 1262, when he lived in Arezzo. However, a fair number of his works are known to survive; unusually for the time, most are signed. Their nature and distribution indicate that Margaritone was much in demand as an artist, both in Arezzo and throughout Tuscany. Margaritone's style is uniquely identifiable, standing as it does outside the mainstream of 13th-century Italian painting. What little we know of him comes from Vasari.