Explains how and why Early Christian and Byzantine art was made and used.

John Lowden provides an authoritative account of early Christian and Byzantine art from the third century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. From the grandest public buildings to the smallest personal items, it was and is an art of extraordinary directness, but also of mystery and transcendence. John Lowden explains how and why early Christian and Byzantine art was made and used and situates it within the controversies of its time.