The Byzantine epoch stretches from the fourth to the fifteenth century. Art of the late antique and early Byzantine periods reflects the Mediterranean-wide cultural transition that took place as the region adopted Christianity. The iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries prompted a renewal of artistic production in the middle Byzantine period. The late period, following the occupation of Constantinople by the Crusaders in the thirteenth century, produced objects of virtuosity and luxury and left a legacy that has lived on in post-Byzantine Orthodox culture.
