Palaiologos imperial dynasty 547See alsoAUGUSTINE OFCANTERBURY, SAINT; BONI-
FACE,SAINT; MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES; PREACHING AND
PREACHERS.
Further reading:J. N. Hillgarth, ed., Christianity and
Paganism, 350–750: The Conversion of Western Europe,rev.
ed. (1969; reprint, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylva-
nia Press, 1986); Pierre Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last
Pagans,trans. B. A. Archer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1990); John R. Curran, Pagan City and
Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century(Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999); H. R. Ellis Davidson,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe(Baltimore: Penguin
Books, 1964); Jean Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan
Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renais-
sance Humanism and Art,trans. Barbara F. Sessions (1940;
reprint, New York: Pantheon Books, 1953); Ronald Sheri-
dan and Anne Ross, Gargoyles and Grotesques: Paganism
in the Medieval Church(Boston: New York Graphic Soci-
ety, 1975).
painting In the Middle Ages and RENAISSANCE, paint-
ing employed several media, including various forms of
FRESCOon walls, on PARCHMENTin manuscripts, and from
easels onto wooden panels and ALTARPIECES. These for-
mats survived from late antiquity to continue in the Mid-
dle Ages. The overwhelming majority of painting was
religious, but by the 14th and 15th centuries there was a
considerable increase in secular and civic art in palaces
and in public buildings. With the revival of classical
learning and education in the 15th century, pagan and
classical themes appeared, especially in the painting pro-
duced for the LAITY. From the mid-14th century, true por-
traits of individuals and saints appeared on smaller
panels, wooden containers, or disks.
Techniques changed, especially from egg tempera to
oil bases. Painting on stretched canvas also become more
common from the 15th century. Besides being ornamen-
tal and complementary to architecture, the iconography
of religious painting was used to instruct Christians in
their faith and to illustrate liturgical rites. There are
numerous examples of preaches’ using images in just that
way in the later Middle Ages. Secular themes reminded
viewers of the power of the patron, whether an individual
or a corporate body such as a town. Although little of
that has survived from the Carolingian period, there
still exist excellent examples in the town hall of SIENA,
the ducal fortress in Mantua, and the Papal Palace in
AVIGNON, as well as fragments in the imperial palaces of
CONSTANTINOPLE.
BYZANTINE AND ISLAMICPainting decorated the apses, ceilings, and naves of Ortho-
dox churches, wherever they might be, to complement the
complex liturgy and to display iconic representations of
Christ, the Blessed Virgin MARY, and the saints. The early
CALIPHSof ISLAMalso decorated their palaces and hunting
lodges with secular paintings, including human and ani-
mal figures. MOSQUEStended to be very simply decorated.
Islamic manuscripts were illuminated with complex pat-
terns and quotations from the QURANfor the edification of
the reader and as mnemonic aids.
See also individual artists;ALTARS AND ALTARPIECES; ART
AND ARCHITECTURE,BYZANTINE; ART AND ARCHITECTURE,
ISLAMIC; ART AND ARCHITECTURE,JEWISH; FRESCO;GOTHIC
ART AND ARCHITECTURE; ICONOCLASM ANDICONOCLASTIC
CONTROVERSY; ICONS, HISTORY AND THEOLOGY OF; ILLUMI-
NATION;OTTONIAN ART;RENAISSANCE AND REVIVALS IN ART;
ROMANESQUE ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
Further reading:Cennino Cennini, The Book of the
Art of Cennino Cennini: A Contemporary Practical Treatise
on Quattrocento Painting,trans. Christiana J. Herringham
(London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1922); Ferdinando
Bologna, Early Italian Painting: Romanesque and Early
Medieval Art (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1964);
Bruce Cole, Italian Art, 1250–1550: The Relation of
Renaissance Art to Life and Society(New York: Harper &
Row, 1987); Richard Fremantle, Florentine Gothic
Painters from Giotto to Masaccio: A Guide to Painting in
and Near Florence, 1300 to 1450(London: Secker and
Warburg, 1975); André Grabar, Early Medieval Painting
from the Fourth to the Eleventh Century: Mosaics and
Mutual Painting,trans. Stuart Gilbert (New York: Skira,
1957); Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Art and Architecture
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1999); Andrew Martin-
dale, Painting the Palace: Studies in the History of Medieval
Secular Painting(London: Pindar Press, 1995); Thomas
F. Mathews, Byzantium: From Antiquity to the Renaissance
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998); John White, The
Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space(New York: Harper &
Row, 1967).Palaiologos imperial dynasty The Palaiologoi were
the BYZANTINE family dynasty who recaptured CON-
STANTINOPLEfrom the Latins, provided the last Byzantine
emperors, and held the throne between 1261 and 1453.MICHAEL VIII
At the death of Emperor Theodore II Laskaris (r.
1254–58) of NICAEAin 1258, Michael Palaiologos VIII
(r. 1261–82), a general, had himself proclaimed
emperor. Three years later, he retook Constantinople
from the Latins and restored the empire. To help the
Greeks resist the aggression of Western princes, he
sought help from the PAPACY. In 1274, he concluded a
union of the Byzantine and Roman churches at the first
Council of LYON. Such a union alienated the Greek
CLERGYand monks, despite the pleas of the patriarch,
John XI Bekkos (r. 1275–82). On March 30, 1282, the
SICILIANVESPERS, a massacre of the French subjects and
soldiers by the population of PALERMO, diverted a