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Byzantine iconography is the art of depicting saints and religious subjects. It is the natural evolution of the Fayoum portraits. Iconography plays the role of a bridge between man and the Divine. In the depiction of religious subjects, certain rules have been established. It is necessary for the painters to faithfully render the characteristics of the holy persons, as they have been handed down, either from older written texts, or from various visual media called “archetypes”. Thus we see repeated over the centuries a strictly defined type for each holy person. The first depiction of the Divine person goes back to Christ himself.

Also, it is necessary that the figures exude spirituality. The saints are depicted stern but indulgent, never smiling and never with a worldly expression. In Byzantine iconography, incidents from the Old Testament, the Gospel and the lives of the saints are mainly represented. The golden background used in the icons creates the impression of a transcendent world, which isolates the figure from the earthly environment.