....The Byzantine Empire fell in the mid-15th century (also called Roman Empire East), but something of its
spirit still lives on. A great deal of it lives on in the
work of the French illustrator Antoine Helbert. "This passion was kindled by a birthday gift from his mother," writes a blogger named Herve Risson in
a post about it.
"This gift was a book about Byzantium. Helbert was 7 years old." Like
many an interest instilled early and deeply enough in childhood,
Helbert's fascination turned into an obsession — or anyway, what looks
like it must be an obsession, since it has motivated him to create such
magnificently detailed recreations of Byzantium in its heyday.
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| HAGIA SOPHIA |
Helbert, who only made his first visit to Istanbul at the age of 35,
has put in that amount of imaginative work and much more besides. "Since
then," writes Risson, Helbert "has taken great care to resurrect the
city of the emperors, with great attention to details and to the sources
available. What he can’t find, he invents, but always with a great care
for the historical accuracy." Indeed, many of Helbert's illustrations
don't, at first glance, look like illustrations at all, but more like
what you'd come up with if you traveled back to the Constantinople of
fifteen or so centuries ago with a camera. "The project has no lucrative
goal," Risson notes. "It’s a passion. A byzantine passion.
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| THE PALACE OF BUCOLEON |
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| THE TWELVE FEATS OF HERCULES (LITTLE GATE) |
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| EQUESTRIAN STATUE FOR BYZANTINE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN |
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| EMPRESS THEODORA |
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VIEW OF THE HIPPODROME AND THE GRAND PALACE
http://www.openculture.com/2018/08/french-illustrator-revives-the-byzantine-empire.html |
