Macedonian art (sometimes called the
Macedonian Renaissance) was a period in
Byzantine art which began with the reign of the
Emperor Basil I of the
Macedonian dynasty in 867. The period followed the lifting of the ban on icons (
iconoclasm) and lasted until the fall of the dynasty in the mid-eleventh century. It coincided with the
Ottonian Renaissance in
Western Europe. Then in the ninth and tenth centuries, the Byzantine Empire's military situation improved, and art and architecture revived. New churches were again commissioned, and the Byzantine church mosaic style became standardised. The best preserved examples are at the
Hosios Lukas Monastery in mainland
Greece and the
Nea Moni Katholikon in the island of
Chios. The very freely painted
frescoes at
Castelseprio in Italy are linked by many art historians to the art of Constantinople of the period also. There was a revival of interest in classical Greco-Roman heritage themes (of which the
Paris Psalter is an important testimony) and more sophisticated techniques were used to depict human figures. There was also a naturalistic style and more complex techniques from ancient Greek and Roman art mixed with Christian themes used in art.