This project addresses a lacuna in knowledge about the perpetuation of Byzantine culture and the response of Orthodox art to drastically different socio-political and religious contexts than had existed in Byzantium. By examining the various trends in religious art that developed across the former empire’s lands particularly under Venetian and Ottoman rule, the project assesses the role of Orthodoxy and the memory of Byzantium in the creation of different Christian community identities under colonial circumstances. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the Bulgarian Orthodox community within the socio-cultural context of the Balkans under Ottoman rule that contributed to distinctive iconographic elements in the post-Byzantine icons and wall paintings from Bulgaria.