Byzantios is the notname of a Romanesque stone sculptor or workshop, working on Gotland in present-day Sweden during the last quarter of the 12th century.
Around a dozen decorated baptismal fonts from this time are so similar in style and execution that art historians have assumed they have the same origin.
Stylistic comparisons have been made with the sculpture adorning the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir and the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl.
[8] Svetlana Svensson has criticised this theory, arguing that the Russian churches show a clear pictorial programme, aimed at glorifying local rulers, which is completely absent in the work of Byzantios.
[10] After Byzantios a sequence of other stone sculptors, also mostly producing baptismal fonts, worked on Gotland, e.g. Majestatis, Hegvald and Sigraf.
Without exception, the bases are decorated by four protruding, sculpted heads of respectively a human, a ram, a lion and what is probably supposed to be a panther.
For example, the treatment of the subject of the Annunciation is depicted with Mary spinning yarn for the veil at the temple, a typically Byzantine way of representing the scene.
In addition, animals and legendary creatures (including the first depictions of both elephants and camels in Swedish art history) are also popular subjects.
Some of these attributions are not generally agreed upon, and as to whether or not Byzantios also made other works, notably the friezes on the facade of Vänge Church, is a matter of debate.