The Early Christian and Byzantine portraiture represents both a continuation of and a break from the past. The continuation from the past is there because many of the Early Christian and Byzantine portraits show the people in the pictures doing stuff they accomplished or that was important. In earlier times, there were paintings drawn in caves that portrayed hunts. This is representing some of the people's best hunts or maybe the winner of the hunts. In the first picture below, there are people doing something that was probably pretty important to Early Christians because it was good enough to be made into a huge carving. In Byzantine portraiture, (second picture from bottom), you can see that a portrait of one person is about the same as earlier portraits. For example, they depict a single person, usually rather important, facing forward. There is a break from the past in a couple of ways too. In some of the portraiture from the Early Christians and Byzantine's, the images have much more detail and are sometimes created a different way because there has been better materials discovered. The third picture down is a mosaic, these pictures had to have taken a long and tedious time because of all the placement of the tiles or glass pieces. Also, the picture directly below is very precise and has much detail in all of the people. The continuation and breaks in the older portraiture to the newer is a good thing. It helps the world and culture develop even more.
http://artandseek.net/files/2007/12/ivory-with-pilate.jpg
http://prestwidge.com/horizon/horizon5-8.jpg
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ikon/athos10.gif
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