Between the Pagan Past and Christian Present in Byzantine Visual Culture PDF Download
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Author: Paroma Chatterjee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108988334
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 600
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Book Description
Up to its pillage by the Crusaders in 1204, Constantinople teemed with magnificent statues of emperors, pagan gods, and mythical beasts. Yet the significance of this wealth of public sculpture has hardly been acknowledged beyond late antiquity. In this book, Paroma Chatterjee offers a new perspective on the topic, arguing that pagan statues were an integral part of Byzantine visual culture. Examining the evidence in patriographies, chronicles, novels, and epigrams, she demonstrates that the statues were admired for three specific qualities - longevity, mimesis, and prophecy; attributes that rendered them outside of imperial control and endowed them with an enduring charisma sometimes rivaling that of holy icons. Chatterjee's interpretations refine our conceptions of imperial imagery, the Hippodrome, the Macedonian Renaissance, a corpus of secular objects, and Orthodox icons. Her book offers novel insights into Iconoclasm and proposes a more truncated trajectory of the holy icon in medieval Orthodoxy than has been previously acknowledged.
Author: Paroma Chatterjee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108988334
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Get Book Here
Book Description
Up to its pillage by the Crusaders in 1204, Constantinople teemed with magnificent statues of emperors, pagan gods, and mythical beasts. Yet the significance of this wealth of public sculpture has hardly been acknowledged beyond late antiquity. In this book, Paroma Chatterjee offers a new perspective on the topic, arguing that pagan statues were an integral part of Byzantine visual culture. Examining the evidence in patriographies, chronicles, novels, and epigrams, she demonstrates that the statues were admired for three specific qualities - longevity, mimesis, and prophecy; attributes that rendered them outside of imperial control and endowed them with an enduring charisma sometimes rivaling that of holy icons. Chatterjee's interpretations refine our conceptions of imperial imagery, the Hippodrome, the Macedonian Renaissance, a corpus of secular objects, and Orthodox icons. Her book offers novel insights into Iconoclasm and proposes a more truncated trajectory of the holy icon in medieval Orthodoxy than has been previously acknowledged.
Author: Nikolas Bakirtzis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429515758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 719
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Book Description
The Byzantine world contained many important cities throughout its empire. Although it was not ‘urban’ in the sense of the word today, its cities played a far more fundamental role than those of its European neighbors. This book, through a collection of twenty-four chapters, discusses aspects of, and different approaches to, Byzantine urbanism from the early to late Byzantine periods. It provides both a chronological and thematic perspective to the study of Byzantine cities, bringing together literary, documentary, and archival sources with archaeological results, material culture, art, and architecture, resulting in a rich synthesis of the variety of regional and sub-regional transformations of Byzantine urban landscapes. Organized into four sections, this book covers: Theory and Historiography, Geography and Economy, Architecture and the Built Environment, and Daily Life and Material Culture. It includes more specialized accounts that address the centripetal role of Constantinople and its broader influence across the empire. Such new perspectives help to challenge the historiographical balance between ‘margins and metropolis,’ and also to include geographical areas often regarded as peripheral, like the coastal urban centers of the Byzantine Mediterranean as well as cities on islands, such as Crete, Cyprus, and Sicily which have more recently yielded well-excavated and stratigraphically sound urban sites. The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City provides both an overview and detailed study of the Byzantine city to specialist scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike and, therefore, will appeal to all those interested in Byzantine urbanism and society, as well as those studying medieval society in general.
Author: Aleksandar Jovanović
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031092783
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
This book follows the public life of Michael Palaiologos from his early days and upbringing, through to his assumption of the Byzantine imperial throne in 1258. It explores multiple narratives, highlighting the various public communities in the Byzantine polity, primarily focusing on intellectuals and clerks rather than the emperor himself. Drawing on insights from power relations, studies of class and the public sphere, this book provides an account of thirteenth-century Byzantium that highlights the role of communicative and symbolic actions in the public sphere, and argues they were integral to Palaiologos' political success.
Author: Steven D. Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108480233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291
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Book Description
An exciting analysis of gender and sexual desire in sixth century Greek epigram that bridges classical and early Byzantine culture.
Author: Francesca Dell’Acqua
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030247694
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351
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Book Description
This book uses Pseudo-Dionysius and his mystic theology to explore attitudes and beliefs about images in the early medieval West and Byzantium. Composed in the early sixth century, the Corpus Dionysiacum, the collection of texts transmitted under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, developed a number of themes which have a predominantly visual and spatial dimension. Pseudo-Dionysius’ contribution to the development of Christian visual culture, visual thinking and figural art-making are examined in this book to systematically investigate his long-lasting legacy and influence. The contributors embrace religious studies, philosophy, theology, art, and architectural history, to consider the depth of the interaction between the Corpus Dionysiacum and various aspects of contemporary Byzantine and western cultures, including ecclesiastical and lay power, politics, religion, and art.
Author: Foteini Spingou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108643906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1683
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Book Description
In this book the beauty and meaning of Byzantine art and its aesthetics are for the first time made accessible through the original sources. More than 150 medieval texts are translated from nine medieval languages into English, with commentaries from over seventy leading scholars. These include theories of art, discussions of patronage and understandings of iconography, practical recipes for artistic supplies, expressions of devotion, and descriptions of cities. The volume reveals the cultural plurality and the interconnectivity of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries. The first part uncovers salient aspects of Byzantine artistic production and its aesthetic reception, while the second puts a spotlight on particular ways of expressing admiration and of interpreting of the visual.
Author: Troels Myrup Kristensen
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
ISBN: 8771244123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350
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Book Description
The basic premise of the book at hand is that there is meaning to be 'excavated' (in both meanings of the word) from Christian responses to pagan sculpture in the period from the fourth to the sixth century. More than mindless acts of religious violence by fanatical mobs, these responses are revelatory of contemporary conceptions of images and the different ways in which the material manifestations of the pagan past could be negotiated in Late Antiquity. Statues were important to the social, political and religious life of cities across the Mediterranean, as well as part of a culture of representation that was intricately bound to bodily taxonomies and visual practices.
Author: Cecily J. Hilsdale
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107033306
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
Questions how political decline refigures the visual culture of empire by examining the imperial image and the gift in later Byzantium (1261-1453). Provides a more nuanced account of medieval artistic cultural exchange that considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.
Author: Elena N. Boeck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107085810
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
The first comparative, cross-cultural study of medieval illustrated histories that engages in a direct, confrontational dialogue with Byzantine historical memory.
Author: Asaf Friedman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527535053
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 173
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Book Description
The Byzantine era was a time of the formation of the Abrahamic religions and a battleground for people’s hearts and minds. This book shows that, during the time of the Byzantine Empire, the synagogues in Palaestina developed a visual language adhering to traditional literary sources. Until now, scholars believed that Judaism was oblivious to all art forms, regarding them as mere “decoration.” This book shows that, contrary to those beliefs, Jewish art was, in fact, flourishing in this period. The visual language that emerged is a trope that utilizes literal and figurative readings to arrive at an inquisitive mixture—a probing language that facilitates learning. It is a visual language of “becoming,” of inward introspection and outward scrutiny. This new analysis goes beyond the limits of compositional rules, and requires an analytical, as well as emotive, thought process, to form a cultural interpretation that reveals the hidden language. This means that some parts of Judaism and some parts of Christianity were in agreement despite the commandment of “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” and operated under the assumption that paintings were not necessarily the creation of idols. Thus, we see that the modern movements of art and architecture were not the first to deal with images through themes such as abstraction and denotation. The language developed during the Byzantine period could rival the best of such visual languages.
