Byzantine Art and Renaissance Europe

Abstract

This book is about Byzantine art and the European Renaissance. It discusses cultural and artistic interaction between the Byzantine east and western Europe, from the 1204 sack of Constantinople to the flourishing of 15th-16th-century post-Byzantine artistic workshops on Venetian-ruled Crete, where artists adapted to the demands of a hybrid Byzantine/western society. It examines the routes by which artistic interaction may have taken place and analyses why artists and patrons were interested in ideas from the other side of the cultural and religious divide. The reception of Byzantine art in western Europe during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries is also considered, exploring the devotional function of icons in the west and their value as collector’s items, indicating that received notions of Renaissance tastes may be in need of revision. The book therefore offers new perspectives and insights into the position of late- and post- Byzantine art in this period.