The Byzantine Economy by Angeliki E. Laiou, Cécile Morrisson (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 296 lives. Ladis observes that the dramatic totality of his popular “literary performance ” (5) captivated a wide public irrepressibly drawn to page turners about embarrassments, bad habits, rivalries, and stormy relationships of even the venerated Giotto for example. In this “great morality play” (x) Giotto’s naturalism extends into the frankness of his speech and piquant wit. The papal envoy is reduced to a “tondo” when Giotto implies that even the perfect circle he has drawn should be appreciated as high art because it was made with care and feeling “to spare.” Vasari as enthusiastic storyteller and pedagogue on the frailty and uniqueness of behavior patterns produces writing stamped with directness, humor and variety. This crucial point of departure uncovers some of the writer’s habitual associations of baptism, birthplace, misfortune, and even weather patterns to the quality, quantity, and iconography of art production. Thus, the triumphs of the impoverished, humble, but honorable artist have as much impact as those that disparage the downfall of undiscerning victims of worldliness. For instance, Vasari chastises Perugino’s quest for quick material gain that goads him to reproduce androgynous figural types. He also devotes a sermon extolling the devotional, obedient, and beautiful work of Fra Angelico contrasted to Filippo Lippi’s carnal pursuit of beauty and his inappropriately earthly Madonnas. In fact, Vasari reserves most of his wrath for other sinners like Baccio Bandinelli whose temerity to produce brutishly colossal male nudes inadequately rivaling the aesthetic and social dominance of gifted, pious Michelangelo proved humiliating . Obviously such portraits of the unforgettable humanity of a Vasarian hero or “compelling anti-hero” (4) successfully override more blatant improvisations of “envious” Castagno murdering “affectionate” Domenico Veneziano who died four years after his alleged killer. Ultimately, the core of Ladis’s decisively bold, generously detailed, and essential supplement to Vasari’s writings posits an intriguing question to Renaissance novice and expert. Could it be that the supposed dexterity and peculiarity of these famed individuals transform the Lives into one of the liveliest art history texts and autobiographies of the time period? If so, then the “necessary tension” (110) sustaining these “historical and imagined” (139) exaggerations of erroneous lives can be all the more appreciated. Perhaps further investigations on the quirks and mannerisms of the “talented but flawed” (141) in every generation promise to magnify the intrigue and tradition of artful characterization that Giorgio Vasari was so fond of inspiring. IVANA MLADENOVIC, Art History, UCLA Angeliki E. Laiou and Cécile Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy (Cambridge University Press 2007) xii + 270 pp., ill., maps. In 2002 The Economic History of Byzantium, a three volume comprehensive study, was published by Dumbarton Oaks featuring chapters written on every type of economic activity by the foremost scholars on those individual subjects, from production (mining to the industries of art), to markets, to essays on the macroeconomic features of the Byzantine economy as a whole. The editor of this work, Angeliki E. Laiou, and a member of its advisory committee, Cécile Morrisson, are together the authors of the volume under review here, The Byzantine Economy, which is part of the Cambridge Medieval Textbooks se- REVIEWS 297 ries. With a very different audience and format, the aim of this work is not to present an abbreviated version of The Economic History of Byzantium, but to present to a larger audience of students and non-specialists (including those studying the medieval West) a cohesive view of the key features of the Byzantine economy and its transformation. In many ways, it succeeds in this mission, and by utilizing new material (especially archaeological evidence which has yet to be fully incorporated into the greater range of Byzantine studies), The Byzantine Economy is able to present a clear outline and survey of its broad subject . The overall format of this short volume is typical; besides the introduction and conclusion, The Byzantine Economy is divided chronologically into four main chapters: the sixth to early eighth centuries, the early eighth to tenth centuries , the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the thirteenth to fifteenth century (described as “Small-State Economics”). The divisions have more to do with political transitions, but are fairly sufficient in encapsulating the overall trends...