Byzantine Artists Research Articles

A Fountain of Fire: Idolatry, Alterity, and Ethnicity in Byzantine Book Illumination

This article examines the visual representation of pagan idols in Byzantine book illumination and investigates how such images were employed to convey a sense of geographical or ethnic distance. The main focus of this study is a group of illuminated manuscripts containing two of the most popular texts in the Byzantine world: Barlaam and Ioasaph and the Alexander Romance. These manuscripts include numerous representations of statuary that Byzantine readers would have easily recognized as being associated with the religious practices and superstitions of distant and foreign populations, thereby reinforcing their own self-identification with “civilized” characters. Through a comparative analysis of manuscripts such as Athon. Iviron 463 (Barlaam and Ioasaph) and Venice, Istituto Ellenico cod. 5 (Alexander Romance), this article explores the variety of iconographic solutions adopted by Byzantine artists to enhance the “ethnographic” function of idol images. A close examination of these solutions sheds new light on how visual narratives contributed to the construction of notions of identity, otherness, and ethnicity in Byzantium.

«ПРЕМУДРОСТЬ БОЖИЯ» В МОЗАИКАХ СОБОРА МОНРЕАЛЕ

As special devotional image among the Montreal Cathedral mo- saics is dedicated to the personification of the Wisdom of God on the east side of the arch that separates the central nave from the transept. The Wisdom is depicted as a queen-like wife with her hands raised in prayer, entitled SAPIEN- TIA DEI. Below on the sides of the arch the Archangels Gabriwl and Michael are adoring her. The image is located at the beginning of the Old Testament scenes on the walls of the nave. A personification of the Wisdom of God as a queen-like wife is not known in the Byzantine art of the 11 th – 12 th centuries but is found among Roman min- iatures. This depiction is similar to personifications of the Church in Roman and early Byzantine monumental painting. It is difficult to tell the difference without an inscription. A Roman example could be used by Byzantine artists of the Monreale as а model. The image in the Monreale may be considered as personification of both Wisdom and the Church. Such double personification is found in Medieval images.

New Finds of Frescoes in St George’s Cathedral of the Yuriev Monastery and Teams of Painters in the Novgorod Land of the First Half of the 12th Century

The archaeological expedition led by Vl. V. Sedov discovered thousands of fragments of the original painting around 1130 in the St George Cathedral of the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod during the 2013–2020. Recent finds of fragments of remarkable frescoes in the Yuriev Monastery, as well as in the Church of the Annunciation on the Hillfort from the beginning of the 12th century, significantly expand the traditional understanding of early art in Veliky Novgorod. These murals allow us to consider in a new way the problem of the work of painters’ teams, their migration and succession in the Novgorod land of the first half of the 12th century. Just as the architecture of St George’s Cathedral is the pinnacle of Novgorod architecture, so its frescoes demonstrate the unusually luxurious order of Prince Vsevolod and an outstanding artistic quality. A special team was to be called up for the decoration of the St George Cathedral. Its work continued the tradition of princely Novgorod churches of the first quarter of the 12th century. Probably, the team was called to Novgorod from Kiev, it could consist of artists from Constantinople or be mixed with Kiev painters. Five teams could work in the churches in the Novgorod land during the first half of the 12th century. Possibly they were called up from the workshops of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. The participation of Byzantine artists in those teams was not excluded. The style of the Novgorod murals is not homogeneous, and they were created by painters of several generations. There’s no information about the existence of a local Novgorod team of painters in the first half of the 12th century.

Some Remarks on the Significance of Gold Based on Byzantine Ekphraseis of Works of Art

The abundance of gilding is considered to be a particularly characteristic feature of Byzantine art. This attribute can be confirmed by even a cursory analysis of works of art. In short, Byzantine artists used gold on a large scale, showing great technical skill. It is therefore quite surprising that this issue has not yet received a separate, comprehensive study. Admittedly, researchers recognize the presence of gold but unfortunately, they almost do not go beyond general observations. On the one hand, they emphasize the primary role of the symbolic meanings of gold, and, on the other, they indicate the high material value of this precious metal. These comments are usually very general and their authors rarely refer to specific primary sources. Their observations, however, speak more about present-day ideas about Byzantine culture than about it itself. The indicated problem is an important and extensive task to be done, hence this paper is only an outline of the most important questions, each of which requires a separate and in-depth study. Therefore, this synthetic article introduces the most basic points associated with the understanding of gold in Byzantium. For this purpose, selected examples of Byzantine texts in which their authors referred to gold in a strictly artistic context are analysed. Thus, the main thesis is as follows: in Byzantine painting, gold, one of the most important devices of artistic expression, was used on a large scale primarily for aesthetic reasons.

Faltering images: failure and error in Byzantine manuscript illumination

This essay analyzes the manner in which errors, confusions, and failures attributed to the iconographies of Byzantine manuscript illuminations index a process of image production and use that operated outside the bounds of static, mimetic depiction. Instead, the essay argues that Byzantine artists relied on the procedural unfolding of images through their use to produce non-stable and fleeting understandings of such illuminations that permutated and developed over time so as to maximize the complexity and intricacies of the Biblical image-text. Focusing on the illuminations of initials and marginalia in Gospel lectionaries from Constantinople around 1100, this paper explores how these faltering images speak to the creative and generative opportunities offered by error, confusion, and failure as an artistic medium. The investigation is structured by a collision of the writings of Michael Camille and Rosalind Krauss together so as to produce a close-reading of Byzantine iconography, which productively unifies these two modern authors’ concerns with medium and marginalia. As such, the essay concludes with a historiographic consideration of failure in the work of these two scholars as a manner of demonstrating the operative dimensions of failure as a reparative tactic, particularly in light of recent queer theory.

Aeiparthenos. Metaphors and Symbols of Virginity in Italian, Dutch and Byzantine Representations of the Annunciation around 1400

Western artists of the 14th and the early 15th centuries used a verse from medieval hymn literature that compared Mary’s virginity to the glass of a window in order to illustrate how she was able to conceive and still remain a virgin. While much is known about how this metaphor is visualized in the art of Dutch masters, its use in the works of their Italian colleagues has been studied less. Byzantine artists had totally different ways of illustrating the virginity of the Mother of God, although the hymn Dies est laetitiae includes words that may explain both the Eastern and the Western modes. This article examines the differences and similarities between these traditions and highlights one painting that may be considered as a synthesis between Eastern and Western iconographies with regard to this particular topic.

« Toutisme » et Renaissance

Studying the relation between the Russian avant-garde and the Renaissance leads to two questions : 1) Did Russian avant-garde artists identify with artists of the Renaissance ? 2) How did they perceive Renaissance art ? The painter Mihail Le-Dantju, the originator of Everythingness, who claimed the right to chose the forms of the future among those of the past, rewrote art history in his theoretical works in order to establish a lineage for his own concept. His rejection of “illusionism” (the laws of perspective) went beyond the usual ground of avant-garde attacks (the art of the Wanderers) to confront the Renaissance, which he presented as an indistinct whole, and accused of being contemptible imitation. As imitative of a period of Antiquity that itself only found expression in imitation, he ruthlessly rejected the Renaissance as a period of artistic decadence, in fact only large-scale academicism. Another reason for the rejection is ideological, making it possible to limit dependence on Western art, insofar as the Renaissance never happened in Russia. Since the Renaissance could not be a model, modern creators were called upon to identify with Byzantine artists. Inasmuch as these criticisms are complemented by specific formal recommendations to artists, it is legitimate to wonder whether everythingness contained the germs of academicism itself.

:Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)

A sequel to the landmark catalogue The Glory of Byzantium, this magnificent book features work from the last golden age of the Byzantine empire. During the last centuries of the Empire of the Romans, Byzantine artists created exceptional secular and religious works that had an enduring influence on art and culture. In later years, Eastern Christian centres of power emulated and transformed Byzantine artistic styles, the Islamic world adapted motifs drawn from Byzantium's imperial past, and the development of the Renaissance from Italy to the Lowlands was deeply affected by Byzantine artistic and intellectual practices. This spectacular book presents hundreds of objects in all media from the late thirteenth through mid-sixteenth centuries. Featured in full-colour reproductions are sacred icons, luxuriously embroidered silk textiles, richly gilded metalwork, miniature icons of glass, precious metals and gemstone, and elaborately decorated manuscripts. In the accompanying text, renowned scholars discuss the art and investigate the cultural and historical interaction between these major cultures: the Christian and Islamic East and the Latin West. Continuing the story of the critically acclaimed Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, this book, the first to focus exclusively on the last centuries of the Byzantine era, is a highly anticipated publication that will not be superceded for generations.

A Byzantine Painter in Trecento Genoa: TheLast Judgmentat S. Lorenzo

Little-studied frescoes of high quality at the Duomo in Genoa are attributed to a Byzantine painter and to a period of renovation at the cathedral about 1310. Their style compares favorably with the finest work of Constantinople, and their iconography is substantially Byzantine in detail. But as a whole, the content of the Last Judgment is Italian, chiefly Tuscan, and derives from theological concerns of Western Christianity that were not shared with Byzantium. Such a hybrid is characteristically Genoese, from a period when Byzantine artists traveled widely.

Biographical scenes of the Three Hierarchs

REB 36 1978 France p. 233-260 Ch. Walter, Biographical scenes of the Three Hierarchs. — The author presents the known examples, some hitherto unpublished or unidentified, of biographical scenes for Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. These scenes, which vary widely in each case, do not provide evidence for the existence of a structured biographical cycle for saintly Byzantine bishops. Either the scenes are pecular to the life of each bishop, or they belong to the general repertoire of the biographical cycle. Only consecration occurs fairly regularly in episcopal biography. In fact, Byzantine artists were more concerned to present the function of a bishop than the events of his life : particularly teaching, charitable action and celebration of the liturgy.

The Significance of Unction in Byzantine Iconography

How agreeable it would be if the art historian could, with the aid of iconographical documents, resolve problems which baffle those who depend primarily upon literary sources for their studies. Unfortunately, such a triumph is rarely afforded to the art historian. Byzantine artists in particular have not left us a detailed record of contemporary events; their productions tell us more about the ideas current in their lifetime than about what actually happened. This is certainly the case for the rite of unction. We have no pictures of a Byzantine emperor being anointed and no evidence that such pictures ever existed. Consequently the art historian cannot directly help towards a firm answer to the question raised by Donald Nicol in his article: after what date should references in chronicle sources to a Byzantine emperor being consecrated by unction be interpreted in a literal rather than in a figurative or metaphorical sense?

Byzantine Artists in Italy from the Sixth to the Fifteenth Century

Byzantine Artists in Italy from the Sixth to the Fifteenth Century