Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557): Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture

Brooks, Sarah T., ed., with essays by Thomas F. Mathews, David Jacoby, Angeliki E. Laiou, Robert F. Taft, S.J., Maria Mavroudi, Sophia Kalopissi-Verti, Vassilios Kidonopoulos, Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, Hans Belting, Antony Eastmond, Donald Ostrowski, and Yuri Pyatnitsky (2006)

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Description

These papers on the Late Byzantine period were inspired by the major loan exhibition "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)," which was held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from March 23 through July 5, 2004. They were first presented by a group of renowned international scholars who gathered at the Museum on April 16–18, 2004, for a symposium examining the resurgence of artistic, cultural, and religious life during the last centuries of Byzantium. For the broadest possible perspective, the speakers, who were drawn from various disciplines, considered not only art history but also those developments in such fields as economics, politics, literature, and urban life that profoundly affected the visual arts.

For almost two centuries after 1261, the year in which Michael VIII Palaiologos recaptured Constantinople from its Latin occupiers, Byzantine creativity and learning spread farther than ever before, even though the political strength of the empire was on the wane. The texts collected here examine issues central to life in the capital, including artistic patronage and the changing physiognomy of the city, but they also describe the continued growth of Byzantine influence on the Christian and Muslim East and the Latin West. Essays on the Eastern lands include studies of trade, which during these years stretched eastward across Asia and northward through the Black Sea; of relations with powers in the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and Central Asia, as reflected in the life of the Georgian princess T'amar; and of scholarly exchanges between Byzantine and Arabic writers.

Among the texts focusing on the West are one describing Byzantine elements in the decoration of the basilica of San Marco in Venice and another tracing the evolution of the cult of Saint Catherine of Alexandria from its beginnings in the monastery at Sinai to its enthusiastic adoption in Europe. Byzantine religious life in this "age of icons" (forty exceptional works from the Sinai monastery appeared in the exhibition) is the subject of insightful essays on the place of icons during the empire's long history and on Palaiologan iconography and liturgy.

The sixth in the Metropolitan Museum's Symposia series, this volume sheds valuable new light on the world in which Late Byzantine art was created and viewed.

Table of contents

Foreword
Peter Barnet, Helen C. Evans

Preface
Sarah T. Brooks

Map: Byzantium and Its Neighbors, 1261–1557

Icons and the Religious Experience
Thomas F. Mathews

Late Byzantium between the Mediterranean and Asia: Trade and Material Culture
David Jacoby

Byzantium and the Neighboring Powers: Small-State Policies and Complexities
Angeliki E. Laiou

The Living Icon: Touching the Transcendent in Palaiologan Iconography and Liturgy
Robert F. Taft, S.J.

Exchanges with Arabic Writers during the Late Byzantine Period
Maria Mavroudi

Patronage and Artistic Production in Byzantium during the Palaiologan Period
Sophia Kalopissi-Verti

The Urban Physiognomy of Constantinople from the Latin Conquest through the Palaiologan Era
Vassilios Kidonopoulos

The Monastery of Mount Sinai and the Cult of Saint Catherine
Nancy Patterson Ševčenko

Dandolo's Dreams: Venetian State Art and Byzantium
Hans Belting

Art and Frontiers between Byzantium and the Caucasus
Antony Eastmond

"Moscow the Third Rome" as Historical Ghost
Donald Ostrowski

Byzantine Paleiologan Icons in Medieval Russia
Yuri Pyatnitsky

Photograph Credits

About the authors

Thomas F. Mathews is John Langeloth Loeb Professor of the History of Art, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

David Jacoby is Professor Emeritus, Department of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Angeliki E. Laiou is Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History, Harvard University; Member, The Academy of Athens.

Robert F. Taft, S.J. is Professor Emeritus, Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

Maria Mavroudi is Associate Professor of Ancient and Byzantine History, University of California at Berkeley; Mac Arthur Fellow (2004–9).

Sophia Kalopissi-Verti is Professor of Byzantine Art History and Archaeology, University of Athens.

Vassilios Kidonopoulos is Lector of Byzantine History, Democritus University of Thrace.

Nancy Patterson Sevcenko is an independent scholar, Woodstock, Vermont.

Hans Belting is Professor Emeritus, Art History and Media Studies, HFC Karlsruhe; Honorary Professor, University of Heidelberg.

Antony Eastmond is Reader in the History of Byzantine Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Donald Ostrowski is Research Advisor in the Social Sciences, Harvard University.

Yuri Pyatnitsky is Curator, Department of Byzantine Icons, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

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