
Saints and Spectacle examines the origins and reception of the Middle Byzantine program of mosaic decoration. This complex and colorful system of images covers the walls and vaults of churches with figures and compositions seen against a dazzling gold ground. The surviving eleventh-century churches with their wall and vault mosaics largely intact, Hosios Loukas, Nea Moni and Daphni in Greece, pose the challenge of how, when and where this complex and gloriously conceived system was created.Using an interdisciplinary approach, Connor explores the urban culture and context of church-building in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, during the century following the end of Iconoclasm, of around 843 to 950. The application of an innovative frame of reference, through ritual studies, helps recreate the likely scenario in which the medium of mosaics attained its highest potential, in the mosaiced Byzantine church. For mosaics were enlisted to convey a religious and political message that was too nuanced to be expressed in any other way. At a time of revival of learning and the arts, and development of ceremonial practices, the Byzantine emperor and patriarch were united in creating a solution to the problem of consolidating the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire. It was through promoting a vision of the unchallengeable authority residing in God and his earthly representative, the emperor. The beliefs and processional practices affirming the protective role of the saints in which the entire city participated, were critical to the reception of this vision by the populace as well as the court. Mosaics were a luxury medium that was ideally situated aesthetically to convey a message at a particularly important historical moment--a brilliant solution to a problem that was to subtly unite an empire for centuries to come. Supported by a wealth of testimony from literary sources, Saints and Spectacle brings the Middle Byzantine church to life as the witness to a compelling
This book investigates how the Middle Byzantine program of mosaic decoration functioned as a sophisticated instrument for consolidating religious and political authority in the Byzantine Empire. Carolyn L. Connor, an expert in Byzantine art and culture, utilizes an interdisciplinary framework to analyze the intersection of church architecture, ritual practice, and imperial ideology. By examining the period following the end of Iconoclasm, she argues that the development of these elaborate mosaic programs was a deliberate strategy to unify the empire under the dual authority of God and the emperor.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and students of Byzantine art frequently cite this work for its innovative use of ritual studies to contextualize static visual programs. Readers often note that the text provides a dense, scholarly examination of the relationship between imperial power and ecclesiastical aesthetics.
Page Count:
232
Publication Date:
2016-03-10
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190457627
ISBN-13:
9780190457624
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