Contesting the Logic of Painting: Art and Understanding in Eleventh-Century Byzantium

225 Pages·2007·5.064 MB·English

by  Charles Barber

Contesting the Logic of Painting
BARBER_Prelims_i-iv.indd i 8/6/2007 1:22:45 PM
Visualising the Middle Ages
Editorial board
Professor Madeline Caviness, Tufts University (USA)
Dr Eva Frojmovic, University of Leeds (UK) (series editor)
Professor Diane Wolfthal, Arizona State University (USA)
Professor Catherine Harding, University of Victoria (Canada)
VOLUME 2
BARBER_Prelims_i-iv.indd ii 8/6/2007 1:22:46 PM
Contesting the Logic of Painting
Art and Understanding in Eleventh-Century
Byzantium
by
Charles Barber
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2007
BARBER_Prelims_i-iv.indd iii 8/6/2007 1:22:46 PM
Cover illustration: The Mandylion and Keramion. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
Rossianus gr. 251, fol. 12v detail. Source: courtesy of the Vatican Library.
Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all rights holders to any copyrighted
material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the
publisher welcomes communications from copyrights holders, so that the appropriate
acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission
matters.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 1874-0448
ISBN 978 90 04 16271 6
Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishers,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by
Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
BARBER_Prelims_i-iv.indd iv 8/6/2007 1:22:47 PM
This book is dedicated to my wife and daughters
Sophie, Cleome, and Josephine
BARBER_F1_v-xvii.indd v 8/6/2007 1:22:59 PM
BARBER_F1_v-xvii.indd vi 8/6/2007 1:23:00 PM
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ...................................................................... ix
Foreword ..................................................................................... xi
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xv
List of Abbreviations .................................................................. xvii
Chapter One The Synodikon of Orthodoxy and the Ground of
Painting ........................................................... 1
Chapter Two Symeon the New Theologian:
Seeing Beyond Painting .................................. 23
Chapter Three Michael Psellos: Seeing Through Painting .... 61
Chapter Four Eustratios of Nicaea and the Constraints of
Theology ......................................................... 99
Chapter Five Leo of Chalcedon, Euthymios Zigabenos
and the Return to the Past ............................ 131
Afterword .................................................................................... 159
Bibliography ................................................................................ 165
Index ........................................................................................... 177
Illustrations
BARBER_F1_v-xvii.indd vii 8/6/2007 1:23:00 PM
BARBER_F1_v-xvii.indd viii 8/6/2007 1:23:00 PM
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1. St. Athanasios prays to an icon Christ. London, British Library,
Add. 19.352, fol. 15r. Source: by permission of The British Library.
Fig. 2. Reading of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy. Mt. Athos, Dionysiou
Monastery, ms. 587m, fol. 43r. Source: after Stylianos Pelekanidis et
al., The Treasures of Mount Athos: Illuminated Manuscripts, vol. 1 (Athens:
Ekdotike Athenon, 1973), (cid:2) g. 220.
Fig. 3. Cruci(cid:2) xion. Moscow, State Historical Museum, cod. 129, fol. 67r.
Source: Collection Gabriel Millet, École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Fig. 4. Christ Antiphonetes. Koimesis Church, Nicaea (Iznik). Source:
after Theodor Schmit, Die Koimesis-Kirche von Nikaia. Das Bauwerk und die
Mosaiken (Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1927), pl. XXVII.
Fig. 5. Synodikon of Orthodoxy. Icon, London, British Museum. Source:
copyright The Trustees of the British Museum.
Fig. 6. Nikephoros tramples John the Grammarian. Moscow, State
Historical Museum, cod. 129, fol. 51v. Source: Collection Gabriel Millet,
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.
Fig. 7. Nikephoros of Contantinople, Theodore of Stoudios and the
Iconoclastic Synod. London, British Library, Add. 19.352, fol. 27v.
Source: by permission of The British Library.
Fig. 8. Matthew the Monk prays to the Mother of God. Jerusalem,
Patriarchal Library, Taphou 55, fol. 260r. Source: Panayotis L. Voco-
topoulos, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem
(Athens and Jerusalem: Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem,
2002), (cid:2) g. 31.
Fig. 9. Monks in a Penitential Prison. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, gr. 394, fol. 42r. Source: courtesy of the Vatican Library.
Fig. 10. The Creation of Adam. London, British Library, Add. 19.352,
fol. 162r. Source: by permission of The British Library.
Fig. 11. Adam outside Paradise. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum.
Source: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
BARBER_F1_v-xvii.indd ix 8/6/2007 1:23:00 PM