| Contesting the Logic of Painting: Art and Understanding in Eleventh-Century Byzantium Contributor(s): Barber, Charles (Author) |
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ISBN: 9004162712 ISBN-13: 9789004162716 Publisher: Brill OUR PRICE: $145.35 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: September 2007 Annotation: Drawing on a range of philosophical and theological writings produced in eleventh-century Byzantium, this book offers a reading of the icon and Byzantine aesthetics that not only expands our understanding of these topics but challenges our assumptions about the work of art itself. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Art | History - Medieval - Art | Subjects & Themes - Religious |
| Dewey: 704.948 |
| Series: Visualising the Middle Ages |
| Physical Information: 0.72" H x 6.55" W x 9.58" (1.24 lbs) 179 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) - Religious Orientation - Christian - Cultural Region - Turkey |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Studies of the icon in Byzantium have tended to focus on the iconoclastic era of the eighth- and ninth-centuries. This study shows that discussion of the icon was far from settled by this lengthy dispute. While the theory of the icon in Byzantium was governed by a logical understanding that had limited painting to the visible alone, the four authors addressed in this book struggled with this constraint. Symeon the New Theologian, driven by a desire for divine vision, chose, effectively, to disregard the icon. Michael Psellos used a profound neoplatonism to examine the relationship between an icon and miracles. Eustratios of Nicaea followed the logic of painting to the point at which he could clarify a distinction between painting from theology. Leo of Chalcedon attempted to describe a formal presence in the divine portrait of Christ. All told, these authors open perspectives on the icon that enrich and expand our own modernist understanding of this crucial medium. |