Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline

This book questions how political decline refigures the visual culture of empire, examining the imperial image and the gift in later Byzantium.

List of contents

Introduction: the Imperial image as gift; Part I. Adventus: the Emperor and the City: 1. The imperial image and the end of exile; 2. Imperial thanksgiving: the commemoration of the Byzantine restoration of Constantinople; 3. Imperial instrumentality: the serially struck Palaiologan image; Part II. 'Atoms of Epicurus': the Imperial Image as a Gift in an Age of Decline: 4. Rhetoric as diplomacy: imperial word, image and presence; 5. Wearing allegiances and the construction of a visual oikoumene; Conclusion: the ends of empire.

About the author

Cecily J. Hilsdale is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Montréal. Her research concerns cultural exchange in the medieval Mediterranean, in particular the circulation of Byzantine luxury objects as diplomatic gifts as well as the related dissemination of eastern styles, techniques, and iconographies and ideologies of imperium.

Summary

This book questions how political decline refigures the visual culture of empire by examining the imperial image and the gift in later Byzantium (1261–1453). Providing a nuanced account of medieval artistic cultural exchange, Dr Hilsdale considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.

Product details

• Authors: Cecily J. Hilsdale, Cecily J. (Mcgill University Hilsdale, Hilsdale Cecily J.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2016
• EAN: 9781316631980
• ISBN: 978-1-316-63198-0
• No. of pages: 424
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Europe, European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, History of art / art & design styles, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Asian History, Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500, European history: medieval period, middle ages, Byzantine Empire