An unusual mosaic in the church of San Marco Venice questions the nature and status of images in the doge’s church. This lecture will consider the image in the context of the church and the changing understanding of images across the Mediterranean world at the start of the twelfth century, from Rome to Sicily to Constantinople. Why does an image need to proclaim its own limits: ‘the image is not God’?
Antony Eastmond is Dean and Deputy Director of the Courtauld Institute and A. G. Leventis Professor in the History of Byzantine Art. Key themes in Antony’s work centre on the use of art to manufacture, display and manipulate identities on a public stage, especially on the frontier between religions and cultures. His research is divided between topics in Late Antique and Byzantine art and topics relating to the Caucasus (Georgia and Armenia), and relations between the Christian and Islamic cultures there.
Organised by Dr Jessica Barker (The Courtauld)