Eva R. Hoffman - Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World

Late Antique and Medieval

Art of the Mediterranean

World

BLACKWELL ANTHOLOGIES IN ART HISTORY

The Blackwell Anthologies in Art History series presents an unprecedented set of canonical and critical works in art history. Each volume in the series pairs previously published, classic essays with contemporary historiographical scholarship to offer a fresh perspective on a given period, style, or genre in art history.

Modeling itself on the upper-division undergraduate art history curriculum in the English-speaking world and paying careful attention to the most benefi cial way to teach art history in todays classroom setting, each volume offers ample pedagogical material created by expert volume editors from substantive introductory essays and section overviews to illustrations and bibliographies. Taken together, the Blackwell Anthologies in Art History will be a complete reference devoted to the best that has been taught and written on a given subject or theme in art history.

1 Post-Impressionism to World War II, edited by Debbie Lewer 2 Asian Art, edited by Rebecca M. Brown and Deborah S. Hutton 3 Sixteenth-Century Italian Art, edited by Michael W. Cole 4

Architecture and Design in Europe and America, 17502000, edited by Abigail Harrison-Moore and Dorothy C. Rowe

Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World, edited by Eva R. Hoffman

Forthcoming

Fifteenth-Century Italian Art, edited by Robert Maniura, Gabriele Neher, and Rupert Shepherd

Late Antique and Medieval

Art of the Mediterranean

World

Edited by Eva R. Hoffman

2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Editorial material and organization 2007 by Eva R. Hoffman BLACKWELL PUBLISHING

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The right of Eva R. Hoffman to be identifi ed as the Author of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.

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First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

1 2007

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Late antique and Medieval art of the Mediterranean world / edited by Eva R. Hoffman.

p. cm. (Blackwell anthologies in art history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-2071-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4051-2072-2

(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Art, MedievalMediterranean Region. 2.

Art,

Byzantine

Mediterranean Region. 3. Art, IslamicMediterranean Region. 4. Mediterranean RegionCivilization. I. Hoffman, Eva Rose F.

N7258.L38 2007

709.02dc22

2006036886

A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Set in 10.5/13 pt Galliard

by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong

Printed and bound in Singapore

by COS Printers Pte Ltd

Picture research by Helen Nash.

The publishers policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards.

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Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Series Editors Preface xii

Preface and Acknowledgments xiii

Acknowledgments to Sources

xv

Introduction: Remapping the Art of the Mediterranean

Part ILate Antiquity: Converging Cultures,

Competing Traditions. Pagan, Jewish, Christian,

and Sasanian Art

The Changing Nature of Roman Art and the Art-Historical Problem of Style 11

Js Elsner

Good and Bad Images from the Synagogue of Dura Europos: Contexts, Subtexts, Intertexts

Annabel Jane Wharton

3 Exotic Taste: The Lure of Sasanian Persia

Anna Gonosov

4 Dionysiac

Motifs

Richard Ettinghausen

Part IIContinuities: Tradition and Formation ofCultural Identities

5 The Good Life

Henry Maguire

6 Hellenism and Islam

G. W. Bowersock

v

Contents

7 The Draped Universe of Islam

Lisa Golombek

Part III Image and Word: Early Medieval, Byzantine,and Islamic Art

8 The Beginnings of Biblical Illustration

John Lowden

9 Sacred Image, Sacred Power

Gary Vikan

10 The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem

Oleg Grabar

11 The

Image of the Word: Notes on the Religious Iconography of Islam 185

Erica Cruikshank Dodd

12 Islam, Iconoclasm, and the Declaration of Doctrine

G. R. D. King

Part IV Local Syncretistic Traditions: Jews, Muslims,and Christians

13 Hebrew

Book Illumination in the Fatimid Era

Rachel Milstein

14 An

Icon

at Mt. Sinai and Christian Painting in Muslim Egypt

during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Robert S. Nelson

Part V Luxury Arts and the Representation of

the Court

15 The Cup of San Marco and the Classical in Byzantium 273

Ioli Kalavrezou

16 Images

of

the Court 285

Henry Maguire

17 But Is It Art?

Robin Cormack

Part VI Expanding Boundaries: Spain, Sicily,

Venice, and Beyond

18 Pathways of Portability: Islamic and Christian Interchange from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century

Eva R. Hoffman

vi

Contents

19 Islam,

Christianity, and the Problem of Religious Art

Jerrilynn D. Dodds

20 The Medieval Object-Enigma, and the Problem of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo

William Tronzo

21 Venice and Islam in the Middle Ages: Some Observations on the Question of Architectural Infl uence 389

Deborah Howard

Index

vii

List of Illustrations

1.1 One of eight marble roundels depicting Hadrian hunting, c.130s CE. Subsequently incorporated into the Arch of Constantine, Rome, c.315 CE

1.2

Adlocutio relief depicting Constantine addressing the people, Arch of Constantine, Rome, c. 315 CE

1.3 Gold-glass

medallion of a family group, detail from Cross of Galla Placidia (called Desiderio); c. 3rd to mid-5th century CE. Brescia, Museo Civico dellEt Cristiana

2.1

Synagogue at Dura Europos, diagrams of the programme (by Annabel Jane Wharton after Kraeling), mid-3rd century CE

2.2

Wall painting from synagogue at Dura Europos, Mordecai and Esther panel, right section, mid-3rd century CE, New Haven, CT, Yale University Art Gallery

3.1

Striding lion mosaic, Antioch, 5th century CE. The Baltimore Museum of Art

3.2 Map of the Sasanian empire

4.1 Partially gilded silver bottle depicting Dionysos, a thyrsos, and a panther, Iran, 4th century CE. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

4.2 Partially gilded silver bottle with dancing female fi gures, Sasanian, Iran, 4th century CE. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC