{"title":"Metapainting in Fourteenth-Century Byzantium and Italy: Performing Devotion Through Time and Space","authors":"G. Puma, M. A. Rossi","doi":"10.32773/nhph9329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32773/nhph9329","url":null,"abstract":"Metaimages have benefited from scholarly attention in recent decades, but not all periods and geographical areas have received equal attention. Most importantly, no comparative studies have been conducted with respect to late medieval Byzantium and Italy. This essay is the first attempt to investigate one instance of these reflexive images—that is, metapaintings—from a comparative point of view, highlighting how they are visually structured and the meanings they convey in each tradition. We explore the logic of metapainting, starting with the historical dimension of the scenes, then the transcendent and eternal power of the enshrined devices, and finally their reflection of contemporary devotion and the active role of the late medieval viewer. By unfolding these three dimensions, this essay argues that the meta in metapainting is the images’ ability to connect the fourteenth-century viewer to a historical and prestigious past that they visually celebrate, but also to testify to the power of devotional images and their performances in a permanent way for any viewer at any given time.","PeriodicalId":35070,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Iconography","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70092119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiona Griffiths and Kathryn Starkey, eds. Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts","authors":"M. Bagnoli","doi":"10.32773/nqyl6267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32773/nqyl6267","url":null,"abstract":"Review of Fiona Griffiths and Kathryn Starkey, eds. Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts by Martina Bagnoli","PeriodicalId":35070,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Iconography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70092136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Reconsideration of the Communion of the Apostles in Byzantine Art","authors":"Vasileios Marinis","doi":"10.32773/iqww3944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32773/iqww3944","url":null,"abstract":"This essay concerns itself with the meaning and function of the Communion of the Apostles in Byzantine monumental painting. Scholars have often interpreted the scene as a liturgical reimagining of the Last Supper, aimed at creating a mimetic relationship between ritual and image, or between the liturgical act and its heavenly prototype. In contrast, based on the history of the scene in illuminated manuscripts, the accompanying inscriptions, and commentaries on the liturgy, I argue that the Communion of the Apostles is an illustration of the historical institution of the Eucharist and has little to do with the everyday liturgical praxis. This continues to be the case even when, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Christ appears in such paintings wearing patriarchal vestments as the Great Archpriest. I maintain that this new element is rather a manifestation and an advertisement of the enhanced political and religious status of the ecumenical patriarch in the Late Byzantine period.","PeriodicalId":35070,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Iconography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70092459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}