The Bucolic Mode in Byzantine Art

Sound, Weather, Imperium
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-80270-434-1
Verlag: ARC Humanities Press

Buch, Englisch, 158 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Bucolic imagery—of shepherds with flocks in idyllic surroundings—has barely been studied in Byzantine art history. These images elude our usual analytical categories of imperial, sacred, and secular art, and challenge our assumptions about visual narrative. This book demonstrates that a “bucolic mode” existed in Byzantium in diverse media, such as textiles, sculpture, mosaics, silver, and manuscripts. Through a close reading of a select group of images, this book argues that bucolic themes were deployed to reflect concerns about the salvific effects of sound, the vagaries of the weather, and the contingency of imperial rule at different moments in the Byzantine era.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chatterjee, Paroma

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Byzantinisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Völkerwanderung und Mittelalter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Shepherd and His Sheep

Chapter 2. The Winds and the Weather

Chapter 3. The Emperor and the Idyll

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Chatterjee, Paroma
Paroma Chatterjee is Professor of Byzantine and medieval Mediterranean art history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include medieval image theories, relics, statues, and word–image relations. She has published two monographs and numerous journal articles.