Review Essay: The Status of the Visual in Byzantine Culture: On Some Recent Developments in Byzantine Art History

The impression given by art history surveys and civilisation courses can often be that Byzantine art is 'flat, flat figures on gold, gold ground.' Take, for instance, the ninth-century mosaic over the imperial door in the narthex of that quintessential Byzantine monument, Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul: Christ is seated on a lyre-backed throne, blessing with his right hand and holding a book open with his left. To either side are roundels containing bust portraits of two members of his celestial court, the Virgin Mary (or the Theotokos, or the Bearer of God, to use proper Orthodox designation) and an angel (Gabriel? Michael?); while the angel gazes sternly out at the viewer, the Virgin turns to the figure of Christ with hands outstretched in a gesture of supplication. Set off in their roundels, these two figures belong to a different field of activity from the fourth participant in this image, the figure of an emperor (identifiable through dress and headgear) kneeling abjectly to Christ's right and below the figure of the Theotokos.