Middle-Byzantine Evangelist Portraits

Parpulov, Georgi (7. November 2022): Middle-Byzantine Evangelist Portraits. A Corpus of Miniature Paintings. Manuscripta Biblica, Bd. 7. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Abstract

Author portraits are the most common type of figural illustration in Greek manuscripts. The vast majority of them depict the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Being readily comparable to one another, such images illustrate the stylistic development of Byzantine painting. In addition, they often contain details which throw light on elements of Byzantine material culture such as writing utensils, lamps, domestic furniture, etc.

This corpus offers catalogue descriptions of all evangelist portraits that survived from the Middle Byzantine period, i.e. from the mid-ninth to mid-thirteenth century. Items are arranged in roughly chronological order and are grouped according to common compositional types: readers will thus be able to trace iconographic similarities by going through a series of adjacent entries and to distinguish period styles by browsing through larger blocks of entries. The book thus provides, in effect, a selective survey of middle-Byzantine painting.

A surprisingly large number of Byzantine evangelists portraits remain unpublished: seventy-five of the miniatures reproduced in this volume have never appeared in print before.

The catalogue is exhaustive and the first one of its kind. Most of the illustrations show previously unpublished works. This will be a necessary reference work for anyone studying Byzantine art or Greek manuscripts.

• Dokumententyp: Monographie
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 339256
• Publikationsform: Publisher's Version
• Keywords: Paratexts, Evangelist, Gospel book
• Fakultät: Evangelische Theologie > Abteilung für Kirchengeschichte > Manuscripta Biblica
• Themengebiete: 200 Religion > 200 Religion ; 200 Religion > 220 Bibel ; 700 Künste und Unterhaltung > 750 Malerei
• ISBN: 9783110754636
• Ort: Berlin
• Bemerkung: Die Reihe "Manuscripta Biblica" wird herausgegeben von: Martin Wallraff und Patrick Andrist