Between the Pagan Past and Christian Present in Byzantine Visual Culture

Abstract

Up to its pillage by the Crusaders in 1204, Constantinople teemed with magnificent statues of emperors, pagan gods, and mythical beasts. Yet the significance of this wealth of public sculpture has hardly been acknowledged beyond late antiquity. In this book, Paroma Chatterjee offers a new perspective on the topic, arguing that pagan statues were an integral part of Byzantine visual culture. Examining the evidence in patriographies, chronicles, novels, and epigrams, she demonstrates that the statues were admired for three specific qualities - longevity, mimesis, and prophecy; attributes that rendered them outside of imperial control and endowed them with an enduring charisma sometimes rivaling that of holy icons. Chatterjee's interpretations refine our conceptions of imperial imagery, the Hippodrome, the Macedonian Renaissance, a corpus of secular objects, and Orthodox icons. Her book offers novel insights into Iconoclasm and proposes a more truncated trajectory of the holy icon in medieval Orthodoxy than has been previously acknowledged.

Being Pagan, Being Christian in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

“…Bassett (2004, 90-91) notes that cult statues of temples were imported to Constantinople only from the Theodosian period onwards. For a recent overview of statues throughout the centuries in Constantinople, see Chatterjee (2021). For the transfer from Ephesus, see Bassett (2004, 126, cat.…”

“…Berger (2013): Cameron and Herrin (1984). See the overviews on powerful statuary in Chatterjee (2021); James (1996); Mango (1963). The term was originally coined to define struggles with self-conception in colonial situations.…”