IMC 2006: Sessions

Session 114: Gesticulating the Spiritual, Motioning the Secular: Ideals, Morals, and Actions in Byzantine Art

Monday 10 July 2006, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:	Mati Meyer, Department of Art History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Moderator/Chair:	Eva Frojmovic, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 114-a	Disjoint Human Limbs in Byzantine Lectionaries: Meanings and Sources (Language: English) Emma Maayan-Fanar, Department of Art History, University of Haifa Index terms: Art History - Painting, Liturgy, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 114-b	Gestures and their Functions in the Illustration of the 'Heavenly Ladder' (Language: English) Karin Krause, Kunsthistorisches Seminar, Universität Basel Index terms: Art History - Painting, Byzantine Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 114-c	Gestural and Sexual Interplay in Byzantine Art (Language: English) Mati Meyer, Department of Art History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Daily Life, Gender Studies, Sexuality
Paper 114-d	Laughing One's Head Off: Comic Mimes on Medieval Byzantine Ivory and Bone Caskets (Language: English) Anthousa Papagiannaki, Keble College, University of Oxford Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Daily Life, Performance Arts - General
Abstract	The papers of this session address the various ways gestures represent different facets of the Byzantine society. On the one hand, gestures capture abstract ideas, such as God incarnate, or the spiritual life one has to lead to reach a perfect ascetic stage. On the other, they reveal a facet where sexual indulgence and popular entertainment - both vociferoulsy sanctioned by the church - were part of the societal daily fabric. All things considered, the discussion presents the image of a multilayered society striving not only to promote its idealised agenda, but also to come to grips with the intricate reality of human needs and behaviour.