Drawing on the best of recent scholarship in Byzantine liturgy, monumental painting, and textile studies, Woodfin's volume is the first major illustrated study of Byzantine embroidered vestments to appear in over forty years. 320pp Hardcover
In spite of the Orthodox liturgy's reputation for resistance to change, Byzantine liturgical dress underwent a period of extraordinary elaboration from the end of the eleventh century onwards. As part of this development, embroideries depicting holy figures and scenes began to appear on the vestments of the clergy. Examining the surviving Byzantine vestments in conjunction with contemporary visual and textual evidence, Woodfin relates their embroidered imagery both to the program of images used in churches, and to the hierarchical code of dress prevailing in the imperial court. Both sets of visual cross-references serve to enforce a reading of the clergy as living icons of Christ. Finally, the book explores the competing configurations of the hierarchy of heaven as articulated in imperial and ecclesiastical art. It shows how the juxtaposition of real embroidered vestments with vestments depicted in paintings, allowed the Orthodox hierarchy to represent itself as a direct extension of the hierarchy of heaven.
FEATURES
- Extensively illustrated with images from a variety of media.
- Includes a handlist of surviving vestments of Byzantine provenance and a clear, comprehensive exposition of the vestments of the Byzantine rite and their history.
Drawing on the best of recent scholarship in Byzantine liturgy, monumental painting, and textile studies, Woodfin's volume is the first major illustrated study of Byzantine embroidered vestments to appear in over forty years. 320pp Hardcover (2011)
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Liturgical Vestments in the Orthodox Church
1. The Vestments of the Byzantine Rite Described
2. Moving pictures: Embroidered Vestments and the Iconography of the Church Interior
3. Liturgical Mystagogy and the Embroidered Image
Part II. Liturgical Vestments in Byzantine Society
4. Earthly Rivalry: Imperial and Ecclesiastical Dress
5. As it is in Heaven: Vesture and the Unseen World
Conclusion
Appendix A. Handlist of Embroidered Vestments to c. 1500
Appendix B. Embroidered Vestments described in Byzantine Texts
Appendix C. Vesting Prayers According to the Textus Receptus of the Greek Rite
Bibliography
Illustrations
About the Author(s) Warren T. Woodfin is a specialist in the art and ritual of Byzantium and its neighboring cultures. He currently holds the post of Kallinikeion Assistant Professor of Byzantine Art and History at Queens College, the City University of New York, and is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
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Manufacturer:
Oxford University Press |
| SKU: |
OUP-9592098
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| ISBN: |
978 019 9592098 |
