The electronic medium is all the more important for introducing students
to sources because Byzantium was such a self-consciously ‘visual’ culture.
For the ruling elite, display and portrayal were invaluable in projecting
imperial ideology. And in the religious sphere, accurate representation of
Christ, the saints and sacred scenes conveyed doctrine, provided instruction
and edification, but also transmitted the divine in most truthful form.16
Certain icons were, from the middle Byzantine period onwards, venerated
for themselves working miracles, and ordinary icons were often supposed to
possess special powers. Partly for this reason, the veneration of icons became
the subject of controversy (see below, p. 282). The polemics generated reveal
the many shades of Byzantine thinking on the question. Besides the works
already noted, excerpts from texts concerning the iconoclast controversy are
provided by CyrilMango’s The art of the Byzantine empire. This magisterial
collection covers most aspects of the visual arts, including buildings and
building-works, and the pithy commentary offers a guide to the Byzantines’
writings about imagery.17 The writings, like the images themselves, usually
tell us more about the Byzantines’ beliefs and ideals, their notions of what
religious doctrine should be, or the awe that buildings or mosaics ought
to inspire, than they disclose of ordinary people’s reaction to them or of
how things actually were. The writings were mostly penned by the more
learned members of society. Likewise the political imagery and the court
ceremonial represent the order of things as projected by the ruling elite,
its agents and aficionados, rather than political realities, everyday affairs or
the living conditions of the unprivileged. This is the case even if details of,
for example, ordinary people’s clothing can be gleaned from study of the
paintings in churches.18
With visual imagery, then, as with a great deal of surviving Byzantine
literature, one often encounters an ideal scheme of things, what leading
lights in the Byzantine church and empire wanted to be seen, rather than a
wide range of witnesses as to what actually happened.19 But these representations
are at least approachable by newcomers, whether through looking
at religious and political imagery or through reading in translation the
prescriptive works, idealised portrayals of saintly lives, and orations and
histories emanating from the imperial-ecclesiastical circles. Various possible
readings and interpretations are possible, with nuances and allusions
being more apparent to the learned, or to those steeped in eastern orthodox
religious traditions and practices. But first impressions of these portrayals
are not necessarily far removed from those which their creators sought to
evoke, while the message of the directly prescriptive texts is often plain
enough.
World History
