Conservation and exhibition of historical works of art run many risks of misrepresentation of the life and meanings of objects. This paper explores the identities of some particularly compelling examples of Byzantine art restored under special circumstances at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. This examination of the restoration of frescos and icons, and their particular display histories, reveals the contingencies of our encounters with and explanations of historical art.

L'assimilation des images à une attitude chrétienne correcte fut le résultat d'un long débat sur la nature du culte chrétien. Les icones n'excluaient pas d'autres approches comme la vertu chrétienne , mais elles faisaient désormais partie inextricablement d'une éthique chrétienne complète. Les hagiographies de Théodore Stoudite, de Photios, de Nicéphore ont contribué à la diffusion du culte des images comme une pratique chrétienne acceptable. L'exemple miraculeux de Michel au sanctuaire d'Eusèbe intervient également dans la mise en place d'un consensus.

Name der Zeitschrift: Byzantinische Zeitschrift Jahrgang: 112 Heft: 1 Seiten: 256-260.

Analogy in exhibition can reveal aspects of historical art otherwise invisible or neglected, and this paper examines insights gained from the exhibition Byzantine Things in the World (Menil Collection, Houston, tx, 2013). It makes an argument for a particular kind of materiality experienced by Byzantines, broadly speaking, which falls under the rubric of animism. Analysis of conditions of display and experience in the exhibition reveals elements only historically explicable through discussion of Byzantine science, namely alchemy. That “science” took as its (...) premise the essential unity and natural search for perfection in matter. It is the best explanation for creation available to many people in that world, but it also parallels and supports explanations in all fields of inquiry, including theology. In these ways, analogical exhibition manifests insights into a world in which relation among all creation prevailed and in which subjecthood was constantly challenged. (shrink)