Byzantine art has been an underappreciated field often treated as an adjunct to the arts of the medieval West if considered at all. In illustrating the richness and diversity of art in the Byzantine world this handbook will help establish the subject as a distinct field worthy of serious inquiry. Essays consider Byzantine art as art made in the eastern Mediterranean world including the Balkans Russia the Near East and north Africa between the years 330 and 1453. Much of this art was made for religious purposes created to enhance and beautify the Orthodox liturgy and worship space as well as to serve in a royal or domestic context. Discussions in this volume will consider both aspects of this artistic creation across a wide swath of geography and a long span of time. The volume marries older object-based considerations of themes and monuments which form the backbone of art history to considerations drawing on many different methodologies-sociology semiotics anthropology archaeology reception theory deconstruction theory and so on-in an up-to-date synthesis of scholarship on Byzantine art and architecture. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture is a comprehensive overview of a particularly rich field of study offering a window into the world of this fascinating and beautiful period of art.
