Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond

Description

"Antony Eastmond examines the architectural, sculptural and painted decorations of the church, placing them in the context of contemporary developments elsewhere in the Byzantine world, in Seljuq Anatolia and among the Caucasian neighbours of Trebizond. Knowledge of this area has been transformed in the last twenty years, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The new evidence that has emerged enables a radically different interpretation of the church to be reached, and raises questions about cultural interchange on the borders of the Christian and Muslim worlds of eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus and Persia."--Jacket. Introduction : the Byzantine empires in the thirteenth century -- 1. Hagia Sophia and its contexts -- 2. Hagia Sophia : architecture and the construction of identity -- 3. Trebizond as imperial capital : ceremonial and processions -- 4. Adam, exile and 'Byzantine' sculpture -- 5. Ornamental sculpture and cultural orientation : Hagia Sophia, the Seljuqs and the Caucasus -- 6. Wall paintings and politics : rebuilding empire? -- 7. Hagia Sophia : art, the liturgy and modernity -- 8. Manuel I Grand Komnenos : the embodiment of empire.