Overview
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. 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.
Full Product Details
Author: Warren T. Woodfin (, Kallinikeion Assistant Professor, Queens College, City University of New York)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 2.70cm
, Length: 22.40cm
Weight: 0.692kg
ISBN: 9780199592098
ISBN 10: 0199592098
Pages: 374
Publication Date: 19 January 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
The great virtue of this book is to explore an important development with great implications, which go to the heart of the dilemmas confronting the Orthodox Church in the last centuries of Byzantium. Michael Angold, Revue des etudes byzantines an erudite work that is accessible and engaging. Justin Rose. Comitatus
an erudite work that is accessible and engaging. * Justin Rose. Comitatus * The great virtue of this book is to explore an important development with great implications, which go to the heart of the dilemmas confronting the Orthodox Church in the last centuries of Byzantium. * Michael Angold, Revue des etudes byzantines *
<br> The Embodied Icon is an erudite work that is accessible and engaging. --Justin Rose, Comitatus<p><br>
Author Information
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 Zürich, Switzerland.
