Women’s Impact: Byzantium in the Vis
ual Culture of Medieval Eastern Europe
A lecture by Maria Ale
ssia Rossi (Princeton University) and Alice Isabella Sullivan (Tufts Univer
sity).
5:30 p.m.\, Wednesday\, March 22\, 2023
Room 202\, Bucha
nan A Building
1866 Main Mall\, University of British Columbia
ah
va.ubc.ca
The event is free and open to the public.
Byzantium h as long shaped the history and visual culture of medieval Eastern Europe\, which have transformed in local contexts the rich legacy of the medieval Ea stern Roman Empire before and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Thi s lecture explores the history and artistic production of medieval Eastern Europe in relation to Byzantium through the lens of two notable women and t heir impact: Simonis\, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II (r. 1282–1328) and wife of the Serbian King Milutin (r. 1282–1321)\, and Ma ria Asanina Palaiologina of Mangup\, the second wife of Stephen III of Mold avia (r. 1457–1504). These royal women played critical roles in establishin g diplomatic connections and promoting artistic contacts between the Byzant ine cultural sphere and the Serbian and Moldavian realms\, respectively. Th e analysis of key objects and monuments - ranging from monumental building projects to mural cycles\, textiles\, manuscripts\, and metalwork - reveals local adaptations of competing traditions and how interconnected the regio ns of the Balkans and the Carpathians were relative to Byzantium and to eac h other during and after the empire’s collapse. In addition\, the lecture o utlines current scholarly approaches to the study of the visual culture of medieval Eastern Europe\, and engages with theoretical concerns and issues of terminology around the study of art and architecture in cross-cultural a nd transcultural contexts.
Maria Alessia Rossi (PhD\ , Courtauld Institute of Art) is an Art History Specialist at the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University. She has taught medieval and Byzantine art history in diverse settings\, such as the Courtauld Institute of Art\, adult education institutions in London\, and New Jersey prisons. Her main research interests include issues of cultural contact\, transmission\, and appropriation of Byzantine artistic traditions in the Balkans and in wester n medieval regions\; the role of Christ’s miracles in both text and image i n the Mediterranean after 1204\; patronage patterns\; and the transfer of a rtistic ideas and the shaping of women’s identities beyond geographical bor ders. Currently she is working on a book exploring the proliferation of Chr ist’s miracles in monumental decoration in Byzantium (1261-1330).
This lecture and visit is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History\, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia\, the Stavros Niarchos Founda tion Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University\, and the North of Byzantium initiative through the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture. Additional support is provided by the Centre for European Stud ies at the University of British Columbia.
Images from left to right: Ruins of the Fortress in Mangup\, Crimea\; Embroidered burial cover of Mar ia of Mangup\, Putna Monastery\; Podea with the Presentation of the Virgin\ , before 1477\, gifted to Gregoriou Monastery\; Portrait of Milutin and Sim onis\, south wall\, 1313–14\, mural\, King’s Church\, Studenica.
LOCATION:Buchanan Block A202 GEO:49.268255;-123.254678 URL;VALUE=URI:https://ahva.ubc.ca/events/event/womens-impact-byzantium-in-t he-visual-culture-of-medieval-eastern-europe/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ahva.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/03/03232023-North-Byzantium-Lecture-web-featured-image.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20230312T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR