Associative Iconography in Byzantine Art: two for the space of one?, lecture by Angeliki Lymberopoulou (The Open University), King’s College London, December 5, 2017, 5:30–7:00 pm

Byzantine iconography always presents new challenges that invite its examination from different perspectives. This is a work-in-progress in its infancy that moves away from sterile and rigid notions of symbolism; instead, it aims at identifying possible patterns with which Byzantine artists perhaps tested the viewers’ knowledge of the Gospel narrative by prompting them to think ahead and beyond the image with which they were confronted. This paper will explore this hypothesis by presenting examples outside the vita icons or iconography scenes with embedded  narrative (e.g. Nativity scenes that incorporate the Journey of the Magi in the background) and will try to assess the need for their existence.

Angeliki Lymberopoulou is Senior Lecturer in Byzantine Art and Culture at The Open University. Her research interests lie in late and post-Byzantine artistic production, patronage and its socio-economic circumstances with a focus on Venetian Crete (1211-1669). She is currently finishing a Leverhulme funded Networks project, which has brought together an international group of ten scholars examining the depictions of Hell in the wider Mediterranean (13th-17th century).