Neourgia: The Restoration of Icons in the Premodern World, lecture by Ivan Drpić (University of Pennsylvania), Byzantine Dialogues from the Gennadius Library via Zoom, March 23, 2021, 7:00 pm (Greece) / 12:00 pm (ET)

As paint peels off, pigments discolor, varnishes darken, and wood warps, cracks, and rots, pictures grow old. Careful to draw a distinction between the sacred image as a material object and the likeness it bears, Byzantine iconophile authors argued that, once an icon has decayed—and hence, its formal resemblance to the prototype, the person depicted, has been lost—it is nothing but an inconsequential lump of matter that can be destroyed. In practice, however, old and damaged icons were treated with care. Some were ceremonially buried or set afloat in a river or sea; others underwent various forms of maintenance, including partial or complete repainting, or transfer onto a new support. What do these acts of refurbishment and “rejuvenation” tell us about the icon’s ontology? What do they reveal about the relationship between visual representation, matter, and time? Bringing together material and textual evidence, this lecture seeks to uncover the broader implications of how Byzantines and other premodern Orthodox Christians responded to and dealt with the aging of icons.

Ivan Drpić is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair in the Department of the History of Art at University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in the art, architecture, and material culture of Byzantium and its Slavic neighbors in Southeastern Europe, with emphasis on the period from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries. 

Advance registration required.