The Troubles with Likeness: Divine Responses to Man-Made Icons, discussion with Karin Krause (University of Chicago), University of Vienna, January 21, 2019, 5:00–6:30 pm

The Forum Moving Byzantium XVII will provide the unique opportunity to discuss with Prof. Karin Krause (University of Chicago) her current work on “The Troubles with Likeness: Divine Responses to Man-Made Icons”.

Karin Krause is Assistant Professor of Byzantine Theology and Visual Culture at the University of Chicago. She is currently completing a book manuscript tentatively titled Images of Inspiration: Art, Authenticity, and the Sacred in Byzantium. In this study, she examines how concepts of the divine origin of texts and material artifacts were employed in Byzantium to promulgate claims of holiness, truth, and authority. She is an affiliate scholar of the Wittgenstein Award Project, Vienna.

According to Byzantine iconophile thought, one of the major premises on which the veneration of icons relies is their resemblance to their respective prototypes. Yet, I argue, writings from post-Iconoclastic Byzantium reveal that the claim to likeness between image and prototype continued to provoke substantial doubts.

After a brief introduction by Prof. Krause, there will be extensive time for discussion moderated by Dr. Dirk Krausmüller (Austrian Academy of Sciences) on the basis of preparatory readings.