Time Foreseen: The Interweaving of History and Oracles in the Chronographia of Georgios Klontzas, seminar with Charlie Barber (Princeton University), Simon Fraser University, March 6, 2020, 2:30 pm

In 1590-92 one of the leading artists of Venetian Crete worked on an apocalyptic history of the world. This was written and illustrated by Klontzas as he contemplated the plague and the seemingly inevitable fall of Crete to the Ottomans. The manuscript responds to this situation by developing an understanding of the history of the Ottomans that was shaped by oracular prognostications. This builds from extensive research in prints and published works of the sixteenth century and reveals the intellectual grounds of Klontzas’s art.

Charlie Barber is Drew Egbert Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Professor Barber’s area of specialization is the history of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art, with a particular focus on the history and theory of the icon. He has also worked extensively on Byzantine aesthetics and intellectual history and with Byzantine manuscripts. Current and future research will lead to books that examine the status of the icon in the 14th and 16th centuries.