Venetian Reinterpretations of a Relic: The Blood of Christ and the Icon of Berytus, lecture by Karin Krause (University of Chicago), Austrian Academy of Sciences, November 18, 2019, 1:30–2:30 pm

This lecture will examine the history of a relic of the Holy Blood at St Mark’s in Venice and the interpretive shifts it experienced after its arrival from Constantinople in 1204. Initially advertised as Christ’s corporeal blood, it was later venerated as blood emitted by the bleeding icon of Christ at Berytus. The reinterpretations of the relic’s nature and provenance will be discussed in light of theological writings on the blood of Christ from both Byzantium and the Latin West.

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.