Image and Imagination in Byzantine Art

Book excerpt: The twelve studies contained in this second collection by Henry Maguire are linked together by a common theme, namely the relationship of Byzantine art to the imaginary. They show how art enabled the Byzantines not only to imagine the sacred events of the past, but also to visualize the invisible present by manifesting the spiritual world that they could not see. Particular topics are the depiction of nature; the social functions and theological significance of classical artistic forms in Byzantine art after iconoclasm; the association between rhetoric and the visual arts; the relationship of the visual arts to concepts of justice and the law; and portrayals of the imperial court on earth and the imagined court in heaven.