New Light on Old Glass: Recent Research on Byzantine Mosaics and Glass
Name
Entwistle__New_Light_on_Old_Glass_for_web.pdf
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Size
13.02 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
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Resource type
Book
Creator (person)
Entwistle, Chris
James, Liz
Date published
2013
Abstract
Mosaics are perhaps the most outstanding examples of Byzantine art which survive, yet we know next to nothing about how they were made. Glass-making was a relatively sophisticated skill in the mediaeval world, yet no written documents survive from Byzantium about the methods used for making a mosaic or creating its tesserae, and we have no knowledge of the ways in which manufacturing patterns existed and changed over time, or, indeed, of where and exactly how tesserae were created. Only the mosaics themselves speak to their composition. Glass making and glass working were two distinct processes: did the differently coloured glass tesserae on one site all come from the same batch of raw glass? Where did that raw glass come from? The nature of the actual colours used in making mosaics changed over time: is this simply a question of changing aesthetics or are there also technical explanations for these alterations? In discussing questions like these, the volume explores issues around the technical production of glass and medieval artistic practices, whilst also opening up wider debates about the nature of trade and exchange within the Mediterranean during this period and into our understanding of political and social changes within the Mediterranean world. The volume cuts across art history, archaeology, chemistry, physics and Byzantine studies, bringing together a range of scholars from Europe and America interested in the chemical and physical analysis of Byzantine glass together with those concerned with the formal and cultural aspects of Byzantine mosaics in order to reappraise mosaics and mosaic making in this interdisciplinary context.
Contributor (person)
Marii, Fatma
Conventi, Alberto
Neri, Elisabetta
Verita, Marco
Witte, Hanna
Fiori, Cesare
Muscolino, Cetty
Schibille, Nadine
Tedeschi, Claudia
Arletti, Rossella
Loukopoulou, Polytimi
Moropoulou, Antonia
Stern, E. Marianne
Lierke, Rosemarie
Elsner, JaÅ›
Howells, Daniel Thomas
Meek, Andrew
Corby Finney, Paul
Fletcher, Philip
Rà¶hrs, Stefan
Antonaras, Anastassios
Terry, Ann
Nesbitt, Claire
Bolgia, Claudia
Vassilaki, Maria
Dell’Acqua, Francesca
Cormack, Robin
Chatzidakis, Nano
Kotoula, Dimitra
Kakissis, Amalia G.
Andreescu-Treadgold, Irina
McKenzie, Judith S.
Soproni, Emőke
Bjà¸rnholt, Bente
Pilosi, Lisa
Whitehouse, David
Bentley, Paul
Editor
Entwistle, Chris
James, Liz
Publisher
British Museum
Place of publication
London
Collection