Medieval Academy of America

Byzantine Women and Their World by Ioli Kalavrezou Review by: Judith Herrin Speculum, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Apr., 2005), pp. 598-599 Published by: Medieval Academy of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20463328 . Accessed: 13/04/2013 14:22
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Reviews

IOLI KALAVREZOUet al., Byzantine Women and Their World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityArtMuseums; New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 2003. Paper. Pp. 335 plus maps on inside covers; color frontispieceand many black-and-white and color figures.$40. Byzantine Women and Their World is an exceptionally well documented exhibition cata logue, put together by loli Kalavrezou and her graduate students at Harvard University. The publication grew out of a research seminar on representationsofwomen inByzantine art,which provoked such curiosity and enthusiasm that it led to the exhibition. The book's strengthderives from the students' papers devoted tomaterial accumulated for the exhi bition, which developed into the entries in the catalogue. Whatever the shortcomings of such a project, it remains an admirable way to plan and execute a major exhibition. The problems of putting together such an exhibition and of studyingwomen in the Byzantine world are presentedmost eloquently by the editor and her colleague atHarvard Angeliki Laiou. In the firstof two helpful introductory essays, Kalavrezou explains the "the unexceptional individual" and gaining "a betterunderstanding of identifying difficulty of women's everyday experiences." Byzantine artistswere not interested in representing normal domestic occupations, which occur only incidentally inmanuscript illustrations, mosaics, frescoes or on small objects.When theydo portray the more significant occasions in the lifeofwomen, marriage or birth, forexample, these are usually set in biblical times: themarriage at Cana, theNativity. Kalavrezou suggests these are ways inwhich "the contemporary secular environment findsexpression." The second essay provides a general introduction towomen in thehistoryofByzantium, which shows how dangerous it is to assume an unchanging continuum ofwomen's exis tence from the fourth to the fifteenth century. In particular circumstances imperialwomen were able to exercise considerable influenceon political and religious developments. Al though female slaves are well documented inByzantium and reference ismade to them in the section of thebook on work, there isno discussion of slaves or ofwills made bywomen, with possessions. who often freed their slaves and endowed them Kalavrezou stresses those domestic chores that preoccupy women in all premodern so cieties: fetching water, baking bread, and care of the family's health. These tasks are doc umentedmainly througharchaeological finds; there isvirtuallyno evidence for them in the visual record.Only the famous, powerful, and rich are portrayed, and theyof course have servants to do the daily routinework for them.The sections devoted to elitewomen and civic lifeby Elizabeth Gittings have portraits of individuals, although empresses are often made to conform to a stereotype.Those concerned with the domestic activity of women have to depend on objects related to female lives. In these sections, Molly Fulghum Heinz and Alicia Walker have done particularlywell in seeking out material that illustrateshow women coped. For public devotion Bissera Pentcheva draws on the established cult of the Virgin and the ritual processions of icons, which must have attracted women as well as

men.

more fullydocumented women of All the contributors note the same hiatus between the Middle Byzantine period. Yet there is a tendency late antiquity and theircounterparts of the to repeat the statements of John Chrysostomos and other early church fathers as if they defined female behavior for all time. Clearly, for the church these recommendations re mained in force and were regularlyemphasized, but did theyhave any effecton ordinary women? Did themale construction of an ideology of behavior appropriate to Christian women have any practical consequences? How can we judge its success? Because of the loss of sourcematerial, this is a major problem. But on the basis ofwhat has survived,we can posit greater variety in late-antique art,with female goddesses, nymphs,maenads, and personifications all prominently displayed, as well as some ordinarywomen. The continu

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Reviews

599

ingpopularity of ancient themes seems to indicate a clear preferenceon thepart of patrons and competence among artists.Both parties ignored the church's strictureson what was suitable, for instance, on tableware or ivorycaskets. From the seventh centuryonwards, there is less exuberance, less variety,and women are most often portrayed in biblical scenes. There is no equivalent to the portraits of the im perial familyamong the poor; thereare no pictures of unimportant families.Yet it is often assumed that these normal people feature in manuscript illustrationsof scenes such as the Crossing of the Red Sea or the Entry to Jerusalem. In both, women are depicted with children being carried across thewaves or held up towitness Christ's arrival. Are these

representations of tenth-century Byzantine women?

Similarly, in the background to the crowning of David, as painted in the Paris Psalter, who are the two figures in the background? They look out from a colonnade, witnessing the scene, aman and a woman. The woman with her hair covered glances at thecoronation performed by a classical figure. Is she the archetypalwife, obedient to her husband, seen but not heard, a modest and devoted Christian? Or could she be a Byzantine woman on herway to the market or the bathhouse, who just happens to be passing? Itmay be the case that there is a shift in the Middle Byzantine period to a new direct visual language,which can portray the social and private lives ofwomen, abandoning the classical prototypes of gods and mortals. And if thisoccurs in the eleventh century, when women are shown in contemporary dress, rather than as images of the past, it would be were less familiar interestingto know why. The suggestion that artists with mythology and classical traditionsdoes not square with eleventh-centuryscholarship,which continued to devote much attention to the ancient past. In the case ofManuel Panselinus's image of thepresentation of the Virgin in theTemple, painted in the 1290s at theProtatonMonastery at Karyes, it is difficultto argue that the young women accompanying theVirgin and her parents,Anna and Joachim, fall into the wear neck category of "ordinarywomen." Their arms are bare to above the elbow; they laces quite clearly visible on thebare throats; some have hair bands, but none wears a head covering. They are dressed quite differentlyfromAnna and the young Virgin, who are appropriately covered. Since we have no comparanda, it is impossible to prove that they While there represent local women of the late thirteenth century. may be greater freedom in the styleof this period, a wider survey of female representations is necessary tomake the case. In thisperiod new and more overtly erotic themes emerged, for example, on the marriage plates fromCyprus showing couples joined in love or the silver gilt bowls from Moscow. This raises the issue of possible foreign influence as the empire became more familiar with western and northernpeoples, a development thatculminated in theconquest of Constantinople by theFourth Crusade in 1204. But that question is not answered. women. Through small objects used in sewing and amuletsworn to prevent ill-health,the authors have extended our knowledge about ordinarywomen of the Middle Ages. It is a most valuable collection ofmaterial beautifully presented.

Thisexhibition, trove for in nonetheless, presents a treasure scholars interested medieval

London JUDITH HERRIN, King'sCollege

EVELYN KARET, The Drawings of Stefano da Verona and His Circle and theOrigins of Collecting in Italy: A Catalogue Raisonne. (Memoirs of theAmerican Philosophical So tispiece, black-and-white and color plates, 33 black-and-white and color figures,and

ciety, 244.) Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2002.Pp. xiv, 210; colorfron tables.

Evelyn Karet's monograph on thedrawings of Stefano da Verona and his circlemakes two

important contributions to theliterature on Italian fifteenth-century drawings. First, in her

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