Interactions

The medieval world does not end in Western Europe, and within the last twenty or so years some of the most stimulating art-historical discoveries have been made in the Near East. Moving beyond the confines of Jerusalem and Carthage, this volume considers the art of Armenia, Ethiopia, Coptic Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Mongol East in relation to Byzantium, Cyprus, Italy, and the West. The Christian arts of the Near East, long considered naive and provincial, are now being reconsidered for their complex liturgical and theological significance. The essays in this essential reference volume cover topics ranging from the classically inspired Christian iconography of Jordan's mosaics, sources and influences of style in Jerusalem and the West, stylistic interaction between Ethiopia and Egypt, wooden carvings from Coptic Egypt, and manuscripts from Antioch as well as icon painting in Lebanon and Cairo. Specific case studies on ivories from the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Monastery Conservation Project, the Edessan Image of Christ, and the Marriage Charter of Otto II and Theophanu are accompanied by iconographical exposes of the Abgar Legend, the Biblical Sarah, and the Cintamani motif.