Viewing Greece: Cultural and Political Agency in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: Papers Stimulated by the Exhibition ‘Heaven & Earth, Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections

Deriving from conferences, workshops, and lectures that took place in conjunction with Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Art Institute of Chicago from 2013 to 2015, the thirteen papers in this volume focus on the art, architecture, and topography of medieval and early modern Greece. Multidisciplinary, geographically broad, and diachronic in scope, these papers consider the cultural and political agency of Greece as part of the late antique world, the Byzantine Empire, and the early modern Mediterranean. The Greek lands–spread across island and mainland–are seen as parts of broad trade and political networks, as points of religious dynamism, and as regions that are simultaneously central and peripheral. Cities and workshops, readings of monumental painting, approaches to sacred art, views of architecture and power, and printed images of the landscape are some of the main themes treated by the authors. The volume also includes reflections on the exhibition written by curators and critics.