Contesting the logic of painting : art and understanding in eleventh-century Byzantium / / by Charles Barber.

• Superior document: Visualising the Middle Ages, v. 2
• Author: Barber, Charles, 1964-
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Visualising the Middle Ages ; v. 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Chapter One. The Synodikon Of Orthodoxy And The Ground Of Painting /; Chapter Two. Symeon The New Theologian: Seeing Beyond Painting /; Chapter Three. Michael Psellos: Seeing Through Painting /; Chapter Four. Eustratios Of Nicaea And The Constraints Of Theology /; Chapter Five. Leo Of Chalcedon, Euthymios Zigabenos And The Return To The Past /; Afterword /; Bibliography /; Index /; Illustrations /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [165]-175) and index.
• ISBN: 1281939897; 9786611939892; 9047431618
• ISSN: 1874-0448
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Charles Barber.

Studies of the icon in Byzantium have tended to focus on the iconoclastic era of the eighth- and ninth-centuries. This study shows that discussion of the icon was far from settled by this lengthy dispute. While the theory of the icon in Byzantium was governed by a logical understanding that had limited painting to the visible alone, the four authors addressed in this book struggled with this constraint. Symeon the New Theologian, driven by a desire for divine vision, chose, effectively, to disregard the icon. Michael Psellos used a profound neoplatonism to examine the relationship between an icon and miracles. Eustratios of Nicaea followed the logic of painting to the point at which he could clarify a distinction between painting from theology. Leo of Chalcedon attempted to describe a formal presence in the divine portrait of Christ. All told, these authors open perspectives on the icon that enrich and expand our own modernist understanding of this crucial medium.