Essence and accident: Byzantine portraiture and Aristotelian philosophy. (April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Maguire, Henry
• Is Part Of: Byzantine and modern Greek studies. Volume 46:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 23
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Subjects: Byzantine portraiture -- Aristotelian logic -- physiognomy -- scholasticism; Byzantine Empire -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Greece -- History -- 323-1453 -- Periodicals; Greece -- Periodicals; Byzantine Empire -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 949.5005
• DOI: 10.1017/byz.2021.28
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0307-0131

Abstract

Abstract : The presentation of portraits of emperors and saints in Byzantine art can be compared to theories of physiognomy and logic put forward by Aristotle and his Byzantine followers. Similar observations have been made about the portal sculptures of High Gothic cathedrals, but although the ordering of images in the two cases reflected similar patterns of thought, the particular forms of the portraits differed in each milieu, responding to a different relationship between images and the faithful in each society.