book by Cecily Hilsdale
The Oxford World History of Empire, Volume I: The Imperial Experience, 2021
Taking the figure of the obelisk as its organizing principle, this chapter considers the dynamic,... more Taking the figure of the obelisk as its organizing principle, this chapter considers the dynamic, performative, and commemorative dimensions of empire. Over time and across cultures, obelisks have come to anchor imperial ceremonial across such broad terrain as ancient Egypt, Augustan Rome, Byzantine Constantinople (New Rome), and Ottoman Kostantiniyye. In surveying these diverse contexts marked by great monoliths, this chapter traces the relationship between imperial ritual as performed in time and over time and the persistent monumental articulations that structured and memorialized those ephemeral performances. By presenting a focused analysis of the dynamic relationship between concrete and ephemeral performances of imperial ceremonial over a nearly global scale, this chapter insists on the importance of a diachronic view of the long interactions of empires from the New Kingdom Egypt to the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
The Late Byzantine period (1261–1453) is marked by a paradoxical discrepancy between economic wea... more The Late Byzantine period (1261–1453) is marked by a paradoxical discrepancy between economic weakness and cultural strength. The apparent enigma can be resolved by recognizing that later Byzantine diplomatic strategies, despite or because of diminishing political advantage, relied on an increasingly desirable cultural and artistic heritage. This book reassesses the role of the visual arts in this era by examining the imperial image and the gift as reconceived in the final two centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In particular it traces a series of luxury objects created specifically for diplomatic exchange with such courts as Genoa, Paris and Moscow alongside key examples of imperial imagery and ritual. By questioning how political decline refigured the visual culture of empire, Dr Hilsdale offers a more nuanced and dynamic account of medieval cultural exchange that considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.
Articles and Essays by Cecily Hilsdale
Taking the figure of the obelisk as its organizing principle, this chapter considers the dynamic,... more Taking the figure of the obelisk as its organizing principle, this chapter considers the dynamic, performative, and commemorative dimensions of empire. Over time and across cultures, obelisks have come to anchor imperial ceremonial across such broad terrain as ancient Egypt, Augustan Rome, Byzantine Constantinople (New Rome), and Ottoman Kostantiniyye. In surveying these diverse contexts marked by great monoliths, this chapter traces the relationship between imperial ritual as performed in time and over time and the persistent monumental articulations that structured and memorialized those ephemeral performances. By presenting a focused analysis of the dynamic relationship between concrete and ephemeral performances of imperial ceremonial over a nearly global scale, this chapter insists on the importance of a diachronic view of the long interactions of empires from the New Kingdom Egypt to the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
This essay analyzes the nunace, mutability, and political purposes of illustrated Greek manuscrip... more This essay analyzes the nunace, mutability, and political purposes of illustrated Greek manuscripts containing a ubiquitous medieval tale: Barlaam and Ioasaph. Exploring the dynamic nature of this Byzantine material and its global peregrinations, it reveals processes of medieval world formation through text and imagery of a story that, paradoxically, advocates the renunciation of the worldly. Ultimately, it argues that the textual transmission of this story and its diverse visual imagery bridged cultures from Asia to Europe, and religions from Buddhism to Christianity.
In tracing the histories of two Greek copies of the complete works attributed to Dionysios the Ar... more In tracing the histories of two Greek copies of the complete works attributed to Dionysios the Areopagite, known as the Corpus Dionysiacum, this article considers the kind of agency exerted by medieval books as distinct from other art objects mobilized in the cross-cultural diplomatic arena. An examination of the entangled social lives of these two Byzantine books sent from Constantinople to the abbey of Saint-Denis outside Paris as imperial gifts in the ninth and fifteenth centuries reveals their transformation over time as objects of translatio akin to sacred relics in the negotiation of political, hagiographic, and humanistic agendas, and, further, in the cultivation of medieval patrimony in the service of medieval kingship and modern statehood.
Workshops by Cecily Hilsdale
Session at the Byzantine Studies Conference (New York, 22-25 October 2015)
Fordham University,... more Session at the Byzantine Studies Conference (New York, 22-25 October 2015)
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
Sunday, 25th of October
9 AM
The session is sponsored by International Center of Medieval Art
Congresses/Seminars by Cecily Hilsdale
This one day and a half conference combines a symposium and a workshop.
The aim is to
examine an... more This one day and a half conference combines a symposium and a workshop.
The aim is to
examine and contextualise the artistic and cultural production of the geopolitical centres
that were controlled by or in contact with the late Byzantine Empire, such as the Adriatic
and Balkan regions, the major islands of Cyprus and Crete, and the regions surrounding the
cities of Constantinople, Thessaloniki, and Mystras. This conference will explore the many
intellectual implications that are encoded in the innovative artistic production of the
Palaiologan Era often simplified by a rigid understanding of what is Byzantine and what is
not.
In its last centuries, the political entity of the Empire of the Romaioi released cultural and
artistic energies migrating towards new frontiers of intellectual achievements. The intent is
to counter-balance the innovation of these works of art with the notion of decline and the
narrative of decay frequently acknowledged for this period; and to promote an
understanding of transformation where previous cultural heritages were integrated into
new socio-political orders.
The Symposium – hosted on the afternoon of the 24 and the morning of the 25 February -
will bring together established scholars, early-career scholars, and postgraduate students.
Three keynotes will provide the methodological framework for the discussion; while the
selected papers will focus solely on the visual expressions and cultural trajectories of the
artworks produced during the late Palaiologan Era.
The Workshop, hosted on the afternoon of the 25 February, will offer the opportunity to
further the discussion in a more informal setting and for a selected number of Master
students to interact and offer brief presentations.
Postgraduate students and early-career scholars are invited to submit proposals for twentyminute
papers on art and architecture history, material culture, visual aspects of
palaeography and codicology, and gender studies.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Gift exchange in view of diplomatic missions or dynastic marriages both within the
Empire and with its neighbours
- Visual evidence of the interaction between the Emperor and the Patriarch
- Innovations in the visual agenda of the Palaiologan dynasty
- Aspects of religious iconography and visual representations of theological
controversies, i.e. Hesychasm
- Artistic patronage and manuscript production as the outcome of dynastic and
institutional interactions
- Visual and material production as the outcome of political and social
circumstances, i.e. the Zealot uprising or the Unionist policy
- Evidence of artistic exchanges in the depictions of women, men, and children
during the Palaiologan Era
Symposia, Conferences, Workshops by Cecily Hilsdale
Papers by Cecily Hilsdale
The Art Bulletin, 2005
A twelfth-century illuminated Greek manuscript in the Vatican alternates text and image in a nove... more A twelfth-century illuminated Greek manuscript in the Vatican alternates text and image in a novel way. Created for a young French princess betrothed to the son of a Byzantine emperor, it enacts the princess's separation from her homeland, her transformation into augusta, and her incorporation into an imperial family rife with faction. Beyond depicting a rite of passage, however, the book's ritualized narrative constructs and organizes a set of social relations. Interrogating the particular relation between an art object and its potential for social agency reveals that the manuscript masks tensions as much as it creates cohesion.
Gesta, 2017
In tracing the histories of two Greek copies of the complete works attributed to Dionysios the Ar... more In tracing the histories of two Greek copies of the complete works attributed to Dionysios the Areopagite, known as the Corpus Dionysiacum, this article considers the kind of agency exerted by medieval books as distinct from other art objects mobilized in the cross-cultural diplomatic arena. An examination of the entangled social lives of these two Byzantine books sent from Constantinople to the abbey of Saint-Denis outside Paris as imperial gifts in the ninth and fifteenth centuries reveals their transformation over time as objects of translatio akin to sacred relics in the negotiation of political, hagiographic, and humanistic agendas, and, further, in the cultivation of medieval patrimony in the service of medieval kingship and modern statehood.
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book by Cecily Hilsdale
Articles and Essays by Cecily Hilsdale
Workshops by Cecily Hilsdale
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
Sunday, 25th of October
9 AM
The session is sponsored by International Center of Medieval Art
Congresses/Seminars by Cecily Hilsdale
The aim is to
examine and contextualise the artistic and cultural production of the geopolitical centres
that were controlled by or in contact with the late Byzantine Empire, such as the Adriatic
and Balkan regions, the major islands of Cyprus and Crete, and the regions surrounding the
cities of Constantinople, Thessaloniki, and Mystras. This conference will explore the many
intellectual implications that are encoded in the innovative artistic production of the
Palaiologan Era often simplified by a rigid understanding of what is Byzantine and what is
not.
In its last centuries, the political entity of the Empire of the Romaioi released cultural and
artistic energies migrating towards new frontiers of intellectual achievements. The intent is
to counter-balance the innovation of these works of art with the notion of decline and the
narrative of decay frequently acknowledged for this period; and to promote an
understanding of transformation where previous cultural heritages were integrated into
new socio-political orders.
The Symposium – hosted on the afternoon of the 24 and the morning of the 25 February -
will bring together established scholars, early-career scholars, and postgraduate students.
Three keynotes will provide the methodological framework for the discussion; while the
selected papers will focus solely on the visual expressions and cultural trajectories of the
artworks produced during the late Palaiologan Era.
The Workshop, hosted on the afternoon of the 25 February, will offer the opportunity to
further the discussion in a more informal setting and for a selected number of Master
students to interact and offer brief presentations.
Postgraduate students and early-career scholars are invited to submit proposals for twentyminute
papers on art and architecture history, material culture, visual aspects of
palaeography and codicology, and gender studies.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Gift exchange in view of diplomatic missions or dynastic marriages both within the
Empire and with its neighbours
- Visual evidence of the interaction between the Emperor and the Patriarch
- Innovations in the visual agenda of the Palaiologan dynasty
- Aspects of religious iconography and visual representations of theological
controversies, i.e. Hesychasm
- Artistic patronage and manuscript production as the outcome of dynastic and
institutional interactions
- Visual and material production as the outcome of political and social
circumstances, i.e. the Zealot uprising or the Unionist policy
- Evidence of artistic exchanges in the depictions of women, men, and children
during the Palaiologan Era
Symposia, Conferences, Workshops by Cecily Hilsdale
Papers by Cecily Hilsdale
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
Sunday, 25th of October
9 AM
The session is sponsored by International Center of Medieval Art
The aim is to
examine and contextualise the artistic and cultural production of the geopolitical centres
that were controlled by or in contact with the late Byzantine Empire, such as the Adriatic
and Balkan regions, the major islands of Cyprus and Crete, and the regions surrounding the
cities of Constantinople, Thessaloniki, and Mystras. This conference will explore the many
intellectual implications that are encoded in the innovative artistic production of the
Palaiologan Era often simplified by a rigid understanding of what is Byzantine and what is
not.
In its last centuries, the political entity of the Empire of the Romaioi released cultural and
artistic energies migrating towards new frontiers of intellectual achievements. The intent is
to counter-balance the innovation of these works of art with the notion of decline and the
narrative of decay frequently acknowledged for this period; and to promote an
understanding of transformation where previous cultural heritages were integrated into
new socio-political orders.
The Symposium – hosted on the afternoon of the 24 and the morning of the 25 February -
will bring together established scholars, early-career scholars, and postgraduate students.
Three keynotes will provide the methodological framework for the discussion; while the
selected papers will focus solely on the visual expressions and cultural trajectories of the
artworks produced during the late Palaiologan Era.
The Workshop, hosted on the afternoon of the 25 February, will offer the opportunity to
further the discussion in a more informal setting and for a selected number of Master
students to interact and offer brief presentations.
Postgraduate students and early-career scholars are invited to submit proposals for twentyminute
papers on art and architecture history, material culture, visual aspects of
palaeography and codicology, and gender studies.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Gift exchange in view of diplomatic missions or dynastic marriages both within the
Empire and with its neighbours
- Visual evidence of the interaction between the Emperor and the Patriarch
- Innovations in the visual agenda of the Palaiologan dynasty
- Aspects of religious iconography and visual representations of theological
controversies, i.e. Hesychasm
- Artistic patronage and manuscript production as the outcome of dynastic and
institutional interactions
- Visual and material production as the outcome of political and social
circumstances, i.e. the Zealot uprising or the Unionist policy
- Evidence of artistic exchanges in the depictions of women, men, and children
during the Palaiologan Era