Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World

This comprehensive anthology offers a new approach to the visual arts classified as Early Christian–Byzantine. It creates an integrated study of the art and culture in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean from late antiquity through medieval times (3rd to 13th centuries CE), bringing together material that routinely had been separated by labels such as "Early Christian," "Byzantine," "Romanesque," and "Islamic." Beginning with a thorough introduction that maps the late antique and medieval Mediterranean world, this volume includes an extensive range of pertinent topics, from the effect that converging cultures in late antiquity had on art, to the cultural identities that can be observed by looking at difference of tradition in visual art, and to the variance of illuminations in holy books. The result is a valuable anthology that explores the historical, geographical, and cultural interactions in the visual arts of this period, rethinking the classifications in late antique,...