Ioanna Rapti (École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL Université), Looking for the Byzantine Painter: Evidence from Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts. Co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Art & Architecture and the Byzantine Studies Ph.D. Program. This meeting will take place on the Zoom meeting platform; please click here to register.

Based on textual and visual evidence, mainly from Armenian manuscripts, this talk will investigate the role and the status of the painter in the late medieval period. It will focus on examples of painters who claim their work through their self-representation. Unlike the standard formulaic notes which provide lots of names but little information, the examined case studies interestingly parallel painters’ claims of authority in Byzantine painting. They also may shed some new light on the status of the artist and the arts in the broader space of the Eastern Mediterranean.