This book reconsiders a wide array of images of Byzantine empresses on media as diverse as bronze coins and gold mosaic from the fifth through to the seventh centuries A.D. The representations have often been viewed in terms of individual personas, but strong typological currents frame their medieval context. Empress Theodora, the target of political pornography, has consumed the bulk of past interest, but even her representations fit these patterns. Methodological tools from fields as disparate as numismatics as well as cultural and gender studies help clarify the broader cultural significance of female imperial representation and patronage at this time.

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About the author

ANNE L. MCCLANAN is Assistant Professor of art history at Portland State University, Oregon, USA. She is the co-editor of Personal Objects, Social Subjects: The Material Culture of Sex, Procreation, and Marriage in Pre-Modern Europe, forthcoming from Palgrave.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses
Book Subtitle: Image and Empire
Authors: Anne McClanan
Series Title: The New Middle Ages
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04469-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2002
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-312-29492-2Published: 04 November 2003
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-63536-8Published: 04 November 2003
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-04469-3Published: 30 April 2016
Series ISSN: 2945-5936
Series E-ISSN: 2945-5944
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 282
Topics: History of Medieval Europe, Ancient History, European History, Modern History, Clinical Psychology, Gender Studies

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book