Research Catalog

Byzantine head reliquaries and their perception in the West after 1204 : a case study of the reliquary of St. Anastasios the Persian in Aachen and related objects

Title
Byzantine head reliquaries and their perception in the West after 1204 : a case study of the reliquary of St. Anastasios the Persian in Aachen and related objects / Mabi Angar.
Author
Angar, Mabi, 1975-
Publication
Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library BX2333 .A54 2017gOff-site

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Details

Description
xv, 332 pages : 80 illustrations (some color); 25 cm.
Summary
This study centers around Byzantine head relics and their receptacles. The first part discusses the so-called Reliquary of St. Anastasios the Persian, a silverwork in the shape of a centralized, domed church that was probably made in Antioch, but was later housed in Aachen Cathedral. The object is commonly considered a Byzantine vessel for the Eucharist that was later reworked to become a reliquary for the head of St. Anastasios in its new Western context. This study closely examines the life and cult of this particular saint in Byzantium and Aachen by considering the object?s typology and contextualizing relations between Antioch and Constantinople in the late 10th century that have been largely overlooked, shedding light on the handling of sacred objects and confiscation measures under Basil II. The second part of the study concerns the veneration of Byzantine head relics in Constantinople and, more specifically, head relics that were transferred to the West in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. A discussion of Latin, post-1204 sources which affected medieval and modern perceptions of Byzantine relic veneration counters a bias against Byzantine sacred goldsmith work discernable in scholarship of the mid-20th century. Together with appendices on the anatomical nomenclature of the human skull, skull-chalices, and selected sacred objects made of precious metal related to relic veneration and the Eucharist, this study aims to reconstruct head reliquary types. It also seeks to refute the claim in art history that simple caskets that can easily be opened were commonly used as reliquaries of Byzantine body relics.
Series Statement
Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 0947-0611 ; Band 13
Uniform Title
Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik ; Bd. 13.
Subject
  • Anastasius, the Persian, Saint, -628 > Relics
  • Anastasius, the Persian, Saint, -628
  • Reliquaries, Byzantine
  • Art metal-work, Early Christian > Byzantine Empire
  • Art metal-work, Early Christian
  • Relics
  • Byzantine Empire
Note
  • Revised thesis (doctoral), Universität Köln, 2012.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-245) and index.
ISBN
  • 9783447107327
  • 3447107324
  • 9783447107006
  • 3447107006
LCCN
9783447107327
OCLC
  • ocn983776126
  • 983776126
  • SCSB-9620262
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries