A neglected aspect of Byzantium, physical beauty appears as a quality with an unmistakable dark side, relating ambiguously to notions of power, goodness, evil, masculinity, effeminacy, life and death. Examined as an attribute of the human and, in particular, of the male body, this study of beauty refines our understanding of the Byzantine world.

Autorentext
MYRTO HATZAKI was born in Athens in 1977. She studied History of Art at Warwick University, UK and at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London where she obtained her MA and then her PhD in 2004. She is currently working as a curator at the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum and the A.G. Leventis Foundation.

Inhalt
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Illustration Sources Introduction The Byzantine Ideal of Beauty: Definitions and Perceptions Only Skin Deep: Beauty and Ugliness between Good and Evil Beauty and Power and Beauty as Power The Beauty of Broken Bodies: Pain, Eloquence and Emotion Angels and Eunuchs; the Beauty of Liminal Masculinity The Fragile Beauty of Soldiers Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Index