Rico Franses is an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts and Art History, American University of Beirut, and Director of the University Art Galleries and Collections.

Texte du rabat

Explores the complex relationship between art and religious belief in this important genre of painting.

Résumé
Argues that donor portraits in Byzantine art should instead be considered as contact portraits. Contends that the most important feature of the scenes of supplication between mortals and holy, supernatural interlocutors consists in the active role that they play within the belief systems of the supplicants.

Contenu

Introduction: methodologies for the study of donor portraits; 1. The history and problematic of the donor portrait; 2. On meaning in portraits. The knot of intention and the question of the patron's share; 3. Awaiting the end after the end. Sin, absolution, and the afterlife; 4. Exchange and non-exchange. The gift between human and divine; 5. The literal, the symbolic, and the contact portrait. On belief in the interaction between human and divine; Postscript: the problem of terminology again. Donor portraits and contact portraits.