Religious Authority, and Contemporary Politics

1. Summarize the rules and expectations that governed Byzantine imperial representations (ca. 100 words).

2. Compare and contrast the arguments of N. Oikonomides and Z. Gavrilovic on the image over the main entrance to Hagia Sophia (and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the two arguments, ca. 100 words for each)

3. Explain which argument you find to be most persuasive and why. Then provide your own assessment of this unusual image. How do you think we should understand it? (ca. 100 words)

SOURCES

Nicolas Oikonomides, “Leo VI and the Narthex Mosaic of Saint Sophia,”
Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 30 (1976): 151-172. (JSTOR) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291393

Z. A. Gavrilovic, “The Humiliation of Leo VI the Wise (The Mosaic of the Narthex at Saint
Sophia, Istanbul,”
Cahiers Archéologiques 28 (1979): 87-94. (ATTACHED)

Henry Maguire, “Style and Ideology in Byzantine Imperial Art,”
Gesta XXVIII/2 (1990): 217-31 (JSTOR) https://www.jstor.org/stable/767070