The Living (and the) Dead: Imagery of Death in Byzantium and the Balkans

Being omnipresent in all societies of medieval Europe, death and the human attitudes to it were reflected in rich artistic production in a number of ways. This text surveys iconography of death in the Byzantine and medieval Balkan art with attention to complexity existing in this particular sort of imagery. Therefore, wall paintings, miniature illumination and sculpture reveal diverse representations of the dead, from typical schemes of one dying on a deathbed, over violent deaths in battles or assassinations, to various examples of imagery illustrating theological notions of hereafter and resurrection, based on an overall optimism. This survey presents also analysis of less known examples or of some recently discovered, while the others are given a new interpretation.