Propylaeum

For late Byzantine art history, Crete provides a unique collection of monuments. The period from 1211 to 1669, when the island was under the rule of the Venetians, allows insights into a multifaceted and complex society. Within this unique artistic and cultural landscape, the works of the late Byzantine church painter Theodor Daniel and his nephew Michael Veneris particularly stand out. The present publication devotes itself for the first time to an in-depth and wide-ranging investigation of their works. Beside the identification and attribution of their unsigned works, analyses accruing from this form key aspects. The most important step for the aims expressed is provided by the systematic attribution of the pair’s works. This and the assignment of the unsigned works are found in the first part of the publication. In the second part the interconnections of Theodor Daniel and Michael Veneris with other Cretan artists is discussed. Beside contacts with Ioannes Pagomenos, probably the most prominent Cretan church painter of the 14^th century, there is a further series of indications that suggest that there existed a regular network among the artists on the island.

This volume comprises 13 papers from the conference »New Research on Late Byzantine Goldsmiths‘ Works (13^th-15^th Centuries)«, held at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz in October 2015. The contributions primarily deal with the material culture of goldsmiths’ works, such as crosses, reliquary caskets, jewellery, enamel works, and precious stones, spanning the wide geographical area of Byzantium and many of its neighbours, from Russia via Trebizond and Serbia to Crete. Furthermore, written sources on Byzantine goldsmiths, their craft and the provenance of precious metals provide evidence for goldsmithing in Byzantium throughout its history.

In 2018, the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz presents in cooperation with the Schallaburg, the splendid Renaissance castle near Melk (Lower Austria), the exhibition »Byzantium & the West: 1000 forgotten years «.
Both Byzantium and the European West spring from the Roman Empire, but as early as Late Antiquity experience different developments. While the Roman Empire continued to exist in the East and passed seamlessly into the Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages, pagan polities took its place in the West: the kingdoms of the Goths, Vandals, Anglo-Saxons, Lombards and Franks. Although Byzantium was respected or accepted as a major power by the other European entities for at least 800 years, territorial conflicts, disputes, and cultural differences quickly emerged. In addition, communication became increasingly difficult - in the "orthodox" East, Greek was the common language, while in the "Catholic" West, Latin was the lingua franca. Differences in liturgy and questions of belief intensified the disparities or were even (religio-) politically underlined to emphasize dissimilarity. But one still continued to admire "wealthy Constantinople" and the Byzantine treasures - among them the magnificent silks, ivory reliefs, technical marvels, plentiful relics and magnificent buildings.

The change came in 1204 with the conquest and plunder of Constantinople by the Crusaders. For the already weakened Byzantine Empire, this catastrophe meant a completely new situation as an empire in exile, whose emperor and patriarch had to flee to Asia Minor. Across much of the former European Byzantine Empire, crusader states spread; Venice and Genoa, which had previously been strongly present as trade powers under special treaties, became major determinants of the western powers in the East.

On the occasion of this exhibition, two accompanying volumes with a total of 41 contributions concerning the varied and changing relationships between the Latin West and the Byzantine Empire are being published. The volumes are structured according to the media of communication: people, images, language and things. They collect contributions from renowned scientists with archaeological, art historical, philological and historical priorities. Several overviews and detailed studies are drawn from research projects of the Leibniz- ScienceCampus Mainz: Byzantium between Orient and Occident, as well as the focus on Byzantine and medieval research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.