Books by Armin Bergmeier
, 2017
The book identifies the central role of the visions of God in late antique society, arguing that ... more The book identifies the central role of the visions of God in late antique society, arguing that expectation of visions structured much of late antique life. The author demonstrates that through images and spaces, late antique people created encounters with the invisible Christian God. Due to their immaterial and temporary nature, these visions allowed late antique people to circumvent the Old Testament prohibition of images of God. It was only with a change in the understanding of images at the end of late Antiquity that images of visions became problematic and began to decline in importance.
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Articles and book chapters by Armin Bergmeier
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Special Objects: Werke jenseits von Norm und Kanon, 2022
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Time and Presence in Art: Moments of Encounter (200–1600), 2022
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Millennium, 2021
This contribution analyzes the rhetoric surrounding natural disasters in historiographic sources,... more This contribution analyzes the rhetoric surrounding natural disasters in historiographic sources, challenging our assumptions about the eschatological nature of late antique and medieval historical consciousness. Contrary to modern expectations, a large number of late antique and medieval sources indicate that earthquakes and other natural disasters were understood as signs from God, relating to theophanic encounters or divine wrath in the present time. Building on recent research on premodern concepts of time and historical consciousness, the article underscores the fact that eschatological models of time and history-that is, the relentless linear, teleological progression of time towards the End of Days-was not how premodern people perceived the relationship between past, present, and future. The textual evidence presented here is supported by a fragmented and littleknown illuminated historiographic text, the Ravennater Annalen, housed today in the cathedral library in Merseburg. This copy of a sixth-century illustrated calendar from Ravenna contains unique depictions of earthquakes in the form of giants breathing fire. Like the textual sources, this visual document should not be read as a premonition of the End of Days, rather it visualizes the belief that divine agency and wrath caused natural disasters.
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Spoliation as Translation: Medieval Worlds in the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. by Ivana Jevtić and Ingela Nilsson (Turnhout: Brepols 2021): 76–96., 2021
Antiquarian Displays of Spolia and Roman Identity. San Marco, Merbaka, and the Seljuk Caravansera... more Antiquarian Displays of Spolia and Roman Identity. San Marco, Merbaka, and the Seljuk Caravanserais-In the thirteenth century, spolia on façades in Venice, the Seljuk lands, and the Argolid drew on the Roman past of the Eastern Mediterranean to express a cultural identity rooted in romanitas. In order to understand this visual idiom, it is important to take seriously the self-identification of the Byzantines as Romans and to study these examples of spolia display in conjunction with each other. By doing so, this article problematizes three widely cited scholarly theories for explaining the use of spolia: single protagonist decisions, triumphalism, and apotropaia. When studied as part of a larger phenomenon, it becomes clear that Roman cultural identity was built on the perception of a shared past that was not parsed along ethnic or national lines. Finally, the publicly displayed spolia show that the concept of Roman identity was not an elite project in Byzantium but was accessible and even addressed to a non-elite public.
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Recycle – (Re)invent Rezeptionswege von Byzanz bis in die Moderne, ed. by Julia Dellith / Johannes Gebhardt / Daniela Roberts, 2021
Der Artikel untersucht einen Aspekt der Byzanz-Rezeption im Quattrocento. Es wird gezeigt, dass d... more Der Artikel untersucht einen Aspekt der Byzanz-Rezeption im Quattrocento. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Art der Gestaltung der Lünette oberhalb des Hauptportals des Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini auf östliche Vorbilder verweist. Im östlichen Mittelmeerraum war es seit Langem üblich, Fassaden und Portale mit Spolien – Fragmenten der Vergangenheit – zu schmücken. Dies belegen unter anderem die Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, die Porta di Sant’Alipio in Venedig und mehrere seldschukische Karawansereien. Auf diese Tradition aus dem ehemaligen Osten des Römischen Reichs griff Alberti beim Entwurf der Schaufassade des Tempio Malatestiano zurück. Das Portal wird von einer Assemblage aus Marmorstücken bekrönt. Dieser Verweis auf ostmediterrane Traditionen drückt sich nicht nur in der Bauornamentik aus, sondern auch darin, dass Sigismondo Malatesta die sterblichen Überreste von Gemistos Plethon, eines der letzten Philosophen aus dem Reich der Römer (Byzanz), herbeischaffen und an seiner Kirche in Rimini bestatten ließ. Auf diese Weise stellt der Bau in mehrfacher Hinsicht das nunmehr nur noch fragmentarische Erbe der Antike aus.
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21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur 2.2, 2021
The article explores the marginalization of Byzantium within the canon of art history, focusing o... more The article explores the marginalization of Byzantium within the canon of art history, focusing on the German-speaking tradition. This peripheral role is particularly striking because art history’s attempts to integrate the Roman East into the canon (the “Byzantine question”) can be traced back to the beginnings of art history as an academic discipline. From very early on, art historians have been interested in global art histories beyond the confines of the West, a disposition that has increased exponentially in recent decades. By investigating the historiography of Byzantine art history, the ideology of nationalism, and modern concepts of time and history, this article demonstrates that both the canon and the nation-state were born of concepts of the linear, teleological flow of time during the Enlightenment. The article argues that the “Byzantine question”, the integration of the Eastern Roman Empire into the canon, had always been doomed to fail. The reason for this is the linear, teleological structure both of modern temporality and of the canon – one that does not allow detours, only branches. Byzantium, with its close connections to the Western traditions, has long troubled this narrative and therefore serves as a lens through which to address questions of decentering and the position of other non-Western cultures in relation to the Western canon.
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Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 2020
This article argues against the wide-spread assumption that San Marco’s fa ade decoration is an a... more This article argues against the wide-spread assumption that San Marco’s fa ade decoration is an agglomeration of triumphal spolia, often said to be looted during the Fourth Crusade (1204). However, many of the alleged trophy spolia from Constantinople are, in fact, works produced ex novo by Venetian artists of the thirteenth century. The five case studies presented in this article demonstrate that these sculptural works are not late antique works, as has been increasingly argued by scholarship since the 1980s, but medieval recreations inspired by late antique and Byzantine visual culture. Instead of reading Venice’s medieval material culture as the product of looting and the desire to display trophies, we should understand it as a visual reflection of the city’s identification with the cultural heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean. This hypothesis is not only supported by the realization that large parts of the decoration are pieces created ex novo instead of trophy spolia, but also by contemporary written sources. No documents from before the early modern period mention any trophies that had been taken from Constantinople to Venice in order to be put on display. The scant evidence we have rather points to the import of marble to Venice from sites that were no longer in use. The reason for this artistic effort is not to create a new Constantinople, but rather to visibly embrace the (Eastern) Roman legacy and to visualize the presence of a sustained and complex Roman history in thirteenth-century Venice.
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Convivium, 2020
The Wall Paintings in Vienna's Chapel of St. Virgil. The Visual Culture of Byzantium, the Caucasu... more The Wall Paintings in Vienna's Chapel of St. Virgil. The Visual Culture of Byzantium, the Caucasus, Syria, and Northern Mesopotamia This case study of the aniconic wall paintings-red-colored, monumental crosses from the mid-thirteenth century-in Vienna's subterranean Chapel of St. Virgil demonstrates that, in the absence of written sources, artifacts can serve as historical documents. The article offers an alternative approach to the quest for historical context, exploring transcultural, cross-media, and diachronic visual comparisons. Since late antiquity, cross decorations with surrounding zigzag patterns were common in Syria, Northern Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Georgia. Formal parallels survive on the facade of the Armenian basilica of Ereruk and among the many red-colored paintings in the cave churches of Cappadocia. Brick ornaments with crosses in blind arches from the eleventh through the fourteenth century offer the most striking visual correspondences to St. Virgil. Compelling examples can be seen on the facades of the eleventh-and thirteenth-century churches of Nea Moni and the Panagia Sikelia on Chios and on the fourteenth-century facade of the Orhan Gazi Camii in Bursa. The paintings of the Viennese chapel are thus likely to refer to the ornate brick facades of Middle Byzantine architecture.
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Naturkatastrophen in Italien, Venedig und Byzanz
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Eschatological concepts entered the realm of the visual arts of Byzantium and the medieval West s... more Eschatological concepts entered the realm of the visual arts of Byzantium and the medieval West surprisingly late. It is not until the middle Byzantine period that we encounter images that depict the end of time, such as the Last Judgment. While the Last Judgment iconography was a relatively late invention, other iconographical motifs, such as images referring to the Book of Revelation had been in use since Late Antiquity. However, those did not acquire eschatological meaning before the high Middle Ages. Here, I concentrate on one particular motif, the empty throne, to illustrate the shift from present to eschatological meaning in the course of the Middle Ages. While it signified an imperial or divine presence during the first millennium, it was increasingly used to refer to the end of time starting in the tenth century. In this study, I do not treat the terms eschatological and apocalyptic as synonyms. In popular use, apocalypse/apocalyptic are frequently understood as references to the end of time and the horrors associated with it and are thus used interchangeably with eschatology/eschatological. However, ancient and medieval apocalyptic literature is characterised by the revelation of otherwise invisible truths; in some cases, those texts might reveal information about the future end of time, but did not necessarily always do so. Therefore, I use apocalypse/apocalyptic only to denote texts or concepts relating to the field of apocalypticism without any temporal restrictions to past, present, or future meanings. Eschatology/eschatological is exclusively used to denote the Last Things and expectations of the future end of time. The relationship between historical and art historical research is often as problematic as it is fruitful. Art historians frequently rely on historians for establishing the context in which a work of art was created, transformed, or destroyed. In return, art history reveals a historical understanding of the world not communicated in written form. The link between the two types of sources can be direct and conclusive, as in inscriptions or written descriptions of objects. It can also be circumstantial; if a historical event and the making of an image happened at the same time, we might assume a connection. The thirteenth century, for example, saw the conquest of Con-stantinople and the subsequent Latin rule. In Venice, it also witnessed the fashioning of the façade of San Marco with spolia from the Eastern Mediterranean (columns and capitals, a porphyry statue, a bronze quadriga etc.). Although the ma
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Geschichte vom Ende her denken (Forum Mittelalter-Studien 15) , 2019
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Behältnisse visueller Erfahrungen: Die Pilgerampullen von Monza und Bobbio, In: Despoina Ariantzi... more Behältnisse visueller Erfahrungen: Die Pilgerampullen von Monza und Bobbio, In: Despoina Ariantzi und Ina Eichner (Hrsg.), For the Sake of Salvation and Happiness. Byzantine Pilgrimage and its Origins, Reihe Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident Bd. 10 (Mainz: RGZM Verlag 2018): 343–355.
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Gesta, 2017
The traditio legis—Christ standing on a mountain holding an open scroll flanked by the apostles P... more The traditio legis—Christ standing on a mountain holding an open scroll flanked by the apostles Peter and Paul—is one of the most widespread and enigmatic Christian images from Late Antiquity. Over the course of the Middle Ages the scene was frequently reinterpreted, and this semantic flexibility has largely obscured its initial raison d’ tre. The first part of this article repositions the traditio legis in its late antique context, arguing that it was understood as a visualization of the Old Testament prophecy at Isaiah 2:2–4. These verses predicted the coming of the new Messiah and the spreading of his Law across the world in a time of peace; they were uniformly understood to describe the present time after the first coming of Christ. The second part discusses the reemergence of the motif in the Middle Ages and the new meanings that were attached to it. While these included the investiture of Peter and Paul in images of the traditio legis et clavium, the grouping was not seen as a political statement on the primacy of Rome. Some medieval examples also used the motif to express both hopes and anxieties about the coming of Christ at the end of time, while others depict the two apostles as models for the mission of converting unbelievers during the crusades. Exploring the manifold reappropriations of the traditio legis permits us to understand its complex web of meanings and highlights the importance of historic specificity in reconstructing how beholders might have experienced the representation over time.
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Edited Volumes by Armin Bergmeier
This volume explores the relationship between temporality and presence in medieval artworks from ... more This volume explores the relationship between temporality and presence in medieval artworks from the third to the sixteenth centuries. It is the first extensive treatment of the interconnections between medieval artworks' varied presences and their ever-shifting places in time. The volume begins with reflections on the study of temporality and presence in medieval and early modern art history. A second section presents case studies delving into the different ways medieval artworks once created and transformed their original viewers' experience of the present. These range from late antique Constantinople, early Islamic Jerusalem and medieval Italy, to early modern Venice and the Low Countries. A final section explores how medieval artworks remain powerful and relevant today. This section includes case studies on reconstructing presence in medieval art through embodied experience of pilgrimage, art historical research and museum education. In doing so, the volume provides a first dialog between museum educators and art historians on the presence of medieval artifacts. It includes contributions by Hans Belting, Keith Moxey, Rika Burnham and others.
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Books by Armin Bergmeier
Articles and book chapters by Armin Bergmeier
Edited Volumes by Armin Bergmeier
Building on these insights, the workshop will delve into practical aspects, seeking possible places for Byzantium after the end of a linear, chronological art historical canon as described by Hans Belting (Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte: Eine Revision nach 10 Jahren) and others. The talks will focus on historiography and scholarly networks, on questions of collecting, artistic production, national and supranational political thought, and on Byzantium’s place within the boundaries of modern academic disciplines.
In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions.
The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic expansion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Buddhism. Examining apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology in medieval Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities, the contributions paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time scenarios and provide their readers with a broad array of source material from different historical contexts.
The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, examines the formation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions, and the role they played as vehicles for defining a community’s religious and political enemies. The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatology: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. It also analyses modern readings and interpretations of eschatological concepts.
Chiara Paniccia, Università degli Studi “G. D’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara. "Narrative Creativity and Acts of Imitation on the Vercelli Rotolus": Evan A. Gatti, Elon University.
Discussant: Alison Locke Perchuk, CSU Channel Islands
Sessions 6 & 28 – Italian Art Society Organized Sessions
Monday, May 9, 9:00 to 10:30 am / 11:00 to 12:30 pm, EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)