she, hers
Arts Division
Professor
Faculty
Classical Studies
Italian Studies
Porter College, Room D-206
Wednesday 11:30-1:30, on Zoom only. Please book at least a day in advance through this online calendar: https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/rkgsr
Porter Faculty Services
Licence in Mediaeval Studies, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto
Ph.D., Byzantine Studies, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK
M.A., Byzantine Studies, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK
Certificate in Museology and Restoration of works of art, Universitá Internazionale dell’Arte, Florence, Italy
Diploma, Art History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
B.A., Archaeology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
Visual cultures of the Mediterranean with emphasis on Ancient Greek and Byzantine material. Cross-cultural interactions; continuity and change; politics and religion; gender construction and perception; word and image; ritual and the senses
Maria Evangelatou’s primary research interests focus on the visual culture of Byzantium. A main theme in her study is the interrelation of visual and textual forms of expression and their use in the shaping and reproduction of main cultural and social concepts, examined through a number of case studies that touch upon one or more of the following issues: the interaction between word and image in Byzantine manuscript illumination; the influence of Orthodox and especially iconophile theology on Byzantine religious iconography; biblical typology as a key concept in Byzantine self-perception and expression; the interpretation of Marian iconography in the light of Byzantine religious literature and ritual and its use in the construction of gender; the embodiment of meaning in multi-sensorial and kinetic experiences of visual environments and the interaction between the material and the spiritual realms of cultural consciousness.
Her secondary field of study is ancient Greek visual culture. She is particularly interested in the visual use of myths for the construction of gender, social and cultural identities and the expression of political ideals. In addition she explores the influence of religious and spiritual beliefs on fundamental manifestations of ancient Greek culture, such as the development of naturalism or the popularity of family funerary stele in the late 5th and 4th centuries. Her interest in ritual, embodiment and the construction of history through myth has led her to examine the spatiotemporal dimensions of ancient monuments, such as the Great Altar of Pergamon, and to explore their possible interpretations through the sensorial and kinetic experiences of their ancient users.
All courses offered have a tri-fold goal:
- Familiarity with basic visual expressions of the cultures examined.
- Development of critical skills and understanding of the use of visual expressions in the shaping and reproduction of social and cultural identities. This goal is achieved through the examination of themes such as the construction of gender and sexuality, the interrelation of politics and religion, the multivalence of ritual, and the interaction of the senses.
- Respect for cultural diversity and appreciation of the importance of cross-cultural interactions in the development of human civilization.
Courses offered
Lower division
Greek eyes: visual culture and power in the ancient Greek world
Unclothed: the naked body from antiquity to the present
Gardens of delight: fifteen centuries of Islamic visual culture
Upper division
Greek myths, from antiquity to the present
Byzantine visual culture: politics and religion in New Rome, 330-1453
Constructing Cleopatra: power, sexuality and femininity across the ages
Seminars
The Mediterranean from the rise of Christianity to the rise of Islam
Word and image in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
The cult of Mary in Byzantium
Graduate seminars
Becoming El Greco
Mother of God: Byzantine approaches and contemporary interpretations
2009-10, Post-doctoral research fellowship, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University), Washington DC
2006-07, Post-doctoral research fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Harvard University), Cambridge MA
2005-06, Post-doctoral research fellowship, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto ON
2004-05, Post-doctoral research fellowship, Program in Hellenic Studies (Princeton University), Princeton NJ
2003-04, Post-doctoral research fellowship, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University), Washington DC
Books
- A contextual reading of Ethiopian crosses through form and ritual: kaleidoscopes of meaning, Gorgias Press 2018.
Edited volumes
- Byzantium: An Oecumenical Empire, exhibition catalogue, October 2001-January 2002, Athens, Byzantine and Christian Museum, ed. M. Evangelatou, H. Papastavrou, and P.-T. Skotti, Athens 2001 (in Greek), Athens 2002 (in English).
Articles and book chapters
- “Krater of nectar and altar of the bread of life: the Theotokos as provider of the Eucharist in Byzantine culture”, in The Reception of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Marian Narratives in Texts and Images, ed. Th. Arentzen and M. Gunningham (Cambridge 2018), 77-119.
- “Textile Mediation in Late Byzantine Visual Culture: Unveiling Layers of Meaning through the Fabrics of the Chora Monastery”, in Catalogue of the Textiles in the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection, ed. Gudrun Bühl and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams (Washington, DC, 2019). Also published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 73 (2019), 287-341.
- “The Heavenly Ladder”, in A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts, ed. V. Tsamakda, Brill (Leiden 2017), 407-17.
- "Sacra Parallela (Par. Gr. 923)", in A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts, ed. V. Tsamakda, Brill (Leiden 2017), 418-29.
- "Botanical exegesis in God's creation: the polyvalent meaning of plants on the Salerno ivories", in The Salerno Ivories: Material, History, Theology, two volumes of collected studies, edited by A. Culter. F. Dell'Acqua, H. Kellser and others, published by Gebr. Mann Verlag • Deutscher Verlag f. Kunstwissenschaft (Berlin 2016), 133-66.
- “Threads of power: clothing symbolism, human salvation and female identity in the illustrated homilies by Iakobos of Kokkinobaphos,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 69 (2014), 241-324.
- “Between East and West: the symbolism of space in the art of Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco)” Proceedings of the conference Renaissance Encounters: Greek East and Latin West, Symposium for the 30th Anniversary of the Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University, November 12-14th 2009. Brill (Leiden-Boston) 2013, 147-184.
- "Religious inspiration and artistic aspiration in El Greco's art: the evidence of the signatures" in the 10th International Conference of Arts and Humanities Proceedings, Hawaii University, Hawaii, Honolulu. URL: http://huichawaii.org/documents/Arts_and_Humanities_Archive_2012/
- “Liturgy and the illustration of the ninth-century Byzantine marginal Psalters”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2011), 59-116.
- “Word and Image in the Sacra Parallela (cod. Paris. gr. 923)”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 62 (2010), 113-197.
- “The personification of Ulcer in Byzantine illustrated manuscripts of the Book of Job”, Gesta 48/1 (2010), 19-36.
- “Virtuous soul, healthy body: the holistic concept of health in Byzantine representations of Christ’s healing miracles”, Proceedings of the conference on Healing in Byzantium: Epistemologies and Methodologies, May 7th-8th 2004, Harvard University, (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2010), 173-242.
- “The embodiment of history at the Great Altar of Pergamon: the power of Hellenistic baroque”, in “Unfolding the Baroque: Cultures & Concepts,” Ars Aeterna 2.1 (2010), ed. C. Soussloff and A. Smieskova, 108-133.
- "The exegetical initials of codex Parisinus graecus 41: word and image in a twelfth-century Greek psalter”, Word and Image 24.2 (2008), 199-218.
- “Pursuing salvation through a body of parchment: books and their significance in the illustrated homilies by Iakobos of Kokkinobaphos”, Mediaeval Studies 68 (2006), 239-84.
- “The symbolism of the censer in Byzantine representations of the Dormition of the Virgin”, ed. M. Vassilaki, Images of the Mother of God. Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 117-125.
- “The purple thread of the flesh: the theological connotations of a narrative iconographic element in Byzantine images of the Annunciation”, ed. Antony Eastmond and Liz James, Icon and Word: the power of images in Byzantium. Studies presented to Robin Cormack (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), 261-79.
- “The Holy Sepulchre and Iconophile Arguments on Relics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters”, ed. A. Lidov, Eastern Christian Relics, Proceedings of the International Symposium “Relics in the Art and Culture of the Eastern Christian World”, Moscow 2000 (Moscow, 2003), 181-204.
- “The column as symbol of Christ in Byzantine art”, Archeology and Arts 88 (Athens, 2003), 52-58 (in Greek).
Books under contract
-Theia graphe: word and image in the Byzantine Psalters of the Iconoclast aftermath under contract with Alexandros Press.
