History 319 Class Visits Byzantium

10/11/2008

History 319 Class Visits Byzantium

November 7 students from Dom Alessio’s Cultures of Imperial Power went to see the recently opened Byzantium 330-1453 exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibit reflected many of the themes discussed in class: is empire a good or bad phenomenon (Voltaire and Ruskin); the significance of empire (the empire stretched from Ravenna in Italy to Thebes in Egypt and spanned 1000 years); the relationship between power and religion; propaganda and imperial policies (San Vitale); how the culture of the colonised can impact on an empire (the transformation of pagan Rome into a Christian state); why empires are formed (witnessed by the Norman or Venetian pillaging of the Byzantines); and how empire can impact on peripheral peoples and states, with Byzantine art and architecture being copied in Venice, Serbia, Moldavia, Russia and Armenia. The visit will be repeated in Spring 2009 before the exhibit closes on March 22.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/618.aspx