Dr%20Maria%20Lidova: List of publications

This paper is dedicated to the problem of artists’ signatures in Byzantium and, more specifically, to the question of anonymity, which is ofen considered to be a basic characteristic of Eastern Christian art. Declaration of authorship is traditionally seen as a sign of sinful vanity, antagonistic to the religious spirit of the Middle Ages. However, work on this material reveals numerous traces of authorship lef by Byzantine artists on their work in the form of epigraphical records. Through a selection of the most insightful examples, based primarily on mosaics, murals and icon painting, this paper demonstrates that the tradition of creating inscriptions bearing the names of masters was a phenomenon neither limited to a particular chronological period of Byzantine history nor influenced by specific historical or cultural transformations. On the contrary, it represents a continuous tradition developing from the period of late antiquity right up to the end of the Middle Ages. The range of surviving evidence, the variability of linguistic forms and paleographic aspects, as well as the array of creative approaches taken to the placement of signatures and dedicatory inscriptions, help to reveal a concern for the preservation of memories of individual involvement within the world of the Medieval Christian masters. Whilst not always in line with a contemporary understanding of the role of artists’ signatures, these testimonies nevertheless call for a reevaluation of the question of complete anonymity and the personality of the artist in Byzantine art.

The paper is dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome. The panel was executed in the encaustic technique, which, together with the characteristics of style, allowed scholars to date the image from the late 6th to the early 8th century. The icon represents the Virgin as Queen, which is conveyed through her vestments that reproduce the dress of a Byzantine Empress. This iconography, generally known as Maria Regina, was widespread in early medieval Rome. For this reason it came to be regarded as a specific Western variant of Marian imagery, which emerged under the direct influence of the popes and served as an expression of their political aspirations. My research is dedicated to the analysis of the icon in the context of Early Byzantine culture. This paper concerns only one of a wide range of issues related to the topic. The iconographic peculiarities of the icon are considered from a new angle, suggesting that the Roman context alone cannot explain its origin. The analysis of the contemporary female imagery and Marian theology indicates that the Trastevere icon was created under the influence of ideas that belonged to a common religious heritage shared by the entire Christian world - ideas that determined the perception of the image of the Mother of God in the Roman icon as Empress, Virgin and Ecclesia.