Dr. Magdalene Breidenthal will share her research in a public lecture titled ”Approaching Exit Images in Byzantium: A Case Study from Cyprus.” 

Breidenthal, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, examines the ”exit image” as an essential art historical category in the study of Byzantine church decoration and sacred space. When viewers entered a church adorned with paintings and/or mosaics, they were afforded changing views of holy scenes and figures as they moved throughout the interior—even as they left the building. Visual and textual sources show that eschatological, theophanic, and hagiographical imagery was often prominently displayed around exit doorways. Breidenthal’s research considers how the subject matter, composition, and placement of such images at the threshold would have engaged the sensory and metaphorical aspects of exodos (“going out”). 

WHEN: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 4:30 p.m.

WHERE: Everson 157