This volume examines the occurrence of secular contemporary artefacts (realia) in Middle and Late Byzantine religious painting. It explores the potential of Byzantine art as a source of information on material culture and inquires into the semiotic function of realia in religious pictorial contexts. The first part of the book comprises five case studies dedicated to imperial, official, aristocratic, and military dress, furniture, furnishings, and implements. The creative processes that led to the introduction of realia into religious iconography are discussed in the commentary. The book...

A significant contribution to the study of cross-cultural communicationa "and accommodationa "in the ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse world of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean as reflected in Byzantine, Latin and Islamic archival sources and chancery traditions.