Dynamic Splendor

Ann Terry is an independent scholar and the author of A Century of Archaeology at Poreč (1847–1947) with Ffiona Gilmore Eaves (2001). Henry Maguire is Professor in the Johns Hopkins History of Art Department. His publications include Earth and Ocean: The Terrestrial World in Early Byzantine Art (Penn State, 1987), the edited volume Byzantine Magic (1995), and Icons of Their Bodies: Saints and Their Images in Byzantium (1996).

“Long overshadowed by their more extensive neighbors at Ravenna and Venice, the glittering mosaics of Porec have rarely been subjected to detailed scrutiny. Repeatedly restored in the late nineteenth century, they have been regarded with suspicion by scholars and quickly passed over by tourists. Terry and Maguire compensate for this neglect with meticulous examination from the scaffold and judicious study of the relative merits of pre-restoration drawings, photos, and written records . . . with a battery of color photographs unparalleled in any other work on early Byzantine mosaic.”—Anthony Cutler, The Pennsylvania State University

• ContentsPrefaceNote to ReadersIntroduction1.Documentation of the Mosaics Prior to the Late Nineteenth-Century Restorations2.Philosophy and Methods of the Restorers3.Porec and Ravenna: Affiliations and Chronology4.Mosaic Artistry in Sixth-Century Poreč5.Sixth-Century Iconography: Questions of Identification6.Sixth-Century Iconology: Questions of MeaningConclusion: Mosaic as a Dynamic MediumAppendix I: Survey of Authentic and Restored SectionsAppendix II: A Note on Twentieth-Century RestorationsNotesFrequently Cited SourcesIndexIllustrations VolumeList of IllustrationsFigures and PlatesIllustrations Credits