Byzantium and Landscapes of Loss

This richly illustrated book presents the art, architecture, and material culture of a little-known Byzantine dynasty, the Laskarids of Nicaea (1204-1261), uncovering their multiple contributions to the so-called Palaiologan renaissance which occurred in Constantinople after the city was regained in 1261. It adds many new examples of artistic and archaeological material to the existing historical work on the period. These include new and renovated fortifications, churches, palaces, and defensive towers, as well as artistic media such as mosaics, frescoes, coins, seals, inscriptions, and ceramics. Naomi Pitamber argues that features from Constantinople and its associated imperial history were recalled, edited, and selected for quotation in Nicaean exile and informed the Palaiologan renaissance in Constantinople. Laskarid cultural production in Asia Minor physically linked the urban imperial past of Constantinople to the present exilic moment, building a bridge to a yet unknown but much hoped-for future reuniting capital, court, empire, and people.

NAOMI RUTH PITAMBER is Assistant Professor of Art History at Clark University. She was an ACLS Fellow and Getty Research Institute Scholar and has received fellowships from the Archaeological Institute of America, the Fulbright program, the Council for Library and Information Research, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.