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title

Byzantines A.D. 800-1000

 
Accession number AR.EP.CL.0399
Creator
Date
1882
Measurements
6 x 11 inches
Materials/Techniques
illustration
Work types
chromolithograph

Description

TRANSCRIPTION

Byzantines.  A.D. 800-1000

1. 2. Warriors, 800.

3. Nicephorus I., 811.

4. 8. Men of Rank.

5. Arms-bearer.

6. 9. Basilius, 886.

7. Bishop.

10. Empress.

11. Emperor.

12. Basilius II., 1025.

[Plate 24 from Albert Kretschmer and Karl Rohrbach, The costumes of all nations from the earlies times to the nineteenth century: exhibiting the dresses and habits of all classes, regal, ecclesiastical, noble, military, judicial, and civil (London, H. Sotheran & Co., 1882).]

EXHIBITION

Imagining the Empress: Theodora in Popular Culture, 1882-1922
April-October 2017

The 1880s saw increased popular interest in the style and aesthetics of the Byzantine Empire. This page from Kretschmer’s Costumes of all Nations depicts a colorful variety of imperial fashions, with an unnamed emperor and empress occupying center stage. Kretschmer, a professional scholar of costume history, marketed this work to mass audiences. The book plate offered a glimpse of Byzantium that was largely divorced from historical narrative or named figures, focusing instead on the purely visual and aesthetic legacy of the Empire.

Collection

Ephemera Collection
 

Repository

Dumbarton Oaks Archives, 054.SUZ.02.PCbox.096
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC
Accession number AR.EP.CL.0399
Creator
Date
1882
Measurements
6 x 11 inches
Materials/Techniques
illustration
Work types
chromolithograph

Index Terms

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