Heaven on Earth: Art and the Church in Byzantium (review)

267 results of reading Chaucer's text with the trivium in mind. The General Prologue is described as 'the dance of predication', the Knight's Tale is an exercise in definition, the Man ofLaw's Tale is characterised by its rhetorical cry for justice, and the Clerk's Tale is grounded in part on the doctrine of mental language. In thefinalchapter, the Wife of Bath and the Merchant illustrate the idea of the 'knowable' character, while the Franklin's Tale and the Tale ofMelibee offer examples of the perils associated with the art of naming. 'Trivial' readings finally reveal the General Prologue as the mindsong of Geffrey the narrator and the tales as the mindsongs of their pilgrim-narrators. Meaning is generated for readers of the texts w h e n their individual mindsongs or mental images interact with those of the different narrators. The trivium, in sum, gave Chaucer 'a mechanism for consciously evoking an image of the h u m a n individual' and allowed him to explore 'the tensions inherent in reasoning applied to the world of phenomena' and the difficulties that arise 'when w e try to m a k e phenomena behave themselves by giving them names' (p. 203). Both collectively and individually, Russell's analyses of the Canterbury Tales show that there is m u c h value in his methodology. Reading these texts through the 'trivial' curriculum generates interpretations which are sometimes challenging to, and sometimes affirming of, a reader's alreadyheld beliefs about their meanings. Russell remarks in his conclusion that it i s surprising to discover 'that Chaucer could find in these abstruse, even drab bodies of knowledge the inspiration for works so full of vibrancy and humanity' (p. 202). His o w n book, I think, contains the same paradox: that a subject apparently so dry is communicated with such passion and energy. Elizabeth Moores Department of English University of Queensland Safran, Linda, ed., Heaven on Earth: Art and the Church in Byzantium, University Park, Pennsylvania, Penn State University Press, 1998; pp. 280; 1 map, 237 b / w illustrations, 16 colour plates; R.R.P. US$75.00 (cloth), US$27.50 (paper). It was a happy idea to hold a series of lectures on Byzantium at the 268 Reviews Smithsonian Institution in 1991, and this welcome book is its delayed byproduct. After a brief introduction by the editor, eight scholars offer contributions which approach Byzantine religious art from different perspectives. Joseph Alchermes provides an evocative overview of life in Constantinople, while Eric D. Perl uses the theme of deification to introduce Byzantine theology, and shows h o w Christology, knowledge of God, and liturgy are illuminated by it, before concluding with a powerful treatment of participation in the Eucharist. Anna Kartsonis uses material of various kinds to show the interactive nature of icons; the discussion of an icon, n o w lost, from Kamouliani is particularly effective. In an engaging style which bears the marks of oral delivery, Robert Ousterhout surveys connections between architecture and the liturgy, offering along the way the suggestion that Byzantine architecture is closer to the Postmodern than the Modern sensibility in a contribution which culminates in a superb discussion of the Chora monastery in Constantinople. The cycle of images in churches is discussed by Henry Maguire, w h o contrasts the mosaics at Hosois Loukas with those at Daphni, surely among the most beautiful creations of Byzantium, helpfully quoting patristic and liturgical texts which bear on them. Susan A. Boyd examines silver plate, particularly that which was so prolifically produced in late antiquity. Illustrated service books are surveyed in fascinating style by Nancy Patterson Sevcenko, who does full justice to an art form not always given its due, while Gary Vikan's discussion of Byzantine pilgrims' art, although dealing with a less central topic, makes some very interesting points about it. The chapters are illustrated by a generous volume of well chosen and well reproduced pictorial evidence, which covers a wider range of material than is sometimes the case in books on Byzantine art. O n a few occasions the authors are not persuasive. It is drawing a long b o w to connect...