The Byzantine Representations of the Himation as a Possible Tool for Defining Specific Authorial Features of the Painters? A Connoisseurship Approach
The Byzantine Representations of the Himation as a Possible Tool for Defining Specific Authorial Features of the Painters? A Connoisseurship Approach

Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates the representations of himation, the cloak worn by Christ and other saints, in Late Byzantine painting. Even though many showed strong interest in the representations of imperial, aristocratic, official, military and clerical dress (e.g. M. Marković, M. Parani, J. Ball, P. L. Grotowski), only a few scholars tried to examine questions relating to the artistic treatment of the representations of the himation in Byzantine iconography (e. g. J. Repond, M. G. Houston, T. Mitrović), an ancient dress that was not part of the original Byzantine clothing practice. With reliance on ancient written and pictorial sources, we know that the main characteristic of the himation was its draping technique in so-called manner ἐπιδέξια (“to the right”). In relation to this, by examining case study (workshop of Late Byzantine painters Michael and Eutychios) the paper will try to determine whether we can reconstruct and in addition apply certain wrapping technique of himation in order to define specific authorial feature of the Late Byzantine painters. A smaller section of the research will discusse possible ways of medieval studying the depiction of drapery.

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