ABSTRACT

The idea of Byzantine art as static and unchanging is one of the criticisms of it that art historians from Vasari onwards have employed; indeed, in its very orderliness, Byzantine art subverts what has, from the Renaissance on, been seen as one of the marks of great art: 'originality'. In a Byzantine context, subversion art would disrupt the taxis, the 'order' of society, and it is well-established that taxis was one of the keystones in the Byzantines' understanding of themselves. There is a question of whether subversive art could have survived in Byzantium, or whether the natural order would have seen to its immediate, or fairly immediate, removal. This chapter uses three examples which relate to three of the areas where the world can be turned upside down: principles, religion and monarchy. The three examples are: The Veroli Casket; The Ascension of Neophytos, 1183, the Enkleistra of Neophytos, Paphos, Cyprus; and Gold solidus of Empress Eirene.