ABSTRACT
The fundamental relationship between Byzantine art and rhetoric lies not so much in shared metaphors as in shared techniques of narrative and dramatization. In some instances, rhetorical texts provided Byzantine art with metaphorical imagery, as in the case of the symbols of the Virgin in portrayals of the Annunciation. The practice of ekphrasis provided Byzantine artists with dramatic detail, with which to enhance their portrayals of New Testament events. Earlier Byzantine writers also criticized western liturgical drama, especially the authors of the lists of heresies of the Latins. The Byzantine theology of images blocked off certain avenues of artistic expression, such as liturgical drama as it was developed in the Latin West. The Byzantines developed their rhetoric of images in approximately the same time period as the first flowering of liturgical drama in the West, that is, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
