ABSTRACT
‘Style’ and ‘iconography’ are rarely neatly segregated in Byzantine imagery, where artisans habitually used formal conventions to convey meaning. Whether or not a figure gesticulated or carried their arms close to the body was not only a narrative device, but also a means of indicating his or her place in the social hierarchy. This chapter is dedicated to discovering the role that gender played in the visual construction of hierarchies: the connection between gender and gesture in middle Byzantine images.
