ABSTRACT
The often multivalent and eclectically combined images on medieval Byzantine tableware confront the viewer with a problem: how should the complex and often ambiguous imagery of the bowls and plates be interpreted? Is a single, coherent meaning intended by their decoration, or is the latter a jumble of meaningless scenery? The clue to their interpretation can be found, as will be argued, in contemporary rhetorical strategies and performances. Riddles and ‘double-tonguedness’ prominently featured in twelfth-century rhetorical performances and works and even in material culture. Studying visual and rhetorical displays together can illuminate not only the interpretation of individual artworks but also the broader relationship in medieval Byzantium between rhetoric and the visual arts.
