ABSTRACT
The art of dining – tableware, its decoration, its contents – and its viewing context were central to constructing and communicating ideas and ideals, behaviour and messages ranging from flattery to threats. Together, the decorated tableware, the artworks surrounding it, the displays of dancers, acrobats and musicians and the performance of pieces of rhetoric created an enveloping spectacle. Rather than attempting to impose a singular and unambiguous interpretation on many if not all of these artworks, it is important to recognise that their ambiguity was an intrinsic part of their appeal and function. Decorated tableware vividly reminded its viewers of the consequences of their sins, depicting shorthand versions of the Last Judgement to stress the bodily nature of the punishments undergone by those who had depraved manners or morals, at table and beyond. The contemplation of death and the fate of the soul was an important cultural practice during the middle Byzantine period.
