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Baltimore MD 21218 - 443-691-3836
- Gary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Chief Cur... moreGary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Chief Curator and Curator of Medieval Art. Before coming to Baltimore, Gary was Senior Associate at Harvard’s Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. A native of Minnesota, he received his BA from Carleton College and his PhD from Princeton University.
Gary serves on the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts of the Salzburg Global Seminar and is a board member of Baltimore’s Creative Alliance. He has been a member of the Maryland State Art Council, and advisor to the Getty Leadership Institute and Princeton University’s Department of Art and Archaeology. He was appointed by President Clinton in 1999 to his Cultural Property Advisory Committee and was knighted by the French Minister of Culture in the Order of Arts and Letters in 2002. From 2006 to 2011 he had a weekly radio show on the Baltimore NPR affiliate, WYPR, called Postcards from the Walters.
In retirement, Gary writes, lectures, and teaches, and provides consulting services to cultural non-profits and collectors. His recent books include Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art (2010), From the Holy Land to Graceland (2012), and Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director (2016). He is completing two addition books: Pictures Left Behind of Growing Up in Minnesota and The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death, which will be published by Pegasus Press in the summer of 2020.edit - Kurt Weitzmannedit
The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death (Pegasus Press, 2020) is the first book to offer compelling answers for all the enduring mysteries of the Shroud of Turin: How it was made, by whom, where, and when. And how... more
The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death (Pegasus Press, 2020) is the first book to offer compelling answers for all the enduring mysteries of the Shroud of Turin: How it was made, by whom, where, and when. And how it was quickly transformed, on a continent ravaged by pestilence and war, from an innocuous devotional image into the most famous (fake) relic in Christianity. The Holy Shroud lifts the veil not only on the mechanics behind the creation of the charismatic image on the Shroud of Turin, but also on the human saga of its fabrication and on the societal and historical forces that brought the Shroud into existence.
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About locking, sealing, and weighing in Byzantium. By Gary Vikan and John Newsbit, 1980, Dumbarton Oaks Publication. Based on the Menil Collection
Excellent selection of Byzantine weights, with rich iconography
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Research Interests:
JULY 23, 2019 I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MOMTHS. The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below. GV --------------------------------------------------- BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS in The Menil... more
JULY 23, 2019
I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MOMTHS.
The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below.
GV
---------------------------------------------------
BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS
in
The Menil Foundation Collection
Gary Vikan with John Nesbitt
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
The objects, photographs, and a copy of the draft manuscript are in the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.
The collection consists of 699 objects, ca 80% of which are inscriptional. This draft manuscript, which is ca 85% complete, is just over 700 pages in length. It is broken into nine chapters with nine catalogue sections. These objects were acquired in two batches, one in 1962 and one in 1981. The dealer George Zacos is the source.
The research and writing was done from 1978 to 1992; the bibliography is current to 1992. Each chapter consists of an essay overview followed by a catalogue of the relevant material.
Chapter 1 = Essay + Catalogue: 120 keys and 3 locks (38 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 2 = Essay + Catalogue: 18 ring stones and 51 bronze rings (109 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 3 = Essay + Catalogue: 7 hard stone and 38 bronze cone seals (48 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 4 = Essay + Catalogue: 4 bi-valve bronze seals, 1 bronze stamp, and 5 lead seals (27 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 5 = Essay + Catalogue: 193 bronze stamps (188 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 6 = Essay + Catalogue: 31 bronze flat weights (119 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 7 = Essay + Catalogue: 158 glass coin weights (77 pp of text) 70% complete
Chapter 8 = Essay + Catalogue: 19 Venetian glass medallions (16+ pp of text) 80% complete
Chapter 9 = Essay + Catalogue: 51 bronze belt fittings (43 pp of text) 80% complete
INSCRIPTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MOMTHS.
The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below.
GV
---------------------------------------------------
BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS
in
The Menil Foundation Collection
Gary Vikan with John Nesbitt
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
The objects, photographs, and a copy of the draft manuscript are in the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.
The collection consists of 699 objects, ca 80% of which are inscriptional. This draft manuscript, which is ca 85% complete, is just over 700 pages in length. It is broken into nine chapters with nine catalogue sections. These objects were acquired in two batches, one in 1962 and one in 1981. The dealer George Zacos is the source.
The research and writing was done from 1978 to 1992; the bibliography is current to 1992. Each chapter consists of an essay overview followed by a catalogue of the relevant material.
Chapter 1 = Essay + Catalogue: 120 keys and 3 locks (38 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 2 = Essay + Catalogue: 18 ring stones and 51 bronze rings (109 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 3 = Essay + Catalogue: 7 hard stone and 38 bronze cone seals (48 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 4 = Essay + Catalogue: 4 bi-valve bronze seals, 1 bronze stamp, and 5 lead seals (27 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 5 = Essay + Catalogue: 193 bronze stamps (188 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 6 = Essay + Catalogue: 31 bronze flat weights (119 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 7 = Essay + Catalogue: 158 glass coin weights (77 pp of text) 70% complete
Chapter 8 = Essay + Catalogue: 19 Venetian glass medallions (16+ pp of text) 80% complete
Chapter 9 = Essay + Catalogue: 51 bronze belt fittings (43 pp of text) 80% complete
INSCRIPTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JULY 23, 2019 I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS. The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below. GV --------------------------------------------------- BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS in The Menil... more
JULY 23, 2019
I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS.
The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below.
GV
---------------------------------------------------
BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS
in
The Menil Foundation Collection
Gary Vikan with John Nesbitt
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
The objects, photographs, and a copy of the draft manuscript are in the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.
The collection consists of 699 objects, ca 80% of which are inscriptional. This draft manuscript, which is ca 85% complete, is just over 700 pages in length. It is broken into nine chapters with nine catalogue sections. These objects were acquired in two batches, one in 1962 and one in 1981. The dealer George Zacos is the source.
The research and writing was done from 1978 to 1992; the bibliography is current to 1992. Each chapter consists of an essay overview followed by a catalogue of the relevant material.
Chapter 1 = Essay + Catalogue: 120 keys and 3 locks (38 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 2 = Essay + Catalogue: 18 ring stones and 51 bronze rings (109 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 3 = Essay + Catalogue: 7 hard stone and 38 bronze cone seals (48 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 4 = Essay + Catalogue: 4 bi-valve bronze seals, 1 bronze stamp, and 5 lead seals (27 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 5 = Essay + Catalogue: 193 bronze stamps (188 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 6 = Essay + Catalogue: 31 bronze flat weights (119 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 7 = Essay + Catalogue: 158 glass coin weights (77 pp of text) 70% complete
Chapter 8 = Essay + Catalogue: 19 Venetian glass medallions (16+ pp of text) 80% complete
Chapter 9 = Essay + Catalogue: 51 bronze belt fittings (43 pp of text) 80% complete
INSCRIPTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I WILL BE POSTING PORTIONS OF THIS UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS.
The portion herewith posted is BOLD, below.
GV
---------------------------------------------------
BYZANTINE SMALL FINDS
in
The Menil Foundation Collection
Gary Vikan with John Nesbitt
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
The objects, photographs, and a copy of the draft manuscript are in the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.
The collection consists of 699 objects, ca 80% of which are inscriptional. This draft manuscript, which is ca 85% complete, is just over 700 pages in length. It is broken into nine chapters with nine catalogue sections. These objects were acquired in two batches, one in 1962 and one in 1981. The dealer George Zacos is the source.
The research and writing was done from 1978 to 1992; the bibliography is current to 1992. Each chapter consists of an essay overview followed by a catalogue of the relevant material.
Chapter 1 = Essay + Catalogue: 120 keys and 3 locks (38 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 2 = Essay + Catalogue: 18 ring stones and 51 bronze rings (109 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 3 = Essay + Catalogue: 7 hard stone and 38 bronze cone seals (48 pp text) 90% complete
Chapter 4 = Essay + Catalogue: 4 bi-valve bronze seals, 1 bronze stamp, and 5 lead seals (27 pp text) 80% complete
Chapter 5 = Essay + Catalogue: 193 bronze stamps (188 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 6 = Essay + Catalogue: 31 bronze flat weights (119 pp of text) 90% complete
Chapter 7 = Essay + Catalogue: 158 glass coin weights (77 pp of text) 70% complete
Chapter 8 = Essay + Catalogue: 19 Venetian glass medallions (16+ pp of text) 80% complete
Chapter 9 = Essay + Catalogue: 51 bronze belt fittings (43 pp of text) 80% complete
INSCRIPTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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... Joseph and Zacharias to Hagia Sophia in 415; the opinion originating with J. Strzy-gowski (Orient oder Rom, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der ... Theologie, 7 (1930), 682-702; E. Kantorowicz, "The... more
... Joseph and Zacharias to Hagia Sophia in 415; the opinion originating with J. Strzy-gowski (Orient oder Rom, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der ... Theologie, 7 (1930), 682-702; E. Kantorowicz, "The 'King's Advent' and the Enigmatic Panels in the Doors of Santa Sabina," ArtB, 26 (1944 ...
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The Description for this book, Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, will be forthcoming.
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... After fifty years the most useful general treatment of early Byzantine marriage remains that of K. Ritzer's 1940 Wirzburg dissertation, here cited in its French translation, Le mariage dans les iglises chrtiennes du Ier au XIe... more
... After fifty years the most useful general treatment of early Byzantine marriage remains that of K. Ritzer's 1940 Wirzburg dissertation, here cited in its French translation, Le mariage dans les iglises chrtiennes du Ier au XIe si'cle (Paris, 1970). ...
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Page 1. Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from the Ptolemaic Period to the Renaissance Gary Vikan Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from the Ptolemaic ...
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Contents: Introduction Sacred image, sacred power Icons and icon piety in early Byzantium Ruminations on edible icons: originals and copies in the art of Byzantium Graceland as locus sanctus Byzantine pilgrims' art Early Byzantine... more
Contents: Introduction Sacred image, sacred power Icons and icon piety in early Byzantium Ruminations on edible icons: originals and copies in the art of Byzantium Graceland as locus sanctus Byzantine pilgrims' art Early Byzantine pilgrimage devotionalia as evidence for the appearance of pilgrimage shrines Pilgrims in magi's clothing: the impact of mimesis on early Byzantine pilgrimage art 'Guided by land and sea': pilgrim art and pilgrim travel in early Byzantium Art, medicine and magic in early Byzantium Art and marriage in early Byzantium Two Byzantine amuletic armbands and the group to which they belong Two unpublished pilgrim tokens in the Benaki Museum and the group to which they belong Early Christian and Byzantine rings in the Zucker family collection The Trier ivory, adventus ceremonial, and the relics of St. Stephen Meaning in Coptic funerary sculpture Index.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Art, Pilgrimage, Mysticism, Sculpture, and 3 moreByzantine Architecture, Piety, and Pilgrim
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Page 1. ART, MEDICINE, AND MAGIC IN EARLY BYZANTIUM* ... In Byzantium the world of art touched that of medicine in a variety of ways and with varying intensity. ...
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Que peut-on dire de la valeur des images de pelerinages devotionalia dans l'approche visuelle du sanctuaire de pelerinage byzantin? En depit du caractere inapplicable du modele moderne du souvenir a l'eulogia du pelerin byzantin,... more
Que peut-on dire de la valeur des images de pelerinages devotionalia dans l'approche visuelle du sanctuaire de pelerinage byzantin? En depit du caractere inapplicable du modele moderne du souvenir a l'eulogia du pelerin byzantin, il est vrai que certaines eulogiai comportent des images qui refletent des modeles monumentaux locaux. Les devotionalia du Saint Sepulchre ou le but est de capturer la puissance sacree de la relique a travers l'identite de l'image et de l'objet, constitue un bon exemple. La valeur archeologique des devotionalia de pelerinage est somme toute limitee
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Beginning in the late 1970’s, Gary Vikan began to publish a series of articles that fundamentally altered the way many of us understand the relationship of the sacred and its physical manifestation in objects and images. The present... more
Beginning in the late 1970’s, Gary Vikan began to publish a series of articles that fundamentally altered the way many of us understand the relationship of the sacred and its physical manifestation in objects and images. The present volume brings together fifteen papers, which appeared between 1979 and 1995 in a variety of venues, many of which scholars of the Late Antique and Byzantine periods will already know. Vikan has spent most of his career in the museum world—he is currently the director of the Walters Art Museum—and the studies have in common the author’s perceptive observations of material culture as a reflection of spiritual concerns in the Late Antique and Byzantine world. Eschewing the hermeneutical approach that has dominated much of the writing on Byzantine religious art,Vikan’s method is both common-sensical and appealing, best represented in his Study V, “Byzantine Pilgrimage Art” (1998), an updating of a booklet he prepared to accompany an exhibit at Dumbarton Oaks...
The Description for this book, Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, will be forthcoming.
Research Interests:
Contents: Introduction Sacred image, sacred power Icons and icon piety in early Byzantium Ruminations on edible icons: originals and copies in the art of Byzantium Graceland as locus sanctus Byzantine pilgrims' art Early Byzantine... more
Contents: Introduction Sacred image, sacred power Icons and icon piety in early Byzantium Ruminations on edible icons: originals and copies in the art of Byzantium Graceland as locus sanctus Byzantine pilgrims' art Early Byzantine pilgrimage devotionalia as evidence for the appearance of pilgrimage shrines Pilgrims in magi's clothing: the impact of mimesis on early Byzantine pilgrimage art 'Guided by land and sea': pilgrim art and pilgrim travel in early Byzantium Art, medicine and magic in early Byzantium Art and marriage in early Byzantium Two Byzantine amuletic armbands and the group to which they belong Two unpublished pilgrim tokens in the Benaki Museum and the group to which they belong Early Christian and Byzantine rings in the Zucker family collection The Trier ivory, adventus ceremonial, and the relics of St. Stephen Meaning in Coptic funerary sculpture Index.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Art, Pilgrimage, Mysticism, Sculpture, and 3 moreByzantine Architecture, Piety, and Pilgrim
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... (Her companionship and steady encouragement are, as al-ways, assumed but deeply appreciated.) My trustworthy assistant, Josephine Mariea, has found ways to compensate tactfully for my lack of computer skills. Victoria Davis has done... more
... (Her companionship and steady encouragement are, as al-ways, assumed but deeply appreciated.) My trustworthy assistant, Josephine Mariea, has found ways to compensate tactfully for my lack of computer skills. Victoria Davis has done expert work in preparing the index. ...
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Art and Marriage in Early Byzantium.
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The icon is the legacy of Byzantium (AD 330–1453), the Christian, East Roman Empire governed from Constantinople. In Greek the word eikon simply means “image,” and today it is usually understood to mean an abstract religious portrait... more
The icon is the legacy of Byzantium (AD 330–1453), the Christian, East Roman Empire governed from Constantinople. In Greek the word eikon simply means “image,” and today it is usually understood to mean an abstract religious portrait painted in egg tempera on a gold-covered wooden board (Figure 9.1). But an icon could also be a mosaic, or even a coin; it could be elaborate or simple, one of a kind or mass produced (Weitzmann, 1978, 13 ff.). What defi ned an icon in Byzantium was neither medium nor style, but rather how the image was used, and especially, what people believed it to be. An icon was, and in the Orthodox Church remains, a devotional image, one deserving special reverence and respect (Byzantine Art, 1964, 269). This is so because an icon is believed to be a holy image, one which literally shares in the sanctity of the fi gure whose likeness it bears. The accepted Orthodox view was succinctly stated nearly twelve centuries ago by St. Theodore the Studite (Mango, 1972, 173):
... Patronage in thirteenth-century Constantinople: An atelier of late Byzantine book illumination and calligraphy. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Buchthal, Hugo (b. 1909, d. ----. PUBLISHER: Dumbarton Oaks Center ...
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Page 1. Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from the Ptolemaic Period to the Renaissance Gary Vikan Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from the Ptolemaic ...
Research Interests:
Page 1. ART, MEDICINE, AND MAGIC IN EARLY BYZANTIUM* ... In Byzantium the world of art touched that of medicine in a variety of ways and with varying intensity. ...
Research Interests:
... After fifty years the most useful general treatment of early Byzantine marriage remains that of K. Ritzer's 1940 Wirzburg dissertation, here cited in its French translation, Le mariage dans les iglises chrtiennes du Ier au XIe... more
... After fifty years the most useful general treatment of early Byzantine marriage remains that of K. Ritzer's 1940 Wirzburg dissertation, here cited in its French translation, Le mariage dans les iglises chrtiennes du Ier au XIe si'cle (Paris, 1970). ...
Research Interests:
... Joseph and Zacharias to Hagia Sophia in 415; the opinion originating with J. Strzy-gowski (Orient oder Rom, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der ... Theologie, 7 (1930), 682-702; E. Kantorowicz, "The... more
... Joseph and Zacharias to Hagia Sophia in 415; the opinion originating with J. Strzy-gowski (Orient oder Rom, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der ... Theologie, 7 (1930), 682-702; E. Kantorowicz, "The 'King's Advent' and the Enigmatic Panels in the Doors of Santa Sabina," ArtB, 26 (1944 ...