Metapainting in Fourteenth-Century Byzantium and Italy: Performing Devotion Through Time and Space
Résumé
Metaimages have benefited from scholarly attention in recent decades, but not all periods and
geographical areas have received equal attention. Most importantly, no comparative studies have
been conducted with respect to late medieval Byzantium and Italy. This essay is the first attempt
to investigate one instance of these reflexive images—that is, metapaintings—from a comparative
point of view, highlighting how they are visually structured and the meanings they convey in
each tradition. We explore the logic of metapainting, starting with the historical dimension of the
scenes, then the transcendent and eternal power of the enshrined devices, and finally their reflection
of contemporary devotion and the active role of the late medieval viewer. By unfolding these
three dimensions, this essay argues that the meta in metapainting is the images’ ability to connect
the fourteenth-century viewer to a historical and prestigious past that they visually celebrate, but
also to testify to the power of devotional images and their performances in a permanent way for
any viewer at any given time.