The impact of Byzantine hesychasm on Christian art in Byzantine and Slavic lands in 14th and 15th centuries

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore the possible relationship between the religious movement of hesychasm and the development of new artistic trends in Byzantine and Slavic lands during the Palaeologan period (1261-1453). This research also investigates the background currents, circumstances and persons which impelled the outbreak of the hesychast controversy. It further examines the doctrinal views of both hesychasts and humanists and considers the iconographical and stylistic changes in the Christian art of 14th and 15th centuries. Three compositions depicting three major feasts, the Transfiguration, the Anastasis and the Trinity, are selected as case studies to illustrate the transformations of art that occurred during the Palaeologan period. Combined methods of analysis are used in this thesis, including broader sociological and theological methods, with emphasis on several key issues, such as the cultural context, the thematic content, the aesthetic status and the theological role of images within theological discourse. However, formal and iconographical analyses are the principal means for study of the qualities, nature and history of the selected compositions.