Karin Krause

Biography

Karin Krause specializes in the Christian visual cultures of Byzantium and the premodern Mediterranean region. Her research interests include visual hermeneutics, Byzantine manuscript culture, the interrelation of texts and images, the cult of relics, the theology of the icon, and cultural exchange between Byzantium and the West.

Her most recent book, Divine Inspiration in Byzantium: Notions of Authenticity in Art and Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2022), examines the intersecting conceptions of divine inspiration and authenticity in the literature and visual arts of Byzantium. In this volume, Krause traces how ancient ideas about the divine origin of texts and material artifacts were reinterpreted in Byzantine literature and art to promulgate claims to religious truth and authority. Her findings expand upon recent scholarship that treats Byzantine Orthodoxy as having been subject to constant challenge and redefinition. The book also illuminates the important contribution of the visual arts to the formation of Eastern Orthodox theology and cultural identity. Her first book, The Illustrated Homilies of John Chrysostom in Byzantium, (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004; in German) won the 2003 outstanding dissertation award from the German Southeast Europe Association. Making available, often for the first time, the illuminated manuscripts that contain the teachings of Byzantium’s preeminent theologian, it reconstructs the circumstances of their production and their relevance for the liturgy.

Her third monograph, tentatively titled Propaganda, Cult, Scholarship: The Response to Byzantine Artifacts in Venice, is far advanced. In this project, Professor Krause investigates the history of the reception of Byzantine religious artifacts in Venice from the late Middle Ages to about 1800.

Her research has been supported by the German Research Community (DFG), the Max Planck Society, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection of Harvard University, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and the Hellenic Republic, among other entities.

Recent courses:

The Veneration of Icons in Byzantium – Art and Ritual in Byzantium – The Holy Land in the Middle Ages – Illuminating the Bible in Byzantium – The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and beyond – Between East and West: Venice in the Premodern Period – Byzantium: Art, Religion, Culture – Journeys Real and Virtual: Travel in the Premodern Mediterranean (co-taught with Niall Atkinson) – Byzantine Art: Iconography – Introduction to Byzantine Art – Christian Iconography

Publications

Divine Inspiration in Byzantium: Notions of Authenticity in Art and Theology.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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2022

Bild und Text im Mittelalter (Sensus, 2)

Edited with Barbara Schellewald. Cologne: Böhlau
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2011

Die Illustrierten Homilien des Johannes Chrysostomos in Byzanz 

Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag
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2004

“Speaking Books—Silent Pictures: Visualizing Gospel Narrative in Byzantium,” in K. Heyden, H. Manuwald (eds.), Übertragungen heiliger Texte in Judentum, Christentum und Islam. Fallstudien zu Formen und Grenzen der Transposition (Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019, 195-261.

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“Celebrating Orthodoxy. Miniatures for Gregory the Theologian’s “Unread” Orations (MS Basiliensis AN I 8),” Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 68 (2018).

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“Passionsfrömmigkeit und kommunale Propaganda um 1300: Die ‘byzantinischen’ Fresken im Dom von Genua,” in H. Hofmann, C. Schärli, S. Schweinfurth (eds.), Inszenierungen von Sichtbarkeit in mittelalterlichen Bildkulturen. Festschrift für Barbara Schellewald zum 65. Geburtstag. Berlin: Reimer, 2018, 163-215.

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“Die Inschriften der Genesismosaiken,” in M. Büchsel, H. L. Kessler, R. Müller (eds.), The Atrium of San Marco in Venice (Berlin: Reimer, 2014), 143-76.

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“Heilige Schrift im Bild. Spätantike Portraits der inspirierten Evangelisten als Spiegel eines neuen Medienbewusstseins,” in K. Krause, B. Schellewald (eds.), Bild und Text im Mittelalter (Cologne: Böhlau, 2011), 41-83.

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“Einführung, II,” in K. Krause, B. Schellewald (eds.), Bild und Text im Mittelalter (Cologne: Böhlau, 2011), 21-5.

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“Ikonographie des Athanasius,” in P. Gemeinhardt (ed.), Athanasius Handbuch (Theologen-Handbücher) (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), Ch. III.4, 428-40.

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“Konstantins Kreuze. Legendenbildung und Artefakte im Mittelalter,” in M. Borgolte, B. Schneidmüller (eds.), Hybride Kulturen im mittelalterlichen Europa. Vorträge und Workshops einer Frühlingsschule (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010), 171-93.

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“Warum die Tage Flügel haben. Zur Antikenrezeption bei Personifikationen in Spätantike und Mittelalter,” Nea Rhome. Rivista di ricerche bizantinistiche 6 (2009), 103-26.

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“Feuerprobe, Portraits in Stein. Mittelalterliche Propaganda für Venedigs Reliquien aus Konstantinopel und die Frage nach ihrem Erfolg,” in M. Mersch, U. Ritzerfeld (eds.), Lateinisch-griechisch-arabische Begegnungen. Kulturelle Diversität im Mittelmeerraum des Spätmittelalters (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2009), 111-62.*

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Profiles

Andrei Pop
Andrei Pop
Modern Art and Aesthetics
Department Chair
CWAC 162 | Tuesdays 1-2pm or by appointment.
773.702.0278
Niall Atkinson
Niall Atkinson
Medieval and Renaissance Architecture and Urban History
CWAC 260
773.702.0270
Wei-Cheng Lin
Wei-Cheng Lin
Chinese Art and Architecture
Architectural Studies Advisor
CWAC 268 | Office Hours: Wednesdays 9-10am and 12-1pm
773.702.0268
2006-07
Iowa State University
Assistant Professor, East Asian Art and Architecture
Potters Wheel
Richard Neer
Ancient Greek Art and Architecture
CWAC 259
773.702.5890
Megan Sullivan
Megan Sullivan
Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art
CWAC 272
773.702.5126