Later Byzantium is often discussed in light of its political waning caused by foreign, heterodox threats; as well as of the so-called Palaiologan Renaissance, a cultural renewal based on its own, essentially Byzantine cultural capital. This talk will bring forward the point of view of material culture in order to focus on another later Byzantine trait: its eclectic and transitional character. The aim is to propose a less mainstream reading in which late Byzantine eclecticism, as evidenced by textile remnants and representations, foreshadowed the Ottoman sartorial trends that prevailed in the region from the sixteenth century and on. In a way, this point of view suggests that late Byzantine and early Ottoman material cultures could be interpreted as two steps towards the same direction: from Eurasian eclecticism to local synthesis.

Organizers: Olivier Delouis (Maison Française d’Oxford, Campion Hall), Lilyana Yordanova (Musée du Louvre, École française d’Athènes).

For Trinity Term 2023, the research programme “From Byzantium to the Ottoman world in South-Eastern Europe” (BYOSE), will co-sponsor the “Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar” (LABS) at the University of Oxford. The LABS is convened by Ine Jacobs (University College), Marc Lauxtermann (Exeter College),
Ida Toth (Wolfson College), and Olivier Delouis (MFO, Campion Hall).

The BYOSE Seminar Series at Oxford will be devoted to the examination of space as a product of various social activities, from devotion and imagination to consumption and trade of goods. How quickly do the shift in mentalities and the re-appropriation of rural and urban landscapes occur compared to political changes in a transition phase? What is the part of innovation, conservatism or resistance in the territories concerned by the shift of powers?