Advertisement
Podcast

Byzantine dress and fashion, with Jennifer Ball and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams

A conversation with Jen Ball and Betsy Williams on the study of Byzantine dress and fashion. How do we know what people wore? Was clothing gendered? Why are dress and jewelry studied separately? And can we talk about fashion in Byzantium, or was fashion, as some believe, a modern development?

Jennifer Ball is an art professor at Brooklyn College who researches early Christian and Byzantine art with a focus on portrait representation, dress and textiles. Click here to view her university website. Betsy Williams is an Associate Curator at Dumbarton Oaks. Click here to view her Academia.edu page. She also appeared on episode 47.

Advertisement

For an excellent introduction to these problems, see Jennifer Ball’s book Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Dress in Eighth- to Twelfth-Century Painting (New York: Palgrave 2005).

Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. You can follow him on his personal website.

Advertisement

You can listen to more episodes of Byzantium & Friends through PodbeanSpotify or Apple Podcasts

Top Image: 10th-century depiction of Byzantine people – BAV Reg. gr. 1, fol. 155v

Advertisement