The Thalassal Optic

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the art historical implications of adopting the medieval Mediterranean as a physical and conceptual frame for viewing interconnections across ethnic, political, cultural, and confessional lines. It examines how the Mediterranean might serve as an explanatory model, heuristic tool, or even a critical term, for the diverse visual cultures of the medieval Mediterranean . The Mediterranean offers a wider and more interconnected view of European, Islamic, and Byzantine visual traditions, which are traditionally kept discrete, however, such an approach also runs the risk of eliding difference and specificity. This chapter attempts to offer a balanced view of the potential merits and problems of the Mediterranean approach to Medieval Art History, here termed the “thalassal optic.”