'Seeing's believing but feeling's the truth': Touch and the Meaning of Byzantine Art

One of the central issues with which Leslie Brubaker's work engages is that of the Byzantines' perception of art. It is in that context, and building on her insights into visual perception and the meaning of art, that this paper sets out to explore the role of touch in the perception of Byzantine art. As such, it will look for trends within Byzantium; the picture is far more nuanced than might appear here, for this broad-brush approach inevitably condenses a changing society into an apparently static one.