visual culture 297
argues, in that it attends to the relationship between local material diversity as well as
larger movements of visual idioms, materials, artisans, and patrons across the region
linked by the sea.
In an attempt to re-evaluate Mediterranean visual culture along these methodo-
logical lines, this chapter sets forth the comparative agenda afforded by a Mediterranean
methodology by assessing the interconnections between the ancient ceremonial cent-
ers of the Athenians and Persians, before then turning to the following two related
questions centered in the medieval Mediterranean. First, what would constitute
Mediterranean visual culture? In other words, how should art historians treat those
examples of art and architecture that do not fit within the traditional inherited
Figure 19.1 Detail of marble revetment of interior of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople.
Photograph by Cecily Hilsdale.