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Dr. Evan Freeman

About Dr. Evan Freeman

Evan Freeman holds a PhD in the History of Art from Yale University, where he wrote his dissertation on ritual objects in the Middle Byzantine Divine Liturgy. His primary research interests include art and materiality, ritual, and cross-cultural exchange in Byzantium and the wider medieval Mediterranean. He is also interested in Byzantium’s influence on medieval Russian art and architecture, and has published on the twentieth-century “rediscovery” of the icon and subsequent receptions of the icon by Pavel Florensky and other thinkers of the Russian Silver Age and Russian Religious Renaissance.

The Byzantines kept adding mosaics to Hagia Sophia for centuries after it was first built, reflecting recent controversies, monetary donations, and even imperial marriages.

A work in progress: Middle Byzantine mosaics ...

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Learn why the Byzantines argued about images for over a century.

Byzantine Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Explore the tiny pieces of gold, glass, and colorful stones that compose the miniature mosaics of the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine miniature mosaics

by Dr. Evan Freeman

This mosaic shows how the arts—and an interest in naturalism—flourished in the final centuries of the Byzantine Empire.

Late Byzantine naturalism: Hagia Sophia’s Deësis mosaic

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Learn why the Byzantines argued about images for over a century.

Byzantine Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Icon of Christ Pantokrator, late 14th century, Thessaloniki, egg tempera on wood, 157 x 105 x 5 cm (Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki) — What is an icon?—introducing the sacred images of Byzantium

Icons, an introduction

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Detail of the Lamentation at Nerezi (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — You've heard of Byzantium's golden mosaics, but what about its dramatic frescoes?

Byzantine frescoes at Saint Panteleimon, Nerezi

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Nativity of Christ miniature in the Menologion of Basil II, c. 1000 (The Vatican Library, photo: Wikimedia Commons) — The stories behind the art—a quick guide for understanding Byzantium's most common images.

The lives of Christ and the Virgin ...

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Isidore of Miletus & Anthemius of Tralles for Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul), 532-37 (photo: © Robert G. Ousterhout) — Constantine renamed the new capital of the Roman Empire “Constantinople” and the Byzantine Empire was born—or was it?

About the chronological periods of the Byzantine ...

by Dr. Evan Freeman

These glittering mosaics offered Byzantine worshippers a vision of God in the heavens, sacred history, and the saints.

Mosaics and microcosm: the monasteries of Hosios ...

by Dr. Evan Freeman

Thumbnail. Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis, 500–550 C.E. (with modern restoration), marble and glass, 151.1 x 199.7 x 2.5 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — This Byzantine mosaic shows the personification of the act of generous giving — Ktisis

Byzantine Mosaic of a Personification, Ktisis

by Dr. Evan Freeman and Dr. Anne McClanan

Thumbnail. Marble Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, late 4th–early 5th century C.E., pentelic marble, 53 x 27.5 x 22.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection) — An Early Byzantine sculpture of a woman with a scroll at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman with Scroll

by Dr. Evan Freeman and Dr. Anne McClanan

Panel with a Griffin, 1250–1300, made in Greece or the Balkans (possibly), marble, 59.7 x 52.1 x 6.5 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — A panel with a Griffin (a lion and an eagle — the king of birds and the king of animals — combined).

Byzantine Griffin Panel

by Dr. Evan Freeman and Dr. Anne McClanan

Byzantine chalice (The Attarouthi Treasure — Chalice, Silver and gilded silver, 500–650 C.E., The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — A sumptuous silver and gold chalice starring a youthful Christ, a saint slaying a dragon (could it be George?), and more.

A chalice from the Attarouthi Treasure

by Dr. Anne McClanan and Dr. Evan Freeman

Botticelli, Annunciation — From the Annunciation to the Last Judgment, this handy guide explains key moments in Christian art.

The life of Christ in medieval and ...

by Dr. Nancy Ross and Dr. Evan Freeman

Homilary, The Resurrection, Walters Manuscript W.148, fol. 23v (The Walters Art Museum) - detail — From the Annunciation to the Last Judgment, this handy guide explains key moments in Christian art.

The life of Christ in medieval and ...

by Dr. Nancy Ross and Dr. Evan Freeman