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Byzantine. 5th–6th century. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301. This statuette of a woman in fashionable dress probably once held in its hand a spear or other object identifying it as a personification, perhaps of a city.
Woman with Scroll, An Early Byzantine Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hear Byzantine art historians Evan Freeman and Anne McClanan unlock the meanings of a marble sculpture from the past, showing an early Byzantine/Late Roman woman holding a scroll.
- 6 min
- Sources
- The Role of Aristocratic Women
- Working Women
- Women's Rights
- Famous Byzantine Women
Unlike in many other medieval cultures, Byzantine history, as written by the people of the period themselves, almost exclusively focuses on the exaggerated deeds and misdemeanours of emperors along with a separate and equally problematic literatureon saints and squabbles over religious doctrine. Social history is almost entirely neglected and what ...
As in most ancient cultures, the women we know most about in Byzantium are those who belonged to the upper classes. One event which greatly affected the role of all women in Byzantine society, though, was the increasing prominence of Christianitythrough the centuries, as here summarised by the historian L. Garland: To better ensure a girl remained ...
Women who had to earn a living worked in the agricultural, retail, manufacturing (especially textiles and silk) and hospitality industries. Some of the known jobs which could be performed by women included those of the weavers, bakers, cooks, innkeepers, washerwomen, midwives, medical practitioners, money-lenders and bath keepers. Many of these job...
Women had certain rights regarding property. A wife could not be separated from her dowry and daughters could inherit an equal portion of the family estate with their brothers if no specific will was made. If a husband died, his wife became the official guardian of the children. Women could, then, become landowners in their own right, head a househ...
Byzantium has a long history and it involves many women of note. Perhaps the first Byzantine woman to achieve lasting fame is Helena (born c. 250 CE), the mother of Constantine I, who famously embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalemwhere she built several churches, notably the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and gave out money to the worthy and ...
- Mark Cartwright
The situation of women in the Byzantine Empire is a subject of scientific research that encompasses all available information about women, their environments, their networks, their legal status, etc., in the Byzantine Empire.
Thinking about iconography. What does this sculpture tell us about the woman it depicts? How does it do this? Evan and Anne discuss 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) <https://www.metmuseum.org/art ...
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Byzantine Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ... Woman with a Scroll Late 4th–early 5th century. Possibly Empress Flaccilla. c. 380–390. Constantine 4th ...
Francis H. Bacon (1856–1940), Boston; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1889. Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email collections@artic.edu. Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
