16 - Laughing at Eros and Aphrodite: Sexual Inversion and its Resolution in the Classicising Arts of Medieval Byzantium

Summary

Scholars have interpreted comical aspects of middle Byzantine classicising art to be slapstick in nature or to derive from the nonsensical or the absurd. Works of art that depict amusing vignettes or characters are recognised as entertaining, but they are not perceived to communicate serious, coherent messages to their viewers. In contrast, I propose that some works of middle Byzantine art employed visual humour to do more than simply amuse their audiences. Specifically, humour could facilitate the critical exploration of social power. In this way, funny imagery could accomplish serious work, introducing themes and ideas that were more easily, or more effectively, joked about than discussed directly.

This phenomenon is especially apparent in imagery that engaged critically with the power of female sexual allure and the moral dilemmas it posed. I propose that two well-known objects considered in this chapter – the Veroli Casket (Figs 16.1–16.4) and the San Marco Censer (see Figs 16.8–16.10, 16.13–16.14) – are concerned with Byzantine social norms surrounding the pursuit or resistance of sexual attraction. These issues were explored through imagery that drew from standard iconographies of sexual power found in Byzantine art, which in turn related to prominent genres of secular literature: the Graeco-Roman mythological and epic narratives that remained popular throughout Byzantine history, and the romance novels produced at the Komnenian court in the twelfth century. John Haldon has pointed out that for humour ‘to function effectively, it must bring two independent but internally consistent frames of reference into play’, with the resulting situations of ‘ambiguity, contradiction, inconsistency or semantic uncertainty’ creating comic opportunities. I propose that laughter erupted from the incongruity between the reality of Byzantine social norms and the fictional alternatives found in myth and romance, and that this humour was socially purposeful.

Without a doubt, Byzantine society was decidedly patriarchal, even misogynist, and women exercised social power rarely and to a limited degree. Yet the imaginary realms of myth and romance permitted subversive female types, whose behaviour challenged Byzantine mores, especially in matters of sexual agency. I argue that by giving these imaginary narratives palpable form in ivory and silver, the Veroli Casket and San Marco Censer encouraged viewers to fantasise about upending expected gender roles, while ultimately warning them against any actual transgression of social proscriptions.