Why invoke the artistic language of the long-lost Empire of Constantinople? The answers to this question are as diverse as the nations and contexts that have reimagined the Byzantine style. This conference seeks to critically examine the concept of Neo-Byzantine art and architecture within an expansive geographical and chronological framework, spanning Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. Building upon the flourishing discourse on nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalisms, it endeavours to reconceptualise the multifaceted nature of the Neo-Byzantine style. By interrogating the resurgence of Byzantine aesthetics in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the conference explores how this revival articulated contrasting aesthetic paradigms shaped by geography, chronology, and ideology. It further aims to illuminate the dynamic interplay between art historical theory, artistic and architectural practice, and the patterns of patronage and usage that gave life to this evocative style.

This event is the kickstart conference of the project “Dreaming Byzantium in Nineteenth-Century France: Neo-Byzantine Architecture, Orientalism, and the Racial and National Myths of Art History (1848–1900)”, Czech Science Foundation, GA24-10991S.