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An interesting article on what looks like an intruiging show, aptly linking gleaming mosaic treasures with office drudgery. The Byzantine Empire was notoriously beurocratic; there were many layers of administrators managing the production of the artworks in Constantinople and the Empire. This has actually been suggested as the key to the power of Byzantine Art, by Prof Anthony Eastmond in his Courtauld lecture ‘ Praise not the Artists; praise the Administrators! ‘. He emphasises that the production of multiple versions of similar Christian icons, that were spread around Europe at this time, needed much administrative management to succeed.

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