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Animals in Art and Polemic at the Intersection of Christianity and Islam

In many of the medieval church floor mosaics from Palestine and Jordan, the tesserae were scrambled and reset to eliminate images of humans and animals.   Were these erasures a response to the rise of Islam in the region, as is commonly assumed, or to Christian concerns about idolatry?

Henry Maguire was Professor of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University until his retirement in 2010. He was Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks 1991-96.  His lecture is sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation.

Admission: Pay-what-you-want.