A note on the ktetorship and contribution of women from the Brankovic dynasty to cross- cultural connections in late medieval and early modern Balkans

Abstract

This note on the ktetorship and contribution of women from the Brankovic dynasty to cross-cultural connections in late medieval and early modern Balkans is only the initial step of a broader study intended to re-assess the visual culture of the Balkans in late medieval and early modern times, especially in view of the concept of pre-modern globalization characterized by and resulting from a transfer of knowledge, technological change and homogenization of spatial and technological particularities, by the concept of common culture and particular individual and collective identities. Whatsmore, a methodological approach in the study of the role of aristocratic women in cross-cultural interaction of late medieval and early modern period in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean based on prosopography studies, gender studies, network and visual culture studies could contribute significantly not only to our increased knowledge of female founders in Byzantium and beyond but also to a new perspective on the general nature of visual culture of this period, what is known today in historiography as Post-Byzantine art. Instead of perceiving it as mostly self-referential traditionalism keeping the cinders of the past alive for their own sake, it appears that from the above mentioned perspective we could better perceive the power and creative life of imagery and visual culture in general in this period as an essential element of an awareness of living in the present and looking towards a (eschatological) future.