This book deals with the apse as a showcase for images in the early Christian and early
Byzantine periods. Two opposed traditions harking back to early imperial times nourished the
invention of the Christian apse image: on the one hand there were statues in apses of pagan
temples and imperial cult rooms which were venerated during cult ceremonies on the other hand
there were apse mosaics in nymphaea where aquatic myths and figures celebrated the amenities of
water. Christian apse mosaics originated within this context and in spite of the Old Testament
prohibition of the image. Mosaics and frescoes in apses of cult rooms generated very particular
effects evoking in the viewer respect admiration awe and maybe even veneration. The capacity
of the image to have an impact on the viewer could not be decreed by the Church but this was
an affair manifested more or less casually according to the inventive power of the artist. This
book explores the interactions between the variousimage-media during the early Christian and
early Byzantine periods it particularly investigates the participation of the viewer and of
the patron.
