UCLA

Through selected examinations of the art produced under the Angevin, Orsini, and Tocco families,

Case Studies on Agency and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Late Medieval Morea, Epirus, and Kingdom of Naples addresses how the political connections and geographic proximity of those regions shaped the art and material culture of Late Byzantine Greece and Gothic southern Italy. The impact of the Angevins and their subjects from the Regno on the art, architecture, and material culture of Late Byzantine and Frankish Greece are addressed within this discussion. This study will also illuminate how Byzantine culture continued to influence late medieval and early Renaissance Italy, as well as indicating how the Angevin trade routes and political ties facilitated the movement of artistic ideas between Byzantium and the Italian peninsula. The inclusion of the Angevins into the discussion of Byzantine-Italian artistic connections further explains some gaps in the study of Tuscan and Byzantine artistic exchanges, since the Regno had strong ties with several Tuscan city states. These cultural interchanges also hold broader implications for the understanding of artistic developments within the Mediterranean after the fall of Byzantium in 1453, as well as encouraging additional research on how individual city states and kingdoms influenced Byzantium during its final centuries.