Michalis Lychounas
Michalis Lychounas is currently serving as deputy mayor in the Municipality of Kavala and is working on his PhD at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany on a subject on Early Christian architectural sculpture from Philippi. He has taken part in several excavation and restoration project in the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. His research domain is mainly on Late Antiquity and other transition periods. His interests also include issues of cultural management, the heritage of the other and cultural tourism.
Artistic expression in Late Antiquity art
The long conflict and endless wars between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian world overshadowed the continuous exchange of ideas and artistic forms and how this exchange contributed to the reshaping of the artistic vocabulary in the Eastern Mediterranean. This lecture will explore the way art created in the Late Antiquity era was influenced by forms and techniques from Mesopotamia in the time of the Sassanids and the Early Islamic period. It will also present several ways in which the art evolved, creating a new Byzantine medieval artistic glossary. Several areas of artistic expression will be explored, along with architectural sculpture and minor arts. The intermediaries will also be taken into consideration, as a melting pot where the classic forms were reorganised to present new trends in art.