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MAGUIRE, H., Nectar and Illusion. Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature. Oxford University Press, 2012. XX,198p. ills.(B&W as well as full colour photographs). Hardback with dust wrps.. Series: Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture. ''Nectar and Illusion' marshals an impressive corpus of visual and textual evidence in support of its arguments. In the process, it raises a number of questions, some of which it addresses directly and others which, hopefully, shall be taken up in future studies. For instance, what sort of audience was privy to the depictions of nature? Can one distinguish between elite and non-elite viewers on the basis of the distinction between private and public spaces (delineated briefly in Chapter 3), and if so, what might be the implications of such distinctions? Can one enlist the Quinisext Council in support of the notion that nature lost currency in images when the cited canon does not outright condemn such images? Indeed, how does one interpret documents such as the canons of a council and, by extension, the literary output of an entire culture when making arguments about the visual discourse that it apparently influenced? If Byzantine viewers read elaborate figural representations into the surfaces of stones, can these, then, truly be deemed 'abstract' compositions? Is the concept of 'abstraction' Byzantine at all, and if so, what might be the specific terms (linguistic, pictorial, or social) in which it was framed? 'Nectar and Illusion' is invaluable not only for opening up the above questions, but also for reminding us forcefully that Byzantine visual culture is far richer, more varied, and often, more puzzlingly and delightfully inconsistent than its stately icons of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints would have us believe.' (PAROMA CHATTERJEE in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.04.45). € 54.00 (New) ISBN: 9780199766604