Prof. Dr. Chryssa Ranoutsaki
Profile
- Education and professional career
- Having studied archaeology at the University of Crete and obtained her diploma in the field, Prof. Dr. Chryssa Ranoutsaki came to Munich in 1985 on a three-year scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation to undertake doctoral studies in Byzantine art history, classical Archaeology and Byzantine studies at LMU. In 1989, she defended her PhD thesis on a topic relating to 14th-century Byzantine mural painting, which was published in 1992. In 1990, following a grant as a research fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington DC, she was appointed as a research associate at the Institute for Byzantine Studies at LMU, where from 1995 on she assumed a permanent position, concomitantly undertaking the instruction of Greek language courses.
From 1998, she worked on her habilitation project, which focused on the art of the Late Palaiologan Crete and involved research stays at the Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini in Venice. In 2003, following authorisation by Faculty of Cultural Studies Dean's Office to 'teach independently' in the subject of 'Late antique and Byzantine Art History', she delivered her inaugural lecture at LMU. A year later, she completed her habilitation in the field of ‘Early Christian and Byzantine Art History’ at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Her thesis, which was released as a book in 2011, examined intersections between the Byzantine and the art of the early Venetian Renaissance. For a period of several years, she fulfilled the role of an associate professor at both the University of Fribourg and LMU (2006‒2011), with her teaching duties being carried out concurrently at both institutions.
In 2014, she was awarded the venia legendi in the field of 'Early Christian and Byzantine Art History' at LMU, subsequent to which she has been a professor (off schedule with a permanent post and associated duties) at the Institute for Byzantine Studies since June 2019.
In the principle domains of her research, which also inform her teaching courses at LMU, she specialises in the study of monumental painting, along with the analysis of pictorial programmes and iconography. The dynamic interplay between architecture and painting is a particular interest of hers. In a broader context, she examines Byzantine art in terms of its cultural and reception-historical contexts, exploring artistic interactions throughout the Mediterranean.
Her latest book “Purpur in Byzanz: Privileg und Würdeformel” (published in 2022), traces the history of the colour purple through images and artworks from the Byzantine cultural sphere, examining its perception and uses from Late Antiquity to the Late Byzantine period.