Michelangelo, the Byzantines, and Plato

Elena Ene D-Vasilescu is a Professor of Byzantine and Medieval Studies. She teaches and researches in the fields of Byzantine culture (Philosophy, iconography) for the University of Oxford and also independently. Her work focuses, inter alia, on the texts of Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Among her latest books are Creation and Time. Comparative Approach (2021), Glimpses into Byzantium. Its Philosophy and arts (2021); Heavenly sustenance in Patristic Texts and Byzantine iconography, Palgrave, 2018, Visions of God and ideas on deification in Patristic Thought (co-ed. Mark Edwards); Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2017, and Devotion to St. Anne from Byzantium to the Middle Ages (ed.), Palgrave, 2018. Dr. Vasilescu has also published chapters in collective volumes; some of those are as follows: "The Last Wonderful thing. The icon of the Heavenly Ladder", in James and A. Eastmond (eds.), Wonderful Things. Byzantium through its Art, Farnham: Ashgate, 2013, "Gregory of Nyssa" entry in Ph. Esler (ed.), The Early Christian World, Routledge, 2017. Her articles feature in leading journals as, for instance, Byzantinoslavica, The Journal of Theological Studies, Revue des Etudes Sud-Est Europeennes, Studia Patristica, Journal of Early Christian History, and Akropolis. Dr. Vasilescu is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences.