Veils in Motion: Sacrality, Visuality, and Architectural Textiles in Late Antiquity

Abstract

Abstract This article examines a small subset of late antique veil imagery – depictions and descriptions of veils in motion – in visual and literary sources including churches, synagogues, and descriptions of the veil of the temple in Jerusalem. Architectural veils played a role in the demarcation of space, the creation of spectacle and sacrality, and the orchestration of social relations and hierarchies. By exploring the ways in which late ancient subjects envisioned, encountered, and “thought with” veils, we can chart the ways that dynamics of covering and uncovering, sight and secrecy, and vision and touch, converged with ideas about gender, desire, and the sacred.