Approaches to Byzantine Architecture and its Decoration Studies in Honor of Slobodan Curcic

The fourteen essays in this collection demonstrate a wide variety of approaches to the study of Byzantine architecture and its decoration, a reflection of both newer trends and traditional scholarship in the field. The variety is also a reflection of Professor Curcic?s wide interests, which he shares with his students. These include the analysis of recent archaeological discoveries; recovery of lost monuments through archival research and onsite examination of material remains; reconsidering traditional typological approaches often ignored in current scholarship; fresh interpretations of architectural features and designs; contextualization of monuments within the landscape; tracing historiographic trends; and mining neglected written sources for motives of patronage. The papers also range broadly in terms of chronology and geography, from the Early Christian through the post-Byzantine period and from Italy to Armenia. Three papers examine Early Christian monuments, and of these two expand the inquiry into their architectural afterlives. Others discuss later monuments in Byzantine territory and monuments in territories related to Byzantium such as Serbia, Armenia, and Norman Italy. No Orthodox church being complete without interior decoration, two papers discuss issues connected to frescoes in late medieval Balkan churches. Finally, one study investigates the continued influence of Byzantine palace architecture long after the fall of Constantinople.

Contents: A tribute to Slobodan Æurèiæ, scholar and friend, Svetlana Popovic; Introduction: approaches to Byzantine architecture and the contribution of Slobodan Curcic, Mark J. Johnson, Robert Ousterhout and Amy Papalexandrou; Part I The Meanings of Architecture: Polis/Arsinoë in late antiquity: a Cypriot town and its sacred sites, Amy Papalexandrou; The syntax of spolia in Byzantine Thessalonike, Ludovico V. Geymonat; Church building and miracles in Norman Italy: texts and topoi, Mark J. Johnson; Armenia and the borders of medieval art, Christina Maranci. Part II The Fabrics of Buildings: Change in Byzantine architecture, Marina Mihaljevic; Prolegomena for the study of royal entrances in Byzantine churches: the case of Marko's monastery, Ida Sinkevic; The rose window: a feature of Byzantine architecture?, Jelena Trkulja. Part III The Contexts and Contents of Buildings: Between the mountain and the lake: tower, folklore, and monastery at Agios Vasileios near Thessalonike, Nikolas Bakirtzis; Life in a late Byzantine tower: examples from Northern Greece, Jelena Bogdanovic; Imperial and aristocratic funerary panel portraits in the middle and late Byzantine periods, Katherine Marsengill; Man or metaphor? Manuel Panselinos and the Protaton frescoes, Matthew J. Milliner. Part IV The Afterlife of Buildings: Two Byzantine churches of Silivri/Selymbria, Robert Ousterhout; Interpreting medieval architecture through renovations: the roof of the old basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, Nicola Camerlenghi; The edifices of the new Justinian: Catherine the Great regaining Byzantium, Asen Kirin; Bibliography of published writings; Index.

Mark J. Johnson is professor of medieval art and architectural history at Brigham Young University, USA; Robert Ousterhout is professor and graduate chair in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, USA; Amy Papalexandrou is an independent scholar and lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, USA