- Medieval Studies, Medieval History, Medieval Art, Medieval Cartography, Byzantine Manuscripts Illumination, Byzantine Studies, and 28 moreMedieval Philosophy, History of Cartography, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Norman Sicily, Islamic Studies, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Byzantine Iconography, Medieval Italy, Medieval Sicily, Medieval Mediterranean Art and Architecture, Muslims in Europe, Sicily (History), Norman Italy, History and Culture of Calabria, Mediterranean Studies, Byzantine art, Late Antiquity, Greek manuscripts, Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Islamic and Norman Sicily, Constantinople, Historiography (in Art History), Medieval Historiography, History of Historiography, Museum Studies, Medievalism, and Neo-Byzantinismedit
- Associate Member of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies (West – Byzantium – Islam), Masaryk University of Brno. Ame... moreAssociate Member of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies (West – Byzantium – Islam), Masaryk University of Brno.
American Academy in Rome, Medieval Studies, Fellow 2019
Dumbarton Oaks Summer Fellow 2018edit
Research Interests: History, Cultural History, Art History, Medieval History, Medieval Studies, and 14 moreHistoriography, History of Art, Historiography (in Art History), History of Historiography, Medieval Art, Early Medieval Art, Fin de siècle Vienna, Orientalism, Medieval Art History, Oriental Studies, Historia Intelectual, Intelectual History, Vienna School of Art History, and Josef Strzygowski
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the early twentieth century, art dealers tailored their activities to the demands of a new generation of collectors who had turned to Byzantine art. The attention paid to Byzantium reached its peak with the Exposition Internationale... more
In the early twentieth century, art dealers tailored their activities to the demands of a new generation of collectors who had turned to Byzantine art. The attention paid to Byzantium reached its peak with the Exposition Internationale d'Art Byzantin, at which more than 800 artefacts were displayed in the Pavillon de Marsan at the Musée du Louvre in 1931. This paper aims to investigate the role of private lenders to the exhibition, and particularly that of art dealers, who were instrumental in the founding of many collections of medieval and Byzantine pieces, selecting and importing from the Mediterranean basin fine objects for American and European collectors. The Exposition thus represented for them a prime occasion for the display of goods in a formal and officially recognized environment, and an opportunity to expand their network of clients.
Research Interests:
Founded by Russian émigrés fleeing from the Bolshevik Revolution, Seminarium Kondakovianum faced the Communist regime’s strong opposition during its years of publication. This article recounts the stages of this troubled story – from... more
Founded by Russian émigrés fleeing from the Bolshevik Revolution, Seminarium Kondakovianum faced the Communist regime’s strong opposition during its years of publication. This article recounts the stages of this troubled story – from the journal’s foundation with the support of the Ruská Akce (a policy developed in Czechoslovakia in 1920s to welcome middle-class Russian refugees), through its relations with Soviet scholars and institutions affected by Soviet policy in 1920s and 1930s until the late aftermath at the end of World War ii, when the last remnants of the Kondakov Institute confronted the Soviet Army first, and, three years later, the Communist putsch in Czechoslovakia.
Research Interests:
In the interwar period more than ever, humanities were strongly affected by political and social environment: art history and archaeology so played a central role in the construction and reinforcement of national identities. This is true... more
In the interwar period more than ever, humanities were strongly affected by political and social environment: art history and archaeology so played a central role in the construction and reinforcement of national identities. This is true even for a “peripheral”region as Caucasus, that in those years became an imaginary theatre of conflict for patriotic claims (the Georgian Georgij Cubinašvili against the Austrian Josef Strzygowski, the Polish Stefan Przeworski against the German Gustaf Kossinna) and nostalgia for the ancien régime (the Russian émigré Michail Rostovtzeff). Through a historiographical analysis of the articles published on Seminarium Kondakovianum and its series Skytika, the article seeks to understand the pioneering role this journal had in discovering a region almost completely neglected in Western literature, and how Caucausus was perceived in the scholarly debate of the 1920s and 1930s.
Research Interests:
Between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, essaloniki was a ourishing and cosmopolitan city: in this context was realized the Ptolemy Marc. gr. Z. 516 (904), then belonging to cardinal Basilios... more
Between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, essaloniki was a ourishing and cosmopolitan city: in this context was realized the Ptolemy Marc. gr. Z. 516 (904), then belonging to cardinal Basilios Bessarion and today preserved in the Marciana Library of Venice. Copied in Greek by a Frank named Andrea Teluntas, the manuscript contained also a cryptic cycle of illumination that once Italo Furlan de ned as an ethic and philosophical Christian Weltanschauung.
The paper focuses on the illuminated cycle contained in the Ptolemy Marc. gr. Z. 516 (904), analyzing its artistic and literary sources and providing also a stylistic reading of it.
The paper focuses on the illuminated cycle contained in the Ptolemy Marc. gr. Z. 516 (904), analyzing its artistic and literary sources and providing also a stylistic reading of it.
Research Interests:
According to the Russian art historian Nikodim Kondakov, Byzantine illumination was less affected by religious and political interferences than monumental art, and because of that it should be considered as the most authentic expression... more
According to the Russian art historian Nikodim Kondakov, Byzantine illumination was less affected by religious and political interferences than monumental art, and because of that it should be considered as the most authentic expression of Byzantine art and the most useful field in enabling scholars to understand the development of Byzantine art through the centuries. Even following this statement, Seminarium Kondakovianum – founded in honor of Kondakov, and printed in Prague between 1927 and 1938 (plus a 1940 issue realized in Belgrade) – published during the 1920s and the 1930s just five articles concerning Byzantine illumination, a scarce number considering the importance Kondakov gave to their study. This paper focuses on them, examining both the different methodological approaches and the interesting choices of the manuscripts presented. Malickij, Kosteckaja and Grabar followed strictly the “iconographic methodology” recommended by Kondakov, and the first two even wrote about a subject already studied by Kondakov in the late nineteenth century, the Moscovite Chludov Psalter. This methodological hegemony was partially interrupted by Kurt Weitzmann, who in 1937 article focused more on formal aspects than iconography of the miniatures depicted in Tetraevangelion of Skevophylakion.
Research Interests:
Twelfth-century Palermo was a city animated by different languages, cultures and religions, as is well described by the famous miniature in the Liber ad honorem Augusti, which depicts the city in mourning after the death of William II.... more
Twelfth-century Palermo was a city animated by different languages, cultures and religions, as is well described by the famous miniature in the Liber ad honorem Augusti, which depicts the city in mourning after the death of William II. The Hauteville rulers, especially King Roger II, promoted a cultural program reflecting this Mediterranean koiné. The rhetorical choice of using Arabic artists to create the image of a luxurious and cosmopolitan court, while Byzantine art emphasized Roger’s role as pius rex christianus, sustained and legitimated his political aspirations and power. Starting with the mosaic panel in the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral, in which the sovereign is shown being crowned by Christ with the Byzantine loros, and then analysing two manuscripts conserved in the Venice’s Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana – the Homerus Venetus A (Marc. gr. 454) and the Greek-Arabic Gospel (Marc. gr. 539) – this article investigates the political use of art made during the reign of Roger II and the ideological motives that influenced the king’s decisions.
Research Interests:
Founded by a group of émigrés scholars grew up around the great Russian art historian Nikodim P. Kondakov during his staying in Czechoslovakia, and published since 1927, Seminarium Kondakovianum was an avant-garde and original scientific... more
Founded by a group of émigrés scholars grew up around the great Russian art historian Nikodim P. Kondakov during his staying in Czechoslovakia, and published since 1927, Seminarium Kondakovianum was an avant-garde and original scientific journal. Although it was devoted to Byzantine culture, since the first number it contained articles about a wide range of topics, from the cultivation of Chinese soy in Southern Russia to the iconography of the marginal psalters, to statuettes of the Bronze Age. Its heterogeneous approach both in space and time was due to the background of its founders: they developed an original view of Byzantium, strongly influenced by Eurasianism, a theory extremely diffused among the Russian émigré communities suggesting the idea of a continent in itself placed between Europe and Asia and different from both, of which the Russian Empire was the successor. Shifting eastward the viewpoint produced an almost inedited perspective in any field of the social sciences, and especially in Byzantine studies.
Research Interests:
‘The widest, most sublime metropolis of the world’: these are the impressive words used by muslim geographer Al-Idrisi to define the city of Palermo during the reign of Roger II of Hauteville. Attracting artists from abroad, especially... more
‘The widest, most sublime metropolis of the world’: these are the impressive words used by muslim geographer Al-Idrisi to define the city of Palermo during the reign of Roger II of Hauteville. Attracting artists from abroad, especially from Byzantium, and introducing a vast cultural program, Roger II also pursued a political outcome: to emphasise the peaceful co-existence between Greeks, Arabs and Latins, and the image of a cosmopolitan court.
The codex Marcianus gr. 539 (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) is a minor example of this program, written both in Greek and Arabic and decorated à la mode of Constantinople. By presenting its decoration, this article aims at exploring the role of Arab-Christians as commissioners, and their relationship with the palatine court, in order to reconstruct the cultural milieu where the Marcianus gr. 539 was realized.
The codex Marcianus gr. 539 (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) is a minor example of this program, written both in Greek and Arabic and decorated à la mode of Constantinople. By presenting its decoration, this article aims at exploring the role of Arab-Christians as commissioners, and their relationship with the palatine court, in order to reconstruct the cultural milieu where the Marcianus gr. 539 was realized.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the XIII century, the Greek communities tried to steam the process of Latinization started by the Anjou kingdom in Salento. This sort of ethnic resistance generates a cultural renaissance, especially concerned with manuscripts... more
In the XIII century, the Greek communities tried to steam the process of Latinization started by the Anjou kingdom in Salento. This sort of ethnic resistance generates a cultural renaissance, especially concerned with manuscripts production. The article examines one of those codex, the Marcianus gr. 402, in relationship with the particular milieu where it was copied and illustrated.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: History, Cultural Studies, Art History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Medieval History, and 12 moreCultural Heritage, Medieval Studies, Historiography, Culture, Byzantine Studies, Byzantine History, Byzantine Archaeology, Historiography (in Art History), History of Historiography, Medieval Art, Byzantine historiography, and Byzantine art
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The evocation of medieval architecture during the 19th century influenced the formation of a national and European consciousness, both in terms of identity and cultural differentiation. In this context, the position of Byzantium remains... more
The evocation of medieval architecture during the 19th century influenced the formation of a national and European consciousness, both in terms of identity and cultural differentiation. In this context, the position of Byzantium remains ambiguous: does it belong to European history or not? These questions have been debated (and unresolved) since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, yet an analysis of the nineteenth-century mediaeval revivals shows the effort made by scholars and architects to incorporate Byzantine architecture into the Western European tradition, each with their own national peculiarities. In France and Italy, in particular, the assimilation of Byzantine architecture is based on different premises: on the one hand, the connections between Byzantium and French medieval architecture up to the Gothic period are emphasised; in Italy, on the other hand, the national character of Byzantine monuments in Ravenna, Venice and Sicily is emphasised.
Often known second-hand, through the prints and reliefs published by the few who had actually travelled in Greece and the Ottoman Empire, Byzantine architecture became a source of inspiration for a new generation of architects, who appreciated its anti-classical approach and oriental taste, and reworked its characteristic elements, creating a new style, the Neobyzantine.
Often known second-hand, through the prints and reliefs published by the few who had actually travelled in Greece and the Ottoman Empire, Byzantine architecture became a source of inspiration for a new generation of architects, who appreciated its anti-classical approach and oriental taste, and reworked its characteristic elements, creating a new style, the Neobyzantine.
Research Interests:
In 1913, the Catholic Church organised for the first time a celebration to mark the XVI centenary of the Edict of Constantine. Despite the historical importance of the celebration, the political message was extremely topical: a demand for... more
In 1913, the Catholic Church organised for the first time a celebration to mark the XVI centenary of the Edict of Constantine. Despite the historical importance of the celebration, the political message was extremely topical: a demand for freedom against the Italian state (which had celebrated its first fifty years of independence only two years earlier) and criticism of the secularisation of society, in defence of the thousand-year-old Catholic tradition.
One of the most challenging initiatives promoted during 1913 was certainly the construction of new churches. Two, in particular, are particularly interesting for analysing the architectural revival for political purposes that the church implemented on this occasion: the Basilica of Santa Croce alla Via Flaminia in Rome and the Church of Santa Croce all’Acquabella in Milan. In both cases the ecclesiastical hierarchies promoted a return to antiquity, suggesting a recovery of early Christian architectural models and extensive use of mosaics. Through the historical and architectural analysis of the two monuments, the paper intends to investigate the broader phenomenon of the "return to the origin" in religious architecture at the turn of the century, its theological and political aims and its relationship with the original models.
One of the most challenging initiatives promoted during 1913 was certainly the construction of new churches. Two, in particular, are particularly interesting for analysing the architectural revival for political purposes that the church implemented on this occasion: the Basilica of Santa Croce alla Via Flaminia in Rome and the Church of Santa Croce all’Acquabella in Milan. In both cases the ecclesiastical hierarchies promoted a return to antiquity, suggesting a recovery of early Christian architectural models and extensive use of mosaics. Through the historical and architectural analysis of the two monuments, the paper intends to investigate the broader phenomenon of the "return to the origin" in religious architecture at the turn of the century, its theological and political aims and its relationship with the original models.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Collecting: Modus Operandi 1900-1950, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 15-16 February 2019
Research Interests:
Twelfth-century Palermo was a city animated by different languages, cultures and religions, as is well described by the famous miniature in the Liber ad honorem Augusti, which depicts the city in mourning after the death of William II.... more
Twelfth-century Palermo was a city animated by different languages, cultures and religions, as is well described by the famous miniature in the Liber ad honorem Augusti, which depicts the city in mourning after the death of William II. The Hauteville rulers, especially King Roger II, promoted a cultural program reflecting this Mediterranean koiné. The rhetorical choice of using Arabic artists to create the image of a luxurious and cosmopolitan court, while Byzantine art emphasized Roger’s role as pius rex christianus, sustained and legitimated his political aspirations and power.
In this context, it is not surprising the realization of a Greek-Arab Gospel, the Marc. gr. Z. 539, today preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Venice. Executed by a Greek and a North-African scribe working at the same time, as suggested by the same black and red inks used along the text, and illuminated with elegant Blütenblatt decoration that recalls the best solution adopted by the Kokkinobaphos’ atelier, the codex embodied the cultural dynamism of Norman Sicily, where Latins, Greeks and Arabs lived together. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the milieu in which the Marc. gr. Z. 539 was made, its relationship with the coeval artistic production in Sicily and in the Byzantine Empire, and especially its role among the Arab and Christian groups cohabiting together in the urbs felix during the twelfth century.
In this context, it is not surprising the realization of a Greek-Arab Gospel, the Marc. gr. Z. 539, today preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Venice. Executed by a Greek and a North-African scribe working at the same time, as suggested by the same black and red inks used along the text, and illuminated with elegant Blütenblatt decoration that recalls the best solution adopted by the Kokkinobaphos’ atelier, the codex embodied the cultural dynamism of Norman Sicily, where Latins, Greeks and Arabs lived together. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the milieu in which the Marc. gr. Z. 539 was made, its relationship with the coeval artistic production in Sicily and in the Byzantine Empire, and especially its role among the Arab and Christian groups cohabiting together in the urbs felix during the twelfth century.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
After the outbreak of the Bolshevist Revolution, the Baron Joseph de Baye (1853–1931) took refuge at the Historical Museum of Moscow. Here he spent the next three years, inspecting its collections and rethinking about twenty-years of... more
After the outbreak of the Bolshevist Revolution, the Baron Joseph de Baye (1853–1931) took refuge at the Historical Museum of Moscow. Here he spent the next three years, inspecting its collections and rethinking about twenty-years of archaeological and anthropological missions around the former Russian Empire. The results of this forced sojourn were collected in de Baye’s “Essai sur l’extension de l’art des Goths de Crimée”, that few years later was proposed to the editorial board of Seminarium Kondakovianum and that is still conserved in the archive
of the Kondakov Institute, unknown. The lecture aims to introduce this unpublished essay, and especially to discover the outstanding figure of Joseph Berthelot de Baye, archaeologist, ethnographer, photographer, who in the late nineteenth century unveiled the peripheral regions of the Russian Empire to the French audience.
of the Kondakov Institute, unknown. The lecture aims to introduce this unpublished essay, and especially to discover the outstanding figure of Joseph Berthelot de Baye, archaeologist, ethnographer, photographer, who in the late nineteenth century unveiled the peripheral regions of the Russian Empire to the French audience.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The inaugural conference for the new-established Hans Belting Library in the Center for Early Medieval Studies at the University of Brno.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The workshop aims to explore how Byzantine art history has developed at a key moment in European history, during the 1920s and the 1930s, focusing on the individual stories of Byzantine art historians in that period. The workshop intends... more
The workshop aims to explore how Byzantine art history has developed at a key moment in European history, during the 1920s and the 1930s, focusing on the individual stories of Byzantine art historians in that period.
The workshop intends to explore the theoretical and methodological innovations which emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, and how the latter intertwined with the geopolitical and cultural context of that time. We especially seek short papers deepening the biography of pivotal scholars of Byzantine art and to compare how they approached the discipline in different contexts, such as in Western and Central Europe, in the United States, and in the USSR.
The workshop intends to explore the theoretical and methodological innovations which emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, and how the latter intertwined with the geopolitical and cultural context of that time. We especially seek short papers deepening the biography of pivotal scholars of Byzantine art and to compare how they approached the discipline in different contexts, such as in Western and Central Europe, in the United States, and in the USSR.
Research Interests:
Today, the question of the origins of Christian aesthetics is no longer a topical issue in medieval art history, although a persuasive answer has never been formulated. One of the reasons for this oblivion deals with the looming figure of... more
Today, the question of the origins of Christian aesthetics is no longer a topical issue in medieval art history, although a persuasive answer has never been formulated. One of the reasons for this oblivion deals with the looming figure of Josef Strzygowski, who published his pivotal volume Orient oder Rom in 1901, now discredited for its racial and proto-Nazi ideas. However, the debate does not concern Strzygowski alone: the prodromes of this critical concept go back to the nineteenth century, when the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires fought to control contested territories, and studies of the humanities mirrored these conflicts.
This volume, originating in the urgency to reflect on this pivotal conundrum in our field, attempts to reconstruct the (mis)fortune of a question that, according to Alois Riegl, “is the most important and most trenchant one in the entire history of mankind to date”.
This volume, originating in the urgency to reflect on this pivotal conundrum in our field, attempts to reconstruct the (mis)fortune of a question that, according to Alois Riegl, “is the most important and most trenchant one in the entire history of mankind to date”.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Today the question “Orient oder Rom?” is no longer a topical issue in medieval art history, although a persuasive answer has never been formulated. One of the reasons for this oblivion deals with the controversial figure of Josef... more
Today the question “Orient oder Rom?” is no longer a topical issue in medieval art history, although a persuasive answer has never been formulated. One of the reasons for this oblivion deals with the controversial figure of Josef Strzygowski, who in 1901 published about the question his pivotal volume and nowadays discredited for its racial and proto-nazi judgement. However, the question “Orient oder Rom?” concerns not only with Josef Strzygowski: the prodromes of this critical concepts goes back to the nineteenth century, when the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires fought to control contested territories, and humanities studies mirrored these conflicts.
Research Interests: Art History, Historiography, History of Art, Historiography (in Art History), History of Historiography, and 8 moreMedieval Art, Early Medieval Art, Early and Medieval Islamic Art and Architecture, Medieval Mediterranean Art and Architecture, Medieval Art History, Historia del Arte, ArtHistory, MiddleAges, Byzantium, and Arthistory
The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of knowledge in architecture and material culture which went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in... more
The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of knowledge in architecture and material culture which went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques and the mobility of craftsmen are only some manifestations of this process. Although studies beginning with Avinoam Shalem’s Islam Christianized (1996), have dealt extensively with Islamic influence in the West and European influence in the Islamic Mediterranean, sacred objects, and material culture more generally, have been relatively neglected. From crosses found in Mosques, to European-Christian coins with pseudo/shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rife with visual evidence of the two faiths co-existing in both individual objects and monuments.
This session will endeavour to address these issues with papers touching upon various aspects of material culture and art (from textiles to precious oils, and from manuscripts to rock crystals), and covering most of the Mediterranean geography (from Spain to Sicily, and from Egypt to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire). Finally, the contexts within which these interactions are negotiated reveal how multi-layered the religious arena can be, going well beyond the dynamic of exoticism and even otherness: from shared material culture and church interiors, to the visual landscape of Christian-Muslim literati and luxurious artefacts laid to rest in tombs.
This session will endeavour to address these issues with papers touching upon various aspects of material culture and art (from textiles to precious oils, and from manuscripts to rock crystals), and covering most of the Mediterranean geography (from Spain to Sicily, and from Egypt to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire). Finally, the contexts within which these interactions are negotiated reveal how multi-layered the religious arena can be, going well beyond the dynamic of exoticism and even otherness: from shared material culture and church interiors, to the visual landscape of Christian-Muslim literati and luxurious artefacts laid to rest in tombs.
Research Interests: Medieval History, Textiles, Material Culture Studies, Medieval Studies, Mamluk Studies, and 13 moreCross-Cultural Studies, Islamic Art, Byzantine Studies, Al-Andalus, Syncretism, Ottoman art and architecture, Islam and Christianity: relations and exchange of ideas, Islam and the West, Medieval Spain, Interaction of cultures through the textile medium, Islamic textiles and carpets, Medieval Material Culture, and Byzantium and the Arabs
Workshop held at the Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Venice. Funded by the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation