Caves of God

Caves of God PDF Author: Spiro Kostof
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262610292
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
Cappadocia, a province in central Turkey, offers the traveler a startling rockscape whose cones, pleats, and folds conceal hundreds of monasteries and churches carved from the soft, porous "tuff" and used by Christian communities over nearly two millennia for shelter, burial, and sanctuary. This region in the Turkish hinterland is recognized as one of the centers of Byzantine mural painting. However, numerous hermitages, monasteries, and independent chapels dating from the seventh century onward reveal it also as one of the most concentrated areas of Eastern monasticism.This book serves a double purpose: it provides a thorough and lucid introduction to the rockcut churches and monasteries and their painted decorations, while it critically examines current scholarship on the monastic environment of Byzantine Cappadocia--particularly in regard to the architecture, which has been generally neglected by art historians.Scooped out rather than constructed, this anonymous architecture has its own unique appeal. Kostof writes: "The Cappadocian carver-architect was not inhibited... by statics or the nature of materials. His structure stood, a monolith, before he started to work on it. And he could cut into this monolith quickly, effortlessly. It might take a single man about a month to carve out a large room of two to three thousand cubic feet. Loads and thrusts were negligible. One was free to try any structural symbol with little concern for structural safety. Cupolas could bubble from flat ceilings, or be placed over square bays by means of the most cavalier transition elemenis. No shape need be perfect: extemporaneous geometry is everywhere the rule. Wall lines sag, one half of an arch doesn't quite match the other, carefree deviations, here and there, mark the general outline of the building."Following an account of the region, its environmental, political, and religious history, the author discusses in detail the building types and painting programs in the context of their creation--answering such questions as what was the nature of monasticism in Cappadocia, and who were the builders, the artists, their patrons? The author was born and educated in Turkey, and his personal knowledge of the monuments is a convincing factor in his handling of chronological and stylistic uncertainties. Throughout, Kostof's mind's eye never leaves the total environment, observing the inseparability of landscape, buildings, paintings, and the ritual that informs them.

Tokalı Kilise

Tokalı Kilise PDF Author: Annabel Jane Wharton
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks
ISBN: 9780884021452
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Tokali Kilise (Buckle Church) was the principal sanctuary of a large monastic center in Byzantine Cappadocia, now central Turkey. This cave church was carved into the soft volcanic stone of the region and decorated with frescoes in several stages between the mid-ninth and mid-tenth centuries, and is one of the richest ensembles of painting to survive from the early Middle Ages.

Visualizing Community

Visualizing Community PDF Author: Robert G. Ousterhout
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection
ISBN: 9780884024132
Category : Architecture, Byzantine
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Cappadocia is unrivaled in its preservation of the physical remains of the Byzantine Empire: churches, towns and villages, agricultural installations, storage facilities, and other examples of non-ecclesiastical architecture. Visualizing Community offers a critical reassessment of the historiography of Byzantine Cappadocia.

Conservation and Painting Techniques of Wall Paintings on the Ancient Silk Road

Conservation and Painting Techniques of Wall Paintings on the Ancient Silk Road PDF Author: Shigeo Aoki
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9813341610
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
This book presents recent research on ancient Silk Road wall paintings, providing an up-to-date analysis of their coloring materials and techniques, and of developments in efforts to preserve them. The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 encouraged international collaboration between conservation research institutes to study and protect the Silk Road’s painted heritage. The collaborations led to exciting new discoveries of the rich materials used in wall painting, including diverse pigments and colorants, and various types of organic binding media. In addition, comparative research across the region revealed shared painting practices that indicate the sophisticated exchange of technologies and ideas. In parallel with these advances in technical understanding, greater awareness and sensitivity has been fostered in endeavors to preserve this fragile heritage. The book offers insights obtained from conservation projects and ongoing research, that encompass the geographical regions and periods related to the Silk Road, including from Japan, China, Korea, India and Afghanistan, and countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region. It also discusses the current issues and future challenges in the field. Featuring concise chapters, the book is a valuable resource for students and professionals in the field of cultural heritage preservation, as well as those who are not familiar with the fascinating topic of Silk Road wall painting research.

A Byzantine Settlement in Cappadocia

A Byzantine Settlement in Cappadocia PDF Author: Robert G. Ousterhout
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks
ISBN: 9780884023104
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 510

Book Description
Based on four seasons of fieldwork, this book presents the results of the first systematic site survey of a region rich in material remains. From architecture to fresco painting, Cappadocia represents a previously untapped resource for the study of material culture and the settings of daily life within the Byzantine Empire.

Art of Empire

Art of Empire PDF Author: Annabel Jane Wharton
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Between the ninth and twelfth centuries the Byzantine Empire encompassed a wide geographical territory extending from South Italy to Armenia, from the Danube to Cyprus. From the capital of the Empire, Constantinople, the all-powerful, God-elected emperor exercised autocratic control over the periphery. These structures of centralization stood in tension with the decentralizing force of local interests in the provinces. This present volume offers a comparative study of the form and patronage of surviving buildings and their painted decoration in four very different provinces-- Cappadocia, Cyprus, Macedonia, and South Italy--as a means of assessing the nature of Byzantine provincial art. All too often art historians have simplistically labeled high quality works in the provinces "metropolitan" and those of lesser aesthetic interests "provincial." The study establishes that a context in the hinterlands of the Empire affected the making of all provincial buildings--great and small. Local traditions and distinct patterns of patronage left their mark on even the most cosmopolitan structures. At the same time, the relative receptivity of the provinces to metropolitan artistic conventions indicates the ideological power of those conventions. Monumental works constructed in the provinces consistently served to reinforce Constantinopolitan hegemony. The reciprocity of these actions in the art of the Empire calls into question the facile equation of "provincial" with poor quality, derivativeness, and artistic insignificance. Most of the great fresco programs and buildings of the Byzantine Empire survive not in its capital, Constantinople, but in its provinces. Art of Empire is the only study to date which treats both the painting and architecture of these monuments comparatively within their geographical and social context. Though not a survey of provincial monuments, the book makes accessible to a broader audience a compendium of little-known and underappreciated works of great aesthetic and historical value.

Eastern Medieval Architecture

Eastern Medieval Architecture PDF Author: Robert Ousterhout
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190058404
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 528

Book Description
The rich and diverse architectural traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and adjacent regions are the subject of this book. Representing the visual residues of a "forgotten" Middle Ages, the social and cultural developments of the Byzantine Empire, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Russia, and the Middle East parallel the more familiar architecture of Western Europe. The book offers an expansive view of the architectural developments of the Byzantine Empire and areas under its cultural influence, as well as the intellectual currents that lie behind their creation. The book alternates chapters that address chronological or regionally-based developments with thematic studies that focus on the larger cultural concerns, as they are expressed in architectural form.
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