Preliminary observations about the katholikon of Saint Neophytos (Paphos, Cyprus) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Convivium, 2018
A Newly Discovered Church in Cyprus. Remarks on New Architectural Forms' Modes of Transmission in Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean Unpublished until now, the possibly monastic church of Saint Paraskevi (or Saint Perpyros), situated on the northern slope of the Pentadaktylos mountain range in the Cypriot district of Akanthou, is a sixteenth-century ruin of a rather common, single-nave type. It is exceptional, however, in its up-to-date Renaissance decoration, i.e., the rustication of the northern portal. This feature is unique in the context of a rural Greek church in Cyprus, where, unlike in Crete, no other Renaissance portals found in late-medieval rural church architecture have been proven. Because there are no written sources, the context of St Paraskevi's creation and the actors involved are hypothetical. Presumably, the still-unknown models were transmitted via Famagusta, but the modes of transmission remain a puzzle. One possibility would be inspiration from pattern books such as Serlio's Libri dell'architettura, which may have either directly guided the masons working on the church, or provided a model for an urban Famagusta workshop commissioned to design the church's portal. Including this curious object in broader future studies of the appearance of Renaissance forms in the late-medieval Eastern Mediterranean region might yield further insights.
Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes, 2013
(ancienne Arsinoé), construite à la fin du vi e siècle apr. J.-C., est une église chypriote typique de la fin de l'Antiquité. Nous discutons ici les modalités des transformations apportées à sa structure et la façon dont ses constructeurs ont résolu les problèmes que présentait ce site, en particulier en ce qui concernait l'eau et son drainage. Nous présentons ici pour la première fois la chronologie du bâtiment à partir des témoignages archéologiques en contexte et non d'une analyse stylistique de sa structure et de ses éléments décoratifs. Nous indiquons brièvement quelques relations possibles avec d'autres édifices de l'île et de la région.
Translation from the paper: Ο Ιερός Καθεδρικός Ναός των Αθηνών, Β' Επιστημονικό Συμπόσιο Νεοελληνικής Εκκλησιαστικής Τέχνης, Αθήνα 2012, 39-64.
Tradition and Identity. The Architecture of Greek Churches in Cyprus (14 th to 16 th Centuries)
2020
Art history has often attempted to understand past cultures through an investigation of the most elaborate parts of their artistic legacy. However, in times of an increased interest in anthropological, socio-historical questions, the apprehension of the material legacy of past cultures in general becomes necessary. This fosters the exploration of previously unstudied corpuses of objects, buildings, which can provide us with most valuable insights into the functioning of past societies. One of those corpuses, never comprehensively studied, are the over 300 Greek churches built or profoundly altered on the island of Cyprus under Latin/ Venetian rule between the early 14th century and the Ottoman conquest of 1571, so in a climate of multifaceted cultural encounters and exchanges. This material legacy was now for a first time systematically recorded and documented. The core of the present study is thus formed by the catalogue volume, presenting an in-depth analysis of construction phases and stylistic characteristics for 261 preserved churches, as well as commentaries on 54 further buildings only known through descriptions or pictorial sources. The text volume addresses the historical and artistic context by applying various methodologies to the studied material. After an introduction, disburdening the churches from previous biased or misleading scholarly verdicts, the foundations are set with a look at the development of local church architecture before the Latin conquest and a detailed chapter on typologies of plans, decorative elements or transformation processes. The next chapters focus on the analysis of stylistic developments – most importantly, the exchange between Western, Gothic and Eastern, Levantine architectural idioms and their formal impact on local Byzantine traditions. A recurring topic in the island’s architecture is the inclination to aesthetic regresses to periods long past, leading to the first of two keywords indicated already in the title: tradition. It is asked in which way a sense of tradition constructed, perpetuated, and multiplied through the design of churches. Ultimately this leads to the discussion of individual and collective identities and the way those were negotiated with the help of architectural works within the multicultural and multiconfessional Cypriot society. Thus, the study constitutes an important contribution to the apprehension of dynamics of cultural exchange in late medieval eastern Mediterranean.