Books by Marina Mihaljević
Bogdanović, Jelena, Ida Sinkević, Marina Mihaljević, and Čedomila Marinković, eds. Type and Archetype in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023
A dialogue between type and its ultimate source, archetype, surpasses issues of formalism and con... more A dialogue between type and its ultimate source, archetype, surpasses issues of formalism and conventional chronological narratives to suggest a more nuanced approach to typology as a systematic and systemic classification of types in the visual landscape of the pagans, Jews, and Christians. Set against the contemporaneous cultural context, select examples of Mediterranean material culture confirm the great importance of type-and-archetype constructs for theoretical discourse on architecture and visual arts.Contributors are Anna Adashinskaya, Jelena Anđelković Grašar, Jelena Bogdanović, Čedomila Marinković, Marina Mihaljević, Ljubomir Milanović, Cecilia Olovsdotter, and Ida Sinkević.
ISBN: 978-90-04-52720-1
ISBN: 978-90-04-53778-1
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Book Chapters and Journal Articles by Marina Mihaljević
Architecture and monumental art in the Balkans and the lower Danube regions reveal the complexiti... more Architecture and monumental art in the Balkans and the lower Danube regions reveal the complexities of creative practices and values between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The art of the thirteenth century is Christian and navigates the nexus of the Byzantine, Latin, and South Slavic domains. By the end of the sixteenth century, the religious artistic landscape was largely Islamic and Ottoman. Through analysis of selected examples of churches and their painting programs, this chapter highlights major design concepts in religious art and architecture, the mobility of painting and building workshops, artistic innovation, the transfer and adjustment of creative ideas, modalities of patronage (royal, aristocratic, religious, and monastic; familial and individual; male and female), relationships between artists and donors, and the themes that were selected to shape the artistic projects. Set against complex geohistorical, sociopolitical, religious, and cultural contexts, the material evidence points to the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire and regional Christian polities as decisive in understanding the art and architecture in the Balkans and the lower Danube regions.
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Type and Archetype in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture, 2023
The architecture and unique layout of the famous church of Nea Moni, built by Constantine IX (104... more The architecture and unique layout of the famous church of Nea Moni, built by Constantine IX (1042–1055), have been much debated. It has been previously noted, for example, that its innovative structural system, a so-called domed-octagon, reveals certain incongruities between the church’s lower square naos and its upper vaulted octaconch structure. According to a 19th-century commentary, the plan of the church was a copy of the “plan of Holy Apostles the small, that is, the smaller Church of the Holy Apostles.” In that respect, a theory by Charalambos Bouras proposed that the church’s upper portion might have been a replication of the centrally planned mausoleum of Constantine the Great in the complex of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.
The church itself displays a noticeable consistency of design elements in the interior and on the exterior of the building. The interior is adorned by a circle of double colonnettes, which unify the lower and the upper portions of the church. The reconstruction of the church’s dome to its original appearance revealed that the double marble colonnettes were incorporated in the corners of the drum, thus restating the interior design on the exterior of the church. The architecture of the church has been considered mainly through its interior arrangement, and the presence of the double colonnettes was discussed mainly within the context of the possible Armenian sources of Nea Moni’s domed-octagon plan. The design is conspicuously present in several other Middle Byzantine monuments, among them the katholikon of the Vatopedi monastery, the church of the Virgin Eleousa in Strumica, and most probably the Constantinopolitan church of the Virgin Mougliotissa.
This chapter examines the significance of this design beyond evolutionary typological considerations. It establishes its possible archetypes and the models of their application. While keeping in mind the medieval understanding of replication as expressed in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Maximus the Confessor, and others, the chapter examines whether these examples can approximate the medieval understanding of type and their position within the framework of modern architectural discourse. This study clarifies that the Byzantine architects were capable of formally conceptualizing and embedding architectural forms with highly sophisticated theological and ontological ideas. The repeated conceptual similarity in various instances, despite their geographic, stylistic, and structural characteristics, certainly brings to mind the idea of ‘type.’ The potent role of architecture in the perpetuation of memoriae through physical presence radically changes the perception of type in Byzantine architecture as the synchronic, codified assembly of particular physical characteristics.
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The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture, 2021
This chapter provides a review of major developments in Byzantine religious architecture. During ... more This chapter provides a review of major developments in Byzantine religious architecture. During the long period of Byzantine history, ecclesiastical buildings manifested the highest societal aspirations both by their cultural importance and by their aesthetic qualities. The chapter offers insight into church plans as well as the variety of approaches to interior and exterior design. As written records addressing Byzantine building practices are almost nonexistent, construction techniques and elements of architectural styles are here noted as a testament to the various building practices in the Byzantine domain. Emphasis is also given to new methodological approaches that may contribute to further understanding of Byzantine religious architecture.
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The imposing ruins of a Byzantine church known as Üçayak, situated in the vicinity of the city of... more The imposing ruins of a Byzantine church known as Üçayak, situated in the vicinity of the city of Kırşehir in central Anatolia, on the border between the historic Byzantine provinces of Galatia and Cappadocia, exhibit several conspicuous architectural features. The church presents a combination of an ambiguous twin-church plan, a distinctive building technique, and a remarkably sophisticated exterior design comparable with those of metropolitan buildings. Together these features leave doubts about the sources of the church’s design, its original function and its patronage. In order to ponder the relationship between Üçayak‘s architecture and metropolitan and regional architectural developments, this paper deals with the church’s design and structural type within the framework of the totality of eleventh-century building activities, and examines possible function of the twin-church by comparing it with other regional Byzantine-rite churches. This study brings to the fore the extraordinary place of this church within the context of the regional construction, and establishes its close ties with eleventh-century metropolitan architecture. It also reveals the engagement of a master builder closely familiar with metropolitan practice and suggests that the building activities in the region of Bithynia may have facilitated the transmission of metropolitan architectural concepts further inland. In all probability, Üçayak‘s patron was a member of the local elite, which was customarily connected to the capital. Regarding the possible function of the twin-church of Üçayak, this article argues for the burial and commemorative functions, which often motivated the double arrangement in Cappadocian rock-cut churches.
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Papers by Marina Mihaljević
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Symposia, Conferences, Workshops by Marina Mihaljević
Proceedings, Abstracts of the Free Communications, Thematic Sessions, Round Tables and Posters, ed. A Rigo , 2022
Anomalies in Byzantine Art and Architecture: New Methodological Perspectives
Conveners: *Jelena ... more Anomalies in Byzantine Art and Architecture: New Methodological Perspectives
Conveners: *Jelena Bogdanović, *Marina Mihaljević, Ljubomir Milanović
Art historians have traditionally understood departures from dominant practices and forms in terms of relations between margins and centers, with the former being viewed as provincial derivations, or misinterpretations, of the latter. However, anomalies have also been noted within the context of high-ranking patronage in the art and architecture of Byzantine cultural centers. How do we explain a unique building such as the Virgin Kosmosoteira (Ferres, 12th century), built by a member of the imperial family, which possesses a plan deviating from the metropolitan practice? What is the reason for the sudden appearance of a recumbent effigy within a funerary program during a period when Serbian rulers otherwise adhered to Byzantine tradition (Church of St. Archangel Michael, Prizren, 14th century)? This session seeks to establish a more nuanced view of the anomalous in Byzantine art and architecture.
The questions to be addressed in this thematic session include the following:
What other approaches to unique or outlying works may be productively pursued by scholars? Do such anomalies reflect shifts to non-Byzantine models; or do they expose underlying phenomena otherwise usually disguised by tradition? May they be attributed to personal or idiosyncratic interventions by a particular person or of a particular time and place; or, conversely, do they register specific political or religious circumstances? How may we rethink our approaches to works that lie outside traditional or canonical practices of patronage or production?
*Marina Mihaljević, The Role of the Patron: The Church of the Virgin Kosmosoteira in
Pherrai
Sabine Feist, Ancient Because of Asymmetric? Architectural Anomalies and the Suggestion of Special Sites
*Jelena Bogdanović, Architectural Articulations of the Southern Chambers of the Tripartite Church Sanctuaries
Katherine Marsengill, How Do Reliefs Fit Into Our Understanding of the Development
Icons?
Ljubomir Milanović, Hic et Nunc (Here and Now): Reconsidering the Meaning of an Effigy Over the Tomb of the Serbian Emperor Dušan
Ida Sinkević, Representation of the Baptism on the South Portal of the “Katholikon” at Dečani Monastery
Galina Tirnanić, Anomalies in the Byzantine Body: Markers of Justice, Symptoms of Disease
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This session aims to initiate novel understanding of typology within a field of Byzantine art and... more This session aims to initiate novel understanding of typology within a field of Byzantine art and architectural history. We will reassess current approaches to type and archetype by contextualizing this issue within the scope of available primary sources and new archaeological evidence. The typological approach in Byzantine studies stems from taxonomic classification of formal features of Byzantine art and architecture. By looking at " typical " visual elements we discuss various types of icons (either by looking at their content, formal characteristics, inscriptions, placement, or historical styles). Similarly, by examining " typical " floor plans, construction techniques, stylistic features, or functions of the buildings we study, we establish various architectural types. However, the theoretical discussions of type and typology remain wrapped in inconsistent terminology and meaning. Should we abandon typological studies and, if so, what would be an alternative? Or, should we revise current typological approaches and how? Byzantine theologians and philosophers (e.g. Dionysius the Areopagite) discussed the type (τύπος; model, pattern), and archetype (ἀρχέτυπον; the original type from which the physical replicas are made) extensively. Within the Byzantine cultural construct, the type and archetype provide a sophisticated tool for understanding both idea (εἶδος, ἰδέα) and form (εἰκών, σχῆµα, µόρφωσις) in art and architecture on multiple levels. However, even if related, the two notions are often different and even opposing, though not necessarily mutually exclusive. What we find is that the Byzantines themselves permit a more nuanced approach to their artistic and architectural expression. By focusing on selected examples of art and architecture from the medieval Balkans, we will start from objects themselves and go back to their ultimate archetypes. The notion of type and archetype will be related to objects of various physical scales, from recognizable visual elements in icons, architectural features of individual buildings (chapels, churches, palaces), to cities and built and natural environments. By juxtaposing well-known with new material about icons, icons painted on rocks, churches and adjacent chapels, palaces in late antiquity and Byzantium, and the capital cities of medieval Balkan states, the round table aims to initiate debate on various methodological approaches that include typology within Byzantine architecture, art, and archeology. A particular emphasis will be placed on human scale and non-verbal communicative features employed in conceptual and actual design of studied examples. Ultimately, enriched by theoretical framework that stems from within Byzantine culture itself, this project would contribute to the research in the broader field of Byzantine studies.
Jelena Bogdanović and Marina Mihaljević, conveners
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Published Issues by Marina Mihaljević
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Books by Marina Mihaljević
ISBN: 978-90-04-52720-1
ISBN: 978-90-04-53778-1
A discount flyer is attached.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles by Marina Mihaljević
The church itself displays a noticeable consistency of design elements in the interior and on the exterior of the building. The interior is adorned by a circle of double colonnettes, which unify the lower and the upper portions of the church. The reconstruction of the church’s dome to its original appearance revealed that the double marble colonnettes were incorporated in the corners of the drum, thus restating the interior design on the exterior of the church. The architecture of the church has been considered mainly through its interior arrangement, and the presence of the double colonnettes was discussed mainly within the context of the possible Armenian sources of Nea Moni’s domed-octagon plan. The design is conspicuously present in several other Middle Byzantine monuments, among them the katholikon of the Vatopedi monastery, the church of the Virgin Eleousa in Strumica, and most probably the Constantinopolitan church of the Virgin Mougliotissa.
This chapter examines the significance of this design beyond evolutionary typological considerations. It establishes its possible archetypes and the models of their application. While keeping in mind the medieval understanding of replication as expressed in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Maximus the Confessor, and others, the chapter examines whether these examples can approximate the medieval understanding of type and their position within the framework of modern architectural discourse. This study clarifies that the Byzantine architects were capable of formally conceptualizing and embedding architectural forms with highly sophisticated theological and ontological ideas. The repeated conceptual similarity in various instances, despite their geographic, stylistic, and structural characteristics, certainly brings to mind the idea of ‘type.’ The potent role of architecture in the perpetuation of memoriae through physical presence radically changes the perception of type in Byzantine architecture as the synchronic, codified assembly of particular physical characteristics.
Papers by Marina Mihaljević
Symposia, Conferences, Workshops by Marina Mihaljević
Conveners: *Jelena Bogdanović, *Marina Mihaljević, Ljubomir Milanović
Art historians have traditionally understood departures from dominant practices and forms in terms of relations between margins and centers, with the former being viewed as provincial derivations, or misinterpretations, of the latter. However, anomalies have also been noted within the context of high-ranking patronage in the art and architecture of Byzantine cultural centers. How do we explain a unique building such as the Virgin Kosmosoteira (Ferres, 12th century), built by a member of the imperial family, which possesses a plan deviating from the metropolitan practice? What is the reason for the sudden appearance of a recumbent effigy within a funerary program during a period when Serbian rulers otherwise adhered to Byzantine tradition (Church of St. Archangel Michael, Prizren, 14th century)? This session seeks to establish a more nuanced view of the anomalous in Byzantine art and architecture.
The questions to be addressed in this thematic session include the following:
What other approaches to unique or outlying works may be productively pursued by scholars? Do such anomalies reflect shifts to non-Byzantine models; or do they expose underlying phenomena otherwise usually disguised by tradition? May they be attributed to personal or idiosyncratic interventions by a particular person or of a particular time and place; or, conversely, do they register specific political or religious circumstances? How may we rethink our approaches to works that lie outside traditional or canonical practices of patronage or production?
*Marina Mihaljević, The Role of the Patron: The Church of the Virgin Kosmosoteira in
Pherrai
Sabine Feist, Ancient Because of Asymmetric? Architectural Anomalies and the Suggestion of Special Sites
*Jelena Bogdanović, Architectural Articulations of the Southern Chambers of the Tripartite Church Sanctuaries
Katherine Marsengill, How Do Reliefs Fit Into Our Understanding of the Development
Icons?
Ljubomir Milanović, Hic et Nunc (Here and Now): Reconsidering the Meaning of an Effigy Over the Tomb of the Serbian Emperor Dušan
Ida Sinkević, Representation of the Baptism on the South Portal of the “Katholikon” at Dečani Monastery
Galina Tirnanić, Anomalies in the Byzantine Body: Markers of Justice, Symptoms of Disease
Jelena Bogdanović and Marina Mihaljević, conveners
Published Issues by Marina Mihaljević
ISBN: 978-90-04-52720-1
ISBN: 978-90-04-53778-1
A discount flyer is attached.
The church itself displays a noticeable consistency of design elements in the interior and on the exterior of the building. The interior is adorned by a circle of double colonnettes, which unify the lower and the upper portions of the church. The reconstruction of the church’s dome to its original appearance revealed that the double marble colonnettes were incorporated in the corners of the drum, thus restating the interior design on the exterior of the church. The architecture of the church has been considered mainly through its interior arrangement, and the presence of the double colonnettes was discussed mainly within the context of the possible Armenian sources of Nea Moni’s domed-octagon plan. The design is conspicuously present in several other Middle Byzantine monuments, among them the katholikon of the Vatopedi monastery, the church of the Virgin Eleousa in Strumica, and most probably the Constantinopolitan church of the Virgin Mougliotissa.
This chapter examines the significance of this design beyond evolutionary typological considerations. It establishes its possible archetypes and the models of their application. While keeping in mind the medieval understanding of replication as expressed in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Maximus the Confessor, and others, the chapter examines whether these examples can approximate the medieval understanding of type and their position within the framework of modern architectural discourse. This study clarifies that the Byzantine architects were capable of formally conceptualizing and embedding architectural forms with highly sophisticated theological and ontological ideas. The repeated conceptual similarity in various instances, despite their geographic, stylistic, and structural characteristics, certainly brings to mind the idea of ‘type.’ The potent role of architecture in the perpetuation of memoriae through physical presence radically changes the perception of type in Byzantine architecture as the synchronic, codified assembly of particular physical characteristics.
Conveners: *Jelena Bogdanović, *Marina Mihaljević, Ljubomir Milanović
Art historians have traditionally understood departures from dominant practices and forms in terms of relations between margins and centers, with the former being viewed as provincial derivations, or misinterpretations, of the latter. However, anomalies have also been noted within the context of high-ranking patronage in the art and architecture of Byzantine cultural centers. How do we explain a unique building such as the Virgin Kosmosoteira (Ferres, 12th century), built by a member of the imperial family, which possesses a plan deviating from the metropolitan practice? What is the reason for the sudden appearance of a recumbent effigy within a funerary program during a period when Serbian rulers otherwise adhered to Byzantine tradition (Church of St. Archangel Michael, Prizren, 14th century)? This session seeks to establish a more nuanced view of the anomalous in Byzantine art and architecture.
The questions to be addressed in this thematic session include the following:
What other approaches to unique or outlying works may be productively pursued by scholars? Do such anomalies reflect shifts to non-Byzantine models; or do they expose underlying phenomena otherwise usually disguised by tradition? May they be attributed to personal or idiosyncratic interventions by a particular person or of a particular time and place; or, conversely, do they register specific political or religious circumstances? How may we rethink our approaches to works that lie outside traditional or canonical practices of patronage or production?
*Marina Mihaljević, The Role of the Patron: The Church of the Virgin Kosmosoteira in
Pherrai
Sabine Feist, Ancient Because of Asymmetric? Architectural Anomalies and the Suggestion of Special Sites
*Jelena Bogdanović, Architectural Articulations of the Southern Chambers of the Tripartite Church Sanctuaries
Katherine Marsengill, How Do Reliefs Fit Into Our Understanding of the Development
Icons?
Ljubomir Milanović, Hic et Nunc (Here and Now): Reconsidering the Meaning of an Effigy Over the Tomb of the Serbian Emperor Dušan
Ida Sinkević, Representation of the Baptism on the South Portal of the “Katholikon” at Dečani Monastery
Galina Tirnanić, Anomalies in the Byzantine Body: Markers of Justice, Symptoms of Disease
Jelena Bogdanović and Marina Mihaljević, conveners