Overview

The Framing of Sacred Space offers the first topical study of canopies as essential spatial and symbolic units in Byzantine-rite churches. Centrally planned columnar structures--typically comprised of four columns and a roof--canopies had a critical role in the modular processes of church design, from actual church furnishings in the shape of a canopy to the church's structural core. As architectonic objects of basic structural and design integrity, canopies integrate an archetypical image of architecture and provide means for an innovative understanding of the materialization of the idea of the Byzantine church and its multi-focal spatial presence. The Framing of Sacred Space considers both the material and conceptual framing of sacred space and explains how the canopy bridges the physical and transcendental realms. As a crucial element of church design in the Byzantine world, a world that gradually abandoned the basilica as a typical building of Roman imperial secular architecture, the canopy carried tectonic and theological meanings and, through vaulted, canopied bays and recognizable Byzantine domed churches, established organic architectural, symbolic, and sacred ties between the Old and New Covenants. In such an overarching context, the canopy becomes an architectural parti, a vital concept and dynamic design principle that carries the essence of the Byzantine church. The Framing of Sacred Space highlights significant factors in understanding canopies through specific architectural settings and the Byzantine concepts of space, thus also contributing to larger debates about the creation of sacred space and related architectural taxonomy.

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9780190465209

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[A] welcome addition to the study of medieval art and architecture, as well as the framing devices, both physical and rhetorical, that were used to make the divine manifest in ecclesiastical space ... This monograph should be a standard reference and starting-point for future discussions of spatial archetypes in Byzantium and the medieval world. -- Nathan S. Dennis, Sacred Architecture The book is beautifully produced with many good-quality color photographs and fine drawings. It also collects and discusses an immense amount of material ranging from Syria to Italy, and from the third century to the post-Byzantine period. ... this book will likely become a useful reference for the archaeological material it assembles. --Vasileios Marinis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers only. --W. Cahn, CHOICE Bogdanovic's study of Byzantine ciboria is an impressive example of scholarship. The research and documentation of the large corpus of ciboria is meticulous and will be the starting place for all future scholarship on this particular type of church furnishing. In addition, her interpretation of the ciboria as a type of micro-architecture raises our level of understanding about their form and function within the broader contexts of church design and its symbolism as well as the liturgy performed under their canopies. -- Mark J. Johnson, Brigham Young University The Framing of Sacred Space is a major contribution to the field of Byzantine studies. Having devoted over a decade to studying churches of the Byzantine rite and earning both a master's as well as a PhD., Bogdanovic's book is impeccably researched...This author's scholarly study serves to further knowledge in architecture, fine arts, and religion. The book is highly recommended for research level library collections in these areas. --ARLIS

Author Information

Jelena Bogdanovic is Associate Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University. Trained as an architect and an historian of art and architecture, she specializes in the architectural history of Byzantine, Slavic, Western European, and Islamic cultures in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

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