Byzantine Sacred Art

Byzantine Sacred Art: Selected writings of the contemporary Greek icon painter Fotis Kontoglous on the Sacred Arts according to the Tradition of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, compiled, translated from the Greek, and edited with a preface, introduction, notes, and illustrations

Publication Data: Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2008
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 171
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.3 cm × 13.8 cm × 1.2 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 0‒914744‒61‒5

   
Second Edition
Revised and considerably enlarged

By Constantine Cavarnos

“Many books have been written on Byzantine art, especially in recent years. But no one, to my knowledge, has written about this great art Tradition with so much insight and vigor, with so much simplicity, clarity and eloquence, as Photios Kontoglou, from whose writings I have compiled the text of this book. Kontoglou is the foremost modern Greek iconographer, or painter of icons, one of the most original, and profound and stimulating modern Greek writers, and an authority on Byzantine art, particularly iconography. Having been trained as a painter in Paris, and having made a searching study of the art treasures of Europe, where he spent a number of years, he returned to his native place, Kydoniai (Aivali) in Asia Minor, at the end of the First World War. After the expulsion of the Greeks from Asia Minor in 1922, he settled at Athens. Here he soon came to realize the greatness of Byzantine painting. It seemed to him, at that stage of his development, to be the only kind of painting that was worth taking seriously. Accordingly, he devoted himself to the revival of the Byzantine art Tradition, studying and mastering the techniques of Byzantine painting, decorating churches with wall paintings and panel icons done according to the Byzantine Tradition, cleaning the old wall paintings of Byzantine churches, and serving as technical supervisor for a time at the Byzantine Museum in Athens.”
—“PREFACE”

CONTENTS

PREFACE
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BYZANTIUM
ANCIENT GREEK AND BYZANTINE ART
BYZANTINE ART
BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY: A GENERAL HISTORICAL SKETCH
BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY ON MOUNT ATHOS
MORE ABOUT THE PROTATON
BYZANTINE ART IN YUGOSLAVIA
BYZANTINE ART IN BULGARIA
A FEW REMARKS ON RUSSIAN ICONOGRAPHY
BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY DURING THE PERIOD OF TURKISH RULE
ICONOGRAPHY
THE ICONOGRAPHER
THE NATIVITY IN ICONOGRAPHY
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY VIRGIN
ICONS OF THE DORMITION OF THE HOLY VIRGIN
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE PANTOCRATOR
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CRUCIFIXION
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE RESURRECTION
ARCHITECTURE
HYMNODY
HYMNS OF THE PASSION—HOLY WEEK
EASTER DAY HYMNS
HYMNOGRAPHERS AND MUSICIANS
MUSIC
SELECT STATEMENTS ON BYZANTINE ART IN GENERAL
SELECT STATEMENTS ON THE APPRECIATION OF BYZANTINE ART
GENERAL INDEX
INDEX OF ICONOGRAPHIC THEMES