Description
Intended for both the expert and the layman, this pioneering work investigates the history of a unique style of painting – namely that of Byzantium – in one of the most fascinating provinces of the Byzantine Empire. Cyprus, with its autocephalous Church and its plethora of monasteries and churches, was a meeting place of cultures both from the East and the West. Byzantine province, Crusader kingdom, and then a Venetian stronghold in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus continued its Byzantine artistic traditions under Ottoman and British rule, and renewed them in the modern Byzantine painting of our century.
A panoram of 116 icons (7th to the 20th century) and three iconostases of the 16th century are presented in this book for the first time, as well as three mural mosaics and six mural paintings from the 6th to the 11th century. They are accompanied by an introduction on the meaning and theology of icons, the history of Byzantine painting in Cyprus, a glossary, a selected bibliography, as well as references in the footnotes and a general index.
