Bissera Pentcheva's Books

Icons and Power

The Mother of God in Byzantium

By: Bissera V. Pentcheva

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Icons and Power

The Mother of God in Byzantium

By: Bissera V. Pentcheva

Pentcheva demonstrates that a fundamental shift in the Byzantine cult from relics to icons, took place during the late tenth century. Centered upon fundamental questions of art, religion, and politics, Icons and Power makes a vital contribution to the entire field of medieval studies.

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Page Count

340

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271048166

ISBN 13

9780271048161

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

By: Bissera Pentcheva

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Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

By: Bissera Pentcheva

Aural architecture identifies those features of a building that can be perceived by the act of listening in them. Emerging from the challenge to reconstruct sonic and spatial experiences of the deep past, this book invites readers into the complex world of the Byzantine liturgy, experienced in its chanted form in interiors covered with monumental mosaics and frescoes. The multidisciplinary collection of ten essays explores the intersection of Byzantine liturgy, music, acoustics, and architecture in the Late Antique churches of Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome, and reflects on the role digital technology can play in re-creating aspects of the sensually rich performance of the divine word.

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Page Count

273

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

135178689X

ISBN 13

9781351786898

Icons and Power

The Mother of God in Byzantium

By: Bissera V. Pentcheva

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Icons and Power

The Mother of God in Byzantium

By: Bissera V. Pentcheva

Average ratings

N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

340

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271048166

ISBN 13

9780271048161

The sensual icon

By: Bissera V

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The sensual icon

By: Bissera V

Today we take the word "icon" to mean "a sign," or we equate it with portaits of Christ and the saints. In The Sensual Icon, Bissera Pentcheva demonstrates how icons originally manifested the presence of the Holy Spirit in matter. Christ was the ideal icon, emerging through the Incarnation; so, too, were the bodies of the stylites (column-saints) penetrated by the divine peneuma (breath or spirit), or the Eucharist, or the Justinianic space of Hagia Sophia filled with the reverberations of chants and the smoke of incense. Iconoclasm (726-843) challenged these Spirit-centered definitions of the icon, eventually restricting the word to mean only the lifeless imprint (typos) of Christ's visual characteristics on matter. By the tenth century, mixed-media relief icons in gold, repousse, enamel, and filigree offered a new paradigm. The sun's rays or flickering candlelight, stirred by drafts of air and human breath, animated the rich surfaces of these objects; changing shadows endowed their eyes with life. The Byzantines called this spectacle of polymorphous appearance poikilia, that is, presence effects sensually experienced. These icons enabled viewers in Constantinople to detect animation in phenomenal changes rather than in pictorial or sculptural naturalism. "Liveliness," as the goal of the Byzantine mixed-media relief icon, thus challenges the Renaissance ideal of "lifelikeness," which dominated the Western artistic tradition before the arrival of the modern. Through a close examination of works of art and primary texts and language associated with these objects, and through her new photographs and film capturing their changing appearances, Pentcheva uncovers the icons' power to transform the viewer from observer to participant, communing with the divine.

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Page Count

327

Publisher

Penn State University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271035846

ISBN 13

9780271035840

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

By: Bissera Pentcheva

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Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

By: Bissera Pentcheva

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Page Count

273

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

135178689X

ISBN 13

9781351786898

The sensual icon

By: Bissera V

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The sensual icon

By: Bissera V

Explores the Byzantine aesthetic of fugitive appearances by placing and filming art objects in spaces of changing light, and by uncovering the shifting appearances expressed in poetry, descriptions of art, and liturgical performance"--Provided by publisher.

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Age

Page Count

346

Publisher

Penn State Press

ISBN 10

0271035846

ISBN 13

9780271035840

Book's by Bissera Pentcheva

Icons and Power

Icons and Power

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

Icons and Power

Icons and Power

The sensual icon

The sensual icon

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

The sensual icon

The sensual icon

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