DU2378 Cyprus 688–1571: Architecture of an Island between the Byzantine, Arab and Latin Realms

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2022
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 28. 2. 10:00–11:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, 13:00–14:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, Tue 1. 3. 10:00–11:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, 13:00–14:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, Wed 2. 3. 10:00–11:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, 13:00–14:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, Thu 3. 3. 10:00–11:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, 13:00–14:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, Fri 4. 3. 10:00–11:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga, 13:00–14:40 Knihovna Hanse Beltinga
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The goal of this class is to introduce the students to the pre-modern architecture of Cyprus. Il corso si terrà dal 28 febbraio al 4 marzo, ogni giorno dalle 10:00 alle 12:00 e dalle 13:00 alle 15:00.
Syllabus
  • The lecture will discuss the main lines of architectural development in Cyprus from the early Middle Ages until the island’s conquest by the Ottomans. Frequently changing rulers and allegiances make Cyprus one of the prime study areas for the ways in which political change might or might not impact art and architecture of a specific region. After recurring Arab raids in Late Antiquity, the island remains in a certain political limbo between Arabs and Byzantium until the re-annexation to the latter empire in 965. Many of the buildings from those allegedly ‘dark ages’ testify to a thriving, creative adaptation of new architectural ideas, among which the introduction of domed architectures into the pre-existing portfolio of architectural solutions. The following period until 1191, the conquest of the island by Richard Lionheart, is marked by a stronger turn towards Constantinopolitan architecture, particularly a predominance of cross-in square buildings, yet executed in a distinctly local idiom. With the arrival of the Latins and the subsequent creation of a Crusader kingdom on the island, a multi-layered development can be observed: Western, Gothic cathedrals and abbey churches are being erected by the new Latin rulers from the 13th century onwards. They leave a significant mark on the development of church architecture for the numerous non-Latin communities on the island. This is further enhanced by a survival of Crusader architectural ideas, which reach particularly the immensely rich harbour city of Famagusta in the late 13th and early 14th century, when it becomes the easternmost Christian outpost on the way to the Holy Land. In the 15th century, the island falls in the hands of the Serenissima, during a time in which we can attest a veritable building boom of smaller and mid-sized sanctuaries, parish churches, monastic settlements. They often reflect the amalgamation of once foreign artistic elements into a genuinely local, vernacular architectural idiom, which is once more enriched with ‘external’ new elements with the slow arrival of Renaissance architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ultimately, the Ottoman conquest of 1571 brings an end to the ‘long Middle Ages’ in Cypriot architecture.
Literature
  • Annemarie Weyl Carr (ed.), Famagusta. Art and Architecture. Volume 1, Turnhout 2014.
  • Michalis Olympios and Maria Parani (eds.), The Art and Archaeology of Lusignan and Venetian Cyprus (1192–1571). Recent Research and New Discoveries, Turnhout 2019.
  • Thomas Kaffenberger, Tradition and Identity. The Architecture of Greek Churches in Cyprus (14th to 16th Centuries), Wiesbaden 2020.
  • Camille Enlart, L’art Gothique et la Renaissance en Chypre, Paris 1899.
  • Michael J.K. Walsh, Tamás Kiss, Nicolas S.H. Coureas (eds.), The Harbour of all this Sea and Realm. Crusader to Venetian Famagusta, Budapest 2014.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2022/DU2378