Natural Light in Medieval Churches

Vladimir Ivanovici, Ph.D., (2011), University of Bucharest, (2014), University of Lugano, is Lecturer at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Vienna, specializing in the mise-en-scène of religious experiences, with a focus on the use of light as a medium of theophany. Alice Isabella Sullivan, Ph.D., (2017), University of Michigan, is Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies at Tufts University, specializing in the artistic production of Eastern Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres.

Acknowledgements


List of Figures


Notes on Contributors





Introduction


 Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Isabella Sullivan





Part 1: Light, Theology, and Aesthetics


1 Illuminated by Divine Presence: Natural Light in the Katholikon at Dečani Monastery


 Anna Adashinskaya





2 Natural Darkness and the Transfiguration Church on Il’ina Street in Novgorod (1378)


 Olga Yunak





3 Transparency, Color, and Light at Ferapontov Monastery’s Nativity of the Mother of God Church


 Maria Shevelkina





4 The Blessed Sacrament Shining in Light: Windowed Niches in Medieval Livonian Churches


 Vera Henkelmann





5 Seeing beyond Seeing: Light and Theophanic Contemplation at the Enkleistra of Neophytos, Cyprus


 Maria Paschali and Dimitris Minasidis





6 Space and Light: Aesthetics of Light in the Byzantine Church


 Iakovos Potamianos





Part 2: Lighting Sacred Spaces


7 Light of the East in the West: Natural Light in the Monastic Rupestrian Complex of San Pedro de Rocas (Galicia)


 Natalia Figueiras Pimentel and Jorge López Quiroga





8 Sun, Stones, and Saints: On the Orientation of the Church of Sant’Ambrogio alla Rienna (SA)


 Andrea Mattiello





9 Natural Light in the Church of the Holy Cross at Pătrăuți Monastery


 Vladimir Ivanovici, Alice Isabella Sullivan and Gabriel-Dinu Herea





10 Modeling the Sunlight Illumination of the Church at Studenica Monastery


 Travis Yeager, Jelena Bogdanović, Leslie Forehand, Dušan Danilović, Magdalena Dragović, Debanjana Chatterjee, Jacob Gasper, Marko Pejić, Aleksandar Čučaković, Anastasija Martinenko and Charles Kerton





11 Architectural Emptiness and Natural Light: The Church of the Virgin at Studenica Monastery


 Ljiljana Čavić





12 Canticle of the Sun: Archaeoastronomy and Solar Eucharistic Worship in the Millennial New World


 Rubén G. Mendoza





Indexes