24.06.2009

Presentation of the  Book “Hierotopy. Spatial Icons and Images-Paradigms in Byzantine Culture” by Alexei Lidov

The presentation of the book “Hierotopy. Spatial Icons and Images-Paradigms in Byzantine Culture” by Alexei Lidov, Deputy President of the Russian Academy of Arts  for  Research and Innovative Programs, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, art historian and theorist, took place in the White Hall of the Russian Academy of Arts on June 24, 2009. It was held within the framework of the International Symposium “Spatial Icons. Textuality and Performativity”.     

ALEXEI  LIDOV

HIEROTOPY.

SPATIAL ICONS AND IMAGES-PARADIGMS IN BYZANTINE CULTURE
Moscow, Theoria, 2009. 352 pages, 285 illustrations

The book deals with the history and theory of creation of sacred spaces in  Byzantine culture and art. It is based on recent studies, which continue the author’s research on the symbolism and iconography of the Byzantine and Russian churches.  At the same time, it contains a new methodological approach and a special theory of visual culture. The core of the theory is three interrelated notions introduced by the author into the humanities and included in the book’s title.  The most general is a concept of  hierotopy, according to which the creation of sacred spaces should be considered as a peculiar form of creativity and an independent field of cultural history. In the book  the author discusses a set of  concrete projects of spatial icons and characteristic images-paradigms  have been reconstructed and interpreted on the bases of all available sources,  simultaneously it offers a new view of the entire stratum of phenomena of visual culture, which only recently became a subject of contemporary art history.

The book will be interesting to readers who concern themselves with the history of Byzantine tradition, origins of  Russian culture and up-to-date theory of art.

CONTENTS

Hierotopy.

Creation of Sacred Spaces as a Form of Creativity and Subject of Cultural History

Spatial Icons.

Miraculous Performance with the Hodegetria of Constantinople

The Church of the Theotokos of Faros.  The Imperial Church-Reliquary as the Holy Sepulchre of Constantinople

The Mandylion and Keramion. 

An Image-Paradigm of Sacred Space

Holy Face-Holy Script- Holy Gate.  

An Image- Paradigm of the ‘Blessed City’ in Christian Hierotopy

Miraculous Icons in Hagia Sophia.  

The Emperor as  Creator of Sacral Spaces

The Katapetasma of Hagia Sophia.

Byzantine Installations and the Image-Paradigm of the Temple Curtain

The Priesthoot of the Virgin.

An Image-Paradigm of Byzantine Iconography

Holy Fire.

Hierotopic and Art-Historical Aspects of the Creation of “New Jerusalems”

Images-Paradigms as a Category of Visual Culture.

A  Hierotopic Approach to Art History