Byzantine Cilicia in the Photographic Documentation: The Study Trips of Italian Art Historians in the Twentieth Century, lecture by Livia Bevilacqua (Universita la Sapienza di Roma), Byzantium at Ankara Fall Seminar Series 2020/21 via ZOOM, November 5, 2020, 6:00 pm (Istanbul Time Zone)

In the last decades of the 20th century, several scholars explored the southern regions of Anatolia, in order to record the surviving Byzantine vestiges. A group of Italian art historians from Rome, Urbino and Padova – led by Fernanda de’ Maffei – visited the ancient provinces of Cilicia and Isauria in a series of field trips between 1989 and 2000. The group went into areas that had been explored by travellers and archaeologists since the previous century, and they gathered new, valuable material, including photographs, sketches and notes of religious, as well as residential and public buildings of the Middle Ages. Thanks to those trips, some of the most relevant Byzantine monuments of the region have been studied in detail, although a significant part of the research material produced remains unpublished. It is now preserved in the Center for Documentation of Byzantine Art History (CDSAB) at Sapienza University of Rome and can be regarded today as a precious resource for the study of Byzantine monuments and artifacts of the region. I will present some examples from the archive, placing them in the context of international research of the time, and I will attempt to highlight the relevance of the material gathered in those intense years for the study of the cultural heritage of southern Anatolia.

Livia Bevilacqua collaborates with the chair of Byzantine Art History at Universita la Sapienza di Roma and is currently working on a project titled “Byzantine monuments of Turkey and Syria in the photographic collection of the CDSAB – Center for Documentation of Byzantine Art History at Sapienza: preliminary cataloguing and critical assessment”. Her main research interests include artistic patronage in Byzantium; artistic exchange and circulation of artifacts between Byzantium and the West; medieval manuscript illumination; the reuse of spolia in Byzantine architecture; graphic and photographic sources for the study of Byzantine art. 

The Byzantine Seminar Series “Byzantium at Ankara” is an event organized and hosted in collaboration by the Department of History at Bilkent University and the Department of History of Art at Hacettepe University which will be held over the entire 2020/21 academic year. It is organized by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sercan Yandim (Hacettepe University) and Asst. Prof. Dr. Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University).

The object of the series of talks is to engage Byzantine scholars from different backgrounds and areas of expertise in a conversation on issues which relate and resonate with the current socio-political and economic situation. The importance of building these connections should put Byzantium in a global, modern and historical perspective.

All the sessions will be broadcasted via Zoom. Pre-registration at byzantiumatankara@hotmail.com is required. A link to attend the seminar will be sent one hour before the start of the meeting.