Byzantine Cappadocia

BYZANTINE CAPPADOCIA Ed. by Tomoyuki Masuda This book is the result of the symposium on Byzantine Cappadocia, held in Tokyo in 2016, to which Prof. C. Jolivet-Lévy, a leading expert of Cappadocian studies, was a prominent invitee. Through her analysis of graffiti inscribed in the rock-cut churches, Prof. Jolivet-Lévy presented new research possibilities on how the murals were accepted by the Byzantines in later periods. As for the middle and later Cappadocian history, the careers and family relationships of Nikephoros Diogenes, the Laskaris brothers, Manuel and Michael, and Melias the Armenian are discussed in detail. However, the majority of the articles in the book are concerned with the iconography and the decoration program of Cappadocian churches, the arranging of the various themes in the complex threedimensional space of the churches; the Byzantines express complex connotations that cannot be achieved with a single image. In the New Church of Tokali Kilise in Göreme, for instance, why is the Virgin Eleousa placed in the niche between the Prothesis and the main apse? In its Narthex, why is the Ascension of Christ combined with Christ and the Twelve Apostles in an unnatural way? Why are the figures of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste surrounding the high walls of the Naos? Why is it that in the scene of the Wedding at Cana, only Christ's right hand is depicted on the vertically adjacent wall? Answers to these questions are given within the three-dimensional space of the New Church of Tokali Kilise. Although Cappadocian wall paintings have traditionally been treated as archaeological material, this is the first study to focus on the issue of the decoration program. This publication contains the largest number of color photographs available today on Cappadocian fresco paintings. CONTENTS: Preface. ART. 1. CATHERINE JOLIVET-LÉVY, Paintings and Inscriptions in Cappadocia as a Source on the Audience. 2. SHIGEBUMI TSUJI, Sahoko Tsuji in laudatio: From Early Christian Art to the Mural Paintings in Cappadocia. 3. TOMOYUKI MASUDA, Christ and the Twelve Apostles in Cappadocian Churches. 4. TOMOYUKI MASUDA, The Hypapante in the Tokali Old Church and the Byzantine Apse Decoration. 5. HIROFUMI SUGAWARA, The Function of the Virgin Eleousa in New Tokali Kilise, Göreme. 6. HIROFUMI SUGAWARA, Çarikli Kilise Reconsidered: Its Iconographic Program and the Liturgy. 7. MIKA TAKIGUCHI, Can Identical Iconography Connote Different Meanings? Examples of Fresco Decoration in Cappadocia. 8. YOKO TANIGUCHI, Painting Techniques and Vandalism of the Wall Paintings of Üzümlü Kilise (Chapel of St. Niketas the Stylite) in the Red Valley, Cappadocia. 9. YURIKO SAKURAI, The Decoration Program of New Church of Tokali Kilise, Cappadocia: The Iconography of the Sts. Constantine and Helena and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. 10. ERIKO TSUJI, The Communion of the Marys: The Program of the Prothesis in the New Church of theTokali Kilise, Göreme No.7. 11. KAZUFUMI TAKEDA, On the Compositions of the Dormition of the Virgin in Church Decorations in Cappadocia. 12. SEONG-JUN KO, The Decorative Program of the Church of Agaçalti Kilisesi in Cappadocia. 13. YASUSHI NAGATSUKA, Essai sur les programmes iconographiques des Églises rupestres en Cappadoce. HISTORY. 14. YUKIO NEZU, The Fall of the Last Cappadocian Hero: Revisiting the Complot of Nikephoros Diogenes. 15. KOJI MURATA, Between Byzantium and the Sultanate of Rum: Manuel and Michael Laskaris and the Origin of the Tzamantouroi. 16. KOSUKE NAKADA, Revisiting the Role of the Armenians in the Creation of the Theme of Lykandos. Bibliography and Abbreviations, List of Illustrations, Photo Credits, Index, Illustrations 1.1-12.10. Byzantine Cappadocia, ed. by Tomoyuki Masuda, 2022, ISBN: 978-94-90387-10-5, Bound, 24x17 cm., 472 pp. (336 pp. text plus 190 illustrations mostly in full colour). Price: EUR 325 - Language : English text -