Projekt

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This project engages with the transmission and appropriation of western medieval, byzantine, Slavic, and Islamic artistic traditions along those developed locally in the artistic production of Eastern Europe during the late medieval period (14th-16th c). It deals with the transformations of Byzantine artistic forms in Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Romanian principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania in the century before and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the visual eclecticism in the artistic production of these regions. This project entails the first art historical publication to examine and contextualize the developments in Moldavian art and architecture from c.1450 to c.1550. During this period, Moldavia emerged as a Christian frontier at the crossroads of western European, Slavic, Byzantine, and Ottoman cultures. Contacts with neighboring regions resulted in the local assimilation of select elements from distinct visual traditions most evident in the painted and fortified Orthodox monastic churches built under the patronage of Stephen III (r. 1457-1504) and his heir, Peter Rare? (r. 1527-1538; 1541-1546). The project addresses the compound visual character of the Moldavian churches, the historical circumstances under which they were built, and the complexities of cross-cultural exchange and the processes of visual translation in Eastern Europe during the later Middle Ages. Moreover, it explores the varied dimensions of Orthodox monastic spaces in relation to dynastic, economic, political, and military concerns on the part of the patrons.

• Prof. Dr. Paul Nolte

  Freie Universität Berlin
  Dahlem Humanities Center (DHC)
  Berlin
  

• Dr. Alice Isabella Sullivan

  University of Michigan
  Department of History of Art
  College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
  Ann Arbor, MI
  USA
  

• Late Medieval Visual Culture in Eastern Europe - Thematic Overview