Description

Original bdg. Dust wrapper. Large 8vo. (23 x 21 cm). In English. 128 p., many color ills. "This volume brings together 86 Greek and Russian icons from Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya Museum) in Istanbul, Antalya Archaeological Museum, Antalya, Sinop Museum, Sinop, and Tokat Museum, Tokat. Two mosaic icons, from the Virgin Pammakaristos, which are kept in the Church of St George's at Phanar (Fener) in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate are also included. Compared to the interest that the surviving Byzantine architecture, wall paintings and mosaics receive from Turkish and foreign scholars, the icons in Turkey are obviously neglected. There is almost no record of the icons kept in private collections. Those kept in museums need cleaning, restoration and study. Another more general reason is that icons have been regarded less important than Byzantine wall paintings or mosaics and their study has been overshadowed by them. It is only recently that a more careful study of icons began which approached them as a type by themselves, despite their close relationship close relation ship with the other arts. As far as the provenance of the icons included in this volume is concerned, some of those kept in the Ayasofya Museum are definitely known to have been brought from Russia by immigrants in the reign of Sultan Ahmet I (1603-17).".