Ausgabe 3.2014 / Transkulturelle Perspektiven

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/603

Redaktion: Patricia Blessing

Ausgabedatum: 01.10.2014

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  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
    Imperial References: The Gök Medrese in Sivas as an Example of the Use of Marble in Thirteenth-century Anatolia
    Vassilopoulou, Sophia; Blessing, Patricia
    Marble was a frequently deployed material in the representative architecture of the two most important royal patrons in Rum-Seljuq Anatolia, the sultans 'Izz ad-Dīn Kaykāwūs (r. 1211–1220) and ‘Alā ad-Dīn Kayqubād (r. 1220–1237) and its use reached a peak in the royal capital, Konya. The practice was further developed by patrons from the bureaucratic and military elite who replaced the sultans in providing patronage for public foundations in the second half of the thirteenth century. Based on the work on one of the most important patrons of this later period, Fakhr alDīn 'Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn or Sahib Ata, this paper attempts to investigate the function of marble decoration in the architecture of the second half of the thirteenth century by analysing the concept of marble use in royal commissions in the first half of the same century. In addition, in order to understand how the functions and effects of forms and materials could shift depending on political and social circumstances, the paper also takes a brief look at similar developments beyond the borders of Anatolia - at Zangid Aleppo and Damascus. This short examination will allow for further discussion of the possible 'entanglements' of traditions, the 'non-Muslim' past of Anatolia and the political ambitions of the several patrons during the different phases of the thirteenth century in Anatolia.
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
    Brick Muqarnas on Rūm Saljuq buildings - The introduction of an Iranian decorative technique into the architecture of Anatolia
    McClary, Richard Piran; Blessing, Patricia
    Although the majority of architectural muqarnas compositions constructed during the Rūm Saljuq period in Anatolia are in stone, there is a small and poorly understood corpus of brick muqarnas to be found in central and eastern Anatolia. This paper focuses on the earliest examples, dating from the last quarter of the sixth/ twelfth century to the end of the first quarter of the seventh/ thirteenth century. The aim is to document the surviving examples as well as trace their connection to each other and their Iranian antecedents. The corpus of brick muqarnas is spread across an array of structural types, including minarets, tombs, a palace and a hospital. The use of brick muqarnas can be seen on both brick and predominantly stone structures; in many cases the muqarnas cells are accented with glazed tile. By examining the style and decoration of the muqarnas compositions in relation to the broader decorative context of the structures of which they form part, a clearer picture of the probable origins of the craftsmen who made them emerges. The brick muqarnas are a form of architectural decoration that was not generally adopted in later Rūm Saljuq, Beylik or Ottoman architecture yet can be found on a number of prestigious, imperial structures from the early period of Islamic architecture in Anatolia.
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
    The Zhamatun of Horomos: The Shaping of an Unprecedented Type of Fore-church Hall
    Kazaryan, Armen; Blessing, Patricia
    The complex of monastic buildings of Horomos is one of the largest in medieval Armenia and the whole Christian East. In the course of the study of Horomos, I paid particular attention to a number of buildings which marked the shaping of new architectural types: the fore-church hall called zhamatun; the entry arch with two chapels above the pylons; the two-story mausoleum with tree chapels above the liturgical hall; and hall-reliquaries. Such creativity was extremely rare for the medieval architectural tradition in Armenia, with its well-established typology and a limited number of architectural plans. In Horomos, however, there were not less than four new building plans, each of which initiated a new architectural type. The largest church of the monastery and the zhamatun are both dated to 1038 by an inscription that mentions the patron, Hovhannes Smbat Shahinshah Bagratouni. Like other twelfth- and thirteenth-century 'copies' of the Horomos zhamatun, most of which looked like covered cemeteries, that building may have had a funerary function, and was, probably, built as a royal mausoleum. The article analyzes the architecture of this 16-column hall. I will focus on the origin of this composition and to the carved decoration. Unlike traditional concepts of this architectural type's development from local domestic architecture, I offer some architectural models that were based on new concepts: among these were the late antique churches of Armenia, such as Ejmiatsin cathedral and Zvartnots, and the Anastasis Rotunda. This research brings us closer to an understanding of the conceptual architectural idea that was shaped in the last years of the so-called "Armenian renaissance" of the end of the tenth and the first half of the eleventh century.
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
    Entre architecture "Turco-islamique" et "Derviches colonisateurs": revisiter les zaviye-s en Anatolie médiévale
    Durocher, Maxime; Blessing, Patricia
    Focusing on the case of the architecture related to mystical communities in medieval Anatolia, this paper proposes to question a specific historiography which, influenced by a formalist and typological approach, studied zaviye-s independently from other religious foundations and architectures. Even though recently, several studies about architecture in medieval Anatolia have revised this approach to a so-called Turko-Islamic architecture, religious or pious buildings remains rare. Some dervish lodges built during the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth century have been preserved, yet the construction of such pious foundations devoted to mystical communities markedly increased in the second half of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century. This paper proposes to analyze the different ways zaviye-s and their architecture were studied in the context of Islamic architecture in medieval Anatolia in order to underline new perspectives for further works and question how could we place the architecture related to mystical communities in the broader context of a multicultural society.
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel
    Buildings in their patrons' hands? The multiform function of small size models between Byzantium and Transcaucasia
    Carile, Maria Cristina; Blessing, Patricia
    The motif of the church patron or founder carrying a building model was inserted in church decoration since Late Antiquity, and specifically in the main apses of sixth century churches. Later, it became common in the pictorial programmes of church buildings in Byzantium as in medieval Rome and, after 1204, in the Balkans. This image bears a high symbolic meaning and, at the same time, is a powerful means of communicating the patron/founder's role in the construction, as well as displaying his/her faith and devotion, all at once. In Transcaucasia this pictorial motif first appears in Late Antiquity, probably as evidence of the cultural interaction with Byzantium, in the form of a relief sculpture decorating the exterior walls of the churches. However, with the passing of time it became a characteristic feature of Transcaucasian churches, as a part of the overall decorative programme of church exteriors or as the only figurative image on church façades. This paper explores patterns of continuity and change in the meaning of church models in those territories on the edges of the empire, particularly Transcaucasia. Concentrating on the pictorial motif of donors' models, and principally on the value of the microarchitecture within the image and the church decoration, it reflects on its use through time, and especially in the great Transcaucasian monasteries of the late twelfth and thirteenth century AD. The analysis of church models, as reproductions of the physical building and symbolic elements of the pictorial composition, will allow for a reflection on the use of microarchitecture in the imagery of Transcaucasia. After the tenth century AD, the emphasis on donation scenes and particularly on architectural models on the façades of Transcaucasian churches displays the importance of donors' model as a feature of the Transcaucasian area, which presented political, ideological or religious messages to the beholder and, as such, was an entity of cultural history.
  • Publication
    2014-10-01Zeitschriftenartikel