Natural Light in Medieval Churches

Vladimir Ivanovici, Ph.D., (2011), University of Bucharest, (2014), University of Lugano, is Lecturer at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Vienna, specializing in the mise-en-scène of religious experiences, with a focus on the use of light as a medium of theophany. Alice Isabella Sullivan, Ph.D., (2017), University of Michigan, is Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies at Tufts University, specializing in the artistic production of Eastern Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres.

“I have seldom read a book so full of fresh insights, unexpected suggestions and discussions which have given me a new understanding and fresh appreciation both of the church buildings and of the meanings they express.” – John Binns, University of Cambridge, in: Journal of Ecclesiastical History 75/3 (2024), p. 554

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroductionVladimir Ivanovici and Alice Isabella SullivanPart 1: Light, Theology, and Aesthetics1 Illuminated by Divine Presence: Natural Light in the Katholikon at Dečani MonasteryAnna Adashinskaya2 Natural Darkness and the Transfiguration Church on Il’ina Street in Novgorod (1378)Olga Yunak3 Transparency, Color, and Light at Ferapontov Monastery’s Nativity of the Mother of God ChurchMaria Shevelkina4 The Blessed Sacrament Shining in Light: Windowed Niches in Medieval Livonian ChurchesVera Henkelmann5 Seeing beyond Seeing: Light and Theophanic Contemplation at the Enkleistra of Neophytos, CyprusMaria Paschali and Dimitris Minasidis6 Space and Light: Aesthetics of Light in the Byzantine ChurchIakovos PotamianosPart 2: Lighting Sacred Spaces7 Light of the East in the West: Natural Light in the Monastic Rupestrian Complex of San Pedro de Rocas (Galicia)Natalia Figueiras Pimentel and Jorge López Quiroga8 Sun, Stones, and Saints: On the Orientation of the Church of Sant’Ambrogio alla Rienna (SA)Andrea Mattiello9 Natural Light in the Church of the Holy Cross at Pătrăuți MonasteryVladimir Ivanovici, Alice Isabella Sullivan and Gabriel-Dinu Herea10 Modeling the Sunlight Illumination of the Church at Studenica MonasteryTravis Yeager, Jelena Bogdanović, Leslie Forehand, Dušan Danilović, Magdalena Dragović, Debanjana Chatterjee, Jacob Gasper, Marko Pejić, Aleksandar Čučaković, Anastasija Martinenko and Charles Kerton11 Architectural Emptiness and Natural Light: The Church of the Virgin at Studenica MonasteryLjiljana Čavić12 Canticle of the Sun: Archaeoastronomy and Solar Eucharistic Worship in the Millennial New WorldRubén G. MendozaIndexes