Book Description
During the last decades, the relations of Mount Athos with art have been in the spotlight of research following a long period of obscurity. A milestone in this change has been the exhibition The Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessaloniki 1997), during which a large number of objects (icons, miniature art, manuscripts, etc) from the sacristies of the Athonite monasteries were presented to the public and studied by specialists. Its outcome are the four fundamental studies of the present volume by G. Galavaris, E.N. Tsigaridas, K. Loverdou-Tsigarida and P. Theocharidis, which refer to issues concerning illuminated manuscripts, monumental painting, icons, miniature art, and architecture. Two other studies, those of O. Popova and B. Todić, concern the notion of asceticism appearing within illuminated manuscripts, and the portrayal of new saints in the monumental art of Athos. The common feature of all the studies, which were initially presented at the 20th International Conference of Byzantine Studies (Paris 2001), is the constant commitment of the art of Mount Athos to tradition, without, however, rejecting renewal.