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Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai
Isolated in the remote Egyptian desert, at the base of Mount Sinai, sits the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the Christian world. The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai holds the most important collection of Byzantine icons remaining today. This catalogue, published in
conjuction with the exhibition Holy Image, Hallowed Icons from Sinai , on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from November 14, 2006, to March 4, 2007, features forty-three of the monastery's extremely rare--and rarely exhibited--icons and six manuscripts still little-known to the world at
large.
The exhibition and catalogue bring to life the central role of the icon in Byzantine religious practices. Themes include the icon's status as holy object, the ways in which the icon sanctified the place of worship, and the monks' quest for the holy. The Greek Orthodox monastery at Mount Sinai
not only functioned as a major pilgrimage site for centuries but was also a cultural crossroads at the center of the shifting sands of ecclesiastical and secular politics. The accompanying essays explore how the monastery's contact with the outside world, through pilgrimage, resulted in aesthetic
exchanges between the monastery and Coptic, Crusader, and Islamic art; and between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities in Europe.
conjuction with the exhibition Holy Image, Hallowed Icons from Sinai , on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from November 14, 2006, to March 4, 2007, features forty-three of the monastery's extremely rare--and rarely exhibited--icons and six manuscripts still little-known to the world at
large.
The exhibition and catalogue bring to life the central role of the icon in Byzantine religious practices. Themes include the icon's status as holy object, the ways in which the icon sanctified the place of worship, and the monks' quest for the holy. The Greek Orthodox monastery at Mount Sinai
not only functioned as a major pilgrimage site for centuries but was also a cultural crossroads at the center of the shifting sands of ecclesiastical and secular politics. The accompanying essays explore how the monastery's contact with the outside world, through pilgrimage, resulted in aesthetic
exchanges between the monastery and Coptic, Crusader, and Islamic art; and between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities in Europe.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2006
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About the author
Thomas F. Mathews
18 books6 followersThomas F. Mathews is John Langeloth Loeb Professor in the History of Art at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. The author of numerous books on Byzantine art, including The Clash of Gods, Treasures in Heaven, and The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul, he is also a contributor to The Glory of Byzantium (Yale University Press).
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April 12, 2016
Fabulous catalog from a monumental exhibition of Byzantine Icons from Saint Catherine Monastery on Mt. Sinai, Egypt at the Getty Museum in California in the year 2006. If you love Byzantine art (which I do) this marvelous volume will let you gaze on good photographic images of some of the very famous Icons rarely out of this historic monastery.
Displaying 1 of 1 review