Visions of Heaven: The Dome in European Architecture

by Victoria Hammond, Keith F. Davis (Foreword), David Stephenson (Photographer)

There's an ethereal magic to standing beneath a dome, neck craned, looking up at a vision of the heavens created by some long-ago figure of genius. From the Pantheon to the Hagia Sophia, the power of the dome seems transcendent. Photographer David Stephenson's magnificently kaleidoscopic images of dome interiors capture this evanescent drama, and make Visions of Heaven one of the most spectacularly beautiful books we've ever produced. Traveling from Italy to Spain, Turkey, England, Germany, and Russia, among other countries, and photographing churches, palaces, mosques, and synagogues from the second to the early twentieth century, Stephenson's work amounts to a veritable typology of the cupola. His images present complex geometrical structures, rich stucco decorations, and elaborate paintings as they have never been seen before. Brilliantly calibrated exposures reveal details and colors that would otherwise remain hidden in these dimly lit spaces. Visions of Heaven shows more than 120 images, including the Roman Pantheon, the Byzantine churches of Turkey, the great domes of the Renaissance, the decorative cupolas of the Baroque and the Rococo ages, and a nineteenth-century synagogue in Hungary.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Photography, Art

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Victoria Hammond is an award-winning author with a background as art historian and curator. Hammond has worked as Director at Shepparton Art Gallery and as Guest Curator at National Gallery of Victoria. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Melbourne. Hammond has written several art exhibition catalogues and is the author of 'Letters from St Petersburg' and 'The Devil and Maria d'Avalos'. Hammond has been awarded several funding grants to assist with her work. She won the Varuna Fellowship, Eleanor Dark Foundation for 'Letters from St Petersburg'.

Reviews

[Amir · Rating 3 out of 5]

مجموعه ای تصاویر خام از گنبد با توضیحاتی اولیه و عمومی در پایان
تحلیل:
ابر ایده گنبد به عنوان نمای دنیای بالا دو روش بازنمایی دارد. نقاشی به همراه برجسته کردن مرز دایره ای شروع گنبد به عنوان لبه دنیا ها. بعضی با اضافه کردن گریو به این صحنه عمق میدهند
راه دوم ایجاد پرسپکتیو عمیق و تلاش برای افزایش بعد سقف و شبیه سازی مسیر دنیای بالا
جدای از این ابر ایده گنبدهای مختلفی هم هستند که صرفا رویکرد تزیین بدنه گنبد را دنبال کرده اند. مثل خود پانتئون.

[Servabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINALLY! A book with minimal text and lots of colourful pictures.

[The_J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we look up into a dome, we feel elevated, uplifted; we have, in a sense stepped out of the flow of secular time and -- for a moment -- into eternity.

[Halit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Influential works by Stephenson that allow one to compare the worlds we see and live with that which our architecture reflects. Architecture in short, carries more than the shape of the structures but a mix of our ethics, that fills our minds and hearts. I highly recommend it for both architects and archaeologists alike and I shall quote here as did the writer some of Kant words,

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more
often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law
within me. . . . I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness
of my existence. The first starts at the place that I occupy in the external world
of the senses, and extends the connection in which I stand into the limitless magnitude
of worlds upon worlds, systems upon systems. . . . The second begins with my
invisible self, my personality, and displays to me a world that has true infinity, but
which can only be detected through the understanding, and with which . . . I know
myself to be in not, as in the first case, merely contingent, but universal and necessary
connection."

[Jenna✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written along with many captivating imagery that is both informative and enjoyable to read.

[Mohammad Shaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. Awesome.