Spätantike - Fruhes Christentum - Byzanz: The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi : Architecture, Programme, Patronage (Series #6) (Hardcover)

The church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi is one of the major surviving monuments of twelth-century Byzantium. Commonly referred to simply as Nerezi, the church is distinguished as a foundation built by a member of the imperial family, decorated by some of the best artists of the period, and crowned by five domes in emulation of famous buildings of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. Thus, although located on the Byzantine periphery, in what is now the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Nerezi stands as an important testimony to twelfth-century Constantinopolitan artistic and architectural trends. Its significance becomes even greater considering that, uniquely among its contemporaries, Nerezi is preserved virtually intact. Although Nerezi is recognized by scholars as one of the major surviving monuments of Byzantine art, it lacks a scholarly monograph, and large portions of its architecture and ornament remain unknown and inaccessible even to scholars.This book represents the first effort to study Nerezi comprehensively. In six successive chapters it examines different aspects of the building: its historical and social context, its architectural design, its sculpture, and its cycle of mural painting. In addressing these varied facets, the book attempts to relate the different components of the building both to one another, and to the relevant contemporary Byzantine monuments. The book does it with two goals. First, as the pioneering study of this major document, it seeks to provide clear data on it: its measurements, materials, inscriptions, furnishings, and imaginery. Second, the book uses these data as a way to gain access to the figure of the patron, the Komnenian aristocrat Alexios Angelos Komnenos. Reading in its structural, programmatic, and aesthetic choices the characteristics of the building's patron, the book raises broader questions about the role which a Komnenian aristocrat and his church played at Nerezi's provincial setting.Thus, in its scope, the book extends the boundaries of a traditional monograph and encompasses both the study of the church and a contextual analysis of the historic, social and cultural trends ot the period. In addition, this study introduces the complete visual documentation of the church. A series of architectural monuments, drawings and photographs of the decoration, as well as documentary evidence related to the rstoration of Nerezi, are presented here for the first time.