Princeton, N.J. — This spring the Princeton University Art Museum is proud to present the major international loan exhibition Architecture as Icon: Perception and Representation of Architecture in Byzantine Art. The first of its kind, this exhibition explores the visual splendor, the rich subtleties, and the spirituality of Byzantine art and argues for a new way of understanding icons through its representation of space in a pre-Renaissance world view. Co-organized with the European Center for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments in Thessaloniki, Greece, Architecture as Icon is the culmination of many years of research by guest curator Slobodan Ćurčić, professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. The exhibition travels to Princeton following its premier showing in Thessaloniki and will be open to the public from March 6 through June 6, 2010. 

 

Supplementing objects from the Princeton collections will be nearly seventy works including icons, manuscripts, ivories, metal sculptures, stone models, and gold, silver, and bronze works. Many of these extraordinary works come from seldom-seen public and private collections across seven countries including: the State History Museum in Erevan, Armenia; the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece; the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Procuratoria della Basilica di San Marco in Venice, Italy; and the National Museum of Art in Bucharest, Romania.

 

“The variety of works exhibited illustrates the richness and scope of artistic output of a cultural tradition that spans over 1500 years,” notes Ćurčić, “and the variation among the objects on view underscores one of the main tenets of the exhibition—that the meaning of symbols is not affected by their medium or physical size.” Objects range in size from small coins and delicate rings to immense paintings such as a large proskynetarionor monumental icon of the Holy Land, from the National Museum in Warsaw.

 

In addition to presenting beautiful and spiritual works, the exhibition is devoted to new scholarship on the important but previously unexplored topic of Byzantine architectural representation. Architecture as Icon: Perception and Representation of Architecture in Byzantine Art challenges long-held assumptions in Western art history and provides new ways of understanding Byzantine art and architecture from A.D. 300 to the early nineteenth century. 

 

“Teaching Byzantine art at Princeton has given me many opportunities to reflect on how little is broadly known about the ways in which great Byzantine icons work visually and the absence of any serious consideration of the representation of architecture in Byzantine art,” says Ćurčić. “This exhibition aims to demonstrate that architecture was not merely background ‘wall paper,’ but an active symbolic ingredient of the scenes in which it is depicted.” Supported by illustrative materials and explanatory texts, the works on view reveal the spirituality that marks Byzantine art and architecture; the richness in its interpretation of architectural forms and space; and the emphasis on the imagination in two-dimensional depictions of reality. The exhibition encompasses art from the entire Byzantine world, including Greece and lands that were once part of the Byzantine Empire as well as Armenia, Romania, and Russia.

 

“The original planning for Architecture as Icon dates back many years,” notes Museum director James Steward. “In its fresh scholarship, its proposal of a new way of thinking about great art of the past, its presentation of visually compelling works of art rarely seen in this country, and its internationalism, it is a brilliant incarnation of what we feel a great university-based museum should be undertaking.”

 

Accompanying the exhibition is a major scholarly catalogue published in English and Greek editions and featuring essays by Greek and American scholars taking a probing look at the questions raised by the exhibition. Individual object entries, full-color illustrations, and comparative works of art make this volume a significant addition to the canon on Byzantine art. A keynote lecture to be presented in Princeton on March 6, 2010 by Professor Ćurčić—who retires from Princeton University in June—will further illuminate this new way of looking at Byzantine art by focusing on the representations of architecture in context. Additionally, a series of public programs, including a performance by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, will speak to the implications of art and architecture for Byzantine life and culture.

 

 

 

Given by Slobodan Ćurčić, Professor of Art and Archaeology and guest curator

Saturday, March 6 at 5 p.m.

McCosh 10, Princeton University

Reception to follow at the Princeton University Art Museum at 7 p.m.

 

Presented by Katherine Marsengill, Graduate School Class of 2010, Dept of Art and Archaeology

Friday, March 19 at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 21 at 3 p.m.

Princeton University Art Museum, Sterling Morton Gallery

 

Enjoy a private viewing of the exhibition after a Princeton Symphony Orchestra performance featuring three twentieth-century compositions for string orchestra.

Tickets available by calling the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at (609) 497-0020

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Pre-Concert Lecture at 3 p.m.; concert at 4 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University

Reception to follow at the Princeton University Art Museum