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Shaping the sacred: light and the experience of worship in middle Byzantine churches1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Claire Nesbitt
Claire Nesbitt*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Durham University
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Abstract

Byzantine churches have been extensively studied in terms of their architectural development and in their role as places to display religious art. However there has been less research into one of the most fundamental aspects of the Byzantine ritual experience, illumination. In practical terms, churches had to be illuminated sufficiently for worship to take place. In experiential terms, lighting can be seen as the medium by which the iconographic programmes and liturgical practices were staged and enhanced. This paper considers the archaeological and textual evidence linking physical illumination of buildings with the experience of their sacred function.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , 2012 , pp. 139 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2012

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Footnotes

1

This paper is based on the findings of my doctoral research which was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I would like to thank Professor Liz James and Dr Tom Moore for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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