Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RICONTRANS (Visual Culture, Piety and Propaganda: Transfer and Reception of Russian Religious Art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean (16th to early 20th Century))
Reporting period: 2022-05-01 to 2023-10-31
The RICONTRANS project studies the Russian religious artefacts held in museums, church or monastery collections in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean. These piety objects come incessantly to the region for a long period of time through official gifts (acts of personal devotion of the tsars, offerings sent by the Russian State and Church authorities, objects acquired through officially sanctioned alms collection missions) or as unofficial and private donations, as well as by pilgrimage and trade.
Applying the cultural transfer approach the project aims to: map the phenomenon in its long history by identifying preserved objects in the region, follow the paths and identify the mediums of this transfer, analyze the dynamics and the moving factors (religious, political, ideological) of this process during its various historical phases, study and classify these objects according to their iconographic and artistic particularities,inquire into the aesthetic, ideological, political, and social factors which shaped the context of the reception of Russian religious art objects in various social, cultural and religious environments and investigate the influence of these artefacts on the visual culture of the host societies.
The field research has been carried out in selected places in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia such as: Large monasteries and pilgrimage centers; Important urban centers; Regions under Russian administration for a period of time; Regions with intense commercial relations with Russia and Regions with mixed Christian Orthodox and Catholic populations. The collected data will be uploaded on an open-access database and will be used for the project’s research team in order to reconstruct the temporal and space axes dynamics of the phenomenon under study and to create a map of Russian religious art in the Balkans.
RICONTRANS draws public attention to hitherto unknown and neglected art objects. Furthermore, it sensitizes state authorities and public opinion, it hinders illicit trade and it contributes to the preservation of this important body of cultural heritage.
Applying the cultural transfer approach the project aims to: map the phenomenon in its long history by identifying preserved objects in the region, follow the paths and identify the mediums of this transfer, analyze the dynamics and the moving factors (religious, political, ideological) of this process during its various historical phases, study and classify these objects according to their iconographic and artistic particularities,inquire into the aesthetic, ideological, political, and social factors which shaped the context of the reception of Russian religious art objects in various social, cultural and religious environments and investigate the influence of these artefacts on the visual culture of the host societies.
The field research has been carried out in selected places in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia such as: Large monasteries and pilgrimage centers; Important urban centers; Regions under Russian administration for a period of time; Regions with intense commercial relations with Russia and Regions with mixed Christian Orthodox and Catholic populations. The collected data will be uploaded on an open-access database and will be used for the project’s research team in order to reconstruct the temporal and space axes dynamics of the phenomenon under study and to create a map of Russian religious art in the Balkans.
RICONTRANS draws public attention to hitherto unknown and neglected art objects. Furthermore, it sensitizes state authorities and public opinion, it hinders illicit trade and it contributes to the preservation of this important body of cultural heritage.
The project team members in Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Russia conducted about 30 field research trips. They collected a significant amount of written sources and identified previously unacknowledged art objects (icons, metalwork, bone carvings, paper icons, prints and drawings), all products of Russian workshops from the late 15th to early 20th century. The collected data and the related Bibliography was then uploaded onto the project database.
A digital engineering team in collaboration with RICONTRANS team members adapted two specific Digital Humanities tools: the Cultural information management system Synthesis and the Thesaurus Management System Themas developed, for the particular needs of the project. Synthesis, which is web-based, consolidates the RICONTRANS set of collected data using existing standards for information documentation and publication. Synthesis has also been supplemented by Themas, which comprises about 720 terms related to Architectural structures/Buildings and Objects.
Two project workshops and two educational seminars have already taken place in Rethymno (2019), Athens (2020) and Belgrade (2021) where team members met to present and discuss their on-going research, while also training younger scholars on Russian icon painting and iconography.
The team members had more than 70 participations in international conferences and workshops and published 12 scientific articles (which can be found in the RICONTRANS open access repository), a record that reflects the systematic study of Russian artefacts and written sources and the significant results of the research. Similarly, the dissemination and outreach to non-academic audiences continues with a project website (https://ricontrans-project.eu/) and the two photo exhibitions of Russian icons.
A digital engineering team in collaboration with RICONTRANS team members adapted two specific Digital Humanities tools: the Cultural information management system Synthesis and the Thesaurus Management System Themas developed, for the particular needs of the project. Synthesis, which is web-based, consolidates the RICONTRANS set of collected data using existing standards for information documentation and publication. Synthesis has also been supplemented by Themas, which comprises about 720 terms related to Architectural structures/Buildings and Objects.
Two project workshops and two educational seminars have already taken place in Rethymno (2019), Athens (2020) and Belgrade (2021) where team members met to present and discuss their on-going research, while also training younger scholars on Russian icon painting and iconography.
The team members had more than 70 participations in international conferences and workshops and published 12 scientific articles (which can be found in the RICONTRANS open access repository), a record that reflects the systematic study of Russian artefacts and written sources and the significant results of the research. Similarly, the dissemination and outreach to non-academic audiences continues with a project website (https://ricontrans-project.eu/) and the two photo exhibitions of Russian icons.
The research that is being conducted in the framework of RICONTRANS will result in monographs by the PI and the project researchers, collective volumes and art catalogs, PhD and MA theses as well as in numerous scientific articles.
In the digital humanities field, the RICONTRANS team will continue the compilation of Synthesis and editing of the Thesaurus. The result will be a rich corpus of data related to the transfer and reception of Russian religious art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean as well as a digital map of Russian religious art in the Balkans. The digital tools of the project will also provide large-scale documentation related to relations between Russia and the region of South-Eastern Europe but also concerning the history of Early modern and Modern Christian art in general.
The project is using its resources to enhance the visibility of unknown Russian artefacts identified during the research missions also by organizing exhibitions. In this respect, the traveling photo exhibition of Russian icons and art objects will continue its journey in Heraklion and in Athens until the end of the project, an exhibition of Russian artworks from the collections of the Benaki Museum (November 2022) and an exhibition of Russian art will be organized in the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia (April 2023).
The implementation of this project further builds and consolidates an international network of scholars working in the field, producing a methodological blueprint for the transnational study of art objects and their circulation in large regions of Europe.
In the digital humanities field, the RICONTRANS team will continue the compilation of Synthesis and editing of the Thesaurus. The result will be a rich corpus of data related to the transfer and reception of Russian religious art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean as well as a digital map of Russian religious art in the Balkans. The digital tools of the project will also provide large-scale documentation related to relations between Russia and the region of South-Eastern Europe but also concerning the history of Early modern and Modern Christian art in general.
The project is using its resources to enhance the visibility of unknown Russian artefacts identified during the research missions also by organizing exhibitions. In this respect, the traveling photo exhibition of Russian icons and art objects will continue its journey in Heraklion and in Athens until the end of the project, an exhibition of Russian artworks from the collections of the Benaki Museum (November 2022) and an exhibition of Russian art will be organized in the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia (April 2023).
The implementation of this project further builds and consolidates an international network of scholars working in the field, producing a methodological blueprint for the transnational study of art objects and their circulation in large regions of Europe.