Bissera Pentcheva

Associate Professor

Art & Art History

Yes

Medieval Art

bissera@stanford.edu

650-724-4426

110 Cummings Art Bldg.

T 5:15-6:00

 "Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics," Gesta 50/2 (2011): 93–111.

http://iconsofsound.stanford.edu/aesthetics.html

 

check out the review of this research in Stanford Magazine, Sept. 2012

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=55993

 

 

 

Phenomenology and aesthetics, architectural psychoacoustics, performance and ritual, medieval image theory, Iconoclasm, cult of the Mother of God.

 

Pentcheva's new research expands in two directions: 1. aesthetics and architectural psychoacoustics of Hagia Sophia

http://iconsofsound.stanford.edu/

and 2. Comparative Greek-Arabic Aesthetics in the Medieval Mediterranean 

 

Pentcheva has given invited talks on phenomenology and aesthetics at Dumbarton Oaks; Johns Hopkins University; Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey; Oslo University, Norway; The Warburg Institute, London; Freie Universität Berlin; Universität zu Köln; Ludwig Maximillians Universität, Munich; Max-Planck Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence; Institut für Byzantinistik, Österreichische Universität Wien; and University of Volos, Greece. 

 

 

SELECTED HONORS

 

Mellon New Directions Fellowship to study Classical Arabic 2010-2012

Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, research grant to film in Hagia Sophia, 2010

John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval academy for Icons and Power for an outstanding first monograph in Medieval Studies, 2010

Dean’s Award for Innovation in the Humanities for the project “Icons of Sound: Architectural Psychoacoustics in Byzantium” conducted together with Jonathan Abel (Stanford Center for Computer Research for Music and Acoustics), 2010

Millard Meiss Publication Fund Grant, College Arts Association, for The Sensual Icon, 2009

Richard E. Guggenheim Faculty Scholar, Stanford University, 2007-2010

Humboldt Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2005

Samuel H. Kress Publication Grant, for "Epigrams on Icons," 2005

Medieval Academy of America Publication Grant for Icons and Power, 2004

Post-Doctoral Mellon Fellowship, Columbia University, 2001-2003

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Onassis Foundation, Athens, Greece, 2001-2002

Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001

 

Sample Courses

Animation, Performance, Presence in Medieval Art - grad. seminar

Hagia Sophia: Aesthetics and Architectural Psychoacoustics - undergrad seminar

Medieval Image Theory - grad. seminar

Iconoclasm, Iconophobia, Aniconism in Byzantium, Islam, and the Latin West - grad.seminar

Virginity and Power: Mary in the Middle Ages - undergrad. seminar

Light and Power: Mosaics and Stained-Glass Windows in the Middle Ages - undergrad. seminar

Byzantine Art and Architecture - lecture course

Age of Cathedrals - lecture course

 

Bissera Pentcheva is associate professor at the Dept. of Art and Art History at Stanford whose work focuses on Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean, more specifically aesthetics and phenomenology. She has published two books with Penn State Press: Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium, 2006 that won the John Nicholas Brown prize form the Medieval Academy of America in 2010 and The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium, 2010. Pentcheva has held a number of prestigious fellowships among them: Mellon New Directions Fellowship for the study of Classical Arabic, Alexander von Humboldt (Germany), Onassis Foundation (Greece), Dumbarton Oaks, and Columbia University's Mellon Post-doctoral fellowship.  Her work has been published at the Art Bulletin, Gesta, and Res. Anthropology and Aesthetics.

Books

The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), www.thesensualicon.com

 

Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), received the John Nicholas Brown Prize 2010 of the Medieval Academy of America for an outstanding first monograph in Medieval Studies

 

Icone e pottere: La Madre di Dio a Bisanzio (Jaca Book Spa, 2010), Italian translation.

 

Articles

 

I. Peer-reviewed

“The Power of Glittering Materiality: Mirror Reflections Between Poetry and Architecture in Greek and Arabic Medieval Culture,” Ancient Near Eastern Studies, forthcoming.

 

“The Aesthetics of Landscape and Icon at Sinai” Res. Anthropology and Aesthetics, 2015 forthcoming.

 

"Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics," Gesta 50/2 (2011): 93–111.

http://iconsofsound.stanford.edu/aesthetics.html

 

 

 

 

"Moving Eyes: Surface and Shadow in the Byzantine Mixed-Media Relief Icon," Res. Anthropology and Aesthetics 53 (2009): 223-34.

“The Performative Icon,” The Art Bulletin 88/4 (2006): 631-55.

 

“Containers of Power: Eunuchs and Reliquaries in Byzantium” Res. Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 51 (2007): 109-20.

 

"Visual Textuality: The Logos as Pregnant Body and Building" Res. Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 45 (2004): 225-38.

 

"The Supernatural Protector of Constantinople: The Virgin and Her Icons in the Tradition of the Avar Siege," Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 26 (2002): 2-41.

 

"Rhetorical Images of the Virgin: The Icon of the 'Usual Miracle' at the Blachernai,"

Res. Journal for Anthropology and Aesthetics 38 (2000): 34-55.

 

"Imagined Images: Visions of Salvation and Intercession on a Double-Sided Icon from Poganovo,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000): 139-53.

 

II. Articles in edited volumes and conference proceedings

“The Performance of Relics” in Symmeikta. Collection of Papers Dedicated to the 40^th Anniversary of the Institute for Art History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, ed. I. Stevovic (Belgrade: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, 2012), pp. 55–71.

"What is a Byzantine Icon? Constantinople versus Sinai" in The Byzantine World, ed. P. Stephenson (London, New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 265–83.

"Miriam's Dance: Poetry as Movement in Byzantine Culture," in Bild, Ding, Kunst, eds. G. Wolf and Müller (Munich: Fink, 2011), pp. 149-54.

 

"Räumliche und akustische Präsenz in byzantinischen Epigrammen: Der Fall der Limburger Staurothek," in Die kulturhistorische Bedeutung byzantinischer Epigramme, eds. A. Rhoby und W. Hörandner (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007) pp. 75-83.

 

"Painting or Relief: The Ideal Icon in Iconophile Writing in Byzantium," Zograf 31 (2006-2007): 7-13.

 

"The Miraculous Icon: Medium, Fantasy, and Presence," in: The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium, eds. M. Cunningham and L. Brubaker (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming).

 

"Epigrams on Icons" in: Art and Text in Byzantine Culture, ed. L. James (New York/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 120-38.

  

"The 'Activated' Icon: The Hodegetria Procession and Mary's Eisodos," in: Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium, ed. M. Vassilaki (London: Ashgate, December 2004), pp. 195-207.

 

III. Co-authored articles:

Peer-reviewed:

Abel, J.; Bryan, N.; Huang, P.; Kolar, M.; Pentcheva, B. "Estimating Room Impulse Responses from Recorded Balloon Pops." Audio Engineering Society 129th Convention (November 2010).

 

 

 

Exhibition Catalogues, Encyclopedias

 

"Icons" in Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2006).

 

Catalogue entries in: Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons of Sinai, eds. R. Nelson and K. Collins (L.A.: Getty Art Museum, 2006).

 

"The Virgin of Constantinople: Power and Belief," essay and catalogue entries in: Byzantine Women and Their World, ed. I. Kalavrezou (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 113-19.

 

"Madonna, Orthodox," in: History of Childhood, ed. P. S. Fass (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003).

 

Catalogue entries in: Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art, ed. M. Vassilaki (Milan: Skira, 2000), 390-93.

 

Book Reviews

 

Deborah Howard and Laura Moretti, Space &Sound in Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Music and Acoustics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010) in The Art Bulletin (2011): 489–91.

 

Charles Barber, Figure and Likeness. On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine Iconoclasm (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), online at CAA Reviews.

 

Holger Klein, Byzanz, der Westen und das 'wahre Kreuz.'  Die Geschichte einer Reliquie und ihrer künstlerischen Fassung in Byzanz und im Abendland (Spätantike – frühes Christentum – Byzanz. Kunst im ersten Jahrtausend, 17) (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004), published in Speculum, 2007, pp. 1007-9.