ICACH workshop and presentation at C2RMF in Paris: The study of Byzantine and Medieval Art in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This seminar presentation will focus on the development of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to address problems and challenges in the documentation and study of Byzantine and Medieval Art in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This effort is possible within the activities of the LinkSCEEM2 project that have allowed The Cyprus Institute to develop an advanced imaging and visualization cluster to spearhead its contribution in the study and protection of Cultural Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean. Among the available technologies, RTI offers remarkable visual results in the digital photographic documentation of the surfaces of a wide range of materials. Pilot projects have helped to establish a network of interested partners who have been instrumental in defining the research scope of our activity which is developed along two paths: one focusing on the advancement of its technological capacity and the second engaging an array of fieldwork applications for research in archaeology, art history and architecture.

In this context and in order to directly address the rich visual cultural of Byzantine and Medieval Cyprus we have been developing our RTI capacity to document wall paintings, icons and small objects from these periods. In our preliminary projects, we have photographed wall paintings from UNESCO World Heritage monument of the monastery of St. John Lambadistis at Kalopanayiotis on Mt. Troodos, icons from the treasury of the Phaneromeni Church in Nicosia and coins from the collections of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and the Leventis Museum of Nicosia. These efforts have offered some valuable insights into the ways RTI can help answer some of the questions of archaeologists, art historians and conservators in the field.