| FA-57612-14 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Elizabeth Stinette Bolman | The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt | 7/1/2014 - 6/30/2015 | $50,400.00 | Elizabeth | Stinette | Bolman | | | | Temple University | Philadelphia | PA | 19122-6003 | USA | 2013 | Art History and Criticism | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
Conservation in Upper Egypt has revealed a unique and previously overlooked Late Antique church. This spectacular monument was built circa 500, at a site called the Red Monastery. Its dramatic triconch sanctuary includes tiers of niches framed by columns, supporting three huge semidomes. The interior is enlivened by a polychromed skin of painted figures and ornamental patterns, including the earliest surviving decorated apse in a church. I have been directing a conservation project there for the last decade, and have invited specialists in late antique monasticism, the Coptic language, the liturgy, archaeology and conservation to collaborate with me on an illustrated, multi-disciplinary volume on the church. The book will be a scholarly study but one that is also accessible to the general public. I have made significant progress on my editorial work, but not on my own contributions, which comprise about half of the volume. This fellowship application is for funding to complete them. |