The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt: A Photographic Essay

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Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt: A Photographic Essay

Evans, Helen C. (2004)

This title is out of print.

Description

The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, situated among the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, is the oldest continuously active monastery in the world. Recorded as a Christian pilgrimage site as early as the fourth century, it is located where Moses is thought to have seen the Burning Bush and to have received the Ten Commandments. In the sixth century, the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great (r. 527–67) ordered the building of an impressive church and fortifications for the Monastery to protect the surrounding imperial land. Later generations of pilgrims added gifts of icons, manuscripts, embroideries, altar furnishings, and other liturgical objects and works of art. The Holy Monastery still receives many pilgrims and visitors each year, attracted by its history, its sanctity, and its scenic beauty.

In this handsome and informative book, the Monastery and its buildings are presented in many newly commissioned color photographs: included are views of the richly decorated sanctuary of the sixth-century church as well as images of the world's most outstanding collection of icons. The Introduction by His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai and the essay on the Holy Monastery by Helen C. Evans augment the powerful and dramatic photographs of the site, some of them from the Monastery's archives. Additional photographs and the descriptive captions that accompany the pictures were provided by members of the Monastery's monastic community.

Table of contents

Introduction
His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai

Preface
Philippe de Montebello

The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine on the God-trodden Mount Sinai
Helen C. Evans

Photographic Essay
Bruce White

The God-trodden Mount Sinai

The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine

The Emperor Justinian's Church

Icons: Images of the Holy

Celebrations of Great Feasts of the Church

Selected Bibliography

About the authors

Bruce White is a well-known photographer who specializes in photographing works of art and monuments.

Helen C. Evans is Curator of Early Christian and Byzantine Art in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Press reviews

Sobornost: Eastern Churches Review

"This book illustrates, in sensitively worded description and glorious photos, both the mundane and the festival faces of the Monastery and its environs. ... A slim, accessible volume, this is a delight to browse and handle at leisure, but is also a useful source of evidence for the life and witness of Christian life on Mount Sinai through the centuries."

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

"... attractive and lavishly illustrated ..."

Tags

Authors

Helen C. Evans

Artists

White, Bruce

Keywords

Byzantine Art

Print Titles

Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Elisabeth. "Portrait Bust of a Young Lady of the Time of Justinian." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 1 (1968). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968.

Ball, Jennifer L. "A Double-Headed Eagle Embroidery: From Battlefield to Altar." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 41 (2006). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.

Brooks, Sarah T., ed., with essays by Thomas F. Mathews, David Jacoby, Angeliki E. Laiou, Robert F. Taft, S.J., Maria Mavroudi, Sophia Kalopissi-Verti, Vassilios Kidonopoulos, Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, Hans Belting, Antony Eastmond, Donald Ostrowski, and Yuri Pyatnitsky. Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557): Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.

Brown, Katharine Reynolds. "Documents in Gold." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 28, no. 6 (February, 1970). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.

Colburn, Kathrin. "A Double-Headed Eagle Embroidery: Analysis and Conservation." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 41 (2006). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.

Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt: A Photographic Essay. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Evans, Helen C. "The Arts of Byzantium." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 58, no. 4 (Spring, 2001). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.

Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, eds., with essays by Speros P. Vryonis, Jr., Thomas F. Mathews, Jeffrey C. Anderson, Annemarie Weyl Carr, Henry Maguire, Robert G. Ousterhout, Ioli Kalavrezou, Eunice Dauterman Maguire, Helen C. Evans, Olenka Z. Pevny, Joseph D. Alchermes, S. Peter Cowe, Thelma K. Thomas, Jaroslav Folda, Priscilla Soucek, and William D. Wixom. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.

Evans, Helen C., ed., with essays by Helen C. Evans, Alice-Mary Talbot, Slobodan Curcic, Sarah Brooks, Anna Ballian, Annemarie Weyl Carr, Arne Effenberger, Jannic Durand, Warren Woodfin, Scott Redford, Thelma K. Thomas, Anne Derbes, Amy Neff, Maria Georgopoulou, Robert S. Nelson, and Maryan W. Ainsworth. Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Frazer, Margaret English. "Hades Stabbed by the Cross of Christ." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 9 (1974). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.

Frazer, Margaret English. "The Djumati Enamels: a Twelfth-Century Litany of Saints." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 28, no. 6 (February, 1970). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.

Grube, Ernst J. "Art Treasures of Turkey." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 26, no. 5 (January, 1968). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968.

Morales, Esther M. A Masterwork of Byzantine Art: The David Plates, the Story of David and Goliath. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.

Morey, Charles Rufus. "The Mosaics of Hagia Sophia." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New ser., v. 2, no. 7 (March, 1944). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944.

Nickel, Helmut. "Of Dragons, Basilisks, and the Arms of the Seven Kings of Rome." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 24 (1989). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989.

Pevny, Olenka Z., ed., with essays by Ihor Sevcenko, Alice-Mary Talbot, Yuri Piatnitsky, Vera N. Zalesskaya, Etele Kiss, Thomas Steppan, Liudmyla Milyaeva, Elka Bakalova, Guglielmo Cavallo, Panayotis L. Vocotopoulos, Wlodimierz Godlewski, Nodar Lomouri, and Kitty Matchabeli. Perceptions of Byzantium and Its Neighbors (843–1261). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.

Wander, Steven H. "The Cyprus Plates: The Story of David and Goliath." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 8 (1973). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973.

Weitzmann, Kurt. "Prolegomena to a Study of the Cyprus Plates." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 3 (1970). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.

Weitzmann, Kurt. "The Late Roman World." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 35, no. 2 (Autumn, 1977). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977.

Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.

Whitehouse, David B. "Byzantine Silver Stain," in Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 42 (2000), pp. 85–96. n/a: n/a, 2000.

Whittemore, Thomas J. "On the Dating of Some Mosaics in Hagia Sophia." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New ser., v. 5, no. 1 (Summer, 1946). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1946.

Online Titles

Evans, Helen. "Cinematic." 82nd & Fifth. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013.

Titles by author (8)

Helen C. Evans

Print Titles

Evans, Helen C. "An Early Christian Sarcophagus from Rome Lost and Found." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 28 (1993). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.

Evans, Helen C. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt: A Photographic Essay. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Evans, Helen C. "The Arts of Byzantium." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 58, no. 4 (Spring, 2001). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.

Stauffer, Annemarie, with essays by Marsha Hill, Helen C. Evans, and Daniel Walker. Textiles of Late Antiquity. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.

Wixom, William D., ed., with contributions by Barbara Drake Boehm, Katharine R. Brown, Lisbeth Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Helen C. Evans, Margaret E. Frazer, Carmen Gómez-Moreno, Timothy B. Husband, Daniel Kletke, Charles T. Little, Mary B. Shepard, and William D. Wixom. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999.