CONFERENCE: Pantokrator 900: Cultural Memories of a Byzantine Complex, 7-10 August 2018, ANAMED Istanbul
The Christ Pantokrator Complex (Zeyrek Camii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site) that included the mausoleum of the imperial dynasty, a monastery, a hospital, an orphanage, a home of the elderly and a poorhouse was founded in 1118 by Empress Piroska-Eirene and Emperor John II Komnenos. The second largest Byzantine church still standing in Istanbul after the Hagia Sophia, the Pantokrator was the most ambitious project of the Komnenian renaissance and the most impressive construction of twelfth-century Byzantine architecture. To commemorate the nine hundred years of the Pantokrator Complex, the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU Budapest and the Hungarian Hagiography Society organize, in collaboration with LABEX RESMED of Sorbonne-Paris, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, and the Hungarian Institute in Istanbul an international conference that brings together scholars from diverse scholarly traditions to discuss the social, architectural and spiritual meanings of this outstanding monument.
Tuesday, August 7
9- 9:30 Marianne Sághy (CEU and ELTE Budapest), Gábor Fodor, director of the Hungarian Cultural Istitute in Istanbul – welcome and opening of the workshop
9:30-10 Albrecht Berger (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich) – Celebrating foundations: from the Pantokrator to Zeyrek Camii
10:30-11 coffee break
11-11:30 Béatrice Caseau (Université Paris IV, Sorbonne) — Spiritual and physical healing at the Pantokrator Monastery
11:30-12:30 Roundtable Discussion: Monuments and New Trends in Byzantine Studies
12:30 -2 pm lunch break
2 pm-2:30 pm Floris Bernard (University of Ghent – CEU Budapest) – Empress Eirene in Komnenian Poetry: Perceptions of Gender, Empire and Space
3-3:30 coffee
3:30-4 Zoltán Szegvári (PhD student, University of Szeged) The Image of the Latins in Late Byzantine Epistolography
4:30-5 Etele Kiss (Hungarian National Museum, Budapest) – Visual and Spiritual Portraits of Eirene, the Co-Founder of the Pantokrator
5:30-6 Cicek Dereli (PhD student, CEU Budapest) Cultural Heritage in Istanbul – Monasteries in Focus
Thursday, August 9
10-10:30 Marianne Sághy Greek Culture in Early Árpádian Hungary
11-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12 Béla Zsolt Szakács (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest) – Between Byzantium and Italy: the Art of Twelfth-Century Hungary
12:30-2 pm lunch break
2-2:30 pm Márton Rózsa (PhD student, ELTE University of Budapest) — The Byzantine Second-Tier Élite in the Komnenian Period
3-3:30 Lioba Theis (University of Vienna) – Light Symbolism in the Pantokrator
4-4:30 coffee break
4:30-5 Hâluk Çetinkaya (Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul) Funeral Spaces in the Pantokrator Monastery
5:30-6 Etele Kiss (Hungarian National Museum, Budapest) Cosmology between Byzantium and the Occident in the Twelfth Century: Piroska-Eirene and the Opus Sectile Floor of the Pantokrator Monastery
6-6:30 Discussion and conclusions
Friday, August 10
On-the-Spot: Byzantine City Walks guided by David Hendrix and Şerif Yenen