Mediterranean Palimpsests - Connecting the Art and Architectural Histories of Medieval and Early Modern Cities
The Getty Foundation has awarded a major grant, as part of its Connecting Art Histories initiative, to The Cyprus Institute in support of a new research project: “Mediterranean Palimpsests: Connecting the Art and Architectural Histories of Medieval and Early Modern Cities.”
Directed by Nikolas Bakirtzis (The Cyprus Institute) and D. Fairchild Ruggles (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Mediterranean Palimpsests investigates the layered art histories of medieval Mediterranean cities as the ground for initiating scholarly connections that challenge and move beyond the boundaries of modern historiographies, national narratives and contemporary socioeconomic realities. Set in a region where issues of cultural heritage and identity are currently highly contested, the project looks at the material past to understand its relevance for the present and future.
The focus is on cities whose formation during the medieval and early modern periods significantly shaped their subsequent growth and in turn spatially and culturally framed the production and experience of art and architecture in the following centuries. The Mediterranean is understood as a connected field in which medieval cities share the experience of survival, appropriation and reconstruction for modern use and in which their historic layers can be regarded as immensely meaningful cultural resources or as impediments to modernization.
CyI Principal Investigator
Additional Info
- Acronym: MCities
- Website: http://mcities.cyi.ac.cy
- Center: STARC
- Funding Source: The Getty Foundation (the Getty Grant Program)
- CyI Funding: 240 000 USD
- Funding Period: 25 months
- Starting Date: 16/08/2017
- End Date: 16/09/2019
- Coordinator: The Cyprus Institute
- Partners: National Center for Supercomputing Applications of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Department of Landscape Architecture (USA)
