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Reviews / Athanasios Semoglu, The Journey Beyond the Tomb of the Virgin in the Byzantine Art of the Descent into Hell to the Rise to Heaven
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Reviews / Religious Architecture and Art in Northeast Bulgaria (15th-20th Centuries)
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Subject of this study are architectural details, used as secondary spolia in the Boyana church. In both construction periods fragments of reliefs have been used in the construction of the church and the capital. The spolia come from Roman and Early Byzantine periods. The general direction of the secondary use of material is visible in the Boyana church as well, however there are also some specific features. As in most churches, where details have been places in the walls, with attention to their relief, in spite of the fact they were plastered over. Hence, without being treated as ordinary building material, their functions is not decorative. Spolia have a substantial ideological function, seen as relics as well as apotropeic means. The placing of spolia in the Boyana church is also seen in the context of the periodical revival of interest towards Byzantine culture, towards Antiquity and the Golden Age of Justinian.
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The Iconography of the Theotokos Peribleptos Church has attracted the attention of many Byzantinists that have dealt with multifarious aspects of Byzantine art history. The main task of this study is to decipher the prophetic texts written upon the scrolls in comparison to other contemporary monuments throughout the Byzantine cultural realm. The Peribleptos Church anticipated the new tendencies in Byzantine art, as a prolegomenon to many further features both stylistic and iconographic. The uppermost part of the dome in the celestial sphere of the Microcosm is reserved for the head of Celestial Church the omnipotent ruler of the Universe-Christ. The medallion of the Pantoctator is supported by six flying angels. The Inscription around the medallion is written upon a white band, illustrating 79 (80) Psalm. It seems, that the angels supporting the medallion do not have a more complex and profound liturgical role in the composition. Beneath the medallion of the Pantokrator supported by angels, twelve prophets are depicted in the drum of the cupola (Ezekiel, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Daniel, Joel, Solomon, David, Nahum, Zephaniah, Micah and Isaiah). Byzantine theologians regarded them as ideal archetypes for the kinghood and priesthood of Christ. Most of their prophecies inscribed upon the scrolls, refer to the mystery of Incarnation and the Second Coming of Christ, but they display as well a subtle Christological and Marian connotations that correspond, or are juxtaposed to particular scenes from a Great Feast cycle depicted in their vicinity. It is important to emphasize that the painters and their theological advisers in Peribleptos had chosen the most delicate and refine quotations from the Old Testament. By imposing them in the uppermost part of the dome, on the scrolls of the prophets, they managed to elevate the mind of medieval men towards contemplating and revealing the eschatological nature of Byzantine theology, transposed in multifaceted images.
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The aim of this paper is to present the newly revealed wall paintings from the narthex of the Monstery church of the Dormition of the Virgin at Arbanasi (the end of the 17th century), which gave a new direction in the study of dynamic processes in art towards the last quarter of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. The study offers for the first time an analysis of the iconographic programme and the artistic merit of the wall paintings in the monastery narthex, as well as a hypothesis as to who was the author and the dating of the wall paintings. The iconographic programme of the narthex of the monastery church is similar to the subject depicted and the themes to the remaining Arbanasi nathexes and above all to the church of St. Athanasius (1667). The wall paintings are built up in dense and deep murals, done with the love of detail and icon-like style, characteristic for the 17th century.
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The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul at the Orlitsa monastery, belonging to the Rila Monastery was restored and decorated in the 15th century. Three main sources give information about these events - two donor’s inscriptions of the church, dated 1478 and 1491, as well as the Rila Povest of Vladislav the Gramarian. The inscription of 1478, which in its present day appearance speaks of the construction of the church in the same year, is however in contradiction with the Mediaeval author, according to whose information the church was built before the return of the relics of St. John of Rila to the Rila Monastery, respectively before 1469. This paper deals with the inconsistency of the sources, which in turn has led to a variety of versions in literature. The view has been expressed that even when it fell within events from the 15th century, the two donors inscriptions in the church were written in their appearance in the 19th century. More- over this sounds quite logical as it is well known, that the church was restored by the monastic community, redecorated by Nikola Ikonopisets the master painter from Samokov, and partially in 1862-1863. However while the inscription from 1491 was sufficiently preserved, allowing to present it comparatively fully in its first publication in the 19th century, as well as in its present day version, according to Neophyte of Rila, the inscription from 1478 was no longer entirely preserved in his day. Today however, we find a complete text of the inscription in Church Slavonic from a quotation in literature from 1901. We understand the this inscription ‘emerged’ somewhere from the first half of the 20th century, most probably as the outcome of the constant striving to give it an authentic character, which accompanied many of the older monuments in the last century. In this case these steps have led to a serious misunderstanding, as in fact the inscription from 1478 not only was completely intact in the 19th century and hence not only had been ‘restored’ quite loosely, but also it had another part, in Greek, fortunately preserved to this day in Neophyte of Rila’s copy. From this copy we learn that the inscription does not speak at all of the construction of the church, rather of its decoration in that year. Yet determining what exactly this decoration stood for is difficult, because of the variations in the translation of the copy, hence several hypothesis concerning the construction and decoration of the church. The most probable is that the church must have been built at the time when Abbot David was abbot of the monastery (1463-1469). After that in 1478 the vault of the church was decorated and still later, in 1491 the entire church was decorated anew by Abbot Theokistos, with a donation from Bishop Jacob II, also donor of the murals of the church of St. Demeter at Boboshevo (1488). Owing to the present condition of the vault of the church, it is not clear today whether this full decoration with...
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Qualitative research aims to analyze the phenomenon of discrimination due to sexual orientation and to identify methods of social intervention (prevention and combating). Based on semi-structured individual interviews we examined various life experiences of people with different sexual orientation than heterosexuality, we identified specific forms of discrimination and expectations, desires of members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) regarding the reaction/relation of the society towards them. Analysis of official documents (laws, social policies, official documents and sites) and individual interviews conducted allowed the identification of specific methods to prevent and to combat discrimination against sexual minorities. The final part focuses on the involvement of various organizations in implementing these methods.
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Along with the 1989 historic moment in Romania, many aspects of social, economic, political or religious life which, in the past regime, were effectively forbidden, started to reappear, to return to life. In Romania after 1990 social work reoccurs in force, both in the academic education and on the organisational level. Our research is focused on the State-Church relation as regards social work in Romania after the 1989 Revolution. As for the research scope, we selected child protection for a number of reasons, among which we may mention: after 1990 the sector undergoing a powerful development in social work was child protection; the Church has a deep involvement not only in the ecclesial social work but even in the organisation of the state's system providing social work activities; Romania is a strongly religious country, still anchored in traditionalist values, where the Church represents one of the most representative institutions significantly impregnated in Romanians’ social life at present.
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Roma populations’ social issues represent an important part of the Social Work system in Romania and the European Union. Poverty, discrimination, lack of education and unemployment represent the main problems of the Roma minority. Important steps were made towards structuring strong measures for supporting Roma citizens’ social inclusion in the last 25 years. A short history of the policies is presented in this article. The national strategies in the context of the EU framework represent an important instrument in the effort of complex approach of the specific problematic of Roma minority. What are the main components of the strategies? Is there a compatibility with the EU framework? What are the strong and weak points of the last national strategy for Roma citizens? These are some of the questions that the present article will try to address.
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Despite all scientifically and interdisciplinar approaches, death and dying conserved an old taboo status. In many socio-medical and psychological Romanian’s discussion, we still used to avoid or delay such themes. And still, the needs of dying persons and the needs of the family and care givers remain huge and unfulfilled. Aren’t in fact these needs our own needs? And are we really prepared to cope with them? The article outlines these requirements and underlines the holistic idea as the single proper approach in such debate. In a further discussion about the hospice philosophy, the paper presents the social work tasks in this type of caring and a brief history of hospice in Romania. The conclusions summarize the hospice benefits and launch into discussion the care giving for dying status, hospice’s limitations, an old and still new research idea and our social attitude regarding the debate.
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