Emma Maayan Fanar

University of Haifa | haifa · Department of Art History

An assemblage of lead fragments, discovered during recent excavations in the courtyard of a domestic structure (Building 86) near the southern reservoir at Shivta, appears to consist of several ornamental fragments. The largest and most recognizable fragment is decorated with an eagle with prostrated wings. A second smaller fragment is identifiable...

This paper focuses on the remains of the Baptistery chapel within the North Church complex on the outskirts of Shivta, a fifth-seventh century Byzantine village in the Negev. Presumably a monastery, the North Church is the largest and most elaborately constructed of the three Shivta churches. After addressing general structural and chronological is...

A hexagonal marble object from the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, found during excavations of H. D. Colt in the 1930s, has been identified as a canopy of an ambo. It probably belonged to one of the churches in Byzantine Shivta and is published here for the first time. Dated most likely to the 6th–early 7th century, it constitutes rare evidence of t...

In the last decade, mobile eye trackers have become a commodity. With the decrease in their cost and their increased availability, a growing number of studies are exploring their potential in cultural heritage. In works on art fruition, the idea of using mobile eye trackers to understand how we observe artistic exhibits is becom- ing commonplace. F...

The article explores iconography of the illuminated initial letters in the tenth-eleventh-century Italo-Byzantine psalter (Vatican, Barber. gr. 285). It is argued that its initial letters clearly express Byzantine attitude to personal prayer, a plea for salvation and the struggle with evil through the words of Psalms, despite the mixture of models,...

A previously unknown painting of Christ’s face, recently discovered at the Byzantine site of Shivta in the Negev Desert of southern Israel, represents the first pre-iconoclastic baptism-of-Christ scene to be found in the Holy Land.

The Transfiguration constitutes one of the most important events in the New Testament. Yet, only few pre-iconoclastic examples of the Transfiguration scene have survived: S. Apollinaire in Classe, Ravenna, St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai and Poreć in Istria, each has its unique iconography. Therefore, scholars have concluded that the Transfiguration...

We report on the development and evaluation of an innovative instructional model, which harnesses advanced technologies and local resources (an in-campus museum), to support undergraduate-level art history students in developing the skills required for analyzing artwork. Theory suggests that analyzing artwork requires theoretical knowledge and prac...

Originalan nau~ni rad The article explores iconography of the illuminated initial letters in the Byzantine tenth century Homilies of John Chry-sostom and other authors with special reference to Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. T. 3.3. It is argued that pictorial initials composed of human figures and human-animal combats function as detailed visual...

The ninth-century Byzantine marginal psalters, namely the Chludov Psalter (Moscow, State Historical Museum, cod. 129) and the Pantocrator Psalter (Pantocrator 61, Pantocrator Monastery, Mount Athos) are remarkable due to the polemical character of their illustrations and an emphasis given to the destruction of evil forces. These forces include the...