Byzantium and British Heritage: Byzantine influences on the Arts and Crafts Movement (British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies)

Description

Byzantium was a very influential part of the development of the Arts and Crafts Movement (1880–1910) in Britain, and although the influence of the Gothic Revival (1830–80) is well known, that of the Byzantine Revival (1840–1910) is not. This volume is about the people and the movements that created the Byzantine Revival and shows how they influenced British heritage from architecture to the decorative arts during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The central pillars of the volume are the architects and scholars who created the Byzantine Research Fund (BRF) Archive, a unique collection of architectural drawings and photographs of numerous monuments across the Byzantine world, and the social and professional networks in which they circulated. The BRF members, an eclectic and little-known group, who based themselves at the newly founded British School at Athens, established the research of Byzantium in Britain and Greece. They were trained in the traditions of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which sought authenticity in design and decoration in reaction to the styles that had developed through industrialisation. Their work, uniting a distinctively British design tradition with Byzantine arts and crafts, represents a highly significant and under-researched link between Britain and the Hellenic world. This volume is the first contribution to try to fill this knowledge gap. Byzantium and British Heritage will appeal to all those interested in the relation between Byzantine and British culture and Byzantine art. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Preface Editor’s Note on Transliteration Prelude to the Byzantine Revival 1 The Byzantine Revival in Europe 2 The Discovery of Byzantium by British Visitors to Greece and What They Saw 3 The Restoration of Byzantine Monuments in Nineteenth-Century Greece: In Search of the Anti-Restoration Movement’s Impact Pioneers and Patronage 4 ‘What I Want is to Locate My Dome’: The Byzantinism of the Third Marquess of Bute 5 ‘Byzantine Art Still Exists’; W.R. Lethaby and the Byzantine Revival 6 ‘A Piece of Sherlock Holmes Inference’ (sic): Byzantine Recordings in Nineteenth-Century Greece and the Art and Crafts Architects of the Byzantine Research Fund Archive of the British School at Athens 7 Walter S. George and the Byzantine House: Ruskin’s Greek Shadow 8 Schultz Revisited Byzantium and Modernism: Britain and Beyond 9 Sidney Barnsley, Byzantium, and Furniture-Making 10 The Mosaic Landscape of Westminster Cathedral 11 The Byzantine Research and Publication Fund Architect Walter Sykes George (1881–1962): His Academic Studies and His Architecture 12 Scottish Byzantinists: Architects, Scholars, and Their Networks Notes on Contributors Index