Natural Stone in Byzantine Art

The topic of this episode of the interview series "StoneArchive -Interviews with Experts“, published in the Current-Agenda section of the StoneArchive website, is “Natural Stone in Byzantine Art", and our guest is Art Historian, Head of the Byzantine Art Division in Istanbul University Faculty of Letters, Department of Art History, member of the Hagia Sophia Restoration and Conservation Scientific Board, Prof. Dr. Asnu Bilban Yalçın.

From the ideals of permanence in ancient times to rare stones associated with sanctity and prestige; from monumental structures used as the language of empires to surfaces that reveal time through their patina, stone has taken on varying symbolic meanings across different periods and cultures. In this interview, Prof. Dr. Asnu Bilban Yalçın discusses how her interest in art history began, the influence of the cities of Rome, where she studied, andIstanbul, where she works today, and thus different geographies on her work; and evaluates the structural and aesthetic functions of stone and its symbolic expression in different periods within Byzantine architecture and art; the place and importance of Hagia Sophia in herinternational research; and the extraction and use of different natural stones from an art history perspective.