University of Oxford logo

OXFORD CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL HISTORY

Dr Elena Ene D-Vasilescu

 

Kellogg College

British Academy Researcher for a two year project on Medieval iconography

Doctoral dissertation: Changes in the Phenomenon of Icon-painting in Romania from the Second half of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (University of Oxford, 2004).

Email:
elena.ene-v@history.ox.ac.uk

 
 
 

 

Research Interests

My research, teaching, and publications are centred on Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons and on liturgical texts. They also focus on the connection between liturgical art and text and on Byzantine and Eastern Christian monasticism and spirituality. Other interests are Patristics and hagiography.
At the moment I am working on two projects: one regarding aspects of ecclesiastical art circulation along Via Egnatia in the Middle Ages; the other about the history of Mavrocordatos library.

 
Selective publications

  • Between Tradition and Modernity: Icons and Iconographers in Romania (Saarbrűcken 2009). Foreword Andrew Louth.
  • "The last wonderful thing: the icon of the Heavenly Ladder on Mount Sinai (cat. 323)", E. James and A. Eastmond, eds., Wonderful things. Byzantium through its art (Ashgate/Variorum), in press.
  • “Inspiration and Innovation: Orthodox Art in Romanian lands in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries”, F. K. Haarer and E. Jeffreys, eds., with J. Gilliland Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies (London 2006): 277–278; the paper is available on line.
  • "A Face to Face Encounter. God-Humanity Relationship as Reflected in Icons", Byzantinoslavica, 69, in press.
  • Icoane şi Iconari în România: Cât Bizanţ, cât Occident? (Iaşi 2009).
  • "The Capadocians and the Orthodox Church on the place of humanityCreation", 
    Din comorile teologiei părinţilor capadocieni (From the Treasures of the Capadocian Fathers), V. Sava and N. Melniciuc Puică, eds. (Iași 2010), 233–240
  • “The 1889 Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church: a Success or a Failure in the Development of Romanian iconography?”, Honouring the Holy Icons in Orthodoxy (Iaşi 2008), 355–375; Abstract in English, 374–375.
  • "A Gaze from the Fourth Century", Byzantinoslavica, 65 (2007): 83–90.
  • “New aspects regarding the Tetraevangelia written by the monk Gavril Uric in Neamţ Monastery in 1429, Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Graeci. 122”, Romanoslavica, 46 (2010): 83–114.
  • "Spiritual Ascent in a Sinaite Monastery: The Icon of the Heavenly Ladder", Series Byzantina 7 (2011): 101–114.
  •  "Seeing beyond the canons? The fresco of St. Anna nursing the infant Mary from the Monastery of St. Zaum, Ohrid, 1361"   (paper presented at the 43rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies ‘Byzantium Behind the Scenes: Power and Subversion’, 27th–29th March 2010, Birmingham, UK. Submitted to Byzantinoslavica.
  • "The relationship between icon and text in Early Christianity", paper presented to the Verba volant, Scripta manent: Produire, utiliser et conserver des textes dans le monde greco–romain/Production, Use, and Preservation of Texts in the Greco-Roman World international colloquium, University of Bucharest, 9–11 October, 2009), forthcoming in the Proceedings of the colloquium, 2011.
  • "Ortodocşii şi Cartea Sfîntă", A. Gafton, S. Guia, and I. Milică, eds., Text si discurs religios (Iaşi 2008): 389–396.
  • "The Monastery of St. Catherine Mount Sinai and Romanians ", Revue des Études Sud–Est Européennes/Journal of South–East European Studies, 47. 1–4 (2009): 75–87.
  • "Sister Joanna Reitlinger, a rara avis among Orthodox painters", Studii de Slavistică 12 (in English) (2007): 217–232;  tr. into Russian J. Dresvina, Pages, Theology, Culture, Education, 8.3 (2003): 440–446.
  • "Treasures in the Monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai", Series Byzantina, 6 (2009): 65–74.
  • "Some modern techniques of icons and frescoe conservation and restoration", European Journal of Science and Theology (2008): 39-48, available also on line.
  • "Armenian art in Romania" (paper presented to the conference Art of the Armenian Diaspora, Zamosc, Poland, 28–30 April, 2010); forthcoming in the Proceedings of the conference, 2011.
  • "Development of Eastern Christian Iconography" in Transformation, 27.3 (2010): 169–185; available also on line.
  • "Orthodox Christian Approach to the Bible", Transformation, 26.1 (2009): 40–44; available also on line.

 

For images from the exhibition 'Icons as grace and sanctity' that I curated in Worcester College in November 2010 see the following link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=577447&l=047af0316e&id=807785444

Comments or questions about this site:
contact the Webmaster

Information for students
with special educational needs

© University of Oxford
Last updated: 13 July, 2011