The Role of Genoa in the Arts of Trecento Constantinople

• In Event: Trecento Art Beyond Italy I

Abstract

Assessing the impact the Genoese community had on the visual culture of the eastern Mediterranean is not an easy task. While the Genoese were important contributors to the economic, political, and religious environment of a number of cities in throughout the Mediterranean, including Constantinople and Famagusta, their contribution to the built environment is difficult to identify and complicated by an adoption and adaptation of various architectural and decorative forms. The fourteenth century, however, was a period in which Genoese political and religious players asserted themselves more visibly in cities like Famagusta and Constantinople. Using the architecture and decoration of the Arap Camii, the former Dominican church in Constantinople as a case study, his paper will explore the manner in which Genoese identity is expressed visually in this Mediterranean context.

Author

• Justine Andrews, University of New Mexico