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Viewing the Afterlife: Multicultural Intersections in the Frescoes of the Bachkovo Ossuary
Kyoleyan, Mina
Kyoleyan, Mina
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Abstract
Bachkovo Monastery, located in present-day Bulgaria, is home to the only surviving medieval ossuary with preserved decorations in Eastern Europe. The majority of the pictorial program was commissioned by a Georgian donor, and dates to the late eleventh century when the monastery’s territories were part of the Byzantine Empire. Almost three hundred years later, under Bulgarian rule, four side arches within the narthex were enclosed, and new frescoes were added. These additions included a royal portrait of Tsar Ivan Alexander (r. 1331–71), ruler of the Bulgarian kingdom. This thesis explores the multicultural aspects of the ossuary’s frescoes, focusing on two central themes: paradise and donorship. The paradise imagery, found in the eleventh-century frescoes, is closely tied to the ossuary’s role as a funerary monument, designed as a space for worship and reflection on the afterlife. The introduction of royal imagery in the fourteenth century raises questions about the inclusion of contemporary figures in a sacred space meant for transcendence. The thesis explores how these visual motifs reflect theological concepts of the afterlife, just as they engage with the broader political and cultural shifts of the time, between Byzantium and medieval Bulgaria. Building upon the focus of previous scholarship on the visual traditions and their liturgical function at Bachkovo, this study reveals the cross-cultural meanings coded in the ossuary’s frescoes throughout its long history as a memorial space.
Description
Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Art and Design)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.
Date
2025
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Keywords
Bachkovski manastir, Mural painting and decoration, Ossuaries, Orthodox Eastern monasteries
Citation
Kyoleyan, Mina. "Viewing the Afterlife: Multicultural Intersections in the Frescoes of the Bachkovo Ossuary". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.