Biography

Thomas Kaffenberger is an art and architectural historian focusing on the dynamics of artistic appropriation in areas with multiple cultural layers during the Middle Ages and early modern period. He has worked on both the Eastern Mediterranean and the Southern Caucasus. Furthermore, he is interested in the role of "tradition" as a form-defining element in medieval architecture, as well as the arts of the early 20th century. He received his PhD from King’s College London and JGU Mainz in 2016 with his dissertation, Tradition and Identity: The Architecture of Greek Churches in Cyprus, 14th to 16th Centuries (2020). Further publications include, among others, the co-edited volumes Approaches to Sacred Space(s) in Medieval Subcaucasian Cultures (2023) and Bildräume | Raumbilder (2017), as well as numerous articles. He has taught at the universities of Mainz, Heidelberg, and Fribourg.

Project Summary

This project explores consciously retrospective architectural elements and aesthetic continuities in the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean during the late medieval and early modern periods. Innovation or retrospectivity in architecture can be investigated as expressions of intent by the involved protagonists (artists, donors, political and religious institutions), thus becoming an important tool for reimagining the functioning of these societies. In particular, in the Eastern Mediterranean, historic and political caesuras, as well as the development of new artistic preferences, are specific to each region, territory, and even city. Changing rulers of various religions and overarching migration processes brought with them a constant flux of artistic ideas, technological knowledge, and aesthetic preferences. As a result, the concepts of ‘new’ and ‘old’ gain a further dimension, with the ‘new’ often being associated with the ‘other’. Over time, this status could easily shift toward a recodification: an element once culturally distinctive might become a sign of local tradition, losing its ‘otherness’ and undergoing a shift in its implied artistic message. The planned study intends to uncover strategies for how this potential for recodification is used in identity negotiation within culturally multilayered societies in the historically tumultuous period after 1453. It will compare seven regional case studies (Southern Italy, Dalmatia, Crete, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Constantinople), focusing on key monuments in each. The research will offer a new comparative perspective on architectural continuity and innovation in culturally multilayered environments around the Mediterranean between the late medieval and early modern periods.