Jasmina S. Ćirić (Univerzitet u Beogradu): ‘Another Brick in the Wall’: Texturality of the Facades and their Meaning in the Byzantine Architecture during the Palaeologan Period

In Byzantium, a technical sphere can be found and recognized in material culture and economy, particularly in handicraft production and can be also separated analytically when paying particular attention to innovations, inventions and discoveries in architecture. Byzantine written sources up to the first half of the 15th century allow us to distinguish more than 60 crafts and independent occupations. Among craftsmen were those who were engaged in brick and tile production. In Constantinopolitan architecture during the Palaiologan period (1204 – 1453) brick was used as one of the main types of the building materials. Questions pertaining to the meaning of the brickwork ornaments and its substance became the key for understanding the notion of the art of the Palaeologan period and the way how materials were linked through its transformative forces.