Vizantiĭski steatitovi ikoni ot Bŭlgarii︠a︡

About this book

The book is dedicated to a small part of Byzantinie applied art, steatite sculpting. This soft stone, known since antiquity, enables masters and workshops in the Byzantine capital Constantinople to create magnificent works of small stone plastic. The number of steatite relief found during excavations in Medieval Bulgaria is not small. Many examples are given in the book of the re-use of steatite icons, as well as of their secondary use as raw material at the workshops for small stone plastic in the capital Tarnovo and other urban and monastery centers of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. It appears also that a large part of the steatite icons have been found in the church buildings which once again shows that these works have reached Bulgaria within the 12th-14th centuries mostly as relic gifts. In this way an attempt is made to build a relatively true picture of the wide response and impact of steatite technique not just in local context but also within the Balkan Peninsula, Russia, Italy and Western Europe.