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Much of architecture has evolved since medieval times, but the ancient formula of towering ceilings and stained glass still inspires awe and creates a vision of heaven for churchgoers.
The study of these sacred spaces that must have truly astonished medieval hut-dwellers meld architecture and art into a passion for Ida Sinkevic, associate professor of art.
“As an undergraduate in Yugoslavia, I was interested in modern art, and I came to the United States to study American art,” says Sinkevic. “I realized it’s an art that creates an environment – in installations. But to me the most impressive environment was still the medieval church.”
Sinkevic is particularly interested in ornate Byzantine churches of her native Balkans. She explores how these churches were built to withstand centuries, how they were decorated, how people respond to them, even the utensils used in church processions.
She is the author of the book The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi: Architecture, Programme, Patronage, published in 2000 by Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Weisbaden, Germany, and articles on Byzantine art and architecture. She’s a member of the faculty of the interdisciplinary Russian and East European Studies program.
Despite her own enthusiasm, Sinkevic realizes the medieval world might not spell fascination to today’s Lafayette students. So welcoming them into it is her task, she says.
“I really love teaching. For me it really in a way represents a huge challenge,” she says. “You have to bring your interest in medieval times to students of the 21st century, who haven’t seen medieval sites. Their questions keep my research in line, my hand on the pulse.”
Her students’ keenness for the movie Braveheart inspired a tangential line of research into medieval arms and armor for Sinkevic, a graduate of University of Belgrade who holds an M.A. from Southern Methodist University and an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.
“Contemporary life initiates an interest in history,” the professor muses.
Sinkevic’s love of sacred spaces has rubbed off on graduate Heather Badamo ’03, who is studying Byzantine art in the doctoral program at the University of Michigan.
“Prof. Sinkevic was an encouraging and supportive mentor, generous with her time and willing to give students the help they needed to achieve their goals,” Badamo says.
“She went above the advice typically given to students, preparing me for an internship interview with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and later for interviews with graduate departments,” she adds. “My experience as an EXCEL scholar working with Prof. Sinkevic, my time at the Metropolitan, and the thesis that I wrote under her guidance all influenced my decision to pursue graduate study in the history of art.”
Meghan Vacca ’03, who works in the Rutgers University special collections and university archives and plans to study library and information science there, describes Sinkevic as a wonderful teacher “because she becomes so excited about the subject matter that it is infectious and makes you want to learn more about art.”
Indeed, Sinkevic enjoys sharing her sense of wonder in the presence of a church with all students with an interest.
“There’s an amazement at the miracle of these long-lasting structures, that they’re still standing,” she says.
Publications:Meaning and Significance: Sacred Space in Byzantium (book in progress); The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi: Architecture, Programme, Patronage (Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag 2000); “Sacred Space Seen Through Fish-Eye Lenses,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 5/2 (Fall 1997)
Honors: Recipient of Lafayette A.G. Mellon Fellowship, Summer 1996 and Spring 1999
Achievements: Chaired session on the Monastery of Matejic at the 29th Byzantine Studies Conference (2003); eveloped a Lafayette First-Year Seminar “Monuments” that examines the pyramids at Giza, the Parthenon, Chartres Cathedral, Brunelleschi’s dome for Florence Cathedral, and the Empire State Building in their historical, cultural, and technological contexts.
Contact: (610) 330-5362; sinkevic@lafayette.edu
Heather Badamo ’03, a double major in anthropology and sociology and art, and Ida Sinkevic, associate professor of art, view slides of Byzantine representations of the Virgin Mary in an EXCEL Scholars project.