The Centre for Advanced Study Sofia hosts a discussion series under the theme “Why Byzantium?”, hosted by Ival Billiarski.

We will convene for a lecture on the following topic:

Byzantium in the Objectiff: Nikodim Kondakov, Jean-X. Raoult and their Photographic Expedition to Sinai

Lecturer: Dr Elena Boeck
1 April 2026, Wednesday, 16:30

Abstract: Nikodim Kondakov (1844-1925), arguably the greatest art historian of the Russian empire, provided a new impetus to the study of Byzantine art. During decades of rigorous travels, he documented and introduced into scholarship previously unknown Byzantine monuments by embracing the power and promise of archaeological photography. The academic impact of Kondakov’s publications was greatly enhanced by the participation of a brilliant French photographer, Jean-Xavier Raoult (ca. 1835 – ca. 1890). This presentation analyzes their most challenging venture, the expedition to Sinai in 1881. This journey contributed to advancing a more objective conception of Byzantine art via the collaboration between archaeology and photography. As a key example of how the Kondakov-Raoult partnership advanced the state of the art of academic knowledge, this presentation also analyzes the historiographic importance of the earliest extant photograph of the Transfiguration mosaic.

Bio: Elena N. Boeck, (Ph.D., Yale) is an Associate Member of the Institute for SouthEast European Studies, Romanian Academy. Her publications explore intellectual exchange in the Mediterranean and unconventional, fascinating forms of engagement with Byzantium’s legacy. She is the author of The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople: The Cross-Cultural Biography of a Mediterranean Monument (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and Imagining the Byzantine Past: The Perception of History in the Illustrated Manuscripts of Skylitzes and Manasses (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Between 2004 and 2025 she was Professor of History of Art and Architecture at DePaul University (USA). She held appointments as the Excellence Initiative Professor at Radboud University, Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, and CAS fellow (2022).